Spelljammer story, chunk 7

(Playing catch-up, so this one's a long one. 6022 words.)

For the first few hours, we played cards, one of the interminable
low-stakes games that sailors love. It needs enough skill to hold the
interest, but it's not so involved that you can't chat or drink at the
same time. None of us played very seriously, simply content to sit
around the table, smoke our pipes, and sip the hot rum Captain Blake
had ordered distributed. Eventually, most of the coins ended up in
front of Rolf. I had finally gone out a few hands before, and had
settled back to watch. By now, the cold had settled in, even here
belowdecks. Our oil lamp was only giving off a small pool of warmth. I
shivered, and wrapped my thick cloak closer around myself. I saw the
others finish off the game, and likewise huddle up as they felt the
chill. Rolf gathered his winnings together, put them in his pouch, and
refilled his pipe. Everyone settled closer to the lamp, and no one
spoke for a long time. All around me, I could feel the cold growing
more intense, and I felt a great exhaustion begin to creep over me. As
I stared at the lamp flame, it shifted and waved. My eyes began to
droop closed, and I heard faint snores from the other. Deep in my
mind, something was screaming that this was badly wrong, that falling
asleep would be the end of us, but I was too tired to do anything
about it.

I was abruptly jerked awake by a ringing blow to the head. I leaped
out of my chair and looked wildly about. For a second, sleep still
clouded my mind, making it impossible to grasp what had happened. Then
I saw a tin cup rolling on the floor, and movement at the cell door
caught my eye. I looked up, and saw Haelle. Her hand was still out
from throwing the cup. Emotions ran like lightning though my mind.
First, rage at the thrown cup. Then, as I realized that her actions
had woken me from a sleep that would probably have been my last, I
felt a wave of relief and gratitude. Finally, I took in her
expression. Her eyes were wide, and her face was deathly pale. She was
staring down the gangway, behind me, and her expression was full of
terror. I spun in the direction Haelle was looking, and her terror now
flooded into me. Walking down the passageway was a figure of
nightmares. It was humanoid, but far from human. Skin black as space
covered a frame that was emaciated, stretched tight over the bones.
The hands were raised ahead of it, and the fingers ended in vicious
claws. But the worst of all were the eyes. They were black orbs, even
darker than its skin. In the center of each was a pinpoint of light,
like a single star in an otherwise empty sky. And now those pinpoints
were focused firmly on me.

The apparition advanced, and I backed up with a moan of fear. A
voidwight! Our luck was clearly going from bad to worse. Voidwights
were a scourge of the spaceways, but they were rare. Created when some
poor soul was cast into wildspace, and froze to death cursing the
people who killed them, voidwights eternally hungered for the warmth
of living creatures. And they carried the cold of the void with them.
As I watched, the undead thing walked casually down the gangway toward
me. At its feet, frozen patterns of frost radiated out from its feet.
I stumbled back even further, and my legs crashed into the table. The
shock broke the frozen panic that the voidwight's appearance had
evoked in me, and I grabbed for my cutlass. But I knew my hope was
slim, at best. Voidwights had the strength of death in them, and their
touch was infused with killing cold. The thing was still ten yards
away, and it was advancing, slowly and casually. It had a cruel smile
on its thin, fleshless lips, and I knew that if it hadn't lost its
voice to the void, it would have been laughing. It was enjoying
itself.

Well, I decided, there was no sense in giving up before I was dead. I
screamed, and waved my cutlass about. I gave quick slaps with the flat
of my cutlass to all the crew I could reach. Rolf was the first to
clear his eyes of sleep, and he followed my pointing sword. His eyes
widened, but he grasped the situation faster than I had. He pulled out
his own cutlass, and began shaking the other crew members awake.
Meanwhile, the voidwight continued its slow, dreadful advance. I
stepped forward, raised my cutlass, and prepared myself as best I
could.

