Hearts & Minds

by Gwynn White

  Chad laid his hand on Jerawin’s head.

  Shaking with fury, Axel closed his eyes and his ears against Chad’s prayers. “This is not about Nicholas,” he gritted out. “If it was, then the fighting would be happening here. Anyone with an informa will know where to find him.” He spun on his haunches. “Nicholas, what can you hear?”

  Nicholas climbed over the desk and jogged to the door. His face paled, probably at the two bodies. Charred and smoldering, Coyotl looked particularly gruesome. He wallowed. “Not much, to be honest. The rock muffles things.” Still, he canted his head. “It’s quiet. No one’s in that tunnel.”

  Axel started for the entrance. “Thorn. Chad. Let’s move before that changes.”

  Lynx caught Axel’s sleeve. “I say we stick together. Even though it’s limited, Nicholas can help with his ears, and we all have each other’s backs.”

  Coming from Lynx, it astonished him. He looked at Nicholas. “Thoughts?”

  “I have a job to do in Cian. That makes me the most likely to survive.”

  He grimaced. The same could be said for him. And only him.

  He looked at Jerawin’s body. His friend looked shrunken. When had Jerawin grown so old? The idea of losing Thorn or Chad in the same brutal, careless manner enraged him. And as for Lynx or Clay… He would not survive their loss. “Maybe Nicholas and I should do this together.”

  A wave of protest greeted his suggestion.

  Lynx’s fingernails dug into his arm. “Not in a million years.”

  “Um…” Nicholas held up his hand. “Maybe this is a practice run for Cian. Let’s see if we can figure out what Xipal wants before any more people die.”

  It was a horrible idea, but Axel wasn’t going to argue. Or tell Nicholas that anyone, child or adult, who drew a weapon against anyone he loved would pay with their life.

  “And here I thought you trusted my Light-Bearer,” Dmitri whispered. “You were so categorical. Where those just words?”

  Another flaming test.

  One that had cost Jerawin, Gallen, Marrow, and Treygan their lives. Axel wanted to curse Dmitri.

  Trouble was, the bastard seer had made it abundantly clear that if he failed these trials of faith, he would get no help in Cian. He swallowed his anger. “I’m good with that.”

  Clay ran back into the office and grabbed the last of the incendiary balls. He stuffed them into his pockets.

  Nicholas frowned. “I thought the idea was not to hurt anyone?”

  Lynx took his arm. “The best way to do that is to be the strongest wolf in the pack.”

  “The best armed, you mean?”

  “Exactly.”

  “A bluff?” Nicholas asked. He looked at the two dead bodies. “With the worst stakes in the world.”

  Axel grunted. “Isn’t that always the way?” He pulled Nicholas toward him until their uniforms crushed together. He bunched both sets of cotton in his hand. “This is me, and this is you. See, no space between us. That’s where you stay until this is over.”

  Nicholas shot a stricken look at Lynx.

  Smart lad. He’d figured it out. Perhaps for the first time, Nicholas truly understood what his demand meant.

  He pulled Nicholas to the tunnel before he lost his temper and told Dmitri exactly what he thought of the test. The fire had destroyed the lighting, but that didn’t stop him seeing a body smoldering just beyond the entrance.

  Nicholas gulped.

  “Smells wonderful,” Axel said to break the wave of horror he sensed washing over Nicholas. He grabbed Nicholas’s uniform. “I said skin to skin.” Dragging Nicholas with him, he stepped over the body and strode down the tunnel, fully expecting to find more corpses. It was why he didn’t use his informa to light their way.

  Lynx and Clay followed right behind him. Chad and Thorn brought up the rear.

  Another ten paces, and he almost fell over another body. “Mind your footing,” he whispered to Nicholas.

  Nicholas said nothing as he stepped over it.

  Everyone was well clear of the corpse when Thorn asked, “Where are we going?”

  “There’s only one place I can think of that that bastard seer would test me on,” Axel said, not bothering to hide the venom in his voice. “My—our airships.” He stooped low and took a side tunnel. No matter what happened tonight, he had to save one of those ships to transport Nicholas to Cian.

  “But Main Tunnel is nowhere near the hangar,” Clay said with perfect logic.

