Blazer stuck a cigar in her mouth. “Just be glad you boys don’t have to deal with them on missions. There’d be a lot more complaining in the unit.”
“I haven’t noticed a lack of complaining in units full of pilots as it is,” Kaika said.
“They may be dealing with female problems right now,” Leftie again whispered to Duck.
“How would we know?” Duck whispered back. “Major Blazer is always grumpy.”
Blazer cleared her throat. “Let’s get back to the mission. I don’t know how much private time we’ll have here. I was in the wheelhouse all night with Jylea’s pilot. I’m ninety-nine percent certain we’re heading to the spot we meant to head to before we diverted to the research outpost for repairs.” She waved at Rysha. “The spot you and Sardelle chose as the most likely location for the portal.”
And the spot Trip’s hunch had pointed to, Rysha thought, remembering his certainty that night at the Black Stag.
“If that’s the case,” Blazer said, “we know our destination, and we can fly there on our own.”
“And we could get there faster than the airship,” Duck said.
“Yes, or we could get there slower than the airship.”
His brow wrinkled. “Ma’am?”
“You want to let the Cofah get there first and take the brunt of the dragons’ attack?” Rysha said. “While we do our best to sneak in undetected?”
“Oh,” Duck said, nodding in enlightenment.
Rysha frowned. As far as she knew, Kiadarsa was the only person among the researchers who had any power, and she didn’t have a soulblade. None of them had the chapaharii swords. They would be close to defenseless against the dragons.
“I like that plan,” Kaika said. “It’s not like they wanted to join forces with us, anyway. We can just say we decided to go our separate way and take off in the fliers.”
The men nodded their agreement.
Was Rysha the only one who found the plan unpalatable? And as the lowest-ranking person here, did she have the right to say so?
“I have an objection, ma’ams,” Rysha said slowly, looking at both Kaika and Blazer. Even though Blazer was the mission leader, she and Kaika seemed to confer often on tactics. “We would be sacrificing the Cofah, no doubt about it. They don’t have a way to defend themselves.”
“That’s their fault for coming here in the first place without more firepower,” Blazer said.
“What more firepower could they have brought, ma’am? Dreyak said that they’ve only uncovered two chapaharii weapons, and they were needed to defend their homeland.”
“They could have brought one along if they’d known they were sending a team of people into a dragon’s den.”
“Did they know that?” Rysha asked. “Or were they just here to locate the portal? And then perhaps send word back to their people, asking for reinforcements or a team dedicated to destroying it. It’s not like many of them are soldiers. Maybe our presence, our mission, has forced them to accelerate their timeline. Also, if they’re like us, they probably didn’t expect there to be so many dragons down here to deal with. Dragons don’t like cold weather. Why are they lingering here? To guard the portal? We haven’t answered that question.”
“We weren’t sent to answer questions, Lieutenant,” Blazer said firmly. “Nor were we told to worry about Cofah scientists. We’re here to fulfill our mission in whatever manner is most likely to lead to success.”
“But—”
“I’ve noted your objections, but we will make plans to leave, let the Cofah arrive first, and sneak in while the dragons are, we hope, focused on them.”
Before Rysha could decide whether she wanted to be a good subordinate officer and acquiesce, Kaika spoke up.
“When do you want us to be ready, Major?”
The plan didn’t seem to bother her. Or if it did, she knew she had to follow orders, regardless.
Rysha struggled with her desire to model herself after Kaika and to be a dutiful soldier, and her certainty that this wasn’t the morally correct choice to make.
“We’ll wait until nightfall,” Blazer said. “This barge is limping along at a snail’s pace, so there’s no hurry. I estimate it’ll reach the ruins site after midnight. We can wait until a couple of hours before then to break away. That’ll give them less time to figure out what we’re up to, and it’ll also give the dragons less time to react if they notice they’ve got humans coming in on two fronts. Though I’m hoping our little flier team will avoid their notice altogether.”
