The Dragon Chase: A Tale of the Everburning City

Chapter 12: Mathias

"How do we know when the bag's full, madam Crafter?" One of the now hundreds of workers asked Crafter a'Loria, as they pumped the Gloam into the lift-bag of the second ship.

Mathias cringed as the young man spoke, pitying him for the brunt of his charge's wrath he was about to bear.

Predictably, Tabitha a'Loria rounded on the boy as if she were about to reduce him to carbon. Her once red hair gleamed with its own firelight, and her eyes burned as she glared at the poor boy. "Are you part of the auxiliary engineering detail?" she asked, in a menacing rasp barely louder than a whisper.

The boy nodded, despite stepping back and swallowing his sudden desire to run away. An angry Crafter could have that effect on people, Mathias remembered. "Engineer Restin Valmont, madam Crafter. Structural design and inspection," the boy said.

She nodded slowly in response, and asked, "How would you know if a heavy gas, heavier than air and visible to the naked eye, had filled a container?"

"It would come out the top," he said, and his face fell as he spoke. He sheepishly lowered his gaze and scratched the back of his head. "Sorry, ma'am. Stupid question."

"Are you concerned about working with the Gloam?" she asked. The question surprised Mathias, who rarely heard her express any concern for those who weren't her apprentice.

"Aye, ma'am. We all are," Restin answered.

Tabitha nodded and said, "It takes minutes of breathing that mist to kill. More than long enough for me to deal with it, should it come to that. Stay careful and alert, and we should all be fine."

"Aye, ma'am. Thank you," he replied, and stepped away to return to his work.

Mathias stepped closer as Tabitha hissed in frustration. "Every child in the City knows the Gloam doesn't kill instantly," She said. "Burn that arrogant boy, why the hell did he leave with my senior Engineer?"

Mathias shrugged in response. "He wanted a helmsman. Only two other people in the City know the controls, and he couldn't take either of them."

Tabitha rounded on him, and asked "Who's the fourth? I count only three. Gerald, Maxwell and myself."

Mathias smiled and tapped his chest. "I'm not flying in anything I can't land."

She chuckled a little and shook her head. "You've been reading over my shoulder. Do you think you've read enough to ride the Bore?"

He cringed, as he instinctively glanced at the Spire. "No," he admitted. "But neither has Maxwell. Your apprentice made it appear startlingly simple, though."

Tabitha nodded, her expression grim. "He did. Even I won't do as well."

"Why?" Mathias asked.

"Riding the Bore benefits from being able to Craft," Tabitha said, and Mathias clenched his teeth as he saw his charge unconsciously glance towards the Spire. "You can feel how the fires of the Spire will shape the winds around it. But being able to feel someone else's will in the flame is something no Crafter in the history of the City has ever made a dedicated study of."

"Except you. As you studied the Gloam," Mathias said.

Tabitha smiled mischievously. "I never studied it." Her admission was a shock, and he nearly let it slip onto his face. "He was keen to study the Gloam before I took him on, you know that much. I became his master to shield him from the authorities of the City, who would never let him work. No one has ever outlawed studying the Gloam, but..." she explained.

"But under a different master or any oversight, he might have been expelled from the Apprentice Hall," Mathias added, nodding to himself. Tabitha always had an engineering bend to her studies, and had worked on buoyant suspension for building bridges. Her interest in the Gloam, a radical departure from her usual inclinations, had made for a few interesting meetings over the years.