“If I saw the box, I could tell you for certain.”
“You can come along next time we infiltrate his house. That was a big bed. Ought to be room for three under it, don’t you think, Tee?”
Tolemek gave him a flat stare.
Sardelle walked forward for a better look at the runes. They were definitely Middle Dragon Script. Maybe Early Dragon Script. She could be looking at a sword that was more than three thousand years old.
Kasandral doesn’t look his age, Jaxi.
Magic can keep you young. Reduces the wrinkles around your hilt.
Sardelle stretched a finger toward the scabbard, thinking she recognized the symbol for mountain. She—
A blast of heat zapped her. Sardelle jerked her hand back. She had barely touched the scabbard, but it was as if she had stuck her finger in molten lava. She stared down at a welt already rising.
I don’t think he likes you.
No kidding. She was glad she hadn’t tried to pick up the sword by the hilt back in the pyramid.
Yeah, I wouldn’t touch the blade if I were you.
Thanks for the warning.
Sardelle glanced around to see if anyone had noticed her reaction, but everyone was looking at Ridge.
“I was thinking it’s time for a more direct approach,” he said, his earlier humor gone. “Apex didn’t find anyone from the squadron. Supposedly Crash refused to go on Therrik’s mission, but nobody’s seen him. He was marked down as AWOL.” Ridge shook his head. “I need to figure out a way to get everyone back to the hangar. End their idiotic quest and get them prepared to deal with whatever dragon-blood-powered weapons the Cofah are planning to fling at us this year.”
“I was thinking about that,” Sardelle said.
Ridge tilted his head. “You were?”
“It sounds like you need to report in and find a way to work with—or around—Therrik. But there’s suspicion on you now, because of me.”
Ridge opened his mouth, but Sardelle held up a hand so he would let her continue. She didn’t need sympathy now.
“But you’re about to escape my controlling clutches.” Sardelle wriggled her fingers. “That’s what you tell anyone who asks. Pretend I’m gone and you don’t know where I went, or say you sent me away. You can blame what happened with Therrik on me, but claim that you’re back to normal now.”
“You want me to blame my reckless impulsiveness on you?” Ridge had been frowning through everything she had said, and he didn’t stop now. “I would have had to meet you twenty years ago.”
“Whatever it takes to regain any trust you might have loss. Then you can figure out what’s going on from within instead of hiding under beds and spying.”
“I’m surprised you told her about the bed, Zirkander,” Tolemek muttered and glanced at Cas. Had he not shared that news with her?
“Don’t worry, big fellow. She’s not jealous of our new relationship.”
Tolemek’s glare was even flatter this time.
“I had been thinking of turning myself in,” Ridge said. “Er, reporting in. I’m not actually sure which of those things it will end up being. Or at what rank I’ll find myself in the end, if I have any rank left at all. Either way, I figure I’ll report in, then go to the castle and try to get Kaika released. I thought I’d say it was my plan to start with. Since I outrank her, they ought to believe that.”
Sardelle grimaced. “I can get Kaika out. It’s my fault she was captured.” She avoided looking at Cas. “Since they know I’m around now, there’s no need for me to hold back. I can find a way to her. I’m certain of it.”
Really? This should prove interesting.
You may get to melt some holes through walls this time.
Lucky me.
“It wasn’t your fault, Sardelle,” Ridge said.
“But I think I can retrieve her without you needing to admit to having anything to do with the infiltration.”
“Lieutenant Ahn was there, and Kaika was last seen working with my squadron. I doubt anyone is going to believe I didn’t know about this.”
“I don’t know, Zirkander,” Tolemek said. “Half of your squad is AWOL. It’s gotten trendy. Maybe your superiors will believe that nobody listens to you anymore and that you don’t know about anything.”
“How comforting that would be,” Ridge said.
That drawing is making Apex nervous, Jaxi observed.
Are you sure it’s the drawing and not the sword?
He’s seen the sword before.
