Soulblade (16 page)

Therrik’s forehead wrinkled. “Are you talking to it now?”

“The dragon? No.” Sardelle thought about stopping there, lest he have more reasons to find her strange, but what did it matter what he thought? She gave him an edged smile. “Now I’m talking to my sword.”

Jaxi offered a soft hum, so she must have approved.

“I’m going to investigate the cave,” Sardelle announced and headed off to find Bhrava Saruth.

• • • • •

Tolemek did not have much of a belly, but he sucked it in as a keelboat glided closer, its arrow-shaped prow parting the murky water. The evening shadows and the stout tree in front of him should hide him, but Kaika shared his tree, and he worried that one of their rifles or some of their gear might stick out and give them away. The men striding along the sides of the keelboat, maneuvering it through the swamp via poles that pushed off the bottom, had eyes that were far too alert as they regarded the banks.

Their presence should indicate that the city lay nearby. It was hard to imagine, given the water stretching everywhere and the dense canopy of vines, branches, and leaves that blocked out the sky, but this was the third boat that had gone by in the last half hour. One of them, a steam-powered paddleboat, had carried a crew of at least ten with twice as many passengers, men and women who had prowled the deck with rifles as they looked toward the branches. A pole had stuck up diagonally from the prow with a slab of meat tied to the end. Bait, Tolemek assumed, though for what he did not know. He didn’t
want
to know.

Creatures that sounded more like bats than birds kept making noise up in the treetops, but he had not seen what they were yet. They sounded much larger than bats. He much preferred it when they had been walking along the beach, an area mostly devoid of predators, but Colonel Quataldo had moved them inland for the last couple of miles to avoid the notice of the numerous fishing boats that had been coming in from deeper waters, angling for a delta farther up the beach. Of course, Quataldo had disappeared soon after that, as seemed to be his way. Scouting, he’d said.

Tolemek didn’t need a scout to be certain the animals here were more dangerous than anyone they were likely to run into in a fishing boat. Thus far, they had passed venomous bats and vipers, fanged spiders the size of his head, and they had run from two alligators intent on making them dinner. He was relieved that Phelistoth had gone off “to hunt” with Tylie, taking her up above the canopy and hopefully to a safer area, but he felt uneasy down here with only Captain Kaika at his side. He had never considered himself timid or cowardly, but in addition to the real dangers, the growls, squawks, hisses, and roars kept a man on edge.

Someone on the keelboat cried out, and a rifle fired. Tolemek’s instinct was to lean out and see if he could help, but Kaika gripped his forearm. She held a finger to her lips.

Wood crunched. More shots fired, someone cursed, and another man cried out, this time in pain. The hair on the back of his neck pricked up, and he felt certain someone was using magic. The thrashing of something hitting the water repeatedly drowned out everything else. For several long seconds, it continued. Finally, the noise stilled. Grunts, pants, and a loud scrape-thump sounded next, followed by chatter in a language Tolemek could not understand. It sounded oddly cheerful.

He contained his curiosity for another ten seconds, but then he had to poke his head around the tree and look. The keelboat had continued onward, and the pushers’ backs were to him, so he felt safe. The sight of a huge alligator—seven gods, did that alligator have wings?—draped over the cabin roof made his jaw fall open. A bite had been taken out of the rear of the keelboat, a
large
bite.

“Hunting’s good today, it seems,” Kaika murmured.

“Is that what these boats are out for? Seems suicidal.”

“Someone has to gather specimens for scientists from distant lands.” The boat disappeared behind a copse of trees leaning out over the water, and Kaika waved that they could continue on. “Don’t you pay handsomely for your powders and potions?”

“Chemicals, formulas, and ingredients,” he grumbled.

She raised her eyebrows.

“And yes, I do pay well for the imported ones.” He had, however, never ordered an ingredient derived from a
winged
alligator, at least insofar as he knew.

Shaking his head, Tolemek followed her as they continued skirting the swamp toward a pair of posts that marked the first of the legendary rope bridges he’d always heard associated with Tildar Dem. The rope-linked wooden slats extended for as far as he could see, crossing water of indeterminate depth. Occasional pairs of posts kept the boards from slumping to the surface, though no part of the bridge was more than a couple of feet above it. Given the willingness of the local fauna to eat through wood, he found the frailness of the route alarming. The openness was also discouraging. Even with the deepening gloom of twilight, they would have trouble hiding if more boats came along.

