“A second sky craft.”
“They seem to be working in pairs since the night they took Taya.” Dix lay back down again.
“Maybe these are the only two they have left. We've destroyed at least four of them, and a few have been damaged. How many could they really have had to begin with?” Taya leaned against the window, looking out at the two ships flying parallel to each other.
“Time's running out for them.” Garek's face was fierce with concentration. “The longer they're here, the worse their ships are corroded, and now their fellow sky raiders have arrived, they'll be wanting to get back home with their shadow ore before the bigger ship catches up to them.”
“That means they'll probably be prepared to sacrifice everything to protect the ore on their mothership.” Aidan nodded. “So what we need is for the other sky raiders to make good on their promise. So far, they've done nothing.”
“It was always an outside chance.” Garek shrugged.
Taya had thought it was more than that. The sky raider who'd watched her shadow ore demonstration on Shadow had seemed focused. Taya had believed her.
She forced herself to let it go. Time would tell.
She turned to face forward and watched the clouds swallow them up.
The light dimmed to almost nothing in the swirling dark gray, and she sensed a shudder as wind buffeted them.
And then she could barely see at all, as a thick layer of water coalesced across the window.
“And now, we're invisible.” Aidan smiled.
Garek gave a hum of agreement and lifted the sky craft up, slowing almost to drifting speed.
“Let's hope they don't hit us,” Dix said from the floor. She didn't sound as if she cared much, one way or the other.
They waited, letting the minutes slip by. Taya had to force herself to unclench her fists, and she looked at Dix, astonished, when her breathing changed, becoming deeper, steadier.
The general of Dartalia was fast asleep.
She grinned at the sight of it, caught Garek's gaze, and had to force down a laugh as he held a finger to his lips.
Below them, very close below them, she heard the whine of engines, and Garek went very still.
“I can feel the disturbance in the air. They've passed beneath us.”
“Then let's turn around and get to Valian.” Aidan blurred just a little at the edges. “I've added to our layer, I'll see how long I can hold it for. Let's go.”
Garek eased them around and gently moved them back out the thick cloud cover.
Night had fallen when they emerged, and it took only two hours for them to reach Valian.
A tiny makeshift camp seemed to have been set up near Susa's palace.
Taya looked down at it as Garek circled and then spiraled down to land.
There were perhaps ten tents around a single campfire.
Dix woke as they landed, and though Taya knew she had only gotten a few hours sleep, she stood up and strode down the ramp as focused and upright as ever.
She slowed to a stop at the sight of the camp. “I wonder who—?”
A group of people emerged from the palace entrance. Some were guards, but one was Zek and the other . . .
With a cry of surprise and delight, Taya raced down the ramp, overtook Dix and flung her arms around the town master of Cassinya.
“Luci!”
Luci hugged her back. She seemed to struggle to speak for a moment. “We got your note.”
It had been over three weeks since Taya had nailed a note to a tree trunk at the end of the path through the woods, warning the Cassinyans that the sky raiders were watching and waiting to recapture them and take them back to Shadow.
“We also saw the wreckage of a sky craft. Did you bring it down?”
Taya nodded. “They were waiting for you, but unfortunately for them, they got me instead.”
Luci gave a strangled laugh. “The thought of going back . . . after everything, after being free, to be dragged back . . .” She gulped in a breath. “And to know Habred was behind it.”
There was a cold, hard kernel of hate in Luci's voice. “Our liege wasn't being generous, giving us those leviks, he was delaying us so the sky raiders would have easy pickings, taking us on the open road.”
“I'm so sorry.” Taya gave her a last squeeze. “But what are you doing here, in Valian?”
Luci stepped back. “Zek sent word for us to come. He told us Habred is going to war with West Lathor. And we're here to stand in his way.”
She looked up, past Taya, and Taya turned to see Aidan, Garek and Dix approaching.
Aidan and Garek both bowed to her.
“It's good to see you.” Aidan gave her a respectful salute.
“You, too.” Luci smiled at them all. “I'm here with a few old guards. If it suits the general, then we thought you could drop us near the Harven side of the three armies, and let us . . . waylay them.”
“You're Harven?” Dix tilted her head to the side.
“These are the villagers we were captured with.” Zek spoke for the first time. “They welcomed us into their group, and we became like family. After they arrived in Luf, and spoke to their liege, Habred told the sky raiders when and where they were going to be on the road back to their village, so the sky raiders could get their old, skilled mining crew back. Taya stopped them, but if she hadn't been there, they would have been taken, and no one would have been the wiser as to what had happened to them.”
All around them was silence as everyone absorbed the depth of the betrayal.
Luci almost hunched her shoulders and then forced them straight. “We are Harven. And we deserve better than the liege we have.”
There were murmurs all around of agreement.
“How many are there of you?” Dix flicked her gaze to the tents.
“Ten.”
Dix nodded slowly. “You're going to expose yourself to harm if you put yourselves between the three armies and us and try to shame them. It's my experience that commanders don't like to look bad, or admit fault.”
