objects flew forward into the cockpit. Dante’s cigarette case. Shahera’s headdress. The bags stowed in the rear compartment. All of them pelted Taziri’s arm and head. And then it was over.
As soon as the ground felt solid under her feet, Taziri grabbed Kenan and inspected the wooden shaft in his shoulder. Without a word, she chopped her left arm down on the branch, smashing it to icy splinters with her medical brace and letting the young pilot slip to the floor.
He grabbed his bleeding shoulder and looked up at her. “Is this what it was like, captain?”
“What do you mean?”
“When you crashed the first Halcyon?” He smiled a little.
“No.” She shook her head. Looking back, the fuselage of the plane appeared mostly intact and all of the passengers were groaning and moving. “Trust me. You picked the right crash to be in.”
Chapter 4. Syfax
As soon as he was sure that he was still in one piece, Major Syfax Zidane unlatched his safety harness and began checking the passengers. All were groaning and shaken, and complaining of aches and pains where the harness straps had dug into their shoulders, but there were no broken bones and no blood to be seen. In the cockpit, he saw Taziri and Kenan were already busy poking around their equipment so he lumbered up behind them. “Hey, what’s the word? Is this thing still able to fly or not?”
“Probably, yes,” Taziri said. She sat up on the floor of the cockpit and wiped the sweat from her face. “I need to take a look outside.” She led her co-pilot out the hatch and Syfax watched them circle around to the nose of the plane where they had to climb up the icy embankment to examine the engine.
“Would someone please explain to me what is going on?” Nicola said sternly, staring up at him.
He shrugged. “We spotted a military ship, they shot off our tail, and Ziri saved your butt by landing on this lake. We’re all alive, and hopefully they can bang this tin can back into shape so we can get back in the air soon. Any questions?”
“Tell me about the ship.” Nicola folded her hands in her lap. Her blue and silver suit had been a bit crushed and crumpled, but still shimmered gaudily in the early afternoon light.
Syfax thumbed his nose. “Not much to tell. Big fella. Lotsa big guns. Never seen anything like it. Back home, the steamers are probably half its size, even the navy boats. This big boy is something new.”
“Are the Espani known for their steamships?” The tall woman plucked at the hem of her jacket. “Because in Italia, they are not. Their sailing ships, perhaps, are worthy of note. But my reports describe the Espani military as being nearly a century behind the latest trends in weapons and ships. No one takes them seriously anymore. Not at sea, anyway.”
“I dunno, lady. When I was in the army, I was mostly shooting at Songhai and Ahaggar rangers. Didn’t see many boats in the Atlas Mountains.” He glanced out the forward windscreen, but Taziri and Kenan were still puttering with their engine.
“What if they can’t fix it?” Dante asked quietly, his eyes fixed on the white nothingness outside his window.
“They’ll fix it,” Syfax said.
A minute later, Taziri poked her head in and waved Syfax outside to talk. When they were standing by the nose of the plane, she pointed out the damage as she said, “Well there’s lots of good news. The propeller isn’t bent. The wings aren’t damaged. The pontoons aren’t water-tight anymore but the wheels are still on. Nothing seems to be leaking from the engine. I think we got lucky this time.”
“So what’s the bad news?”
She pointed back at the tail of the plane. “The rudders are gone. We can’t fly until we get that fixed.”
Syfax glanced around the wooded slope above them. He knew the trees were probably frozen solid, but a little fire could go a long way. “Can we patch it up or not?”
“Not.” Taziri sneezed. “I mean, it’s not complicated, but it has to be done right or the wind will just rip it right off and we’ll be stuck flying in a straight line again. Or worse.”
Syfax squinted into the cold wind whipping at his face. The two ridges on either side of the frozen lake weren’t too high or steep, but the trees only stood on the bottom third of the slopes and there was no sign of a road or town in the valley. “How far are we from the coast? From Valencia?”
Taziri turned to her co-pilot. “Kenan?”
The young lieutenant blinked and frowned and began rubbing his bare hands and blowing into his cupped palms. “I’d say, maybe, a hundred miles or so.”
“All right,” Syfax said. “Assuming they don’t have anything faster than horses, they won’t get here until the morning after next.”
“Who?” Kenan asked.
“The guys who shot us down, kid. I don’t think they liked us sniffing around their new toy very much. And if they cared enough to turn those big guns on us, then they’ll care enough to send a handful of soldiers to look for us. The good news is they don’t know where we are. The bad news is that anyone who saw us fly past will point them in the right direction. Ziri, do you think you can fix this bird in two days?”
The captain’s stare hardened. “No, major. I wasn’t kidding. The new rudders have to be properly hinged and attached to the cables for the plane to fly safely. We’re going to need Isoke, one of her fabricators, and a set of spare parts from Tingis. Halcyon isn’t flying until we get a team up here to fix her.”
Syfax chewed on that for a moment. “All right, then we need to quit jawing and start walking.” He went back to the open hatch called inside, “Everybody grab your gear and get out here.” He paused long enough to yank the survival packs from the rear compartment but not long enough to hear their objections. Then he got Kenan to follow him up into the woods to find a couple of small logs and large branches to throw up across the plane’s wings and fuselage. “There. That should be good enough. With all the glare on the ice, no one should see it here until we get back. Kid, how’s the arm?”
Kenan shrugged. “Just a big splinter, really. It’s sore, but not bleeding much. Captain wrapped it up for me. It’s okay, I guess.”
“Glad to hear it.” He looked up and saw Taziri fooling with the engine again. “Hey Ziri, I thought we weren’t going to fix this thing until later.”
“I’m not fixing it.” She stepped out of the shadow of the plane with a black box in her hand that trailed half a dozen cables. “I’m stripping the battery and leads. This way, even if the Espani find it, they can’t possibly use it.” She shoved the battery into her survival pack and shouldered the bag.
“Fair enough. All right, let’s move out!” Syfax started walking away.
“Move out?” Dante shouted from the side of the plane. “Where exactly do you think you’re going? I’m not walking the length of Espana in the dead of winter, you idiot. Get back here and fix this damned machine!”
With his tinted aviator goggles shielding his eyes from the sun, Syfax trudged across the thick powder on the ice with a sharp grin on his face. Taziri and Kenan quickly fell into step behind him and a moment later he glanced back to see all three passengers marching after them.
Yeah, that’s what I thought, jackass.
Stumbling along at the rear, the Eranian girl in purple motley was moving slowly and seemed uncertain about every step in the knee-deep snow. Syfax grimaced. She’s not dressed for the cold, or even for walking. I’m going to end up carrying her, probably. Unless we find some horses. And I’m not that lucky.
As they climbed the eastern ridge at the mouth of the valley, Taziri quickened her step to come alongside him. “Major? What’s the plan?”
“I saw a road a few minutes before we went down. We backtrack east, find the road, find people, and head southeast. We’ll try to hit the coast south of Valencia and hitch a ride back home. If we’re quick about it, we should be out of the country before any soldiers come looking for us. And if we’re quiet about it, you might even get back here with Isoke and get the Halcyon flying again before anyone finds out about it.”
“You really think so?”
“If we’re lucky.” He grinned. “And you know how lucky we are.”
When the slope leveled out they saw a muddy road in the distance running back east to Valencia and angling
