“Watch then, as each of your friends is raised to the top.”
Kara was the first to go. Pia watched as she strapped a harness over her shoulder. The rope was then pulled through it. At a signal, several people heaved on the end of a second line. Kara was wrenched into the air, using her hands and feet to push against the balloon’s surface as she was lifted. Soon she rounded the bulbous top and emerged standing in the centre. She gave a shout and very quickly Theodore was lifted up after her.
“We should go down,” Pia whispered.
“Wait,” Vanstrom murmured. “Something’s wrong.”
The inhabitants of Hope Rock had split into two groups. Argumentative voices could be heard, and very soon fingers were pointing and waving.
“What’s going on?” Pia asked.
“They don’t want to go,” Vanstrom observed. “Some of them think it’s suicide.”
Pia saw Arisha step forward, to stand between the two groups, but even her presence wasn’t enough to halt the discord. Someone called out for Hereward, another for Karnac, and in the morning light Pia saw the sun-kissed glimmer of drawn daggers.
“They will kill each other-and all of us-unless this madness is stopp-”
Vanstrom froze.
“What’s wrong?” she said. “What’s happening?”
“Did you hear that? From the north I think.”
Vanstrom ran across the top of the circle toward the lift. It had been raised and the windlass locked, as it was whenever it wasn’t in use. The pregnant woman who stood watch there had been drawn to the argument.
“By the gods, it’s them,” Vanstrom murmured, his face pale. “They have found us at last.”
“What?” Pia asked, her fear growing. “What is it? I don’t see anything?”
“Listen girl,
Pia fell silent and angled her head to the north. The wind rushed by, causing a faint roaring, but then, over that, there was a growing howl.
She listened again, and once more heard the cries.
Vanstrom was already moving. Pia ran after him, down the wooden scaffold and into the midst of the angry mob.
“It is too late for us now!” he roared. “Listen! Listen to the wind, all of you. Can you not hear them? Can you? They are upon us now. Listen!”
Some spat derisively at him, but the majority listened.
And sheltered from the wind by the rock wall, as Pia’s heart smashed in her chest and her ears thrummed to its beat, she heard the sound again.
It was howling. The howling of wolves. The werewolves of Canifis had found them.
“We have no time!” Karnac shouted. “We must leave now.
The howls had settled the issue. No one argued. Instead, in a barely organised rush they heaved the last volunteers to the top platform and then clambered into the nets that were fastened around the base of the balloon. The old and infirm were tied in, and Pia found herself in between Albertus Black and the spirit woman, her brother at the woman’s side. Pia was thankful that no one did a head count, and once, when Karnac mentioned Hereward, Vanstrom intervened neatly, telling him that Hereward had volunteered to come last. When Vanstrom strapped himself in not far from her, she saw his knowing gaze.
“Prepare to cut the mooring lines,” Master Peregrim shouted as he leaned down to his burner. A blast of orange flame roared into the central cavernous body of the balloon, lifting it suddenly. Someone near shouted in surprise and another in alarm.
“The stern is free,” a voice cried.
Immediately the balloon angled upward, the bow still tethered.
“Werewolf!”
Pia looked to the north as the balloon twisted on its last tether. She could just see a cowled figure, standing where the windlass was.
The werewolf howled and charged forward. She heard Master Peregrim scream for help as the attacker neared, and she saw how obscenely vulnerable the gnome was, still hovering just a few feet from the ground on his burner.
A blue missile smashed into the creature’s shoulder from above. The werewolf sprawled backward, whimpering as it grabbed its shattered limb and ran back several steps.
“You got him, Castimir!” she heard Kara shout.
But the werewolf turned again, and Pia knew it would not make such an easy target this time.
“Cut the bow line! Cut the line!” Master Peregrim bellowed.
Vanstrom Klause ducked through the netting. Pia saw him clamber to the bow and draw his knife.
The werewolf zigzagged now, weaving its way closer to the burner, jumping aside to avoid a second of Castimir’s blue missiles. When it exploded upon the ground, Pia saw it was composed of water which splashed harmlessly at their enemy’s feet.
But now Pia knew the werewolf was hidden from Castimir’s view by the shape of the balloon. There would be no more magic to save Master Peregrim now.
She heard the burner roar again from below and the balloon leapt upward. Vanstrom gave a shout from the bow and fell into empty space.
Pia went cold.
“No!” she screamed.
Vanstrom’s hands shot out, seizing the rope, breaking his fall. He wrapped his legs around the line, his face a grimace.
“Help him, someone help him! Please help him!” Pia screamed as she felt her eyes water.
Vanstrom looked back at her and nodded, just once.
And then he slid to the ground.
Through her blurred eyes Pia watched as the werewolf turned to attack him. She saw Vanstrom shout, though she did not hear the words, for her heart drowned out all other sounds.
He drew his dagger across the line and cut it in one strike.
Then the balloon rocked and shot upward, and Hope Rock was just a blur below.
34
Everywhere people screamed.
Kara gritted her teeth as her stomach leapt, the balloon rocking from side to side now it was free from its tethers. She gripped the platform’s rail with both hands, relief flooding through her when she felt the taut line she had tied about her waist and which secured her and the others on the platform to the balloon. Castimir, standing next to Arisha on the platform, with his back pressed against the surface of the balloon to Kara’s right, swore loudly, his eyes closed.
“This is the stupidest thing I’ve ever done!” the wizard shouted. “Didn’t Gar’rth promise us we could go unharmed? We don’t even need be up here!”
“He did,” Theodore shouted in reply, testing the tautness of his own safety line.
