Jane Carver of Waar (40 page)

Lhan shouted, “Down!” as the first bolts zipped by us. I had a better plan. As Lhan and Sai fell flat I drew my sword, flipped it around and stuck it point down into the leather of the balloon. “Next guy who shoots, we all go down!”

The bowmen hesitated. They looked to their sergeants. I pushed the point a little deeper. “I got nothing to lose. I’ll rip it wide open, whether you hit me or not.”

The sergeants called down the balloon for new orders. A few seconds later, they waved at the bowmen. They lowered their crossbows, but kept them at the ready. The marines stayed where they were, watching us.

Sai and Lhan raised their heads. I motioned with my chin. “Get your swords out. We gotta make this look serious.”

They sat up and drew. There were some shouts from the marines, but nobody shot at us. Sai made cow eyes at me as the three of us knelt in a little circle, swords point-down like some picture from a King Arthur story. “Once again you save my miserable life, Mistress.”

Lhan grunted. “But for how long. This standoff ends once we land. They know all they have to do is wait.”

That was true. I hadn’t bought us much time. We were practically over the base now. The fortifications were slipping beneath the mass of the balloon. The other navy ship was below us too, turning our way but still a good thousand feet down. I grinned, queasy. “Well at least we don’t have to worry about that other ship. They can’t risk firing on us anymore than these guys can.”

Lhan didn’t return my smile. “Yes, but unless we can invent some new course of action, we will be dead regardless. The first casualties in a bloody civil war.”

I was only half listening. The other ship wasn’t rising. It was staying at its own level, passing under Kedak’s ship and out of my line of sight as it continued south. They weren’t coming for us at all. Why was that?

I stood and looked closer, not at the balloon, but at the deck. There were tiny faces peeking out from under, looking up. I spotted a flash of red. A short-cut red jacket. Kai-La! And there was Burly beside her. The old she-skelsha had managed to get out of the Navy camp after all.

My heart jumped. “The pirates!”

Sai and Lhan followed my gaze just as their ship vanished under ours, but they had seen too. I wanted to run to the side of the balloon and wave and shout. They were our rescue—the United States Marines coming over the hill in the nick of time—except they weren’t. They were heading for the horizon as fast as their little balloon could take them.

Not that I blamed them. If I’d just lifted off from a navy base in a stolen ship, the last thing I’d want to do would be to stop and chat with the flagship of the whole fleet. They didn’t know what was happening up here. And even if they did they wouldn’t come to the rescue. Sure, I’d busted them out of jail, but we weren’t exactly bosom buddies, were we?

A hissing burst from below snapped me back to the here and now. The airmen were venting gas. We were starting our drop. The only way out of this high-flying bucket of shit we were in was to get some help, and fast. If we could talk the pirates into teaming up with us we had a chance. But how? What I needed was a skelsha so I could fly down to them, or...

I pushed the idea away. Too crazy, even for me. But was it? They were directly below us. Their balloon was bigger than a trailerpark double-wide. Pretty good-sized target. Little fingers of fear started creeping up my neck and choking me. I shook them off. If I was going to do this I’d have to do it so fast my brain wouldn’t be able to catch up with me before it was too late.

I sheathed my sword and looked at Sai and Lhan. “Keep poking the balloon. I’m going for help.”

Sai frowned. “You go to do what?”

Lhan had figured it out. “No, Mistress Jae-En. ’Tis is too dangerous.”

“It’s better than wating to get picked off like a fish in a barrel. See you in a minute.” I turned to the left side of the balloon—the side Kai-La’s ship would be coming out from under—and started running. Sai and Lhan called after me. I ignored them. I had to keep moving.

The marines shouted as I charged toward them, and the archers raised their crossbows. The balloon started to slope down beneath my feet. I kicked off like a cliff diver and leapt over their heads, as flat and far out as I could with crossbow bolts whizzing all around me.

As the curve of the balloon dropped behind me and the whole city of Ormolu spread out below me like a satellite photo, my brain finally caught up with me.

What the
fuck
was I doing?

I was freefalling four thousand feet up without a goddamn parachute, that’s what I was doing. And the crazy part was, I hadn’t been able to see my target before I jumped. The bulk of Kedac’s balloon had been in the way. I’d jumped blind, and now I was fucked.

