Soulblade (33 page)

“I’ve heard that,” he panted. “Try to knock out the hole.” Sweat slithered down the sides of his face. If his hands grew damp, there would be no way he could keep holding both of them up.

More gunshots came from above. Tolemek didn’t think the soldiers were shooting at them this time—the bullets didn’t snap into the basket.

Kaika kicked toward the hull of the ship. Her boot connected with a thump that should have made Tolemek wince, but he was too worried about not falling to care if the soldiers heard them. His formula had burned a hole, and the wood fell inward after Kaika’s third kick. When she let go of him, it was such a relief to his shaking arms that it took him a moment to check to see if she’d fallen or found her way inside the ship.

Sweat stung his eyes, and he squinted through the hole and into the gloom of the interior. Kaika leaned out, waving at him. Tolemek reached for a new handhold closer to the edge.

“The emperor is ordering the dragon shot,” someone yelled as cannons or other big guns fired in the distance.

“Come help me with this basket,” a soldier growled from right above Tolemek. “Get back here, you idiots.”

Tolemek swung his legs toward the hole, his heart lurching when his fingers slipped. His hips made it as far as the hull, but his upper body fell too soon. He flailed with his legs, trying to find something to hook them around. Hands gripped his thighs as his butt smacked the bottom of the hole, and his torso fell free. He might have tumbled out if not for Kaika.

“I’m not strong enough to pull you in. Figure something out,” she ordered, her voice strained.

Tolemek peered up at the basket, the balloon, the railing, and the hole. He wriggled his hips, trying to ease himself in. He managed to get a hand up to grab the edge of the hole. Inside, Kaika had her legs planted on either side of the opening, bracing herself as she held onto him. With a heave, he hauled himself the rest of the way inside. They tumbled to the deck together.

Had there been guards waiting inside, they both would have been shot. Tolemek’s body refused to do anything but lie there and pant.

“Guess we should thank Phelistoth for being a distraction.” Kaika rolled to her hands and knees, pushing Tolemek’s leg off her.

“Given his reason for being there, I’m not sure that’s necessary.”

Tolemek struggled to stand, using a bulkhead for support. Oddly, his legs were quivering as much as his arms.

They were in some officer’s cabin, an officer who was on duty, apparently. The bunk was neatly made with boots tucked into a cubby underneath the thin mattress. The built-in wooden furnishings and the gray and blue painted walls made Tolemek pause as memories slammed into him. He had once occupied a cabin very similar to this as a lieutenant aboard a military airship. Later, he had risen in rank to captain, but that command had lasted less than three weeks before Zirkander’s Wolf Squadron pilots had annihilated his ship. What a strange twist that he considered Iskandia home now.

“Come on.” Kaika waved from the door. “We have less time than before to find a way to the emperor’s ship, and it won’t take them long to figure out where we went.”

Tolemek dashed sweat out of his eyes. “Agreed.”

Kaika peeked out the door, then eased out. Tolemek hurried after her. The passageway lay empty, but the pounding of boots sounded above their heads as soldiers ran to stations.

“You dropped that jar, didn’t you?” Kaika asked.

“Unfortunately, yes. I valued my life slightly more than it.”

“Only slightly?”

“It’s one of my best compounds.”

“I can see why. We’ll have to go up to the deck. Too bad. I wouldn’t have minded burning a hole on the other side and trying to throw my grappling hook from there.” She headed for weak light filtering down from the end of the passageway.

A ship’s ladder led upward, dark treads visible on its steep steps. Dawn was brightening the sky more and more with each minute, and it would be hard to sneak across the deck. Tolemek patted himself down, hoping he hadn’t lost more than the jar. He was still lamenting the loss of that communication crystal. Fortunately, most of his pockets had buttons, and fasteners secured his belt pouches. He unclasped one and fished out two smoke grenades.

“Let me go first,” he whispered when they reached the base of the ladder.

An eardrum-shaking roar came from outside. Phelistoth? More cannons fired in the distance, but this sounded much closer.

Tolemek scurried up the ladder and poked his head outside in time to see a dragon flying across the front of the airship, its wings almost touching the railing. It was a gold dragon, not a silver. A huge gold dragon. The female.

