05 Dragon Blood: The Blade's Memory

  “Wait,” the second soldier said, pushing the rifle aside. “That’s Colonel Zirkander.”

  As the man added, “If we can capture him…” Ridge glanced down, almost letting go. He met Ahn’s eyes through their goggles as she flew under him. But his mind did an instant calculation, tracking the angle and the altitude of the Cofah craft right behind her. He wouldn’t be a useless invalid in the back seat if he could take over that flier.

  “Too dangerous,” the first soldier said, swinging his rifle back toward Ridge’s face.

  He barely noticed. He was counting in his head. Two… one… now.

  Ridge heard the bang of the rifle as he fell, but it fired into the space he had occupied. He was falling, the wind whipping his scarf, terror clutching his heart. His fear almost immobilized him, but he forced himself to yank out his knife as he dropped, to ignore the stabs of pain from his chest.

  He slammed onto the body of the flier right behind the pilot. The entire craft shuddered under his weight, the give softening his landing somewhat, but he still came hard down. Pain erupted in his leg when one knee twisted the wrong way. He couldn’t bite back a scream as his boot almost slid off the fuselage. Only his one-handed grip on the rim of the cockpit kept him from tumbling to his death.

  The pilot jerked around as much as his harness would allow, surprised but already reaching for his pistol. Ridge turned his scream of agony into a battle roar and jabbed the man in the side of the neck with his dagger. Knowing he couldn’t win a confrontation from his precarious perch, he stabbed the Cofah again and again, feeling more like a dying animal than an officer. Pain made his attacks clumsy, and had the man not been strapped in and unable to fight properly, Ridge never would have won. But from behind the cockpit, he overcame the pilot quickly. There was no time for relief. The flier was out of control and heading for a bank of thrusters.

  With shaking hands, Ridge hacked at the dead pilot’s shoulder harnesses. He nearly tumbled into the cockpit as he attempted to cut away the waist strap. Trying not to feel like a depraved maniac, Ridge pushed the pilot over the side. Without watching him fall, Ridge lunged into the vacated spot. For the first time, he was pleased that the Cofah had stolen the basic flier technology from his people, because the control panel was familiar to him. He wrenched the flight stick to the side, narrowly avoiding those thrusters.

  Ahead of him, Ahn had twisted in her seat and was staring back at him. She shouted something that he couldn’t hear over the sound of the propellers, but he was fairly certain it was, “You’re a lunatic!” He doubted she added the sir at the end.

  Ridge couldn’t say she was wrong. His move had left him injured and flying an enemy craft, one his squadron would try to shoot down on sight, and without a crystal, he had no way to talk to any of them. The rockets in his new aircraft had been fired, but the machine guns still had half of their ammunition. It would be enough. He could keep attacking, keep helping his people.

  He forced a smile and gave Ahn a cheerful wave, then pointed for her to pay attention to the enemies ahead of her. Little had changed, and they weren’t done with this battle yet. No, one thing had changed, as he soon saw when he flew up to check. The sorceress had not returned to her post on the tower. He grimaced, afraid that meant she had gone to deal with Sardelle and the others.

  • • • • •

  Sardelle followed Kaika, keeping her senses stretched out, so she could warn the others when soldiers were heading their way. Tolemek trailed after her, a pistol in one hand, a knockout grenade in the other, and his special spray bottle clasped to a loop on his belt. He hadn’t had an opportunity to knock anyone out yet. Kaika was too deadly, shooting any soldier that dared run toward them through the corridor. Right now, it was hard to think of her as the amiable lady who offered raunchy sex advice to anyone who would listen. She was a walking deliverer of death, and Sardelle could only be glad she was on their side.

  I’ve found an access panel in the floor, Jaxi said. But it’s not anywhere near that tunnel in the wall you’re walking through. You’ll have to leave at the door ahead, sneak across the back of the flight deck, and enter double doors that lead into a big maintenance shop.

  Sneak across the back of the flight deck? How were they going to do that? With the fliers all in the air, that would be open ground.

  Sneaking is optional, but you need to cross that space. There’s only one entrance to the shop.

