“Good work,” First-Lieutenant Olvera said, patting his shoulder.
“Do you have any word of Colonel Cabrera?” Meraz asked.
“No, ma’am.”
“All right. Go with Mage Castillo to the hospital. If you remember anything more, get word to me immediately.”
The soldier hesitated, then said, “Actually, Captain, there was one other thing.”
Gabe hadn’t thought it possible, but the tension in the room increased with those few words. Feeling it, the soldier swallowed hard.
“Yes?” Meraz asked, tone even, expression neutral.
“At dawn, a man was found outside the encampment. One of ours. He said he’d been involved in the tunnel ambush, but got lost underground in the confusion and came up somewhere on the Alarian side of the valley. Took him all night, but he got back to us without them finding him.”
Olvera exchanged a speculative glance with Meraz, then said, “He sounds very courageous.”
The soldier nodded in agreement. “Yes, sir...” Taking a deep breath, he added, “But I overheard some of the officers talking. The colonel apparently thought some of the man’s injuries were too neat, too precise. As if he’d been...”
Meraz’s straight spine stiffened even more. “Tortured?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
Olvera scowled. “Did this man betray the battalion to Alarie?”
“Sir, I don’t know.”
“Thank you,” Meraz said. “Go for healing now.”
“Captain!” Suelo burst out of the office, frantic. “A message made it through. Colonel Cabrera has fallen, the encampment is lost and we’ve been ordered to evacuate.”
Meraz was silent for a moment, ordering her thoughts. “Olvera, sound the evac alarm. Botello, go to the main tower and have Rico signal Vendaval. I want the Air Mage back down here immediately.”
The lieutenants saluted and raced away.
“Suelo, anything else?”
“There have been some fragments of messages coming through, but nothing I could decipher well enough to make sense.”
“Have you managed to get a message through to them, yet?”
“The tremors have stopped but there is a great deal of disturbance in the ground at the encampment. My messages kept fragmenting as well.”
“There must be an Earth Mage still alive in the encampment somewhere. Go deep, Suelo, go under the tunnels the Alarians made if you have to, but get a message through. They need to know we’re evacing and if they can get here, they must do so within an hour.”
“Yes, ma’am.” Suelo disappeared back into the office.
Meraz glanced at Gabe. “Mage Castillo, waiting for a packed lunch?”
Gabe left, the soldier by his side. They were passing by Gabe’s tent when a fireball appeared in the sky to the west. The red flames of fire magic unleashed expanded across the sky, turning the orange of natural flames within moments.
“Dirigible,” Gabe said, his blood turning to ice.
The ball of flames arched across the night sky and then dropped to the ground. Flames burst upward, reaching out like a drowning person’s last grasp at the air, then they subsided.
“How did they do that?” the soldier asked in stunned disbelief. “There was no oil-bomb launched at it, no cannon fire.”
Gabe tore his gaze off the downed airship. “Maybe it had a faulty engine. It might not have been the Alarians.”
The soldier grunted and ambled on toward the hospital, shoulders sagging, feet dragging. David appeared from Gabe’s tent.
“Any word?” he asked.
Startled, Gabe glanced into his tent and saw Rafe on the floor, bound hand and foot and gagged. He was awake and staring up at the roof of the tent intently.
Waving at the boy, he demanded, “Is that necessary? And why are you in my tent?”
“Perhaps not but it is prudent, and Sacerdio Dina said we had to get out of the hospital. Is the encampment under attack?”
Gabe gave him a quick version of the soldier’s report. As he finished, the alarm changed to a series of quick, high pitched bursts.
“Evacuation alarm,” Gabe explained. “We’ll be moving out in an hour.”
“How? There are no dirigibles here.”
“We have them, we just don’t use them. They’re only for something like this. Right now our Engineers will be preparing their engines and Vendaval, the Air Mage, will be filling the balloons. In the next half hour, all non-urgent personnel will be flown out, then the vital equipment, and lastly, the urgent personnel.”
