Aethersmith (Book 2) (66 page)

It was time for Captain Juliana to figure out how to find
Zorren.

* * * * * * * *

Brannis blinked his eyes several times until they were able
to focus in Tellurak again. He sat across the table from Soria in a small
restaurant they had found on the way to Greuder’s, a trip that would be delayed
now due to more pressing concerns.

“There is a lighthouse, yes. Just follow the Cloud Wall
north, then turn west when you reach the sea. It should not be hard to find.
Only a handful of Kadrin cities are larger than Zorren. It is no Kadris, but I
doubt anywhere in Veydrus or Tellurak has a city quite the size of Kadris.”

“Probably not. Kadris uses magic to keep the sewage from
overflowing the place. Khesh has enough people to support a city that size, but
they have more cities, and spread them more widely. How is Kyrus holding up?
Juliana and I are always keeping odd hours, but I imagine like the dual
awareness, you’re probably not used to being off your sleep routine. It’s
harder for our kind usually.”

“I think he will be okay. He and Varnus just got a hot pot
of tea sent up.”

“Oh, tea. I am sure you are all sorts of endearing yourself
to Varnus,” Soria said, teasing Brannis about the choice of beverage for the
hard-drinking guard captain.

“I will allow him free rein of the emperor’s wine cellar if
he stays awake with me long enough to get this done.”

“I’ll tell him you said that,” Soria promised, still
smiling.

* * * * * * * *

“I never expected I would be seeing you again alive, let
alone finding both you and the boy, with a rescue on the way,” Aelon said, his
voice echoing from the stone ceiling overhead. Three sloshing sets of footsteps
kept him from attempting to whisper; if the noises they made were heard from
above, at least they had the advantage of an expert guide if it became a game
of hide-from-his-lordship in the sewers.

“Well, let us just say that this plan is little more than
optimism and running at the moment. Anzik, where are we right now?” Faolen
asked, following close behind Councilor Fehr’s evasive child.

The boy had taken the lead without being asked. Faolen had
trusted the instincts that had kept Anzik ahead of half the city’s efforts to
find and capture him. Of course, the boy had not gone unnoticed. With the Staff
of Gehlen, he had solved his problems with force when cornered.

“Up there is a stable with a door that is easy to open. The
horse in the third stall died eighteen days ago, and they have not gotten a new
one to replace her yet. The stable boy came once right before dusk, and then
not again until morning. The hay was—”

“That is good enough, Anzik. Thank you. Which way will get
us outside the city fastest, either to the east or south?” Faolen asked.

“None. The sewers do not go outside the city at all.”

“Well, I mean what will get us closest to outside the city?
We can go up to the streets before we actually leave the walls of Zorren.”

Anzik’s gaze went glassy, staring at nothing in particular a
moment as Faolen and Aelon watched the boy by the magical light emanating from
Faolen’s finger, which was all the light they had with them.

“This way.” Anzik pointed down a side passageway.

“Lead on,” Faolen told him.

* * * * * * * *

The night sky was darker than Juliana had expected when the
Daggerstrike
entered a passing rainstorm. The moonlight that had showed the snow-capped
peaks of the Cloud Wall as Juliana steered her ship by them was blocked by a
wall of actual clouds—well, more of a ceiling than a wall, but its opacity was
of more concern than its orientation.

She tried taking the ship above the clouds. The view was
breathtaking, a three-quarter moon nestled among a dazzling array of stars,
with the moonlight making the clouds below them glow with a ghostly light. It
was as if there was an ocean of luminescence that they sailed. It was all very
poetic, and in less pressing times, she hoped to see such sights again. In the
meantime, it blocked her view of the ground. It was a significant detriment to
her ability to navigate by following Koriah’s geography.

With some reluctance, she dropped the ship back below the
clouds, cursing Brannis, Kyrus and whoever else he might be for not providing
some shelter against the weather for the poor sorceress forced to stand out on
the exposed deck to operate the controls. Figuring she could afford a momentary
lapse, she unfocused her attention.

