Of Bone and Thunder (34 page)

“Breeze, do you see that?”

“What?” she asked.

Vorly hesitated, not wanting to sound like a desperate fool.
Aw, hell
, he thought, realizing it was too late for that. “I saw something on the sheet. If I look straight at it I don't see anything, but when I turn my head I see a thin line.”

“What quadrant?” Breeze asked.

“Upper left,” Vorly said, turning his head and trying to keep the faint line in sight.

“I'm not sure—yes! I see it. It's very weak. It could be what we call a ghost on the plane. Random energy. Or possibly an enemy thaum. I can't tell.”

Vorly turned around, ignoring the twinge in his neck. They had to come up with a better system or he'd cripple himself. “But it could be Sky Horse Four. Can you talk to it?”

Breeze kept her head down, staring at her crystal. “It's too weak to sustain a connection.”

Vorly's hope crashed. “No way at all?”

“Even if it is them it would be impossible to hold a conversation.”

“Then that's it,” Vorly said, accepting that they'd run out of options.

“Perhaps not,” Breeze said, looking up to acknowledge him before returning her focus to the sheet. Her hands glided across the sheet as she talked. “The crystals were crafted to allow communication. Because the communication has to begin from a point in aether and time that means it's theoretically possible to locate the position of the other talker.” She looked up again. “But no one has done it. Not really.”

“Good enough,” Vorly said. “Do it.”

“If I try and fail—”

“You won't chark us. You're too damn smart to make that kind of mistake, you have too much pride to fail, and I'm stable . . . more or less.”

Breeze stared at him for a long time. “There are risks,” she finally said.

Vorly shrugged, looking around them. “Risky is where we start every morning. Breeze, you can do this. You can locate that signal.”

“All right. Stay calm and just keep flying. Whatever happens, stay calm.”

Vorly nodded.

Breeze closed her eyes and began whispering to herself. When she opened her eyes again, Vorly was shuddering.

“I didn't mean to scare you,” she said.

“Your eyes are blood-red! All red. What happened?”

“It's normal,” Breeze said, blinking. A bloody tear traced a red smear down her cheek.

“What in blazes is not normal? Wait, forget I asked.”

“I'm not a monster,” Breeze said.

Vorly was learning to recognize quicksand when he stepped in it. “High Druid preserve me! I know you're not a monster. Now, Carduus here, he's a monster. Full-grown men see him and shit their britches. First time I rode a rag, I nearly passed out. No one can say that about you.”

“True,” Breeze said, “but then none have ridden me.”

Vorly's entire body broke out into a sweat. He was certain his cheeks were on fire. “That's not—I mean . . . what I meant to say—”

Breeze smiled at him. It looked forced, but he was glad of it all the same. If she'd started crying he would have been lost. “Please fly Carduus in as perfect a circle as possible. Keep him level and flying at a constant speed.”

“Height?”

“This is fine.”

Vorly turned around. “So what happens now?” he asked.

“A few moments of silence I hope,” Breeze said, her voice deepening as she spoke.

Vorly glanced down at the sheet. A bright blue line shaped like the toothed edge of a saw blade crawled outward from the center of the sheet in an ever-widening spiral. Vorly looked away and focused on flying. He
could tolerate thaumics as part of flying, grudgingly, but looking at Breeze's process prickled his skin.

“Nice and smooth, Carduus, FPS all the way,” he whispered to the beast.

They flew on in silence. Vorly thanked the Druid that it was a clear night with a half-moon. Even then he could barely make out the horizon. At this point their only safe option was to stay aloft all night until the dawn returned. Landing in this darkness would be little different than flying straight into a mountain.

A single point of light flickered from the sheet. Vorly ignored it. The light continued pulsing. He turned his head to the left to put the sheet out of eyesight. After a few moments he looked forward again. The flickering light was still there.

Vorly bent over the sheet, peering intently at the light. A drop of blood landed on the sheet with a crack, disintegrating into minute bits that were instantly carried away by the wind. He reached up to his face and put a finger to his eye. When he pulled it away, he saw blood glistening on his glove.

“Breeze?”

“Wait.”

