As he rummaged more deeply in the bag, Ridge asked, “The incursion?” and looked around the table to see if everyone else already knew.
Only Therrik appeared as unenlightened as Ridge felt.
“Yes,” Tolemek said, pulling out a ceramic spray bottle protected by a metal frame. “We’ll need to get close to the dragon blood to destroy it.”
Ridge stared at this decidedly unmilitary and un-dangerous-looking “weapon.”
“I’ve been running tests, and I’ve managed to find something that kills even dragon blood. I embedded it in an acidic compound that can eat through glass or metal, using the assumption that they’ve got the blood in containers. If you encounter ceramic containers, you’ll have to break them, then spray the blood. My peo—the Cofah don’t have an equivalent to your power crystals, at least not the last I knew. Destroy the blood, and you should destroy their ability to launch fliers. That floating castle should fall out of the sky. You’ll still have to deal with the dirigibles, but I trust you can handle that, Zirkander.”
Therrik’s nose wrinkled as he reached for the spray bottle. “That looks like something for cleaning the outhouse, not destroying an enemy stronghold.”
Tolemek swatted his hand away and moved the bottle out of reach.
Therrik curled his lip and looked down at his hand, as if he couldn’t believe Tolemek had presumed to do that.
“Unless you’re going on the incursion team, then there’s no need for you to touch that,” Tolemek informed him.
Therrik curled his fingers into a fist and glanced at the king. Looking for permission to launch a punch? Angulus shook his head. Tolemek did not appear worried, perhaps because Ahn was standing at his side with her big gun. Or maybe he had already discussed this with the king and gotten approval. Angulus was wearing his hard-to-read face.
“Am I on the incursion team?” Ridge asked.
“We thought we’d let you drive the incursion team,” Tolemek said.
Therrik smirked. Ridge resisted the urge to make a comment about being the flying rickshaw driver again, especially since the king was nodding. He and the others must have been planning this on the trip to town.
“The incursion team will infiltrate the fortress and destroy it from within,” Angulus said. “Our pilots will take them there and pick them up.”
“Pick them up? If the fortress falls out of the sky as soon as the dragon blood is destroyed…” Ridge grimaced, horror dawning over him as he stared at the spray bottle. “That’s going to be a one-way trip for someone, isn’t it?” Ridge glanced toward the big metal storage lockers in the back of the hangar. They had some prototype parachutes in there, but Tiger Squadron had lost a man during the trials the summer before. The things weren’t reliable yet, and only a handful of pilots had even jumped with them.
“Not necessarily,” Tolemek said. “I won’t go so far as to say this is a slow-acting compound, but it will take time to eat through the container and break down the dragon blood.”
“How much time?”
Tolemek spread one hand. “Impossible to say since I haven’t seen the container, but maybe five minutes.”
Ridge took a deep breath. Five minutes wouldn’t be a lot of time to escape the bowels of that fortress, especially if Cofah were shooting at the team every step of the way, but maybe this wouldn’t be a guaranteed death. He and his squadron could provide cover fire, help them get out.
“Who’s on the team?” Ridge asked, glancing toward the lavatory in the back of the hangar. He hated the idea of volunteering Sardelle to go in somewhere, especially if he wasn’t invited, but she was their greatest asset. And as dangerous as this sounded, it would be even more dangerous for the team if they didn’t have her there.
Therrik lifted his chin and looked expectantly at the king.
Ridge’s stomach sank. He didn’t want to send Sardelle along if that loon was leading. Just because Therrik had let Ridge out of jail didn’t mean Ridge had developed a fondness for his leadership style. Or any other style of his.
“Captain Kaika,” Angulus said, “Tolemek, and Sardelle, if she’ll go.” He looked at Ridge.
“What?” Therrik demanded.
“Whether it makes sense or not—” Angulus paused to clench his jaw, “—you’re in command of the flier battalion right now, Colonel Therrik. You’ll stay here.”
