Now it was Sardelle’s turn to take some time digesting his words. You mean you’re risking your career by dumping that colonel all so we can get Tolemek’s sister? She could have done that on her own without his sacrifice. Granted, she wouldn’t have an easy time navigating Cofahre alone, but she would never have asked him for this.
I’d be lying if I didn’t say I also had the thought that it’d be nice to have you—and your snarky glowing sword—there if a flock of birds flies into the propeller during this mission. I have a hunch this is going to be more challenging than the king or Nowon thinks, and I had a bad feeling about Therrik too. Not just because he was fantasizing about shoving my face into a meat grinder. Not only because of that, anyway. He seemed… I don’t know. It was strange that he showed up at Tolemek’s lab and started threatening him. It was strange, too, that he knew about you. We’re not in the same unit, and we’d never talked before meeting with the king. I’ll admit I’m well known in the military and in the capital, but I haven’t known you long enough for anyone except close friends and colleagues to associate you with me.
Should you have voiced those concerns to the king or your General Ort before taking the initiative of drugging the man and dumping him out of your flier?
Of course not. Didn’t Referatu children have the same rule as regular Iskandian children have?
Sardelle squinted at the back of his head. Which rule is that?
It’s easier to receive forgiveness later if you didn’t first ask for permission and get denied.
Ah. That sounds vaguely familiar. The logic of ten-year-olds.
And pilots. Now, sit back and enjoy the flight. If you want to sleep, I’ll let you know when we’re close to Cofahre.
She leaned her head against the back of the seat, resolving to follow his suggestion, though she found herself wondering if she might do more on the continent than help locate Tolemek’s sister. Maybe she could find a way to prove herself on this mission. She didn’t think she needed to prove herself to Ridge, but if the Iskandian king, who apparently already knew about her, found out she could be an asset… maybe she could, one action at a time, clear the image of the Referatu and cut a trail for any other gifted people in the country. It would be much easier to find and train new students if she and they didn’t have to spend their lives camouflaging their talents.
“One step at a time,” she whispered.
Chapter 6
Ridge yawned and wished he had some coffee. The sun had dipped below the horizon, and darkness was returning. The squadron had turned to the northwest, following the Cofahre shoreline at a distance, a long distance. They were up high, skimming through the clouds, and when land came into sight, it was a faint smudge on the horizon. The encroaching darkness would camouflage them as much as the clouds, but the last thing they wanted was for an overly assiduous lighthouse worker or a sailor in a crow’s nest to spot them.
He turned in his seat and called, “Sardelle?”
She had taken his advice and slept most of the morning, then read in the afternoon, and was dozing again now, the book she had borrowed from the library in her lap. She, at least, would be fresh when they arrived. He and his pilots would need to find a spot to rest after the early morning and the long flight. They had detoured twice to avoid freighters and pirate airships in the distance. He didn’t think they had been seen, but it had definitely kept them alert to their surroundings.
Ridge couldn’t reach farther than her knee without unbuckling his harness, but it was enough. Her blue eyes opened, focusing on him immediately.
“We’re almost there.” He wondered if she would respond in his mind. He hadn’t found their mental conversation as disturbing as he might have expected—probably because it was her and not some stranger—but having the sword pop into his thoughts… That had been bizarre. Even though Sardelle had alluded to having some kind of relationship with it, it had never occurred to him that it might be a she and have the personality, intelligence, and sarcasm of a human being.
Sardelle peered through the clouds to the west. We’re cutting inland over the Alteron Steppes?
For some reason, Ridge hadn’t expected her to be familiar with the area. He didn’t know why. She had probably been here when she had been working with the Iskandian army of old. Maybe because she talked so little of her old life that he didn’t know what to expect from her past.
“Yes, it’s—” He switched to thinking his words, figuring she might expect that now. It’s the logical place, since the mountains are to the north and the desert to the south. It’s not a populous area.
No, it never was. Horrible dust storms in addition to poor soil. And you can talk to me in whatever way is comfortable to you. She rubbed her face and wiped her mouth—afraid she had been drooling in her sleep? He hadn’t caught her at it yet, but even if she had been… it would be a mild offense compared to what Therrik had done in that seat.
Good. We’re going to cut for land soon. I wanted to warn you in case—
Sardelle jerked her hand up and frowned toward the shoreline. The clouds had thickened, so she wouldn’t be able to see anything. Not with her eyes anyway. He looked that way anyway. Clouds scudded across the horizon, and the first stars had come out above. He shivered through his jacket. Their route had taken them farther from the equator, and the air felt much cooler than it had off the Iskandian shore, reminding him of the mountaintop mine where he had met Sardelle.
There are eight airships waiting out there, over the coast. She met his eyes. They’re strung in a line, each just within sight of the next, so they can cover a lot of territory.
You’re sure?
Positive.
Ridge jabbed at the communication crystal. “Everyone awake? Good. Cover your power crystals and hide any hint of light in your cockpits. We’re getting close. We’re going to change our original route to avoid being predictable and to fly in over the mountains.”
“The very white mountains with the storm clouds over them, sir?” Duck asked.
