Of Bone and Thunder (52 page)

“Get his helm off, but do it gently,” Wiz said, gathering up his bag. “If you see anything gray, just lightly wrap his head. Whatever you do, don't touch it!”

Listowk nodded and turned back to Big Hog. He'd been hit by a piece of cat shot. Listowk had called for support too early and this was the result.

“I don't have any cutters,” Carny said, staring down at Big Hog.

“Cat shots!”

Listowk leaned over Big Hog's head to cover him. Carny leaned over his chest. The cat shots plowed into the jungle high up on the mountainside. A rumbling and cracking sound soon followed.

“They're rolling back down!”

A boulder as big as a man burst through the dust and bounded over the shield to land in the dosha swamp with a sickening wet thud. Two more rocks followed immediately after.

Listowk knew he had no choice. “Wraith, shoot a green star. Call off those cats. They'll kill us before the slyts get a chance.”

Wraith had a star in his bow and fired a flick later. The arrow streamed green smoke as it arced skyward, but was blasted to pieces a moment later by a falling cat shot. Two more cat shots crashed into the jungle, though neither rolled back down. Listowk tensed, waiting to hear more whistling through the air. What he heard instead was worse.

“High Druid preserve us! Fucking sparkers!”

“STAY WELL BACK
from the tree line, Blue Charger,” Vorly said, flying Carduus high above the battle. “And keep your heads up!” For the moment, it was all he could do. The artillerists were chucking rock for all they were worth and until they stopped it was too dangerous for the bigger rags to go down. Truth be told, it was too dangerous for the sparkers, but they were nimble and certain they could dodge anything thrown their way.

“Always!” Blue Charger responded.

Vorly turned Carduus in a tight turn to port as they reached the north end of the valley. As they came around he could take in the entire scene. To his starboard, the western side of the valley was a quiet green shadow as the sun began setting behind its peaks. The eastern side, however, was a
raging mix of dirt and dust and vegetation flying through the air. He counted six different pockets of battle dotted along the tree line. The sparkers were going to try to isolate the slyts in each one by laying down a line of fire behind them.

“I don't like this,” Breeze said.

“What part? That the sparkers are going to run a gauntlet of stone? That they might burn more than just slyts? That we're all up here flying in a valley at dusk?”

“Yes!” Breeze shouted. “And I'm having trouble on plane.”

Vorly glanced down at his sheet. It was a mess of interwoven colored lines. They pulsed and wiggled while dots winked bright, then vanished, only to reappear somewhere else on the sheet. Months ago that would have sent him running, but these days it looked fairly normal.

“Explain,” Vorly said, catching movement out of the corner of his eye. He turned his head and stared. Buzzards were following his track. A flock of the carrion birds was circling the valley, keeping well back of Carduus.
Cheeky bastards.

“I'm getting interference. The plane keeps shifting.”

Vorly rolled his neck.
Perfect.
“An enemy thaum?” Their first and only encounter with one had nearly killed Jawn, and he was supposed to be a far more powerful thaum than Breeze.

Managing thaumics while flying on a rag was progressing in leaps and bounds. There was a new discovery nearly every flight. Breeze and her cohorts had managed to increase the stability factor to the point that where the crystal was in the air mattered little in relation to its position in plane . . . or something like that. Vorly did his best to look like he was paying attention when Breeze or a visiting RAT presented the latest advancement in aero-thaumics and plane-shift calculation to the drivers so they'd know to take it seriously, but even when he did listen he understood about as much as would fill a thimble. He was relying on Breeze to give him a separate crash course on what he needed to know.

“Possibly, but I can't be sure,” she said. Her voice was strong and if anything, she sounded angry. “I'm ordering all thaums off plane until I understand this better. You'll have to revert to hand signals,” she said.

Vorly didn't protest. Breeze knew her thaumics and the others clearly followed her lead.

“Aye that,” Vorly said, “your wish is my command. You know, never quite understood that phrase. If your wish is
my
command, then—”

“It's all right to miss him,” Breeze said, cutting him off. “I am sorry he's dead.”