“Are we crossing here?” Tolemek asked when Kaika halted at the entrance. Trees loomed on either side, with support cables from the bridge wrapped around their bases.

“Yes, but we should wait for—”

A hiss sounded inches from Tolemek’s ear, his only warning. He resisted the urge to look, instead dropping to the ground and rolling away. His elbow clunked against the bridge, sending a stab of pain up his arm, as he yanked out his pistol. From his back, his hair dangling in the water, he aimed at—

Colonel Quataldo stood where he had been a second before, one hand wrapped around the throat of the viper that had hissed in Tolemek’s ear. It struggled in his grip, but he calmly lifted his other hand and snapped its spine.

“Avert your firearm, please,” Quataldo said.

Tolemek had already lowered it, but he waited to be positive the snake wouldn’t move again before holstering the weapon. He kept himself from glowering at the colonel—he wished he could have handled the snake by himself. He was hardly some damsel in need of rescue, no matter what the mud dripping from his hair implied.

“Been anywhere exciting, sir?” Kaika asked. She looked like she might yawn. She hadn’t moved from her spot at the start of the bridge.

Tolemek pushed himself to his feet, wondered if he could say anything to appear more manly and less in need of saving, and decided he couldn’t.

“Scouting.” Quataldo let go of the snake, leaving it dangling from the tree. A rare smile crossed his face. “I also found an unfertilized egg.”

“What?” Tolemek asked.

Kaika did not appear surprised. “Alligator?”

Quataldo carefully removed a large, dark green egg. “It looks like an emu egg, but this isn’t the right habitat for emus.”

“So you don’t know what it is?” Tolemek frowned at it. He was familiar with a wide variety of reptiles and birds, but this wasn’t his native continent, and he couldn’t have said for certain what type of egg it was either. “Is it wise to take it along? How can you tell if it’s been fertilized or not without breaking it open?”

“I can tell.”

Tolemek shook his head. The man was either a loon, or maybe a few drops of dragon blood lurked in his veins. He would ask Sardelle, if they all survived this mission. Would she be enthused or intimidated by teaching a soldier who specialized in killing how to access his power?

“What are you going to do with it?” Tolemek asked.

“Carve it, of course.”

Quataldo tucked the egg back into his pouch, the insides insulated, then shrugged off his pack. He drew a small wooden box from a side pocket and unlatched it to reveal a padded inside, as well as tiny carving tools tucked under the lid. A yellow egg lay nestled inside, part of the shell carved away. Tolemek leaned close, trying to tell more about the design—was that some large bird standing on one leg? The poor light made it difficult.

“When you’re in the elite forces,” Kaika said, “you spend a lot of time sitting, standing, perching, and crouching while waiting for your enemies to do something. The colonel carves eggs while he waits.”

“A unique hobby,” Tolemek said, not seeing the point of making something that was purely decorative.

“He sells them for hundreds of nucros, if not thousands, right, sir?”

Quataldo inclined his head. “I don’t sell all of them, but I’m saving money so my children can afford to continue with their educations and follow their passions. My daughter is almost ready for the university.”

“Doesn’t your officer’s pay provide enough for that?” Tolemek asked.

“Well. I have a wife.”

Kaika grinned. “She likes to shop.”

“Ah.” Tolemek tried to imagine Cas shopping for something besides military supplies. Perhaps he should be relieved she lacked an interest in clothing and baubles.

“It’s getting dark.” Quataldo carefully stored his eggs as he spoke. “We should be able to risk traversing the bridge, since night will hide us, but be careful. The boats come out to hunt at twilight but will return to the city soon. Being caught outside after dark is not wise. The number of predators active at night can grow unmanageable.”

Tolemek shifted his weight. “Just around the city, or are Cas and the others in danger?”