“Yes.” Ridge wondered if Duck had better eyes than he did or if he had been paying more attention. “Stay close and fly safe.”
“Yes, sir.”
Apex and Ahn echoed the words. They both sounded as tired as he felt, and he was picking a tougher route, but if there were unfriendly eyes watching, it made sense to take a few risks to avoid detection. The question was how had those unfriendly eyes known Wolf Squadron was coming? An assumption based on the fact that some spies had escaped? Or had someone warned them that Ridge and his team were coming through tonight? He couldn’t imagine that the king had told many people about this mission, but that old castle doubtlessly had a lot of servants wandering about in it, not to mention old crevices and nooks that might support eavesdropping ears.
Ridge was tempted to fly closer to land, to make sure he turned west at the right moment to take them into the shrouded mountains, but he didn’t want to be spotted—or heard—by an airship by veering inland too early, either. He couldn’t see much through the clouds.
A little farther. There’s one directly to our west, then one at the southern foothills of the mountains about four miles past it. That’s the last one.
Thank you. Ridge looked at the clock on the control panel, checked the air speed indicator on his wing, and used the time to count off the miles. He waited until the sixth mile, then dipped the flier’s nose and wiggled his tail to signal a turn. He could have used the communication crystal, but the old signals were ingrained in him.
You’re clear. The Cofah shouldn’t be able to see you.
He trusted Sardelle, but his shoulders were tense nonetheless as they flew west, the rough air within the clouds battering at his wings. He could correct the flier easily enough and hurried to do so. He still felt the need to impress Sardelle, and this was his milieu—and her first time in it. He wanted to give her as smooth a ride as possible.
The clouds parted for a moment, opening up the view to the south and west. Ridge
spotted the steppes and the mountains looming ahead before the fliers were swallowed by the haze again. He thought he glimpsed that northernmost airship, too, but it had also cut out its lights, so he couldn’t be sure.
“That’s uncanny, sir,” Duck breathed. “How did you know?”
“Know what?” Apex asked.
“About the airship,” Ahn said.
Great, two out of three of his pilots had better eyes than he did. He was getting old.
“Just a hunch,” Ridge said. He hated to take credit for Sardelle’s clairvoyance, but he wasn’t going to announce her sorceress skills to his people in this manner, either. Or in any other manner. It wasn’t his secret to announce.
You can take credit. I don’t mind. I think it’s nice the way they look up to you. Obviously, you’ve achieved that without my help, but I’m happy to contribute to the extraordinariness of the legend.
Ridge snorted. I’m about as extraordinary as a sock. I thank you for your help, though. You’ve already kept us out of trouble, and we haven’t even crossed over Cofah soil yet. He had no idea how the telepathy worked, but he tried to impart a sense of appreciation along with his thoughts. There weren’t words to articulate how relieved and glad he was to have her back there instead of Colonel Thugly. It was hard to articulate, too, how much it meant to him when someone helped keep his people from getting hurt.
Sardelle gripped his shoulder, then touched his cheek again before settling back to let him fly. She understood. Good.
They soon flew over the shoreline, passing into snow-dusted foothills, then snow-buried peaks. The storm clouds Duck had noted grew darker and denser, and flecks of snow stuck to Ridge’s goggles. He wiped at them with his scarf. Can you sense any other trouble ahead?
Not at this time. There’s nothing else in the air in our immediate vicinity. There are some villages near the streams down there, so I wouldn’t fly too low. Your propellers are noisy.
Yeah. That is one thing airships can do that we can’t: coast.
“Heading out to the steppes,” Ridge said when the coastline had disappeared behind them. “We’re going to fly north of Brandenstone, then west another fifty miles to our coordinates. We’ll find a landing spot and then send our worker bees off on their mission.”
“While we nap like turtles in a sunbeam, sir?” Duck asked, his words garbled by a yawn.
“While we take turns camouflaging our fliers, then maintaining a vigilant and professional watch over them and our surroundings, alertly awaiting the return of our allies.”
“I can nap while doing those things.”
“I did see him sleeping on the gun range once,” Apex said. It was one of the first things he had said all day that wasn’t a response to a direct question. Ridge planned to split him and Tolemek up as soon as the squadron arrived. “The cacophonous explosions going off all around him did not disturb his slumber.”
“I wasn’t sleeping. I was practicing feigning death, the way hog-nosed snakes do, so if I’m overrun in a big battle someday, the enemy will ignore me and go on to someone else. Someone with a big mouth full of big words maybe.”
“If you’re referring to thanatosis, the process by which some animals deter predators, then I believe it’s done without snoring.”
Ridge smiled, glad to have Apex speaking again. He hoped Apex would speak to him at some point, too, and that he wouldn’t be lumped into the enemy camp for having brought Tolemek along.
“Village lights below,” Ahn said. “And something bigger and brighter on that tower.”
Ridge saw it. There was a conical beam coming out of the top of the four- or five-story stone tower. They were too far inland for a lighthouse. Could the Cofah have some kind of searchlights for watching for intruders by night? He had flown all over the sea between Iskandia and Cofahre, but the king rarely ordered missions that actually breached enemy borders.
“Anyone know what that is?” Ridge asked.