“But, Sire, you can’t be serious about sending two witches along. They’re not soldiers. They’re not even Iskandian subjects.”
“Zirkander,” Angulus said, ignoring Therrik’s meltdown, “you’ll take Duck and Ahn to fly the team up and drop them off, using whatever camouflage you can to make sure they’re not noticed.”
Tolemek tapped one of his smoke grenades. “I can supply some of that camouflage for the pilots.”
Ridge met his eyes, wondering why he had volunteered for this suicidal mission. Tolemek couldn’t have read his mind, but when he looked away from Ridge, it was to look toward Ahn, and Ridge had his answer. Tolemek might not have risked his life to protect Iskandia, but he would do it to help ensure Ahn made it back from this battle.
Ridge hoped Ahn could appreciate that. Her face was a mask, but the haunted look in her eyes that he had seen earlier hadn’t faded at all. He did not know if they’d had a chance to talk before leaving his mother’s house, or even if Ahn had been in the right state of mind to listen to Tolemek, but he hoped sending her up in the air like this wasn’t a mistake. He knew from past experience how reckless feelings of loss could make a person. Unfortunately, he had to order Ahn up there, no matter what her state of mind. They didn’t have enough pilots to spare anybody.
“Every other flier we can muster will be in the air too,” Angulus said, then grimaced as one of the old museum models wobbled through the back door on squeaking wheels. That one might need more attention from the maintenance team before it was ready. “Therrik, go clean out the barracks. Find enough pilots to get all of these old machines in the air. We need everything up there. The fliers will harry the Cofah, try to shoot any commanders that are visible, and do their best to keep that armada out over the sea and from coming in to bomb the city.”
Ridge noticed Sardelle finally leaving the lavatory and walking toward them. She had been in there a while; he hoped there wasn’t a problem. Especially since the king wanted her to go on a mission. Without him. He smiled at her as she approached, hoping his expression was not too bleak. He knew Kaika could handle a lot of enemies, and Tolemek had his bag of torments, and Jaxi was Jaxi, but… he still wished he could go along. If Therrik wasn’t such an unstable ass when the subject of magic came up, Ridge might have argued for him to go along and act as her bodyguard, but the man would probably kiss Ridge before considering Sardelle a human being. He was glowering at her now as she walked closer.
Sardelle wore a distracted look and didn’t acknowledge Ridge’s smile. She didn’t seem to notice that the king, as well as the rest of the team, was staring in her direction, either. She looked toward the hangar door a few seconds before a corporal ran in.
“Sirs! My liege!” the man blurted, almost tripping over his own boots in his hurry to reach them. “Another Cofah dirigible showed up.”
“What’s one more dirigible matter?” Ridge asked, lifting a hand and inviting Sardelle to join them. She’d finally met his eyes, but hers were grave. Either something unpleasant had happened in that lavatory, or she already knew what the corporal was about to tell them.
“Yeah,” Duck said, “the odds were already impossible.” He flicked a dismissive finger toward Tolemek’s spray bottle.
“It delivered someone,” the corporal said. “I thought maybe it was their commander, and that’s why they had been waiting.”
“It was a sorceress,” Sardelle said. “With a soulblade.”
Ridge gaped at her. “Like you?”
If he had thought about it, he would have reasoned that other soulblades had survived, even if powerful sorcerers were rarities in this era, bu
t since he had only seen Jaxi, he had started to think of her as a unique construction. He certainly thought of Sardelle as unique. They had encountered other magic users since he had met her, but she had usually called them shamans. He frowned, realizing he didn’t quite know what the difference was. The shamans were from less sophisticated civilizations, was that it?
Yes and no, Sardelle spoke into his mind. It refers to a master-apprentice tradition for teaching magic, with the education usually relayed in an oral manner. That does happen to be the style of teaching with most cultures in less developed civilizations. Sorcerer usually refers to someone who went to a formal school and studied history and other academic topics along with receiving a formal training in magic. The Cofah and Iskandians magic-users have primarily received that label.