David quirked an eyebrow. “What are you?”
“I’m apparently urgent personnel. I’ll be one of the last out. You should get Rafe out on one of the first dirigibles. I’m sure Meraz will authorise it.”
“I’ll go talk to her.” David headed toward the command tent.
“You do that,” Gabe muttered, heading for the hospital. “Some fabulous soldier you turned out to be. Running at the first sign of a fight.”
“I heard that,” David called over his shoulder.
“Excellent. You were meant to.”
#
The camp was bristling with controlled chaos as David walked to the command tent. People worked to the tune of the evacuation alarm, quick and efficient. He was challenged a few times, but it seemed most remembered his first appearance in camp. They absorbed the black coat, the personal armoury, the scowl, and allowed him past. Compared to outside, the interior of the command tent was very calm. Captain Meraz and a couple of the clerks were sorting papers between satchels and a steel bin glowing with fire magic. The scent of burnt paper hung heavy in the still air of the tent.
Meraz barely even looked up from her work. “Yes?”
“I need to get my prisoner out of here. Will we be given room on one of the first dirigibles?”
“Of course. Your boy will be going out with the first of the wounded. You can accompany him.”
“Thank you.”
David turned to leave, but a startled cry from deeper in the tent stalled him. Meraz dashed for the partition. As she reached it, an Earth Mage staggered out, falling to her knees before Meraz.
“Captain,” she began, gasping for breath, sweat soaking the neck and back of her robe.
Meraz went down on one knee beside her. “Did you get a message from the front?”
The mage shook her head, pulling in shallow gulps of air. A clerk poured a cup of water and took it to her. After a couple of gulps, she pushed the cup aside.
“Captain, I did as you said and went deep into the earth to get a message through, but I never sent the message. The ground between here and the next valley is riddled with subterranean caves. It’s like a maze down there. It would take me weeks of surveying to find a clear path through it all.”
“Damn,” Meraz said softly. “There’s absolutely no way to get through to the encampment?”
“Captain,” the mage snapped, “you don’t understand what I’m saying. I heard what Mage Castillo said about the Valleyman’s prediction. I think the Alarians can reach us through these caves!”
Meraz jerked back, whether shocked at the mage’s tone or actual words, David wasn’t sure. Either way, she recovered quickly, standing and assessing the room with a single sweep of her steely gaze.
“Dulce, go to Engineering and tell Chispa we need at least two dirigibles ready for flight immediately. Victor, find Olvera and move up the evacuation of non-urgent personnel.” As the clerks rushed out, she put a hand on the weary mage’s shoulder. “Ofelia, I know you’re tired, but I need more from you. Can you sense if there are people in those caves?”
Ofelia shook her head.
“The Bone Mage can,” David said.
The captain gave a sharp nod and David raced back to the hospital. Castillo and Dina were alone, packing rolls of bandages and jars of ointment into crates.
“What is it?” Castillo asked. “More wounded?”
“No. Captain Meraz needs you.”
/> Castillo looked at the scattered supplies still needing to be packed but Dina gave him a small shove.
“Go. I can handle this. Nacio and Agata will be back shortly.”
“All right, all right.”
David hurried the Bone Mage along until they were running. Night had fully descended but the camp was lit up by intensely bright lamps hung from poles and walls. They cast absolute-black shadows into the hollows their light couldn’t reach and David kept an eye on the dark places, half certain the enemy lurked within.
Nothing surprised them and they made it to the command tent with no trouble.
“Castillo,” Meraz said, “Suelo has discovered caves under the camp. I need you to see if you can sense people in them.”
Castillo sucked in a startled breath. “I’m not sure I can do that. I can sense bodies but I’ve never done it through walls, let alone Luz knows how many square yards of dirt.”
Meraz pointed to a freshly revealed patch of dirt in the middle of the tent. “Fine time to find out.”
