As he accepted it, she armed a grenade and hurled it at the men running toward or aiming at them. A bullet glanced off the deck at Tolemek’s feet.
He forced himself to stay put, even though his instincts shouted for him to run. Where would he run to up here that was safe? There was nowhere.
Kaika had hooked the rope to the emperor’s ship, and it seemed a secure hold. Tolemek tied their end to the railing as fast as his fingers could work. Another bullet slammed into the ship next to him, glancing off the railing two inches from his hand. The smoke might be marring the soldiers’ aim, but that wouldn’t last for long. Boots thundered toward them.
“Start climbing,” Kaika ordered.
“What? We’ll be targets for—”
An explosion rattled the deck, hurling smoke and shrapnel as it blew up in front of the soldiers.
Tolemek? Tylie spoke into his mind. Are you all right?
No! We’re targets right now. Where are you?
“Go, go,” Kaika barked. “They all know we’re here now.”
Wishing he was wearing armor, Tolemek grasped onto the rope, then swung down, hooking his legs over it, and pulling himself along underneath. He felt extremely vulnerable.
Very close. Lieutenant Cas was wondering if you wanted us to swing in and attack, or if the dragons are doing enough.
Attack! Tolemek cried before he could fully gauge the situation. Did they want the fliers coming in now? Before he and Kaika were anywhere close to the emperor? Yes, they needed all the distractions they could get. Otherwise they would never get close to the emperor. Attack, he said again.
The sound of machine guns firing reached his ears.
“That Raptor and the others?” Kaika asked. She, too, was crawling along under the rope, boots hooked over it as she pulled herself along with her hands.
Flames and smoke smothered part of the deck where she had thrown the explosive, but other soldiers had escaped the carnage and were racing toward the railing that Tolemek and Kaika had just left. Even moving as quickly as he could, Tolemek knew he had a long way to reach the other ship. One shot was all it would take to drop him a hundred feet or more into the water. Or onto that warship just below, the one firing up at the dragons. Dear gods, he was vulnerable from all sides. He couldn’t even see the emperor’s ship from his position. What if soldiers were already lined up at the railing over there, ready to fire at him and Kaika?
The buzz of a propeller sounded nearby. The familiar bronze body of a flier came into view, cruising past overhead. The pilot glanced down and waved. Cap and goggles hid the face, but he knew from her size that it was Cas. Quataldo sat behind her, a rifle raised as he picked out targets on the airships.
Tolemek nodded toward them, though he dared not lift a hand from the rope.
Her flier passed over him quickly, banked, and buzzed toward the emperor’s airship. Risking cannon and gunfire, Cas strafed the deck. Quataldo lobbed a smoke grenade.
Tylie? Are you still with me? Tolemek asked.
Yes. I’m flying with Lieutenant Farris, she responded. We’re right behind Cas. The other two pilots are almost here, and they’re going to join in too.
Good, but I was hoping you could talk to Phelistoth. It looks like whatever deal he was trying to make with the emperor didn’t work out. Any chance he’d help us out? If he can get away from the other dragon?
Tolemek doubted the odds were good of Phelistoth being able to do anything with that female after him, but he had to ask. He didn’t know if the fliers would be enough against a dozen ships. As good as Wolf Squadron was, the Cofah had ridiculous amounts of firepower to throw at them.
I’ll talk to him. Tylie didn’t sound that hopeful.
Tolemek’s knuckles bashed against something, startling him. The railing. He had reached the other ship. There was no sign of the soldiers he had feared would be lined up to shoot. As he pulled himself over the railing, he glimpsed some men hiding against the cabin walls, seeking shelter from a second flier coming in, slamming bullets into the deck. Other more determined soldiers risked the fire to stay at their guns. One man raced to the bow of the ship and hurled a grenade as Cas’s flier zipped in for a second attack. Quataldo shot the Cofah soldier in the forehead, but that did not stop the airborne projectile.
Cas pulled up, disappearing above the balloon as the grenade exploded. Tolemek hoped she had gotten high enough quickly enough that her flier hadn’t been damaged. With his gaze riveted to the spot, he clumsily helped Kaika onto the ship.
