Total pages in book: 58
Estimated words: 52915 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 265(@200wpm)___ 212(@250wpm)___ 176(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 52915 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 265(@200wpm)___ 212(@250wpm)___ 176(@300wpm)
“I never thought of it like that.”
“You have probably never thought of many things many ways. We start to think of things one way or another and rarely revisit. You will have much to reconsider over the coming days, Emmaline.”
He says my name like a caress.
Outside the room, the windows reveal sudden gluts of fire. There are bursts of it flaring past what I suspect cannot be glass windows. This is a vessel, a spaceship, no matter how fanciful it seems.
It quickly becomes apparent that we are moving through the atmosphere of what must be a distant planet. Within seconds, the flame clears and bright blue sky replaces it, the friendly shade drawing me over to the window where I look down at an entirely new world.
“We’re already there?”
“Our worlds are not as far apart as you might imagine,” King Charming says. “In the proper vessel, travel can be undertaken in a matter of minutes.”
“Powered by magic?”
“The boundaries between technology and magic… well, as the great wizard Clark once said, “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.”
He’s right, of course, but I do not have time to consider the many implications and ramifications of that statement, as I am far too busy looking out the elegantly cut glass and observing something I never imagined I would ever see. A whole new world. One no, or few humans have likely ever seen. There is a large expanse of aquamarine ocean and in the middle of it lies what seems to me to be a relatively small continent. I have no sense of scale, of course, but the land to which we appear to be flying is roughly circular in shape, save for interesting twiddly bits and archipelago emanating around the border of the lands.
It looks beautifully unnatural, and we are flying in a slow spiral to the very center of what seem to me to be fertile lands, where a great castle sits upon a mountain plateau. The closer we get, the more magical the entire scene is. The quality of the light makes the place gleam with golden enchantment even at this distance, and as we draw closer to the castle I see many towers and spires and turrets, walkways and parapets, green and gold banners and flags flying from each of the tower tops. The construction is exquisite and fantastical, and it must surely house hundreds of people. I wonder if they are all like King Charming, a species of sentient, humanoid aliens, albeit with scaled skin in verdant hues.
We do not so much land the ship so much as dock in a great and beautiful sky port which juts out from the main body of the castle. The ship comes to a gentle halt and I feel a welling of anticipation.
Charming smiles at me. “Are you ready to explore your new home, princess Emmaline?”
“Yes! Of course!”
And when I alight, it is with my hand in the hand of King Charming, onto a dock of rich polished and carved timber. It is only then that I turn around and see what I travelled here in. It is no van. It is a great galleon with sails and masts that should probably have caught fire in the atmospheric entry, or at least broken off and caused dangerous hull instability. But nothing is as it seems when it comes to my King Charming or the world in which he lives.
King Charming turns to me with his oh-so-alluring smile.
“Welcome home, princess.”
2
Emmaline
I expected to be greeted by Charming’s subjects, but the sky dock remains empty. I don’t even see any signs of crew or a captain. Maybe it doesn’t need one. Maybe spaceships of this kind need nothing more than a king and his magic.
Charming offers me his big, scaled green hand and leads me down the gangplank to the dock. I notice he keeps a firm grip on me. At first I think that’s because he wants to make sure that I do not run away, but then a sudden gust of wind whipping across the mountain top shows me that it is simply to keep me from falling from the relatively narrow gangway.
The king himself anchors the ship in place by hurling great ropes with reinforced coils at the ends around mounting points embedded in the dock. The ship rocks back and forth a little on the currents of the wind, much like a boat on a lake.
We are very, very high up. Standing on solid ground has made me suddenly feel the distance from my current location to the generally accepted ground, which has to be several hundred feet beneath us, so far away that fields of grain and animals look like toy representations of the same.
It’s a relief to be taken into the castle proper, where heavy stone walls stop me thinking about all the way down below. There is an archway with the motif of a ship leading from the dock to the interior. The carving around it is very ornate, showing signs of incredible craftsmanship that doesn’t get installed very much in my world anymore.