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

“Look.” Steel strutted up to the railing, his high heel click-clacked on the icy surface of the deck, and Hank feared he’d fall. It took a few seconds before he stopped looking at Steel and actually looked at what he wanted to show him. Before them, the River Thames snaked its way towards the dock.


“Almost.” Steel linked his arm with Hank’s. “Isn’t it beautiful?”


Lots of orange lamps shone in the gloomy winter morning, going from scattered to more compact the closer to the core they came. The first weak rays painted the sky yellow, and fog rolled in over the river.


“It is.” Hank was more concerned about how they would land than about the beauty of the morning, though.


“No! You’re not seeing it right.” Steel tugged at his arm.


“No. This is my Christmas gift to you; you have to see it right.”


Chapter 22