It wasn’t here the last time I was in Cofahre, but that doesn’t mean much, Sardelle thought dryly. It looks like a mill converted into a watchtower. There’s a single person in a room at the top.
“Nowon says the Cofah have watchtowers in all of their villages within fifty miles of the ocean,” Apex said. “Their status as an aggressive and conquering nation has earned them enemies from all over the world, but they’re particularly concerned about Iskandian fliers, so these lights can be trained toward the skies.” After a pause, he added, “He’s also heard that some of the towers are equipped with defenses.”
“Like what?” Ridge asked. They were thousands of feet off the ground, so he couldn’t imagine anything ground-based bothering them.
“Nowon could only speculate. He’s always come to Cofahre by sea and traveled into this area by land. As far as he knows, we’re the first team performing an aerial incursion.”
“So we get to be the experimental mice in… some scientist’s lab, eh?” He had almost said Tolemek’s lab, and didn’t know if he had caught himself too late. Any mention of labs might remind Apex of his unwelcome ally.
“Apparently, sir.” Yes, Apex’s tone had chilled several degrees there.
Getting them to work together and get to know each other might be preferable to keeping them separated, Sardelle suggested. Despite his reputation and past mistakes—and, no, I do not mean to make light of what he was responsible for—he’s not a heartless, megalomaniacal tyrant when you talk to him. He’s actually pleasant and personable. That surprised me. Perhaps Apex will be able to, if not forgive him, forget about his past most of the time and learn to regard him as a coworker.
Pleasant and personable? That wasn’t quite how Ridge would have described the pirate.
Your Lieutenant Ahn finds him so.
Are you sure she didn’t use the words handsome and loyal to her to explain his appeal?
These are my observations, not hers. Though I’ll be happy to let him know you find him attractive.
Ridge grunted.
You learned to tolerate him during our shared weekends together, Sardelle added more seriously.
Mostly by avoiding him… I wouldn’t recommend he start a snowball fight with Apex. He’s not the playful spirit I am.
You know Ahn started that fight, right?
I suspected. I know my pilots well.
“That light is definitely probing the sky,” Ahn said. “It’s powerful for a gas lamp. What? Oh.”
Ridge was on the verge of asking her what she meant, then realized Tolemek must be saying something. The conical beam coming from the tower had lifted toward the sky and was sweeping across the clouds. Ridge didn’t like the way it was turning in their direction.
“Tolemek says the towers use oil burners, the same as their lighthouses, and an optical lens system to focus the intensity of the light. They’re on moveable somethings that can be tilted and turned.” Tolemek said something Ridge couldn’t hear—a correction probably, because Ahn added, “Close enough.”
“Well, that light is moving in our direction,” Duck said.
“Veer away,” Ridge said. “We’ll fly over the mountains until we’re past the city.” I don’t suppose you have any way of quieting our propellers, Sardelle?
I could, but your own people would notice. Do you want me to do it anyway?
He grimaced, not wanting to reveal her powers. If it had just been his squadron, maybe, but he didn’t know Nowon and Kaika that well. Therrik had certainly been full of threats when he had found out about Sardelle. Whenever and however that had happened.
No, never mind.
Ridge led the way toward the mountains again, though he didn’t like the heavy clouds wreathing them, obscuring the crags and ridges. Snow was falling, even out on the steppes, and something more akin to a blizzard lay ahead of them. He trusted his pilots to handle their fliers in winds and poor visibility, but at the same time, they were a long way from home without any spare parts or mechanics if they needed to do repairs. Only a few weeks had p
assed since that pirate battle over the harbor, where Tiger Squadron had lost two fliers and one pilot. Sardelle might be able to heal human beings, but cobbling a flier together and making it airworthy for a thousand-mile flight? He couldn’t count on that.
Something’s coming.
Ridge wiped his goggles and scanned the trees, rocks, and snow on the mountain slopes ahead. What? Where?
From behind and below. Two somethings. I don’t know what they are. They’re mechanical.
He loosened his harness and peered over the sides of his flier. Snow fell diagonally, thick flakes that hid the terrain. He could still make out the light being cast into the sky by that watchtower and thought he glimpsed something flying through it, perhaps halfway between that village and their current location. But as soon as it flew out of the beam of light, he lost it. The distance and snow made it hard to tell how large it had been. But smaller than an airship, he was certain of it. Another aircraft like a flier? The Cofah were reputed to be working on such technology, but nothing of that ilk had been spotted in Iskandian space yet.
“You see something, sir?” Duck asked.
“Maybe. I’m going to swing back and take a look. Everyone else, stay on course. If we get separated, meet at the first set of coordinates.”
“You want help, sir?” Ahn asked, and he imagined her patting the sniper rifle mounted in the cockpit next to her.
“Let me see what we’re dealing with first. You three have passengers that need to make it to the landing spot. If there’s trouble, and I can delay it… that’s acceptable.”
The mumbles and murmurs he got in reply didn’t seem to agree. Oh, well.
Ridge pushed forward on the stick, dipping below the rest of the fliers and turning back toward the watchtower.
Definitely not airships, Sardelle thought. But nothing natural. Almost like small versions of your fliers, but without pilots.