“Bah! He won’t notice us,” said Stephano. He grinned. “We’re selling calvados, like all the rest of these boats out here.”
The harbor was surprisingly busy, considering the blockade. Ships were being permitted to enter, just not to leave, which meant that in some cases, arriving vessels had no place to dock. They were now lined up in the harbor, waiting for ships in port to leave so that they could unload their goods. The harbormaster was frantically urging vessels that had been unloaded to vacate the dockyards to allow others to enter. Most furious captains were not in a mood to cooperate and refused, which meant a good deal of confusion in the harbor and on the docks.
Trundlers, ever quick to take advantage of a situation, filled their houseboats with food, water, and calvados-especially calvados-and sailed around from ship to ship, selling their wares to stranded sailors. Merchant captains were notoriously lax when it came to discipline and they could not keep their crews from trading with the Trundlers. Now many of the sailors on board the merchant ships were roaring drunk. Collisions between the hundreds of ships massed in the harbor were inevitable, even if the sailors had been sober. Fortunately, none of the incidents were serious: masts splintered, balloons punctured, the lines of two ships becoming entangled.
The Cloud Hopper joined the Trundler Calvados Armada and they were now just one more gaily colored Trundler vessel among many others selling the apple brandy. Miri navigated the Hopper expertly in and under and over and around the various ships floating in the harbor to bring the vessel as near the Silver Raven as she thought was wise. She kept the tall masts and sails of another vessel between her ship and the Silver Raven as cover. Sailors on board the ship, seeing the Trundler boat, yelled and waved for Miri to come closer.
“Captain! Look!” Dag called.
He had his spyglass out, was keeping watch. Stephano had lowered his glass to rub his eyes. He lifted the glass again.
Henry Wallace-the man they had known as Russo-was standing on the deck of the Silver Raven. Beside him was Rodrigo, unmistakable in his lavender coat. Wallace was holding a pistol to Rodrigo’s head. Rodrigo, seeing them, lifted his hand in a light and airy wave. Stephano swore and lowered the glass.
“Dip the flag, Gythe. Let Wallace know we get his goddam message.”
Gythe lowered the Cloud Hopper’s flag up and down. Sir Henry waved his hat in return and shoved Rodrigo into a deck chair where a sailor stood guard over him. Sir Henry went to speak to the captain.
Taking advantage of the confusion in the harbor, the Silver Raven set sail. Undoubtedly the captain had told the harbormaster he was giving up his place at the docks, and no one paid attention to the Raven as she left, maneuvering carefully to avoid running into another ship. The merchant ship would be safe until she tried to run. Then the shore batteries would turn their cannons and their magically guided rockets on her. The navy ships would fire a warning shot across her bows and then, if she kept sailing, ship and shore batteries would both fire in earnest.
The merchant vessel was considerably larger than the Cloud Hopper. Designed for long voyages into the deep Breath, the two-decker had two large masts that supported twice the number of balloons as the Trundler vessel. The Raven carried a crew of at least forty men, but, being a merchant vessel, she was armed only with swivel guns which were used to fend off pirates. The Cloud Hopper was more maneuverable and more heavily armed. Stephano wondered what Wallace was going to do. Was this an attempt to flee made in desperation or did he have some sort of plan?
He has a plan, thought Stephano gloomily. He knows I’ll urge the navy to let him go so that he won’t harm Rigo. Of course, once he’s escaped, he’ll kill my friend.
“Keep on him,” Stephano told Miri.
“What do you think the navy will do?” Miri asked.
“Knowing the navy,” said Stephano bitterly. “Nothing.”
During the time required for Miri and Gythe to prepare the Cloud Hopper for sailing, Stephano had dispatched an urgent message to the naval flagship, the Royal Lion, one of King Alaric’s new balloonless ships that relied on the Blood of God, the liquefied form of the Breath, to remain afloat. Stephano had used his name and had even gone to the extreme of invoking his mother’s name to tell the navy that the Silver Raven was carrying extremely valuable cargo. He pleaded with the admiral not to fire, but to attempt to capture the Silver Raven and take all the passengers into custody.