  “Doesn’t have to be,” Nicholas said. “It’s all about bluff.” He sucked in a breath. “Am I right, Axel?”

  “Spot on.” The roof closed in, forcing Axel onto his knees. “We crawl the rest of the way.”

  No one in their right mind traveled this route to the stealth hangar. That made it ideal for avoiding prying eyes and ears that could alert whoever held his airships ransom that they were coming.

  “This is your plan for Cian, isn’t it?” Nicholas asked breathlessly as he crawled behind him. “Make Lukan think we’re doing one thing and then do something else?”

  Warmth infused Axel. “Have you any idea how much I love you, Nicks?”

  “Because I got it right?”

  “That… and the rest.”

  The roof lowered even more. The only way to move was to wriggle on one’s stomach. He dropped down onto his belly. Sharp stones pierced his uniform. Some of them left bloody trails across his skin. He lost count of how many times he bashed his head on low-hanging rocks. Nicholas and Lynx’s breathing was loud in the thin, dusty air. Claustrophobia had to be almost killing them.

  “Sorry,” he muttered. “It will be worth it in the end.”

  Lynx swore at him.

  Axel chuckled. “Love you too, my Lynxie.”

  The tunnel turned sharply, opening onto a narrow ledge on the side of a steep drop-off. He lay on his stomach and waited for everyone to catch up with him.

  Nicholas touched his calf. “I get it,” he whispered. “Why you showed everyone what I was doing in prison.”

  Axel froze, trying to decode the emotion in the whisper. “You still don’t approve.”

  “I don’t like it. But I get it.” Nicholas tapped the rock wall. “I lived in a place like this for a year. You have all lived like this for decades. I would have needed a reason to keep crawling through the dark, too.” A sigh as soft as cobwebs. “I was that reason.”

  Axel’s throat choked. He swallowed. “What would you have done if the roles were reversed?”

  A long pause. “I would have done what it took to win the war.”

  Axel smiled in the darkness. “Then let’s go win this one.”

  “You got a deal.”

  Wriggling on his stomach, Axel led his army of four across the narrow ledge. Despite everything, his heart was lighter than it had been in months. He hadn’t realized just how much Nicholas’s opinion mattered to him.

  The ledge dropped down into a cave so jagged walking was treacherous.

  “Mind your step,” he warned, twisting his own ankle on shafts of ice crystal as he walked.

  Lynx wasn’t the only one to swear at him.

  After taking five minutes of abuse, he hissed, “Quiet, the entrance to the hangar is just around the corner.”

  Instant silence. Good.

  He whispered to Nicholas, “What can you hear?”

  Nicholas sniffed. “What can I smell, you mean?”

  And then Axel caught it—acrid smoke. Rubber and metal burning. His airships were on fire.

  The lightness in his heart turned to lead.

  Thirty-Four

  The Light-Bearer

  Lynx wanted to cry. Or kill someone. She chose the second option. The hope of the alliance—their precious airships—were on fire.

  They reached a side door to the hangar.

  Another of Axel’s keys.

  She waited for him to produce his keyring, but instead he pulled out his informa. “Wish me luck that Aideen is still alive,” he muttered. H
e spoke Aideen’s name.

  Lynx frowned. Aideen was their senior flight commander.

  Clay, Chad, and her father also looked puzzled. Only Nicholas seemed unperturbed.

  “Warlord?” Aideen answered, sounding harried. Not surprising, given the shouting and gunfire in the background.

  Lynx twirled her feathers and braids.

  “Can you gather the other pilots?” Axel’s voice was as steady as if he were asking for a fresh mug of coffee.

  “Difficult, Warlord.” Aideen’s words were clipped. “We’re fighting in the Main Tunnel. Bastards are everywhere.”

  More gunshots. Lynx longed to ask for a fuller report, but Axel clearly had something else in mind.

  “Contact as many of them as you can,” Axel commanded in a low voice. “Order them to vacate the mine and to report to you at the exterior stealth hangar doors. Once everyone has assembled, open the doors and move the craft. Then wait for orders.”

  “I’m on it.”

  A typical true-defender response to an order, but still Lynx winced. She mouthed to Axel, “Too risky.” She hated challenging him in front of everyone, but she couldn’t let this slide. “We add more oxygen to the fire, and we turn the hangar into a bomb. We lose everything.”

