“Times are changing. Natural. Unnatural. I am not sure the distinction matters much anymore.”
Castor completely disagreed with that statement, but said nothing.
One of the grayskins approached, his black goggles impenetrable. None of Osyrus Ward’s strange crew were armed—Vergun had insisted on that—but Castor tensed up all the same anytime one came close. He didn’t trust the ash-skinned bastards for a second.
“Arrival in thirty minutes,” the man rasped, voice distorted by the mask.
Castor once again found himself tempted to tear the mask free and look the strange man in the eyes. See who they really were. Although Castor had looked into Vergun’s red-rimmed and sadistic eyes plenty, but it hadn’t brought much understanding.
“Excellent,” Vergun said to the grayskin, then turned to Castor. “The men are prepared?”
“Yes, sir.”
Osyrus Ward had sent word three weeks ago that he intended to engage Wormwrot Company for a one-year contract. He wanted every soldier Vergun had available. And he wanted them now. The payment—half of which was delivered in advance—was extraordinarily high.
And so, they now soared across the Soul Sea on four infernal ships, the belly of each one filled with armed and armored Wormwrot mercenaries. All of them heading for Almira.
There were rumors of other ships, too. They’d been spotted all over Terra. Ghalamar. Lysteria. Pargos. Dunfar. Even Burz-al-dun was said to have a ship hovering over the palace—casting a long shadow.
All of them controlled by the crazy old man, Osyrus Ward. He’d conquered the world in a single winter.
The coast of Almira appeared on the horizon.
Castor had spent almost his entire life in Balaria. He’d grown up surrounded by desert and dried grass. Almira was so unlike his homeland that it felt like a different world. The lush, green landscape was blanketed in massive trees and rising fog. Even from so far above, the forests of Almira felt untamed and intimidating.
“What are your orders when we make landfall?” Castor asked, staring at the view.
“Ward has control of the city and the Atlas Coast,” Vergun said. “But the Dainwood is in revolt, and the skyships can’t get to them with that damn canopy in the way. We’ll unload. Bolster the defenses of Floodhaven, then dispatch various companies into the forest.”
“The Dainwood,” Castor repeated. “You’ve fought there before?”
“I have.”
“The jaguar’s as hard as they say?”
Vergun’s lips pressed tight together.
“Harder.”
To their left, a grayskin pulled a lever. There was a hiss of steam and release of the piney smell of burning dragon oil. The ship started to drop altitude.
* * *
The experience of landing the skyship in Floodhaven harbor brought Castor close to puking on three separate occasions. His mouth was filled with spit and the only way he kept his breakfast inside his body was by staring at the Balarian coin that was melted into the butt of his sword and pretending that he wasn’t moving at all.
The harbor was mostly empty. The only thing in the water was flotsam left over from Linkon Pommol’s destroyed navy. The only thing on the docks were more of those gray-skinned creatures, all of them hauling gear and cargo to various places—their muscles bulging with an unnatural strength.
And Osyrus Ward.
He was waiting with a rictus smile on his face. Arms clasped behind his back. He was also wearing a new leather jacket. This one black with milky swirls of white. A week ago, the fact that Ward had preserved enough dragon hide for a coat would have astonished Castor. Now—after crossing the Soul Sea in a single afternoon aboard a heap of metal and dragon bones—it barely registered in his mind.
Vergun stood, tucking his falchion and dragontooth dagger into his belt as he disembarked from the flying ship. He went straight to Osyrus and, to Castor’s surprise, bowed.
Osyrus’s rigid smile widened.
“Vallen Vergun. Welcome back to Almira. We have a lot of work to do.”
61
JOLAN
Almira, Dainwood Province
It was raining when the four ships appeared on the horizon. They weren’t from Papyria.
“Those are pirates,” Willem said, glancing at the sails, then going back to picking dirt from beneath his nails with a cracked seashell. They’d been waiting on the beach for a night and a day. Catching crabs. Cooking them in a small fire in the sand. Waiting. Willem had taken a large store of mead and potato liquor from Frula’s. He had not been sober for more than a few hours at a time.