Vorly shivered. A bitter cold pumped out from the sheet. His breath misted in front of him despite the day's heat still hanging thick in the air.

“High Druid preserve me,” he muttered. Vorly turned to see how Breeze was doing. She was struggling to stay upright.

“Are you all right?”

She lifted her head and smiled at him. He didn't wince when he looked into her bloody eyes, and her smile grew bigger. “I'm good,” she said. She made an effort to sit up straight and pushed her shoulders back. “I should tell you . . . your eyes . . .”

Vorly pointed to his eyes and shrugged. “It's normal. I'm not a monster, you know.”

Breeze held up a hand. “I have something to the north!”

Vorly snapped the reins. Carduus's wing tempo increased as the rushing wind whistled in Vorly's ears. “Find my crew, Breeze!”

“Aye, sir!” Breeze shouted back.

“Sky Horse Four, this is Sky Horse Leader. You there, Hawk?” Vorly
stared at the crystal, willing it to come alive. He reached out and tapped it a few times.

“Please don't do that, sir,” Breeze said, her fingertips dancing across the sheet.

Vorly grunted and tapped the screen again. The invisible needles continued to drill into his flesh, but his emotions, especially his hope coupled with a pulsing anger, numbed the sensation.

This time something hard hit him square between the shoulder blades. Vorly turned. Breeze held her helmet in her left hand and was readying to hit him again.

“Fine, damn it, I just thought I could help,” he said, rolling and stretching his back. “That little light got really bright before it disappeared. That means they're here, right?”

“I think so, but it's difficult to tell,” Breeze said. “The thaumic processes for the sheets were designed for communication. They weren't designed to find someone. I'm winging this.”

Vorly pulled hard on the left rein, banking Carduus into a steep turn. As the world slid underneath them Vorly stared down at the jungle, trying to see something, anything, that would indicate Sky Horse Four was down there.

The sound of gagging was followed a moment later by Breeze vomiting. Vorly eased Carduus back to level flight. They'd been flying since dawn. His legs ached, his eyes stung, and the kink in his neck was threatening to freeze his head in place. “Sorry. Damn it, I should have warned you. You all right?”

“I'm fine,” Breeze said. “The turn caught me off guard.”

Remembering he was no longer alone up here wasn't coming easily to Vorly. It wouldn't do him any good to make his RAT so ill she couldn't work her crystal. Whenever he turned around she always had her head down, deep in concentration as she manipulated the lines on the crystal sheet. As a result, every turn caught her by surprise. Vorly started to ask her to make a voice note about seeing if there was a way to address that but decided instead he'd remember that himself.

“I'll try to give you some warning, but it won't always be possible,” he said. “I'm just not used—”

“There! It's them!” Breeze said, cutting him off.

A bright flash on the sheet appeared at the same moment. Vorly looked down to the jungle below. All he could see was a thick black mat. “Where?”

“I . . . we just flew over them. Turn around, now!”

Vorly began easing Carduus into the turn. With just a half-moon he had little reference point on the ground to focus on.

“No, hard, damn it! I need to be on the exact same path,” Breeze said. “I can't do this for much longer . . .”

“Hang on!” Vorly shouted, pulling back on the right rein and spurring Carduus into a steeper turn. The rag growled but complied. Vorly leaned against the turn, his back nearly touching Carduus's as the rag wheeled around until he was flying on his side parallel to the ground. It wasn't the smartest maneuver at only three hundred yards above the jungle. Vorly trusted in Carduus's youth and power to bring them around, knowing that every candle flicker they flew on their side they lost precious height.

Vorly grunted as the familiar heaviness blanketed his limbs. It felt like soft iron sheets being wrapped around his body. The edges of his vision blurred. Recognizing the danger signs, he eased Carduus out of the banking turn, trusting that they'd swung around and were now flying back along the same track as before.

“Well?” Vorly asked when he'd cleared his head.

“A moment . . . ,” Breeze said, her voice straining with effort.

He looked down at his sheet. The faint blue line had returned. Breeze appeared to be chasing it, attempting to box it in with the tracings left by her fingertips. Unlike before, her lines were shaky and having a difficult time encircling the light.