  What about behind it? Can we blow our way in? Between us, we’re carrying enough explosives to take out half of the Cofah continent.

  We can try that, but it’s not abutting this outer wall. You’ll have to— More people coming. Six this time.

  I sense them. Sardelle tapped Kaika on the shoulder and held up her hand. Their group paused between two of the oil lamps that lined the windowless interior and guttered with the vibrations of the fortress. Not sure her hand gesture would be seen, she whispered, “Six coming. I think they know to expect us.”

  Kaika nodded grimly, but Tolemek brushed past both of them before she could continue ahead.

  “Let me.” He held up one of his knockout grenades as he went by and gave Kaika a dark look. “No need to kill everyone here.”

  Kaika shrugged and let him go ahead, but whispered, “He knows that if we achieve our goal, this whole place is plummeting into the ocean, right? And that nobody’s going to survive that?”

  With the soldiers just around the corner, Sardelle held a finger to her lips as her answer. Besides, she didn’t want to dwell too deeply on the mass killing they were attempting to perpetrate. It was war, and they were defending their homeland, but that did not make it easy to digest. She understood why this bothered Tolemek. These were his people, and he had once been a soldier in this very army.

  Ahead, Tolemek knelt and rolled his grenade around the corner.

  “There,” one of the soldiers yelled. The man couldn’t have been more than five feet from the corner.

  Shots rang out, but Tolemek was already backing away. “Hold your breath,” he warned as he pushed Sardelle and Kaika behind him.

  The sorceress and her forsoothing sword are coming, Jaxi warned.

  Two soldiers leaped around the corner, their rifles leading. Sardelle hurled a wall of air at them as Kaika’s firearm rang out. The men didn’t get their shots off, not with Kaika’s deadly aim. They crumpled to the ground.

  Kaika charged forward, ignoring Tolemek’s sigh. She dropped to one knee at the corner and leaned around it just enough to target down the corridor. But she did not fire. Sardelle checked the soldiers with her senses. The other four were unconscious.

  Lots more coming, Jaxi said. If you don’t want to fight that woman, you better go quickly. There’s a door around the corner. Take that one, and I’ll guide you to the maintenance shop.

  “Sorceress coming,” Sardelle told the others. “This way.”

  “I heard,” Kaika said, an incredulous expression on her face. Even as she ran to lead the way, she asked, “Was that you talking to me?”

  “Jaxi, actually.” Sardelle hadn’t realized that Jaxi had spoken to everyone, but she had done that before in emergencies, whether everyone was used to the idea of telepathy or not.

  They can get used to it. Hurry. I don’t want to try and keep you alive against Wreltad.

  Sardelle sensed more men on the other side of the door and whispered, “Wait,” before Kaika pushed it open. “Four of them. They’re walking past, not coming in, I think. Give them a minute.” She scanned the area further and found the backside of the cavernous maintenance building a few meters from the door. It was large enough for several of those fliers to be worked on inside, and… She grimaced. No less than ten people were in there. “We’re going to need more knockout grenades. Or an attack or something that draws them outside.”

  She almost reached out to Ridge, but she could sense him under the platform, dealing with countless enemies. No, she would not ask him for help. She dared not even contact him, lest she di
stract him.

  The sorceress entered the corridor inside the wall. She’s heading toward you.

  The four men Sardelle had been tracking had gone around the corner of the maintenance shop. She waved for Kaika to open the door. She could have done it herself, but the grim determination on Kaika’s face—and the blood that wasn’t hers spattered on the sleeve of her uniform—said she intended to lead the way, to protect them so they could do their job.

  Kaika peered out, checked in both directions, then strode out with her big rifle at the ready. Sardelle went straight to the back wall of the shop, though she glanced up and to the sides. There weren’t any soldiers on the wall directly above where they had come out, but a tower loomed not that far away. If the men manning the gun on the top looked back into the compound instead of out at the fliers, they would easily spot Sardelle and the others. She closed her eyes for a second, focused on the insides of that big shell gun, then melted what appeared to be the firing mechanism. That ought to keep them busy for a minute.

