From the ground, it had almost looked like a forest fire was burning beyond the snowy ridge ahead, because plumes of white-gray smoke rose from numerous spots, drifting up into the clear evening sky. Thanks to his elevated perch and the spyglass, he had found the real reason for the plumes.
When he dropped to the ground, all eyes turned to him. The group was taking a break, resting and waiting for night to fall.
“Fire?” Apex was sitting on a log, with his pistol and weapons cleaning kit out.
“Not fire,” Duck said, his boot up on the end of the log. They had been having the same discussion when Ridge had gone up the tree. “Smell the air,” Duck added. “It’s got sulfur in it.”
“So does the air above your bunk at night, but that doesn’t preclude a fire in the stove.”
Duck didn’t look like he grasped the joke. No matter. Ridge wanted to share what he’d seen, not break up a fight.
“It’s steam, not smoke,” he said. “Looks like a lot of hot springs and geysers. One of the little ponds started shooting steamy water twenty, thirty meters into the air while I was up there watching. There were a lot of spots like that. There’s a big mound, almost a mountain, in the middle that might be manmade. At the least, it’s been excavated by man—there are some metal doors set into one side, big enough to be hangar doors. I’m not sure how easy it is to get to them. I didn’t see a road, and there are a lot of those steaming pools.”
Tolemek, who was leaning against a tree near Sardelle and Ahn, nodded. “I thought that might be the source of the smell and the steam. We’ve gone west far enough to reach the Taiga of Boiling Death.”
“Boiling Death?” Duck asked.
“I haven’t been here myself, but they say swimming isn’t recommended. The geysers and pools will scorch your skin off. Even some of the streams run so hot that nothing can live in the water. Just traveling through the nearby forest can be dangerous, because in some spots, there’s nothing more than a thin crust over scalding water. If you break through it and fall in, you can get burned to death.”
“Burned to death?” Ahn asked. “You don’t have a goo to fix that?”
“I did bring some of my healing salve along, but it’s not that powerful.”
“Boiling Death, huh?” Ridge asked. “Sounds like a cozy place for a secret base.”
“There are people in the mountain,” Sardelle said, “Fifty or sixty. Jaxi isn’t positive, but thinks some are guards and some are workers. Researchers or engineers. She says there’s a lot of dragon blood in there. She can sense it.”
“Thank you.” Ridge appreciated the intelligence, but he took note of the concerned looks Duck and Apex shared. Maybe he should have sent them back in one of the fliers with an intelligence report for the general, but that would have left them a pilot short, and they had both volunteered to stay with the mission anyway. He was still battling with the decision, though, knowing that someone had to survive and that this intelligence had to make it back.
We’ll survive, came Sardelle’s determined whisper in his mind.
He had grown used to that more quickly than he would have imagined. Maybe because it was her, and she was the one person he didn’t mind having secret conversations with. The sword was another story.
“Uh, who’s Jaxi?” Duck asked, apparently dwelling on Sardelle’s report.
“My sword.” Sardelle drew the weapon from its scabbard.
“It… talks to you?” He licked his lips, eyes big as he stared at it, then glanced around, like he might flee into the woods at any moment.
“She talks to just about anyone who’s willing to listen,” Sardelle said.
“And some who aren’t,” Ridge muttered. “Duck, you want to go scout for me? See if there’s a way out to those doors? If anyone can scamper around in a forest and avoid pools of boiling death, it ought to be you.”
Duck wore a doubtful expression, but he said, “Yes, sir.”
“Want me to go with him, sir?” Ahn asked. “Watch his back? Or pull his butt out of the boiling river when he falls in?”
Duck sniffed. “I don’t need anyone to pull me out. I’ll be better on my own. You city people are so noisy when you walk in the woods.”
“Noisy will be you when you fall into a geyser and start screaming,” Ahn muttered.