“How can you tell?”
“The black sails are a clue.”
“Should we be concerned?” Jolan asked.
“Dunno. Getting killed by pirates, getting killed by Balarians.” He cupped his palms and pretended to weigh the two notions. “Probably about the same level of unpleasantness, all things considered. Some tavern-rat in Glenlock told me there’s an outfit up north that takes people alive and brings ’em to some island that’s run by criminals. Walrus Killers. Or whales? Something like that. Maybe this lot can give us a ride out of this fucking mess.”
“I can’t tell if you’re serious or not.”
“Well, I also heard the same crew eats babies and uses their rib bones as cock piercings. Hard to know which story is true when you’ve two sides of a rumor coin like that.”
Jolan gave him a look.
Willem sighed. “C’mon. Let’s hide in the ferns and see who comes ashore.”
The ships dropped sails, then anchors. There were a few minutes of hustle and bustle on the decks, and then a shallop dropped from the side of one ship and started digging to shore. Jolan counted ten figures huddled on the boat—most of them shrouded in dark cloaks to shield them from the steady, cold rain that seemed unlikely to stop anytime soon. The whole sky was swollen with gray, whirling clouds.
When the shallop reached the shallows, a tall man hopped out and scanned the shoreline. He had a white shield on his back, and he was carrying a long spear with an odd shape that Jolan recognized from somewhere, but couldn’t quite place. The man trudged onto the beach while the others remained in the boat.
Jolan almost didn’t recognize the man because of his short, wildly cut hair. But those rough features and green eyes were unmistakable, as were the blue bars running down each cheek.
“That’s the Flawless Bershad,” Jolan whispered.
“Dragonshit. It’s just a somewhat tall lizard killer.”
“No. I’ve met him before.”
“Don’t believe you.”
Jolan thought back to that day in Otter Rock. The boy who’d woken Silas Bershad from that chair in the inn was a stranger to Jolan now. A kid who didn’t exist anymore.
Jolan looked at Willem. “Fine. Let’s make a wager, then.”
“What are we putting up?”
“If I’m right, then you need to stop drinking so much.”
“If you’re wrong?”
“Then I’ll brew you a hangover tonic every day for a moon’s turn so you’re more comfortable while you drink yourself to death.”
Willem weighed that by taking a sip from his canteen.
“Deal.”
Jolan looked back at the shoreline. Bershad was scanning the ferns. Sniffing like a wolf on the prowl.
“We should probably announce ourselves carefully,” Jolan muttered. “Don’t want to surprise him and get—”
“Come on out, kid,” Bershad called, looking directly at him. “The warden, too.”
Willem shrugged. “Don’t think you need to worry about catching that one off guard, kid.”
Willem stood up first, dusted off his knees, and headed down to the beach holding his arms out at his sides—palms facing the dragonslayer. Jolan followed a stride behind, suddenly nervous about what was going to happen.
“That’s far enough,” Bershad growled when Willem was about ten strides away. “Where you from, warden?�
��
“Bale’s Glade.”
He grunted. “Deep gloom, eh? You’re a long way from home.”
“Seems we all are.”
Bershad looked at Jolan for a few moments. Sniffed again.
“I remember you. You’re the alchemist’s apprentice from Otter Rock. Woke me up to go kill that Verdun.”
Jolan glanced at Willem. Smiled. “Yes.”
Bershad scrutinized this information.
“Only reason you’d be waiting on this beach in the middle of nowhere is if you’re also the one who sent the pigeon.”
“That’s right.”
“Best you talk to Ashe.”
“Ashe? Queen Ashlyn?”
Bershad didn’t respond. Just motioned to the people in the ship. Three of them hopped out and came over. One was a dark-skinned woman wearing leather armor and carrying a rapier on her belt. The other was a short Balarian with twitchy fingers.
And the third was Ashlyn Malgrave, queen of Almira.
