Gythe gestured to the hull of the Cloud Hopper and made signs to her sister, who translated. “Gythe says she has replaced the magical defenses. She and Rigo did it together. He showed her how to lay the spells properly this time.”
Gythe shifted her worried gaze to the Silver Raven. They could see Rodrigo on deck. His lavender coat showed up well against the backdrop of the gray cliffs.
“She wants to know if Rigo will be all right,” said Miri.
“He’ll be fine,” said Stephano, wishing he meant it. He added briskly, “Dag’s going to run out the guns. Gythe, you’d best take the Doctor to the storeroom.”
“What’s the point of running out the guns?” Miri asked, as her sister went to corner the cat, who knew where he was headed apparently, for he ran underneath a deck chair. “Wallace knows you won’t shoot his ship.”
“The captain of the Silver Raven doesn’t know that,” said Stephano. He paused, then added, “And then there’s the naval ships.”
Miri stared at him, aghast. “You’re planning to take on a naval warship?”
“I won’t let anyone harm Rigo, Miri,” Stephano said. He turned to face her. “But you have the final say. This is your boat. If you don’t want to risk it, I understand. Sail over to shore and let me get off. I’ll find some other way-”
“How dare you?” Miri flared.
“How dare I what?” Stephano asked, startled.
“How dare you accuse me of letting someone harm Rigo?” Miri wiped away her tears and blinked her eyes, trying all the while to steer.
Stephano was taken aback. “Miri, I didn’t say anything of the kind
… I just wanted you to know…”
“Get off my bridge, Captain de Guichen,” said Miri, through clenched teeth. “Go help Dag. Or are you going to get rid of him as well? I suppose you figure you’ll take on a sixty-four-gun warship single-handed!”
“Miri, you know I didn’t mean it-”
“Go!” Miri ordered.
But instead of going, Stephano put his arm around her and hugged her close.
“Thank you,” he said huskily.
“Get along with you!” Miri snapped. “Let me do my job before we smash into that trawler up ahead.”
Stephano lifted the glass to his eye to have another look at the Silver Raven. Stephano was armed and wearing his heavy flight coat and light chain shirt. The dragon pistol was in its holster on his right side, opposite his rapier. Loaded muskets stood in a weapon stand against the ship’s rail. Dag wore his breastplate that still bore the burn marks from the demons’ ambush. He had a pair of pistols tucked into his belt. His blunderbuss and his boarding ax were in a nearby weapon stand.
The Hopper and the Silver Raven were both coming up on the Old Fort, leaving the dockyards and the mass of ships behind. Apparently, no one aboard any of the blockade ships had noticed the Silver Raven trying to slip out. The ship glided along, hugging the shoreline, with the Cloud Hopper in dogged pursuit.
“He’s sinking into the Breath,” said Stephano suddenly, alarmed.
“He’s leaking air on purpose,” said Miri. “The captain is reducing the lift of the ship’s balloons; that’s why they’re flattening out. Raven is slowly losing altitude, hoping no one will notice. He’s going to hide himself in the mists.”
Miri gave a lopsided smile. “We’ve done that ourselves a time or two, as I recall. It’s not a pleasant way to travel by any means, but then he only has to stay down there until he’s well away from the patrol ships.”
“Keep with him, Miri,” said Stephano.
“I’ll stay as close as I can, but once he dives down, I’ll lose him, Stephano,” said Miri. “You remember what it’s like in the deep fog. I wouldn’t be able to see you if you were right next to me, much less try to keep track of another ship!”
“This is why we had dragons, damn it!” said Stephano, slamming his fist onto the railing. “They could find Raven, fog or no fog. Look at Commander Hastind in that great bloody battleship sitting out there, blind as a bat.”
“I could fire the swivel gun, sir,” said Dag. “Draw the navy’s attention.”
“And they would fire on the Raven,” said Stephano.
“There he goes!” Miri called urgently.