Duck waved dismissively, grabbed his rifle, and headed off through the trees. Scouting, Ridge assured himself, not fleeing from Sardelle. Duck’s speed and the way his shoulders were hunched up to his ears made it seem like the latter, though.
“What constitutes a lot of dragon blood?” Tolemek asked. “Is it possible there’s a whole dragon inside their base?”
“Jaxi doesn’t believe so,” Sardelle said. “I think even I would sense a dragon at this distance.”
“Hm.” Something about the set of Tolemek’s mouth suggested disappointment.
Ridge would prefer not to battle a dragon, so he couldn’t share that feeling. “Everyone else, get some rest. We’ve all been up too long. A couple hours of sleep before attempting an infiltration would be a good idea.” Or a couple days of sleep, but they couldn’t take that long. The Cofah would be looking for them. He was worried about the fliers too. With Jaxi’s help, they had found a large cave to hide them in, so the craft wouldn’t be visible to patrols roaming the skies, but leaving them behind without a guard made him nervous. “We’ll wait until after midnight to attempt to sneak in. With luck, most of those guards will be snoozing in their racks by then.”
Ridge sat on the same log as Apex and flexed his ankles. He wondered if he would be able to rest. It was hard to relax while thinking about getting past pools of “Boiling Death” and wondering how and where Kaika and Nowon had been captured. He had watched for tracks in the snow as they drew closer to the coordinates, but he hadn’t seen anything except signs of animal activity.
The others had already tossed down their packs, and it didn’t take long for their bodies to follow. They had come down out of the mountains, so there was less snow here, but the journey had still been a taxing one. Ridge didn’t know if they would have made it without Sardelle along, melting passages through canyons and pointing out less treacherous routes. It had seemed a good way to introduce Duck and Apex to her magic, having it be used in a simple way that assisted the team. Apex hadn’t seemed that surprised at what she could do and what she was—maybe he had figured it out a while ago—but Duck kept staring with goggle-eyes and making reflexive hill-folk signs for warding off evil witches.
“Ahn,” Ridge said, “since you’re in the volunteering mood, why don’t you take watch while Duck is off exploring?”
“Yes, sir.” She took her sniper rifle and disappeared into the trees. She wasn’t the wilderness expert that Duck was, but she could sneak around in any terrain without being spotted.
Soon, everyone else found their rest positions and the little clearing fell silent, save for the soft rasp of a bore brush being pulled through a pistol barrel. Every now and then, Apex glanced in Tolemek’s direction as he cleaned his weapon. Tolemek had tossed his pack against a tree, its skirt sheltering the base from the snow, and was lying against it, his repose hardly threatening. If he was aware of Apex’s dark glowers, he was ignoring them.
Time to address this, Ridge supposed, though he doubted he could do anything to change the lieutenant’s feelings.
“Are we going to have a problem before this mission is over?” he asked softly.
Apex flinched, perhaps surprised to have been caught glowering so obviously. “Before it’s over? No, sir.”
“After it’s over, then?”
Apex scowled down at his disassembled pistol. “No.”
“Would you tell me if you were thinking of doing something as foolish as the things I sometimes do?”
Apex hesitated before answering. “No.”
“I’m not in love with the man, either,” Ridge said, “but seeing what we’ve seen so far here makes me believe the king did the right thing in
hiring him. Instead of shooting him. Whether it’s fliers, weapons, or scientific advancements, we dare not fall behind the Cofah. They already have the advantage of population and resources. He can help us.”
“We already have good scientists, sir. Men who’ve never murdered innocent people.” Apex shook his head. “It’s not even murder when it’s a whole village. It’s, it’s genocide. It’s a crime that can’t be forgiven.” Apex wasn’t keeping his voice that low, and Sardelle glanced over. Tolemek turned his back on the conversation. Ridge doubted that meant he wasn’t listening. He must be aware that Apex had a weapon in his hands and was glaring at him.
“Who was it you lost?” Ridge asked, though he’d read Apex’s record and knew.
