“I’ve gone a hundred meters, and I’m already thinking about a nap.”
Hm? I’m sorry, I wasn’t listening. Watching your friend run around after the rats is indeed entertaining.
The most excitement you’ve seen in three hundred years?
Sadly so. The world is dreadfully boring when you’re not awake.
I’ll take that as a compliment.
A cold wind whistled across the hillside, whipping at Sardelle’s damp skin. She pulled her cap low over her eyes and wrapped her scarf up to her nose, then pushed away from the tree and headed down the trail. The soldiers would probably walk faster than she could, even breaking the trail. She didn’t want to catch up with them anyway—explaining her presence and why she had disobeyed Zirkander wouldn’t be fun. All she wanted was to be close enough to help if the sorcerer she had sensed attacked the team.
Are you sure you want to help against someone who might be… a distant relative?
If he’s Cofah, he’s no relative of mine.
Not technically true. Their ancestors are the same as yours, back from the dragon-riding days when mages were flying around the world and colonizing it as easily as… well, as easily as they can do today in their airships, I suppose.
I know, Jaxi, but the Cofah were trying to take over our homeland three centuries ago, and that doesn’t seem to have changed. Whoever is out there isn’t anyone I have anything in common with.
Except magic. Would a day come when she would grow so lonely for her own kind, for those she could speak openly with about the mental arts, that she might seek out sorcerers on other continents, continents that had either never suffered a purge or could boast more survivors from that time period? If so… it wasn’t today. She certainly wasn’t going to stand aside and let Zirkander get hurt. He was… she didn’t know what he was to her exactly, but she knew she didn’t want to see him wounded—or worse.
Sardelle waited for a snarky comment, but Jaxi must have been distracted. Maybe she was trying to scout the mountain ahead to see if the airship had indeed crashed—with a sorcerer inside—or if it had escaped into the ether. Sardelle paid more attention to the forest around her, to the towering evergreens stretching toward the sky, the boughs heavy with fresh snow. Now and then an overburdened branch would drop its load, and the noise would make her jump. There were few other noises out there. Whatever animals lived in the hills had probably gone to ground when the avalanche roared through the mountains.
The path leveled, giving her legs a break—remaining upright while walking across an ever-steepening slope was not an easy task—but it turned to head through a narrow canyon too. She eyed the craggy gray walls and the high perches overhead, wondering if there were any mountain lions about. Because she was looking in that direction, she missed the movement behind a tree to the left of the canyon entrance.
A dark figure jumped out and grabbed her before she could so much as think of defense. An arm wrapped around her waist, tugging her off-balance, and she tumbled against…
“Colonel Zirkander,” she gasped, glad she had identified him before her wits had returned and she had launched some attack that would be… hard to explain later.
The grip around her waist loosened, though he didn’t let her go. “It is you. I didn’t think it could be… how’d you get out?”
“Just waited for a moment when nobody was looking.”
“I’m going to have to talk to those gate guards.” Zirkander released her and propped her back upright on the trail—the snowshoes did make it difficult to maintain one’s balance. He touched her pack. “You came prepared.”
Sardelle decided not to remind him that she had grown up in the area, not when she had been caught mentioning a town that no longer existed. “Are you going to send me back?”
Zirkander looked back along the trail. If he said yes, turned her around, and swatted her on the backside to get her moving, what choice would she have but to do so?
“No. We’ve already encountered tracks out here.”
“Human tracks?”
He nodded. “A couple of men went most of the way to the fort, presumably to see if the avalanche swallowed us whole or not.”
“That means the ship did land then.”
“Or crash. Come on. We’ll find out.” He headed into the little canyon.
“Thank you.”
“And along the way, you can tell me why you’re so eager to come along.” Zirkander gave her a long look over his shoulder. “I doubt there are any archaeological dig sites out here.”
Sardelle stumbled. She almost asked what made him think she was here as an archeologist, but she caught herself. If he thought she was some academic here to poke through stones, let him. That was a lot better than being a prisoner. Of course, she had already installed her forged record. It was only a matter of time before that captain stumbled across it.
