The zeppelin lurches suddenly and I tumble forward, spilling my books on the deck. Peyton laughs sympathetically and holds out his hand.
“I know you’re out of your element, Nicky,” he says, as he helps me to my feet, “but try to go five minutes without falling over.”
I feel myself blushing as I release his fingers. “I’m not used to air travel. I’ll be better on the… ground.”
His sensual lips broaden into a smile. “Not ground, perhaps, but sturdier purchase for sure.”
I can see it ahead. Rising from the ocean. Just like Peyton, it’s striking and tall and impossible.
The story is a snack-sized piece about threatened love in the context of a supremely bizarre universe with zeppelins, archaeologists, savage deities and squid-men. The few locations we get to visit are vividly drawn and suggest an entire larger culture. (Possibly even the same culture as in “Walker and Silhouette”? Both feature an identifiable England continuous with lands of unidentifiable strangeness and fantasy.)
Play this!