“You owe me, you know.” Falk looked back briefly at him, then plastered himself to the window again, childlike in his excitement of flying.
“How so?”
“For showing you how to mix the air in the sky craft so that we can breathe right now.”
Garek leaned back in the pilot's chair. That was actually true. He'd never have made it to Shadow without Falk showing him how to change the mix of air in the sky craft so that everyone could breathe it safely. Maybe Falk had earned inclusion in this trip.
“Just don't slow me down, and I won't leave you behind.”
Falk sent him a hot look, turned back to the window. “What are we looking for?”
“The path to Luf goes over the Crag, then down through the low foothills leading up to the Dartalian Range. If they've made good time, they've probably reached the Range by now, but if Taya was injured, they may be slower than that, so I want to follow the path carefully.” He didn't want to consider how or why Taya might be injured, but Kas's worry told him the abduction had been violent, and the hair and piece of clothing they'd found on the path to Gara backed up that impression.
“Looks like there was an earthquake,” Falk said, and Garek tipped the sky craft forward a little, to give himself a better view. He was high above the path, and as he came down, a high-pitched note sounded, repeating over and over.
He frowned, rose up, and when he'd reached his former height, it shut off.
He and Falk exchanged a look.
“A warning of some kind?” Falk asked.
“The controls did feel different.” Garek looked down at the control lights built into the arm of the chair.
“It didn't feel any different to me,” Falk said.
Garek shrugged. “Aidan has pointed out a couple of times I call my Change more than I realize while I'm flying this. I think I compensated for the problem automatically.”
Falk's eyes widened. “You're calling your Change?” He was silent for a moment. “I never could understand how you just worked out how to fly it so quickly. But if you were calling your Change, someone of your strength . . .” He shook his head in disgust. “This explains so much. I never even thought to get someone who calls the air Change to try to fly it. Now you say it, I can't believe I didn't.” He frowned. “But didn't a Kardanx fly the other one, the one the sky raiders took back?”
Garek nodded. “When we were flying between Shadow and Barit, I wasn't calling my Change. There is no air between the two planets.”
Falk looked stunned. “No air at all?”
“No. But when we got into the air of Barit, I flew beside Dom the whole way. I think perhaps I was helping him, too.” He remembered how tired he'd been afterwards. He usually knew when he was calling his Change, but there were some things he had begun to realize he was doing automatically. Perhaps stabilizing the sky craft fell into that category.
It was only when he attacked or moved into the inbetween that he had to consciously work to call his Change. It was something to think about later, when he had Taya safe.
“Why do you think there's a problem going lower here, when there wasn't one landing in Pan Nuk?” Falk asked.
Garek could think of only one answer. “There's shadow ore in this mountain.”
“The ore the sky raiders are mining? You think the sound is there to help them know where to look for deposits?”
“No. Shadow ore confuses the parts that make the sky craft fly. If we got too close, we could crash.” He wondered if Taya had felt the shadow ore as she'd moved along the path.
From their high vantage point, he tried to make out what had happened on the path below. He would go down if he saw Taya, warning siren or not, but there was no way he was risking the sky craft before he found her. It was the fastest way to get her back.
“It looks like part of the cliff gave, and fell down onto the path.” Falk was pressed up against the window.
There was a cold knot in Garek's stomach at the thought of it coming down while Taya was there, but the chances were slim that she would have been there at exactly the same time.
“I can't tell how old the rock fall is.” Falk turned to him. “If it happened before they came this way, they wouldn't have been able to take the path.”
“Or,” Garek remembered now that Fek called the earth Change, “Fek did it deliberately, to stop anyone following after them.”
It was a clever ploy, almost too clever for Gaffri and Fek, but very effective.
“Is Fek strong enough to have done something like that?” Falk asked.
That was a good question. “I don't know.”
Garek had brought a map with the route to Luf with him, and he gave it to Falk to call out directions, following it from the air, taking it slowly.
The path widened on the other side of the Crag and twisted lazily between the low hills until it reached the Dartalian Range.
Garek was able to fly as low as he wanted to over the lush green, but there was no sign of anyone on the path, let alone Taya.
The mountains rose in a jagged line from the green hills, gray and sheer, some of them white-topped with snow.
He headed straight for them, but as soon as he got too close the ear-splitting noise forced him higher.
“More shadow ore.” In a way, it was a good discovery, especially if there was a rich vein of it. Taya would eventually run through the stocks they brought back from Shadow, and would need more.
The thought of her at the mercy of Gaffri and Fek made him slow even more, until they were almost hovering in place as they searched the path far below them.
It disappeared from time to time, impossible to see from above because the shape of the mountains cut off their view, then it would appear again, bathed in midday Star light.
“So. This Taya we're looking for. She's the one you stole the sky craft to rescue?” Falk leaned a shoulder against the window and looked at Garek with interest.
“Yes.”
Falk pursed his lips. “Why didn't you tell me?”
Garek took his eyes off the path for a moment. “Would it have made any difference? Would you have helped me if I had?”