“This way,” she said as soon as her boots hit the deck. She grabbed him and led him toward a hatch in the back. The cargo hold.
“The emperor will have quarters in the forecastle,” Tolemek said.
“Maybe so, but we’re not ready to visit him.”
He raced after her. Booms came from the bay below, and explosions sounded all around the airship, soldiers aiming to take out the fliers. Even though he was on it, Tolemek hoped they aimed too close and took out the emperor’s craft.
Kaika flung herself at a soldier who ran around a corner and nearly crashed into her. They went down in a snarl of limbs. For the first time that night, Kaika met a better fighter than she, and after a couple of seconds, he’d gained the upper hand.
Tolemek ran up and clubbed him on the back of the head with his pistol. It wasn’t enough to knock him out, but it startled the man enough that Kaika got a knee into his groin, then slammed the heel of her palm into his nose. As he rolled away, Tolemek clubbed him again. There was no finesse to his attack, but it worked. This time, he slumped there without moving.
Kaika grabbed his rifle and tossed it to Tolemek. Not bothering to rise to her feet, she scrambled onto the cargo hold doors in the deck. She unlocked one side and flung it open. Without so much as a glance backward at him, she slipped into the dark hold. Shots were firing all around Tolemek, and he couldn’t help but think he would be hit any moment. He threw himself after her without hesitating, hoping the ship’s interior would be less chaotic.
He landed on sacks of something. Flour? Grain? He didn’t know and didn’t care. He rolled away. A good choice, because a soldier stuck his shaven head through the opening and fired at the spot where he had landed. Kaika shot from the floor of the hold. Her bullet caught the soldier between the eyes, and he flopped down, half hanging through the opening.
Tolemek hated the bloodshed, but accepted it as inevitable at this point. Once again, he berated himself, wishing he had agreed to the bait plan. Maybe it wouldn’t have worked any better, but they might have gotten so much closer before the chaos and the killing began.
“Hurry, Tolemek,” Kaika called, having already found a door leading out of the cargo hold.
Shaking his head, he raced after her, glad she knew the ship better than he did. She probably had the specifications for every Cofah ship in the fleet memorized.
Instead of turning down the passageway toward the front of the ship and the forecastle, Kaika ran in the other direction.
“Boiler room?” Tolemek guessed, starting to realize what her plan might be.
“Boiler room,” she agreed without looking back.
They didn’t run into anyone until they reached it. Kaika and Tolemek slipped through the door without making a noise. Two soot-stained firemen worked inside, wearing coveralls instead of uniforms as they shoveled coal into one of the big furnaces.
“Two minutes,” came a voice from a horn on the wall, the speaker somewhere above decks. “We are departing in two minutes. Engines had better be at full capacity or the emperor will have your heads.”
The firemen grumbled and shoveled faster. Kaika started toward them, her pistol in hand, her face grim. Tolemek stopped her with a hand and pulled out a knockout grenade. He was running low on them, but it was worth it if he could keep from killing two men who might not even be soldiers.
She flung her hand toward the boiler, but paused to let him go first. He rolled the grenade across the deck. With the booms and gun
fire roaring outside of the ship, the men had no chance of hearing its approach. Tolemek wiggled a finger and tilted his head toward the door. Kaika slipped outside with him, though she bounced from foot to foot, clearly irritated at the delay.
“I’m planning to blow that room into the skies anyway,” she whispered.
“I know, but I’d prefer to give them a chance to survive.”
“Whoever gave you the name Deathmaker?”
“A pirate.”
“Did he not know about your soft, squishy side?”
“Soft and squishy? Are you talking about my ass again?” It was perhaps not the best time to trade quips, but they had to wait for the knockout gas to work—and he had to keep Kaika from charging in prematurely.
“That, I trust, is firm. Surely even Ahn has standards.” Kaika twitched her chin toward the door. “Will they be out yet?”