Alive. And standing in front of him.
Jolan went down on one knee without thinking. Willem stayed where he was.
“Don’t bother with that,” Ashlyn said, motioning for him to get back up. “You’re Jolan?”
“Yes, my queen.”
“And you?”
“I’m the motherfucker who opened this coastline for you,” Willem growled. “And I lost my entire crew making it happen. So where are the rest of you? Where’s the Papyrian navy?”
“There is no Papyrian navy anymore. There is just us.”
“But that’s not enough,” Jolan said. “That’s not nearly enough.”
Bershad gave a grim smile. “Probably not.”
APPENDIX
GREAT LIZARD PHYSICAL EVALUATIONS AND SPECIMEN REQUIREMENTS FOR CONSTRUCTION OF THE BALARIAN ARMADA OF SKYSHIPS
Compiled by Osyrus Ward, Royal Engineer of Balaria
(Specimen quality evaluations are ranked on a scale from 0–10, with 10 being the most desirable, and 0 being useless.)
Naga Soul Strider
Bone Strength: 9.1
Bone Weight: 8.6
Hide Quality: 10
Scale Quality: 5.2
Oil Quality: 6.1
Tooth Count: 42
Harvesting Difficulty: 9.2
Specimens required for Armada: 45
Notable Anatomy for Construction
Bones strong, but also heavy. Viable for primary support beams only.
Wing leather optimal for skyship sails, since the Nagas have adapted to withstand powerful sea cyclones.
Tip of tail is extremely sharp and lightweight. Superior weapon. But each Naga only possesses a single barb. Not scalable for the ballista design. Will stockpile barbs for later projects.
Seafaring behavior and island habitats make harvesting time-consuming and difficult. Initially engaged a Lysterian whaling outfit on a long-term contract, but the morons were obliterated whilst trying to slay a mating couple.
Will use backchannels to manipulate Papyrian government into cutting more writs and transporting dragonslayers from across Terra to execute them.
Gray-Winged Nomad
Bone Strength: 9.9
Bone Weight: 1.3
Hide Quality: 4.1
Scale Quality: 5.4
Oil Quality: 8.4
Tooth Count: 36
Harvesting Difficulty: 9.8
Specimens required for Armada: 30
Notable Anatomy for Construction
Bones are perfect for the construction of wings: Strong enough to support a one-hundred-meter wingspan, yet light as sparrow bones. Incredible.
Hide and scales unremarkable.
Wish the gray devils weren’t so hard to catch. Chased one beautiful specimen halfway across Terra in the prototype skyship—burning substantial fuel—but the stubborn bitch never landed. Eventually forced to abandon hunt.
Filling quota will be difficult. Plan to substitute with Green Horn specimens as necessary.
Dunfar Sand Strider
Bone Strength: 2.1
Bone Weight: 3.3
Hide Quality: 9.7
Scale Quality: 1.1
Oil Quality: 2.7
Tooth Count: 68
Harvesting Difficulty: 2.7
Specimens required for Armada: 930
Notable Anatomy for Construction
A poor quality specimen apart from the hide, which is exceptional.
Hide possesses extremely potent insulation properties. Expect this is from the extreme desert heat during the day, but frigid cold at night.
Ideal for levitation sacks—better insulation yields higher fuel efficiency.
Harvesting is easy. A blessing, given the high quota required.
Ghalamarian Stone Scale
Bone Strength: 10
Bone Weight: 10
Hide Quality: 1.7
Scale Quality: 10
Oil Quality: 2.1
Tooth Count: 24
Harvesting Difficulty: 10
Specimens required for Armada: 2
Notable Anatomy for Construction
A flightless behemoth. Unparalleled heft and weight, which limits applications to skyships.
Scales noteworthy. Each scale can be heated to 3,500 degrees without degrading the structure, and retains 90 percent of that heat 72 hours later. Superior method for sustained dragon oil combustion. Makes coal look like cow dung.
