“This was left in the room?”
“Behind the stasis chambers.”
Kaika’s lips twisted into an expression of skepticism.
Having voiced similar skepticism, Rysha understood perfectly. “It could be a trap. Or, at the least, misdirection. But it’s our only lead.”
“It’s also somewhere I wanted to visit, regardless,” Trip said. “I believe this may be the address of the woman responsible for Dreyak’s death. I want to go find her tonight and question her. Also, if someone brought her the stasis chamber, it will be easy for me to sense it when I’m in the same building—or barge—as it is. Is it all right for me to go, ma’am?”
Kaika quirked a single eyebrow. “You’re asking me for permission?”
“You’re the highest-ranking officer here, and Blazer left you in charge.”
“I’m aware of that. I just thought you’d forgotten it.”
Trip’s cheeks grew a touch red. “No, ma’am. I didn’t—don’t—want to disobey orders. I just want to do the right thing. For Dreyak and Cofahre and for Iskandia. I don’t want the fact that we gave Dreyak a ride over here and were the last ones to see him alive to turn into an international incident when Prince Varlok learns he’s dead.”
“Yes, yes, I’ve heard your reasons for assigning yourself this mission, Sidetrip.”
“And it’s more than that now. I have to get the stasis chamber back before I can leave.”
Kaika grimaced. “You’ve got a bunch of other ones that need to be taken back to Iskandia as soon as possible.”
“I can’t abandon one.”
Rysha’s gut twisted as she thought of the innocent baby girl. “The one the thief got was one of the human babies, ma’am.” Maybe that would make a difference to her.
“Half human,” Kaika grumbled.
Trip spread a hand, his face growing bleak. He was half human, after all.
“Yes,” Kaika told him, “you may go off tonight and look for your little sibling and find Dreyak’s murderer if you can. But you need to accomplish your goals quickly. We can’t allow ourselves to get bogged down here for weeks. Our people need us back home. There’s a dragon threat, in case you’ve forgotten. Besides, Blazer ordered us to get those stasis chambers off this dusty brown continent as soon as possible. It’s better to take the ones we have than to risk losing more. Once I can arrange passage, we all need to be on the boat heading home. If that baby box is still missing, or if our superiors deem Dreyak’s death as important as you seem to think it is, maybe they’ll give you permission to come back with a team of pilots, but that’s not my decision to make. And it’s not yours. If you’re not with us on the boat, you’ll be looking into that butler’s gig whenever you finally do get back to Iskandia.” Kaika spoke firmly, meeting Trip’s eyes, and he shifted under her gaze.
Since Kaika was so often flippant, it was easy to think she would be less likely to drop the disciplinary hammer, but that look made Rysha certain that she wouldn’t forget it if they stepped on her authority. Kaika’s gaze turned toward Rysha, including her as well as Trip, and she also found herself shifting uneasily.
“I don’t think I’d make a very good butler, ma’am,” Rysha said.
“Did your castle not have one who taught you the ways of the profession?” Trip smiled and touched her elbow.
“The manor did have a butler. And a maid. But I used to tell them all about the things I learned in the books I was reading, and they started avoiding me.”
“How odd,” Kaika said.
“I thought so.”
Trip grew more serious and said, “I’ll get to the bottom of all this tonight.”
“We will,” Rysha said. “If Major Kaika doesn’t mind standing guard, I still want to go with you.”
“Major Kaika would rather get a massage and a rub-down at a spa.” Kaika closed her eyes.
Rysha hesitated. Maybe she shouldn’t presume that Kaika would let her go off with Trip. “What happened out there, ma’am? Did you ever catch up with that spy?”
