Sky ships

"There were only two dozen or so of the sky ships, as the floating pines that provide buoyancy rarely grow large enough to form the keels of anything much bigger than a small dinghy. The floating pines themselves were a strange natural response to the odd magic of the Fall. Discovering how to harness their buoyancy had made wealthy the princes of Amboloyo (where the pines grow) and Southern Dair (where the wizard-engineers who had designed the ships came from).

Each of the seventeen princes of Zunidh had one, and the Ouranatha and the Imperial Guard each had three for their use, and one was the flagship reserved for mine. The remaining four or five were given over to government business, primarily the swift passage of parcels and other material goods. This one’s white sails and swan figurehead indicated it was commonly used for the post: I well remembered Kip’s glee at instituting a worldwide competition for the aesthetic scheme of his new institution."