Excerpt: Crash

The girl clung tightly to the railing as the airship shook violently, tossing loose items across the narrow hallway. She hung from the metal bar with all the strength that she could muster, her feet slipping frantically across the wooden steps. "Dad? Dad, where are you?" she yelled, blinking back her tears. Her father had gone on deck to demand an explanation for the turbulence when it first started, and he hadn't returned. It had only gotten worse since then.
Keo finally managed to scramble back onto the stairs and pull herself toward the opening. Once she reached the deck, she placed her hands on the wooden planks and peeked her head out. A freezing wind tore at her black hair, but she didn't dare reach up to brush it out of her face.
"Dad?" Keo's heart was racing, and despite the cold her face felt like it was on fire. She was supposed to stay below decks and wait for her father to return. That always seemed to be her place, sitting somewhere in waiting of her dad while he attended some diplomatic meeting. Only this time, she wasn't sure he would come back. She glanced to the side of the deck, barely noticing the shapes of other men and women who hurried past. Could he have fallen overboard?
With a sob, she broke her father's explicit orders for the first time in her life and slid up onto the deck. She knew from her travels that, when there was strong turbulence, the passengers should never come on deck. And if it was unavoidable, they had to hook into a safety line and crawl to minimize the risk of being tossed overboard.
Keo stared with disbelief at the jagged hole in the deck where the safety line anchor box used to be. Then she heard the voices, a frantic chorus of yelling and screaming that barely carried over the raging storm. And as she raised her eyes, she saw the captain at the other end of the ship, yelling orders to her crew and gesturing wildly. It didn't fit the distinguished and jolly demeanor that Keo had seen from her before. It almost seemed as though the captain was panicking.
As carefully as she could manage, Keo crawled further out onto the deck. She tried to reach the mid mast, but a powerful gust of wind tilted the ship and she slid across the planks until she slammed into the side. Keo screamed out as the pain exploded in her hand, which was caught between her and the wood. Tears ran down her cheeks. "Dad? Daaad?" she cried, but no one paid any attention to her.
She pulled her hand out and bit her lip, trying to be brave. "I'm Keo of the House of Yar," she told herself. The beginning of her formal title calmed her down, and she rattled off the rest as she began to crawl again.
"Second of my name." She used her left elbow now to avoid putting pressure on her strained hand. Her silken dress began to soak through with the moisture of the clouds around them, driven into the fabric by the ravaging winds. A chill went through her.
"Fourth Line of Revolutionary Founder Larn." Ahead of her, she saw the Jeortian emissary, lying on the floor with a safety line from the front of the ship around his waist. Maybe if she could reach him, he would be able to tell her where her father was. They had spent weeks together in negotiation, surely he'd be aware of her father's whereabouts now. And he had a safety line to share.
"Distinguished in the manner of--"
The words stuck in her throat. She had heard the emissary yelling something and followed his gaze. His protector, a woman twice Keo's size and more muscular than anyone Keo had ever seen, was several steps further down the deck. She was holding one of the massive chains that held the balloon above them on one hand, and her other hand clung to the railing. Keo saw the intense strain on her face. The girl didn't think anyone could possibly hold their own against such a force. Especially since she now realized that the other four chains on this side had already snapped. The protector's mouth opened, but Keo couldn't hear the scream even as she saw her face contort in a grimace of pain and determination. For what seemed to be half an eternity, Keo just stared at the woman, who through some feat of unprecedented strength managed to wrap the chain around her hand and pull the balloon closer to her and almost back into place. Almost.
"Gods help us," Keo whispered as a large chunk of the railing broke off and protector and balloon disappeared into the darkness above them.