“There’s someone in the shadows over there.” Cas pointed toward the alley beside the Crow.
“Ah, good eyes.”
But was that someone Goroth? Tolemek circled around the back of the store, so he would come out in the alley across the street from where the man was standing. He didn’t have to guess as to the person’s identity, for the figure met them halfway down the passage.
“Amazing how much trouble you can get into in a few hours,” Goroth said.
“Is he talking to you or me?” Cas asked.
“You seem to only need a few minutes,” he snarled, thrusting a finger toward her nose.
“Should that make me feel suboptimal?” Tolemek asked, hoping to lighten Goroth’s mood. He didn’t sound happy.
Goroth merely snarled. He had a couple of bulky bags slung over his shoulders, in addition to wearing all of his gear and weapons. “Neither of you better be seen on the outpost for a while. Come on. We’ve got a new ship.”
“A new ship? I thought you were making repairs to the old one.”
“We did. It’s operational now.” Goroth glowered over his shoulder at Cas. Fortunately, it was the most threatening thing he had done. His desire to strangle her must have waned somewhat in the intervening hours. “But we can’t take the Night Hunter to the Iskandian capital.”
“Sure you can,” Cas said. “I’ll even direct it past some nice wall-mounted cannons in the harbor that you might like to visit.”
“You’ll be on it with us, girl,” Goroth growled. “I shouldn’t think you’d want it shot down.”
“It’s a good thing she’s not our pilot,” Tolemek said. “She’s not, is she?”
“No, I’m bringing Moonface and some other good men. Leaving Drakath in charge of the Night Hunter. Told him if he didn’t take good care of the ship and turn it back over to me, he’d die horribly, due to a booby-trap you’ve set to go off if anyone except me is commanding the ship for more than a week.”
“Nice way to inspire your troops,” Cas muttered, too softly for Goroth, in the lead, to hear. A good thing.
Tolemek merely said, “And here I’ve always wondered where these stories about my dastardliness started.”
“They’ve served you well enough over the years.”
Until recently. Ah, well.
“Speaking of dastardliness, I packed some of your supplies.” Goroth unslung one of the bags on his shoulder and handed it to Tolemek.
Glass clinked inside. No vials with volatile contents, Tolemek hoped.
“I figure we’ll need some of your tricks when we get there, so that we can accomplish—” Goroth glanced at Cas, “—what we need to accomplish.”
Cas glared at him, but said nothing. As if she didn’t know exactly what he had in mind.
“Yes,” Tolemek murmured, thinking of his conversation with Cas, his proclamation that it wouldn’t bother him if Zirkander went on living and her rebuttal that what he thought mattered little as long as he was going along with his captain. He had spoken the truth to her, but he secretly admitted that he would still prefer to see Zirkander dead rather than alive. It was cowardly, but the thought had crossed his mind that if he simply stepped back and let Goroth do the deed, Cas might not blame him. Or might at least forgive him some day.
They paused at the mouth of an alley, waiting for a repair crew to go by. Tolemek wondered if Cas thought it strange, seeing pirates marching about with toolboxes in hand and lumber balanced over their shoulders. After all the damage the outpost had endured that day, someone would have to take a supply-gathering trip if the station was to be repaired to its former glory. Not his problem at the moment.
When the route was clear, Goroth trotted across the street to a craft that was more dirigible than airship, with an enclosed cabin snugged below its massive gray balloon. Lanterns burned to either side of the extended gangplank, and Tolemek could just make out the Iskandian flag painted on the side of the envelope.
“You stole one of our freighters?” Cas asked.
“Actually I bought one of your freighters,” Goroth said.
“From someone who stole it?”
Tolemek smirked, despite the exasperated look Goroth gave her. What did he expect? Love and respect from a prisoner?
“Will the Night Hunter be following along in the distance?” Tolemek asked as they walked up the gangplank—it was a wider and fancier version of the simple board their own ship employed, one that looked like it folded and extended from the large double doors of the cabin itself. “In case we get into trouble? I imagine that even freighters flying Iskandian flags are boarded for inspection when they arrive in port. Especially if we’re angling for the capital.” He looked at Cas, wondering if she would offer a helpful answer, but she gave him nothing. No, she wasn’t going to help them infiltrate her homeland.
