It sounds like your god wants to keep Iskandia all to himself, Jaxi said.
Sardelle did not know whether she objected to the idea or not. The world had to be a safer place without dragons involved in and instigating wars, but she didn’t know if she or Bhrava Saruth had the right to decide that.
Therrik is coming, so you may want to save the philosophical questions for later, Jaxi said.
Sardelle shifted so she could see down the road. A minute later, Therrik jogged into view, Kasandral’s hilt visible over his shoulder. Bhrava Saruth, still on his back with his head upside down, made a noise between a grumble and a sigh.
I guess he doesn’t enjoy seeing that sword returning, Sardelle thought.
Therrik has actually been doing an admirable job of sublimating the urges Kasandral is sending him as we ride around on Bhrava Saruth’s back, Jaxi said.
Are you praising him? I wouldn’t have guessed I’d ever hear that.
Just making an observation. Now that he’s aware of the sword’s influence over him, he’s fighting to keep it at bay. Maybe he’s the rightful wielder for Kasandral.
Maybe we’ll convince Eversong to leave Iskandia, and there will be no need for anyone to wield Kasandral.
I think the only way that will happen is with a sword through the heart.
Bhrava Saruth did not bother to right himself as Therrik approached. Sardelle lowered her hand, and the dragon sighed, his twitching tail flopping to the grass.
“What are you doing to that dragon?” Therrik came to a halt in the road, frowning over at them.
“Rubbing his belly. Has Ridge been to the town? Was there a flier?”
Therrik mouthed rubbing his belly incredulously before answering the other questions.
“Yes, we just missed him. The retired colonel there let him take his flier. He took off at dawn.” His face twisted into an odd expression. “With the woman in his lap.”
“His lap?” Why was he flying with some other woman in his lap? He’d only done that with her once, and only to save her when the flying fortress had been crashing. Sardelle forced her feelings down, searching for the logical explanation. “Because it wasn’t a two-seat flier, I assume. And he had to take her with him because...” Because why?
“Because the bitch is controlling him and has been all along,” Therrik growled.
“We don’t know that.”
“What’s the other possibility? That he’s found a new sorceress he’s screwing, and he couldn’t wait to give her a tour of the countryside?”
Sardelle winced at the blunt language—and the unpleasant images it put into her mind. “Let’s just catch up with them and find out,” she said, forcing herself to react reasonably.
Bhrava Saruth rolled to his feet, dropping to his belly so they could climb on.
“Either way, I’m sticking this sword into her,” Therrik said.
I’ll hold her down so he can do it, Jaxi said. Assuming I can get past her soulblade to do so.
Sardelle climbed up to what she was starting to think of as her place over Bhrava Saruth’s shoulder blades. She waved Therrik up to the base of the dragon’s neck, wanting him in front of her, no matter what praise Jaxi offered for his control.
If the soulblade is who’s responsible for controlling Ridge... Sardelle balked at the idea that he was under someone’s control, but she pressed on. We might need you to hold it down. Him, she corrected. It was a him, wasn’t it?
Wreltad, yes. Maybe I can distract him by making fun of his name.
A soulblade battle tactic I’m not familiar with?
It’s only applicable in certain battles. Such as when your foe has a three-thousand-year-old name. Maybe I’ll call him Tad. Or Taddy.
Bhrava Saruth leaped into the air, wings flapping. As soon as he cleared the trees, he turned toward the capital.
Can we catch them in time? Sardelle wondered. It was a couple of hours past dawn. What if Ridge and the sorceress had landed in the capital?
I will do my best, high priestess. I am much faster than the human flying contraptions.
Are we going to barrel into the city on his back? Jaxi asked. That might alarm the people a tad. She snickered. Tad.
Refining insults to use on him? We’ll stay high, out of gunfire range. And hope we can catch Ridge before he reaches the capital.
Yes, they are going to the big city, Bhrava Saruth said. I can sense them in the air many miles ahead of us.
