“This thing could haul a dozen men,” Robie mumbled.
“Or a handful of cannons,” I added.
Finally, I had to pull myself away. I returned to the guards and told them I would be back in a few hours. “Tell the princess I’ll have the rest of my recruits and supplies here before dawn. I’ll need the Tal’mar pilots ready to fly tomorrow morning.”
“As you wish,” the guard said. He motioned for Robie to follow him. Two minutes later, I was back in the air.
From that point on, it all became a blur. On the next trip I brought Tinker, along with a load of springs and some of his tools so that he could go straight to work assembling the planes. I left him to it, and returned for my remaining pilots.
As promised, I returned from my last trip right at dawn. When I got there, my Tal’mar recruits were waiting with the rest of the pilots. There were five of them, ten of us in total. I instantly recognized the three who had shown such interest in my plane when I’d first arrived. They greeted me by name as I approached, and then introduced me to their companions.
“So you all want to be pilots?” I asked. They all pronounced loudly that they did. “And you all understand that these planes will have metal in them?”
“We understand,” the boy said. “We don’t care.” They all seemed to share his sentiment.
“All right, then. Let’s take a look at our planes.” We walked over to the park, and a small crowd started to form behind us. I think everyone around us knew that we were making history, except perhaps my pilots. They were just kids who wanted to do something exciting, something different.
I located Tinker and asked him about his progress. The two guards who’d been on duty when I arrived were now assisting him. The woodworkers who had actually built the planes were nowhere to be seen. I suppose that shouldn’t have surprised me. They must have been horrified to learn that metal was going inside of them.
“We’ve got four,” Tinker said. His eyes were dull from exhaustion, and he looked older than he ever had before. “We’ve had to make a few modifications to fit the gearboxes and controls. The Tal’mar didn’t quite understand how it was all going to fit together.”
“All that matters is that they work,” I said.
“They do. But as I said, we’ve only got four. I’m still working on number five, and the last two will require extensive fabrications.”
“Then four will have to be enough.” I spun around to face my pilots. “There will be four of us on this first mission. Robie, Shea, and Thala… come with me. The rest of you, help Tinker get these other planes finished.”
There were a few sighs from the pilots who had been excluded, but I gave them an encouraging smile. “Don’t worry, by the time I’m done with you, you’ll be sick of flying.”
“I doubt that,” Kalen said.
I led my small group back outside the city wall. “We don’t have much time,” I told them. “Our troops are fighting today, maybe even right now. The faster we get to Anora with air support, the more soldiers go home tonight. So this is what’s going to happen: each of you is getting a lesson. We will take off, circle the island, and land. That’s it. You get this one flight, you do it right, and you’re a pilot.”
“What if we don’t get it right?” said Robie.
“What do I care? If you don’t get it right, I’ll be dead. Robie, you’re first.” He gulped as I motioned for him to climb into the pilot’s seat.
Robie had already seen me fly, and he was familiar with the controls. I instructed him through the takeoff, and moments later we were in the air. Robie let out a triumphant shout as we climbed up through the treetops and the landscape shrank below.
“Nice job, Robie. Circle around to the west. When you see the coast come back around. Keep an eye on your gauges.”
“Yes, sir!”
Robie did fine. His landing was a bit rough, but he already had a good grasp of the fundamentals and I was confident he was going to make a great pilot. It wasn’t so easy with Shea and Thala. Shea was one of the Tal’mar boys who had first asked me about flying, and he was eager to learn. His hand was unsteady, which I partially attribute to the fact that he was surrounded by steel. I could also sense his apprehension, and I did my best to keep him calm as I walked him through it.
It was a rough and uncomfortable flight. It seemed the more I told him to calm down and focus on his flying, the more nervous he became. Ultimately, we survived and that was good enough for me. I was confident that he would settle into it after some practice.
Thala was a whole different situation. She was older, about twenty in human years which made her considerably older than me. And she had a chip on her shoulder. She was an aggressive flyer, to say the least. I couldn’t tell if she was trying to prove something or if she just had a very wild personality. When we took off, she jammed the throttle wide open and shot us into the air like a rocket. Instead of making long, sweeping turns, she tended to yank on the controls and shoot us off at a ninety degree angle. Several times she did this, and each time it left my stomach hanging somewhere out there in space behind us. I tried to explain the stresses this was creating on the airframe, but it seemed to pass in one ear and out the other.
I was glad when we landed. I was reluctant to let Thala fly again, but at the same time, I knew she must have had some bottled up emotions that she needed to work through. Flying perhaps, was a way to do that. Besides, I had promised. So, with my pilots chosen and trained –at least as well as they could be - we returned to the park to collect our planes.
The streets were crowded now, mostly with Tal’mar citizens eager to get a look at this exciting new invention and the pilots who would be taking it into war. They cheered as we walked through the gate, and my pilots took to their newfound celebrity like fish to water. They smiled, waved, and shook hands as we entered the city and crossed into the park. My reaction was more reserved. I was too focused on our mission to let the elation of the moment take me. I kept my eyes ahead and my face straight. Inside however, I was dancing. Now we just had to complete our mission, and come out of it alive. I should have known I was hoping for too much.