“Ridge,” Sardelle said slowly, thinking through the implications, “whose flier seat was that tracking device pinned to?”
Apex winced, ever so slightly, at the word tracking.
“I couldn’t tell,” Ridge said.
“And you left the original device back in the canyon?”
“Yes.” Perhaps he caught on to where she was going with the questions, but he added, “You don’t have a way to figure out who put it there, do you?”
Doubtful, Jaxi said. I couldn’t even sense it.
“I believe I could if I had a look at it.”
If you believe that, you’re delusional.
So long as Apex believes it.
Ah, I see.
Apex’s face had grown masked. Sardelle could have poked into his thoughts, but if she found that he had planted it or, more likely, had knowledge of who had, it would be her word against his. He was smart enough to argue his side persuasively. Better to catch him running out to destroy it, or whatever he might try. Maybe he wouldn’t do anything. Maybe she and Jaxi were reading him wrong. Sardelle would hate for one of Ridge’s people to have betrayed him. He trusted everyone in his squadron, and it would devastate him to learn that he had a spy on his team.
He’s guarding his thoughts well, Jaxi said, but he’s definitely feeling guilty about something, and he’s afraid too.
Ridge looked toward the window. They still had several hours of daylight left. “All right. I’ll go get it before heading into town. Tolemek, now that we have this closer bed-sharing relationship, are you willing to come back to the capital with me? When I report in, I’m going to have to talk to Therrik, since he thinks he’s my commanding officer now. And unfortunately, the rest of the military seems to think that too.”
“Talk?” Tolemek asked.
“Ideally with your truth serum. No hiding this time. We need to know about the sword and what his link with the queen is—he wouldn’t even tell his superior officers, so I’m sure he won’t tell me. I could tell he was holding something back though.”
“Sorry, but the pharmacy is closed until I get a new lab. I can’t make truth serum out of lavatory cleaning supplies.”
“Hm.” Ridge stroked his chin.
“Maybe you’ll have to take me along one last time before escaping my controlling clutches,” Sardelle said.
He started to frown, but then lowered his hand. “Yes, of course, if you can see into people’s minds, then that would obviate the need for a serum.”
Apex’s gaze jerked toward Sardelle. Had he forgotten she had that ability? She raised a single brow in his direction and held his eyes.
“Sir,” Apex blurted, then lifted his eyes toward the heavens. “I need to talk to you.”
“I can go after Kaika afterward,” Sardelle said, then stepped back. She had a feeling Ridge needed to hear what Apex had to say.
Ridge frowned slightly—he did not seem ready to embrace her plan—but waved to the living room and nodded for Apex to follow him. Tolemek murmured something to Cas, then also walked out of the kitchen.
Sardelle did not know whether to stay or to pretend some task called to her. A need to feed the cats perhaps.
“Sardelle?” Cas said. “I… I’m sorry about what I said last night.”
Sardelle relaxed slightly. Oh? “It’s all right.”
“It’s not. I’ve been feeling irritated lately, on edge. Like everything is annoying me, and I’ve definitely felt angry toward you. Almost viol
ent. I had to keep myself from—” Cas shook her head. “I’ve been short with Tolemek too.” She glanced at the table. “He said the sword might be influencing me. I thought it was stupid, but I did have a long walk back this morning to think about it. I don’t know. Maybe he’s right? Do you think it’s… an evil sword?”
Yes, Jaxi said.
“I think it was created specifically to kill dragons, and that might apply to sorcerers too. It does obviously have some enhanced qualities.”
Just because he can glow, I wouldn’t call him enhanced.
“I would like to research it whenever there’s time.” Sardelle spread her hand, acknowledging that time was elusive right now. “For now, it might be a good idea to get it back into its box as soon as possible.” Maybe they could get rid of it as soon as tonight.
Cas’s forehead wrinkled. “You want Therrik to have it? According to the colonel, he’s an unbalanced ass at the best of times. And he tried to kill Tolemek when they hadn’t even met before.”
