After locking Cas in, he headed for navigation again, tossing the ring on a hook near the exit as he passed. There were two seats up front, and Moonface, a graying man with big cheeks and a round face, already sat in one. An engineer and two fighters from the Night Hunter leaned against the wall. Goroth took the second seat. It was bolted to the floor but had the ability to swivel, and he spun around to face Tolemek.
“We’ve been cleared to depart,” Moonface said, his hands tapping controls on a panel that stretched across the width of the cabin with all manner of gauges, levers, and buttons on it.
“Let’s get going then.” Goroth waved to him, though he never looked away from Tolemek. “While you were doing the gods know what with your prisoner, I was in a meeting, talking a number of the other captains into helping us. And helping themselves, of course.” His wolfish smile returned. “The Night Hunter will follow us. And so will—” the smile broadened, “—the entire outpost. As soon as the majority of its repairs have been completed.”
“The outpost?” Tolemek asked. “It’s following us? To Iskandia?”
“Yes, as well as seven other heavily armed ships. As you might imagine, all of the Roaming Curse was riled after today’s attack. Angry and hungry for blood. If not Zirkander’s blood, then the blood of his people. With the help of your fog technology, they’re going to attack the city.”
“The capital city? There’s nearly a million people there. And who knows how many troops? Their airbase and an army fortress are right there in the harbor.”
The engineer was scratching his head at this revelation too. Moonface didn’t look that surprised—he was guiding the dirigible away from the docking station, and his hands never stopped moving across the controls. The lights beyond the big glass viewing window were drifting off to one side, and the stars and the black night horizon stretched before them.
“Hence the need for the fog,” Goroth said. “Which I promised you could deliver.”
“I don’t understand. Even if the outpost is shrouded by clouds, the soldiers in that city are going to catch on right away when bombs are being dropped from the sky. Their fliers will simply breach the fog the way they did this afternoon.”
“Ah, but we’re not going to put the fog around the outpost.” Goroth smiled. “We’re going to smother the city in it. Their fliers will have trouble taking off and landing. None of the ground troops will be able to see our ships, so they won’t be able to aim their weapons. Their defenses should be rendered far less effective than usual. The outpost and some of our ships will attack. Others will land and raid their museums, universities, shops, anything with valuables. It’ll be a risky raid for them, but worth it if they can bring home a lot of loot.” Goroth leaned back in the chair, his hands clasped behind his head. “And while the rest of the pirates are busy doing that—effectively distracting the entire city—we, my friend, will locate Zirkander and kill him. Though not before we find out everything about that sorceress and figure out how to get that sword. And any other invaluable magical items we can get our hands on.”
Despite the ludicrousness of this plan, Tolemek found himself intrigued by the idea of fogging in the city. Could it be done?
“Some techs dismantled the fog unit on the outpost, and I had it loaded on here. It’s back in the engineering section.”
Tolemek rubbed the back of his neck and stared thoughtfully at the deck. “I designed it to cover the outpost and the surrounding ships, but that’s a much smaller footprint than an entire city. This will take some time and thought.”
“Which I intend to give you,” Goroth said. “But you’d better get to work. It’s not that long of a flight to Iskandia.”
Already mulling over potential modifications, Tolemek nodded and headed for engineering.
*
Cas poked into the armoire, checked under the bed, and tapped the walls, hoping for secret compartments full of tools, weapons, or something else she could use to escape. Oh, it wasn’t as if she had somewhere to go, but she had a notion of sabotaging the engine, or perhaps the docking hooks—something that would cause a bumpy descent into the capital. If they crashed, the small crew would be scrambling, and she might be able to slip out at that moment. All she would need was ten minutes to run and tell the dock master that there were pirates in the city. Tolemek and his captain would be caught and executed for their crimes against the nation. The idea of a bullet shot into Tolemek’s forehead disturbed her, but what choice did she have?
“He shouldn’t have locked me in here if he wanted to live,” she grumbled. More, he should have volunteered to leave his crusty captain and come over to her side. “Unrealistic expectations, L.T.,” she sighed. “Unrealistic expectations.”