“Who, Modelar? He was a loud, overbearing ass at the best of times.”

“And your friend,” Breeze said.

Vorly closed his eyes and let out his breath. He couldn't afford to think about Walf. You started thinking about the friends you lost along the way and it didn't stop.

“Breeze, for all that is holy, just drop it, please.”

“You're right, I . . . you're right,” Breeze said. “Sliding off plane.”

Vorly looked down at his sheet and saw that it had reverted to being a plain, clear sheet of crystal. “Off plane, aye,” he said.

“Here they come,” Breeze said.

Vorly looked up. Five orange dots were rapidly growing in size as they fell toward the ground. The sparker drivers had their rags' air gills wide open, stoking the fire within. He nudged Carduus to pick up his speed.

“Now, you listen to me, Carduus, and you listen good. You're about to see a lot of fire flying around. That doesn't mean you get to fire, got it?”

Carduus rumbled deep in his throat.

“Was that a yes?” Breeze asked.

Vorly hunched over and thumped Carduus a few times on the scales. The rag turned his head to the side and fixed Vorly with one large eye. They locked gazes for several flicks before Carduus looked straight ahead again.

“I dearly hope so.”

CARNY STAYED BY
Big Hog as the sparkers rolled in. From his position it looked like the rags were flying straight at him, their maws wide open, revealing the roiling inferno within. The cries and shouts of the battles dimmed. He became transfixed by the oncoming flame. He could still see
Sinte charked to nothing but ash. He remembered the way the slyt bodies had shrunk so that they looked like children.

“Down! Down! Down!”

The darkening sky started glowing and then flashed with the light of five suns as the rags unleashed their flame. Carny's vision went white, then became a sea of vibrating dots. The roar of the flame sounded incredibly close, but unlike when they rescued the rag, the heat was little more than what it felt like to stand by an open hearth.

The jungle shook as the rags' flame tore into it. Maybe it was the damage from all the cat shots, or maybe these trees were drier, but whatever the case, the flames spread far faster than before.

“We'll be charked if we stay here!” the Bard shouted.

Soldiers were already standing up. Carny didn't see any more arrows in the air, but that didn't mean they weren't there. The sun was below the western peaks now and shadows flitted everywhere.

Carny looked down at Big Hog. He and Listowk hadn't been able to get the helm off his head, so they'd wrapped a cloth around it and under his chin to keep everything in one place. His breathing was slow and his face was pale. They had to get him back to the witches, but deep down Carny was sure Big Hog was dead.

“I'm sorry,” Carny said, leaning down until his lips were by Big Hog's ear. He grabbed his friend's hand and squeezed it. “I should be the one with a smashed skull, not you. You were right, I was only thinking about myself.”

Big Hog's fingers curled around Carny's hand. “My head hurts,” he mumbled.

Carny sat up straight. “He's talking!”

A couple of soldiers looked his way, but the raging fire captured most of their attention.

Carny looked around until he spotted Listowk. “SL, he just spoke! He's got a chance, but we have to get him out of here now.”

“We all need to get out of here,” Listowk said, pointing toward the fire. “I'm open to suggestions.”

Carny looked back across the valley. It would take them a quarter of a
candle to walk back to Iron Fist. They needed a rag. He looked back at the fire as a tree cracked and fell, scattering burning branches over the berm and into the dosha swamp.

“Does anyone have gloves?”

VORLY WISHED THE
sheets were working. He wanted to congratulate Blue Charger on some beautiful flying. Five beautiful curving lines of fire stretched across the eastern slopes. It was amazing how well the jungle was burning.

“I see something,” Breeze said. “Dead ahead, on the ground.”

Vorly peered past Carduus's head. Sections of fire were moving away from the jungle and into a dosha swamp. As he got closer he saw that soldiers were carrying flaming branches.

“What the hell are they doing? They aren't going to cook out there, are they?” The sound of catapults still echoed in the valley. The battle, as far as the artillerists were concerned, wasn't over.