“My brothers and sisters and I had all moved away, but both of my parents were still living there. And I knew…” Apex jammed the brush into the barrel again, even though there couldn’t be a speck of carbon left inside. “It was a small town. I knew everyone. The Kraytons had just had a new baby. The Pargrats’ little girl… They were good people. All of them.”
“I’m not going to be his advocate—you’d have to talk to Ahn for that—but my understanding is that he made the weapon but wouldn’t have used it, not like that. Someone betrayed him and unleashed it on Tanglewood and on a Cofah town as well.”
“So that makes it less of a crime? Even if that’s true, he still made it. He chose to make it. There’s no reason to make something that horrible, not unless you’re a, a monster.” Apex threw his brush down and snapped the pistol back together.
Ridge had a hard time disagreeing, but said, “Maybe it wasn’t a wise choice, but we’re giving him an opportunity to do some good with his potions now. He can help us, and maybe in doing so save lives that would otherwise be lost.”
Apex stared at the weapon in his hands. “That doesn’t bring back my parents or anyone else in my village, sir.”
“I know.”
“You know that old fable, about the forlorn tiger, sir?”
Ridge held back a groan, knowing he would get a story. Apex had received his nickname when he had been flying a general up the coast to a meeting, and they had been attacked by pirates along the way. In the midst of an aerial battle at five thousand feet, he had started illustrating a point by quoting historical figures and sharing an obscure myth. The word had gotten around, and other former passengers had mentioned similar experiences—even if pirates hadn’t always been involved. This had earned him the sobriquet Story at the Apex. Since the communications crystals had been installed, the entire squadron had been treated to some of these mid-flight tales. “No, go ahead.”
“The tiger knew there were poachers in the forest, men that were dangerous because of their rifles. They shot the elephants, but the tiger didn’t do anything, because elephants lumber around and rarely bother speaking with tigers. And then the poachers shot the wolves. Maybe the tiger could have done something, but he really didn’t care about wolves. They were competition on the hunt. When the poachers returned, they shot the buffalo. Again, the tiger did nothing, because it was a beautiful sunny day, and he didn’t want to leave his warm ledge on the rocks. Then one day, the tiger returned home to find that his mate had been shot by the poachers. He was infuriated and tried to round up the forest creatures to help him rid the world of the poachers, but by now, there was nobody except him left to fight. He knew he couldn’t take the poachers by himself, so he slunk away, never to be heard from again.”
Sometimes the points Apex tried to make with his stories were clear. Sometimes, they left Ridge scratching his head. “So Tolemek is the poacher and you’re the tiger?”
The pistol drooped in Apex’s hand. “I’m not anything, sir. I’m just afraid that if I do nothing because it’s inconvenient or I’m worried about the consequences, and if nobody else does anything, either… then evil is allowed to roam the earth.”
Ridge sighed. He had already tried to convince Apex that Tolemek wasn’t pure evil, and he didn’t know what else he could say.
“He’s not a subject, is he?” Apex asked after a moment of silence. “Just an expatriate living on our soil? He might even still be down as a war criminal. Would it still be…” Apex glanced at Tolemek’s back and lowered his voice to a whisper. “If I shot him, would it be punishable by death or imprisonment? Would my career be over? I’ve studied a number of legal systems from historical societies, but haven’t paid that much attention to ours. Is that odd?”
Ridge had guessed Apex might be thinking about revenge, but it disturbed him to know the lieutenant had been seriously mulling over the ramifications. It made sense, Ridge supposed. A younger, brasher man might act without considering the consequences, but Apex was old enough to know better. Still, there was something chilling about one of his men so logically debating whether or not to murder someone. He opted to lighten the conversation. “No, the modern ones are complicated and the law books are exceedingly boring to read. Military justice books are especially dry. I’ll spare you the story about why I had the task to read several chapters once—and write essays on them.”
Apex didn’t smile. So much for lightening the conversation.
