Songs and Memories

*Posted by* Largehobbit

Posted: Apr 30, 2018, 9:51pm

It was a five hour flight to their first stopping point and they followed the Green Line all the way. About two hours in they had passed a Lex Mk.II stranded on the southbound line. Two engines had been destroyed in the attack at the Green Dock and those left out on the line were directed back towards either Morks Bend or Graymire. Those poor sods down below had passed the last way station and were stranded outside the city. Eli grimaced as they flew overhead, the Darklands did strange things to the mind and he did not envy the poor bastards camped down there waiting for relief. Eli lifted his pocket scope to look down at the name on the side of the engine. "Sunburst" he murmured.

Lina was quiet after the initial bustle of the take off then the shock of the explosion from the Steamworks. She felt like her life, not that was wrong, not just her life... like everything was about to change. Things were strained with Emma, Eli had been distant these past days and now all the trouble in the city. She thought back to the young boy she found, Gill. He was an orphan now, and gods knew what had brought him to that alley, unconscious and covered with a sheet. She had seen him safe with his aunt who lived in the apartment upstairs and promised to drop by to see how he was doing. She did not know why she had promised that... Emma would say she was soft on the inside but it wasn't that. The boy was broken and so was she, and in the city broken things reached out for one another as if the act might make them whole.

"That's a grim smile." Eli said as he stepped up to her side.

"You can talk." She replied accepting the flask of whiskey from him and taking a long swig. For some reason she had lost the urge to berate him for this habit anymore. Gods she was encouraging it.

"Ay it has been a strange few days." Eli mused as he looked out over the empty Darklands. "So what do you think?"

"Of what?" she asked.

"Of the Darklands."

"I have seen them before, we've been out here together before."

"Yes for the odd salvage trip or a quick pick up from the Dreggers Lodge down river, but not this far. You have never been out of sight of Dusk before."

She pondered his question for a moment before speaking, "The air is better I think, though I wouldn't want to be caught out here in a storm without the City defences to draw lightning."

"No you would not." Eli murmured with a knowing frown, old memories flashing in his eye.

"Its the ground that troubles me." she went on at last, "Its as empty as they say but if I stare too long my skin starts to crawls and my eyes play tricks, like the whole of the ground it crawling with roaches. About half hour ago I thought I saw a man, just standing there looking up at us, no details just a shape, I reached down to grab my scope and he was gone, or he was never there."

"Dont dwell on it girl, men have gone mad down there, clawed their own eyes out in terror if you believe the tales and I do."

"Well that settles it then, if you believe it, it must be bullshit." she laughed and after a moment he joined her.

The crew were looking twitchy and Eli called down to them to strike up a tune. One of the lads from Fogs Bend started it and soon they were all chanting along as the land slipped by beneath them.

*So I'll sing farewell to the city of ash, and farewell to the cold of the deep

I'll think of you most of the day and the night, 'till I return once more to the sleep

'till I return once more to the sleep*

*when I was young and in my prime

I wandered lost and forlorn

there was always a longing in my mind

to follow the call of the storm*

*Well a landsman's life is all his own

he may go or he may stay

but when the storm gets in your blood

when she calls you must obey*

*So I'll sing farewell to the city of ash, and farewell to the cold of the deep

I'll think of you most of the day and the night, 'till I return once more to the sleep

'till I return once more to the sleep*

*well I had a girl and she bore my child

and I left them both to die

for the foremost thought in my mind

was to sail upon the sky*

*now I sail upon the seven winds

I sail upon their breath

and every voyage before me now

whispers of my death*

*So I'll sing farewell to the city of ash, and farewell to the cold of the deep

I'll think of you most of the day and the night, 'till I return once more to the sleep

'till I return once more to the sleep*

At the last note sounded a lad on the bow called out, "I see it sir, Morks Bend ahead."

Lina leaned forward eager to see their destination and glanced back to look at Eli who had turned as pale as a ghost.

"What's wrong?" she asked placing a hand upon his arm.

"Of all the bloody songs to sing." he murmured and then jumped as if realising where he was and stiffened, "nothing lass just bad memories and old age."

The Seraphim began to descend and ahead of them the squat dark buildings of Morks Bend grew closer and clearer.