“Oh, they’ll be around.” Goroth’s grin had a wolfish aspect to it.
“What do you have planned?”
“Nothing that needs to be discussed in front of our prisoner.” Goroth pointed at Cas’s nose before unlocking the cabin door. “And I expect you to lock her up. Somewhere without any handy goop nearby for melting locks.”
Tolemek hated the idea of chaining Cas after all they had been through, but he understood Goroth’s wariness. Gods knew, she would escape and make trouble if she could. Right now, she was trotting along nicely, still wearing his six-shooters in her holsters, but where else did she have to go? Once they neared her homeland, there would be nothing keeping her from trying to flee.
“I will,” Tolemek said. He tried to give Cas an apologetic look, but didn’t know if it would be decipherable in the low lighting from the lanterns.
Goroth disappeared into the dirigible, and Tolemek extended a hand for Cas to follow. He brought up the rear. Judging from the clanking and thumping coming from the back of the cabin, someone was already inside. Lanterns were lit in the wood-paneled corridor and more light came from the navigation area up front. Goroth would have brought an engineer as well as a pilot, and perhaps a couple of other men as well. Tolemek itched to take him aside and find out what he had planned as far as backup went for this little invasion of theirs. Leading a small, secretive team into the city didn’t sound like a bad idea, but that wasn’t Goroth’s standard operating procedure. He liked to make a show of his attacks.
He had already stomped up to the navigation cabin and was talking to the pilot, so their chat would have to wait.
“Let’s find a room for you, shall we?” Tolemek asked.
Cas was standing at his shoulder.
“Room or cell?” she asked.
“I’m not entirely sure what to expect on an Iskandian freighter. Would they have cells for restraining prisoners?”
“Not likely. You might find a wine cellar for restraining the captain’s favorite vintages.”
A wine cellar? On a freighter vessel? Either she was joking or, “The centuries of war haven’t deprived your people as much as I would have guessed.”
She snorted and headed down the corridor, but not before taking a long peek toward the navigation cabin. As a pilot, she probably had an interest in anything resembling a cockpit.
“Can you fly a dirigible?” he asked.
“Yes, they taught us how to pilot everything at the academy. Not everyone gets picked for a flier squadron. There’s actually quite a long waiting list. I was lucky to get selected for my first assignment right out of school.”
“Because of your marksmanship skills?” At some point he would have to ask her about her father.
“Something like that.”
Tolemek stopped in front of a cabin with the door open. Unlike some of the others, there weren’t any bags or clothes tossed on the bunks. “Does this look acceptable?”
Cas peered through the doorway. “I don’t know. I don’t see any pipes running along the walls. Where will you chain me?”
“I thought I’d just lock the door. And...” He found himself reluctant to go o
n, but he had little choice. “And take your guns. Which are actually my guns, so you shouldn’t miss them overmuch.”
Wordlessly, Cas unfastened the belt and handed it to him. She didn’t meet his eyes. She didn’t looked any more irked than usual—in fact, she was going along with the situation without much objection—but her stance and the lack of heart in her quips made him feel like something had changed. Or gone back to the way it had been. Instead of sharing the adventure of escaping together, they were prisoner and master again, a role that suited him less and less with each passing hour.
“Cas...” He licked his lips, not sure what to say.
“Tolemek, you got that girl locked up yet?” came Goroth’s voice from the navigation cabin. “We’re taking off soon. And having a meeting.”
Tolemek gazed at Cas, wishing...
She arched her brows. “Don’t worry about me. This is the most comfortable prison I’ve been in for weeks.” She walked over to the bottom of two bunks and flopped down on her back.
“Yell for me if you need anything.”
“Some food would be nice. I haven’t eaten since... I don’t know when.”
“I’ll see what I can do.”
She gave him a vague salute. He had the feeling that she wasn’t sorry to see him go—she probably wanted to start plotting an escape. He glanced around the room, but aside from the bunks and an armoire bolted to the wall, its doors open to reveal it empty of clothing and anything else, there wasn’t much to use to facilitate an escape. Tolemek closed the door and was about to call to Goroth, asking about a key, when the captain appeared at his shoulder. He jangled a key ring.
“Allow me.”
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.
The Dragon Blood Collection, Books 1-3 Page 38