“Yes, ma’am,” several people said.
Rysha grimaced and said nothing. She wouldn’t do anything to impede the mission, but she couldn’t nod and agree with it, either.
“Ravenwood, Leftie,” Blazer said, stopping Rysha as she’d been about to turn away. “Don’t tell Trip. Not until right before it’s time to leave.”
“Ma’am?” Leftie asked.
Rysha grasped the reason for the order right away, but once again, she did not agree with it.
“We tell him, we’re telling the soulblades. Including the Cofah one.”
“Oh,” Leftie said. “I understand.”
Rysha opened her mouth, but Blazer pointed at her and spoke first.
“Yes, I know they can read minds, and that the Cofah soulblade might figure things out whether we say anything or not. I don’t know how to combat that, but I suggest we all do our best to keep from thinking of the plan.” She nodded to all of them. “Check the fliers for pigeon guts and then take a nap if you can. Tonight could be eventful.”
“Yes, ma’am,” Rysha said. On that last point, she could agree.
• • • • •
As darkness claimed the Antarctic and stars grew visible over the icy fields, Trip stood at the bow of the ship, gazing at the route ahead. For the first time, a mountain stood out on the horizon, its snow-covered silhouette jagged and dark. He remembered Rysha’s mention of islands under the ice down here and suspected this was one such example. He also suspected it was their destination.
He sensed something powerful in that direction. Not dragons, though he wagered they were there, perhaps hiding their auras. This was something else, some powerful artifact.
I sense it too, Jaxi shared. But barely. If it’s the portal, I’m surprised I wasn’t able to sense it from a long ways away. Perhaps the dragons have muffled its aura. I think it’s underground, but I’m struggling to pinpoint where. There may be some iron in that mountain that’s further interfering with my ability to sense it.
Trip nodded. He hadn’t thought of iron, but that seemed like as good an explanation as any. He, too, struggled to get anything more than a vague sense of magical energy.
Actually, my explanations are usually superior to other ones, Jaxi informed him.
Yes, of course. I shouldn’t doubt you.
Precisely.
A soft clang reached his ears, and Trip looked over his shoulder in time to see Rysha pushing her pack and the boxed sword into the back of Duck’s flier. She was the third person who’d gone out to load the fliers when none of the Cofah were watching.
Trip wasn’t supposed to know about the updated plan, but Blazer had been naive if she’d thought she and four other people could keep a secret when Jaxi was around. If not for Jaxi, he wouldn’t have known about the plan, and it stung him that they hadn’t invited him to their meeting, even if he understood why. When he’d woken up from an extremely long nap—exhaustion had forced it upon him after he’d helped Azarwrath heal everyone—Jaxi had filled him in.
Azarwrath hadn’t said anything about it—hadn’t said anything since they had worked together to heal the Cofah—but Trip wagered he knew everything Jaxi knew. The soulblades didn’t seem shy about scraping through people’s surface thoughts to glean information.
Actually, I try not to do that often, Jaxi informed him. There were rules about invading people’s minds in my time. But in my time, people were a lot better about not oozing their thoughts al
l over the place too. Your would-be cuddle buddy thought about the plan every time she walked past me today. I think she wanted me to know.
Oh? Why?
Aside from the fact that it was quite rude of Major Blazer to exclude you from the planning in the first place? She objects to our people using the Cofah as cannon fodder.
Ah. Trip wasn’t surprised. Rysha had a lot of heart and a definite sense of fairness. The Cofah hadn’t endeared themselves to him with their talk of ensuring they received the credit for destroying the portal, so he was more inclined to let them fend for themselves. Further, he worried that Kiadarsa or Jylea would inadvertently say something that would remove all doubt and make his team realize he had dragon blood. He would be glad to get away from the Cofah researchers.
Still, some of them had shown gratitude when he’d healed them. Technically, he hadn’t healed them. He’d merely lent some of his body’s energy to Azarwrath’s efforts, and he’d told them the sword had been responsible, but they hadn’t been belligerent about magic or tried to fight him. Some had gripped his hand and thanked him heartily.
