There is still magic to be found. Even in the bleakest of places.<br><br>Hank Goodenough has spent his entire life in the smoggy streets of London trying to keep his head down and not to get noticed. Not an easy feat when you’re the tallest one in the room and have a brass funnel protruding from your head. When he finds himself laid off work once again, his dad wants to drag him away on a crazy quest. Before he can figure out how to get out of it, he finds himself on a steam-driven airship in search of Odin, the old Norse God, and is sharing a room with Captain Elazar Steel, a man strutting around on one high-heeled boot and one peg leg.<br><br>Steel doesn’t care that the winks, smiles, and small touches he and Hank share might get them hanged once they land on the ground again. He is determined to show Hank there is magic in the world and that there is no better place to be than on his balloon ship steering towards the Arctic Circle.

Eight Feet of Magic

“You mix it with cold water, of course.”


“That we take from the sea? What about freshwater, what do we drink?”


Steel blinked at him. “We’re flying.”


“What?” Hank’s heart began beating a little too fast.


“The steam will go out into the balloon, it’ll lift us, and we’ll be flying. There won’t be any water taken from the sea.”


“Flying...” His knuckles turned white as he clenched the handle of the shovel. “What about water?”


Steel shrugged. “Maybe there won’t be any baths on this expedition, but on the next, I’m trying out the tub.” He pointed a finger at Hank. “I’ve worked hard to get the pipes to lead into the cabin.”


Hank nodded and shovelled in some more coal in the hearth before reaching for the wreath and throwing it into the flames.


“What are you doing?” For a second Hank feared Steel would reach into the fire to try to save it.


Chapter 7