“What is this place?” she grumbled.
“Access ducts to all of the propellers on this end of the platform and to the holding tanks for the hydrogen for the balloons.” His voice was hollow, echoing oddly from several feet above. He was definitely standing up.
Cas patted overhead, finding the outline of the hole, then maneuvered into a standing position too. She was facing Tolemek, squeezed close by the narrowness of the walls, her smock brushing his chest. Feeling overly intimate in the position, she shifted her hip toward him, though that involved some bumping of body parts too. She was glad he hadn’t made those innuendo-filled comments about the gun earlier.
“Is this our final destination?” she asked. “Maybe I’ll just sit.” Except then her butt would be in that squishy algae. Ugh, didn’t pirates clean their maintenance ducts?
“Your choice. And, yes, I think this is a good place to stay until it’s time to meet the captain.”
Cas didn’t sit. She sighed and leaned her shoulder against the wall, something that didn’t keep her other shoulder from touching his chest. Oh, well. So long as he didn’t prong her with those spiked wrist guards of his, she could survive the closeness. Besides, as far as chests went, it wasn’t a bad one to be pressed up against, as long as she didn’t think overmuch about his past.
“My apologies,” Tolemek said. “This spot looked bigger on the blueprint.”
“A closet would have worked if all you wanted was to get me alone in the dark.”
He snorted softly. “Oh? Would you have agreed to spend time in a dark closet with me?”
“If it was between all of those gun-slinging pirates and you, yes.”
He seemed to consider that—or perhaps something else—a moment before saying, “What if it was between me and some handsome Iskandian lad?”
“I don’t know,” Cas said, caught off-guard by the question. “Does he wash his hair?”
Tolemek chuckled softly but didn’t otherwise respond, willing to let the topic drop, it seemed. That was good. He would be a wholly inappropriate choice when it came to romantic dalliances. To sleep with him, or do anything with him, wouldn’t just be a betrayal to herself. It would be a betrayal to her people, to all those who had died horribly at Tanglewood, and to countless others who had been killed, raped, plundered, and gods knew what else at the hands of these pirates.
Still, she found herself asking, “When did that... become a concern for you?”
She wanted to know if he was genuinely interested in something physical—which would mean she should be on guard more than ever around him—or if he was simply making jokes to pass the time. They were going to be stuck in here for hours, after all.
“Sometime between you helping me escape,” Tolemek said, “and me getting the story from the young man in my cabin, who was apparently quivering and holding a flask of Fen Tree Oil above his head, while wearing his trousers around his ankles.” There was a fondness in his voice that should have made her wary, but she found herself smiling in the darkness. Not all men appreciated her... determined approach to dealing with problems.
Tolemek shifted his weight to lean his own shoulder against the wall and ended up behind her back. He was probably just searching for a more comfortable position. It wasn’t as if there was room in the shaft for any physical activities even if he had such in mind. Cas leaned forward, but that resulted in her forehead pressing against the algae-covered wall. Grimacing, she drew back, wriggling an arm up to wipe away the moistness. She tried to find a comfortable position that didn’t involve touching, but it didn’t work. Sighing, and telling herself it didn’t mean anything, she finally let her back lean against his chest. For a moment, he didn’t move, almost as if she had caught him by surprise, but then he slipped his arm loosely around her torso and rested his chin against the top of her head.
She waited very stilly, afraid she had inadvertently given him some invitation. Her heart beat faster as she wondered if he would presume to do more—and what would she do if he did?—but he didn’t. She could feel the rise and fall of his chest against her back. He seemed relaxed. Contented?
Cas licked her lips. “Is Fen Tree Oil dangerous, by chance?”
“No, medicinal. It’s one of the ingredients in my salve.”
Cas touched her cheek, the effects of that salve vivid in her memory. It hadn’t yet been a full day since he had applied it, but all of the swelling had gone down, and she had to press on the spots she had been struck to find a hint of lingering soreness. “Your army was foolish for not buying that from you. I’m amazed how much better I feel today, despite having just spent the afternoon dodging bullets and shrapnel.”
“Could be the healing power of being wrapped in my arms.”
“Please. Your awful bracers are an inch from eviscerating me.” They weren’t, but she was pleased that her response elicited another chuckle from him. He had a pleasant laugh.
For a murderer, she reminded herself and swallowed. Even if she could somehow forgive him for his choices, his history, there was still the matter of Colonel Zirkander and the fact that he wanted to use her to get to him.
“So,” Cas said, “where to after we meet with your captain?”
“Iskandia.”
“To drop me off and then leave without hurting anyone? Especially squadron leaders of mine?”
Tolemek lifted his head from hers and sighed, his breath stirring her hair. His arm fell away from her, leaving a cold chill behind.
“I thought so.” Cas didn’t pull away from him—as if there was somewhere to pull to—but she did fold her arms over her chest and glower at the wall. It was what she had expected, but for some reason she had thought... what? That if he was developing some feelings for her, he might abandon his pirate ways? Sure, Cas. Sure.
