“We have all the time in the world,” Kandler said. It was a bad lie, and he knew that Esprл wasn’t fooled, but he hoped it calmed her nerves all the same.
The ship hit the hilltop hard. Had Kandler and Esprл not been wearing the wheel’s belt, they would have been thrown from the bridge. As it was, Kandler struggled to hold them both in place, his injuries screaming in protest.
“Hard to port!” Kandler said. “Left!”
Esprл almost jumped from between his arms, but the ship swung hard to port and ran the burning part of her hull against the hillside. She scraped along, the boards of her shell groaning in protest.
“Bring it up now,” Kandler said. The ship came off the hill and righted itself.
“Report!” the justicar said to the shifter.
Burch let go of the straps and peered over the side of the ship. “That did it!” he said. “The fire’s out!”
Kandler sighed with relief and he felt Esprл sink back into his arms. He hugged her tight, then said, “Bring her up just a bit.” The ship nosed higher into the sky.
Kandler undid the belt around himself and Esprл, then reattached it around the girl. Sallah removed her hands from the straps she’d used and came over to Esprл with a wide, proud smile.
“Where to now?” said Burch, who was scanning the countryside below. “I don’t see the changeling anywhere.”
“Sir Deothen!” said Sallah, as if ashamed the thought had just struck her. “We have to go back for them and the others.”
Esprл nodded and brought the ship around to point south again. Under Kandler’s direction, she headed for the south end of Majeeda’s valley but gave the mists surrounding her tower a healthy berth, keeping them always to the starboard.
Kandler marveled at the airship’s speed as she flew toward the other side of the valley, the heat blasting from the back end of the fiery ring pushing them along. Unhampered by the drag of the ocean’s waves, it moved faster than any seagoing ship. It seemed like the finest horse would be hard pressed to keep up with her, even on a flat stretch of land. The way she sailed straight and smooth above the valley floor was unmatchable.
As the ship came up on the spot where Kandler and the others had left the knights behind, he frowned. “I don’t see them,” he said.
Sallah climbed down from the bridge and ran out to the tip of the ship’s stem. She leaned over the bow and peered out at the long southern slope and into the valley. She stood up and pointed down.
“That’s where we were,” she said. “They’re gone!”
Chapter 35
Kandler looked to Burch. “What’s your best guess?”
The shifter leaned over the nearest railing and gazed down at the terrain below. Although it was rock and hard-packed dirt near the chasm and mist-shrouded tower, beyond the sickly-looking grass sprouted again, and the soil was a bit softer.
“Trail’s clear,” the shifter said. “From here, I can see where horses trampled grass. They were moving fast.”
Kandler whispered something to Esprл, and the girl brought the ship back around until it was headed back toward the mound of mist.
“What happened?” Kandler asked.
Burch stared down over the railing and tried to decipher the signs scattered on the ground below.
“The changeling bolted that way,” the shifter said, pointing to the northeast. “Then the knights followed.” He stared off to the left and right. “They were posted all around tower, but they chased her together.” He jabbed his finger to the northeast again. “Into the hills.”
“That’s the way the changeling was headed before,” Kandler said.
“You’re going after them, aren’t you?” Sallah demanded as she rushed back from the bow. “We can’t just leave them out there.”
Kandler smiled. “What kind of rogues do you take us for?”
Sallah narrowed her eyes at the justicar. “The kind that might turn around as soon as they got what they came for.” She glanced at Esprл, still standing at the wheel. The girl blushed.
“That’s a good point,” Kandler said as he looked down at Esprл. “I hadn’t thought of it that way.” He reached out and put an arm around his daughter.
“You can’t be serious,” the lady knight said. “Without them you never would have gotten this far. You never would have rescued her.”
“Maybe,” Burch said. The others turned to look at him. “But I’m interested in something else.”
Sallah sneered at the shifter. “Getting home safe to the town that threw you in prison?”
Burch smiled at the knight, showing all his sharp teeth. “No,” he said. “I want that changeling’s head on my wall.”
“No!” Esprл blurted, taking her hands from the wheel. The ship bobbled in the air for a moment as if it had hit a rock. Esprл grabbed the wheel again, and the ship straightened out. “You don’t have to do that,” she said to Burch once she was back in control. “Not for me.”
Kandler wrinkled his brow at his Esprл. “This lady kidnapped you. She used you as a hostage. She could have killed you.”
“But she didn’t,” said Esprл. “She wouldn’t have. She saved me from those vampires.”
Kandler put a hand on the girl’s shoulder. “She saved you for herself, I think.”
“I know,” said Esprл softly, “but you don’t have to kill her, do you? Not for me.”
Kandler sighed then kissed the girl atop her golden locks.
“But you have to go after her!” Sallah said. “You can’t let her get away.”
“I thought you wanted to save your friends,” Burch said.
Sallah snarled in frustration at the shifter. “They were going after her. You find her, and you find them.”
Kandler smiled. He hadn’t thought the knight could be that bloodthirsty, and he was happy his instincts had proved right. “Good. Then we’re headed in the right direction. Right, Burch?”
The shifter nodded. “Straight over that ridge, then follow the hollow.”
“Don’t worry, ladies,” Kandler said. “We’ll find your knights,” he said to Sallah, then he turned to Esprл, “and we’ll leave your friend alone, assuming the knights don’t get to her first.”
Esprл let go of the ship’s wheel with one hand and hugged Kandler tight.
The ship scudded through the sky. Sallah watched the mists swirling overhead for a while then gazed out at the landscape below, marveling at the grace with which they moved. Under Burch’s guidance, Esprл kept the ship low, only a few score feet above the crests of the hills. Each time the shifter signaled her, she reined the ship back from its top speed to give him time to spot the changes in the trail.
Sallah walked back to the bridge and put a hand on Kandler’s arm. He winced. “How are you?” she asked.
“I’ve been better.”
The lady knight looked at him. “Is it your shoulder? You wrenched it when you fell, didn’t you?”
Kandler started to say something then shut his mouth and just nodded.
“I can help,” Sallah said tentatively.
“You or the Silver Flame? Healing magic doesn’t work well in the Mournland,” Kandler said, rubbing his shoulder. “It won’t even heal on its own until we get out of here.”
“What I’m offering isn’t magic,” Sallah said. “The chosen knights of the Silver Flame have their own kind of power. As you saw with Brendis, it seems to work here.”
“This must be my lucky day.”
Sallah stepped back. She wasn’t used to having anyone talk to her like this. Her fellow knights always treated her with respect, especially since Jaela Daran, the Keeper of the Flame, a girl not much older than Esprл, had called
