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

“We need to unrig the sails and hoist the storm jibs.”


“What?” Hank shouted to override the noise the wind made, and Steel shrugged. Hank’s ribcage was shrinking. They would crash. “Maybe we should try to land instead?”


“No! This will shorten the travel time. See how fast we’re going?”


“We’ll need to change the sails, so the wind doesn’t rip them apart. The storm jibs are sturdier. It’ll be fine.”


“Okay...” Hank blew out some air and tried to focus. “What do you need me to do?”


“Just one thing, really.” The look Steel gave him had his gut turning.


“Yeah.” He pulled at some ropes and gave Hank two loose ends. “You climb the ladders, and up there you’ll notice metal hoops fastened around the balloon ring. You put these through the hoops, one at each side. Secure them like the lines to the sails that are up now. Then you come back down.”


Chapter 14