“They're making some kind of sign with the fire,” Breeze said.

Her voice sounded exceptionally clear and Vorly realized she was crouched right beside him.

“Get back in your saddle and strap in!”

“There, it's an X. See it?”

Vorly turned away from her. “Yes, it looks like an X.”

“They want us to land there,” she said.

“With those rock jockeys still in full swing.”

“But look where they put the X. It's in the dosha swamp. The catapults are shooting deeper into the jungle. If we fly in low we'll stay under the flight of the stones.”

Vorly turned to look at her. “Is that all we have to do?”

“I know it's risky, but they need our help.”

Vorly realized she was as calm and determined as she'd been when she'd ordered the thaums off plane.

“Do you have any idea what a cat shot would do to a rag?”

Breeze shrugged. “I'm guessing we'd never know.”

Vorly snorted. “You have a pair of balls on you. Fine, we'll do it. But if we explode, I'm kicking your bony ass all the way to damnation. Now sit down and strap in.”

“HIGH FUCKING DRUID,
it's working, they're landing!” Listowk shouted.
Son of a damn witch, Carny's idea worked.

“As soon as that rag touches down get the wounded on board. The rest of us will hoof it back.”

A salvo of cat shots rumbled overhead and slammed into the fiery slope, sending up geysers of flaming debris. The air was thick with smoke and visibility was getting worse by the flicker.

“Here it comes!”

Listowk buried his head in the crook of his arm as the wind swirled around him. He tried peering through the smoke but he couldn't see a damn thing.

“Did it land?”

“We aren't waiting around all day!”

Listowk knew that voice. “The rag is on the ground. Get the wounded to it now! Go!”

Soldiers sprinted through the smoke. Two wounded were able to hop and limp with some help, while Big Hog and Frogleg were carried. The arrows still stuck out of Frogleg's chest, but Wiz had wrapped them in cloth and secured them in place so they wouldn't move around. Listowk didn't know why Wiz had bothered, but he didn't say anything.

The wind blew the smoke away long enough for Listowk to see the rag. Soldiers were hauling Big Hog onto its back. Good. He turned to face the rest of the shield.

“All right, once they take off we're gone.” No spinners had fallen for some time, but even if they had still been flying he'd have risked it. He wasn't getting charked out here. “We'll take the berm running west until we hit that stand of bamboo. Wait there until I get there.”

Heads nodded.

“Get your heads down!”

Listowk ducked as the rag pumped its wings and crouched low on its hind legs before launching itself skyward. With a few beats of its wings it was several hundred feet in the air and, hopefully, out of the line of fire of the catapults.

Listowk stood up in a crouch. “Now it's our turn. Let's go! Run!”

CARNY HAD NEVER HIT
a woman before in his life, but it was only Knockers clinging to his arm that restrained him now. He was still panting heavily from their run back across the valley, but though his head was spinning, he wasn't moving.

“We are not leaving him,” Carny said, staring at the witch and daring her to say no again.

“I know, and I promise you he knows,” the master witch said, her voice calm and her face showing genuine concern. “But I can't do my job if you are cluttering up my sanctuary, spreading ill humors about. You will only make what I have to do more difficult. Is that what you want?”

Carny let Knockers lower his arm. “You don't understand,” Carny said, looking past her to where several witches were stripping Big Hog of his uniform and washing him down in what smelled like alcohol. “He can't die.”

The witch placed a hand on his shoulder and held it there until he looked at her.

“I will do everything in my power to save his life. I can promise no more. Now, please, take your men and go get something to eat and drink. You've all been through a lot today.”

“What are you going to do?” Carny asked.

“It's complicated, and it's messy.”

Carny didn't budge, nor did Knockers or the Bard, standing beside him.

The witch shook her head. “Very well. We first have to remove his helm. I've sent for the proper tools and an expert to handle that. With his helm removed I will examine his skull and the wound. If my suspicions are correct he will have a fracture, perhaps several, that is pressing bone against his brain. If I don't remove that bone the pressure will continue to build until he dies.”