He was not very hopeful the navy would agree. Stephano had few friends in the Royal Navy anymore, especially after the incident at the Estaran fortress and his duel with Hastind, the man who had ordered his guns to fire on Lady Cam. Unfortunately, Hastind was now the Commander of the Westfirth Squadron and the Royal Lion was his ship. Hastind would certainly not be inclined to do any favors for Captain de Guichen. Stephano’s only hope was Dubois-the man he’d shot. The grand bishop’s agent could order the navy to try to seize the vessel, take Wallace alive. But Dubois could also order that the Silver Raven be blown out of the skies.
“We could stop the ship, sir,” Dag suggested. “Shoot off a spar, puncture the balloons…”
Stephano shook his head. “Wallace would kill Rigo.”
“Again, sir, I am sorry,” said Dag heavily. “This is my fault.”
Stephano clapped his friend on his shoulder and managed a reassuring smile. “It’s nice to know I’m not the only person in this boat who screws up. Run out the cannons, make sure they’re loaded and ready to fire.”
Gythe gestured to the hull of the Cloud Hopper and made signs to her sister, who translated. “Gythe says she has replaced the magical defenses. She and Rigo did it together. He showed her how to lay the spells properly this time.”
Gythe shifted her worried gaze to the Silver Raven. They could see Rodrigo on deck. His lavender coat showed up well against the backdrop of the gray cliffs.
“She wants to know if Rigo will be all right,” said Miri.
“He’ll be fine,” said Stephano, wishing he meant it. He added briskly, “Dag’s going to run out the guns. Gythe, you’d best take the Doctor to the storeroom.”
“What’s the point of running out the guns?” Miri asked, as her sister went to corner the cat, who knew where he was headed apparently, for he ran underneath a deck chair. “Wallace knows you won’t shoot his ship.”
“The captain of the Silver Raven doesn’t know that,” said Stephano. He paused, then added, “And then there’s the naval ships.”
Miri stared at him, aghast. “You’re planning to take on a naval warship?”
“I won’t let anyone harm Rigo, Miri,” Stephano said. He turned to face her. “But you have the final say. This is your boat. If you don’t want to risk it, I understand. Sail over to shore and let me get off. I’ll find some other way-”
“How dare you?” Miri flared.
“How dare I what?” Stephano asked, startled.
“How dare you accuse me of letting someone harm Rigo?” Miri wiped away her tears and blinked her eyes, trying all the while to steer.
Stephano was taken aback. “Miri, I didn’t say anything of the kind
… I just wanted you to know…”
“Get off my bridge, Captain de Guichen,” said Miri, through clenched teeth. “Go help Dag. Or are you going to get rid of him as well? I suppose you figure you’ll take on a sixty-four-gun warship single-handed!”
“Miri, you know I didn’t mean it-”
“Go!” Miri ordered.
But instead of going, Stephano put his arm around her and hugged her close.
“Thank you,” he said huskily.
“Get along with you!” Miri snapped. “Let me do my job before we smash into that trawler up ahead.”
Stephano lifted the glass to his eye to have another look at the Silver Raven. Stephano was armed and wearing his heavy flight coat and light chain shirt. The dragon pistol was in its holster on his right side, opposite his rapier. Loaded muskets stood in a weapon stand against the ship’s rail. Dag wore his bre
astplate that still bore the burn marks from the demons’ ambush. He had a pair of pistols tucked into his belt. His blunderbuss and his boarding ax were in a nearby weapon stand.
The Hopper and the Silver Raven were both coming up on the Old Fort, leaving the dockyards and the mass of ships behind. Apparently, no one aboard any of the blockade ships had noticed the Silver Raven trying to slip out. The ship glided along, hugging the shoreline, with the Cloud Hopper in dogged pursuit.
“He’s sinking into the Breath,” said Stephano suddenly, alarmed.
“He’s leaking air on purpose,” said Miri. “The captain is reducing the lift of the ship’s balloons; that’s why they’re flattening out. Raven is slowly losing altitude, hoping no one will notice. He’s going to hide himself in the mists.”
Miri gave a lopsided smile. “We’ve done that ourselves a time or two, as I recall. It’s not a pleasant way to travel by any means, but then he only has to stay down there until he’s well away from the patrol ships.”
“Keep with him, Miri,” said Stephano.