My sword in a cautious mid-guard position, I walked steadily toward
the creature, moving at the same steady pace it had adopted. We met in
the middle of the gangway, and we both paused for a second. Then the
voidwight slashed at me, its claws tracing white-blue lines of frost
through the air. I parried – and the jolt almost knocked the sword
from my hand. The thing was slower than me, but its strength was in a
whole other league. It slashed twice more, and I stuck to dodging, not
wanting to be disarmed. Then I attempted a cut of my own. The
voidwight tried to block the blow with its claws, but I easily wove
around the slow defense, and struck the creature hard on the arm. I
knew it was a solid blow, but the blade barely entered the flesh. My
fear increased, and the voidwight opened its mouth in a soundless
laugh. It swiped at me again, and I barely got out of the way. I heard
my cloak tear as the claws cut too close.

Then, to my relief, I had support. Rolf appeared on my right, and
Egar, the bosun, on my left. Now three cutlasses faced the voidwight,
and I began to hope again. The three of us struck almost
simultaneously, the two halflings at the monster's legs, and I with a
straight stab into its chest. The wight blocked Egar's blow, but both
Rolf's and my sword struck home. And the hope that had grown in my
heart died again. Rolf's sword had struck hard at the voidwight's
knee, a blow that would have easily crippled a human. And my thrust
had gone deeply into the monster's chest. But Rolf's cutlass edge rang
and bounced back, barely cutting the flesh. And the voidwight merely
looked down at my cutlasss sticking out of its chest, reached down,
grabbed it by the blade and pulled it free. As it pulled, white frost
crystals rushed down the blade in a wave from its hand, and I felt a
sudden piercing pain as the hilt almost froze my hand. I let go with a
cry, and the voidwight finished extracting my sword. It dropped it
contemptuously. When it struck the floor, the blade chimed like a
glass dropped on stone and  shattered. I retreated, cursing, my one
decent weapon gone. One of the other halflings moved to take my place,
but I didn't think much of our chances. The voidwight was just too
strong.

Even as I watched, the creature struck again, and this time it
connected. Egar hadn't dodged in time, and the voidwight managed to
strike his arm. Egar screamed, and I could see his flesh turn bluish
and then white beneath the monster's touch. Still screaming, Egar
stumbled backwards. The rest of the crew was awake by now, and another
halfling sprinted in to fill the gap. Two others caught Egar and
dragged him backwards. I could see that his arm and hand were now
totally motionless, and I knew with dreadful certainty that he would
lose the arm. I had seen the effects of frostbite before, and the
voidwight's touch was like a week of frostbite in one terrible second.
I retreated further, and cast about myself for a weapon. Again, my eye
caught Haelle. She was now staring at me, and when she caught my
glance, she gestured frantically at the collar that kept her silent. I
must have looked surprised, because she rolled her eyes at me, and
mimed making spellcasting gestures, then pointed at the voidwight and
drew a finger across her throat. Her meaning was clear: free me, and I
can use magic to help kill it.

I considered, but I quickly realized that I had little choice. Few of
my spells would be helpful against the undead thing – my most damaging
spell was the fireball I had used on the orc ship, and that was far
too risky to use in the cramped quarters here. Setting the ship on
fire would be a cure worse than the disease. If Haelle had any spells
that would help, I had to try. My decision made, I moved to open the
door. I kept close watch on the Songmaster, in case she tried any
tricks, but her eyes remained fixed on the voidwight. I moved to tap
the release catch on her collar – and froze. I had no quartz to touch,
my sword hilt was sitting on the deck five yards away, now beneath the
feet of the voidwight as it pushed the crew slowly back. I cast my
eyes about, desperately searching for something that would allow me to
release the collar. Suddenly, my gaze was caught by a glitter from the
front of Haelle's uniform tunic. Part of her Songmaster insignia was a
clear crystal. I took a gamble, and grabbed at it. Haelle turned
toward me, her face twisted in anger and mouth open in a soundless
shout. I tapped the release pattern as fast as I could, and figured
there'd be time to apologize later. The collar came off, and the
Songmaster's voice suddenly rang out in the close quarters. "...etched
creature! How /dare/ you? This is /not/ the time..." Her voice trailed
off as she realized that she could hear her own voice. I shrugged, and
displayed the opened collar. She glared at me, then moved forward into
the gangway. "Alright. I have something that might weaken it, but
you'll need to take it out physically after that. Get yourself a new
sword – these things are vulnerable to a head blow, and those halfer
mates of yours won't be able to reach."