Harvest is extremely dangerous. Nearly lost my life collecting the first specimen that I used for testing. Will submit writs on them until some dragonslayer gets lucky and brings me the second.
Ghalamarian Green Horn
Bone Strength: 5.2
Bone Weight: 4.9
Hide Quality: 7.7
Scale Quality: 6.2
Oil Quality: 5.1
Tooth Count: 48
Harvesting Risk: 3.1
Specimens required for Armada: 1,000
Notable Anatomy for Construction
Bones are relatively unremarkable in terms of strength, but their pliable nature make them ideal for hull construction.
Easy to kill, and available in high numbers in the Ghalamarian wheat fields. Their bones will be the nondescript and uniform elements I use to build the Armada.
Currently negotiating a contract with the king of Ghalamar to eradicate the species from his lands on the condition that 95 percent of harvested materials go to Emperor Mercer’s treasury, and thus to me.
Leather is surprisingly supple. Made a jacket for personal use.
Yellow-Spined Greezel
Bone Strength: 7.7
Bone Weight: 4.3
Hide Quality: 10
Scale Quality: 4.4
Oil Quality: 10 (highly toxic)
Tooth Count: 44
Harvesting Risk: 9.3
Specimens required for Armada: 5
Notable Anatomy for Construction
Needled spines highly valuable as tools that are required for building the engines, as well as surgical tools for general experiments.
Toxic oil can be refined for medical purposes, and may help prevent seizures in my latest specimens. Not directly applicable to the Armada in its current form, but if new developments are made with the organic power supply, this will become vital.
Reduced required specimens from 10 to 5 due to complications. My first hunting party was exposed to the venom and popped their own eyes out after suffering powerful hallucinations. Such feeble meat sacks.
Almiran River Lurker
Bone Strength: 9.6
Bone Weight: 2.1
Hide Quality: 3.4
Scale Quality: 1.1
Oil Quality: 1.9
Tooth Count: 318
Harvesting Risk: 8.3
Specimens required for Armada: 3
Notable Anatomy for Construction
An inferior specimen in all ways except those wonderful and numerous teeth, which I require for the high-intensity gears powering the rotors.
Difficult to
fish out of the Almiran riverways. Four of my laboratory assistants were eaten during our first attempt. One of them was actually competent, too.
Plan to hire some backcountry Almirans from the gloom of the Dainwood to assist. Apparently, the muddy barbarians know a clever trick.
Red Skull
Bone Strength: 10
Bone Weight: 6.3
Hide Quality: 4.9
Scale Quality: 5.1
Oil Quality: 2.8
Tooth Count: 36
Harvesting Risk: 10
Specimens required for Armada: 30
Notable Anatomy for Construction
Skull cap can be scooped clean of brain matter and retrofitted as a combustion vat that never cracks or deteriorates. A vital component for each engine.
Bones, scales, and skin all capable of superior melding with metal and machinery, ideal for connective joints and engine room apparatus.
Calculations require one specimen for each skyship. Unfortunate, given their extreme aggression.
Anticipating heavy losses. Have asked the Emperor to budget for an 80 percent casualty rate of the hunting platoons we are dispatching to the Razorback Mountains.
Considered outfitting them with a modified design of the prototype armor I abandoned on the island, but decided against it. The materials and time required to construct the armor is more valuable than a few thousand soldiers.
Common Thundertail
Bone Strength: 8.3
Bone Weight: 9.1
Hide Quality: 5.3
Scale Quality: 4.8
Oil Quality: 3.2
Tooth Count: 56
Harvesting Risk: 4.6
Specimens required for Armada: 120
Notable Anatomy for Construction
Tail spikes of fully grown adults are ideal for propellers, but must be carved into an appropriate shape, which is painstaking. Exploring updates to the stationary Acolyte design to expedite the process.
Otherwise, this a common, all-purpose specimen that can fill gaps in the construction quotas as needed.
Papyrian Milk Wing
Bone Strength: 2.3
Sorcery of a Queen Page 51