“No, I did not. I chased her over a dozen rooftops, through a stinking cannery, up the smokestack of a refinery, and into a park filled with hoodlums engaged in a full-contact sporting event. She cried, ‘She’s got one of the swords!’ and more than fifty men, most with more fingers than teeth, gave chase. They didn’t just want to catch me; they were perfectly happy to kill me to get the sword. They kept throwing rocks and knives whenever they got the opportunity. I spent three hours trying to lose them. I think one had dragon blood because he had to be tracking me with more than mundane means. He stuck to me like gum to the bottom of your finest parade boots. I finally got him alone, turned on him, and knocked the rest of the teeth out of his mouth. Then I used Eryndral to cut his belt off. By then, I was cranky, and I was tempted to cut off other things. Eryndral was glowing a little and agreed with the sentiment. Instead, I told him not to pester the handlers of chapaharii blades because they were powerful warriors. And then I took his pants.”
“Er, what, ma’am?” Rysha asked.
“I’d cut the waistband when I slashed his belt, so they were falling off anyway. I figured that being pantsless would keep him from following me, and it seemed a less extreme punishment than cutting off his flesh pole or killing him outright. I hope he has a family that will mock him soundly when he arrives home.”
“Our butler definitely would have mocked me if I’d come home without pants,” Rysha said.
Kaika looked at her.
“He was the one to open the door, so he would have been the first to know.”
“Yes, good. I hope this fellow’s butler mocks him.” Kaika closed her eyes again.
Trip opened his mouth, but Kaika must have anticipated his next question.
“Go, go.” She waved her hand again. “I’ll stay here on guard while you have grand adventures. Be back by dawn. I want to go to the docks early in case any new ships come in during the night.”
“Yes, ma’am,” Trip said, “but grand adventures weren’t what I had in mind.”
“Even if we got the opportunity to cut off someone’s pants?” Rysha asked.
Trip smiled faintly, but he looked more worried than amused. He glanced toward the stasis chambers, perhaps feeling daunted by Kaika’s timeline.
4
Waves rolled up the sandy beach and lapped at the supports for the docks. Rysha stood in the shadows with Trip, and he briefly imagined that they were back home and taking that romantic sunset beach walk he’d dreamed about.
But here in Lagresh, the sun had set hours ago, and gunshots and screams of pain rang out from the city behind them. Giant cannons loomed on manmade rock formations around the harbor, their silhouettes dark and brooding against the moonlit sky. He remembered how they’d fired on the fliers without warning when Wolf Squadron had approached. There was nothing romantic about this place.
It was just as well. He needed to focus on his mission. He didn’t have much time, and he needed to get the baby back.
Not just “the baby.” His little sister. Even though he hadn’t known she existed until a few days ago, his gut clenched at the idea of losing her forever, of never getting a chance to know her.
He’d been an only child his whole life, moving every year or two as a kid. How often had he longed for siblings? Brothers and sisters to play with in the yard. Brothers and sisters who didn’t care how odd he was because they all shared the same blood. Because they were all odd.
Even if he didn’t play anymore, not in the childhood sense, he loved the idea of watching little brothers and sisters play. Of seeing them grow up. Of knowing he had kin, that he wasn’t all there was of his blood—of him—in the world.
Trip blinked away moisture forming in his eyes, surprised by how emotional the thoughts made him.
Focus, he reminded himself again, and locked his gaze on the harbor and the two vessels floating on the far side of it, well away from the docks. They were the same two barges he had noticed ear
lier in the day, one looking like a palace and the other a warehouse.
From here, he couldn’t read their names to see if Harbor Warehouse One was printed somewhere on the hull of the darker, boxier one, but he and Rysha had looked at the street signs along the waterfront and hadn’t found a match. It seemed likely the card he had found was for that barge.
Judging by how close it was to the other one, Trip suspected they were owned by the same person. The Silver Shark. He wondered what her Cofah name was and if she had been anyone in their society before emigrating here.
A woman’s scream punctuated the night, and Trip winced. It was hard to imagine anyone but the depraved wanting to emigrate here.
“This isn’t quite how I imagined our romantic walk on the beach going,” Rysha said from his side.
He bumped his shoulder gently against hers, pleased she had also been thinking about their future romantic beach outing.