I growled, disliking her peremptory tone, and disliking the
derogatory term for halflings even more. But beggars don't get to
choose, so I moved forward, snatching up Egar's cutlass as I went. It
was uncomfortable, the grip sized for a halfling's hand rather than a
humans, but it was better than nothing. I moved up until I was just
behind the front line, and waited for my chance, swiping at the voidwight's claws whenever they came close, trying to prevent it striking me or any of the other crew. I didn't have to wait long. From behind me, I heard a whistled tune, a happy, warm song that spoke of lazy summer days whit birds wheeling in a cloudless sky. And the effect matched the impression. Just behind the monster, I saw a sudden brightness in the air, as if there was a knothole in the deck above letting in a shaft of sunlight. The circle of light hovered for a fraction of a second, and then began to expand rapidly. It swept over the voidwight, past us, and back towards the stateroom. In the other direction, it almost reached the stairway to the deck. As the light swept past me, my eyes blinked and watered, as if I had been looking at the sky just as the sun came out from behind a cloud. I cleared my vision, just in time to see that I was not the only one reacting as if the sun had made an appearance.

The voidwight had its mouth open, but it was no longer laughing. Now it was howling a soundless scream, its face twisted in fear and agony. I could see wisps of steam melting off its frozen flesh, and I smelled an ugly odor of burning and rotten meat. Voidwights are creatures of cold and darkness, and they take care never to come in too close to a sun for exactly this reason. But Haelle had brought the sun to it, and it didn't like it at all. From behind me, I heard her shout, her casting done. "Hit it /now/, you fool!" She was almost too late, and so was I. The voidwight was already overcoming its shock, turning to flee for the stairs to escape the dreadful light of day. But my reflexes were faster. I made a short, chopping strike, my blade burying itself halfway into the voidwight's skull. It froze, its motion halted. I held my breath - with creatures like this, even a strike like that might not end their threat. But it seems that Haelle had spoken truly. My blade suddenly jerked as the weight of the voidwight was removed. With no more fanfare than a gentle hissing noise, the walking corpse was collapsing into black dust. Within seconds, even that was gone, as a cold wind took it and blew it down the hall and out the hatch.

Everyone lowered their weapons, with various sighs, groans, and a couple of cheers. I turned to survey the damage. Egar seemed to be the worst. He was now sitting against the wall, his eyes glazed, clutching his arm. Rolf walked over to him and carefully prodded the white flesh where the voidwight had touched. He moved his fingers over it for a moment, then looked up at me and shook his head. I knew my guess had been right. The flesh was dead, frozen. Egar's arm had to come off, before the flesh thawed, and rot set in. I stiffened my spine, and nodded back to Rolf. "Round up the surgeon, then. No time to waste on this," I said. Rolf grunted, and stood, heading down the gangway towards the stern, where we knew the ship's surgeon had holed up with a couple other humans.

I turned to Haelle. "Thank you," I offered, as politely as I could under the circumstances. "You saved our lives twice, there. We owe you." She shrugged, and I could see a slight flush of embarrassment on her face. "It was that or die after /you/ had been killed. I was saving myself and Troven." I raised an eyebrow, but decided not to press the issue. If she wanted to be humble, I wasn't going to argue too hard about it. I still felt an obligation to her, though, and I decided that, bad idea though it might be, I had to give her something. "After this, don't worry about us spacing you. Whatever else happens, we /will/ try to get you back alive to the Navy." I rubbed the back of my neck awkwardly, and gestured with my other hand towards the stateroom-cell. "Sorry to be so hasty about this, but you'd best get back in there." She sighed and nodded. She moved back towards the cell door, but just before she reached it, she pushed her hair over her shoulder, and turned her head to catch my eye. "Hurry up and put that damn gag back on, would you?"