He didn’t particularly want to see them all killed by dragons.
Azarwrath? he asked, wondering if the Cofah soulblade would deign to speak with him again. Azarwrath hadn’t seemed irked with him that morning, nor had Trip gotten the impression that he was holding a grudge, but he didn’t know how promising to find that, especially in light of Blazer’s new plan.
I am here, the soulblade replied neutrally.
It looks like my people are going to part ways with yours. Trip wondered if Blazer intended to leave Dreyak here or invite him to continue along with them. Do you want to stay here with Kiadarsa to help protect them from dragons?
I have been considering this today. While you rested and your people conspired.
Trip wanted to object to the idea that his team had been conspiring, as he knew they were only doing their best to ensure they completed their mission, but he understood why a Cofah soul would feel that way.
I do not blame you for being one of them, Azarwrath said. People have always warred. This is simply how it is. Though it bemuses me that our two peoples are engaged in the same battle as they were fifteen hundred years ago. Will you Iskandians never concede that your nation would be better served by being assimilated into the empire?
I highly doubt it.
The soulblade chuckled into his mind. It was different from Jaxi’s laughs and cackles. It seemed the soft chuckle of an older man, one who rarely threw back his head and laughed uproariously anymore. His voice, too, seemed one of an ancient soul.
Ancient, really, Azarwrath said dryly.
You did just claim to be fifteen hundred years old.
Much of that time was spent in a stasis chamber, locked up with my great great great granddaughter for crimes she committed in an era when the rule was particularly draconian and spitting in the street was considered a crime. She wasn’t the most noble of people, which I always lamented, but she didn’t deserve to be imprisoned for centuries. A twinge of bitterness accompanied the words, but only a twinge.
Trip had the feeling that whatever had happened, Azarwrath had come to terms with it a long time ago.
It is hard to stay bitter for centuries. I was sixty-three when I entered the soulblade. I’d been wounded in battle, a battle where my son was one of the generals leading the armies. The empire, as it seems to like to do again and again, had overextended itself and was attempting to claim Dakrovia as part of its domain, thinking it would be easy to defeat the jungle savages.
But their shamans were powerful, Azarwrath went on. Dragons originated on that continent, and mated frequently with the humans there. Even their mundane people knew every square inch of those jungles. Our armies, as well-trained and technologically superior as we were, never had a chance. One night, there was an ambush. My son was captured and dragged away, and I was grievously wounded. A gut wound. My people found me, and there wasn’t a healer along powerful enough to help me, but there was time for me to make a decision, to decide whether to accept my death or to pour my soul into a blade that had been prepared by our sorcerers.
I had never longed for eternity and hadn’t considered the soulblade ceremony before, but I was worried about my son. I didn’t want to leave this world when his fate was in enemy hands, when he might have been suffering through torture even as I lay dying. So, I entered the blade and helped my people recover him. And then he became my handler. We fought many battles together in the years that followed, until his own death came. When I’d made my quick decision that night years before, I hadn’t considered that it would mean outliving, in a manner of speaking, my own son. But I was passed on to my grandson, and then to his daughter and so on.
Trip stirred. Was the pirate king’s… mate the great great great granddaughter you spoke of?
She was.
Trip did not know what to say. He was more surprised than ever that Azarwrath was talking to him and had let him pick him up that night.
I did debate for a long time over that, Azarwrath said. Not over initially being picked up, as I didn’t want the tide to come in and for me to rust.
I knew it, Jaxi inserted, proving that she was listening to the story too.
Ignoring her, Azarwrath continued. I considered forcing you to leave me on that island, though I wasn’t amused by the possibility that the dragon might find me and stick me into some hoard of treasure he planned to collect. As powerful as a soulblade is, we are not powerful enough to fight a dragon, not alone.
