Free Sky Raiders by Brandon Mull Page B

followed them through to try to help them.”
    “You came through on your own?” She sounded impressed.
    “I had no idea where I was going. I got caught. Then Durny bought me.”
    She gave a little nod. “Do you know what the Sky Raiders do?”
    “They raid the floating castles. That’s all I know.”
    “This is a salvage operation,” Mira explained. “There’s nothing alive in those castles. Not truly. Just semblances. Some are big and dangerous, some seem like people, but none are really living. Most of the semblances disintegrate if you bring them back here, just like the floatstones if they head inland. Everything else holds together just fine. It’s all ownerless and headed for the Eastern Cloudwall, never to be seen again. So the Sky Raiders take what they can. We keep certain valuables, but most of it goes to the salvage yard. People come from all over the Outskirts to buy our finds.”
    “Sometimes the semblances are dangerous?”
    Mira huffed. “Up in the castles, they seem plenty real. Some castles are empty. Some are deadly. If nothing gets taken, it doesn’t count as a mission, so make sure something gets back to the ship every time, even if it’s just a floatstone.”
    “Got it. I don’t want to end up doing more than fifty missions.”
    “Right.”
    Cole cleared his throat. “So I’m the bait. For the semblances.”
    “More or less. Nobody wants to see you fail. They’ll scope out the castle before they send you down. They’ll be ready to lend a hand if possible. And we’ll equip you.”
    She opened a door to a room full of clothes. “Your outfit is about function, not fashion. You want clothes that let youmove freely, have enough pockets, and maybe give a little protection. Put tough material over your knees and elbows.”
    The room contained a bizarre variety of clothing—tunics, long underwear, embroidered robes, a sequin cape, a medieval breastplate, turbans, a trench coat, a pliable cloak as clear as glass, grass skirts, a football helmet, garlands, beaded vests, and togas. Cole fingered a fringed buckskin jacket, like the kind Davy Crockett might wear. “Where did all of this come from?”
    “You get one guess.”
    “The castles?” Cole picked up the football helmet by the face mask. “Do you even play football here?”
    “Is that a game?”
    He set it down. “Do the castles come from my world?”
    “Do you have floating castles on Earth?”
    “No,” Cole said. “But we have a lot of this stuff. Like that T-shirt over there. It’s for a movie called Medal of Shame . It doesn’t belong here.”
    “Nothing belongs in the castles,” Mira said. “It’s why they’re worth raiding. You never know what you might find. It might be valuable or useful. It might be garbage. But it’s there for the taking.”
    “If you don’t get killed.”
    “You’re catching on.”
    Cole picked up the breastplate. It was heavier than he had expected.
    “First and last, worry about speed,” Mira advised. “If things go wrong, you’ll survive by escaping.”
    Cole put down the piece of armor. He decided thefootball helmet would be cumbersome as well, limiting his vision. He grabbed a shirt and pants that looked about the right size. He tried on some different shoes until he found a match. At the end he added the buckskin jacket, even though it was a little too large.
    “If anything doesn’t fit right, just come back and trade,” Mira said. “This other room is more important.” She led him to the next door in the hall. “You get to pick one special item crafted by our shapers. Durny leads them these days. Don’t try to take more than one. If you get caught sneaking more, you’ll be in big trouble. These items are hard to make and usually get lost when a scout . . . doesn’t survive. So they can’t afford more than one per scout. Same rule applies to most in a raiding party.”
    Arranged on racks and shelves, weapons and gear filled the room. Cole saw swords, axes,