Luci gave a wry smile. “I know. But if we don't, I can't see a way my village can remain part of Harven. There has to be a reckoning.”
It was a reckoning Habred deserved. But Taya wondered how much his own troops knew. And whether they would believe the word of a small village town master over their own liege.
Chapter 33
They were a crowded ship.
Garek knew they were overloaded, but he was able to call his Change, keep them going despite the extra weight.
Susa had insisted on coming, and since Zek and Aidan had sent letters to the council, two more councilors had arrived in Valian. One from the far eastern state of Landau, and Dartalia's own councilor.
Neither would hear of staying behind, and Dix was determined to bring as many of her guards as would fit.
Luci nearly had to leave some of her villagers behind, but in the end Garek decided to risk it.
He was paying for it in energy, but if Luci was able to divert some of the Harven contingent and get them to abandon the field, it would be worth it.
“Where do we set Luci down?” Susa was looking out the window, and Garek saw the three armies hadn't moved since he'd last seen them.
“Out of sight,” Luci said.
Garek raised an eyebrow.
“It will muddy the waters if we're seen getting out of a sky craft. We're going to accuse Habred of conspiring with the sky raiders, but we arrive in a flying ship?” She shook her head. “Better we come with no question marks over us.”
Garek nodded, turned the sky craft over the three armies camp, flying high, and when the camp was obscured by hills, he turned and came back, slower and low to ground.
He set down as close to the rear of the three armies camp as he could without being seen.
“Might take you half a day's walk,” Dix said as Luci headed to the back to collect her small team.
“Beats walking all the way from Cassinya,” Luci replied,
and Dix laughed, a hearty laugh that told Garek she was back on form again.
“Don't I know it. I've become spoiled by my current mode of transport.” She sent Garek a quick grin.
They had spent the night in Valian, had all rested, with teams of guards who called the water Change holding the skin of water that Aidan had formed in the storm clouds in place over the sky craft.
And now, between Aidan and the water Changed guards Dix was flying to the camp, they were still keeping it up for this journey.
To the sky raiders, it would seem as if they had simply vanished.
Taya followed Luci to the back, and Garek heard them saying their goodbyes.
He walked to the doorway that separated the pilot's chamber from the back and leaned against it. Taya was stepping back from Luci, and he caught the Cassinyan's eye.
“If you need me to fetch you, shoot a burning arrow toward Dix's camp. If I can, I'll come for you.”
“Thank you, Garek.” Luci grimaced. “I hope it doesn't come to that. I'd hate for you to have to rescue us again, only this time from our own people.”
“Me, too.” He gave the West Lathor guard salute to her and she returned it, then walked down the ramp with nine other Cassinyans in tow.
They all seemed to know Taya, either nodding to her or hugging her as they passed, and Garek guessed the months they'd spent together up on Shadow had formed bonds like the ones he had with the guards he walked the walls with in Gara.
“Her accusation against her liege is a serious one.” Cyna, the Landau councilor, followed Garek back into the pilot's chamber, watching with fascination as he raised the ramp again.
“There is no way the sky raiders could have known to wait on that road for the Cassinyans without being told. Habred knew when they left, and if they hadn't taken an alternate route, they would have been captured again.” Taya walked past Cyna and went back to her spot at the window.
Garek lifted off, and felt the slight relief of being rid of some of the extra weight he'd been carrying.
“Many others would have known when the Cassinyans left for home,” Cyna countered.
“Yes. But only one has been linked to complicity with the sky raiders.”
“Who told you Habred is colluding?” The Dartalian councilor, Arne, stepped closer.
“Two guards from Luf. They saw evidence with their own eyes.”
There was a stunned silence from both councilors.
“Witnesses?”
“Witnesses,” Taya agreed. “And I'm another one. When the sky raiders who were waiting for Luci and the others came down in front of me, two of Habred's guards from Luf blocked my escape. They threatened to kill me unless I let myself be taken, and they admitted they were there to help the sky raiders.”
“You have their names?”
“The name of one and I know both their faces.” Taya nodded.
Garek forced himself to loosen his grip on the arm of his pilot's chair. He knew the name, too. He would never forget it.
He skimmed over the hills and Dix's camp was suddenly below them. It had swollen to four times its original size with the addition of the Iron Guard and the troops he'd brought from Gara and Juli.
They were still far fewer than the numbers in the three armies, but the odds were getting better.
“A nice little force,” Dix said with satisfaction, and her gaze went to the back of the sky craft, where another eighty of her troops with all their gear sat waiting to be let out.
Garek set them down gently, and the relief as he was able to let go of his Change was overwhelming.
“You're burnt out.” Taya was crouched beside his chair, and he opened his eyes to find everyone else had already gone.
“We were overweight. I had to work a little harder.” He gave her a crooked grin, and slowly her frown of worry softened.
“Rest for a bit.” She leaned forward and brushed a kiss on his lips, then stood and got a mattress out of the back and laid it beside his chair. “Hanson has been trying out the arrows, and she's got some of the air Changed to work with her guards. I'm going to help them.”
He nodded, forcing himself out of his chair to watch her go, and when she stepped off the ramp, he closed it up and lay down.