“I’ll stay as close as I can, but once he dives down, I’ll lose him, Stephano,” said Miri. “You remember what it’s like in the deep fog. I wouldn’t be able to see you if you were right next to me, much less try to keep track of another ship!”
“This is why we had dragons, damn it!” said Stephano, slamming his fist onto the railing. “They could find Raven, fog or no fog. Look at Commander Hastind in that great bloody battleship sitting out there, blind as a bat.”
“I could fire the swivel gun, sir,” said Dag. “Draw the navy’s attention.”
“And they would fire on the Raven,” said Stephano.
“There he goes!” Miri called urgently.
The Silver Raven’s captain suddenly let all the air out of his forward balloons and dropped the prow of his ship. At the same time he pushed his airscrews to full, propelling the vessel into the mist and out of sight.
“Miri, follow him!” Stephano ordered, but even as he said the words, he knew it was hopeless. Once the Silver Raven was deep in the fog, the captain could sail off in any direction and leave them behind, with no way of knowing where he went.
Miri took the Cloud Hopper down as rapidly as she dared. Gythe had returned from stashing the Doctor in the storeroom (they could hear his angry yowls) and she and Dag and Stephano leaned over the rail, peering into the thickening mists until their eyes ached. Suddenly Gythe seized hold of Stephano and jabbed her finger.
“Look there!” Dag cried at the same time. He was leaning over the rail at a perilous angle, holding onto a line and peering into the Breath. “A firefly!”
“And it’s lavender,” said Stephano, smiling.
The small light shone palely, a tiny beacon guiding them through the Breath. The light was far below them. The Silver Raven had gone down rapidly.
“I hope I don’t crash into them,” Miri muttered, adjusting her course, letting the Cloud Hopper fall through the mists. “If I do, we’re both finished.”
The lavender light continued to glow. Stephano strained his eyes to see and his ears to hear when out of the mists below them came the sound of shouts and terrified cries and a bang.
“That was a pistol shot,” said Dag.
Stephano’s brow furrowed. “What the-”
Below in the mists, green light flared. Gythe gave a sudden gasp and a moan and backed up against a mast, cowering in terror. They could hear muffled voices and the sounds of gunfire.
“Get out of here, Miri!” Stephano cried. “Take her up! Fast as you can! Dag-the swivel gun!”
Orange eyes glowed in the mists. A bat flew past the ship, the speed of its flight shredding the mists. Green fire struck the Cloud Hopper; the boat’s defenses flared blue. Gythe cried out in pain and sank to the deck.
Miri’s fingers flew across the helm. Magical energy flowed into the balloons and the wings’ lift tanks. The smaller, light Cloud Hopper soared up through the mists toward the clear, sunlit sky above. Dag was manning a swivel gun, but, as he said in frustration, he couldn’t be expected to hit a goddam blur.
The lavender light had gone out, but they didn’t need Rodrigo’s signal anymore. The Silver Raven was also rising up swiftly out of the Breath. They could see the tops of her masts and the balloons, now fully inflated. Stephano and Dag both crouched tensely at the swivel guns, searching for the demons on their gigantic bats.
The Cloud Hopper burst into the sunlight. The boat was well out of the harbor area now, approaching the Old Fort. Stephano looked back toward the harbor and saw nothing out of the ordinary. Merchant ships and barges rode at anchor, resignedly waiting for the authorities to come to their senses and lift the blockade. Naval vessels were spread out from the naval station on the southwest edge of the bay, along the southern Rim east to the main harbor area. The northern shore was dominated by the Old Fort and the artillery batteries. The Royal Lion, pride of King Alaric and flagship of the western fleet, floated near the mouth of the bay.
“Dag, take the helm!” Stephano called. “Miri, take Gythe below.”
But although Gythe was obviously in pain, she refused to leave. Shaking her head, she allowed Dag to help her to a chair on the deck, but that was as far as she would go.
A gunboat, seeing the Cloud Hopper suddenly bob up out of the mists, was bearing down on them, though not with any sense of urgency. Trundlers could always be expected to try to slip past a blockade and were generally considered harmless, though the captain’s eyes must be opening somewhat wider at the sight of the Cloud Hopper’s two cannons, swivel guns, and the frog. Stephano could see no sign the navy had noticed anything out of the ordinary. The sound of the pistol shot fired down in the mists would have gone unheard, muffled by the Breath.
