“We have all of their dragon blood,” Tolemek said. “Can’t we use it against them?”
“If you know how to program it to do something special—like blowing up Cofah airships—I’m not going to object to that.”
Sardelle gripped a nearby basket for support, then channeled air into Duck’s balloon. Her head throbbed, stabbing the backs of her eyes with each beat of her heart. She feared she wouldn’t be able to do anything against the Cofah when they finally appeared.
“The blood itself couldn’t do that. I’d have to find some of those rockets and figure out how to reprogram them.” Tolemek glanced at the vent they had come out of.
“There’s no time for going back down and tinkering,” Ridge said. “We’ll have to simply hope we can escape before the Cofah show up.” He paced over to the next balloon, thumping his fist against his thigh. “And before the mountain blows up. Kaika, Apex, where are you two? Sardelle, can you tell if they’ve run into trouble?”
“Jaxi says they’re coming.”
“They—”
A clunk-thunk came from the middle of the room, a trapdoor being thrown open.
“…not my fault the lift doesn’t come up to this floor,” came Kaika’s voice before her head appeared.
“I didn’t say it was, but you might have informed me we were choosing an alternate route before I ran into those two guards,” Apex said.
“You were fine. They were too busy fleeing the building after that gong went off to waste time noticing you.”
“One punched me in the eye. I think that fits the definition of noticing.”
Kaika searched the room, spotted Ridge, and jogged up to him, giving him a smart salute, a gesture that seemed odd coming from someone dressed in a red Cofah uniform. She looked like she had been punched in the eye a few times too.
“The explosives are set, sir, and were you aware of how whiny some of your pilots are?”
Apex stopped a few paces away and folded his arms over his chest with dramatic flair. He, too, had switched to a Cofah uniform at some point.
“Only some?” Ridge asked and winked at Apex. “You’re looking better. Arguing with a woman must agree with you.”
Apex sniffed. “Really, sir.”
The basket Sardelle was leaning against started bumping across the ground. The balloon had filled and was ready to drift up through the big opening in the ceiling. “Ridge, are we riding out in this one, or letting it go?” The basket tried to lift up, and she had to lean on the rim to push it back down.
Ridge looked at the other balloons, which ranged from a quarter to three quarters inflated. “How long until the explosives go off, Kaika?”
She looked at a pocket watch. “Ten minutes, thirty seven seconds.”
Sardelle pushed down on the basket with more of her weight. In a few more seconds it would be dragging her up with it no matter how hard she pushed.
“Are the Cofah within sight yet, Sardelle?” Ridge asked. “Gather your gear, everyone. Kaika, Apex, grab a couple of those bags.”
They’re… yes. On the horizon.
“They’re on the horizon,” Sardelle said.
Kaika’s brow wrinkled. She hadn’t been in the camp when Ridge had decided to share Sardelle’s talent with the group. Sardelle wasn’t about to try and explain things now.
“Too late to slip out without being spotted then.” Ridge gestured for Sardelle to scoot back. “Let that one go. With luck, they’ll follow it. We’ll take… that roomy one over there.”
“Should we consider splitting up, sir?” Ahn asked.
“Sardelle, are you and Jaxi going to be able to give us any magical defenses, and if so would it be easier to protect us if we’re all together?”
“I’ve got our defenses right here, sir.” Ahn thumped the side of her rifle, which she had managed to drag all through the ducts with her.
“I’ll be counting on that defense, too,” Ridge said.
“All together.” Sardelle didn’t want to promise a lot in the way of “magical defenses.” Her main thought was to get them past the geysers so they could drop to the ground, where the trees might hide them from aerial assault. Might. She would hope the Cofah didn’t have any of those rockets Ridge had encountered, with the ability to magically find their target. “But in theory, Jaxi can keep an eye on one basket, and I can watch the other.” She opened her mouth—this would be the time to tell him that she didn’t have much energy left—but he spoke first.
“She doesn’t mind you volunteering her for duties?” Ridge waved for everyone to pack their bags into the two larger baskets.