Just worry about the now, Jaxi suggested. And be wary of what’s ahead. For all we know, that sorcerer could be one of the ones padding about out here.
Good point.
They passed through the canyon without being jumped on by mountain lions, and a fit, young soldier veered out of the trees to join them on the opposite side. A nametag on his parka read Oster.
“Sir?” He looked at Sardelle.
“Our shadow,” Zirkander said.
“She’s… coming?”
“She seems to be of that opinion.”
Oster stared at the colonel, but didn’t question him. Sardelle wondered if people would start to, behind his back if not to his face, because of her. She was still dressed in prisoner garb, if with a few extra layers she had piled on for this trek. Even if she had helped with the avalanche retrieval, the soldiers wouldn’t necessarily trust her. She hoped the fact that Zirkander seemed to wouldn’t make trouble for him.
“You find any more tracks, Corporal?” Zirkander asked.
“No, sir. The two sets over there walked out to the fort and then walked back the same way. They didn’t have snowshoes, so it’s possible we’ll catch them if we hurry.”
“Tell the sergeant to go ahead then. I’ll catch up. You young warriors would probably like me out of the way for any fighting that comes up anyway.”
The corporal hesitated. “We wouldn’t want you getting… sniped or—” he glanced at Sardelle, “—anything else, either, sir.”
“I’ll be fine.” Zirkander pulled out the rifle strapped across his pack and held it in front of him. “I’m a fair shot, I’m told.”
“Yes, sir.” Oster saluted, then jogged down the trail ahead of them.
“I didn’t know you could jog in snowshoes,” Sardelle said.
“It takes practice.”
She wagered Zirkander could have kept up with the younger men and was staying back because of her. She didn’t know how she felt about that.
Like a burden?
Not until you mentioned it. Thanks, Jaxi.
Sardelle extended her senses around them as she walked—she hadn’t been paying attention earlier, and Zirkander had snuck up on her with embarrassing ease. It wouldn’t do to let anyone else approach. They were tramping down a slope toward a canyon, this one much larger than the other they had passed through. Large enough to hold a crashed airship. Something out there tickled the edge of her senses. Several people, and someone… The sorcerer? Working some magic? He or she didn’t seem aware of her, but she pulled back anyway. The magic user seemed busy, but since she had sensed him probing the fortress, he might feel her presence as well.
She wanted to warn Zirkander, not only that the crashed ship and several people were at the other end of the canyon, but about the other sorcerer as well. How, though? She focused on the back of his head, wishing she could will whatever prejudices he had against magic users away. An impossibility, alas. She shook her head. She would have to simply try to help the soldiers when they encountered the airship crew.
Zirkander lifted a hand. “Wait here, please.”
He removed his snowsh
oes, leaned his rifle against a cliff, and scrambled up the rock, the edges and crevices slick with ice and snow. She gaped as he went up forty feet, as if there were a rope there to assist him. Yes, he definitely could have kept up with the young soldiers.
At the top, he crouched, his back to a boulder, and peered toward the valley. The snow had slowed to a few intermittent flurries. “Yes… I thought I smelled smoke. They’re here.” He clenched his fist. “It doesn’t look like they smashed into any trees, but there was definitely some damage done on the way down.”
“You really want that ship, don’t you?”
“Yes.” Zirkander crawled back down, not quite as quickly as he had gone up, but he landed in the snow beside her without falling or appearing in danger of falling at any point. “Some astute bartender would doubtlessly pin this desire back to my childhood days when my father refused to buy a model airship for me.”
Astute bartender? Is that what passed for a therapist in the army? “Why wouldn’t he buy it for you?”
Zirkander strapped his snowshoes back on as he answered. “He said he didn’t want to encourage me—I was already flight mad by five or six—but Mom said we didn’t have the money for silly toys. I decided to make one of my own. Out of sticks. It was more of an air-raft.” He nodded his readiness and started down the trail again.