The pirates had sailed a lot further out than I’d thought. They weren’t below me. It was hard to judge at this height, but they seemed to be twenty or thirty feet beyond my fingertips and the gap was widening. There was nothing between me and the ground but air.

I fought off the impulse to curl up into a ball and scream. I’d been an Airborne Ranger, damn it. I’d trained for this. Chute failure was boot camp basics. I threw my arms and legs out wide and held myself rigid, trying to catch as much wind resistance as possible. The air beat at me like water from a fire hose. It forced my eyes closed and got under my heavy leather armor and made it flap like silk. I slowed up. Not much, but more than I expected. I forgot! I was lighter on this planet. I wasn’t falling as fast. I had maybe fifty seconds instead of forty before I went splat. Hooray.

I could feel the limits of my control like a skateboarder feeling how far she can lean into a turn before her wheels slip. I could even use my arms and legs and big fat ass to steer a little.

I aimed myself as best I could at Kai-La’s stolen ship. It worked. I angled closer. But fast enough? I rode the edge. If I didn’t push hard enough my dive would be too steep and I’d fall short. If I pushed too hard, I’d lose resistance and drop like a stone.

I arched my body like a bow. The gap was closing, but I was falling faster than I was turning. The ship rushed up to fill my vision like a speeding truck, blocking out half the city below it, but I wasn’t coming down on top of it. It was still off left. I could see faces. Faces was bad. That meant I could see under the balloon. I was too far out. I arched further. Reaching out with my hands.

My brain was screaming. I’m going to miss it! I’m going to drop right past!

Suddenly I could see the netting and the seams in the skin in the balloon, zooming-in like I was looking through a telephoto lens. I threw my arms up and tucked. I smashed into the flank of the balloon, elbows first. Fireworks exploded behind my eyes.

If I’d come in straight I would have broken my arms and neck. Luckily, I hit at a shallow angle, so all I got was a major case of rope burn and Excedrin Headache Number 1006. That was the good part. The bad part was that I glanced away again.

What was it my science teacher said? The angle of something or other is equal to the angle of some other shit. In other words I bounced off at the same angle I hit, away from the balloon. The city and the sky whipped across my vision, then something hit me hard in the guts and I folded up like a wet rag over a laundry line. I heard a crack. My ribs? I couldn’t tell. Everything hurt.

I slipped off the hard thing and fell again. Something white flew up in front of my eyes. Something else caught my shoulder. I jerked to a stop. I wasn’t falling anymore, but I didn’t know what was happening either. The pain in my stomach and my shoulder and my head was making me fade in and out like a light on a dimmer switch. Where was I? My whole world was white. It was all I could see. Was I in heaven? I never thought heaven would hurt so much.

The white flapped forward and hit me in the face. It was cloth, heavy and stiff, like canvas. Canvas!

There was a rope under my armpit and a thick spar of wood over my head. The steering sail. I’d hit one of the ship’s steering sails. I was safe.

Safe-ish. An arrow ripped through the sail next to my head and dangled there. Shit! “Don’t shoot! It’s me! It’s Jane! Stop!”

I heard voices below me. “Show yourself.”

I was hung up. I reached up and grabbed the spar. I groaned. Every muscle in my body ached. I pulled up and slipped my other arm free of the rope. The pain almost made me black out. Every joint in my body screamed. I needed a masseuse and a chiropractor, stat.

I inched my way to the balloon, then grabbed the rigging and climbed down. Every move was like getting poked by blunt needles. When I got under the curve of the balloon the whole deck was looking up at me.

Kai-La cracked a smile. “Quite an entrance, lass. You might have joined us in the lock-up and saved yourself some trouble.”

Burly and another pirate helped me down to the deck. My legs buckled under me and I slumped against the rail. “Not here to join you. You gotta join us.”

One of her eyebrows arched. “Join you? What mean you?”

I pointed up. “Help us take that ship.”

Kai-La and the pirates burst out laughing. Kai-La folded her arms. “I may be called the Mad She-Skelsha, but I’m not as mad as all that. That’s Kedac’s flagship, pride of the Oran Navy.”

I shook my head. “It’s not crewed-up. He was going on his honeymoon. Only a squad or two.”

Kai-La chuckled. “Most reassuring. We will defeat Kedac only have the entire Oran Navy after us for the rest of our lives. My apologies, girl, but tempting as it is to teach the blood-thirsty vurlak a lesson, I’m afraid I still decline.”