“He’s not a subject, nor has the king granted him provisional citizenship, but he does have a protected status. I don’t want to lose you, Anders,” Ridge said, using the lieutenant’s first name for once, “so I hope you’re not seriously considering murder.”
Apex flinched again. Maybe he couldn’t believe he was considering murder, either, but saw it as the only acceptable path for revenge. Or justice. Yes, that might be more what rankled him than anything. The fact that Tolemek had been responsible for so many deaths and was allowed to walk freely in the very country where he had killed hundreds. And nobody was doing anything about it. Maybe he felt he had to be the one.
“If you can’t find another solution for your heart, maybe you can challenge him to a duel,” Ridge said.
“Dueling is illegal, sir,” Apex said glumly.
“Among soldiers and officers, yes, but not among civilians.” Granted it had fallen out of fashion over the last couple of decades, with the Iskandians busy fighting off invaders and frowning upon anything that caused young men, men who could be defending their country, to be killed foolishly.
Apex lifted his chin and gazed into the forest. “Perhaps, hm.”
When he didn’t say anything else, Ridge patted him on the shoulder and walked away. He didn’t know if he had solved anything, or merely postponed the inevitable, but he hoped Apex would at least avoid shooting Tolemek in the back in the middle of Ridge’s mission.
Ridge’s mission. He snorted as he headed over to check on Sardelle. His self-appointed mission, maybe. Wasn’t he just supposed to be the flying rickshaw driver? How had he ended up taking responsibility for this?
I believe it started when you drugged that officer and punted him out of your flier.
Jaxi. Ridge frowned at the intrusion—and at the fact that someone besides Sardelle was privy to his private thoughts. Everyone is resting. Don’t you need naps too?
Not at all. Sardelle is sleeping, though, so I thought I’d inform you directly.
Inform me of what?
The man floating above the mountain base in a balloon.
Ridge halted, his foot halfway between one step and the next. What?
A man is sitting in a basket under a balloon and looking out at the land around the mountain with a large spyglass.
Ridge sighed. He’d been thinking of lying down and cuddling with Sardelle—and maybe doing some of that very interesting kissing where he could tell what she was thinking, especially the part about her imagining him naked—not heading back up a tree, but he grabbed his rifle and left camp.
“Problem, sir?” Ahn called softly from behind some snow-covered ferns. In the darkness, he hadn’t seen her.
“Maybe. Want to come take a look with me?”
She slipped out of the brush and joined him. He opted for walking tow
ard the crest of the hill that lay between them and the start of the steaming pools instead of climbing a tree. Someone up in a balloon might spot some strangely moving branches. Especially if that someone was on the alert and expecting spies. Just because the Cofah airship had warned him to leave didn’t mean they believed he would.
It took Ridge and Ahn fifteen minutes of climbing to reach the top of the hill—there was probably no need to worry about passing that physical exam next month. It was covered with the charred remains of trunks still standing after some past forest fire, and he had no trouble seeing the sky and out to the dark silhouette of the mountain, an almost perfect conical shape rising a hundred feet above the surrounding grounds.
“That looks man-made,” Ahn said.
“It might be. Here, stay back against this brush, so we won’t stand out. Do you see anything in the sky?” Clouds had rolled in, otherwise the stars would be visible by now. He searched for Jaxi’s balloon and spotted it a heartbeat before Ahn spoke and pointed.
“There. Observation balloon.”
“Good eye. Hm, it’s drifting north, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it loops toward our camp.” Ridge licked a finger and tested the wind. Those balloons had some directional abilities, but weren’t as navigable as an airship with engines and propellers. Without the fliers, they ought to be able to hide from the observer, especially at night, although… “Maybe we’d like it to visit our camp.”
“So we can shoot the observer?” Ahn asked.
“It’s not the observer I want. Come on, I need to talk to Sardelle.” Ridge hustled back down the hill.
* * *
Sardelle woke when Lieutenant Duck returned to camp. He padded in quietly, but started talking to Apex right away. “Where’s the colonel?”