  He shot her a bitter smile. “A gamble. Do nothing, and we lose it all. Act, and we lose it all.”

  Nicholas nodded. “I agree with Axel. This is all a bluff. To do nothing would be dumb.”

  “You can’t argue with the Light-Bearer,” her father said. Annoyingly.

  She threw up a hand. “Fine. Now what?”

  “We open the door.” Axel pulled out his keys. Almost silently, he slipped the key into the lock. He eased the door open. “Last one in, make sure it’s properly closed.”

  The roar of flames that assailed them was so loud that Nicholas covered his ears. But the heat didn’t match the sound.

  Axel nodded, as if he’d expected it. He sidled into the hangar with Nicholas at his heels.

  Heart in her throat, Lynx gripped her shotgun tighter and followed them into a hangar thick with black, choking smoke.

  Struggling to breathe, she looked through teary eyes at their airships. Parked three abreast, they occupied ten rows in the gargantuan cave.

  The middle two rows were on fire. Six precious craft threatening their neighbors.

  At the front of the hangar, in the billowing smoke, twenty Blades stood in a ragged line. They wore alliance-issue gas masks. A young maskless boy crouched at each of their feet. Each child had a knife at his throat.

  Someone behind one of the airships laughed. The sound carried despite the roar of the flames. It was followed by the sharp clip of boots.

  Xipal.

  She steadied her shotgun and edged in front of Nicholas. Clay and her father had the same thought. They pushed Nicholas to the back of them to join Chad.

  Nicholas’s tongue clicked. He elbowed his way around her to stand at Axel’s side.

  She wanted to yell at him to obey her, but she bit her lip instead. The Light-Bearer was working in tandem with his Lord of the Conquest.

  It was what Dmitri had intended.

  Breathing through her mouth, she fell back and stood side by side with Clay, Chad, and her father. They stood as stoic as any guard of honor despite the poisoned air.

  “Welcome to my little display.”

  She recognized Xipal’s voice. He stepped out from behind the closest airship. Dark, handsome, with a perfect topknot and a long goatee, he wore no gasmask. The only sign of his discomfort in the foul atmosphere were his bloodshot eyes. He carried a wicked-looking blade in each hand. He gave a mock bow. His other blades jammed into two bandoliers strung over his shoulders glinted in the fire light.

  “Not as dramatic as your Dragon’s Fire, Axel.” A shrug. “But perhaps just as effective.” He stopped two feet away from Axel and crossed his arms so his two blades rested on his shoulders. A cavalier smile. “If you want your airships, you’ll have to get through them.” His head jerked at the boys and his Blades. “I know how much you bleeding hearts like fighting children.”

  Lynx waited for Axel to speak.

  It was Nicholas who stepped into Xipal’s personal space. “There will be no killing tonight.”

  Lynx’s hands tightened on her shotgun. She longed to shout a warning to him to step back. Xipal was a killer, trained from birth to destroy lives he deemed unworthy. Nicholas, a boy who used a bow and arrow or hunting knife to provide food for the pot. One flick of Xipal’s blades and Nicholas would be gutted.

  Xipal laughed. “What? Still don’t have the stomach for it, boy? Still letting girls fight your battles?”

  From her angle, Lynx caught Nicholas’s smile.

  It was chilling.

  “The two girls who fought for me are worth a million of your Blades. As are the soldiers who will accompany me to Cian on those airships.”

  Why was he taunting a man who could slit him open? Nicholas may have had a date with destiny in Cian, but he could still be severely injured.

  Xipal’s face twisted. “Still such unwavering confidence. There are no bees here tonight.” He waved one of his blades under Nicholas’s nose close enough to shave him.

  “No?” Nicholas asked, not moving an inch. “You sure about that?”

  Uncertainty passed like a cloud across Xipal’s face.

  It gave Lynx hope.

  Xipal had been defeated by Nicholas once before. It had to have dented some of his confidence despite his bravado. But would he attack?

  Xipal wiped his face on his sleeve. “You won’t win tonight, boy.”

  An explosion jerked Lynx’s attention away from the pair. Bracing herself for a fireball, she squinted at the door, expecting to see it open.

  It didn’t shift.

  Her heart sank.

