Of Bone and Thunder (59 page)

When the hammer hit the sixth time, Wraith held his breath and sighted down the arrow. Wings on the wind told him the time had come. He released the string as the hammer struck seven. The star shot from his bow and began trailing a tail of red sparks. A slyt turned. Wraith notched the second star and drew, aiming in the same direction. Spots floated in front of his eyes after the first shot and he cursed himself for not closing his eye when he released. The second star flew, its path veering slightly to the right of the first.

Shouts rose up from the clearing. A rumbling roar grew on the air as the night took on a red glow.

Several slyts had their bows in their hands, arrows notched. The two stars burned in the clearing as more slyts rushed toward them. And above them, a brightening reddish-orange light descended.

Wraith dove from his perch, caught a lower branch with one hand, dropped to another, then jumped down to the jungle floor, rolling as he did so. He got up running, not bothering to look back. His way forward appeared in stark relief as the flame from the rag plunged into the clearing and tore the night apart. Heat slapped him in the back and he gasped as the air around him turned searing. He crashed through the foliage, no longer trying to move quietly. His bow twisted in his hand and he knew the string had snapped. He kept running.

A sharp pain hit him in the lower back and he screamed. The stars in his quiver had ignited. He reached around as he ran and ripped the quiver from his body, flinging it away. The pain was beyond anything he had ever experienced in his life. He stumbled and fell to the jungle floor. Heat washed over him in a roaring wave. Leaves withered and caught fire. He crawled, his voice one long scream as demons plunged a white-hot knife into his back.

Wraith reached out for a log or something to grab on to and pull himself forward and found only air. He tumbled several feet into a small
depression. He landed on his back; lightning exploded inside him and everything went black.

EVERY FLICKER OF
flame that Carduus poured down on the clearing was his life cut shorter. When Vorly kicked Carduus and pulled up on the reins to stop him, he figured the beast had just given up a year. They banked to port and raced down the side of the mountain before Vorly urged Carduus to climb.

Carduus roared with joy. Vorly recognized the sound and it brought a tear to his eye. Smoke streamed from Carduus's nostrils, and sparks twinkled as they flew past Vorly and vanished in the night.

“Good boy! Good boy, Carduus!” Vorly shouted, pounding the rag's plates.

Carduus roared again and began to turn back toward the clearing.

“Once was enough,” Vorly said, snapping Carduus back.

Flares of color assaulted Vorly's eyes, and the small section of his face that was open to the air in his helm felt tight and hot. He looked back at the mayhem they'd caused and whistled. He couldn't see the peaks of the mountains for the glare of the fire. In addition to the clearing, flames had surged along paths that led to it, creating the effect of a fiery spider on the slope. He immediately thought of the soldier and wondered if he'd made it.

“Breeze?” he asked, talking into the tube. He tapped the tin cone and it fell off and flew away in the wind. He looked down and saw that the tubing had melted.

“Breeze?” he asked, turning this time. She was bent over her sheets and didn't hear him. He started to reach back to touch her, then remembered how dangerous that could be.

“Breeze!”

Her head flew up.

“I just wanted to check that you were all right,” he said. He looked past her to where the soldiers had already slipped off the blankets and were staring at the fire.

She nodded. “Fine! Much better than the last time.”

Vorly smiled, then realized she couldn't see it. He gave her a
thumbs-up and turned forward. Shield Leader Carny was at his elbow again a moment later.

“Were you on target?”

“I saw the slyts in the clearing. Your man did a great job,” Vorly said.

“He would have made it out of that, right?”

Vorly paused before answering. “He knew it was coming, and he knows how to move around the jungle. I think so.”

“We can't just leave him out there,” Carny said.

Vorly nodded. “If he's not back by daybreak, and we aren't tasked with other missions, I'll fly you to the clearing myself. If it's safe to land, we will.”

“Thanks.” Carny started to get up, then crouched back down. “Those lights I saw on the other side of the mountains are still bothering me. Could we take one flyover?”

Vorly reached up and took off his helm. “Boiling my brain in that thing.”