Head shaking in mute protest, Castillo knelt by the exposed dirt, removed his glove and gingerly put his white hand to the ground. Eyes closed, he remained so for a long moment.
“I can sense small animals just under the surface but I can’t go much past that,” he announced.
“Ride the Earth Mage.”
Castillo and Meraz faced David, staring as if he’d suggested something entirely different.
“You don’t know how to do that?” David asked Castillo. “In the past, mages of different castes could blend their magic to help each other out. Three hundred years ago I knew an Earth Mage who carried a Fire Mage’s magic from Ibarra City to Giron City and set fire to a building.”
Meraz frowned. “Giron’s ducal palace was razed by fire magic three hundred years ago but they never discovered how it was done.”
“Now you know,” David said.
“Castillo?” She raised her eyebrows at him.
“I don’t know. I’ve never heard of it being done until now.”
“Suelo!”
Once again, the Earth Mage appeared. Her hair was pulled out of its braid, curling wetly with sweat. She’d discarded her robe, wearing only a light chemise that left her arms and a good length of leg bare. Like most Earth Mages, she was supplely muscled, her skin tanned pale brown. She listened to the captain’s explanation of what she wanted, exchanging worried looks with Castillo, but agreed to try.
What followed was rather boring, though Meraz seemed to find watching two inert people holding hands beside a patch of dirt fascinating. David left.
A building whine came from the far side of the yard. Two dirigibles sat in padded cradles, mostly inflated balloons filling out the web of ropes securing them to the gondolas. Engineers flittered about like ants over a carcass while the Air Mage sat between the huge hulks, hands raised toward each balloon. Faint tendrils of gas coalesced about his arms before moving into the expanding balloons.
Opposite, people gathered under the shouted commands of a lieutenant. The non-urgent personnel, the first to be lifted out of the camp. David and Rafe had to be among them.
“The land-yachts are coming back,” a woman shouted from the main tower. “And another flight of dirigibles.”
Several people raced out as soon as they heard. Curious, David went with them. The two low slung vehicles kicked up hurricanes of dirt, the roar of their engines at top gear dulled by distance.
Further back, three dirigibles cleared the tops of the hills, black bulbous shapes against the glow of the burning encampment.
Boom!
The first land-yacht blossomed outward, like a flower opening to the sun. The wooden body unfurled in a white-hot blaze, then erupted in flames of orange. A moment later, the casement around the engine was compromised, a second explosion of fire-magic red kicking up the back end of the vehicle, flipping the fractured remains stern over bow. It crashed down on its top, engulfed in fire, cracking timbers ringing like cannon shots.
“Saint Ciro preserve us,” someone next to David whispered. “They’ve sabotaged our engines.”
“It wasn’t the engine that caused that,” another person said, hands on his head, ragged clumps of hair sticking up through his fingers. The insignia on his collar revealed him to be an Engineer. “Dear Luz, Josefina was on that yacht.”
The second yacht swerved around the burning remains of the first, not even slowing to check for survivors. There was no point. It reached the camp quickly, coming to a skidding stop inside the gates. As if it were any other day, a group of Valleymen waited patiently, stretchers in hand. The moment the vehicle was still, they swarmed up its sides and inside, beginning to lift out the wounded.
Another explosion. One of the dirigibles. Sparks arced out from the speeding fireball, reaching the next airship. A rope caught alight, flaring bright, flames licking along its length between gondola and balloon. It spread quickly, running along the upper edge of the gondola, fingering along more ropes. Then the flames stretched out into the air away from the balloon, spreading thin, until they died in a puff of smoke. Trailing grey streamers, the dirigible continued on. The stolen fire was released far to the north of the airships in a small, bright flare of fire magic.
A couple of people cheered the Fire Mage, who stood in the main tower by the gate.