“Did you see the ship that was destroyed?” Tolemek asked. “The one that seemed to be either the secondary or primary target for your squadron?”
“I saw it.”
“Did it have any significance to you?”
“No...” Cas wondered if he was deliberately trying to change the subject so she would forget about his ulterior motives or if he truly wanted to discuss this. “I didn’t see the name before they pounded it full of explosives. I might have seen it before, but pirate ships all look the same after a while. You’d be amazed at how many of them think it’s charming to paint the hull black.”
“It was the Burning Dragon, commanded by Captain Stone Heart.”
Cas wondered why he was volunteering the information. As they had just established, they weren’t exactly on the same side, cozy moments in dark ducts notwithstanding. “I’ve heard of it, but I don’t know why it would be targeted above all the others, if that’s what you’re asking.”
“It’s not. I already know.”
Cas waited curiously. It had been almost three weeks since her flier had gone down and she’d been captured. That was an eternity in war time, and a lot could happen. She longed for information on what her squadron was up to, even if she couldn’t be there with them and a part of the action.
“Oh?” she prompted when Tolemek didn’t go on. Surely he wouldn’t have brought it up if he didn’t mean to explain it to her.
“I would like to trade this information to you, in exchange for you answering a few questions of mine.”
Cas stiffened. And just what questions might those be? “I’m vaguely curious about what the squadron is up to, but I’m not betraying any of my people, and certainly not my commander, for the information.”
“I know. What I would like to ask should not be a betrayal. I simply wish to know where you stand on some matters, so as to decide if there is a way we can work together instead of in opposition to each other.”
Cas chewed on that a little, trying to decide if he meant to try and trick her into cooperating or at least leaking sensitive information, or if he genuinely might want to figure out a way to go ahead as... something other than enemies. And if there was some of the
latter in his words, was that what she wanted? If nothing else, should she not try to lure him into some trap, even as he and his captain tried to use her to lay one for Zirkander? She had to be careful thinking like that though. He might not stroll around with books clutched to his chest and quotations of mathematical formulas on his lips, but the very existence of all of his potions and inventions suggested he was a very smart pirate.
“Go on,” she finally said.
“Was that an agreement to answer some questions for me?”
“You give me your information, and I’ll consider answering some questions.”
“Consider, huh?”
“That’s more than you were getting before.”
His soft grunt wasn’t quite a laugh, not like the chuckles from before, but he sounded more amused than irritated. Good.
“All right,” Tolemek said. “I don’t know whether he was back on the ship when your people attacked, but Stone Heart had brought an interesting passenger with him to the station. He showed up to talk at a meeting of all the captains currently docked here. He is—or was—a Cofah soldier who was part of an attack on a secret mining installation in the mountains of your homeland. According to him, it’s where your flier power crystals come from.”
He paused, and Cas expected a question. Such as did she know anything about this? The answer was no—her flier had simply come with a crystal installed in the engine. She knew their origins were a secret of the kingdom, and she had never asked about them. What did she care, so long as the power crystals worked reliably and got her into the air?
“It seems your Colonel Zirkander was there, in charge of this secret installation,” Tolemek said.
That made Cas pull her head back in surprise. That’s where the higher ups had sent him? A mine in the mountains? Why?
“It seems there was also some witch or sorceress with a soulblade there working with him,” he said.
“Uh, what?”
“That’s what the Cofah corporal said.”
“Maybe the Cofah corporal got walloped hard on the side of the head while he was serving.”
“He said he saw the battle with his own eyes and that the sorceress was the only reason they were defeated, because they had a mercenary shaman of their own.”
Cas shook her head all through his explanations. “There’s no way my military, my government, or anyone on my continent would have anything to do with a witch. Sorcerer. Whatever.” She had no idea what the difference was; hells, she hadn’t even thought they existed anymore. She’d always thought accusing people of witchcraft was something the superstitious hill folk did to get rid of annoying in-laws and neighbors. It certainly never seemed to happen in the big city, where she had grown up. At least not that she had heard about. “I don’t know how it is in Cofahre or on floating pirate outposts, but people get drowned over accusations of witchcraft in Iskandia.”
His voice grew noticeably grim when he said, “Cofah traditions are not dissimilar.”
“Even if someone in my country did have some sort of power, if she was even vaguely smart, she would hide it. She wouldn’t be out in the middle of some fortress, throwing magic around with a—what did you call it?”
“Soulblade.”
“A magic sword?”
“Essentially. But it’s more than a simple tool. These ancient swords contain the souls of powerful sorcerers who once walked the world as mortals but then, when learning that disease or old age was creeping up on them, undertook a special ceremony to transfer their essences—all they knew and all they were aside from their physical bodies—into a sword. The weapon could then be handed to another sorcerer, often some youth coming up through the Referatu training system. They would be bonded somehow, and the sword would become a mentor and an ally. The swords themselves possessed some of the power that the owner had wielded during life, so a sorcerer with a bonded soulblade could be extremely powerful, more so than one sorcerer alone.”