Somewhere in Tellurak, Soria kicked Brannis under the table
where they were sharing an early luncheon. Juliana blinked back to her present
situation, content to let Soria explain what he had done to warrant the kick.

Resigned that she could see as little beneath the clouds as
above, she took the
Daggerstrike
up once more, hoping that they would
pass the storm before reaching the sea. At least above, she would not be
getting wet.

* * * * * * * *

Anzik jogged along, panting for breath with the mild
exertion. Despite being a young boy, and despite being out on his own for more
than a tenday, he was unused to long exertion. The sounds of pursuit in the
tunnels had prompted Faolen to prod the boy along. Anzik had gamely complied,
understanding that whoever was behind them was going to take him back to his
father if they were caught.

“Soon enough, they will get ahead of us on the surface, you
know,” Aelon said.

Aside from having to duck a little in spots where the sewer
grew shorter, Aelon was faring by far the best of all of them. As little demand
as the life of a merchant placed on the body, it seemed he was in better
condition than either of the sorcerers, younger or older.

“What do you suggest?” Faolen asked. “I do not think our
chances of outrunning them are any better above.”

“They know we are down here. There are only so many passages
to take, especially if they guess we are trying to get outside the city. We
have more directions to travel above ground.”

“And more eyes seeking us out,” Faolen countered.

“Eyes are your specialty, are they not?” Aelon argued. “Hide
us from view with your illusions.”

“I do not know that I trust my magic to keep three of us
safe. I am still quite weakened.”

“I have an idea,” Anzik said, stopping and turning to look
at the two adults. “Why not go back to the middle of the city?”

“Anzik, we are trying to escape the city, not keep hiding in
it. Hiding one small boy is impressive. Hiding two grown men along with him is
asking too much.”

“I thought it was an airship that was coming to rescue us.
Can it not just come over the city to get us?”

Faolen and Aelon looked to one another. Aelon shrugged.
Faolen spread his hands, inviting an argument against the idea but there was
none to be had.

* * * * * * * *

“No. Tell them to find a way to sneak outside the city
walls.”

“Brannis, they are desperate,” Varnus said, his voice soft.

“I gave Juliana that ship to get her safely away from Kadris
and all the daggerwork the Circle is planning. You make it sound as if they
have alerted the whole city with their escape thus far. I am not sending her
into a mess like that. Picking them up outside the city is risky enough,” Kyrus
argued. He stifled a yawn, taking another sip of tea while still angry, and
burning his mouth on it.

“Juliana is Soria. Soria has been in and out of tighter
places than that a hundred times. If you want her to be yours, you are going to
have to let her be herself. She’s a warrior, skinny thing that she is. Juliana,
same as Soria. It’s in the heart more than the muscles or the Source. Besides,
if you do not tell her, she will search the city for them when she doesn’t find
them waiting outside.” Varnus locked gazes with Kyrus, who sat fuming until he
satisfied himself that he had no proper argument to turn against Varnus’s final
thrust.

“I do not like this one bit,” Kyrus said, folding his arms
across his chest, and trying to slip his mind back into Brannis’s to convey the
message.

* * * * * * * *

Faolen searched above first, in the aether. Finding nothing
immediately threatening, he poked his head up through the open sewer grating
that Anzik’s magic held open. It was strange relying on the magic of one so
young, but the boy seemed innately talented. His magic was silent and artful;
Faolen felt no wasted aether as was common when around Source-strong children
first feeling out the process of learning magic. The boy’s magic was as fluid
as a Fourth Circle adept.

The three fugitives clambered out of the sewers, dripping
fetid water from their ankle-deep trek through the muck. Taking stock of their
surroundings, Faolen found that they were in a low-lying portion of the city,
in between two of the major hills. The night had grown cloudy, but there were
fires aplenty in the city, kept for the nightly activities of the harbor and
the military, which kept some amount of activity going throughout all the hours
of the day. It was enough to make out the larger towers that dominated the
skyline of Zorren.

“Too bad we cannot climb one of those, eh?” Aelon said,
noting Faolen’s gaze.

