Scout's Law
Page 12
Jorson gave a sharp nod. “I should have thought of that, Highness. I’ll pass the word.”
Fortunately, the night sky provided more light than it had years ago when I sailed into Beloren under the cover of darkness to rescue David. Unfortunately, my night sight was no better than it was all those years ago. The Ensign had much better eyes.
“Captain Jorson, I see the glowing ball!”
The crew, already poised for landing procedure, leapt into action. Men pulled out anchor lines and heavy mallets. Others vented gas from the envelope and the big ship settled toward the ground. The engine crew dowsed the fire in the boilers, leaving the airship running on the remaining pent-up steam.
Even with the crew’s rapid response, the wind whipped up quickly. The taut rigging thrummed as the storm blew around them and the airship bucked in the driving wind. We were ten feet from the ground when the wind caught the envelope and pulled the ship back up into the air.
“It’s going to be dangerous landing in these conditions, sir!” an officer shouted over the wind. “If we’re not careful, the wind will catch the envelope and wreck us. It might also pull us higher before doing so!”
Jorson gave his officer a sharp nod. “Have crew stand by to cut the envelope loose—but not until I give the order!”
The officers relayed the command around the airship. Dozens of knife-wielding crewmen ran to stays, ready to saw away at the lines should the order come. Meanwhile, the helmsman worked the ailerons, trying to drive the airship as close to the ground as possible.
“Ensign Bodver,” Jorson yelled over the wind, “Do you see any possible cover from this wind?”
The young man lowered his spyglass and looked about the ship. A few seconds later, his arm shot out, pointing to starboard. “There, sir! A small alcove in the foot of the mountain!”
Captain Jorson didn’t even look where Bodver was pointing. “Helmsman—hard to starboard and follow the Ensign’s directions!”
Jorson took my arm and pulled me into the meager protection of an inner railing. “Stay here, away from the outer railing, Highness. It’s safer.” He turned to a nearby crew member. “Airman, protect the princess until we’re safely down!”
“Aye, sir!” Covering my body with his own, the airman shouted, “Pardon my familiarity, Your Highness.”
“There’s no pardon necessary,” I replied as I wrapped my arms around the airman and buried my head against his chest.
All around me the lines sang with the wind, snapping and popping as the envelope bucked in the wind. And then comparative silence descended as the Tercel sailed into the small alcove and out of the worst of the wind.
Officers shouted orders and the mighty airship dropped to the ground with a bone-jarring thump.
“Winch the envelope down, men! Quickly!”
A minute later, the envelope was nestled down on top of the Tercel, seriously cutting into our headroom. But the ship was down, safe, and intact.
But what of David and Jade? Was the pinnace caught by the storm? Watching the wind roar around us, I could only wonder and worry.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
David
The wind pushed against Jade and me like a giant hand, driving us backward. Sand and grit scoured every inch of exposed skin, opening dozens of scrapes. Small rocks hit all over our bodies, their jagged edges opening larger cuts that soon filled with dust and dirt.
Jade’s arms suddenly flailed as the wall of air pushed her off balance. I caught her around the waist and pulled her to my side. I spun the two of us around so the worst of the wind struck our backs then put my mouth to Jade’s ear.
“Stay low, keep your back to the wind, and don’t let go of me.” I couldn’t even hear my own shout over the wind, but Jade nodded her head. “Can you see any kind of shelter where we can hole up?”
In the dark and with all of the junk swirling in the air around us, I had little hope of finding any kind of cover—and I was partially right. I found myself putting what little energy I had left into keeping the wind from blowing Jade and me off the top of the mountain. But Jade, better rested and with younger eyes than mine, spotted something. Her arm shot out pointing to our right. I couldn’t see anything that way, but I lowered my shoulders and shoved my way through the strengthening wind in the direction Jade pointed.