She had to arrange her own escape before worrying about such things, anyway.
The doorknob rattled.
Surprised, Cas faced the exit. She hadn’t expected someone to facilitate her escape. Ah, but maybe it was Tolemek bringing her something to eat. Except why would he turn the knob without first applying the key? He had been the one to lock the door; he had to know it would still be locked.
The knob rattled again, then someone knocked softly.
Hope swelled in her chest. It wasn’t possible that someone was here, trying to rescue her, was it? But who? All of the Wolf Squadron fliers had departed, and since the cockpits only had room for one, it wasn’t as if someone could have been dropped off.
No, whoever this was… she doubted it was a rescuer.
Cas cut out the lantern hanging by the door and climbed onto the top bunk. She might not know who was coming through the door, but it represented an opportunity, regardless.
Metal scraped against metal, a key being inserted in the lock this time. It turned, then clicked. The door was thrown open so hard it banged against the wall. An unfamiliar man lunged inside, pointing a pistol. Someone else lurked behind him in the corridor, glancing both ways. They both had the mismatched garb, scars, and tacky bone-and-teeth jewelry that she associated with the pirates. Enemies.
If Cas hadn’t doused the lantern and climbed out of the line of sight, she might have been shot right away. She had a split second before the man’s searching eyes located her, and she lashed out from her spot on the top bunk, kicking him in the face so hard that he staggered backward, dropping the pistol.
She jumped off the bed, pouncing on the weapon.
The first man had stumbled back into his comrade, who was trying to right him, or maybe push him aside to fire. Cas was faster. She snatched up the pistol and shot twice. She didn’t know who these two hedgehogs were, but they clearly wanted her dead. She made sure they wouldn’t want that—or anything else—again, then checked the pistol. Four more rounds.
She gnawed on her lip. She could get to the engineering room now, but Tolemek and the captain would charge out of navigation any second, having heard the gunfire. If she was going to sabotage something to set a trap, she wanted to do it stealthily, so they wouldn’t be expecting the trap to be sprung later on.
More gunshots rang out, this time from the front of the ship. Someone screamed in pain, then a ringing thud sounded, followed by something heavy crashing to the ground. Maybe this hadn’t been about her after all. Maybe someone was trying to take over the ship. To what ends, she didn’t know, and she wasn’t sure she cared, though a thread of worry wormed through her belly at the thought of Tolemek in trouble. He had been heading up to navigation for some meeting, hadn’t he?
More shots were fired, two from navigation, and then three more in rapid succession from the engineering room. Cas knelt and patted down the pair of dead attackers. She might need more than four bullets to handle whatever came at her next.
She found an ammo pouch and another pistol in a holster. Since she didn’t have any pockets, she took the moment to unfasten one of the men’s weapons belts and claimed it for her own. More sounds of fighting reached her ears, both from up front and from the engineering area. She thought about staying where
she was and seeing what happened, but an image of Tolemek bleeding on the floor flashed into her mind.
“Hope I don’t regret this,” she whispered.
Stepping over the dead men, Cas headed for navigation first, thinking he was most likely to be up there. Another shout came from that direction, followed by a gunshot. She didn’t hear any noises in the side corridor that led to the ship’s exit, and it was dark in that direction, so she only glanced that way and continued toward the navigation door—unlike when she first entered, it was shut.
She caught movement out of the corner of her eye and realized her mistake immediately. She ducked and fired at the same time.
Something leaped out of the darkness and slammed into her, taking her to the ground. Metal glinted, reflecting the orange of the nearest lantern. A knife? She fired again, her barrel pressed into someone’s abdomen.
A hand like a claw gripped her shoulder. She pushed and kicked at the man—she’d already shot him once, if not twice. He couldn’t possibly want more of her. But her opponent was huge, protected by layers of blubber. His hand tightened, and his other arm raised, a dagger clenched in his fist.
