Suddenly, Eva was overcome by the feeling of drifting alone in a vast ocean. The fog had turned into the sea, and she herself was a single, helpless speck in the water. With the silent menace of a dorsal fin, the black outline appeared through the haze. At that moment, Eva felt like prey, and the ship was the shark circling around her. A rumbling vibrated through the quay and the clouds near the edge of the cliff began to ripple like water stirred up from below. Then the black bow appeared – first a narrow line, then a wedge-shaped surface slowly pushing its way out of the haze.
The ship continued to gain height, and with every metre it climbed above the edge, it grew into a mighty black wall that cast its shadow over the destroyed harbour area. Blood-red sails billowed in the wind, and the lights of the ship’s lanterns flashed scattered through the pale light. Through narrow openings along the hull, Eva could see the barrels of the cannons – ready to spit fire at any moment. Blurred figures scurried across the deck, shouts whipping back and forth between them.
Then the ship emerged completely from the fog and the flag became visible on the mast. Lennar gave Eva an irritated look. The Order kept extensive records of the pirate clans and their flags, which were regularly expanded through the work of the scouts. They knew the double hook of the Red Claw Pack, the broken sun of the Ylsmark brothers, the Kaarst clan and its compass without north, and the hydra that adorned the banners of the Sons of Silence, the black tower, the overturned chalice and the horned mask. But no pirate sighting had ever reported this banner. The flag, half torn but still proudly raised, showed the outline of a winged creature – half lion, half eagle. A griffin.
Eva’s heart skipped a beat. Anyone familiar with the old stories knew what this meant – and Captain Graubart had told her enough fairy tales and sagas by the fireside in the evenings for her to recognise the creature immediately. In the folklore of the Islands, the griffin was considered the guardian of gold, the keeper of ancient treasures that neither gods nor men could steal with impunity. Its eyes, it was said, could see through lies, and its claws tore apart those who claimed what did not belong to them. Lennar squinted at the tattered flag. ‘What is that supposed to be? A vulture on chicken legs?’
‘That’s a griffin,’ Eva corrected, lifting her chin.
‘Hmm. Then they should have put more effort into the embroidery. It looks like my great-grandmother did it – and she’s half-blind and only has three fingers left. In total.’
Eva snorted. ‘I’ve never seen this flag before. Maybe it’s a new clan.’
‘Well, if they fight as well as they embroider…’
„Sjöberg, please. „
‘Please excuse me, Grand Master. But if you’re going to have a beast like that on your flag, it should at least look halfway decent. Even every old dishcloth from the Storm Islands looks better than that.“ Eva continued to stare at the fluttering cloth, and although Lennar kept talking, she could hardly hear him. Something about this coat of arms sent a tingling sensation across her skin.
A jolt shook the quay as the ship crashed into the powerful fenders that had been attached along the edge of the harbour for protection. The first ropes were already flying overboard and pirates were climbing down them to moor the ship to the large bollards. Eva was the first to break out of her paralysis – they would be discovered any moment. ‘Come on, get in there!’ she ordered in the commanding tone befitting a high-ranking official, pointing to the warehouse they had just come from. Kardo Elsen stood frozen, prompting Lennar to give him a gentle nudge. Once they were finally out of sight, sheltered by the building, Eva carefully drew the door shut behind them, keeping a close eye on the harbour through the crack.
Ropes whirred through the air and the first pirates slid down them – each of them a strange mosaic of cultures completely unknown on the known Cloud Islands. A pirate with a long, silvery mane of hair was the first to descend, landing lightly on the quay. The left side of his head was shaved bald and covered with fine tattoos. He hissed every word he spoke between his teeth, so that his voice resembled a whisper. ‘I saw the movements here,’ he said, wiping the condensation from the high altitude from his face with his sleeve. ‘Like a glider – or something.’
Next to him, a second man jumped to the ground, bald-headed, his feet in tall, fur-trimmed boots. His deerskin coat fluttered in the wind, the fur collar sticking to his neck, drenched in sweat. ‘Yes,’ he grunted, ‘two of them. I saw them too.’ More ropes were lowered and the pirates descended into the harbour like flies – a living swarm of metal, fabric and movement. Each had something distinctive about them: one had his entire face decorated with rings and chains, another wore metal plates in her hair that clinked with every movement. A girl, barely older than Eva and Lennar, clamped a single, milky-shimmering glass monocle to her eye and wore three long daggers openly on her belt.
The pirates combed the quay with the efficiency of predators who knew their hunting ground. Eva retreated into the darkness of the warehouse when one of them came dangerously close to her hiding place. ‘Here!’ someone shouted. Eva watched as a piece of debris was pushed aside; beneath it, chrome glowed tellingly in the twilight. ‘A glider!’ someone shouted. The girl with the monocle put her hand on the hood and backed away, cursing. ‘Warm as Zephyros’s sacred arse crack! It hasn’t been here long.’ Meanwhile, the bald man uncovered the second aircraft. ‘Here’s the other one – I told you so! Man, we’re lucky.’ Murmurs ran through the ranks. The silver-haired man raised his hand and everyone fell silent. His lisp cut through the silence like a knife. ‘Spread out. We’ll find those little mice – no matter where they’ve crawled off to.’
That was her final warning; they would not get another. ‘We have to leave immediately,’ whispered Eva, then she turned to the harbour master. ‘Come with us!’ But Kardo shook his head. He stood half crouched, his face ashen. “I’m too slow. If I go with you, they’ll catch us immediately. You have to take the side streets. Then into the big cornfield, always heading north, and you’ll see the forest on the horizon.”
Eva reflexively pulled her boot off her foot, grabbed her sock and stuffed it into her coat pocket.
‘Sjöberg,’ she said calmly as she pulled the boot back over her bare foot, ‘how good are you at long-distance running?’ Lennar frowned. ‘I can keep going for a long time, Grand Master. But I don’t generally like running.’ ‘Good,’ Eva replied. ‘Then let’s run as if you did like it.’