Avalon Rising by Kathryn Rose

navigate us in case the device in the helm should fail.
    I fit my fingers around Caldor’s dislodged wing and twist it once so it fits inside the falcon’s shoulder. It won’t be permanent, but it’ll hold for now. I pour some of Merlin’s jaseemat inside. I store a small velvet purse with more jaseemat inside the falcon’s belly and shut the metal gate.
    “ Yaty ala alhyah .”
    An awareness comes over Caldor’s beady eyes, and it cocks its head, feathers ruffling against its copper body.
    “To the aeroship,” I say, and Caldor takes flight from the window, spiraling through clouds heavy with the weight of a million snowflakes.
    I sling the satchel over my shoulder and flee the tower. Climb the cellar steps outside Rufus’s workshop; the iron door’s clatter is dreadfully loud, but the aeroship’s propellers are even more thunderous. I gauge my surroundings. The vessel that’ll try to take me north is heading eastward, toward the docks.
    I glance up at Caldor flying over the trees; it’ll reach Rufus at the lake before I will. Its caw pierces the might of the air, and with it, I hear male voices shouting orders to one another. As I race for the gardens, I realize one of the voices is my father’s.
    “Where is she? With all of the Holy Land under attack, who knows if Camelot won’t be next? She needs to head north. Vivienne!”
    I’m running as fast as I can, and when I reach the threshold of the gardens, I see out of the corner of my eye the slick gentleman’s jacket of Lord William as he strolls through the courtyard, Lancelot not too far behind. I duck under a tree. My eyes dart to the wall where a pair of patrolling guards makes their way closer to the break that was my only plan of escape. Blast.
    “Vivienne!” my father calls again, louder now.
    I peer around the tree at my pacing father.
    His old eyes search about in worry, in fatigue. “Ready to leave in a half hour’s time. She can’t be too far.” He marches in the direction of our family’s quarters. As I turn to the walls of the city, there are now six guards patrolling and searching, but they’ve paused at Lord William’s instructions, and have likewise turned their backs to me.
    I run for the break in the wall where squires would buy their shisha from passing gypsies. I run from Camelot and from my father, whom I realize I won’t have the chance to say good-bye to, despite the chains he’d give me if he could. I reach the lake. I’ve made it. I’ve made it, and God willing I have all I’ll need to find Marcus and Owen and the Holy Grail.
    Nevertheless, I can’t help but wonder if I’ve left my entire life behind.
    By the time I reach Rufus, he’s tightening the main sail to stand strong against the growing wind and shoots me a look of urgency as my horse stops. “Start the aeroship! Where’s the jaseemat ?”
    I hold up the satchel as I leap from the horse and send it running back to Camelot. “We don’t have much time left!”
    Rufus glances twice at the castle behind me. “Less.” I whip around. The drawbridge is lowering. I spot my father atop the citadel wall as he looks out at the horses riding toward us. To the east, I see the floating aeroship waiting to fly north.
    It can’t be like this. I turn back to Rufus, but I don’t know what to say. He might try to make me stay.
    But he doesn’t. He hesitates, and then, “Get aboard.”
    Caldor lands on my shoulder with the blacksmith’s words. I climb the steps to my aeroship and head straight to the helm. On the far side is the hot-burning furnace, and I throw back the grate. I add more charcoal to the iron lungs and light it with the quicklight I’ll give to Marcus as a birthday present if I find him— when . I open Azur’s reserve of jaseemat , and the old alchemist’s whispered words bring the golden dust to life. It floats around the fire and spiders throughout the aeroship’s body. At the helm, I ignite the engine. It sputters once and finds its rhythm,