So, we’re dealing with a Cofah sorceress.
Yes.
“Sardelle?” Tolemek frowned at her.
Ridge had more questions, but he held his mental tongue. People were probably wondering why she hadn’t appeared to answer his last question.
“Like me,” Sardelle said, “except… more powerful, I think.”
Angulus sighed. “I didn’t want to hear that.”
“How can that be?” Tolemek pushed some of his ropes of hair away from his face. “We—the Cofah—had a period very much like the genocide in your time. There aren’t trained sorcerers left.”
Angulus winced at the word genocide.
“Sorcerers were hunted down and either chased out of the empire or destroyed by sheer numbers,” Tolemek explained. “A few insiders helped with the betrayal, then were betrayed themselves. History says it wasn’t a very happy time period.”
“No, I imagine not,” Sardelle murmured.
“So, where did they get this one?”
“There must have been some survivors over there, right?” Duck prodded Tolemek in the arm. “You’re here.”
“Only because nobody in my family ever showed off any of their odd talents. And I’m not anywhere near as powerful as Sardelle.”
“Your sister might be,” Sardelle said. “If she ever comes back, we can test her and find out. But… I’m not sure about this person. I won’t be until I get closer. Which might not be healthy for me.” Her lips flattened.
Maybe it was Ridge’s imagination, but he thought he sensed fear, or at least hearty concern, from her. She must have faced Cofah sorcerers back in her day, but she wouldn’t have been the only Iskandian sorceress then.
“Because she’s more powerful than you?” Duck scratched his head. “How can you tell from so far away? How can you even tell there’s a sorceress?”
“She has a powerful aura.”
Therrik made a disgusted noise and stalked away from the table.
“This changes nothing,” Angulus said. “We were in a desperate situation before, and we still are. We need to get this mission off the ground before the Cofah are ready to attack.”
“Too late,” Sardelle whispered, gazing out the hangar door.
• • • • •
Sardelle stood uselessly in the center of the hangar while pilots and crew members raced all about her. Well, not entirely uselessly since she was discussing their new enemy with Jaxi, but she worried someone else would think her in an unhelpful stupor.
I’m positive, Jaxi said. She’s not from this time any more than we are.
You’re judging this based on her clothing?
She’s wearing ancient dragon-rider armor and a red cape. Who wears capes anymore?
Someone trying to scare us, perhaps? Sardelle suggested.
Can’t you sense her power? I don’t think her blood is as diluted as everyone else’s we’ve seen in this century. And the soulblade… I can feel him from here.
Sardelle could sense the power, and it worried her. Has it—he—spoken to you?
Not yet. But they probably know we’re here. Sardelle, that dragon stasis technology has existed for a long time, as evinced by our discovery of Phelistoth.
“Someone get some rope, so we can drop off and pick up our passengers,” Ridge called across the busy hangar. “Tolemek, you better divvy up that explosive booty between all three fliers and all three people.”
A throat cleared behind Sardelle. She turned and found herself face-to-face with King Angulus.
“Sire,” she said carefully, having no idea where she stood with him now that Kaika had shared the bad news. She hadn’t had much of an idea where she stood with him before that, either.
“I think Zirkander forgot to ask you if you would be willing to go with the incursion team.” Angulus tilted his head toward Tolemek and Kaika, who were sorting explosives on the table. “Or he assumed you would go for… reasons I’m not sure I understand, especially since the odds are not in our favor today.”
“Well.” Sardelle almost said I love him as her reason for going, but doubted the king would be impressed by that. He would probably think her some moon-eyed teenager willing to risk dying just for a boy. “He knows me,” she said instead. “Before I came to be… here, I worked alongside our army—the Iskandian army—to keep the Cofah out of our country. Granted, I’m more of a healer than a combat sorceress, but I have a few tricks. And my sword has an incendiary streak.”
Would it be inappropriate to demonstrate by lighting one of his buttons on fire?
Yes, it would.
I thought so, but the notion tickled me so that I had to make sure.