You can? All along, Sardelle had been disturbed that none of them could sense Ridge—or the sorceress—ahead of them. Her range was limited, but dragons could see much farther, both with their eyes and their minds.
In a creative manner, yes. She’s able to hide her presence, and that of the human male with her, so I haven’t felt her during this journey, but a flier is an odd thing to pass through the skies, at least from the perspective of an animal or bird. I started reaching out to the birds ahead of us, which I can sense, even at a distance of many miles. I can see the world through their eyes, and several are fleeing from the noisy flying machine. Through the birds, I can track your mate.
Good work. Sardelle patted the scales under her. She assumed Ridge would head straight for the butte so he could land on the flier runway, but it would be useful to know if he deviated from that route.
Yes. Bhrava Saruth beamed pleasure at this praise. I will find your mate for you, high priestess. Then he will become my first true worshipper in this time.
Sardelle forced a smile. She recalled that she had implied to the dragon that Ridge might be a potential worshipper, back when she had been trying to finagle his help the first time. How Ridge would feel about that, she didn’t know, but it was a problem to worry about once she had pried him away from Eversong, and he was safe in her arms.
• • • • •
Before Tolemek opened his eyes, he grew aware of something heavy pressing on his chest. A boot. Stabs of pain pulsed at the back of his head. He could feel the deck under him rocking with the motion of the sea. When had they come down out of the air?
His eyes crossed as the muzzle of a rifle came to rest on the bridge of his nose. He was still in the passageway near the boiler room, and he could glimpse support beams broken all about him, but he was more concerned about all of the faces staring down at him. Several guards in the emperor’s colors, dark gray and purple, loomed over him. The boot belonged to the emperor himself. He glowered down at Tolemek, his head shaven, his white goatee bound by beads.
Smoke clogged the passageway, and dozens of holes reminiscent of teeth marks let light in through the bulkhead, but the emperor did not appear worried. Indeed, the battle had grown still out there, the cannonballs and machine guns quiet. How much time had passed? Had Kaika’s explosion destroyed the engine? Was the ship sinking into the bay, even now?
Tolemek berated himself, knowing it had been his insistence to pull the firemen out that had delayed them, kept them from getting far enough away from the boiler room. If they hadn’t been caught by the explosion, they might have been the ones to come across the emperor, catching him off guard or on the deck.
He lifted his head to see if the guards had Kaika too. The rifle muzzle pressed against his nose, pushing his head back down. Not before he glimpsed her on her knees behind the emperor, her hands bound behind her back, a rifle jabbed into the side of her neck.
Tylie? Tolemek called.
Your sister and your friends cannot help you, a female voice said into his mind. The dragon. He recognized her from before. Nor can this gray-scaled cockroach.
Phelistoth?
He is weak. He thought the empire would want an alliance with him, when I am here, Yisharnesh the Mighty.
What can the empire do for you, Yisharnesh? Why ally with humans?
The emperor recognizes my power and greatness. His people will treat me well for my occasional help, provide an excellent lair and see to my needs and whims. I will find a suitable mate and breed babies, making many dragons. My o
ffspring will rule the world as my ancestors once did.
“You look like a baboon with all of that hair, Targoson,” the emperor said.
“Thank you, Your Highness. I prefer it to the melon-head look.” Tolemek had heard a story that the reason Cofah soldiers had been required to shave their heads was because the emperor himself had gone prematurely bald and hadn’t wanted his troops to have more hair than he. It might just be a story, but the emperor’s lips flattened in satisfying annoyance.
“I was just going to have you shot when my men found you lying here, especially since the Iskandian assassins have proven lackadaisical when it comes to killing you. You know, it’s irritated me greatly that you chose to work for those obstinate rebels.”
“Only because the empire turned its back on me.”
“You deserved to be ostracized after Camp Eveningson.”
