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

“Okay, let me get this straight.” The ship lurched, the cogs in the Christmas tree jingled, and Hank stumbled. “If we survive this, we’ll go to Rovaniemi—why Rovaniemi? And there we’ll look for an old...god because Dad is to make a sacrifice? Can’t you build an altar or something?”


Demetrius huffed, pushed Smokey off his lap, and got to his feet. “You will never understand, boy. You will never understand loving a woman and then one day have her taken from you. I need to do this for Mary. I didn’t do right by her; I need to at least do this.” He steadied himself against the wall as he headed for the door. The wind roared, and the ship swayed, but before long he had left the cabin.


“What?” His voice rode over the howl of the storm.


“You want to find somewhere else to sleep?” Steel’s face was a blank mask.


“No...I’d like to stay here if that’s okay with you.”


“Not afraid of sodomites?” That the words made it out through his clenched teeth was a miracle


Chapter 16