Faolen nodded his assent but did not comment on it. “For
now, I will conserve my magic. If we get cornered, I will buy us what time we
can. The most important thing is for Anzik to get aboard. If you two can get
away, do not risk staying too long waiting for me. I will fend for myself if
needs be.”

“Is that the airship?” Anzik asked, pointing up.

A tiny shape glinted in the fires from the city, circling
high above Zorren.

* * * * * * * *

“Anyone see them yet?” Captain Juliana shouted out,
realizing they were too high for them to be heard. Likely they had already been
spotted. The city swarmed with troops carrying torches or magical lights. It
seemed that Faolen had kicked a wasps’ nest.

“Nothing yet, Captain,” one of the spotters called out. She
had summoned them up on deck when she first spotted the city by its lights on
the coastline. It was either Zorren or she had gone well off course.

“All right, I’m bringing us in lower. Shout out if you see
them
or
if you see anyone getting ready to shoot at us, especially
sorcerers,” Juliana ordered. She shifted her hold on the wheel, and angled the
ship’s nose downward, banking a left turn as she did so. The controls were
still awkward to her, but she was growing more familiar with them, at least.

“All rain and cloud cover, Captain. Can’t see a bleeding
thing down there,” another of the spotters shouted.

Juliana gritted her teeth in frustration, knowing they were
right. Any efforts Faolen and his companions took to conceal themselves from
their pursuers would keep them hidden from the
Daggerstrike
’s crew as
well. Any signal they gave would be seen by both as well—if they were lucky
enough for her crew to see it at all. The city was large enough for sure, not
the size of Kadris, but large enough that it was inconvenient to see all at
once. She spared a moment’s concentration yet again to start a chain of
messages back and forth between the worlds.

“Watch for a plume of fire,” Juliana called out. “That will
be our beacon.”

She kept the ship moving fast in circles above the city,
hoping that any ambitious archer or gunner would be hard pressed to lead their
target by enough to hit the
Daggerstrike
. It was only a matter of time
now, unless her request proved too much for Faolen, if what Brannis reported of
his current condition was understated.

“Captain, arse-left. I saw a plume of fire, just like you
said.”

Juliana turned her head quickly to look off the ship’s
arse-left side. She had also done away with the nautical terms bow and stern.
Her ship had a left, a right, a nose, a belly, and an arse end. The term “deck”
had unfortunately stuck when she could think of none better on short notice.

Captain Juliana slowed the ship, twisting it about in air in
a manner that neither sea vessel nor the wind-catching airships could manage.
The arse of the ship swung about, waggling back and forth a bit as the front
darted off in their intended direction: toward the flame.

“Captain, it looks like the Megrenn saw that too,” one of
the spotters yelled.

“I see them, “ Juliana replied. “It is going to be a race.”
She accelerated the ship, hoping fervently that it could stop just as quickly.
They were aimed at a down angle, straight for a crash landing if they did not
have that ability.

Buildings whisked by beneath them, growing closer to the
belly of the ship as they crossed half of Zorren to reach their target. Juliana
and the spotters lost the citywide view of the overall Megrenn search effort as
the height of the buildings obscured the far reaches of Zorren from them.

There were glimpses of roving infantry patrols, seen between
buildings as they crossed over the streets that were being combed for Faolen.
Most disturbing were sightings of stripe-cats among the searchers. Faster and
more dangerous than infantry, the huge felines were to be Juliana’s largest
worry until she took note of any cannons or sorcerers. Should Jinzan Fehr be in
the city, and join the search using the Staff of Gehlen, there was a good
chance that they would not escape, airship or no airship.

“Found them, Captain. They are off to the left-nose side;
they are waving us down.”

Juliana looked through the viewer, having toyed with it a
bit en route until she had gotten the controls figured out. There they were,
three of them, looking bedraggled but whole, standing in an emptied market
square, two adults and a scrawny child. The two adults were waving their arms
overhead, frantically signaling to the
Daggerstrike
.