  The fire had jumped to the next line of airships. She did a quick calculation of how much time had passed since Axel had spoken to Aideen. If all had gone smoothly with him—unlikely—they still had a few minutes to play Xipal.

  She just wished it wasn’t Nicholas who was buying them time.

  Her hands itched to blow the Xipal’s head off, but the Light-Bearer had spoken: there would be no killing tonight. She, like all of his troops, would obey unquestioningly—until the suffocating heat and smoke destroyed them all. Already, she was light-headed from the toxic air.

  Something had to break this stalemate.

  “See,” Xipal said triumphantly. “While you cowards dither, your airships are burning.” He rubbed his goatee. “A fine campaign you’ll have against that bastard Lukan.”

  He had a point.

  Eyes streaming, Lynx squinted through the smoke. At least twelve of their thirty airships burned. She glanced at Axel.

  Shotgun in hand, he stood at Nicholas’s side and watched them char.

  “I would think you’d want to see him dead as much as anyone else,” Nicholas said with a calmness that made Lynx marvel.

  “There is no killing the Dragon,” Xipal hissed. “So I’ve chosen to kill the Dragon’s enemies.” Out of habit, Lynx—everyone in their group—re-sighted their shotguns.

  Nicholas chortled. It sounded more like a rattle than a laugh. “And you think that will spare you his wrath? He destroyed your capital. What makes you think he won’t annihilate the rest of your country?”

  “I don’t have patience for this.” Xipal loped across to his closest Blade. “Slit the boy’s throat.”

  The Blade pulled the lad’s head back. The boy cried out in a language Lynx didn’t understand, but it wasn’t difficult to figure that he was pleading for help. His terrified eyes fixed on Nicholas.

  Lynx stiffened, waiting for Nicholas’s command to intervene.

  Still as a statue, Nicholas watched as the Blade slipped the tip of his knife into the side of the boy’s neck. Steel flashed, and blood spurted. The boy gurgled once and then stilled. The Blade dropped his body onto the ground with a callousness that made Lyn
x gasp.

  She wasn’t the only one in their group to react. Axel’s shoulders jerked back. Her father let out a rasping breath. Clay, an assassin used to death, shifted. Chad looked down at his feet.

  Face glowing with an otherworldly serenity, only Nicholas stood immovable. “Justice and mercy,” he said so softly she questioned whether she’d actually heard correctly.

  Nicholas’s head jerked up, a sign Lynx knew well. He was listening.

  Then, above the roar of the fire, she caught the faintest clunk of turning cogs.

  The door was opening. Too late to help the boy.

  Again, she braced for an oxygen-fueled fireball.

  But instead of surging backward, the flames shot into the air as if constrained between steel. Through the dense black smoke, she caught a flicker of a dark-blue, star-spangled robe. And then the fire was out—extinguished as if a monsoon had flooded the hangar. In its place, the hulking remains of twelve airships crouched.

  Xipal swore. His Blades broke ranks. Some took cover amongst the remaining airships. Others headed for the rapidly opening door.

  Nicholas looked back at her, Clay, her father, and Chad. “Get the boys.” His voice brooked no argument.

  Although Lynx would rather have gone after Xipal and his Blades, she scrambled to the closest boy. Dazed and frightened, he tried to run from her. His feet slipped in the blood from the murdered boy’s neck. She grabbed his ragged tunic and scooped him up. Then she grabbed another.

  By the time she’d raced back to Nicholas, Chad and her father had corralled another four. She tossed hers down next to them.

  “Stay,” she said in Chenayan. She loped across to another huddle of children. They scattered. She and Clay herded them to the other boys cowering under Chad and her father’s watchful gaze. She counted nineteen in total.

  Nicholas turned to face them.

  They shrank away from him.

  It didn’t surprise her. Nicholas’s expression was as terrifying as an army with banners. Even she shifted and struggled to meet his gaze.

  “I know what it is to be hungry and alone in a city of full of uncaring strangers,” he said with a gentleness that belied that fury. “I was also lured by promises made by Xipal’s operatives.” He looked up at her. “I was bought with the promise that I’d be united with my family.” He touched the closest boy. “Your reasons for joining with Xipal were just as valid.” He turned to the dead boy. “Some came because they wanted to fight in a war that had nothing to do with them. They got their reward.”