Airman by Eoin Colfer

Conor Broekhart is born

Mar 21, 1878

Born to honourable Captain of the Saltee Island Sharpshooters, Declan Broekhart, and scientist Catherine Broekhart, Conor arrives to the Victorian revolution scene in a hot-air balloon, making headlines in the Paris World Fair of 1878. Apparently, unknown to everyone else at the scene, the balloon was shot down by unidentifiable men, but later saved, by a Frenchman baptised by the name of Victor Vigny.

The Princess and the Pirate

Mar 20, 1887

Conor and his family live on the sovereign Saltee Islands, under the rule of King Nicholas Trudeau. Befriending the King's daughter, Isabella, Conor explores the castle of which is owned by King Nicholas. While in one of the turrets, Isabella, unexpectedly, starts a fire from flammable chemicals. Conor, drastically, creates a kite-like flight-mechanism out of a flag, and takes down Isabella and himself to the ground, although with minor injuries. He is knighted for his bravery by King Nicholas.

Threats and Tutoring

Mar 26, 1887

Marshall Hugo Bonvilain: the name sent a chill up Conor's spine, as much as it probably does to you right now, when he first met him. Warning him rather drastically about not making any more inventive flying equipment, Bonvilain hurries up Conor's will to get out of hospital. He meets his tutor, also the royal tutor to Isabella, Victor Vigny, whom we first met to be the saviour of the Broekharts. He teaches him scientific notions, particularly on flight, and martial arts.

Oh my Marshall!

Mar 21, 1892

Conor Broekhart has kindled a love for Princess Isabella, but amidst all this romance, the head of the island's guards, Marshall Hugo Bonvilain, conspires a plot to overthrow the King and his spy, Victor Vigny and seize manipulation of the Saltees, and change it's current state to a marketplace for diamonds mined on Little Saltee. Regardless of Conor's intervention, Hugo kills both the King and Victor, but manages to release that it was Victor who killed the King and Conor, his accomplice.

Conor Finn is born

Mar 23, 1892

Transported to Little Saltee prison, under Arthur Billtoe's eye, identity changed to Conor Finn, and has his kin turn against him: things only get worse. He meets Linus Wynter, a blind soldier and spy, who promises to aid him with information, if he survives beatings from a Battering Ram thug, known as Otto Malarkey. After gathering snippets of information, Conor finds Linus Wynter 'released,' which in prisoner slang, means executed.

A Glimmering Ray of Hope

Mar 24, 1892

Conor begins deals with Battering Ram gangsters and bribes Arthur Billtoe, but after the shock of Wynter's "departure," Conor mourns for the loss of his American musician of a cellmate and, while doing so, happens to find a luminous rock in which past inmates have engraved diary accounts: Wynter wrote music. Using this slab, Conor jots down designs for a manned-flight accessory. Hope comes to Conor.

Fly!

Mar 21, 1894

Strengthening his fitness to acclimatise to Little Saltee's conditions, Conor fashions a beard: he has aged, but with wisdom, nonetheless. He teaches Malarkey fencing, and bribes Billtoe to build a garden for the inmates. He has his own reasons, for this, and they are to bury Otto and his stealings of diamond. Alongside all this, Conor manages to convince Billtoe to provide with necessary pivots for his daring plans for escape. He shall escape on the day of Princess Isabella's coronation...