After fighting my way across the longest ten feet of ground I’d ever crossed, we came upon a boulder leaning against a sheer part of the mountainside. Jade pointed down and I saw there was a space between the boulder and the little cliff face. Kneeling, I all but pushed Jade into the crevice then rolled in after her. The wind and the dust still assailed my back, but my body shielded Jade from the worst of the storm and we could breathe freely.
The girl’s face was right in front of mine, but I could barely see it. I felt her body trembling though I couldn’t tell whether that was from the exertion, fear, or cold.
“Are you all right, Jade?”
She started at the sound of my voice and must have turned to face me. I felt short, shallow breath on my cheek. I pulled the girl close to me, offering the comfort of human contact. Her body was stiff as a board.
“Slow your breathing down, Jade. You’ll feel better if you take long, deep breaths.”
Gradually, the girl’s breathing slowed and her body relaxed. Outside, the wind still howled, grit still got inside my shirt, and stones still smacked into my back. Inside, we had a small pocket of calm that slowly soothed Jade’s nerves. After a few minutes, she turned her head and pressed it against my chest.
“I thought this would be more,” Jade paused for a couple of seconds. “I guess romantic is the right word.”
“Real adventures aren’t romantic, Jade. Mostly, they’re uncomfortable and terrifying.”
“Um, yeah. That’s what I meant.”
Callan says I’m pretty dense when it comes to figuring out members of the opposite sex. I say that just means I’m no different than any other man. But for once, I actually put two and two together and figured out what Jade was talking about.
“You’re not talking about adventures, are you? At least, not just adventures.”
“I, uh, don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“That’s probably because I’m entirely wrong about something,” I said.
Jade was quiet for about a minute before she said, “You’re not wrong. I was talking about being rescued by you.”
“We can pretend I was wrong anyway,” I replied, “if you’d prefer that.”
Jade gave a long sigh. “No. Besides, being rescued by someone like you is just a silly little girl’s dream. It’s time I grew up.”
“First, you rescued me by saving me from fighting those trogs. I just helped you get out of the wind. Second, your dreams may change form as you get older, but that doesn’t mean you have to abandon them.”
“Huh?”
“There’s a part of my story that isn’t in any of the books or vids or songs people keep creating about me.” I smiled though Jade couldn’t see it. “I guess you could call the story David Rice and the Search for the Spacebabe.”
Jade listened attentively and snickered in all the right places as I told her of my lifelong dream of finding adventure among the stars and how the dream evolved into finding my soulmate. When I wrapped up the story, she sighed and said, “That is so romantic and sweet and pretty much impossible for us normal people.”
“Nothing in life is impossible, Jade. Believe in your dreams and they’ll come true in ways you could never imagine or predict.” I broke off for a huge yawn. “And now I really need to get some sleep.”
With the wind still lashing my back, I dropped into a deep and desperately needed sleep.
I awoke with a start as I felt a hand covering my mouth. My eyes refused to spring open as gummy eyelids resisted my first attempts to pry them apart. Just as I wondered if Boost was required to force the lids apart, both of them slowly pulled apart.
“Shhhh!” Jade his
sed.
As my brain came up to speed, I realized the girl’s hand covered my mouth. I nodded slightly so she’d know I understood. I blinked to clear my eyes and my eyelids stuck briefly. The sticking eased with each blink, though my clearing vision revealed very little. Weak light from Aashla’s ring filtered into our crevice, barely illuminating Jade’s green eyes and blond hair a couple of inches in front of me.
The girl pulled her hand from my mouth and whispered in a tight voice, “I heard voices just now.”
Keeping my voice as low as hers, I asked, “You’re facing out—can you see anything?”
She lifted her head and, with worried eyes, peered past me. “Not really. I think the windstorm piled a lot of dirt and small rocks against your back.”
Only when she mentioned the windstorm did I notice the wind no longer shrieked behind me. Then I heard the sound of feet walking through loose stone.
“What’s with this foot search, Van? Ain’t this what that fancy airship is fer?” The voice held the whiny tone of a born follower.