Tolemek counted a few more seconds in his head, then nodded. “They should be now. The gas will be lingering. Hold your breath, if you can.”
He led the way in. The firemen were indeed lying on the floor, one by the furnace and the other halfway to the door. Kaika jumped over that one, running straight for the boiler. Tolemek grabbed the closest man and dragged him into the passageway. He didn’t so much as moan. Tolemek had no idea if leaving the man out here instead of in the boiler room would save his life, but it made him feel better to try. He took a breath before heading back in to grab the other one.
Kaika ran past him, her explosive already set. She was so single-minded and determined that he thought she might leave him, sprinting straight for the emperor’s quarters, but she waited, holding the door while he dragged the second man out.
“Boiler room,” the voice on the horn spoke, “are you ready for departure? Engines engaging in fifteen seconds.”
“Something will be engaging,” Kaika said with a snort. “Hurry. That’s going to make a mess when it blows.”
She raced down the passageway. Tolemek left the firemen behind and sprinted after her.
“How long do we have?”
Before she could answer, something crashed into the side of the ship. Tolemek was hurled into the bulkhead, his boots slipping out from under him as wood splintered and cracked. Kaika’s explosive? No, that had been something from outside. Realizing he still had to worry about the bomb, he scrambled to his feet. Another crash threatened to send him down again. A beam snapped in the passageway ahead, one end falling to the deck.
Phelistoth is helping, Tylie spoke brightly into his mind.
Some help. That was Tolemek’s last thought before Kaika’s bomb exploded behind them. Something slammed into the back of his head, and he pitched to the ground again, the world going black.
Chapter 14
Early morning light slanted in through the open barn doors when Ridge woke up. Scratchy hay poked him in his legs and back—his naked legs and back. His head throbbed, and something on the back of his neck itched. He lay on the ground, a woman’s limbs wrapped around him, a canvas tarp draped over them. He blinked in confusion, trying to remember how he’d gotten here—and how he’d thought a barn floor was a good place for a union with a woman. His first thought was that he had unwisely inveigled Mayford’s granddaughter into joining him, but then he recognized the blonde hair draped across his chest, the smug smile on the woman’s face, the possessive way her fingers curled around his shoulder. Mara.
Memories of the previous night slammed into him like a tidal wave, leaving his heart and his mind racing. He couldn’t remember all of the details of his actual union with her, but the moments before it had started were vivid. She was a witch. And she’d had a conversation in his head, one he apparently wasn’t supposed to remember but did. A conversation with... what? What was the voice that he’d been hearing for days? Not his subconscious. A familiar? Wasn’t that what witches had?
A sigh sounded in his mind. I’m a soulblade, a former sorcerer in my own right, though long dead now. An image flashed into his mind, Mara’s knife as it truly was, an intricately wrought sword she wore at her hip, one that had magical powers independent of hers. My name is Wreltad.
Ridge remained utterly still, trying to process the information and also scared of what would happen if he stirred and woke Mara. Tarshalyn. Whoever she was.
I regret that I was not able to intervene last night, the voice continued. She is more powerful than I am, and my mind manipulation techniques do not work on her. I thought to clear the drug from your bloodstream, but considered that your experience might be less... unpleasant with it there. Uncertainty mingled with the words, as if the voice—the sorcerer?—wasn’t sure he had made the right choice.
What did Wreltad care about right choices when it came to Iskandians? Did it matter if it—he—was Mara’s ally?
You’re Cofah, Ridge thought, having had that suspicion about her all along.
Yes. You and I are enemies.
Why did she—no, it was you, wasn’t it?—save me? Ridge’s mind, which was much clearer this morning, answered the question on its own. Because they wanted to use him to get to the king.
That was what I told her to justify it. In truth, I simply saw the opportunity to keep you from dying and acted upon it. We saw most of the fight. It was a noble battle, with the dragon defeated in the end. There was no need for you to die for defending humanity against a dragon.
If you’re Cofah, what do you care about the humanity in Iskandia? Or me?