The Silver Raven’s captain suddenly let all the air out of his forward balloons and dropped the prow of his ship. At the same time he pushed his airscrews to full, propelling the vessel into the mist and out of sight.
“Miri, follow him!” Stephano ordered, but even as he said the words, he knew it was hopeless. Once the Silver Raven was deep in the fog, the captain could sail off in any direction and leave them behind, with no way of knowing where he went.
Miri took the Cloud Hopper down as rapidly as she dared. Gythe had returned from stashing the Doctor in the storeroom (they could hear his angry yowls) and she and Dag and Stephano leaned over the rail, peering into the thickening mists until their eyes ached. Suddenly Gythe seized hold of Stephano and jabbed her finger.
“Look there!” Dag cried at the same time. He was leaning over the rail at a perilous angle, holding onto a line and peering into the Breath. “A firefly!”
“And it’s lavender,” said Stephano, smiling.
The small light shone palely, a tiny beacon guiding them through the Breath. The light was far below them. The Silver Raven had gone down rapidly.
“I hope I don’t crash into them,” Miri muttered, adjusting her course, letting the Cloud Hopper fall through the mists. “If I do, we’re both finished.”
The lavender light continued to glow. Stephano strained his eyes to see and his ears to hear when out of the mists below them came the sound of shouts and terrified cries and a bang.
“That was a pistol shot,” said Dag.
Stephano’s brow furrowed. “What the-”
Below in the mists, green light flared. Gythe gave a sudden gasp and a moan and backed up against a mast, cowering in terror. They could hear muffled voices and the sounds of gunfire.
“Get out of here, Miri!” Stephano cried. “Take her up! Fast as you can! Dag-the swivel gun!”
Orange eyes glowed in the mists. A bat flew past the ship, the speed of its flight shredding the mists. Green fire struck the Cloud Hopper; the boat’s defenses flared blue. Gythe cried out in pain and sank to the deck.
Miri’s fingers flew across the helm. Magical energy flowed into the balloons and the wings’ lift tanks. The smaller, light Cloud Hopper soared up through the mists toward the clear, sunlit sky above. Dag was manning a swivel gun, but, as he said in frustration, he couldn’t be expected to hit a goddam blur.
The lavender light had gone out, but they didn’t need Rodrigo’s signal anymore. The Silver Raven was also rising up swiftly out of the Breath. They could see the tops of her masts and the balloons, now fully inflated. Stephano and Dag both crouched tensely at the swivel guns, searching for the demons on their gigantic bats.
The Cloud Hopper burst into the sunlight. The boat was well out of the harbor area now, approaching the Old Fort. Stephano looked back toward the harbor and saw nothing out of the ordinary. Merchant ships and barges rode at anchor, resignedly waiting for the authorities to come to their senses and lift the blockade. Naval vessels were spread out from the naval station on the southwest edge of the bay, along the southern Rim east to the main harbor area. The northern shore was dominated by the Old Fort and the artillery batteries. The Royal Lion, pride of King Alaric and flagship of the western fleet, floated near the mouth of the bay.
“Dag, take the helm!” Stephano called. “Miri, take Gythe below.”
But although Gythe was obviously in pain, she refused to leave. Shaking her head, she allowed Dag to help her to a chair on the deck, but that was as far as she would go.
A gunboat, seeing the Cloud Hopper suddenly bob up out of the mists, was bearing down on them, though not with any sense of urgency. Trundlers could always be expected to try to slip past a blockade and were generally considered harmless, though the captain’s eyes must be opening somewhat wider at the sight of the Cloud Hopper’s two cannons, swivel guns, and the frog. Stephano could see no sign the navy had noticed anything out of the ordinary. The sound of the pistol shot fired down in the mists would have gone unheard, muffled by the Breath.
The Silver Raven sailed up out of the mists, emerging some distance from the Cloud Hopper. The sight of the merchant vessel appearing out of nowhere caused the navy gunboat to shift their attention away from the Cloud
