Wolves of the Gods

He gestured and everyone turned to see Vister slumped in his chair, the maid weeping over his body.

'Unless I am mistaken,' Kalasariz continued, 'the good Sergeant Vister is quite dead.' He looked pointedly at Fari, who was fuming at this early betrayal of the truce. 'Apparently your spell was too much for the poor fellow,' he said. 'Although you assured us otherwise.'

'Look here, Kalasariz!' Luka snapped, 'it's easy enough to criticize when one-'

Iraj cut him off. 'It so happens, my Lord,' he rasped, 'that our brother, Kalasariz, happens to be echoing the criticisms of your king!'

He rose from the throne and went to Vister, pushing the maids away and hoisting the body up in his arms, cradling the big soldier as if he were a babe.

'This is your fault, Fari,' he said to the old demon. 'And yours as well, Luka,' he said to the prince, 'for the reasons I gave before.'

Fari and Luka, reduced to the Unholy Two, bowed, spewing many fervent apologies.

'Know this,' King Protarus said. 'The man you see in my arms was my kinsman, my cousin. He had followed me faithfully for many years over many miles and suffered much in my service. I do not take his death lightly. Do you understand me?'

Fari and Luka assured the king they understood quite well. Kalasariz said nothing, edging to the side to separate himself from the others.

'Go then,' the King ordered. 'Win me my victory, but remember this man. Remember him well!'

Kalasariz added his own voice with others, saying, 'Yes, Majesty! All will be as you command.'

All three bowed, then crept away.

Iraj watched them go, relieved. First, that their unity had once again been shattered. Second, that for the moment his secret still seemed safe.

He looked down at Vister's dead face. 'They don't know a blessed thing, do they cousin?' he said.

Then he dropped the body into the chair. 'See to it that he has a proper burial,' he said to his servants, then strode away.

CHAPTER TWENTY SEVEN

SPIES ON THE WIND

'Steady!' Biner shouted. Then: 'Launch!'

The ground crew let go the cables and the airship shot into the sky-furnaces roaring, the twin balloons taut till near bursting.

Leiria's stomach lurched at the unaccustomed feeling of weightlessness. She leaned over the side, fearing she was about to get sick, then saw the rapidly diminishing figures on the ground and felt sicker still. She closed her eyes, willing the sickness to be gone. She kept them closed for a long time, concentrating on the sounds around her-Biner's shouted orders, the aircrew's reply, the pumping bellows and roaring furnaces. And finally, the oddly melodic song of the wind strumming the great cables that held the ship to the balloons.

The sudden snowstorm had delayed the launch well past the chosen hour. Biner had held everyone at ready, ground crew poised at the cables, aircrew scrambling about knocking off ice. Meanwhile, teams of Kyranian volunteers shivered in the cold as they kept the area swept free of snow.

Then there'd been a brief respite as the sun broke through, revealing a small patch of blue sky and Biner had launched the ship.

Now Leiria was crouched on the steering deck, wishing for all the world that she could be somewhere else. Anything, even a charging horde of demon cavalry, would be better than this. At least she'd be on nice safe ground.

'I know what yer thinkin', lass,' she heard Biner say. 'That if the gods meant yer to fly, they'd a provided yer with the belly for it.'

Leiria opened her eyes to find the dwarf standing next to her. She nodded weakly. 'I would have thought wings,' she said, 'or at least a few pin feathers. But you're right. Whatever god made birds must've started with the belly.'

She groaned to her feet, forcing herself not to look over the edge. 'I think I'm going to live,' she said.

'Although I'm still not sure if I care.'

Arlain came up, carrying a steaming mug. 'Thith'll do the trick,' she said. 'Ith an old balloonitht cure for air thickneth.'

Gratefully, Leiria drank. It was delicious-a thick, forthy elixir heavily laced with brandy. Her queasy inner world suddenly settled.

'Oh, that's much better!' she said. 'My stomach's practically cheering.'

'It's usually much smoother than this, lass,' Biner said, taking her elbow and leading her over to the big ship's wheel.

'Here,' he said, putting her hands on the wheel. 'This'll give you somethin' to hold onto.' He pointed to a mountain ridge off in the distance. 'Keep her headed that way,' he said.

Then to her great surprise and alarm, he bounded down the gangway to berate a lazy crewman.

'Wait,' she cried, 'I don't know how to-'

She bit off the rest as the dwarf vanished below. And she thought, if Biner wasn't worried, steering the airship couldn't be that difficult.

Leiria concentrated on the ridge, moving the wheel whenever the nose of the ship veered away from it.

At first she tended to oversteer and the ship yawed widely from side to side. She kept expecting someone to come running to push her aside and take the wheel. When no one came she soon forgot about everything else but steering the ship and quickly saw the way of it.

The combination of Arlain's elixir plus having something useful to do gradually did its work, and before she knew it, Leiria was actually enjoying herself. The air was clean and bracing and there was an incredible sense of freedom that came from floating so high above the earth. They were sailing just above a thick cloud cover, blue skies and a bright sun, mountains stretching away in every direction as far as she could see. At least that's how it appeared for a time. About a half mile from the ridge Biner had aimed her toward, it began to dawn on her that something was wrong.

Instead of fleeing as the airship approached, the horizon grew closer. The sky in that direction was still blue, but the blue seemed more … solid was the only description she could think of. But not hard, like metal, but soft, like … like … some kind of cloth. And now that she thought of it, the cloth was moving …

billowing … as if an immense window had been left open and the wind was pushing through the curtains.

Biner and Arlain must have sensed something was up, because they both came running up on the deck.

As Biner took over the wheel, Leiria pointed.

'Look,' she said. 'Through there…'

She was pointing through the gap of what she thought of as 'curtains.' Biner cursed and Arlain covered her mouth in alarm. Glaring through the opening was the familiar, evil face of the Demon Moon.

The sight of their old celestial enemy was driven home by the heavy throbbing of a huge machine and the whiff of the foul air of the Black Lands.

'No use cryin' over spilt air,' Biner said grimly. 'Besides, we were half expectin' it ever since we started on this little spyin' trip.'

'I thirtainly wath never exthpecting that again!' Arlain said, jabbing a claw at the leering moon.

'Thomebody thould of warned me!'

'And then what would yer have done?' Biner said. 'If we'd of spelled it out real plain-so we could be sure yer were scared sandless. I mean, Safar told us we were livin' in a false Caluz. That outside that little valley was the real world. Which is where we gotta go if we're gonna do any worthwhile eagleyein'.'

'I know that,' Arlain sniffed.