“She minded being volunteered for blowing up balloons. She gets less perturbed when asked to send streams of flame at the Cofah.”
That’s the truth.
I know you well.
Tolemek, Ahn, and Duck climbed into one balloon, and Ridge, Sardelle, Kaika, and Apex headed for the other. Sardelle wanted to hop in as smoothly as the men, but her limbs were as weary as her mind. She had to try twice to throw her leg over the rim of the basket, and Ridge ended up catching her in the middle of the second try and pulling her in beside him.
He had given the other half of the team more of the bags of their invaluable cargo. Because they had fewer people, or did he put more stock in Ahn’s marksmanship than Sardelle’s ability to defend a basket, right now?
Maybe he can tell how tired you are, even without you saying anything.
You’re tired too.
I didn’t say I wasn’t. But Ridge doesn’t monitor me as stringently as he does you.
A cannon boomed in the distance.
The first two airships are veering off after that balloon, Jaxi said. One fired a warning shot.
They don’t think it could be their own people?
No, because they can’t see anyone. They think someone might be hiding in it.
Let’s hope they’re tired of checking by the time we do that.
“How much longer, Kaika?” Ridge was gazing toward the stars, listening to the booms outside of the mountain, but he didn’t sound worried.
Sardelle wished she could emulate that sense of calm. As Kaika checked her watch again, the second balloon, with nothing inside the basket to weigh it down, took off. “Six minutes, forty-three seconds.”
“Hm,” Ridge said.
“We may not want to cut it too close,” Sardelle said. “I’m not that certain of my ability to protect the balloon from shrapnel and whatever else comes flying out of this mountain.”
Kaika’s eyebrows lowered. “It’ll be a controlled explosion with gravity drawing the mountain down and in on itself. There’s no way I could have found enough explosives for flying shrapnel, even if that were the desired result.”
“My apologies.” Sardelle watched as the second balloon bumped against the sloping ceiling but eventually drifted upward toward the exit. “Explosives aren’t my specialty.” They hadn’t been a common occurrence in her time, unless one counted fireworks at festivals.
“I wouldn’t have minded something with shrapnel,” Ridge said wistfully, “something that might catch a few of those airships with the force of the explosion, but this will be safer for us.”
The basket wobbled beneath Sardelle’s feet.
“We’re going up first,” Apex said. He didn’t sound like he was certain that was a good thing.
“Duck down when you get up there,” Ridge said. “Everyone. We’ll hope that after blowing up two empty baskets, they’ll be less certain anything is loaded in these two.”
The basket tipped, then rose from the floor. Sardelle sank down before they reached the ceiling hole. Her legs thanked her. Ridge looked down at her, his eyes gentle with concern, then he cut out their lantern, and his face disappeared into shadow.
He crouched down beside her and took her hand. “How are you feeling? You look pale and tired.”
“Not sexy and interestingly wan? I seem to remember some fairy tale where a sorceress beleaguered after thirty da
ys and thirty nights of fighting back the Cofah still managed to look interestingly wan, enough so that she attracted the eye of a dragon.”
“Your people had strange fairy tales.”
Apex and Kaika knelt down so their heads would be below the rim. Someone bumped Sardelle’s knee, but she was too tired to adjust her position.
She couldn’t see the hole in the ceiling, not with the bulging envelope above them, but knew from the ripples coursing down to the basket that the balloon was already subject to the breeze.
Sardelle gripped Ridge’s arm and leaned her head against his shoulder, even though they probably only had a minute—she could sense the airships out there. The two that had gone after the first balloon had already taken it down, and they were heading toward the mountain. The other pair of airships had fired at the second balloon, demolishing the basket, but hadn’t veered off course to follow it down into the geysers. Water spit and erupted somewhere nearby, and the sulfur stink in the air increased.
We might die in the next twenty minutes, Jaxi.
Speak for yourself. I’m living forever.
You don’t think you’d melt if you fell into one of those geysers?