Judging by her direction, she had come from inland. She streaked toward the emperor’s airship. And toward Phelistoth. He flapped away as she approached. She turned to follow him. They flew out of sight, above the envelope of the airship, but screeches and roars drowned out the shouts of soldiers.

Kaika swatted him on the back of the knee. “Get moving. There’s our diversion.”

“Right.” For good measure, Tolemek armed his smoke grenades and rolled them out onto the deck. The soldiers he could see were riveted to the dragon fight, but even so, they might notice two strangers skulking behind their backs.

Tolemek darted through the smoke toward the railing closest to the emperor’s ship. When Kaika joined him a couple of seconds later, she already had her rope and grappling hook out. She started swinging it immediately.

The smoke fuzzed the air around them, but the breeze had not abated—if anything, it was stronger up here. Tolemek worried that a soldier who glanced in their direction would be certain to see them. He pulled out his pistol, since he’d lost his rifle in the basket-climbing fiasco, and he watched Kaika’s back as she worked.

Her hook sailed toward the other ship, but came just shy of hitting the railing. Tolemek winced, aware of the soldiers on the deck over there. Most of them were looking toward the dragon fight, too, and Kaika was aiming for the rear of the ship, but there had to be forty men near the railings over there. Someone was bound to glimpse movement and spot them.

The alarmed cry came from their own ship, not the other one. A soldier saw them through the smoke. He was in his undershirt, with his boots untied, and he didn’t have a rifle. That didn’t keep him from shouting for his comrades to help.

Tolemek hated to make noise, but he fired.

He hoped the roaring dragons would drown out the sound, but that was a vain hope. Phelistoth and the female had moved off and were fighting over the trees now, their tails occasionally visible as they flew about each other. Phelistoth looked like he was trying to run away.

Several soldiers turned toward Tolemek and Kaika.

“Here,” she barked, shoving the end of the rope into his hands. “Tie this.”

As he accepted it, she armed a grenade and hurled it at the men running toward or aiming at them. A bullet glanced off the deck at Tolemek’s feet.

He forced himself to stay put, even though his instincts shouted for him to run. Where would he run to up here that was safe? There was nowhere.

Kaika had hooked the rope to the emperor’s ship, and it seemed a secure hold. Tolemek tied their end to the railing as fast as his fingers could work. Another bullet slammed into the ship next to him, glancing off the railing two inches from his hand. The smoke might be marring the soldiers’ aim, but that wouldn’t last for long. Boots thundered toward them.

“Start climbing,” Kaika ordered.

“What? We’ll be targets for—”

An explosion rattled the deck, hurling smoke and shrapnel as it blew up in front of the soldiers.

Tolemek?
Tylie spoke into his mind.
Are you all right?

No! We’re targets right now. Where are you?

“Go, go,” Kaika barked. “They all know we’re here now.”

Wishing he was wearing armor, Tolemek grasped onto the rope, then swung down, hooking his legs over it, and pulling himself along underneath. He felt extremely vulnerable.

Very close. Lieutenant Cas was wondering if you wanted us to swing in and attack, or if the dragons are doing enough.

Attack!
Tolemek cried before he could fully gauge the situation. Did they want the fliers coming in now? Before he and Kaika were anywhere close to the emperor? Yes, they needed all the distractions they could get. Otherwise they would never get
close
to the emperor.
Attack
, he said again.

The sound of machine guns firing reached his ears.

“That Raptor and the others?” Kaika asked. She, too, was crawling along under the rope, boots hooked over it as she pulled herself along with her hands.

Flames and smoke smothered part of the deck where she had thrown the explosive, but other soldiers had escaped the carnage and were racing toward the railing that Tolemek and Kaika had just left. Even moving as quickly as he could, Tolemek knew he had a long way to reach the other ship. One shot was all it would take to drop him a hundred feet or more into the water. Or onto that warship just below, the one firing up at the dragons. Dear gods, he was vulnerable from all sides. He couldn’t even see the emperor’s ship from his position. What if soldiers were already lined up at the railing over there, ready to fire at him and Kaika?