  She’s halfway down the corridor. She’s going to know you came out that door and right where you are.

  If you’re worried about Wreltad, how about you help with this wall?

  Tolemek had applied some of his corrosive goo, and it was already steaming, but the concoction would take time to eat through the metal. A thunderous crack came from underneath the tower. Sardelle stared in confusion. Her small sabotage of the gun shouldn’t have done that.

  No, that was me. I found a water line and broke it, then tore up some of the wall. A nice spray is assaulting the sorceress as we speak.

  Should I be worried that you’re fighting that hard to ensure that person doesn’t reach us?

  You should be worried about what will happen if she does, yes.

  Tolemek had donned gloves, and he pulled out the ragged, newly formed door that he had made in the wall. Before he set it down, he juggled it on his knee with one hand, so he could throw two more knockout grenades into the shop. Sardelle did not know how effective they would be in such a large space where the high ceiling would provide plenty of room for the gas to disperse. She tinkered with the airflow, trying to push the fumes toward the people on the ground.

  Kaika lifted her leg and climbed through the hole before asking if it was safe. Smoke still wafted from the edges. Gunfire rang out, and Sardelle winced. If the sorceress knew their location, perhaps it didn’t matter if they made noise, but she could easily envision the Cofah figuring out what they were up to and bringing a whole army down to block the way to the sphere of blood.

  They don’t need to bring an army, Jaxi thought grimly. They’re sending the sorceress.

  “Which way?” Kaika asked as soon as Sardelle joined her inside.

  Tolemek did not bother trying to put the cut-out back in the hole when he stepped through after Sardelle.

  “There’s a trapdoor in the corner there that leads under the platform.” As Sardelle was pointing, her chest tightened, harsh pain forming behind her sternum. She stumbled after the others, avoiding the unconscious men on the floor, but fear filled her mind. She could feel the other sorceress’s power, the invisible fingers wrapping around her heart. Sardelle struggled to push back that power, to build a shield around herself—especially her heart.

  I’m trying to distract her, Jaxi said, irritation and desperation mingling in her tone, but you better put some more distance between you and her. She’ll only be more powerful up close.

  “Sardelle?” Tolemek knelt beside an open trapdoor. Kaika had already disappeared into the dark space below.

  Sardelle staggered toward him, her hand clutched to her chest, most of her focus on fighting off the attack. “Got anything in your bag to thwart a magical assault?” She tried to smile, but it was hard to manage when she felt like she was having a heart attack.

  “Explosives?”

  “She’d just make a shield.” Sardelle pointed down. “We have to hurry. Jaxi is trying to delay her.”

  Tolemek offered her a hand to lower her down, but she waved him away, not out of pride, but because she had finally managed to erect a shield around herself. The pain in her chest had lessened, but she still felt the sorceress’s power and had the sense she was poised to spring another trap.

  Sardelle climbed down a metal ladder secured to the wall and into a space thirty degrees warmer than what they had left behind. Heat radiated from the clanking machinery she sensed in the darkness. The space was not lit, but she sensed a cavernous area that extended from one side of the platform to the other, supported only by sturdy posts. Boilers, engines, and other mechanical equipment she couldn’t identify filled the space, with tangles of wires, tubes, and ductwork dangling everywhere.

  Tolemek landed beside her with a curse as he banged his knee. He had shut the trapdoor, and not a hint of light seeped through from above. Usually, conjuring a sphere of illumination would be easy, but Sardelle was afraid to shift her energy from shielding herself to doing anything else. She could feel the sorceress coming closer, following them with the inevitability of a hound on a trail.

  Kaika had not waited at the bottom of the stairs. She had disappeared into the maze of clanking machinery. If she had lit a lantern, Sardelle could not see its influence anywhere. She looked down, startled by intense heat resting against her thigh. That wasn’t all from the temperature of the room. Jaxi’s pommel glowed like the embers in a stove.

  Are you all right? Sardelle asked. What are they doing now? Are they hurting you?