“Though the lights on that floating palace are pretty,” she added. “Do you think that blue one is magical? Or is that just a special lens?”
“I’m not sure.”
Trip had been focusing on the warehouse, but he eyed the spherical light she’d indicated. He didn’t sense that it was magic. In fact, he couldn’t sense much about the palace at all, such as how many people were in it. Over in the warehouse, he was aware of two people playing a card game near the front door. He also sensed dozens of animals in cages in the back. He’d hoped to sense the missing stasis chamber, but if it was out there, it wasn’t in the warehouse.
In the palace… he not only couldn’t sense anything inside, but trying to do so made his brain itch. It almost repelled him. The experience reminded him of the quarry with the banded iron formations, the formations that had offered up ore appropriate for crafting the magic-loathing chapaharii weapons.
But that was silly. They were at least fifty miles from there and no longer in the magic dead zone that surrounded the quarry. It was more likely that another sorcerer had placed a magical camouflage over the place.
Does either of you sense more about that floating palace than I do? Trip silently asked the soulblades.
I sense that those spires are pretentious and ridiculous, Jaxi said.
Your vast magical powers tell you that?
Indeed, they do. If yours aren’t telling you the same thing, there’s a problem.
I sense… Azarwrath was slower in sharing his verdict. Little. I believe the same as you, Telryn, that it’s likely we are dealing with a mage.
Trip sighed. He should have known it wouldn’t be easy.
He could tell there wasn’t a woman on the warehouse barge, but he had no idea about the palace. Would it be worth going out to investigate the loft the paymaster had imagined even if the Silver Shark was nowhere around? And even if he didn’t sense the stasis chamber out there? A bedroom might hold condemning documents or other clues.
It makes sense that an advantage such as magic would be useful in gaining power here, Azarwrath said.
I sense something, Jaxi thought.
Aside from crimes against architecture? Trip asked.
Yes. In the back of the warehouse barge, there are animals. A surprisingly large number of them.
Trip nodded. I sensed them too.
Animals with dragon blood.
He reached out a second time. He had missed that.
It’s an eclectic—or should I say eccentric?—collection, Jaxi said. Several giant lizards, winged lions, a couple of furry relatives of baboons, probably from Dakrovia or one of the equatorial islands around its northern end. Oh, I think those scaled panthers might be slightly magical versions of the one that attacked Rysha by the spring last week.
She’ll be glad to hear there’s a more deadly variation of that three-hundred-pound fanged beast.
Doubtful. I haven’t told her about the panthers yet. But all of the animals are caged and definitely have dragon blood. Does this woman run a circus of the odd and unusual?
I hope not. She might want to add me. Or a half-dragon little girl, Trip added to himself.
He winced, imagining his little sibling being turned into a circus performer or freak show entrant. Back at the hostel, he hadn’t thought twice about leaving the stasis chambers with Kaika and Rysha, both because they were capable soldiers and because he hadn’t believed anyone had known about the babies. A foolish belief. He should have known better. He could sense the chambers’ magic when he was close enough. And as the paymaster mentioned, there were other sorcerers in the city.
You wouldn’t look good in a cage, Jaxi said.
I agree. Pilots have to be free to fly. Trip decided to avoid the animals if they could. They shouldn’t have anything to do with Dreyak’s death or kidnapped babies, but they might alert the two guards to their presence if he and Rysha sneaked out there.
Maybe those animals would like to be free.
I imagine if we let them out here in the city, they would be hunted and killed. And only the native creatures would be able to survive in the nearby desert. I’ll hope the owner is treating them humanely, whatever her reason for having them is. Admittedly, he didn’t know if this Silver Shark was the owner. The paymaster’s memories hadn’t included thoughts of animals.
The owner that may have killed Dreyak for no good reason?
Rysha turned toward him, probably wondering about his long silence.
“Jaxi, Azarwrath, and I have started our spying early,” he said.
“So I assumed. Does that mean we don’t have to go out there?”