The buzz of a propeller sounded nearby. The familiar bronze body of a flier came into view, cruising past overhead. The pilot glanced down and waved. Cap and goggles hid the face, but he knew from her size that it was Cas. Quataldo sat behind her, a rifle raised as he picked out targets on the airships.

Tolemek nodded toward them, though he dared not lift a hand from the rope.

Her flier passed over him quickly, banked, and buzzed toward the emperor’s airship. Risking cannon and gunfire, Cas strafed the deck. Quataldo lobbed a smoke grenade.

Tylie? Are you still with me?
Tolemek asked.

Yes. I’m flying with Lieutenant Farris
, she responded.
We’re right behind Cas. The other two pilots are almost here, and they’re going to join in too.

Good, but I was hoping you could talk to Phelistoth. It looks like whatever deal he was trying to make with the emperor didn’t work out. Any chance he’d help us out? If he can get away from the other dragon?

Tolemek doubted the odds were good of Phelistoth being able to do anything with that female after him, but he had to ask. He didn’t know if the fliers would be enough against a dozen ships. As good as Wolf Squadron was, the Cofah had ridiculous amounts of firepower to throw at them.

I’ll talk to him.
Tylie didn’t sound that hopeful.

Tolemek’s knuckles bashed against something, startling him. The railing. He had reached the other ship. There was no sign of the soldiers he had feared would be lined up to shoot. As he pulled himself over the railing, he glimpsed some men hiding against the cabin walls, seeking shelter from a second flier coming in, slamming bullets into the deck. Other more determined soldiers risked the fire to stay at their guns. One man raced to the bow of the ship and hurled a grenade as Cas’s flier zipped in for a second attack. Quataldo shot the Cofah soldier in the forehead, but that did not stop the airborne projectile.

Cas pulled up, disappearing above the balloon as the grenade exploded. Tolemek hoped she had gotten high enough quickly enough that her flier hadn’t been damaged. With his gaze riveted to the spot, he clumsily helped Kaika onto the ship.

“This way,” she said as soon as her boots hit the deck. She grabbed him and led him toward a hatch in the back. The cargo hold.

“The emperor will have quarters in the forecastle,” Tolemek said.

“Maybe so, but we’re not ready to visit him.”

He raced after her. Booms came from the bay below, and explosions sounded all around the airship, soldiers aiming to take out the fliers. Even though he was on it, Tolemek hoped they aimed too close and took out the emperor’s craft.

Kaika flung herself at a soldier who ran around a corner and nearly crashed into her. They went down in a snarl of limbs. For the first time that night, Kaika met a better fighter than she, and after a couple of seconds, he’d gained the upper hand.

Tolemek ran up and clubbed him on the back of the head with his pistol. It wasn’t enough to knock him out, but it startled the man enough that Kaika got a knee into his groin, then slammed the heel of her palm into his nose. As he rolled away, Tolemek clubbed him again. There was no finesse to his attack, but it worked. This time, he slumped there without moving.

Kaika grabbed his rifle and tossed it to Tolemek. Not bothering to rise to her feet, she scrambled onto the cargo hold doors in the deck. She unlocked one side and flung it open. Without so much as a glance backward at him, she slipped into the dark hold. Shots were firing all around Tolemek, and he couldn’t help but think he would be hit any moment. He threw himself after her without hesitating, hoping the ship’s interior would be less chaotic.

He landed on sacks of something. Flour? Grain? He didn’t know and didn’t care. He rolled away. A good choice, because a soldier stuck his shaven head through the opening and fired at the spot where he had landed. Kaika shot from the floor of the hold. Her bullet caught the soldier between the eyes, and he flopped down, half hanging through the opening.

Tolemek hated the bloodshed, but accepted it as inevitable at this point. Once again, he berated himself, wishing he had agreed to the bait plan. Maybe it wouldn’t have worked any better, but they might have gotten so much closer before the chaos and the killing began.

“Hurry, Tolemek,” Kaika called, having already found a door leading out of the cargo hold.

Shaking his head, he raced after her, glad she knew the ship better than he did. She probably had the specifications for every Cofah ship in the fleet memorized.

Instead of turning down the passageway toward the front of the ship and the forecastle, Kaika ran in the other direction.

“Boiler room?” Tolemek guessed, starting to realize what her plan might be.