“Too late,” Breeze chirped.

Vorly held up a hand and gave Breeze a rude gesture. “I'm not keen to be flying around up here in the dark, but Carduus is still pretty excited, so trying to land him right now wouldn't be fun. Sure, let's go check those lights.”

Vorly reached for his whistle, then thought better of it. The slyts knew a rag was in the air, but he didn't want to give them any help in finding them. They were flying the western side of the valley, so Vorly eased Carduus up until he was above the peaks. They flew through a layer of mist that was surprisingly cold. It clung to everything it touched and made Vorly uneasy. A flick later Carduus broke out into a clear night sky leaving the mist and the feeling behind.

“You feel that, Breeze?” Vorly asked, noticing vapors of steam swirling away from the trailing edge of Carduus's wings.

“Yes. Getting more interference on plane again, too,” she said.

Vorly looked over at his crystal. Instead of a clear black field that appeared to have no bottom, it looked gray around the edges and blurred for a flick before clearing up again.

“Thaums?” he asked.

“Not that I recognize. I'm going to go a little deeper in plane with Black Star, so if I don't answer right away don't worry.”

“Be careful,” Vorly said.

“What village is that?” Carny asked, pointing west.

Vorly looked. A collection of lights was gathered less than a mile from the mountains. “There are no villages to the west, only to the east. Everything west of here is the Wilds.”

“It's the Forest Collective,” Carny said.

Vorly began picking out more lights in the jungle. He counted several thin strands that led to the mountain chain. Ignoring his own caution from earlier, he turned Carduus west so they'd fly over the lights.

“Tell your boys to make sure they're strapped in. We might do a bit of flying here in a flick,” Vorly said, pushing Carduus into a gliding dive.

The wind picked up at once and Vorly squinted, hoping against hope that this was something other than a slyt army.

A volley of ballista spears flew up in front of Carduus, their tips twinkling as if they'd been dipped in diamonds.

“Hang on!” he shouted, pushing Carduus into a steeper dive. Carduus raced over the treetops and across a clearing twenty times the size of the one they'd burned. Thousands of slyts looked skyward as they passed. Arrows began flying. Vorly readied Carduus for a steep climb, then changed his mind when he saw a highland plain of saw grass.

“Motherless Druid!” Carny said.

Thousands of slyts marched through the grass, their lines surprisingly neat and straight, guided by lit torches every fifty yards. Carduus roared and opened his air gills, preparing to fire. Vorly was tempted to let him, but thicket after thicket of arrows filled the sky. Every flicker they stayed here, the chance of getting hit increased. More of the crystal-tipped spears flew up at them, and they were getting closer.

“Thaum!” Breeze shouted. “We're being tracked!”

Vorly looked down at the sheet. Four separate red lines were converging on the single blue one that marked them.

“Carduus, climb!” Vorly shouted, spurring the rag at the same time.

Carduus, excited by all the commotion, reacted as only a young bull could and went from horizontal to vertical flight in a flick. Immense
pressure slammed Vorly against Carduus's back. Vorly reached out and grabbed Carny just before he flew off into space. The crystal sheet beside Vorly tore away from its easel and was whipped away in the wind, trailing a snake of braided copper cable.

Carduus climbed like a boulder rolling down a mountainside. Every wing beat was a thunderclap of stunning force. The heat emanating from him became scalding as he pushed for the stars.

Vorly tried and failed to sit up. Carduus's acceleration kept him pinned. His vision grayed as color leached out of his sight. He recognized the dangers and knew that if he didn't get Carduus leveled out now the rag would keep climbing while his passengers blacked out.

“Lev . . . el!” Vorly shouted, although it was barely a gasp.

Carduus pumped his wings twice more, then adopted a glide as his momentum carried him still higher. Vorly's vision widened and the colors returned. The weight crushing him slowly lifted and he struggled to sit upright again, pushing up on the shield leader, who groaned.

“Breeze?” Vorly shouted, turning as soon as he could.

“We're still being tracked!”

“What do you need me to do?” he asked, glancing past her again to check on the soldiers. Blessedly, they were still on board, although looking significantly more disheveled than before.