“This all sounds like goat droppings,” Cas said. She couldn’t believe he knew so much about it. Surely he didn’t believe any of this? “This soldier told you all this? How could you know he was telling the truth? It sounds like a fanciful tale to me.”
“He told us of the battle and of seeing the sword-wielding woman defeat their shaman and use the blade to deflect bullets and magical attacks. Based on his description, I deduced that he had seen a soulblade. And a powerful sorceress.”
So all that knowledge about souls and dead sorcerers was Tolemek’s from some past research? Cas remembered his words in the ruins beneath the prison, that he had sought some ancient magic to help... it had been a little sister, hadn’t it? Or had that been some lie meant to win her over to his side? Maybe he had spent time researching these swords because he wanted one.
“So, would a normal non-witchy person gain anything from wielding one of these swords?” she asked, wondering what he had truly sought down in those ruins.
Tolemek shifted his weight behind her. “Hm, possibly? From my research, I got the impression that it was unlikely a soulblade would deign to be handled by someone who didn’t have dragon blood. They’re supposed to be sentient still, and they might harm you to keep you from even picking them up.”
“Huh,” Cas said. It was about all she could think of to say. All of this sounded like fantasy to her. “I still think your Cofah soldier might have been hit on the head, or that he was telling your captains a tale he thought might get him accepted into the outfit. If he truly saw those mines...” Cas shut her mouth. She didn’t want to speculate about top-secret mines with him. She didn’t know where they were, so she was certain he shouldn’t know where they were either.
“Any chance your Colonel Zirkander is being controlled by this sorceress?”
“Please, the king can’t even control him. Or the commandant. Or anyone in his chain of command.”
“Yes, but they’re not pretty women, presumably.”
“He’s not the type to—” Well, Zirkander liked pretty women just fine, and she had seen him go home with some of the ones from the taverns before, but, no, he wouldn’t let one sway him like that. “He wouldn’t let a woman control him, and certainly not some witch. It’s true he’s a little on the superstitious side, but not hugely so. He wouldn’t let that blind him or scare him.” She decided not to mention that dragon carving he flew with. “He certainly wouldn’t get into bed with a woman who had ulterior motives.” Much like Cas wouldn’t get into bed with a pirate who had ulterior motives. “He’s got a lot of flatterers. He’s good at sussing that stuff out.”
“You seem to know a lot about him, outside of his professional persona.” Tolemek’s voice was neutral, carefully so, she thought. Was he suggesting something untoward?
She scowled over her shoulder, though he probably couldn’t see it in the dark. She couldn’t see much of him except for a vague darkness against the wall. “We all know a lot about each other. We spend all day together then go out at night because...” She shrugged. “It’s like a family. A family where everyone has something in common and understands what the others are going through. Sometimes the men who are married don’t even get that kind of understanding at home.”
“I see. Well, I wasn’t suggesting that Zirkander was in this woman’s bed necessarily, but that she might be controlling him, possibly without his even knowing it. Most of the sorcerers of old were telepaths. Some specialized in beast control, and some of the ones who went rogue, who made everyone hate and fear sorcerers and want to get rid of them, could control people.”
“I still think that if someone showed up at his fortress with a glowing sword, the colonel would figure out something fishy was going on pretty quick. I don’t think your Cofah was a reliable witness, and I refuse to believe anything about magic until I see it for myself.”
“Hm. Do you know why Zirkander was sent to that fortress to start with? A ground-based fortress high in the mountains? Seems a strange place to send a pilot.”
Pun
ishment, Cas thought with a guilty twinge. Because of that incident with the diplomat. Because of her. “He didn’t tell us.”
“Top-secret government movements, eh?” Something about Tolemek’s voice said he knew she hadn’t told the whole truth there. Too bad. She’d told him she would consider answering his questions; that was it.
“I guess. Lieutenants don’t get included in many meetings.”
“That much I believe.” He grunted, as if at some memory of his own.
“Are we done with the question and answer session yet?”
“I’ve answered far more questions of yours than you have of mine.”
“Yes, but you’ve given me fluffy fairy-tale answers about magic swords and sorceresses, neither of which has been seen in Iskandia for hundreds of years.”
“Three hundred,” Tolemek murmured.
Cas didn’t ask him for clarification. She didn’t want to admit that he might know more about her continent’s history than she did. That subject hadn’t been a passion of hers in school.
“One more question,” he said. “Zirkander.”
She tensed, not wanting to say anything more about him, fearing the little she’d said already constituted disloyalty.
“From what you’ve said so far, I’m gathering he’s not an ass to work for,” Tolemek said. “Is there any scenario in which you would...”
“Betray him? No.”
“Help me get to him to ask him some questions,” he said.
“Questions. Right. That’s what you and your captain have wanted all along. To use me to get to him to question him.”
“It’s true that I originally saw you as a way to get to him to kill him, something that would... if not win me a spot in Cofah society again, at least make them think a little more kindly toward me. And it’s true that Goroth wants him dead. With the vengeful fire of a thousand suns. But I... I don’t know, Ahn. Or can I call you Caslin, now that I know your name?”