The Sky Chart

The Sky Chart is a fantasy short story by Paul Stewart and Chris Riddell, first published in 2014. It serves as a prologue to Beyond the Deepwoods, explaining the reasons for Twig's abandonment in the forest, and concluding the relationship between Quint and Maris from the previous trilogy.
Plot
The story is set in the point of view of The Stone Pilot, who is retelling the events of Quint and Maris's recent journey to the Deepwoods to Tweezel, an ancient Spindlebug.
Following the events of Clash of the Sky Galleons, the Stormchaser is in ruins, and Quint is forced to find other work to fund the repairs. Aided by the Stone Pilot, he manages to find employment as a navigator aboard the Reaper of Plenty, a merchant ship owned by the leaguesman Multinius Gobtrax. Gobtrax's plan is to traverse the Deepwoods, charting locations of Sumpwood trees, who's wood is the most bouyant of all the trees in the Deepwoods, making it very suited for use building Sky Ships.
The crew set off, Gobtrax and his bodyguard Kelter, Timple the cook, Maris, Quint and the Stone Pilot. The journey is an arduous one, as Gobtrax refuses to do anything other than give orders. It's revealed that he is a highly superstitious man, and that Maris is pregnant with Quints son. It is considered extremely bad luck to give birth aboard a Sky Ship, and when the baby is born, Gobtrax refuses to set sail with it on board. The child is wrapped in a shawl and left in the care of a Woodtroll family in a village nearby. Quint marks the location of the village on the sky chart he has been using to note down the locations of the Sumpwood.
As the ship is returning to Undertown, Gobtrax announces he will only allow Quint to see the map, to have any hope of finding his son, if he gives up his share of the profits from the expedition. Quint realises this will leave him still without a ship, and so unable to return to the deepwoods to rescue his son, and a fight soon breaks out between the two. Gobtrax has the upper hand, but the Stone Pilot intervenes, killing Gobtrax, but accidentally setting the map ablaze in the process. Maris is heartbroken, knowing she will never see her son again.
On their return to Undertown, Quint vows to search the Deepwoods until he finds his son, and Maris, blaming Quint for the loss of her child, begins plans to travel there that would eventually lead to the founding of the Free Glades.

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See Also

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