Of course not. Jaxi paused thoughtfully. I might rust, though. That would be unpleasant.
So, being shot down would be a bad time for all.
The basket cleared the mountain, but Sardelle couldn’t see much from the floor of it. A few stars. Steam.
Ridge was crouching rather than sitting, as if he would spring up to defend them somehow.
“You’ve been through everything I have,” Sardelle murmured, patting his thigh. “Yet you seem like you could march another twenty miles while carrying your flier on your back. If there were female dragons around, I’d have to worry about you attracting one.”
“Your mind is on dragons tonight.”
“I can’t imagine why.”
They’re coming our way. Two ships.
“Jaxi says two ships are coming to check us out.” Sardelle didn’t move away from Ridge, but she did take a deep breath and pull in her focus. “I’ll do my best to shield us. Bullets, I can handle. I’m uncertain about cannonballs right now.”
“What about rockets?” Ridge asked.
“I’m even less certain about those.”
At first, she tried to wrap her shield around the entire balloon and basket ensemble, but it was like trying to stretch tissue paper. Her efforts ripped and tattered, leaving giant holes.
Focus on the basket. The balloon can take a few holes.
Sardelle nodded at Jaxi’s advice. I’m going to have to.
I’ll shield the other one. Unfortunately, I don’t think I can manage any gouts of flame at the same time.
We just need to escape.
“Sir,” Kaika said, “what are you and her talking about? Or… do I want to know?”
“Probably not, Captain. But I can explain later.”
The wind caught the balloon, and it drifted away from the mountaintop, carrying them north, toward the real mountains.
“Time, Captain?” Ridge lifted a hand toward the lip of the basket but caught himself. He doubtlessly wanted to poke his head up to check on the other half of their team, but on the chance the Cofah were thinking of dismissing them, he dared not risk it.
“One minute, thirty-seven seconds.”
For the first time, Ridge shifted his weight, a hint of unease escaping his otherwise calm facade. Sardelle was so busy focusing on maintaining her shield, she barely registered it. Gurgles came from below, and a geyser erupted twenty meters to the side of them. Why couldn’t one erupt under one of those airships? They were probably too high up for it to matter, though.
A hiss-thud came from the nearest Cofah vessel, and the unexpectedness of the noise broke through Sardelle’s concentration. That was a different sound than the cannons made. “Is that—”
Ridge stood up, his rifle in hand. “A rocket.”
Sardelle tracked it with her senses. It was heading straight for them.
Jaxi—
Before she could get out her request, a second hiss-thud came from the same ship. This rocket was aiming at Ahn and Tolemek’s balloon.
Take care of them, she thought, then threw every shred of energy she had into shoring up the shield on the side closest to the rocket. She tried to increase the area to protect the balloon as well, but she was straining, and the entire ethereal construct threatened to collapse.
The rocket blasted against her barrier and exploded. Yellow and orange light flared so brightly that it stung her eyes even down in the basket. She expected the force of the explosion to shred the balloon into confetti and hurl them all into the scalding pools below, but the basket scarcely moved.
Thanks, she told Jaxi, knowing she’d had help.
She didn’t get a response. Sardelle knelt up to look over the rim and touched Jaxi’s hilt at her waist. It was so hot it almost burned her hand. Another flare of light burst into the night sky, almost blinding her. The other balloon. Dread and guilt threatened her equilibrium. Had Jaxi left them undefended in order to save Sardelle?
No, I blew up the second rocket before it reached them. That’s better than buffering the explosion. But I don’t know how many more I can handle. Those airships are getting ready to throw their whole arsenal at us.
Sardelle could see the Cofah craft now, and they weren’t nearly so far away as she wished. The weak wind wasn’t moving the hot air balloon anywhere fast. Seven gods, she should have been trying to push the balloons along rather than shielding them. No, she dared not let up on the barrier. She rubbed at her sweaty face and gritty eyes. She wasn’t sure if the black spots floating through her vision were aftereffects from seeing that explosion or were a more worrisome side effect of overexertion. The air did seem thin and not nearly substantial enough for her lungs at the moment.