We are here because there’s an opportunity to add this land to the empire, but that doesn’t mean we must be monsters. There is no reason to be inhumane or to act without honor. The voice sighed again. At least, I do not feel there is.
If there was some disagreement or schism between his two enemies—Mara and this sentient sword—then it seemed Ridge might exploit it somehow, but he had no idea how to do that right now. He didn’t even understand fully what he was dealing with. Before this, he’d barely believed that magic existed. He had no knowledge of dealing with witches. Or soulblades—whatever they were.
Not true, the voice said. You just don’t remember it.
How helpful.
Can you give me my memories back? Ridge’s brain locked on two of the words the sword had used earlier: mind manipulation. Are you the one who took them in the first place?
I... cannot return them, not now. That would not serve us. I swore to work with Tarshalyn three thousand years before you were born. I can argue for your life, but I cannot betray her. We are—she is all that I have left of my time, of my world.
Ridge would have felt frustrated or exasperated, but he was too confused. Thousands of years? What was it talking about?
What he did realize, confusion notwithstanding, was that he wasn’t going to get help. He needed to figure his own way out of this situation. Maybe he could knock Mara out somehow and escape without her, though the thought of leaving an angry witch in a village full of innocent people chilled his heart. It might be better to take her with him and try to figure out something to do between here and the capital.
I suggest you simply take her where she wants to go and then leave. If you stay out of her way, I believe she will let you live.
Ridge closed his eyes. Staying out of the way isn’t an option for a soldier. Will you tell me why she wants to see Angulus?
I cannot.
To blackmail him? To kill him?
Wreltad did not answer.
That in itself was telling. If her intentions had been innocuous, Wreltad probably would have explained that. Ridge had to assume that Mara meant to kill Angulus. If she wanted Iskandia for the empire, getting rid of the regime currently in power would be a logical starting point.
Ridge turned his head, searching for ideas while being careful not to wake up Mara. The colonel’s old flier stood in full view, its bronze rivets gleaming in the pinkish morning light, the machine guns just visible. He wondered if the colonel had loaded the ammunition he had offered. Not that it would be much good unl
ess he was in the air and could maneuver the flier around to aim them.
Would a bullet even kill a witch? How did one go about doing that? Or at least disabling her? He wasn’t sure he could bring himself to kill someone who had been helping him, even if she had been doing it as part of some scheme against his country. Besides, as far as he knew, the worst crime she had committed so far was drugging him and taking him to bed. He might be personally affronted by that, but he couldn’t kill her over it. Assassinating Angulus would be a far greater crime, but he didn’t have any true proof that she meant to do that or that she had the ability to go through with it. Could one punish someone for a crime before it had been committed? Not righteously so, surely, but if she succeeded in committing it, later he would have to live with the guilt of knowing he hadn’t tried to stop her when he could have.
Ridge was tempted to ask Wreltad if Mara had done anything criminal since arriving in Iskandia, but he doubted he would get an honest answer. He was her ally; he’d said it plainly enough. And he was remaining silent while Ridge wrestled with this.
He spotted Mara’s clothes in a heap in the hay next to his and wondered if she had any more of whatever drug she had used on him. Might it dull a witch’s powers? He had certainly been a mindless idiot under the influence of it. And it had lasted hours, having worn off some time while he slept. Could he give her enough to get her back to the capital and then hand her over to the king? Or maybe General Ort? Ridge didn’t know if either of them would have a clue about how to restrain a witch, but they had to know more than he did on the matter.
Ridge eased to the side, trying to escape her embrace without waking her.
Her hand tightened on his shoulder. He froze.
Mara lifted her head and rested her chin on his chest. Her eyes weren’t exactly adoring. Triumphant was the word that came to mind.
“It’s light,” Ridge said, pretending he hadn’t just been contemplating drugging her, “my head only throbs moderately, and if I knew where my clothes were, we could leave for the capital. I suppose clothes technically aren’t required, but the harness pinches if you’re in the cockpit nude. Long story as to why I know that.” He was babbling nervously, but he couldn’t stop. Wreltad had proven that he could read his mind. Might she have that ability too?