I thought for a second, and decided to be stupid again. I shook my head. "No, I don't think you need it. We'll leave it off for now. Just don't try to escape - I'd hate having to hear Rolf tell me how stupid I'd been, and I'd hate having to stab you while he told me." She actually smiled at bit, at the last, and gave one quick nod. She moved into the cell, and I locked the door behind her. I watched her return to her chair and wrap herself in the yak hide again, staring into the lamp flame with a look of concentration. Finally, I wrenched my gaze away, and surveyed the scene. The surgeon came running up, followed by Rolf, and the two of them quickly lifted Egar and carried him to the opposite stateroom. They closed the door, and I sighed with relief. That sort of operation was a nasty business, and I didn't want to watch it if I didn't have to. With luck, Egar would be sufficiently sedated from the drugged brandy the surgeon carried on him, so we wouldn't have to hear the screams.

I quickly began organizing the others again. "Alright, everyone! We made it through that little mess, but we are not out of this yet! From now on, we set watches. I want two people awake and moving at all times. Two hour watches, and keep each other awake, damn it! We don't need to lose anyone else to the cold. Check on sleepers regularly, make sure that they're warm enough." I called on a couple of the younger halflings. "Drune, Tallen, check on the other groups. Make sure everyone gets the orders, and tell them what happened here. We don't want any other monsters sneaking up on us from out of wildspace, either." The two of them nodded, and dashed off to do their duty. I groaned, then, and went over to the spot in the hall where I had met the voidwight. I sank to my knees, and began picking up shards of my cutlass. It was a damn shame what had happened to it, I mused. It had been a damn good weapon. Not the finest product of a dwarven forge, certainly, but it had stood up to three long years of use and occasional abuse, and I had been fond of it. I gathered as many pieces as I could find, and tucked them into a sack. Hopefully, I could find a mage to bind the parts into a whole, and even if I could not, having the steel would probably reduce the price I would pay a smith to forge me a new blade. The hilt, however, I left out of the sack. I wrapped the broken blade edge in a leather thong, to prevent the edges cutting me or my clothing, and tucked it into my belt. Having a piece of quartz on hand could be useful, even if I wasn't muting Haelle anymore.

I stood as part of the first watch after the fight. My blood was running too high to sleep anyway, and I shuddered to think of the cold sleep of death that I had almost fallen into before it. After an hour, the surgeon and Rolf came out of the other stateroom, and settled down to join me. Both of them were bloodspattered, but not seriously so. The surgeon knew his work. Avenrin (just "Rin" to most of us) was a lanky young human, with a shock of red hair cut short. His face was lean, with prominent cheekbones, a square chin that jutted out ahead of him, and a long nose. He could put you in mind of a war-galley coming on at ramming speed, particularly when a tricky procedure made him set his jaw and frown. Now, however, he was just weary, the strain of events telling on him. Dark shadows had formed beneath his eyes, and he looked two decades older than his twenty years. "Bad business, Rafael," he said, after a few minutes of us sitting in silence. "Had to take the arm off above the elbow, the ice had reached that far. And Rolf said it was only one touch?" He eyed me quizzically, and I nodded. "Amazing. I'd heard stories of this sort of thing, but I've never seen the effects myself. Have you?" I shook my head. Rolf had been staring quietly into the lamplight, but now he grunted out a quiet "I have."