On her back and jammed against the wall, Cas kicked out again, aiming for the blade this time. Her foot connected, and the weapon flew out of the man’s hand.
She expected to hear it clunk off the wood paneling or clatter to the floor, but someone gasped instead. Not daring to glance away, Cas fired into her assailant’s gut one more time. Finally, the claw-like grip on her shoulder slackened. Even though he had stopped fighting, pushing him off was like moving a log. She squirmed out, nearly losing her prison tunic in the process. Blood coated her hands and her body.
“Got him, Moon,” came the captain’s voice from the navigation room.
Someone had opened the door.
Cas scrambled to her feet, but didn’t take more than a step before halting in stunned silence. The dagger. It had flown from her attacker’s hands and cut into the throat of someone walking—or maybe fleeing—out of navigation. The man—she thought she recognized him from passing by him on the Night Hunter—was leaning against the wall, clutching at his neck with both hands. Blood poured between his fingers.
She stared in horror, less because he was dying—there were men dying all around her—but more at the freakishness of the accident. She couldn’t have known the knife would strike someone; she’d only been defending herself.
The captain charged out of the navigation room, his temple bleeding and more blood spattering his garish bone breastplate. He had a pistol clutched in his hand, and when his gaze landed on Cas, she lowered into a tense crouch. She was still armed. If he aimed his pistol at her…
Hells, why wait? This man was a criminal. She didn’t know who these intruders were, but if she could fire first, she could eliminate the biggest obstacle in her path to freedom. He stared at her, his hand tightening on his own pistol, as if he read every thought in her mind.
A gurgle came from the man with the cut throat. He stretched out a blood-drenched hand, then collapsed.
At the same moment, footsteps sounded behind Cas. Fearing some new enemy, she backed into the cross corridor, the narrow stub that led to the dirigible’s exit doors. She never took her eyes off the captain. He glanced toward the dying man, his empty hand twitching in that direction, as if he wanted to help.
Now. This was her chance.
But Tolemek charged into view, with a burly man on his heels. He too was armed, and blood smeared one of his arms. His own? Or someone else’s? She didn’t see any wounds on him, but couldn’t tell for sure.
Whether intentionally or not, she didn’t know, Tolemek stepped between her and the captain. “What happened?”
Reluctantly, Cas lowered her weapon.
“Moonface is dead,” the captain said. “Torin too. That’s what happened.”
“One of these intruders almost cleaved my skull in half with an axe,” Tolemek said. “Who are these people?” He looked at Cas.
“I have no idea, but two of them charged into my room,” she said. “After trying the door, finding it locked, then going off to locate a key. It seemed rather deliberate.”
“All this to get at you?” Tolemek stretched a hand toward the dead pirates. “The bounty they placed on your head isn’t that big.”
“Maybe someone didn’t like my idea.” The captain touched his temple and scowled up and down the corridor. “I thought I had everyone going along with it, sold them on the notion of looting—” he glanced at Cas. “Nobody openly objected.”
Cas glowered at him. Looting what? Going after the colonel wasn’t enough? Now, these cretins had another scheme they were planning? Why hadn’t she shot the captain when she had the chance? Her hand flexed around the pistol’s grip. Tolemek was still standing between the two of them. She turned her glower onto him, but he was looking at the dead men in the corridor instead of her.
“Even if they didn’t agree with your idea,” he mused, “what would killing us do? Didn’t you already set things in motion?”
“Yes. Yes, I did. And we’re not discussing it further here.” The captain pushed past Tolemek and lunged toward Cas.
She lifted the gun, stepping back to put more space between them so she could shoot, but her shoulder rammed against the corner of the intersection. The captain moved more quickly than she had anticipated, too, smacking the pistol out of her hand. He grabbed her before she could decide if she should duck and try to dart after the weapon. As soon as his hand wrapped around her forearm, she knew it was too late. She had missed her chance. Fool, why had she hesitated? For Tolemek’s sake? That was ludicrous.
“Congratulations.” The captain sneered at her. “You’re our pilot now.”