Vorly picked up the iron gaff and gave Carduus a double tap. “Call, Carduus, call to Cytisus.”

Carduus ignored him. Vorly knew the rag was tired, hungry, annoyed, and maybe even a little scared as they continued flying in the dark, but that was too damn bad. Vorly raised the gaff and tapped Carduus again, harder. “Call your brother, Carduus.”

Carduus twisted his head to the right and fixed Vorly with his eye. He arched the side of his muzzle to reveal the interlocking rows of his teeth.

“Don't you give me that look,” Vorly said, thumping Carduus once
more with the gaff. “Call, damn you, call!” Vorly shouted, slamming the gaff with all his remaining strength against Carduus's scales.

A high-pitched whistling erupted from either side of Carduus's massive chest as his entire body began to vibrate. An eerie red light spread out from either side of him just forward of his wing joints, illuminating the undersides of his wings.

“What's that?” Breeze screamed.

“Thunder and fucking lightning!” Vorly shouted, realizing his mistake and knowing it was too late to do anything about it. Carduus was angry, and Vorly had given him permission to vent. “Dumb bastard opened his air gills! Cover your head and hold your breath!”

“What's happening?” Breeze shouted.

“Get down, girl! He's going to fire!” Vorly dove forward and curled himself up as best he could, remembering at the last moment to pull the collar of his jacket up to cover the back of his neck.

Carduus's wings gained speed with each beat. Every upstroke was followed by an increase in the howling shriek emanating from his open air gills. The thrum of the air racing inside the rag set up a rumbling vibration as the air funneled into his chest and the raging furnace that burned there.

“He's heating up!” Breeze shouted.

“Just hang on!” Vorly shouted back, doing his best to shield his face with his arms from the blistering heat rising up from Carduus.

“The crystal sheets!”

Vorly lifted his head. The ends of the birch stand where they rested on Carduus were smoldering and the copper braid was changing color. A few months ago he would have been ecstatic to see the crystals destroyed. Now he prayed for their survival.

“Forget them! Cover up and stay down!” Vorly shouted over his shoulder before ducking his head again.

He gritted his teeth as the heat from Carduus continued to rise. Like a fool he hadn't bothered with the insulating blankets with their wet clay protection before their flight this morning. They were a massive chore to strap on and then take off again, especially when there was no expectation your rag would fire.

“Damn, damn, damn, damn, da—”

Carduus opened his maw. The added influx of air rushing down the rag's throat shook Vorly's saddle like a leaf in a storm.

The red glow around Carduus brightened, turning cherry and then pink. Vorly counted it as a blessing that Carduus wasn't yet a mature bull capable of generating white heat. Still, heat was heat, and Vorly gave voice to one long obscenity as the plume of fire roared up Carduus's throat and painted the sky fiery orange. Even with his eyes closed and his arms over his head, flashes of light danced in front of Vorly's eyes. The burning wind seared the tops of his ears and his curse turned into a racking cough as an acrid metallic and sulfur fume engulfed him.

Breeze screamed behind him. Tongues of flame whipped past Vorly, blown back by the wind as Carduus continued flying. Vorly sucked in a lungful of hot air and started choking. Each swallow ignited an ember of fiery pain. Tears welled up in his eyes. Even though his voice was now little more than a rasp, he kept trying to shout.

“—fucking stupid idiot! —awn of the Druidless fucking—”

Vorly continued cursing several flicks after Carduus had stopped firing. Vorly gingerly lifted his head and pushed himself into a sitting position. The heat hurt his hands through the palms of his gloves. Flames danced along the birch frame of the crystal sheet. He quickly reached out to pat out the flames. Then stopped. The copper braid had partially melted. Throwing caution to the wind, he swatted at the small fire. The sheet looked intact, but it was dark.

He turned around to see how Breeze had fared.

The frame of her crystal sheet was smoldering and charred, but the copper braid looked in much better shape than his. She was still curled up with her hands covering her ears. Wisps of smoke trailed from her clothing and he saw Jate again. Pushing that horror down, he twisted around in his saddle as far as he could and reached back, putting his hand on her head.