Rin and I looked at him with some surprise, and waited for a few moments. Rolf finally elaborated. "'Bout ten years ago, before you joined the crew," he gestured towards me "we met one in the Blood Nebula." I stiffened, suddenly realizing why I had never heard the story, but Rin was younger, and hadn't learned some of the bad places to take a conversation on the Jewel just yet. "Really? I've heard of the Blood Fog, of course, but I never knew anyone had been in there! What was it like? Why'd you go in in the first place? It's got a black reputation!" Rolf grunted, his face a dark scowl, but after a second he spoke. "Were running. Deathbug caught us in Crown-of-Bones system, and was going to smash us." I kept my expression calm, but inside I was listening intently. This was bizarrely rare. All the older crew simply didn't talk about the Blood Nebula - simply mentioning the name was enough to kill a conversation dead, and new crew members quickly learned not to bring it up. And to have Rolf, the most taciturn man I knew, telling the story, was doubly odd. He went on. "Cap'n tried to go into the Bloodcloud to lose the bug, and shave some time off the run to Heartlight. Thought we'd cut through a narrow area, only be in there a day, maybe less. We were fine for half a day, 'fore they found us. Then it was hell. Bonespiders first, waves of them." I shuddered in sympathy. Bonespiders weren't powerful undead, simply two skeletal hands joined at the wrists to create one skittering horror, but they were dangerous in numbers. "We dealt with them, but everyone got a little cut up. Which lead the bloodmist to us. Fought that off, but we lost five men doing it."

Rin looked puzzled, and interrupted. "What's a bloodmist? I've never heard of it before." Rolf didn't answer, still staring into the candleflame, so I spoke up instead. "Animated blood, basically. Take one human, take away everything but the blood, and then give that blood a hunger for more, and the ability to move around and batten on to any open wound, and you've got the picture. It can suck a man dry through a cut that wouldn't even need a bandage, if you give it a chance. And the only way to hurt it is with fire, or acid. You can slice at it for hours with a sword, and do nothing for your trouble." I fell silent, and Rin looked impressed. We both turned back to Rolf, but he continued to sit in silence as the pause grew. Finally, he spoke again, old pain suddenly sharp in his voice. "They let us be for a watch or so. Then three voidwights arrived at once. That was bad. We lost eight more people, and two others lost arms. We got them when Timon doused them with oil, and Sarai caugth them with a fireball." Now it was my turn to be confused. I knew Timon, he was an old human who had been on the crew when I started, although he had since retired. But I didn't know Sarai, and Rolf had said her name as though she had been very close indeed.

Rolf had gone silent again, and Rin and I watched him, waiting to see if he'd finish the tale. Finally, after the pause had drawn out several minutes, he began to speak again, his voice now low and husky. "After the voidwights were gone, we had some more peace. We were almost to the edge of the nebula when the bonebat hit us." His voice choked with old fear, and we listeners widened our eyes. We had all heard of bonebats. Huge skeletal constructions of human bones shaped into the forms of bats, the size of a small ship, and with a terrible hunger for flesh. They would eat anything living that they could catch, then add its bones to their own body. And they were strong as iron. A sword would just bounce off. A cannonball could hurt one, but they were agile flyers. You would have to be very lucky indeed to hit one with a cannon. Rolf went on "It came out of the mist at us fast. Didn't know what the hell was going on at first. Grabbed two people and flew out as fast as it came in. We heard the screams out in the mist, and we figured out what was going on. When it came back in, we laid into it with muskets and pistols, but it didn't do a damned lick of good. Grabbed another man, flew on out again. Kept that up for an hour. It would fly in, grab at someone, fly out, eat them, then wait in the mist for a while. We heard every scream. It took another ten of us, all by itself. We knew that if we lost many more, we wouldn't be able to sail the ship, even if we got out of the nebula." Rolf paused again, and now I could see his shoulders shaking, from tension and sorrow. "On the last run, Sarai finally got it. It came in, grabbed the helmsman, went out. But Sarai was waiting. She managed to jump over the side onto its back, carrying a keg of gunpowder. We didn't know she was going to do it, she just flew out of the hatch just after it. It disappeared, and then all we heard was the blast. Damn near knocked me over the side. After that, nothing. We got out of the Bloodcloud half an hour later, and we limped into Heartlight after another week. Ten us us left, out of thirty who started in. And there would have been fewer, if Sarai hadn't..." He trailed off.