Chapter 11
Dawn was bleeding pink into the sky beyond the portholes when Tolemek, yawning so hard his jaw cracked, made his way up to the navigation cabin. One of Goroth’s fighters had dragged the bodies of the dead into an empty cabin, but smears of blood painted the walls and the floor. That was going to be hard to explain to an inspection team. As was the big fog-making machine sitting on the deck in engineering. Tolemek had finished his modifications, but he needed to tell Goroth that there wasn’t enough of the murk-making materials to last long, especially not if they planned to blanket the whole city. Or maybe he didn’t need to tell Goroth. Maybe he ought not to help this scheme along too much. Hadn’t he caused Iskandia enough grief already?
Sighing, he pushed his hair back over his shoulders and opened the navigation door. He was relieved to find Goroth and Cas sitting in the chairs, if not in amiable silence then at least with neither sporting any new bruises. He had been reluctant to leave them alone when Goroth sent him back to finish his work in engineering, especially after catching them in the corridor with guns almost aimed at each other instead of at the injured foes on the floor.
Goroth waved him in, a sandwich in his hand. “You’re just in time, Mek.” He smiled, oddly chipper, considering he hadn’t slept all night, either, unless he had dozed up here, but he doubted he would dare leave Cas unattended. A pilot could do all manner of sabotage.
“Oh?” Tolemek asked.
Cas smiled over her shoulder at him, a surprisingly cheerful and agreeable smile. In other words, one Tolemek had yet to see from her. A queasy feeling came over him that had nothing to do with the grayish colored meat dangling from between Goroth’s pieces of bread. There was a crumb-decorated plate on the control panel beside Cas too. In all the chaos, Tolemek had forgotten to bring her a meal. Had she found a chance to eat the day before? She hadn’t in the hours she had been with him. She must have been ravenous. Ravenous enough to accept food from her mortal enemy? Goroth was clearly eating from the same plate, but he was tricky enough that he could have inserted something into one sandwich unseen.
“Yes,” Goroth said, “we’re about to have a chat, me and your pilot friend here.”
“About?”
“Zirkander. Where he liv
es. Who he knows of the magical-sword wielding persuasion.”
Instead of tightening her lips and glaring the way she usually did when someone tried to extract information on Zirkander, Cas nodded and smiled again.
Tolemek closed his eyes, feeling sick. Goroth had been in his laboratory, had even packed a bag for him. Slipping a few vials of the truth serum into a pocket would have been easy. After all the years they had worked together, Goroth knew about most of Tolemek’s formulas and where he kept them. Applying the liquid serum to something like bread or meat would be difficult, but… he eyed a smudge of mustard on Goroth’s upper lip and fought the urge to think bull’s-eye and punch him.
“Don’t look so irritated, my old friend,” Goroth said. “You want this information too. I know it. Zirkander for me. Sword for you, yes?” He held out a fist, inviting the clashing of knuckles pirates sometimes did to seal deals.
Though his hackles were up at the idea of tricking Cas into betraying herself, he couldn’t bring himself to walk back out and leave the questioning to Goroth. Tolemek did want the information. She might hold the answers, however inadvertent her knowledge, that could lead him to the prize at the end of his years-long quest. And this was a better way to get those answers than through brutal means, wasn’t it? That was why he had invented the serum after all.
Wordlessly, Tolemek bumped knuckles with Goroth, then leaned against the wall beside the door. He opened his palm toward Cas, inviting his friend to do the questioning. Tolemek knew everything about the serum, so he knew Cas would remember this later. He couldn’t bring himself to be the one who asked her to betray herself, though he supposed all that made him was a coward. She wouldn’t likely think any more highly of him for standing in the background and listening, for not doing anything to stop this.
Goroth finished his sandwich and rotated in his chair to face Cas, his hands on his knees, his face intent. “So, Lieutenant, is there anything you’d like to share about your commanding officer? Colonel Zirkander?”
Deathmaker (Dragon Blood) Page 15