Falk hesitated. “I don't know. Probably not.” He turned back to the window. “I would never have believed you could do what you did. I would have tried to stop you if I'd known your plans.”
“More than you already did try to stop me, you mean,” Garek said, but there was no heat in it.
Falk grinned. “You weren't exactly gentle with me.”
Garek snorted a laugh. “Aw, did I hurt you, Falk?”
Falk shook his head in disgust. “You did, actually. My ears were ringing for days. But I got over it.” His lips twitched. “You got me into a lot of trouble with the town master, too.”
“That's going to improve your standing in Juli, not hinder it.”
“The one thing that worries me about this,” Falk waved his arm to include the interior of the cabin, “is how does it keep going? There is no fuel that I can see, and you've never felt it lose power, have you?”
Garek shook his head. “I think it works on light, although I don't know how the light is collected or used. The sky raiders' big mother ship seemed to use light to power things, and we have a lot of light on Barit from the Star. I don't think we have to worry about the sky craft running out of power. It'll fall to pieces with rust long before it runs out of fuel.”
“Light.” Falk looked blindsided. “The power of light.” He stared around the cabin with new eyes.
Frustrated at the lack of visibility below, Garek maneuvered the craft around to face back the way they'd come, hoping to see more from a different angle.
“Nothing.” Falk's voice was distracted. “What do we do?”
If they couldn't get lower, there was little chance of spotting Taya below. There were also multiple routes through the mountains, so Garek couldn't be sure of exactly where Gaffri and Fek would emerge.
Most likely, they would deliberately choose a les
ser-used route to hide their passage.
“We know they're taking her to Luf. We go to Luf, and wait,” he said.
“Won't that tip their hand?” Falk asked. “Make it more difficult to find her when they bring her in, because they'll be more careful to hide her?”
Garek thought about it, moving the sky craft over the range into Harven, following the foothills of the mountains on the other side over the thick forests and deep, wooded valleys.
He accepted that catching sight of anyone walking in the forests below was impossible.
“We can play this two ways,” he said, thinking things through. “From what Nostra and Kas said, the decision to take Taya was a desperate, unplanned one on Gaffri's part. He was due to take her back to Gara, not over the mountains to Luf. He only chose to do that because there was a chance the town master had been exposed, that their treason had been revealed. Habred won't know Gaffri's on his way with Taya. So I can arrive, telling Habred I hear he's looking for me, with no indication that I know he's also after Taya.”
“What will that accomplish?” Falk was looking at him with interest.
“We'll see what lies Habred is forced to come up with when I ask him publicly what he wants with me. And we can settle in for a few days, polite emissaries of West Lathor's liege, and have a good look around, do a bit of bribing, see what anyone there knows about Habred's motives. And we work out where Gaffri will go when he arrives. I don't think he's ever been to Luf, and the only point of contact he's ever had with the Harven liege would be through Harven's diplomats.”
“What's the other way we can play it?” Falk asked.
“We can go in there and threaten Habred with death if he doesn't tell me what's going on, and threaten to level Luf if they don't produce Taya the moment she arrives.”
Falk blew out a breath. “I think we might have more success with the first option.”
Garek nodded. “Probably.” But if it didn't work out, he would have no problem moving to the second.
EIGHTEEN
The Harven capital of Luf was set on a low hill, its walls circling it from halfway up, so they looked like the crown on a head spiky with towers. At the very top of the hill sat the palace, and given it had been just over a week since Garek had been here before, he circled the city like he had the last time, in warning that he was coming down, and landed lightly in the middle of the open parkland in front of the palace.
The reception he got was considerably warmer this time than before, and after Falk opened the door and climbed out, he powered down and closed up behind him.
He would have to consider the possibility that the sky raiders might find it while he was here and try to take it back.
He hadn't seen any since the night he and Aidan had hidden the sky craft behind the waterfall, and he wondered where they were hiding.
He hadn't had the time or the energy to think of them while fear for Taya occupied his mind, but he would have to make time, because they hadn't gone away.
He didn't think they ever would, unless Barit could make things so bad for them, it wasn't worth staying.
They were met by the liege's general again, rather than the city's guard master, and General Faloni eyed him with as much dislike as he had the first time.
“What are you doing back here?” He eyed Falk with suspicion.
“You tell me,” Garek said with an easy smile. “I had word your liege requested my presence, and my own liege gave me leave to attend in case you required West Lathor's help.”
That didn't sit well with Faloni.
Garek knew it was because the bastard was planning to invade West Lathor, and the idea that the West Lathorians thought themselves the stronger of the two must truly rile him.
Garek's smile widened. “So, how can I assist the good people of Harven?”
Unable to respond, Faloni jerked his head at Falk. “Who's he?”
“Oh, this is Falk. He works for the liege and was the scientist who made considerable strides in working out how we could fly the sky craft.” Garek looked back at the silver silhouette behind them. “I couldn't have reached Shadow and rescued everyone without his research.”
Faloni went still. “How were you able to conduct this research?”
Falk had gone still himself as Garek sung his praises, but he shook off his surprise with remarkable ease. “Garek brought down a small sky craft some months ago and I worked on it at the Tower in Garamundo.” He shrugged modestly.