The three of us were silent for a moment, each of us considering the thought of the deaths that can await a sailor in wildspace. Finally, Avenrin spoke up, breaking the silence. "Rolf, who was Sarai? She sounds... important." Rolf looked up from the lamplight, his eyes dark with old grief. "Captain Blake's sister. And my wife." Rin and I stared at him, but neither of us for more than a few seconds. The pain was too much to bear for long. I nodded, though. A lot of things that I had heard over the years were now clearer to me. We all sat in silence, and the rest of the watch crawled by. Finally, I nudged Drune and Tallen, who had the next watch. They shook off the drowse they had been in, and I curled up in my blankets as best I could, and tried to get some sleep.

I was woken by a sharp shake. Rolf had hold of my shoulder, and his face was set in a grimly serious frown. "About to hit the lifewall." I nodded, and shook off sleep as fast as I could. The lifewall was the barrier of winds that marked the edge of the living air of a planet, separating it from the deadness of the void. Crossing over was always a tricky business, and needed all hands at the ready. A ship crossing the lifewall incautiously could find itself tumbled every direction at once, rigging snapped, rudder broken, and probably plummeting toward the planet's surface. I scrambled up. The first thing that hit me was the cold. It was now like a drill, icy teeth cutting into every inch of exposed skin. I started shivering at once. But I knew that the deck would be far worse. I found myself a cloth to cover my face, and hoped that it would be enough to prevent the frozen air from searing my lungs. I headed up the gangway, crew members ahead and behind as all of us headed for the deck to prepare.

I stepped past the makeshift canvas door that had blocked off the open deck from the hold, and hissed in agony. The cold was far worse than I had expected. Now it felt like every inch of exposed skin was being set on fire, a frozen fire that seeped further and further towards my bones every second. I wondered if this was what Egar felt when the voidwight touched him. But I had no time to dwell on the bitter cold. If we ever wanted to feel warm again, we had to move. Before us, the gray-green orb of Verpax hung, already filling half the sky. The captain was already on the forecastle, and as the crew spilled on deck, he began shouting orders. "Raphael, take the helm! Forenoon watch, man the rigging. Take in all sails as soon as you feel the keel touch the wall. Aftnoon watch, you're on liftstones. One man to a stone, and keep your eyes on your squad leader! Night watch, you're on stowage duty, get moving. I want everything battened down yesterday! And make sure every light is out! We don't need a damn fire on top of everything."

I made my way to the helm, and prepared myself. Right now, we were diving towards Verpax, our bow pointed almost dead center at the planet. That was the only practical way to approach a planet. But the lifewall was a barrier of wind, as strong as the strongest gale, that wrapped the planet like the shell of an egg. The winds ran parallel to the surface, mostly, and the only way to get through them was to line ourselves up parallel to the planet's surface and slowly sink through, with our sails furled to prevent them from being torn away as we passed through the winds. We had to descent quickly enough to avoid disaster from the wind, but we didn't dare simply turn off our liftstones and fall. Below the lifewall, there was usually a region of turbulent winds and changeable air, that could easily flip an uncontrolled ship over, leaving everyone on deck falling off towards the planet, still miles below. Crossing the border from a planet's life-giving air into the dead air of the void was always a risky business. No wonder many sailors never tried it, simply flying about in the lower airs of worlds, or else in ships that never left the void, sailing from high port to high port, picking up and dropping off cargoes that others would take to worlds. But the Jewel was a free trader, and we had no such option, if we wanted to stay profitable.