“A soulblade,” the king said, looking down at her scabbard. Had he done some research? Did he know what that meant?
“Yes.”
“It’s sentient?”
“She is, yes. Jaxi.”
“She.”
Ridge ran past, carrying a bag of explosives, and Angulus stirred. Sardelle thought he would return to the table or perhaps let the bodyguards who had found him take him to the castle or some other compound from which to observe the battle. Instead, he met her eyes and offered her his hand.
“Ms. Terushan,” he said gravely, “if you go up there with them and by some miracle of the seven gods find a way to keep the Cofah from leveling the city, you’ll always have a place here in Pinoth. Down the hall from me in the castle if that’s what it takes to keep people from bothering you.” A tic in his cheek was the only indication that he might be thinking of the queen’s death—and what she had been doing when she had been alive.
That sounds much nicer than Ridge’s cabin, Jaxi said. The castle even has that fancy indoor plumbing.
Sardelle would gladly accept the king’s protection, but she would prefer to stay with Ridge, wherever that might end up being.
Don’t tell me you would miss the cat soaps.
Maybe we can get his mom to make some shaped like swords for you.
“Thank you, Sire,” Sardelle said, realizing he was waiting for an answer. She accepted his handclasp. “I would certainly like to be able to live in the city without anyone trying to blow me up.” She wondered if he had heard about the archives building.
Alarms continued to wail outside, and the earth shuddered slightly as an artillery gun fired from the nearby tower. Angulus nodded to her, released her hand, and turned toward the door. He paused to let Tolemek run past, a smaller but still bulging bag thrown over his shoulder. Kaika followed, carrying a bulging bag of her own. She could barely see over it. A big, double-barreled rifle hung across her back and four pistols were jammed into her belt.
“Did you pack enough explosives, Captain?” Angulus asked.
Kaika winked at him, then jerked her chin toward Tolemek’s back. “Can’t let his bag be bigger than mine, Sire.”
“Good luck,” he said softly as she continued past.
“Sardelle,” Ridge called from his cockpit. “Are you ready?”
“Yes, coming.”
Tolemek and Kaika were already climbing into the backs of Cas’s and Duck’s fliers. All of the pilots had boarded and were starting their propellers. In addition to those carrying the smal
l incursion team, twelve craft were lined up, ready to harry the enemy. Sardelle hoped Tolemek’s plan worked, because without it, all the brilliant flying in the world wasn’t going to keep them alive against the force out there.
I’m more worried about the sorceress and her blade, Jaxi said as Sardelle pulled herself into the seat behind Ridge.
As usual, his flier was at the head of the formation. When she sat down, she had to share her foot space with a bag that had already been strapped in. More of Tolemek’s explosives, she presumed. There was also a coil of rope tied to an eyelet. Her stomach fluttered as she anticipated carrying that bag and sliding down into the waiting arms of the enemy—and their sorceress.
She hasn’t communicated with me yet, she responded to Jaxi. For which Sardelle was glad. She’d rarely had encouraging conversations when talking to enemy magic users. That first shaman she had met in this time period had offered to breed with her to make powerful babies. She still shuddered at the thought.
I’m guessing this woman won’t make you that offer. After a second, Jaxi added, She might make it to Ridge. To make powerful pilot babies.
Thanks. That’s exactly what I want to think about now.
Oblivious to her thoughts, Ridge turned around and thrust something toward her. His wooden dragon figurine.
“For luck?” His eyes crinkled behind his goggles.
She always felt silly doing so, but she rubbed the thing’s head. He looked pleased as he returned it to his pocket and ordered Wolf Squadron to roll out. Apparently, even those pilots who came from other squadrons had been recruited into his. Even the one flying the craft with the nude women dancing on the hull. Nobody objected.
A pilot with dragon blood could be an impressive sight, Jaxi said. Imagine if Ridge could fling fireballs while chasing down enemies. And just imagine the ability to sense enemies all around you.
He seems to have a knack for that already.