  Jaxi did not answer. Her silence alarmed Sardelle even more than a cry of pain would have.

  After another curse, Tolemek managed to strike a match and light a lantern. “Want me to lead? I can feel where the blood is. Not sure how to get to it.” He curled a lip at the wall of boilers and pipes that surrounded them.

  “Go ahead,” Sardelle said, distracted by Jaxi’s heat. “I’ll help if I can.”

  She thought about trying to put together an attack of her own to slow down the other woman, but if she was as powerful as Jaxi believed, she would easily bat away anything Sardelle threw at her. She ducked and followed Tolemek into the dark, hot maze. As they weaved through the chaotic rows of machines, Sardelle reached out to the other sorceress for the first time, trying to contact her. She doubted anything would come of talking to a Cofah, but maybe she could distract her with words if not power, slow her down slightly.

  Where are you from? Why are you working with the Cofah?

  She felt stupid asking the second question, because she anticipated the obvious answer, that the sorceress was Cofah. She only hoped to get the woman talking. If she was focused on talking, she wouldn’t be hurting Jaxi.

  When she didn’t get an answer immediately, she doubted she would. Soft clangs echoed down from above. At first, she believed they were gunshots, but she realized they were boots—soldiers running across the floor of the machine shop. Sardelle reached up and melted the locking mechanism on the trapdoor. Her team might have to cut its way out later, but she doubted that would be the case. The sorceress could easily incinerate that entire door if she wished.

  I am Cofah, a proud voice spoke into Sardelle’s mind. I am Tarshalyn Eversong. My family has always served the emperor. You are weak. I cannot believe someone gave you a soulblade.

  Which emperor? Sardelle ignored the insult. If this sorceress came from the distant past, from an ancestor closely descended from a dragon union, she would see Sardelle as weak. She would be right.

  Magaroshi Toathor the Third.

  Even as a student of history, Sardelle had to think for a long minute to place that ruler. Oh, she knew right away that he had died centuries ago, but how many centuries? More than ten, she was fairly certain. Fifteen? She believed he had ruled during the Tan’shan Dynasty. Sardelle hadn’t seen the woman’s armor and clothing yet, but from what Jaxi had described, fifteen hundred years might fit. You lived during the time when dragons still flew the skies?

  I am descended directly
from a silver named Jasholomodrin, the sorceress said, that pride coming through with her voice again. My great-grandfather. He lives still. Or he did. For the first time, Eversong’s certainty—her arrogance—faltered.

  I came from the past too. Sardelle was probably being delusional, but she couldn’t help but think that she might form a rapport with the other woman, at least make Eversong hesitate to kill her. Only three hundred years ago, though. The dragons were long gone by the time I was born.

  That is why you are so weak, your blood so diluted.

  I can’t claim any great-grand-dragons, no.

  You aren’t as puny as most of the magic users I’ve seen since waking up.

  Such a compliment.

  “Almost there,” Tolemek whispered, squeezing between two long cylindrical boilers, the walls and rivets hot to the touch.

  Sardelle stayed with him and kept herself from thinking of their plan, of what they meant to do down here. Even though she was guarding her thoughts as assiduously as she was guarding her body with a shield, she worried that Eversong would guess their intent.

  Jaxi, is she still following us? When Sardelle checked the trapdoor, she found it was still sealed.

  A soft moan whispered in her mind.

  Jaxi, is there anything I can do to help? Sardelle worried Jaxi’s nemesis, the other soulblade, had found a way to attack her, that they were engaged in some mental battle in a way she could not see or understand. Jaxi’s hilt blazed with heat.

  The world has changed a great deal, Sardelle told Eversong. She sensed the sorceress had entered the machine shop. She would find the trapdoor soon.

  Some things never change. Eversong sounded amused as she sent a picture of the battle outside that still raged. Our people are destined to war through all eternity it seems.

  Pointless. Sardelle banged her knee on a flywheel protruding from some machine. Tolemek glanced back, but she waved for him to continue, to hurry.

  Eversong chuckled. It is pointless for your people to continue to fight. A place awaits you in the empire, if only you succumb.