Tolemek gritted his teeth. Angulus had forgiven him for Tanglewood, and he had twice the heart Salatak had, so those deaths must have stung him even more. As he stared up at the man sneering down at him, he realized for the second time that day that his heart had chosen Iskandia long before his brain had. He might never be beloved by the people there, but he was welcomed by some. That was enough. He had a home. He only hoped he might find a way to return to see it again. And to see Cas again. Was she still out there? Still alive?
“Since I’ve endured a great deal of loss, both financially and in manpower, here because of you, I’m going to have my new ally scour your brain before I kill you.” The emperor lifted his head, as if calling to the heavens. “Dragon? Tell me if he knows where my daughter is, and also, I implore you, steal all of his secrets from him, all of his recipes for his formulas, his salves, all that he has used for good and ill.”
Tolemek hoped the call might go unanswered, that the dragon was busy or would scoff at his demands. Instead harsh fingernails scraped through his brain, making his skull hurt from the inside out. If he had been standing, he would have fallen. As it was, all he could do was thump his head back against the deck, his entire body stiffening as the dragon ruthlessly stole everything from his mind. He tried to think of anything but what the creature sought—he even tried to feed her memories of finding Phelistoth in a Cofah lab, his blood being sucked out by the vial full, to show her what kind of “ally” the emperor might be—but it was hard to do more than writhe in pain at the harshness of the intrusion.
“Maybe he’ll die just from having a dragon pawing at his brain,” someone said with a snicker.
“I hope so. We crashed, thanks to him and that witch.”
The emperor remained silent. Tolemek wanted to protest that Kaika wasn’t a witch, but it hurt too much to talk, too much to think. Only the knowledge that they’d brought the ship down made him feel slightly better, but if it was still seaworthy, they hadn’t done enough.
“The dragon informs me that she has the information,” the emperor said. “But you do not know where my daughter is. That is unfortunate.” He turned slightly. “Check the other one.”
A moment later, Tolemek heard Kaika gasp and knew the dragon was rifling through her thoughts too. He turned his head as much as he could with the rifle pinning him down. He wanted to catch her gaze, to apologize, if only with his eyes.
Kaika wasn’t looking at him. Her chin was to her chest, as if in defeat, but Tolemek noticed something that surprised him. Either her hands hadn’t been tied behind her back, after all, or she had somehow slipped one free, perhaps disguising the movement as a reaction of pain when the dragon had jumped into her head. Now, she slid that hand past her belt and into her trousers, using her shoulders to hide the action from the guards standing behind her. When she withdrew her hand again, something compact was hidden by her palm. She met his eyes, giving him a bleak but determined smile.
Without a doubt, Tolemek knew she had pulled out an explosive. Her words from the jail flashed into his mind, “I can’t believe they didn’t bother stripping us.” The guards must not have even searched her yet, or nobody had been brazen enough to check her crotch. Maybe they foolishly thought Tolemek was the more dangerous of the two people they’d found here.
He might have laughed in triumph, but he realized there was only one thing she could do with that bomb from that position. Detonate it and kill everyone around her, including the emperor. Including him.
Tylie, he thought, having no idea if she could hear him. I love you. Tell Cas I love her too.
Kaika nodded at Tolemek and shifted her thumb. She’d armed the explosive.
Weapon! the female dragon cried into his mind—into all of their minds. Everyone spun about, startled and confused.
Kaika threw the grenade at the hull next to the emperor’s head. The guard standing over Tolemek with the rifle jumped to protect his supreme commander. With the weapon no longer pointed at his face, Tolemek flipped to his hands and knees and tried to get out of the way. Other guards were leaping in, hurling the emperor to the deck, covering him with their bodies. The passage was a cluster of chaos. Tolemek crashed into the back of someone’s legs as he jumped to his feet. Expecting the guard to stop him, Tolemek lowered his shoulder to ram the man. But this guard was trying to run away too. Tolemek hit nothing but air, and he almost stumbled to the floor again. He only made it a few more steps before the grenade went off.