“Take us back to Iron Fist. Black Star and the other thaums are working up a process!”

Vorly turned back and gathered up the reins. “Roost, Carduus, roost!”

Carduus rumbled his approval and went into a turn. Vorly didn't spur him to make it any tighter as he wasn't sure he was up to the flight forces after the climb.

“Thanks for grabbing me,” the shield leader said.

Vorly slapped him on the shoulder. “Can't have your shield losing its third leader,” he said, then immediately regretted it. If the shield leader took offense he didn't show it.

“Lost my damn crossbow,” he said.

“Carduus is rambunctious, and he's not fully grown yet.”

The shield leader shuddered.

“We have to warn Weel,” Carny said.

Vorly motioned behind him to Breeze. “Done. Right now we have to focus on getting back in one piece. Go check on your boys and get strapped in. I'm hoping we won't have any more moments like that, but I can't promise.”

As the shield leader got up and made his way back, Vorly looked down. The lights were smaller and he guessed they were at ten thousand feet. Carduus was a monster. That thought made him smile.

Using small nudges, Vorly steered Carduus toward the north end of the valley. He wanted to cross over the mountains at a different location in case the slyts they'd already overflown had a surprise waiting.

A deep-throated boom shook the sky, followed by a brilliant white bolt of lightning. It struck the top of a mountain. Vorly couldn't be sure, but it looked awfully close to where they'd crossed over earlier. Carduus hissed and banked away from the valley.

“Damn it, Carduus!” Vorly shouted, reefing as hard as he could on the reins to pull him back.

Carduus shook his head and chomped on the bit, swinging away from the valley again. A second thunderclap filled the night sky, followed by two lightning bolts. These bracketed the same mountain peak. Vorly was certain it was the one they'd flown over. It occurred to Vorly that things were happening in reverse. Usually the lightning hit and then you heard the thunder.

“Are those thaums?” Vorly asked. When Breeze didn't answer he turned. He could see her hunched over the sheets, a light blue glow outlining her. He turned back, leaving her to her work. His job was to get them to the roost.

“Look, you flying furnace, we need to get back to the roost. You hear me? We do not want to be up here with lightning, especially when it's being aimed at us.”

Vorly doubted Carduus got all that, but the word
roost
was powerful. Carduus turned back toward the valley.

“That's a good boy,” Vorly said, patting his scales. “We'll swing well to the north and come in that way. We won't cross over any mountains.”

It started raining. Steam roiled off Carduus as if he were a hot spring
in winter. Despite his fear of burning alive, Vorly started stripping off layers. It was either that or cook inside the uniform.

Three more thunder bursts preceded three lightning strikes along the western mountain peaks. Carduus growled and snapped his jaws, but as Vorly was flying him at an angle away from where the lightning was hitting, the rag kept to his course.

“They're no longer tracking us,” Breeze said.

Vorly turned his head partway. “That lightning was for us then?”

“Yes. Black Star created a diversion, a presence on plane that translated to a place out here,” she said. She sounded tired but pleased.

“How's the poor bastard see?” Vorly asked.

“He still doesn't, not out here. But on plane, well—”

“I know,” Vorly said, interrupting her, “it gets very complicated. We're almost to the north end of the valley. If all goes well I'll bring Carduus straight in. He's had a long night in a short time.”

“I'll stay on plane until we land,” Breeze said.

Vorly made one last check on the soldiers, then turned all his attention to getting Carduus back down safely. He imagined he'd be talking with Commander Weel sooner rather than later and didn't relish the thought. With Walf dead, Vorly was acting overall commander of the Aero forces, but he doubted Weel would afford him the same respect that he had Walf. Then again, Vorly doubted there'd been much respect afforded between the two from the outset, so it probably wouldn't matter.

The looming shadow of the Codpiece appeared and Vorly tightened his grip on the reins. It was dark, the valley was surrounded by the enemy, thaums were casting lightning bolts, and it was raining for good measure. He rolled his shoulders and leaned into the rain pelting him.