Do you… Trip paused, not certain he should ask his question in case Azarwrath hadn’t considered it, but the soulblade must have considered it. Right away that first night. Do you have any plans to avenge yourself on Rysha for defeating your descendant in battle?
It would be somewhat fitting if I wanted to kill her since her sword wants to kill us, but no. It was a fair fight, and my descendant, as you put it, and I weren’t always in agreement. In my time, women did not become warriors or battle mages. They did not foolishly risk their lives. So, we disagreed on that aspect, but not only that. She reveled in the pirate life and being Neaminor’s lover. He’d rescued her from stasis, if you didn’t know. After finding her story in a book of legendary criminals and falling in love across time, he went looking for her, for at the end of her story, it explained how she’d been put into stasis at a dragon-rider outpost, to be tried later. But then, when the outpost was overrun, she was forgotten. Forgotten for over a thousand years. He found her and figured out how to free her, and she couldn’t help but fall in love with him. For the next twenty years, they lived together as pirates.
Invading Iskandia and killing people and stealing. Trip knew he shouldn’t harp on that to someone who had been related to the woman, but he wanted to make sure the soulblade understood why Rysha had done what she had done. And why he had helped.
Yes, I understand.
Azarwrath fell silent, and Trip realized he hadn’t answered the original question.
A freezing wind gusted across the ice field and battered the airship’s envelope. Maybe it was his imagination, but it seemed to come from that mountain.
Kiadarsa, Azarwrath? Trip prompted. Do you want to stay and help them?
A part of me does want to help them. Even if they are little like my comrades of fifteen hundred years ago, they are Cofah. But Kiadarsa… She would not even have been considered a sorceress in my day. Her powers are very limited, and, as you saw, she is easily influenced. Your aura drew her, most certainly, and you don’t even exude it the way you should. It’s as if you’ve spent your life crumpling yourself into a tiny ball and trying not to be noticed by anyone.
Uhm. Trip could hardly deny that, since it was true, at least when it came to magic. He did want to be noticed for his piloting skills, but the rest… If you can read my thoughts, you know what happened to my mother.
Yes, the world is a strange place these days. Sorcerers were always feared by mundane
humans, rightfully so, but they were respected, as well, and in my time, people wouldn’t have dared hang someone for suspected dragon blood.
It didn’t make Trip feel better to know his mother would have been left alone to pursue her passions if she’d only lived during another era.
As to Kiadarsa, Azarwrath went on, it is perhaps petty, but I could not see myself bonded with such a weak soul. If you wish to bed her, she would be yours, even though she doesn’t trust you. If a dragon turned into a human and crooked a finger toward her, she would drop to her knees to please him in any way he wished. His tone turned dry. I believe that happened recently.
According to her story, yes.
Her story? Did you not see that it was true? All you have to do is look into a person’s mind to see if they are telling the truth.
A convenient talent.
That you have. There was that chuckle again. Most sorcerers have to spend years learning to master arts that come easily to you when you simply try. While a modicum of modesty and humbleness are admirable traits in a sorcerer, it is more than time for you to realize your talents and to take credit for what you can do, what you have done.
Trip, uncomfortable with the suggestion that he might easily read people’s minds, did not respond. Having such a power, aside from moral considerations, would only make his comrades more uncomfortable around him. If they allowed him to stay near them at all. Sorcerers, he suspected, did not fly as officers in Wolf Squadron. They were probably supposed to stay in dark mountain caves until they were needed to help defend their homeland.
Sardelle lives in a house on the outskirts of the city with Ridge, Jaxi said dryly. It’s private, but definitely not a cave. She makes cookies with Ridge’s mother and trains students in the ways of magic. I’m sure she would be more than willing to train you, as much as she’s able. In between your Wolf Squadron missions.
Trip hesitated. Do you truly think I’d be allowed to keep flying? Would the other officers accept a sorcerer in their midst? I’ve seen so much hatred and fear toward those even suspected of having magic.