“No. I don’t sense the woman or the stasis chamber in the warehouse, but since so many clues point to her and to this place, I think we should go out and snoop.”
Rysha made a face. “Is it wise to pick trouble with one of the most powerful people in the city?”
“Financially and politically powerful, not magically powerful.” Trip touched the hilts of the two soulblades. “We’ll have the advantage if we’re somehow discovered and there’s a confrontation.”
“You’re not getting cocky on me, are you?”
“I hope not. Azarwrath once said he would let me know if I became arrogant and full of myself.”
“Azarwrath did? That sounds like something Jaxi would say.”
“I’m sure she would chime in.”
Most definitely, Jaxi said. I like your lieutenant. She’s getting to know and respect me.
She just said you would be quick to point out my failings.
She oozed respectful thoughts while she said it.
“Listen,” Trip said, “I know it’s not exactly legal, but we can’t come here every night and wait to spot her. I’m not positive this is her full-time residence.”
“She’s not in the palace, either? I would think a rich businesswoman would be far more likely to live in a palace than a warehouse.”
“It’s possible.” Hadn’t he just been thinking that the way those two barges were anchored so closely together suggested the same owner? “But I can’t sense anything on it, so I want to start with the warehouse.”
“Ah, interesting.” Rysha shifted her hand to Dorfindral’s hilt.
“Do you sense magic out there? Or does the sword?”
“Not that I’ve noticed thus far, but we’re also not that close.”
“Let’s get closer then. Warehouse first. For snooping.”
“How are we getting out there?”
Trip almost said the soulblades could levitate them over, but remembered Dorfindral’s presence would make it impossible to use magic on Rysha. And he couldn’t imagine her leaving the sword behind. Nor did he want her to, not with dragon-blooded animals and who knew what else on the palace barge.
“We could swim, but a boat would be more convenient. Either way, we’ll have to be quiet. There are two guards playing cards inside the warehouse.” Trip had no idea if there were guards on the palace barge. He hadn’t heard voices come from that direction, nor had he seen anyone with a light walking around o
n the deck.
“My vote would be for dry snooping, but there’s only one ship tied up here tonight.” Rysha pointed toward a schooner moored at the far end of the dock. “It probably has lifeboats, but I saw lanterns on the deck as we were walking over here, so I think there are people awake. I suppose we could borrow the whole schooner with your magical influence…” She didn’t sound enthused by that idea.
“Let me see if I can come up with an alternative.”
Trip directed his senses into the water, toward the bottom of the harbor. Unsurprisingly, he saw all manner of junk down there, including bottles, crates, barrels, and wrecks. Trip suspected a few battles had taken place in the harbor over the centuries.
He detected a lifeboat that hadn’t made it to shore, likely due to the cannonball hole in the bottom of it. Though it was covered with barnacles and the metal brackets were rusted over, the hole appeared to be the only thing that would render it incapable of floating. If he could turn it upright and dump the water out.
Can you two help me? Trip asked.
With what? Jaxi asked. Your bank vault door isn’t open. Were you afraid to show me the latest issue of that metalworking magazine that you stuck inside?
No, I understand that my mental decorating tastes aren’t for everyone. Trip pointed out the boat to the soulblades and envisioned his plan.
You should be able to handle this on your own, Azarwrath said.
Are you encouraging me to grow as a sorcerer or are you simply uninterested in helping?
I don’t like touching disgusting things. An image of the barnacles filled Trip’s mind.
That’s an excuse, Jaxi said. He’s old and doesn’t want you to know he needs his nighttime naps.
Something akin to a growl filled Trip’s mind.
The boat stirred, breaking away from all manner of growth attaching it to a larger wreck on the harbor floor, then floated upward. Azarwrath moved it under the dock supports before it broke the surface, so it wouldn’t be visible to those in the schooner. Trip meant to help, but Azarwrath worked quickly, and the barnacle-covered lifeboat soon rested upside-down on the sand next to them.