“I thought Garek said you worked for the liege, but this happened in Garamundo?” Faloni asked.
“Oh, something as important as a sky craft, I'm sure you'll appreciate, was of interest to the liege. I was reporting to him right from the start. I sent regular updates to Juli.” Falk beamed at him. “The liege was very interested in my work, and I had plenty of personal visits from his son.”
“I . . . see.”
No, you don't. Garek could tell the general's mind was racing as he worked through the implications of this information.
Followed to its logical conclusion, if the West Lathorian liege knew all about a secret sky craft housed in Garamundo, then Faloni had to wonder if Vaar hadn't been playing him for a fool all along.
“Well,” Garek made his voice a touch impatient, “if you don't know why Habred wants me, I'd better go and ask him myself.”
“Come with me.” Faloni turned on his heel, still frowning, and strode away.
Garek started after him, felt a bump against his side.
He looked over at Falk, who had clearly worked out what had happened and was enjoying himself a little too much.
“I thought this would be stressful,” Falk said. “I didn't realize it would also be fun.”
But there was no fun for Garek. Not until he had Taya safe again.
HABRED MADE THEM WAIT.
Garek knew the Harven liege assumed they would take it as an insult, but he knew the real reason. Habred was in a panic.
His clandestine request to Kuan Vaar to quietly abduct Garek and Taya, drag them to a disused cell in Gara, and then get them over the boarder to Harven, perhaps in a covered cart in the middle of the night, had gone wrong.
Instead, Garek had arrived as if formally invited, with the permission of his liege and flying the new jewel in West Lathor's crown, the sky craft.
Habred and Faloni would be huddled together, wondering what had happened to Vaar, wondering whether perhaps Vaar had never been on their side, but rather loyal to the West Lathorian liege all along.
It was the reason Garek had not said anything about Vaar's arrest. He wanted them as unbalanced as possible.
Let them think Aidan's father had been aware of their plans for months. Now they'd be wondering if West Lathor wasn't in fact very prepared for an invasion.
“Faloni knew about the sky craft I was working on, didn't he?” Falk asked quietly as they waited in the liege's antechamber.
Garek nodded. “Knew, and thought, as did Vaar, that West Lathor's liege didn't know it was there.”
“Which is why he choked out those questions about my reports to the liege.” Falk smiled. “They must be trying to work out which way is up in there right now.”
Garek rose. “Let's go get something to eat, find out where we're sleeping.”
He was fine with the delay. It would give him time to find some informants, time to watch and pick up the rhythm of Habred's court. Let Habred come and find him when he'd gotten over his panic.
Falk stood as well. “That sounds good--”
“Sky raiders!” The guard that burst into the room was wild-eyed, and Garek shoved him aside as he raced out of the room. Falk was on his heels, keeping up better than Garek thought he would.
They burst out of a side entrance, and Garek's gaze went straight up.
“Yes, there it is.” It was still high, a glint of silver in the late-afternoon light.
He scrambled up the side of the craft, leaving the door open for Falk as he powered up.
F
alk had just made it inside when a woman peered in, all big brown eyes and long black hair, and Garek frowned, trying to work out where he'd seen her before.
“Deva of Juli. West Lathor's ambassador to Harven.” She stepped in, and in too much of a hurry to argue, Garek closed up and lifted off, forced to go straight up to avoid the trees around the park, and then angled up steeply straight toward where the Star hung low in the sky.
“Why are you here?”
Garek could hear the deep suspicion in Falk's voice.
“I missed Garek last time he was here. By the time I'd heard a sky craft had landed, and had made my way through the crowds, you'd already gone. I have to admit, after you and Aidan arrived in dramatic style, I've had to bluff my way for the last week and a bit.”
“The West Lathorian ambassador to Harven you say?” Garek sent her a quick look, and she lifted a single, arched brow in response.
“You're wondering how deeply I'm involved in Habred and Faloni's plan to invade West Lathor. Wondering whether I'm trustworthy at all.”
“Exactly.”
She blinked at his bluntness, as if she'd expected him to prevaricate.
Then she laughed. “I'm around politicians and diplomats too much. I didn't expect such an honest answer.”
She started to wander around the pilot's chamber, looking at everything in it with avid interest.
“I know there's a plan to invade, I've got a set of eyes and ears inside the inner chamber, but you set that back a bit when you swooped in with a whole rescued Harven village last week. Habred and Faloni have kept their plans close, only a few trusted councilors know anything about it, the majority aren't aware, and their praise of West Lathor since last week is effusive. Habred knows how bad a move against us will look at the moment.”
“That's why Aidan persuaded Luci that it would be best to deliver her and her villagers to Luf rather than back to their village. Not quite as much fanfare quietly dropping them off where no one could see.”
Deva laughed, a rich, smooth chuckle that made him want to join in. “I should have realized that. I've sent enough dispatches back to Juli telling the liege what Habred is up to. Of course Aidan knew.” She seemed to relax a bit at the idea.
Calling the Change (Sky Raiders Book 2) Page 12