She took the cloak and stared at him, seeing him in an entirely new light, one that gave her pause.
« I prefer Hobstull as a statue,” he declared, his smile wicked and challenging. «Don’t you?» He dusted off his hands and looked east. «Time to be on our way. The light is good enough for travel. If others are coming, we don’t want to be here to greet them.»
He walked away, and Grianne followed. As she did so, she glanced back a final time, reminded suddenly of her past. The Ilse Witch had used snakes to dispose of her enemies. That had been a long time ago, and she was no longer that person. Or didn’t want to be. But she had felt herself reverting in her battles with the Straken Lord and the Furies. She had felt the magic turning her dark and hard again. It wasn’t so difficult to imagine that, whether she wished it or not, she might be changing into something she had thought safely left behind.
She mulled the possibility as they walked, wondering what she could do to prevent it. It was like trying to hold water in your fingers, you could capture the wetness, but the water itself slipped away. She was that water, and she was running swiftly through the cracks in her determination.
They walked several miles, far enough that she could no longer see the statues and the flats, far enough that she had begun to turn her thoughts again to their destination. She could already see the dark rise of the Dragon Line ahead of them.
Then Weka Dart slowed. «Someone is coming,” he said.
She peered into the distance. At first, she didn’t see anything. The haze and the gloom obscured everything, blending the features of the landscape together. But finally she saw movement. A solitary figure was coming toward them, cloaked and spectral against the still–dark horizon. She tried to make out its features and failed. She could tell only one thing about it.
It was carrying a staff that glowed like fire.
Twenty–Three
Surrounded by the dark, menacing forms of his black–clad guards, Sen Dunsidan stalked onto the airfield and crossed to where theZolomach was anchored at the center of the cordoned–off flats south. Chains ringed the big airship, and dozens of Federation soldiers stood at watch. He had no reason to believe that the Free–born would even know of her yet, let alone think to mount an attack, but since the loss of theDechtera and other recent events he wasn’t taking any chances.
He stopped when still some distance off to admire the warship. TheZolomach was sleek and smooth, strong enough to withstand an attack by multiple enemy craft if she chose to fight and fast enough to outrun them if she chose not to. She was an improvement over theDechtera, not so cumbersome and unresponsive, better suited to making the maneuvers necessary to bring her weapons into line, more able to adjust to the unexpected. She had not yet been put into service on the Prekkendorran though she had been tested and was ready to fly north.
Which she would do, he promised himself, as soon as Etan Orek confirmed that the casing for the fire launcher was complete and the weapon ready to be installed on theZolomach’s foredeck. All that would happen by «sunrise tomorrow,” the little engineer had promised him, and Sen Dunsidan intended to take him at his word. He moved ahead again, reaching the airship and climbing aboard to view the swivel base on which the fire launcher would be mounted. It was a simple metal platform that rotated on a bed of gears and bearings activated by a pair of release levers, the whole of the assembly able to swivel forty–five degrees to either side from dead forward. Its mobility was an improvement over the mechanism employed on theDecbtera, as well. There would be no mishaps when he sent her out. TheZolomach would finish the job theDechtera had started.
« Prime Minister.»
He turned to find the Captain of the airship saluting him, eager to make his report. «Captain. Is she ready?»
« Yes, my lord. She awaits only the emplacement of the weapon, and she is on her way.»
« You’ve shielded the rudders and underside controls so that we won’t have a repeat of theDechterds collapse?»
The Captain nodded. «It will take a good deal more than a rail sling to damage her steering this time.»
Sen Dunsidan didn’t miss a beat. «What would it take, exactly?»
The Captain hesitated. «Another airship would have to ram her from below. That would be very difficult.»
The Prime Minister looked away a moment, considering. There was no preventing every possibility, of course. Still, the Captain’s words made him uneasy. «Stores and weapons are all accounted for?»
« Loaded and tied down. We are ready, Prime Minister.»
Sen Dunsidan looked back at him. «I want you to post men at the rails during battle to watch for the possibility of an underside attack on the steering. I want you to devise a method of alerting the pilot box of the danger of such an attack so that evasive action can be taken in time to prevent any damage. Use the remainder of the day to train a team of men to do that. Take theZolomach aloft and practice.» He paused. «There are to be no mistakes, Captain. Is that understood?»
A shade paler than before, seeing in Sen Dunsidan’s eyes his fate should he fail to comply, the other man nodded wordlessly.
« Good. I will get back to you with departure orders this evening.» He waved the other off. «Get on with it.»
His guard following close on his heels, he climbed back down the ladder, walked to theZolomacb’s stern to check the shielding, found it satisfactory, and strolled back out onto the airfield. Turning, he watched the airship’s Captain summon his crew to quarters, his Lieutenants shouting out instructions, his men rushing to man their positions for lifting off. Within moments, the anchor ropes were released and the big warship was sailing off into the afternoon sky.
This time,he thought as he watched her fly into the depthless blue void,I’ll use the fire launcher on the Free–born until I can’t see anything moving.
His determination to crush the Free–born was fueled by an unpleasant turn of events. First, those ragtag Elves had crushed his pursuit force in the hills north of the Prekkendorran. Then there had been the midnight raid that resulted in the destruction of theDechtera and her weapon. Less than two days ago, a counterstrike by Free– born forces under the command of Vaden Wick had smashed his siege lines and driven his Federation soldiers all the way back to their original defenses, putting them right where they had been weeks earlier before the successes against Kellen Elessedil and the Elves. Except that now, after collapsing the right flank of the Federation army during the counterattack, Wick had gained a foothold in the hills east, threatening an assault that would roll up the entire Federation line and drive the army back into the middle Southland.
That last reversal had determined for him his present course of action. Whatever else happened, he did not intend to suffer a defeat of the sort that would result if his defensive line collapsed and was overrun. The members of the Coalition Council were afraid of him, but only so long as he did not show himself to be vulnerable. If he demonstrated any noticeable weakness, they would move quickly to eliminate him. A defeat on the Prekkendorran would give them all the encouragement they needed. No one would support him if the army was thrown back, not after all his promises of imminent victory.
So, in spite of Iridia Eleri’s insistence on attacking the Elves and Arborlon, he had decided to use the fire launcher on the Free–born lines first, breaking down their defenses and driving them off the Prekkendorran for good. There would be plenty of time after that to test India’s theories about the erosion of Elven morale.
Suddenly uneasy, he glanced around. Even the thought of India’s name made him nervous. In spite of the presence of his guards, he found himself looking over his shoulder constantly. He had never been comfortable with her, but after their confrontation three nights earlier, he was much less so. It was something about her eyes or her voice, something in the way she held herself whenever she saw him. Whatever it was, it left him wondering how wise it was to continue to keep her around. He might be better off to get rid of her and go back to the way things were before. He didn’t trust Shadea, but at least with her, what you saw was what you got. With Iridia, he wasn’t sure.
He started back across the airfield toward his carriage. Iridia had traveled back with him to Arishaig, but he