I gripped the helm tightly, and prepared myself. I would be the ultimate arbiter of the liftstones in the stern of the ship, just as the captain would command the liftstones closer to the bow. The two of us had to coordinate perfectly in order to insure a safe entry. I watched the captain stand at the bow, staring out at Verpax, now growing to fill the entire sky in front of us. I held the wheel steady, steering directly towards the equator of the world. As the planet continued to grow in our vision, I watched the captain for the slightest movement. The lifewall was sometimes difficult to spot, and we had to be in position before we entered it. A ship going into the wall at the wrong angle could be ripped in half. Finally, I saw him gesture. He lifted both his hands, his thumbs outstretched, the rest of the fingers balled into fists, and then slowly raised his hands. I lashed the wheel quickly, and duplicated his gesture, except that I lowered my hands instead of raising them. The sailors on the liftstones were quick to follow our command. The captain had indicated for the pair of liftstones nearest the bow to increase their power. I had commanded the pair nearest the back to decrease their power. The difference in pressure began to turn the ship. I saw the bow come up, moving across the face of Verpax, no longer pointing directly at its middle. For seconds, the slow turn continued. Then the captain suddenly extended his pointer fingers as well as his thumbs, and raised his hands again, more quickly. Again, I duplicated his actions, except to lower my hands instead of raise. Now the first two pairs of liftstones at each end of the ship were acting together to turn the ship, and Verpax moved past the bow faster. Finally, the orb of the planet was not in front of us, but below us, still growing, but much more slowly. The captain lowered his hands quickly, and I raised mine. All liftstones were now on the same strength, and our turn was halted. The captain now extended all five fingers, and lowered his hands gently. I copied his motions exactly this time, and the ship began to settle toward Verpax below as all the liftstones eased their struggle against gravity.

It was probably only thirty seconds, but the bitter cold of space that had permeated the atmosphere of the Jewel made it seem like thirty hours. Then there was a sudden vibration that raced through the ship. Immediately, the men in the rigging began to haul away at the sails furiously, working to furl and tie every shroud as firmly as possible. They finished in seconds, and flung themselves down lines and ladders as fast as they could. Being in the rigging while a ship crossed the lifewall was a good way to be blown off. The vibration rose to a grumble, then a roar, and finally a scream. The Jewel was sinking into the winds of the lifewall, and it was shaking with the strain. The winds crested the edge of the deck, and I felt a force like a giant's slap press me against the wheel. All across the deck, I saw crewmembers grab for the nearest solid handhold, and hang on for dear life. Loose ends of ropes were blowing almost straight sideways, and the sails, even furled, were whipping and snapping in the furious gale. I saw, with a shudder, that the spars on the mainmast were starting to bend. If we didn't get through the wall soon...

But we did. At worst, it was a minute after our keel first touched the lifewall that the top of our mast was below the terrible wind. The most dangerous part was over, and I could see faces relaxing all over the deck. But the danger was only lessened, not ended. Almost immediately, we were plunged into a turbulent sea of clouds, and updrafts, downdrafts, and crosswinds began buffeting us. For the next ten minutes, the captain and I danced an intricate ballet with our hands, commanding various liftstones to increase power, decrease power, or simply cut off altogether, trying to compensate for the storm's attempt to toss us about. Finally, the howling of the wind died, and we came out of the bottom of the cloud cover. It was raining here, a steady drizzle that worked its way through our clothes and plastered our hair down to our heads in tangled strands. But I didn't mind. For the first time since the Jewel had touched the lifewall, I had a chance to assess our situation, and I realized that I felt warm. It was still cold, but it was the cold of a rainy day, a living cold, that men could survive in, not the killing cold of the void. The Jewel descended towards the planet, and I sighed with relief. It looked like we would survive, after all. Of course, I realized with regret, we still had to cope with a month of Verpax. I was likely as comfortable now, with my rain-soaked clothes, hair half in my eyes, and muscles trembling with strain and exhaustion, as I would ever be on this god-forsaken world. But the alternative was worse, so I decided to make the best of it for a while.