“I am certain they can take care of themselves, but my reports say this area is more dangerous. Some of the unnatural predators covet human flesh over that of animals and fish, and they know that many tens of thousands live in the city.” Quataldo shouldered his pack and stepped onto the bridge. The ropes creaked softly.

“Nothing like being coveted,” Tolemek muttered, following when Kaika waved for him to go second. “Unnatural. Does that mean descendants of dragon pairings?”

“That’s one of the explanations I’ve heard,” Quataldo said. “Others say that shaman scientists in the area used to do experiments, and that some of those experiments changed the ground in places, affecting animals born in proximity to those areas.”

“Scientists, always making trouble.”

He’d meant it as a joke, but the long look Quataldo leveled over his shoulder suggested agreement.

Kaika brought up the rear, her rifle crooked in her arms. Tolemek left his own rifle strapped to his pack, instead keeping his pistol in one hand and a knockout grenade in the other.

They walked along the bridge for what seemed like miles, the night closing in about them. Now and then, they came to a small island rising up from the murky water, but the bridge would simply continue on the other side. Sometimes, other bridges branched off, heading perpendicular to the main route. Quataldo kept going straight.

The paddleboat and the keelboats returned, gliding along more quickly than the group was walking. Each time a boat passed, Tolemek, Quataldo, and Kaika lay on their stomachs on the bridges, not moving until the craft passed. Tolemek wondered if they might have sneaked aboard the bigger boat and gotten a ride to the city, but it never steered close enough to the bridge to truly consider that. He certainly wasn’t going to suggest going for a swim. It had been a while since he had seen an alligator, but water snakes wriggled through the murky swamp more than once.

“We’ll reach the lights soon,” Quataldo said. “There will be more bridges then, and we may encounter guards on the outskirts of the city. Tolemek, if you will provide us some of your smoke and knockout grenades, we would appreciate it.”

“Are you going into Tildar Dem without me?”

“You’ll come with us into the city, but we’ll be leaving you at the Mysora Malosh, an inn that has Iskandian connections and where you should be safe. You have the communication crystal, so we will go out and explore and then come back to you. If anything happens to us, the innkeeper should hear about it and inform you. You can tell the others and decide if the mission might be salvaged or if it must be abandoned.”

“It won’t need to be salvaged or abandoned,” Kaika said firmly, almost fiercely.

Quataldo gave her a long look over his shoulder, but did not comment.

“I have the grenades, and I can give you some of my compound that can eat through walls too,” Tolemek said.

He had no trouble being left behind in an inn while these two skulked about. That should keep him from having to attack his own people—his own emperor.
Former
emperor, he reminded himself. He wondered why he still had a hard time thinking of the man that way. He had never even met Emperor Salatak. He’d spent far more time talking to King Angulus. Yet, when he had been a young officer in the Cofah army, he’d sworn an oath to defend the emperor and the empire. Even years later, it was hard to forget that.

“Excellent,” Quataldo said.

Tolemek dipped his hand into his pocket, checking to ensure the communication crystal remained there. He had embedded it into a piece of wood so that it would not be easy to lose. He drew it out, its faint glow comforting in the dreary swamp. Since he had nothing to report yet, he fastened it in again, buttoning the pocket flap.

Tolie?

Tylie? Are you staying close?

Fairly close. Phel has been hunting again. He seems to get hungry a lot here.

Tolemek wondered if the dragon was truly hungry or if he just didn’t want to stick around and help with the Iskandian kidnapping scheme. He was still surprised Phelistoth had so readily agreed to come along. He had almost seemed eager at the prospect, if a dragon could be eager. Maybe he was simply staying away now because he didn’t want to be sensed by the other dragon. Tolemek could not object to that.

We saw the city from above as it was getting dark. It’s beautiful. All these lights stretching out into the swamp. The mountains are beautiful too. Phel takes me there to hunt. It’s so wonderful seeing the world this way.
Tylie’s contented sigh whispered into his mind.
I want to paint everything I see.

I’m sure you’ll have time to do that when we get home. Are you and Phelistoth going to come into the city with us?

Phel is looking at some ruins buried under the trees and vines now,
Tylie said.
Bhrava Saruth did not let him look at that crystal library for very long or up close, and he’s still seeking clues about his missing kind.