In the camp, the two prepared dirigibles were winding up to take off. The need to get Rafe home pulled at David. He had every right to be on one of those dirigibles. He hadn’t been woken up to fight this war. It wasn’t his duty to remain.
David raced to Castillo’s tent.
Rafe was gone. All that remained were the ropes, neatly severed, and the gag, untied.
Someone had helped him escape.
Chapter 18
It was odd, but it worked. Gabe rode a pulse of Suelo’s earth magic into the ground, his own magic twined through hers just as their fingers were twined through each other’s. Earth magic was heavy, dense, pulsing with frightening strength and power, like a horse jittering with barely contained energy; like the once-living, breathing body of a dragon-ship shivering before a howling gale. All of that power combined with an almost unbelievable potential for destruction. It opened Gabe’s eyes to the true nature of earth magic. It wasn’t just about sending messages through the soil, or breaking rocks, or paving roads. It was about the primal energy of the earth beneath their feet, the life-giving fertility and the life-ending power.
Along with this revelation came an intimate knowledge of Ofelia Suelo par Ibarra. She was older than she looked, he could feel her age in her bones. Like the earth, she had incredible strength but also a touching gentleness in her heart. He knew what her lean, powerful body felt like when she ran, or lifted boulders, or moulded to the shape of a tree. He felt the way she responded to touch, to a lover’s attentions, to the sight of her only child; deeply, heart-achingly missed. Wound through the love she felt for her son was a darker thread of secrecy, old and thick, as natural to her now as breathing, but it was spiked with sharp edges that dug into Ofelia’s heart and mind. She had a secret and it had made her do things she wasn’t proud of.
The intimacy was uncomfortable but he couldn’t pull away. If he did, he would be lost within the earth forever without her to guide him.
Down they burrowed, further and further away from their bodies. Gabe had never been so far. His magic was mostly internal, reaching out only so far as the body under his hand. This was entirely different. He could feel his body, and Ofelia’s, but at the same time, there was a chasm between where they were now and where they’d started. It was like a rope tethering his two parts together, stretching thinner and thinner the deeper they went.
Then they fell.
Ofelia coiled tight around Gabe, controlling them as they fell. Then they were back in the earth, enclosed in its weighty, tight embrace. This time, they didn’t go far, settling into the earth just below the surface. Here, Ofelia opened up and let Gabe go.
&n
bsp; He panicked, suddenly lost. He couldn’t feel the earth, couldn’t sense the open space they’d fallen through. His connection to the Earth Mage was gone, the sense of her holding his physical hand very, very far away. He shouldn’t have agreed to this. Curse the Immortal Soldier and his tales of golden days long ago when mages did the stupidest things. Bone Mages didn’t belong in the ground! This was ridiculous and he should never have—
Gabe felt something. Within the void he sensed a body. It sang to his magic like a single clear voice in a silent world. He could feel the heat of the flesh, the structure of the bones and knew it was human. Male. Healthy, strong. The heart beat a touch fast, the blood streaming with excitement, anticipation and a dose of fear. Like a young man on his way to his first sexual experience, or a soldier on his way to a fight.
Then he felt more of them. So many bones all moving forward, coming single file but stretched out impossibly long.
Kimotak had been right. They were coming through the ground.
Then Ofelia was back, curling around him and they were digging through the dirt again. Gabe had lost all sense of direction, only realising they were moving upward when he felt the link to his body growing thicker, stronger, more comforting. Then he was back, sliding into his bones, pulling on his flesh like a favoured set of clothes. His left hand was cold, empty of magic, while his right was hot, aching as it squeezed Ofelia’s fingers so tight it seemed there was no flesh separating them.
“Mage Castillo.”
The familiar voice of Captain Meraz was like a choral hum in his ears. He smiled at the sound, thankful to be hearing anything at all.
Ofelia extricated her hand from his and slid away. She was slicked in sweat from the effort of taking them so deep, but there was something in her eyes beyond the tiredness. A wariness. Of him.
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