The Cloud Hunters

The Cloud Hunters — page 1 — First published in Great Britain in 2012 by Hot Key Books Northburgh House 10 Northburgh Street London EC1V 0AT Copyright 2012 Alex Shearer First US edition 2013 Published by arrangement with Hot Key Books London All Rights Reserved No part of this book may be reproduced in any manner without the express written consent of the publisher except in the case of brief excerpts in critical reviews or articles All inquiries should be addressed to Sky Pony Press 307 West 36th Street 11th Floor New York NY 10018 All characters in this publication are fictitious and any resemblance to real persons living or dead is purely coincidental Sky Pony Press books may be purchased in bulk at special discounts for sales promotion corporate gifts fund-raising or educational purposes Special editions can also be created to specifications For details contact the Special Sales Department Sky Pony Press 307 West 36th Street 11th Floor New York NY 10018 or info skyhorsepublishing com Sky Pony is a registered trademark of Skyhorse Publishing Inc a Delaware corporation Visit our website at www skyponypress com 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Shearer Alex The Cloud Hunters Alex Shearer pages cm First published in Great Britain in 2012 by Hot Key Books Copyright page Summary In a post-apocalyptic world Christein wishes to go on adventures in the high skies with Jenine and her family of Cloud Hunters who are defined by the scars on their faces and labeled as outcasts ISBN 978-1-62636-216-1 hardcover alk paper 1 Adventure and adventurers Fiction 2 Clouds Fiction 3 Science fiction I Title PZ7 S5377Cl 2013 Fic dc23 2013014459 Printed in the United States of America

The Cloud Hunters — page 2 — For Jane

The Cloud Hunters — page 3 — 1 Jenine In the middle of the second semester a new student ar rived at school Her name was Jenine and she had two scars on her face running from under her eyes to just above her mouth They weren’t scars from an accident or scars she had been born with or scars from an attack They were ornamental They were the scars of ritual and tradition And they marked her as a wanderer as a no mad an immigrant of unknown origin and by tradition such people were Cloud Hunters Her family’s ship had turned up one day and moored in the harbor Jenine’s father had died lost in a storm the rumor said and her mother commanded the sky boat now though in truth there wasn’t much to take charge of The boat was not large and there was a crew of one a man so deeply tanned that his skin was almost black His name was Kaneesh His ears were studded with rings and he had a single-band tattoo which went all the way around his arm like a bracelet His head was shaved and his chest was hairless and he always seemed to glisten as if he had anointed himself with oil 1

The Cloud Hunters — page 4 — THE CLOUD HUNTERS Jenine’s mother was named Carla and she like her daughter and like Kaneesh had two scars running down toward her mouth Her hair was jet black and she wore it long and thick often tied back in a band She was tall and slim and she looked like a warrior even when she came to the parents evenings She seemed very exotic and the perfume she used smelled strange and unusual My mother said it was musk She said it had been taken from the glands of a dead sky-whale which I thought rather cruel and bizarre and somehow intriguing Every morning Carla and Kaneesh would set sail and every evening they would return Sometimes the catch had been good sometimes bad and they would come back empty-handed with nothing in the hold If they had several bad days in a row they would journey farther afield which meant that they might not return for a week or more Carla would then pay somebody to look after Jenine and to give her board and lodging so that she would not have to miss school She wanted her daughter to have an education For it’s one thing to be a Cloud Hunter because you want to be it’s another thing to be a Cloud Hunter because you have no choice and are qualified for nothing else Yet even then your very looks are against you On the weekends when there was no school their boat would leave port on Friday afternoon and not return until late on Sunday or even early on Monday morning and Jenine would just be in time for the first lesson If you asked her what she had done the answer was always the same 2

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