“The bat reez what run it be pleated so’s they sent us.” The second voice was both confident and exasperated. It reminded me of every know-it-all I’d ever met.
“Oh. Can it be repleated, Van?”
“Course it can, Frank. Didn’t you listen up when we joined?”
The footsteps stopped not ten feet from us. I imagined Van looking at Frank in irritation.
“I tried, Van, but it didn’t make no sense.”
“They’s got to…” Van paused as if trying to recall exact wording. “Uh, deploy the solar collectors. But they don’t work if’n the sun ain’t up.”
“A’right, Van, but that don’t splain what we’s doing lookin’ around up here. It ain’t like we can pull the sun up.”
“Damn, Frank, we ain’t looking fer the sun. We’s lookin’ fer survivors from that little airship what the boss said was flyin’ round this here mountain. Someone musta made it since them trogs what was guardin’ up here done disappeared. Now come on.”
The footsteps started again, heading down the mountain and away from us.
“I don’t rightly mind much if’n them survivors kilt a few trogs, Van. Never liked workin’ with them no how.”
The voices faded as the men walked away so we barely heard Van’s response.
“Shut up, Frank.”
As the footsteps drew farther away, I whispered, “Well, there go a couple of born minions.”
Jade snorted quietly and slapped a hand over her mouth. After composing herself, she whispered, “Don’t do that! What if I’d laughed out loud and brought those two back here?”
Doing my best to imitate Frank’s accent, I said, “Welp, I figger I could make ‘em think they done found a talkin’ rock. Or if’n they’s got blaster rifles, I ‘spect they’d probably shoot each other.”
The girl clapped a hand over my mouth again. “Shut up before I really do start laughing!”
The exchange eased much of the girl’s tension, so I did as she asked and changed the subject. “I want to get out of this crevice, but we’ll only go if you’re up to it. Did you get any sleep?”
“Yeah, I got enough sleep. It’s not like I did anything really tiring today. Or yesterday.”
“Good. You’ve got better ears than me. Can you hear anything out there?”
Jade listened intently for half a minute. “I can’t hear anything. We’re as clear as we’re ever going to be, David.”
I slowly swept an arm behind me, pushing debris away from my back. Then I rolled out over the remaining hump of stones and rose stiffly to my feet. I cleared more space for Jade and she wiggled out of the crevice. We both took a minute to stretch the kinks out of our muscles.
“Are you feeling okay, Jade?” At her nod, I continued, “Good. You need to work your way down the mountain and get back to your father. You’ve just got those two idiots to-”
Jade folded her arms and glared at me. “Oh no you don’t, David Rice! You need someone to watch your back up here. And if you run into any more trogs, who’s going to tell them you’re the Hand of Death?”
“I appreciate the offer, Jade, but there’s no way I can take a teenage girl any closer to this place!”
“You’ve taken teenage boys on adventures before! Or did the stories get that wrong, too?” The girl’s glare intensified when I shook my head. “Besides, I’m just going to double back and follow you as soon as you’re out of sight. So either we both go back to my father or we both go on.”
I blew out my breath in exasperation. “You sound just like Callan.”
Jade grinned. “Thank you!”
“Fine, you can come—but only if you do exactly as I say. This is just a scouting mission. We’re going close enough to get a look at what’s going on and then we’re leaving. Is that clear?”
“Yes sir!”
I walked in the direction the trogs and the two minions came from. “Stay close and stay quiet.”
We slipped silently along the path, ears and eyes searching the area for any indication of guards. I was closer to my destination than I’d imagined. A couple of hundred yards later, we came to the top of a precipice. Looking over the edge, I saw a ladder attached to the rock. It descended to a ledge about thirty feet below us. The top of a second ladder was visible descending from the ledge. Most of that ladder lay in darkness, but I assumed more ladders allowed men and trogs to ascend from the desert floor a good two hundred feet below us.
