Captain Katarina Salisbury stared at Commander Patrick Ederyth and waited for him to confess it was a request made in jest.
She repressed the urge to tap her foot impatiently on the wooden floor and recrossed her legs.
The spring skirt of grey tweed sat snugly across her hips, the matching bolero carefully hung on the chair in which she sat. Black boots and a waistcoat lent the feminine suit the more serious tone her position required. At her throat a froth of soft lace was held in place by a brooch of silver shaped like a fox. By contract her auburn hair was in a neatly pinned braid; her green eyes were brighter against the neutral tone of her dress. She didn’t need to wear a uniform unless she was on active duty, but it never hurt to dress well, and to the rank and stature at which she was held. Especially before the man in front of her.
Commander Ederyth commanded the attention of his subordinates through his unshakeable character. He sat across from her in his navy uniform, buttons all polished, the markings of his rank across his left breast. Grey observant eyes watched her, one through a monocle, while his lips pursed behind a salt and pepper walrus moustache.
He leaned back behind his large wooden desk, the leather top littered with papers and correspondence. It was all neatly framed by the heavy drapes behind him, pulled ajar to let in the morning sunlight, sickly as it was, still held back by smog. The rooftops of Osborn could only be seen dimly through the haze, occasionally overshadowed by the busy port’s thoroughfare, airships departing with the morning wind to travel who knew where.
Which is what Kat should have been doing. Her crew were preparing to set off for wherever their next assignment was, still lazy form their month’s shore leave, but keen for more adventure.
‘Do you need your instructions in writing, Captain?’ he prompted.
‘No, I wish to discuss the necessity of civilians on board.’
‘I don’t see their presence as a difficulty the Iron Lady can’t accommodate.’
‘I understand you would like me to rescue villagers from a potential catastrophe,’ Kat said. ‘I don’t understand the necessity in taking Lord and Lady Lindon with us. It should be a relatively short trip, and the Drezusk Mountains are not for the inexperienced. They will mostly be confined to the Iron Lady.’
Kat knew well and full that any lord would not like to be detained on her vessel at her word, even if it was the law whilst on board.
‘For the same reason you are going, Kat,’ Ederyth said, using her personal name gruffly, a gesture of fondness, yet also a reminder of her purpose. ‘Technically that village is within his fiefdom, and there is enough of his kind at the moment worrying about bad press over wage rates.’
‘Wouldn’t he be better off changing his wages to match then?’ she said tartly.
‘Your purpose there isn’t so illustrious to allow you the snobbery of turning his lordship away.’ His countenance was chiding but there was a glint in his eyes.
‘No, our purpose is fairly simple: destroy avalanches to stop them collapsing on… goat herders, wasn’t it?’ She resisted the urge to make sarcastic comments.
The Hidden Monastery Description:
The Hidden Monastery is the first novella in the Last Prophecy series.
Captain Katarina Salisbury of the airship the Iron Lady and propaganda tool for the Illisian government, has been given a very simple assignment; to go and rescue villagers threatened with avalanches in the far southern Drezusk Mountains.
With unwelcome nobles on her vessel, diminishing part of her fame and good press from the venture, she is determined to do her duty and be done with them as quickly as possible.
They destroy an avalanche within reach of the village on their first day in the valley.
Except the fall of the avalanche reveals something beneath the tumbling snow and rock; a hidden monastery of a dead religion, never seen before this far south on the Illisian continent.
It’s stone doors are opened to reveal a secret, and something malicious moves in the shadows, to keep that secret.
Captain Katarina Salisbury is drawn to the monastery, she struggles against forces that would stop her. As the weather worsens she is forced to make choices for herself and the future of the Iron Lady.