For the second time that day, an explosion behind him hurled him into the air. It felt like a battering ram smashing between his shoulder blades. His feet left the ground, and he crashed into the guard who had also been running. Light flooded the area, and water washed into the passageway. Tolemek landed in several inches of it instead of on the hard decking. More water surged in, a wave crashing over his head. Cold, salty water enveloped him, and he sputtered as it rolled into his mouth.
Someone grabbed his shoulder. He didn’t know if it was a guard trying to gather up prisoners or someone who couldn’t swim hoping for a handhold. After a glance over his shoulder to make sure it wasn’t Kaika, he rammed his elbow backward, catching the person in the ribs. His sleeve tangled with something. He started to jerk his arm back, but recognized the butt of a pistol in a holster. He groped, found it with his hand, and yanked it out. The bullets would probably be too waterlogged to fire, but he could clobber people with it if he needed to.
His feet found something hard—the wall? The ceiling?—and he pushed off through the gaping hole in the hull. His entire body hurt, and he might have a concussion, but he recognized his chance to escape and had to use it. He swam toward the light.
A guard sputtered nearby. “Getting away!”
“Where’s the emperor?”
Tolemek swam, squinting into the morning light, searching for the closest shoreline. He spotted land, but two ships blocked the way.
Someone gasped a few meters away. It sounded like a woman. He paused. Kaika? Had she survived that? He had been sure she wouldn’t with the guards fencing her in, keeping her from fleeing up the passageway.
Tolemek turned, only to come face to face with a shaven-headed man. The figure was grabbing something, not looking at Tolemek, but he would surely attack as soon as he realized Tolemek was there.
“—off me, you—” That was Kaika’s voice again. She gasped and was shoved under water before she could finish. Two guards wrestled with her.
Tolemek lifted the pistol and clubbed the one in front of him. He had to get to Kaika to help.
His target cried out in anger and disgruntlement. Tolemek barely avoided being elbowed. The water made everyone slower. As the man turned, he surged in, wrapping an arm around his neck and clubbing him again. He wished he had a knockout grenade, a more elegant and less devastating solution, but the emperor’s men had removed all of his tools.
After he struck the man a third time, the fellow gave up. He thrashed and tried to escape. Boots planted into Tolemek’s abdomen, as the guard pushed off. Tolemek grunted, all of his air driven out of his lungs. Since the guard didn’t look like he wanted any more of the f
ight, Tolemek let him get away.
He paddled toward where he’d seen Kaika struggling, but his arm smacked against someone else coming up for air. Another bald head. He almost clubbed that head right away, but he paused before striking. The face that turned toward him, blood streaming from the nostrils and the eyes glassy, belonged to the emperor.
Tolemek grabbed him, not sure yet what he intended to do, but options spun through his mind. He could trade the man for Kaika or use him for a shield. Though he expected a fight, the emperor was barely conscious. He batted feebly at the water.
A gunshot fired, the sound muffled by water. Maybe all of the bullets weren’t waterlogged, after all.
Tolemek hooked one arm under the emperor’s armpit and across his chest to keep him afloat. He started to paddle in Kaika’s direction, but her head came up first. She gasped, flinging hair out of her face with one hand. Her pistol came up and she spun around, looking for her enemies. But she seemed to have dealt with them all, for the moment. Aside from the guard who had given up and was swimming away, nobody remained to oppose them.
Before Tolemek could grow too elated about that, he noticed boats heading their way. Many boats. Packed rowboats carved through the choppy waters of the bay, dozens of soldiers aiming rifles at Tolemek and Kaika.
“Get close to me,” Tolemek whispered, wanting to make sure none of them risked shooting out of fear of hitting the emperor.
Not that it mattered. The soldiers rowed with fervor, closing the distance fast, coming at them from all sides. There was no escape.
A shadow fell across the water. Tolemek hoped it might belong to a flier, swooping in to rescue them, but the only propellers he heard were in the distance.
Massive wings spread above him, blocking out the sky. Talons stretched toward him. Thinking it was the gold dragon, he almost ducked, but silver scales covered the belly above them.
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