“I’m sure it was cute,” Sardelle said.
A shot fired in the distance. Zirkander cursed and started jogging. Sardelle did her best to keep up. More shots were fired, all from the direction of that canyon, and she thought he would tear off without her. But he glanced back, saw she was falling behind, and stopped to wait. His hand was clenched about his rifle, and he reminded her of a sled dog, straining at the traces, eager to charge off down the trail.
“You don’t have to wait for me,” Sardelle said. “I’ll catch up. Or maybe hang back and stay out of trouble.”
“Oddly, I don’t believe you.”
Good. She wanted him where she could keep an eye on him anyway. She would try to watch over the other soldiers as well, but Zirkander was… her best hope of freeing Jaxi.
Uh huh. I’m the reason you’re trailing him across the mountain and through a blizzard.
Sardelle waved at the scattering of snowflakes. This hardly constitutes a blizzard.
Give it time. You should see the clouds coming in your direction.
She grimaced. Yet more news that would be useful to share with the others, but which she couldn’t.
She extended her senses again, trying to get a feel for the situation ahead, to help their soldiers if she could. There were people at the other end of the canyon, but some had scattered. At this distance, she couldn’t be certain if they were Zirkander’s people or men from the ship. Oster was the only one she recognized. He was farther back, closer to her and Zirkander.
Trees and uneven terrain had forced the trail to twist and wind before it reached the mouth of the canyon, but they were finally entering it. A minute or two had passed since the last shot fired. She sensed…
“They’re leaving.” Sardelle clapped a hand over her mouth, worried she had given away something she shouldn’t have been able to tell from her position.
But Zirkander nodded. “I see it.”
The trees made it difficult to see much of anything, but ah, she needed to look up instead of ahead. That massive balloon was clearing the canopy. If she had damaged it once, maybe she could again, although… the number of people she sensed on it was… high. Over two dozen. Maybe more.
“She’s not nearly as wounded as I had hoped,” Zirkander said.
No, a sorcerer could make short work of repairs.
A few people moved about on the deck, beneath the shadow of the balloon. From Sardelle’s angle, she could only see those closest to the railing, but she squinted, hoping to catch sight of the magic user, wanting a look at her opponent. What she saw was someone with a spyglass, standing next to someone with a rifle, looking down at them.
“Look out,” she whispered, backing toward a tree—or trying. The oversized snowshoes tangled beneath her feet, and she tumbled to the ground in the middle of the trail… in clear sight for those on the ship.
A shot fired, and she flung an arm out, forming an invisible barrier in the air around her. A clunk-clang sounded, another bullet being chambered, and a second shot fired on the heels of the first. Belatedly, Sardelle realized it was Zirkander shooting, not those on the ship. In fact… one man had already disappeared from sight. The second, clutching his chest, toppled backward, falling from her view.
Zirkander leaned toward her, and she dropped her shield before he bumped into it. He picked her up and carried her behind a couple of thick trees before setting her on her feet.
“Thanks,” Sardelle said. “I forgot I was wearing these clunky things.”
“They’re definitely awkward.” He was standing beside her protectively, his arm around her back, but his gaze was toward the sky. Carried on the currents, the ship had already drifted out of view.
“I’m sorry you didn’t get your salvage,” she said. Or maybe not… What if she ripped the balloon again? Sure, there were no rockets to hide her sabotage, but with the trees blocking the view, who would know what had happened?
She closed her eyes, envisioning that balloon, and tried to cut a hole as she had before. This time, it didn’t work. She sensed the why right away. There was a protective film about it, not unlike the barrier she had just thrown up. The sorcerer. He knew she was out there and wasn’t going to be caught unaware again.
A screech came out of the depths of the canyon, eerie and hair-raising. Sardelle gulped. “Was that… a cat?”
There had been mountain lions and wolves in the Ice Blades in her day, and she had heard both, but this sounded like something different. Something less… mortal.
