Wizard's Blood [Part Two] (53 page)

It was time to get out of here. They had to detour around several more advancing groups, but at the north edge of the town, buried back in an alley behind a tavern, was one of the stone portals just as Asari had claimed.

“
How could you know?” Jolan asked as they approached the structure.

“
Guard back at the gates told me,” Asari said with a grin.

Shyar was confused by the sudden shifts in Jolan’s location. More than once in the past couple of weeks she suddenly realized she was sensing him at a significantly different bearing from where she’d come to expect him. Given the distances involved, the shift she was sensing represented a significant linear movement. It was if he’d moved many weeks of travel in a matter of moments. Always, after some amount of time, she’d realize he was back at the familiar location.

At first she’d thought her new sense was failing her, but later decided there was something else at work here. Once when she’d tried to contact Tishe, she’d been pushed away with a sense the girl was too busy at the time. On that occasion she’d realized both Jolan and the girl were shifted from their normal bearing. Whatever had been going on, they’d both been involved. She’d tried to raise the matter with Tishe and, while she got the distinct impression the girl knew exactly what she was asking, she refused to address the matter. The matter really annoyed Shyar. If the two of them ever ended up face to face, she’d have a few words to say on the matter.

For now, she had plenty of other matters to occupy her attention. She’d managed to beat the cage. She could now escape from it at will, and had spent a glorious three hours late the other night wandering free while the household was asleep. It might be possible to actually attempt an escape, but for the moment she knew far too little of the world outside, what direction she should head and what to expect. Patience, she reminded herself. Once she revealed her escape, it was very unlikely that she’d get another chance. Besides, there was far too much to learn here at the moment.

Given Cheurt’s attitude the past couple of days, she didn’t think now was the time to take too many chances. He was in a foul mood, and would react very poorly if she were discovered. If she could do little things to make things worse for him, maybe he would get careless or make bad decisions. Clearly, things were going badly for Ale’ald at the moment. The war seemed to seesaw. Not too long ago there had been celebration after they’d made further inroads into Seret. Now, it seemed that someone had managed to destroy the entire airforce Ale’ald had created.

Shyar had been shocked to learn Ale’ald had somehow managed to create flying vehicles. Jolan had told her about Earth and airplanes, but they seemed an impossible creation here given the state of technology. Clearly Cheurt’s efforts on Earth had paid off. The gliders had made most of Ale’ald’s initial gains in the war possible, and now they were no more. Shyar didn’t know many of the details. There had been too much noise and confusion when the messages had come in and she hadn’t been able to overhear the telegraph, but they had apparently been destroyed where they were stored, along with the supporting equipment. Most of Ale’ald’s pilots had been killed as well. It was a major setback.

Cheurt seemed particularly upset that the individuals responsible had somehow managed to escape, something that should have been impossible given the security precautions that had been in place. Cheurt was certain the attack had been an inside effort, and had ordered some significant changes in the command and investigations of key personnel. All of this had happened around the time of Jolan’s most recent position shifts. Shyar was convinced that the two events were linked and that Jolan had been behind the attacks. She just wished she knew how this was being done.

From the many meetings and the frequent telegrams that had been passed both directions the past couple of days, she’d learned a great deal that needed to get back to Jolan. Ale’ald was building more gliders, although a critical part shortage was limiting them to only four more vehicles. From the discussions she was certain that the unexplained death of the wizard that had been on Earth was the reason they didn’t have the parts they needed. Something from Earth was being used in the aircraft and couldn’t be duplicated here. She also knew the city where the gliders were being built.

She’d learned about the poison gas that Ale’ald was using. It was being manufactured in another city, Sisco. It appeared that Kimlelm and her people were being used as one giant factory for Ale’ald. She didn’t know just where in the city the factory was located, but if Jolan knew of the city, perhaps they could do something. Of course Sisco was on the far side of Kimlelm, all of which was currently Ale’ald territory, so maybe the information wouldn’t be of use after all.

Her wandering the previous evening had also given her a better feel for the castle and its connections to the Wizard’s Academy and the surrounding facilities. A number of factories were located right here around them. All the initial development of the guns and ammunition had been close to where Cheurt could keep an eye on the effort. While Shyar suspected much of the current production had shifted to Kimlelm somewhere, she was curious what she might find if she could get inside the factory and have a look. The facilities were all interconnected by private underground tunnels, much like those of the Inner Court in Cobalo. If things settled down enough, she thought she might be able to make her way over to the factory, hiding her identity under a glamour. She’d experimented making herself look like the stern female wizard who was responsible for her, and thought she had the woman down perfectly. She’d have to take it in stages, and keep reminding herself of the consequences of getting caught, but it was a goal to be considered.

Communication with Tishe usually originated by the girl, probably because Shyar’s ability was somewhat hampered by the cage. That didn’t need to be the case any longer. She slipped out of the cage, found a comfortable place on the floor near a window, and concentrated on the girl. Maybe she could get this new information across somehow.

There was no question that they had been extremely lucky to find all of the gliders being stored at the same location. Jolan suspected that in a few more days that wouldn’t have been the case as Ale’ald had apparently been working overtime to establish themselves in Belth. Once they got facilities ready, at least some of the aircraft would have likely been stationed there. Running two successful raids would have been very unlikely. They had been lucky as it was to get out unscathed. Apparently the raids against the warehouses had also gone extremely well, and eight different storage facilities had been destroyed within hours of the attack on the airport. Not all of the warehouses had been full, since many of the rafts had been used in the attack on Belth, something that still stung Major Wylan. However, unless they had even more of the damn things stored somewhere, that threat was also removed for the moment.