Sardelle wondered if some of Therrik’s rage could have been a result of sleeping with the sword under his bed. If he hadn’t kept the case closed, maybe it had affected him, especially when dealing with those with dragon blood.
“We could put it in the box and toss it into the harbor.” Sardelle smiled, meaning it as a joke, but maybe it wasn’t a bad idea, since the only dragon around was Phelistoth, and he wasn’t on the continent, as far as she knew.
She might have meant it as a joke, but Cas’s eyes opened wide, and her hand twitched toward the sword. She caught herself before she touched it and lowered her arm, but the haunted expression did not leave her face.
“Or perhaps it could go into a museum,” Sardelle said, thinking that might bother her less. If Cas had bonded with the sword in some way, that could explain the attachment. Such bondings could be magically facilitated.
Please, who would bond with that ugly thing? Jaxi asked.
Cas shrugged. “Whatever’s best. The colonel—”
A crash came from the living room. Uh oh. Apex may have shared what he knew.
“You what?” Ridge demanded, his raised voice piercing the door.
Sardelle walked out, afraid she would have to grab him by the shoulders to keep him from pouncing on his lieutenant.
Tolemek must have gone outside and taken Duck with him, because Ridge and Apex were the only ones in the room. They stood on opposite ends of the couch, Ridge with his fists clenched, and Apex with his shoulders drooping, his chin down.
“It was when I first learned you were taking Deathmaker on the mission,” Apex said, “a criminal who should have been convicted for his crimes and shot—or sent back to Cofahre so they could shoot him. I wouldn’t have cared which way it went, but to invite him along on a mission?” He turned pleading eyes toward Ridge, but found no sympathy there and dropped his gaze to the couch again. “The hooded woman who approached me the night before we left… She already knew he was going, knew about it all. As soon as she started talking, I knew I had to report her. She asked me to place the tracking device on the flier Tolemek would be riding in, said she would see to it he was taken care of. I refused, sir. I swear.” Apex glanced up again, but only for an instant. “I wanted him punished, yes, but I knew what the woman wanted would be a danger to the entire squadron, especially to whoever was flying him. I would never do anything to hurt Raptor.”
“But you didn’t report this woman,” Ridge said, his voice hard.
“No, sir. I put the device under the seat, like she asked.”
“Some kind of magical coercion?”
Apex shook his head. “No, sir. When I wasn’t cooperating with her, she lowered her hood.”
“And?”
“It was the queen.”
For a moment, Ridge stood there motionless, gripped by shock, but he recovered and thumped his fist against the couch. “The queen isn’t in your chain of command, Anders. You don’t take orders from her.”
“Technically, the king is the highest-ranking military officer, sir, and she—”
“She nothing. She has a minor role in ruling the nation. Usually.” He thumped the couch again. He looked like he wanted to kick it across the room.
“But as a subject of Iskandia, I couldn’t refuse her, sir. She’s my queen.”
“You should have reported to me. Or General Ort. Someone.”
“I know, but you… you wanted to take Tolemek along.” Apex shot him a betrayed look.
“Yes, I did, and he played a valuable role in our mission. I seem to remember him saving your life.”
Apex slumped.
“You have a way to contact her? Or that organization?” Ridge asked.
“She didn’t give one, but I may have deduced… maybe.”
“You want to redeem yourself? You go talk to those people and find out where the king is being held.”
Ridge stalked to the front door without looking at Apex and strode out, slamming it behind him.
Chapter 8
“I’m going to need you to come up to the hangar with me,” Ridge said, glancing at Sardelle.
They had left Tolemek, Ahn, and Apex back at the house to get some sleep, and they were riding into town, avoiding the castle and coming in on the eastern road. Sardelle had changed into her travel leathers again and wore a cloak over them, the hood pulled low to hide her face. The gray clouds spat a depressing drizzle, so the head covering was logical, but she had to be worried she appeared suspicious or would be recognized. And shot. Ridge reminded himself that she had volunteered to join him, but he hoped that hadn’t simply been because she believed he wasn’t competent enough to handle Therrik on his own. Even if his and Tolemek’s bedroom exploits did suggest that.