“Almost sounds like a hawk,” Zirkander said. “A really loud, creepier-than-a-haunted-battlefield hawk. Let’s find the other men and get back to the fort. There’s nothing left for us here.”
The screech sounded again, closer this time. It reverberated from the canyon walls and seemed to hang on the breeze for an eternity. Something about it made Sardelle want to spring in the opposite direction and let those soldiers find their own way home. Zirkander didn’t shy away though, and she strode after him.
She searched the valley with her senses, hoping to find the creature and identify it. Or maybe just find it so they could better avoid it. She sensed the men. They had been spread out, trying to sneak up on the ship as its crew finished repairs. They were angling back toward each other now, though two seemed to have lost their way in the snow and trees—or maybe they were intentionally looking for the source of those cries. Sardelle shuddered. She wouldn’t.
Oddly, she couldn’t find it even with her mage senses. The screech sounded one more time, so she knew the cat or hawk or whatever it was hadn’t left the canyon, but she couldn’t feel anything in the direction the noise had come from. Or where it had seemed to come from. The way it reverberated from the rocky walls made it hard to tell.
Two shots fired.
“They’re not shooting at some animal, are they?” Zirkander didn’t sound out of breath from their charge into the canyon.
Sardelle was too busy gulping air to respond.
“Unless the airship left some men behind,” Zirkander added.
“I don’t think so.” Sardelle didn’t sense any people in the canyon, other than those on the colonel’s team. “It seemed pretty full,” she added, when he glanced back at her. Minus the two men he had shot… They wouldn’t be happy about that. She hoped the craft wasn’t heading back to attack the fort. It had flown off in the opposite direction, but that might not mean anything.
“Colonel Zirkander?” came a call from their left. Boulders and the cliffs of the canyon wall were visible beyond the snowy trees, but Sardelle didn’t see the speaker.
“Coming,” Zirkander called. He veered off the trail. “They must thin
k we’re alone if they’re shouting,” he added more quietly. “But what are they shooting at then?”
The screech sounded again, as if to answer his question. It sounded like it was coming from the sky rather than the canyon floor, or maybe some precipice up the cliffs. Once again, Sardelle tried to find it, but the only life she sensed was that of the soldiers and of a few rodents and chipmunks, most burrowed beneath the snow. She counted four soldiers. Hadn’t there been five before? Maybe she had been mistaken.
“How many men are out here with you?” Sardelle asked.
“Five.”
Uh oh. Either someone had gotten separated from the group, or…
The parkas of two of the men came into view through the trees. If not for the contrast of the white ground, Sardelle might have missed them. It was growing dark, with the snow picking up again.
One of the soldiers lifted a solemn hand at their approach. “It’s Nakkithor, sir.”
“What happened, Sergeant?” Zirkander asked.
“We’re… not sure.”
“We didn’t see it,” the second soldier said. “Nak was behind us, maybe ten meters back, at least that’s what I thought. Then we heard his screams. We ran back and… ”
Sardelle tried to see past Zirkander without leaving the trail he was breaking. The drifts hugging the trees to either side were above her waist. It took a moment before she located the man they were talking about. The soldier lay unmoving on the ground in a tiny clearing, his body half hidden by a tangle of thorny brambles on one edge. Dark crimson stains spattered the snow. She didn’t have to take a closer look to know he was dead.
“I swear I saw something, some shadow running or flying away,” the sergeant said. Sardelle squinted through the gloom to pick out the names on their parkas. Makt. “It was big and moving fast, whatever it was. I shot twice, then realized it might be you.”
“I haven’t managed to move that fast out here,” Zirkander said, stopping beside the body. “It wasn’t me.”
“I thought I hit… whatever it was, but it didn’t cry out. It just disappeared behind the trees.”
“Rav and Oster went to look,” the second man, Eringroad, said. “See if they could find tracks or a sign that we’d hit it. As you can see, there’s nothing around here except our snowshoe marks.”
The Dragon Blood Collection, Books 1-3 Page 11