In the other balloon, which had risen to the same height as Sardelle’s, Ahn raised her rifle, targeting some Cofah gunner on one of the ships.
“No,” Sardelle called, able to sense Jaxi’s shield around the other craft. “You’re protected.” She wasn’t sure if her voice carried, but Tolemek put a hand on Ahn’s arm, forcing the weapon down, and pointed in front of them.
“More weapons firing,” Kaika said, glancing at Ridge and Sardelle.
“A lot more.” Ridge clenched his fist. “If I had my flier…”
The first round went toward the other balloon.
Something like a moan echoed in Sardelle’s mind as Jaxi threw everything she had into blowing up the explosives before they reached the team. The next round would be aimed at this balloon, and Sardelle didn’t know if she had enough to blow anything up. Or keep the shield alive, either.
Apex eyed the ground below them, as if he knew his sorceress protector was about to fail.
It was too dark to see the geysers and mud pots, the near boiling water bubbling and gurgling in the pools, but Sardelle knew that terrain was still down there. It would take several more minutes to reach the forest and a spot where they might land… or grow tangled in the trees and climb down.
“Here it comes.” Ridge gripped the edge of the balloon, his longing to do more washing over Sardelle with its intensity.
A muted boom came from the depths of the mountain. It was a weak sound next to the explosives being launched from the airships, and Sardelle almost missed it. But it made the Cofah stop firing for a moment. Gunners looked back and forth at each other, then over the railing of their ship.
Kaika leaned against the basket next to Ridge, peering down at the mountain. As far as Sardelle could tell, not much was happening.
“Did it work?” Ridge asked.
“Give it a moment.” Kaika didn’t sound certain. “With the lower supports removed, the levels should collapse in on themselves, under the weight of gravity.”
“If we destroy that mountain,” Ridge said, “and take the blood… even if it goes down with us in one of those pools, we’ve wo
n a victory.”
“Who’s going to live to tell the king about it?” Apex grumbled.
More muted thuds came from the mountain. It was too dark to see what was going on, but the sides didn’t seem to be tipping over or crumpling inward.
“Geyser,” Ridge warned.
“Under us?” Sardelle leaned forward to look, but the black dots in her eyes turned into black circles, obscuring her vision. A wave of dizziness accompanied the circles. She had definitely pushed herself to the limit.
Ridge caught her arm and pointed toward the ground. “Looks like it’s going to be a big one.”
Even as he spoke, the funnel of water increased in size, from a few meters to over fifty. Maybe over a hundred. The phenomenon was big enough to see even in the dark. The steam and spray blocked the view of the mountain and two of the ships.
One of the outside ships could still see Sardelle’s balloon, though, and orange flashes and booms announced cannonballs firing. Her shield had slipped in her distraction, and she rushed to reassemble it.
A cannonball tore through the balloon twenty feet above them. She couldn’t do anything to stop it, could only focus on the basket.
“Down,” Kaika barked.
A rocket raced out of the night sky, arrowing straight at their basket.
Can’t, Jaxi whispered. The others—
I’ve got it. Sardelle flung a hand in that direction, but she didn’t have Jaxi’s power, and it wasn’t enough. At the last moment, she tried the only other thing she could think of. She turned her energy toward cutting the cables holding the basket to the balloon.
They plummeted. Someone screamed. The rocket soared by overhead, missing them. But, as they fell, she saw it arcing back toward them, angling downward, and remembered the way one had followed Ridge.
She lifted her hand one more time, this time only trying to find and destroy the vial of dragon blood instead of detonating the whole rocket. It worked. The glass burst open, spraying blood all over the inside of the projectile. She could only hope it was enough, because the blackness she had been fighting against finally swept over her. She was aware of the basket slamming into a pool, and water flying everywhere, scalding her skin, and of someone crying out in pain… and then she knew no more.