Chapter 49
I’ve already described the absolute mastery that went into those planes. The real test however, was in the air. I was not disappointed. With their sleeker, lighter design and longer wingspans, the Tal’mar planes flew almost twice as fast as mine did. Thala was the first to test the planes’ aerobatic abilities, almost as soon as we were in the air. She was a fearless pilot, and I turned into a nervous wreck as I saw her somersaulting, diving, and spinning through the clouds. I allowed this to go on for a few minutes. Despite my anxiety, I too, wanted to see what the planes could do. Then I set a course for Relian Keep and thankfully, the others fell in line behind me.
In my other planes, the flight from Silverspire to the airfield had taken about three hours. This time it took less than two. Cinder spent the entire flight curled up at my feet, enjoying a considerably more comfortable space than in our old plane. The cockpits in these new planes were almost completely enclosed, and much larger than the anything we’d had previously. It was a good thing, too. Cinder had grown over the weeks, and I don’t think she would have fit in the old one for much longer.
We landed single file, and stayed just long enough to load a box of cannon charges into each plane. I took a few moments to warn them about the Kanters’ anti-aircraft gun, and then to describe the use of the cannon charges.
“They don’t fall straight down when you drop them,” I warned. “The inertia carries them forward at the speed your plane is traveling. Pay careful attention to this, because if you drop a charge on one of our men, your career is over.” The pilots exchanged nervous glances.
“I’ll drop the first charges,” I continued. “Watch how I time it. Then you’ll have a better idea of how it works.” Three minutes later, we were back in the air and headed towards Anora.
It was just after noon when we located the battlefield
on the plain south of Anora. It was the first time I’d had a chance to get a good look at the city. From the sky it looked more or less like Riverfork, except that it was ten times the size. The city was backed up against dense forest to the north and west, and pushed up against a river along the eastern and southern sides. There was no wall around Anora, but its location made it a difficult target to attack. The only direct access was over a bridge on the southern side. This, I saw as I flew over, was heavily guarded.
A broad plain stretched from the south side of the river to the northern edge of Riverwood, a dense and swampy forest. It was here that the human and Tal’mar armies chose to make their stand against the Kanters. I circled the area once, taking careful notice of the layout of the battlefield.
The human infantry clashed with the Kanters in the middle of the field, and it was not going well. Bodies lay scattered across the ground. A few Kanters had fallen, but very few. Several dozen humans lay dead or wounded in the midst of the chaos.
The Tal’mar detachment was comprised largely of archers, and they stayed on the fringes of the battle, taking careful aim at the Kanter foot soldiers. As accurate as the archers were, their arrows were no match for the Kanters. I saw one tattooed giant pluck half a dozen arrows from his flesh and give no sign of injury other than a trickle of blood.
I knew the Tal’mar archers could have taken the Kanters down if they were deeper in the battle, but they were afraid. Their small, lithe bodies were made for life among the branches, not for the press of combat. Even their human allies could have accidentally crushed them.
Further south, I saw the Kanters firing their cannons randomly into the enemy formations. Each one of these shots killed or injured a handful of men. I made the cannons my first target. I circled around behind them and came in for the attack, with the other planes trailing me. I had the advantage of surprise, and I used it. I counted ten cannons as I started dropping bombs. I was halfway across the battlefield by the time the first charges started to explode, and the dull, thudding booms echoed up from below.
When I made my second pass, less than half of the cannons still appeared functional. As I came around, something the Kanters were doing caught my eye. They had gathered around one of the cannons, and I realized that it was the special one… the one that had shot me down.
They were shouting and pointing, but not at me. I was in the lead, and the other planes were still circling around the battle behind me. Suddenly I realized that the slowest of the planes, the one at the end of the line, was a clear target for the Kanters.
I watched helplessly as they trained their gun on Robie’s plane as he circled over the western woods. I screamed, but he couldn’t hear me of course. Even if he could have, there wouldn’t have been anything he could do. The Kanters methodically lined up their shot, and then fired. Robie’s plane went down in a spray of shrapnel and black smoke.
Then the bombs started going off. The other pilots took heed of my lesson, and they aimed well. They destroyed the last of the cannons in a hail of explosive charges, and then set upon the Kanter infantry. The Kanters observed this with dismay. Then they looked up and saw three planes bearing down on them, and they broke ranks.
The Tal’mar and human soldiers cheered as their enemies started to fall back. A few of the Kantrayan commanders tried to force their men back into the battle, but the Kanters turned on them and killed them on the spot.
A dozen humans mounted up to pursue them as they fled into Riverwood, but for the most part the battle was over. The soldiers waved at us and cheered as we passed overhead. I knew at that moment that our place was secured in history, but it was a bittersweet moment. We had lost too many lives, and the one that pained me most was the young bully who’d once had a crush on me. I knew that even if he survived the crash, a cruel death at the hands of the Kanters was inescapable.
I wept for Robie as we turned to the north and headed for home.