I waved a hand. “Wait. Listen. Kedac’s gone renegade. Tried to overthrow the Aldhanan. He’s kidnapped Wen-Jhai. We gotta stop him before he raises the whole navy.” Kai-La stared at me. I dropped the other shoe. “You pull this off, you save the country. Probably get a goddamn medal. At least a fat payoff.”

Kai-La and Burly exchanged a glance. Kai-La kneeled beside me. “Is this true?”

I held up three fingers. “Scout’s honor.”

Kai-La looked at Burly again, then crossed to him. They whispered back and forth. I raised my voice. “Hurry it up, will ya? They’ve already started dropping. My pals are gonna get poked full of holes.”

They talked for a second more, then Burly turned and started shouting at the crew. “Drop ballast! Turn about! All hands prepare for boarding!”

Kai-La grinned down at me, as cold as a freon enema. “You had best be telling the truth, Lass.”

I showed her my three fingers again. “Scout’s honor. Scout’s honor.” Then my head flopped back and I closed my eyes.

CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

VENGANCE!

S
omebody was shouting. I opened my eyes. It took a second for my brain to claw through the fog and figure out what was going on. Kai-La. Ship. Lots of pain. Okay. Up to date.

Kai-La’s rat-faced third in command was standing at the rail, dressed in a kir-dhan’s uniform and calling to Kedac’s ship. “Ahoy, the
Triumphant
. Are you in need of assistance?”

I looked around the deck. Half a dozen pirates were also standing around in airmen’s loincloths and officers’ uniforms, but most of them were hiding below the rail, grappling hooks in hand.

Good plan. The pirates had a navy ship. Why not use it to get as close to Kedac as possible before pulling off their false moustaches and shouting “Boo!” Last thing they wanted was to exchange artillery fire with a ship five times their size. Kedac had four huge, telephone-pole-lobbing, super-crossbows running down each side of his ship. We had three total and they were toothpicks compared to the wood Kedac was packing. He’d turn us into sawdust and red paste.

I peeked over the rail. We were fifty feet straight out from Kedac and drifting closer. I looked up, worried, but Sai and Lhan were still poking the balloon with their swords, and the marines were still watching them like coonhounds under a treed possum.

Now we were thirty feet out. A kir-dhan from Kedac’s ship shouted back. “Give the code of the day, kir-dhan!”

Rat-Face put on a puzzled look. “We already gave the code. Did you not hear it?”

Kedac’s kir-dhan started to look suspicious. “Repeat it or come no further.” Kedac stepped to the poopdeck rail, looking at us.

Rat-Face nodded. “Certainly.” He turned to a pirate dressed as an ensign. We kept drifting closer. “Ensign, the code of the day.”

The other pirate saluted and stepped to the rail. “Yes sir, the code of the day.”

Kedac’s kir-dhan was looking back and forth between them. The marines behind him were starting to mutter. They knew something was wrong now. Kedac’s kir-dhan waved his hands. “Back! Stay back.”

Kedac barked from the poopdeck. ““Turn them away, kir-dhan!”

The ensign-pirate grinned. We were in range. “The code of the day is...
attack!
”

Like a squad of jack-in-the-boxes, the pirates popped up from behind the rail. Half of them chucked grapples at Kedac’s ship, the other half shot arrows into the marines. Only a few grapples hit, but they were enough. The pirates hauled on the ropes and the gap between the ships got smaller.

Kedac’s marines started screaming and shouting and running around like crazy, caught off guard. Half of them were still in the rigging, hemming in Sai and Lhan.

Kedac stayed calm though. He called orders from the poopdeck like a waiter reading off his ticket to a cook. “Arbolasts, hole their envelope. Marines, clear those grapples. Crossbowmen, return to deck and fire at will.”

It worked like magic. With orders, Kedac’s crew started moving like clockwork. Marines jumped forward to hack through the ropes. Crossbowmen dropped to the deck and lined up behind the marines. Four details broke off and started prepping the big crossbows, swinging them up at our balloon and cranking back their wrist-thick bowstrings.

The pirates came back with a barrage of arrows, picking off marines and brushing them back from the grapples.

The gun-crews were protected though. The humongous crossbows were so big the pirates couldn’t get a bead on the guys working them. If we could close the gap fast enough, we’d be able to overrun the crews, otherwise we’d be heading south PDQ.