He shouldn't have let himself become so drained. The hammering of a headache was discordant in his head, and he reluctantly closed his eyes.
He'd left himself and Taya vulnerable, and there was nothing he could do about it but sleep.
A hiss of sound woke him in an explosive rush.
His hand knocked a jug sitting next to his head but it didn't tip over, and he fumbled for the cup he could see beside it, pouring out water and gulping it down while he tried to make sense of what he'd heard.
Taya must have been here, because aside from the water, there was food wrapped in cloth.
He leaned back against the wall of the sky craft and drank another cup of water, trying to work out the time.
The hiss came again, and he flowed up onto his feet, staring at the pilot's chair.
A sky raider wanted to talk.
He knew the communication between other sky raider ships and his must be two way, but he didn't know how to do it. So far, they had spoken to him, but he couldn't reply.
An overloud string of words, interrupted by static, made the hair on the back of his neck stand up.
He couldn't understand any of them.
He looked out of the window, found the view was obscured in some way, and then, when his brain finally caught up with his eyes, he ran to the door, opened it and thrust himself through the layer of water that was covering it.
A guard stared up at him, eyes wide with surprise.
“Can you call the water to you for a few minutes, and then cover the sky craft with it again?” He looked between her and her partner, and they both nodded.
Water lifted up, each guard taking roughly half, the water coalescing around the guards themselves, so just their heads stuck out, the bulk of the volume held in what looked like a massive water droplet that encased them.
“Thank you.”
He heard another hiss and pulled back into the craft, dripping wet. This time, he understood the words that came next.
“Very clever of you. The water shield makes you completely invisible to us. If we hadn't been able to actually see your ship, we wouldn't have known where you were.”
Garek sat in the chair, looking for some clue as to how to respond.
“That you removed the water after we hailed you tells us you can hear us.” There was a pause, and Garek got out of the pilot's chair and crouched beside it, hunting for a way to answer.
“Perhaps you can't reply. It might even be likely.” The hiss came again and then after a moment, the voice forged on. “This is a warning. There is an imminent attack planned on your camp. A coordinated attempt by your enemies and ours. We tell you this to confirm our cooperation. We are preparing to incapacitate our enemy's mothership, and the communications we've picked up from them indicate they are about to engage you. Our efforts are concentrated elsewhere, but we felt this warning might give you the edge in the coming fight.” There was a long hiss, and then the broadcast cut off.
Garek leapt for the door, then stopped as Aidan hauled himself up the stairs.
He stepped back to let the princeling in.
“What's happening? You ordered the water shield off the ship.”
Garek moved to the window. “Our new sky raider friends were trying to hail us, but their message couldn't get through the water.”
“Ah.” Aidan's eyes gleamed, and he joined Garek, looking upward to try and see where they were. “And?”
“They've overheard communications that we're about to be attacked. A coordinated effort by the three armies and their sky raider friends.”
“How long do we have?” Dix spoke behind them. He turned to see her stepping from the ladder into the craft.
“They said imminent.” Garek moved his gaze from the skies to
the camp, looking for Taya. He saw his father, sitting near the fire, talking to Eli, but Taya was nowhere to be seen.
Neither was Hanson.
“Let's go up, see what's going on.” Aidan gestured with his hand.
Dix stepped deeper into the chamber, nodding.
“Where's Taya?” He was starting to feel the first light touches of worry that he couldn't find her.
“Over there.” Aidan pointed, and Garek saw a group of guards halfway between the camp and the valley mouth.
He tried to make out Taya in the crowd. Couldn't.
“The best thing we can do for everyone is go up and have a look. Otherwise we're blind.” Dix's words were blunt.
She was right.
He turned to Aidan. “You going hold the water shield on, or do you want the guards outside to join us?”
“I'll do it.” Aidan jogged back to the door, called out to the guards, and water started climbing up the window.
Garek eased them up in a smooth move that was almost equal parts his Change and the engines, and then let the engines take over as he skimmed over the troops.
Taya, Hanson and the Iron Guard were ranged out in a loose line, and as he flew over, they looked up in surprise. Taya waved at him, although he couldn't see her face clearly through the water covering the window.
He kept the sky craft directly over Taya, but rose higher, giving them a view of the escarpment beyond, which was made clearer when Aidan pulled the water back to form a water-free porthole.
It looked as if the three armies were still camped where they had been early this morning.
“It doesn't look as if they've moved an inch.” Dix frowned. “And that's what I'd expect, because our lookouts on the hills haven't reported anything unusual.”
“I don't think our friends would have lied about this.”
“You trust them?” Aidan asked.
Garek snorted out a laugh. “No. But they know we're cooperative, and we've given them real help. If it comes down to choosing a side, they'd prefer us to prevail over the three armies. But they also want to make sure Taya is telling the truth. That there really are many like her.”
“You think they could easily intervene and help us, but won't because they want to see if we have the shadow Called we say we do?” Dix leaned against the window and looked over her shoulder at him.
Shadow Warrior (Sky Raiders Book 3) Page 21