Bright light spilled from the mouth of a large cave far below, illuminating the desert floor where sat the docking space for the anti-grav airship. Men in chains moved around the airship, cleaning it and making repairs. Even in the dim light, I recognized Mordanian naval uniforms on the men.
Just then Jade caught my arm. “Someone’s coming up the path!”
Two voices conversing in low tones came from around the long curve in the trail. We had mere seconds to get out of sight before the owners of those voices came into view. Only, there was no place to hide at the end of the trail—no handy jumble of boulders, no crevices to slip into, nothing.
If the men had blaster rifles, they’d have us dead to rights. If they only had swords, I could almost certainly win past them though not before they raised the alarm. That meant I had to find a way to take them out quickly and quietly. That left us with only one place to go—down.
“Climb down the ladder, Jade. Do you think you can fit between the ladder and the cliff?”
The girl’s eyes widened in surprise, but she took a quick look over the edge of the precipice and nodded.
“Good. Go down about ten feet then do that. Loop your arms through the rungs and hold tight once you’re in place.”
Having grown up on and around airships, Jade ignored the two hundred foot drop to the desert floor and climbed nimbly down the ladder. Once there was room, I followed her. Jade easily maneuvered to the back side of the ladder and threaded her arms and legs around the rungs. I breathed a sigh of relief knowing she wouldn’t get knocked off the ladder if I were forced to throw anyone over the cliff.
The voices drew closer, talking in low tones and joking like men on a boring duty have done for thousands of years. “It’s a good thing the boss sent us up the side of the mountain. Those two idiots going the other way couldn’t find their own asses with both hands and a mirror.”
“Yeah, but as my old sergeant use to say, there’s a place for morons in every army.” The man paused briefly for dramatic effect. “And that place is between you and the enemy crossbows.”
The other man laughed. “I’ll have to remember that one.” The laughter stopped and the man raised his voice. “We saw the pile of dirt and stones you must have used to conceal yourself under that rock. Whoever you are, we know you came this way because we’d have seen you if you went down.”
The man paused for a few seconds, probably giving me a chance to surrender peacefully. I looked down at Jade and held my finger to my lips. She nodded.
Another few seconds passed before I heard the pair resume walking toward the end of the trail. They stopped a few feet from the edge and I heard one of them get down on his hands and knees.
“Cover me.”
The man crept to the edge. I made my move when the top of his head came into view.
Boost!
My implant poured adrenaline into my veins and time slowed. Above me, the man’s eyes widened at the sight of me. Before he could even open his mouth, I punched him fast and hard in the throat. My blow crushed his windpipe, leaving the man’s mouth opening and closing to no effect. He was already dead, his brain just hadn’t gotten the message yet.
By instinct, the man’s hands went to his throat. His chest dropped to the ground and the man’s body started sliding over the edge. His partner gave a cry, grabbed the dying man’s feet, and pulled him back from the cliff’s edge. With the other guard distracted, I made my next move.
Grabbing the top rung of the ladder, I shoved off hard with my feet and swung feet first onto the edge of the cliff. The uninjured guard had just enough time to realize something was wrong before I kicked him hard under the chin. His head snapped back with an audible crack and the man collapsed, his body spasming in the throes of death.
I pulled the suffocating guard away from the edge and snapped his neck, giving him a few seconds respite from a particularly horrible way to die. Then I dropped Boost.
Both guards had carried blaster rifles, which I took. From the look of the guns, my lesson on weapon cleanliness impressed Thor. The rifles’ delicate electronics were wrapped in airship envelope cloth—not as effective as the molded shells a Federation blaster had, but much better than leaving the rifles open to the elements.
“Jade?” I called in a low voice. “It’s safe to come back up.”
The girl didn’t answer. My heart leapt into my throat for fear she’d lost her grip on the ladder. I rushed to the edge, praying I wouldn’t spot her crumpled on the ledge at the end of the first ladder. I spotted her on the ledge, all right, but she wasn’t injured in the least.