Chapter 50
We celebrated that night, toasting to Robie with elderberry wine and feasting on roasted pheasant. We did our best to offer him a cheerful wake and share his memories with each other, until exhaustion and despair overtook us, and we collapsed in our bunks.
It was the first full night of sleep I’d had in recent memory, and I slept so deeply that I didn’t even hear my companions leave the next morning. I woke to find the midmorning sun splashing across the floor of my hangar. Cinder was curled up in a ball at my feet. Everyone else was gone.
I stretched, and then casually made my way over to the table for a breakfast of cold pheasant and dry, crusty bread. I’d just taken my first bite when General Corsan strolled in.
“Ah, the spoils of war,” he joked, gesturing at the remnants of our dinner.
“It’s good,” I said. “I was too tired to taste it last night.”
The general threw his head back and laughed. “At least you came back in one piece. I think you forgot something, though. You left this in your plane.”
He reached into his jacket and produced an envelope. My face fell as I realized what it was. It was the message he’d asked me to deliver to King Ryshan.
“I’m sorry,” I said. “I didn’t have time. And I was afraid that if the king didn’t believe me…” My voice trailed off. I stood there nervously as he studied me.
“I could have you court-martialed,” he said. “Even hanged.”
I hung my head. “I’m sorry, General. I let you down.”
“No, you didn’t.” He surprised me with a smile. He put his hand on my shoulder. “I asked more of you than I had any right, Breeze. And you did more than anyone else could have. I dispatched messengers to the king last night to tell him of our victory. It won’t be long before everything comes to light. Thanks for all you did, Breeze, and for all the lives you saved.”
That jingled my memory. “I couldn’t save Robie though,” I said sullenly.
“Nonsense, Robie’s just fine.”
“What do you mean? We were all sure he had died!”
Corsan smiled broadly, and gestured towards the door. “Take a look.” I trotted over to the hangar door and peered outside. Robie was in the field left of the runway. He wasn’t alone. My hand strayed to the hilt of my sword as I saw the tattooed giant lumbering across the field towards him. Kanter!
The general stayed me with a hand to my arm. “Wait,” he said. “Watch.”
I frowned. Robie let out a shout and rushed towards the giant. He made a sudden, deft movement to the right and I saw… I saw a leather ball bouncing across the field. The giant laughed. He turned and ran after it. They appeared to be playing kickball.
“Are you kidding me?” I said breathlessly.
“Do you know who he is?” the general said with a smile. I shook my head, and realized that my jaw had been hanging open. I clamped it shut.
“I have no idea.”
“His name is Keng’Chen. He is Keng’Sun’s cousin.” I stared at him.
“What does that mean?”
“It means we have a revolution on our hands. The Kanters are tired of Keng’Sun’s leadership. They’ve seen our towns and cities, and some of them are beginning to understand that life can be… different. They want change.”
“And I suppose you’re going to give it to them?”
I wasn’t sure how I felt about all of this just yet. What the general spoke of sounded to me like another war. We had just finally reached a peaceful accord with the Tal’mar after a thousand years of hatred. We’d lost good men, including my father, because of that. Everything I had done had been to stop the war. Not to start another one.
“It’s not our problem at the moment,” Corsan said with a shrug. “Not yet anyway. Chen is going to return to his people and try to overthrow Sun. In the meanwhile, he’s already signed a treaty with us. Keng’Chen is now our ally.”
I could hardly believe what I was hearing. “You honestly made a pact with them? You don’t understand, general. I’ve seen what they do. The skulls, th
e bodies… They eat people. They’re animals!”
He cocked an eyebrow at me. “Wasn’t so long ago that some people might have said the same about you.”
I bit my lip as his words struck home. He was right. Regardless of what I’d seen, and regardless of what they had done in the past, there was no reason not to give the Kanters a chance to change. We had everything to gain and nothing to lose, if they could do it.
“When will you need us ready?” I said.
He winked with his good eye, and put his arm across my shoulders. “Now that’s the Breeze I know and love.”
Chapter 51
My pilots were absent that morning because the general had sent them out to spread word of our victory. I was anxious to get back to Tal’mar, but with all three planes gone, I had no choice but to wait the day out. If that weren’t enough, Corsan gave me specific orders to relax. Naturally, I did the exact opposite.
After breakfast, I walked through the encampment and quickly realized that we had an overwhelming number of injured soldiers. Though the physicians were doing their best to keep these poor men alive, even with my limited healing skills I could do more.
During the course of the day I saved two men from becoming amputees, and a half dozen more would certainly have died without my intervention. In addition, there were a good fifty more with serious injuries that I set on the path to a quick recovery.
Some of the men were reluctant to let a Tal’mar lay hands on them at first, until they realized who I was. My fame was apparently beginning to spread. Breeze Tinkerman, the humans began to say, is no Tal’mar. She is half-human.
By the end of the day, they were all lined up waiting to see me. Of course, the act of healing even a small wound requires intense concentration, and by sunset, I could hardly focus my eyes. General Corsan personally took me back to the hangar and brought me a warm plate of dinner. He smiled as he watched me devour it.
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