The Silver Raven sailed up out of the mists, emerging some distance from the Cloud Hopper. The sight of the merchant vessel appearing out of nowhere caused the navy gunboat to shift their attention away from the Cloud Hopper. Stephano swept the deck of the Silver Raven with his glass. He saw Rodrigo’s lavender coat and he gave a sigh of relief. Wallace was there, as well, talking to the captain. By his emphatic gestures and belligerent stance and the fact that he was aiming his pistol at the captain, the discussion was not going well.
“Flagship’s signaling, Captain!” Dag called.
Stephano lifted his spyglass, trained it on the Royal Lion. He suspected this flurry of signals must have something to do with the sudden and unexpected appearance of the Silver Raven. He could not read the flags; the codes were changed frequently so as to confuse any enemy who might be watching. He waited tensely to see if the gunboat, Capture, would respond and how it would respond.
The Capture fired a warning shot in front of the Silver Raven, ordering it to halt.
The Raven ignored the warning, continuing to add on sail in an effort to increase speed. The Cloud Hopper-now forgotten-trundled along gamely behind. The merchant ship, the gunboat, and the Cloud Hopper were now rounding a corner of the Old Fort, coming in view of the battlements and the guard towers and shore battery.
The battlements, made of magic-reinforced concrete and stone, were over a mile long. They ran along the northern Rim of the bay, up a cliff called the Short Step to the Old Fort, stretched along the shore until they reached the foot of the high, jutting cliff known as the Bastion. Beyond the cliff, the topography was wild and uninhabited, made up of hills covered with trees, outcroppings of jagged-edged granite, and spectacular falls of water where rivers cascaded off the continent and plunged into the mists of the Breath.
Stephano could see the long, black muzzles of the cannons of the shore battery thrusting out from the side of the cliff. He waited tensely for the shot that would cripple or sink the merchant vessel.
“Miri, bring us in close,” said Stephano. “We’re going to board the Raven. Dag, you’re with me.”
“Captain,” said Dag. He had his spyglass to his eye and there was a strange, strangled sound to his voice. “Look at tha
t.”
Stephano had his pistol drawn and was standing by the port rail, ready to step onto the ship’s short wings. Miri was sailing the Cloud Hopper closer to the Silver Raven. Both of them turned to Dag, then shifted their gazes.
A darkish gray cloud rolled over the hills, moving at incredible speed, lit from within by flashes of green fire and accompanied by an eerie whirring sound-the wings of countless gigantic bats. Hell’s Gates had swung wide. Aertheum had sent his legions to attack in force.
Stephano was momentarily paralyzed by the astonishing sight. Then he looked at the naval warships, whose officers were watching the harbor, ready to stop smugglers. He looked at the fortress, at the guards enjoying the show. All unknowing, unaware of the horror about to break over them.
Stephano had to warn Hastind, make him see the approaching danger. He ran to the storage locker on the deck where they stored such objects as signal flags, rope, and patching material for the balloons and sails. He flung it open and dragged out a flag made up of four blocks: red and white on top and white and red on the bottom. The flag’s message was terse and to the point: Standing into Danger. Stephano hurriedly attached the flag to the lines and ran it up the mast of the Cloud Hopper. The question was: Would anyone see it and, if they did, would they pay attention to a flag being flown by a Trundler.
“Dag, fire a gun to get their attention. Miri, all hell is going to break loose, and we’re now right in the middle. We need to-”
He paused a moment to look at the Silver Raven. The merchant vessel was ahead of them by several hundred yards. Rodrigo would understand the nature of the peril swooping down on them. So would Henry Wallace.
The Cloud Hopper’s four-pound cannon fired with a boom that reverberated off the towering walls of the fortress. Stephano could imagine all the spyglasses on all the navy vessels now searching for the boat that had fired. He watched Wallace standing on the deck of the Silver Raven. The gunshot had caught his attention. He would be certain to think that the Cloud Hopper was firing on his ship.
Wallace, his expression grim, aimed his gun at Rodrigo.
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