Ridge wanted her at his side, though, for this mission and all missions. That plan of hers to pretend she was some controlling witch and suggest that he’d had to escape her hold… he hated it. He wanted to make the world—at least his home city—see her value and accept her. He didn’t want to do anything that might make it harder for her to gain that acceptance later.
“How will I get on base with you?” Sardelle was gazing up at the bluff overlooking the harbor, probably remembering that, to get to the hangar, one had to get through the guarded gates and then take a tram ride to the top.
Ridge wanted to say that he was a colonel and he would walk on base with whomever he liked, thank you very much, but he doubted that would work now that her face adorned wanted posters. His own AWOL status would cast aspersion on him, as well. He couldn’t count on the gate guards to have school-age children who wanted him to visit their classrooms.
“By being creative, I hope,” Ridge said. “As I recall, you once escaped a secured mining facility with a pack of gear and snowshoes, and nobody noticed.”
“Hm. Are you sure Therrik will be up there?”
“There’s an office in the main hangar that the squadron leaders share. I don’t think Therrik will be presumptuous enough to take General Ort’s office down below. But if I’m wrong and he’s not there, the master communication crystal is, as well as a telegraph machine for leaving messages in the hangars on the other bases around the country. I don’t know what the range is on the crystals—”
“Only about fifty miles.”
Ridge nodded. He had expected as much. “All right, that won’t work. I know I can get in touch with the other flier squadrons through the telegraph. And with my squadron, assuming they’ve reported in somewhere.”
“Is that allowed? Or is it just for sharing official orders?”
“It’s for sharing intel. I intend to share intel. Such as telling everybody to get their pimpled young asses home, or I’ll haunt them after I’m dead.”
“Important intel.”
“I think so.”
Sardelle looked worried for him. Well, that was normal these days. He wondered if a semblance of his regular life would ever return. All this skulking around with his career on the line was making him miss th
e simplicity of flying into battle against overwhelming odds.
They turned onto a busy street with the sides lined with vendor stalls, their merchants braving the rain in the hope of making some money from soldiers coming or going on errands. It was another hour until the workday ended, but there were enough riders, drivers, walkers, and bicyclers maneuvering about that the vendors did not converge on Ridge and Sardelle. Good.
“There’s the gate,” Ridge said, glancing to the side. “Do you want me to…”
He stared. Sardelle and her horse had disappeared, though the hoofbeats still rang out beside him. A second later, they too faded from his awareness, making him certain he was riding down the street alone.
Not really, but I did fall back. I’ll need to come in behind you. Jaxi and I will come up with a distraction for the guards.
Will it involve spooked horses? He had heard about the horse chase that had allowed him and Sardelle to finish their passionate moment and couldn’t decide whether he felt guilty or was amused. Both, maybe.
Possibly. Go along with whatever it is, please.
Of course.
Ridge continued down the street on his own. A man with a wagon full of wooden luck dragon carvings waved at him. Since the last luck dragon he had purchased from the vendor had not kept his house from being blown up, Ridge ignored him. He would stick to the charm in his pocket, the well-worn one his father had carved him decades ago.
The front gate was open, but two sturdy guards with rifles stood on either side of it. Unlike Sardelle, Ridge had not bothered to bring a cloak to hide his face. He wore his typical olive flight suit, brown leather jacket and cap, and he had bathed and shaved, so he looked the same as he usually did when he strolled through the gate. The guards’ eyes widened when they saw him coming. He hoped that wasn’t because there was a warrant out for his arrest and they couldn’t believe he was ambling right up to them.
“Colonel Zirkander,” one blurted with a salute.
“Corporal Miller, Private Brax,” Ridge said, reading their names off their jackets and nodding to them. He had seen them at the gate before and might have guessed the names without looking, but he did not know them well. Alas, neither appeared old enough to have school-age children.