The immediate pressure had been taken off of Carta. Without the gliders, Ale’ald would be forced to mount an old fashioned style attack to take the city, and the mountains presented a formidable obstacle to such an effort. Seret had also relocated a number of their forces, and significantly outnumbered the enemy at the moment. That meant a bit of a stalemate for a while.

Of course, more gliders were probably being manufactured. The pilot they had interrogated had indicated as much, but if Tishe had interpreted the last communications she’d had with Shyar correctly, the number they could produce was severely limited from this point on. Shyar had somehow led Tishe to understand she’d overhead communications that suggested they could only build as few as four more of the gliders. That might be consistent with what Gene and Buris had found when they examined the wreckage that had been brought back from the two they had downed. The electric motor for the propeller was the most sophisticated part of the design. Disassembly had shown that the motor was an AC-DC motor that used a couple of solid state inverter chips inside. Those couldn’t be made here. Jolan suspected that they had been shipped in quantity from Earth by Ryltas at some point, and with that supply link severed, no more would be available. That would mean they could only build motors corresponding to the parts they had on hand. Four more aircraft if Shyar was correct.

Four of the gliders would still be a problem, even if they knew how to bring them down. Jolan had been thinking they needed to create some large steel balls coated with copper to use instead of rocks. While their magic wouldn’t work directly on the coppered balls, they could be loaded into launching baskets and thrown at the gliders. Because of the copper, they’d be more effective than the rocks that hadn’t been able to penetrate the shields. Buris was seeing to it, and they’d have some on hand to ship to any location where one of the gliders turned up.

Hoping to be more proactive, Jolan wanted to go after the source of the gliders, not to mention the factory that was producing the gas. Shyar had managed to ferret out the cities, but no specific details about where the factories might be located. Still, it was a start, and they had agents they could deploy into the appropriate areas to start asking questions.

Kavel and Samm had voiced their own opinions that it was time to up the scale of their efforts behind the lines. There was far more they could be doing. The supply lines for many of the war goods started somewhere in Kimlelm, but others stretched all the way to Ale’ald. The same was true with the communications. It was time to put more pressure on both.

Wylan was interested, but at the moment he was totally involved with trying to push the enemy out of Seret. Without the gliders and their deadly poison, he was now free to turn loose the many troops he had been holding back. Ale’ald had been given time to build up their forces and fortify their positions in some cases, but in the long run the local troops would outnumber them and have the advantage of far shorter supply lines. At the moment, Wylan, Vaen, and the Queen were in Carta holding meetings with their counterparts on how to proceed now that a window of relative safety had been secured.

The meeting was at a level where Jolan didn’t belong, and he was glad. It had left him time to get together with Kavel and Samm for their own brainstorming session.

“
I think it’s time we go after some of the command centers we have located,” Kavel suggested. “We could make multiple strikes on a given day deep into Kimlelm. By making multiple hits, they wouldn’t be able to react at the other locations.”

“
We don’t want them to start thinking about how we are getting our people so deep into the country and so quickly,” Samm warned.

“
I can’t see how they’d make the connection,” Kavel countered. “The war has been on going for some weeks now. I think they’d assume we have far more snipers than we do, and they had worked their way into position over the past weeks. I think the multiple hits would cause them grave concern because of their misreading of the number of people involved.”

“
Is there any trouble being caused by the locals?” Jolan asked. Back on Earth occupied countries typically had a guerrilla movement that formed when invaded like this.

“
There is a small movement at the moment. Our people get the sense that it is growing, but much of the activity is pretty freelance.” Kavel grinned for a moment. “One of my people came back with a story from out near Davo. Apparently some farmer was a bit too vocal against the Ale’ald forces and their stealing everything in sight. Got himself and his wife killed as an example. Probably would have killed the daughter, but she was away for a few days when it happened. Seems she is a real looker. Came back, found out what happened, and declared her own war. Finds an Ale’ald soldier, I hear she prefers the officers, and wearing some revealing clothing, entices him off somewhere for a bit of a roll. Despite all the warnings, so many men lose their minds when a bit of flesh is displayed. When her victims were engaged in dropping their pants, she had a tendency to slit their throats. By the time the command figured out what was happening, she’d gotten almost a dozen of them. Fortunately, she was able to disappear before they grabbed her, and now has a small group that is raising hell with small mischief. Ale’ald forces haven’t been able to find them because the locals give them quiet support.”

“
That’s the kind of thing that could help us a lot,” Jolan said. “Especially if it could get more organized. Have you considered sending in people to train the locals how to be irregular combatants? Sometimes the people have the desire, but just don’t know how. They need to know how to elude the Ale’ald authorities as well as cause mischief. Back on Earth, the army actually got together with some of the local criminal element. Offered them full pardons for past crimes if they’d work against the enemy. They were often willing, both for the pardon and because the invaders weren’t good for business.”

“
We have some regulars that are from Kimlelm, and some of our contacts who expatriated to Seret when Kimlelm was invaded could be useful for that kind of thing. Be aware, Ale’ald command is brutal towards those they catch. They try to make it very clear such activities will be dealt with sternly. In one location they took to killing five random males for every Ale’ald soldier found dead.”

“
It’s a hard choice, but one that needs to be offered to the people of Kimlelm. They can decide if the risks are worth it. Maybe one thing to do is not leave the bodies to be found. Make the soldiers just disappear. That makes it harder for Ale’ald to be sure what is happening.”