Of Bone and Thunder (42 page)

“Close,” Breeze said. “Somewhere right around here.”

“What's he up to?” Vorly asked, inching away from the crystal sheet beside him.

“It's a she, and I don't know. Whatever it is, it won't be helpful,” Breeze said.

Pagath arrived and took a knee beside Vorly.

“Whatever it takes, get Cytisus flying,” Vorly said, imagining ballistas being cranked around to aim straight for his neck . . . guided by an enemy thaum.
Fuck!

“Keep the slyts at bay and I will,” Pagath said.

Vorly leaned forward and punched the dwarf in the chest above his heart. “Don't do anything stupid like getting yourself killed.”

Pagath nodded and returned the ancient dwarf salutation. Vorly grunted.
Little bastard always has to hit harder.

“You too.” Pagath grinned, flashing his gold teeth. He turned and slid down Carduus's side and vanished in the tall grass.

Vorly watched the rustling grass for a moment. “Other way, Pagath!”

A steel hammer rose from the grass, waved, and then disappeared.

“I think I can find her,” Breeze said.

“What?”

“The enemy thaum. I'm using the same process I used to find Gorlan,” Breeze said.

Vorly turned around in his saddle. “Our eyes already look ghoulish and the last time just about wore you down to nothing.”
Not to mention me.

“She's a lot closer than Gorlan was and I have a better understanding of the process this time. If I can pinpoint her location—”

“Got it,” Vorly said, turning around to check the clearing. The other four rags of the flock were all safely down and shedding their troops. “Hang on.”

Vorly snapped the reins. “Sky, Carduus, sky!”

The rag needed no extra coaxing and immediately pushed himself into the air. Vorly braced as the momentary heavy feeling drove him downward. He was convinced that years of flying had shortened him by a good inch and a half.

Vorly kicked Carduus into a series of quick turns as they climbed. It made for an unpleasant ascent, but it kept any keen-eyed slyt down below from getting a good bead on them.

“Level out at one thousand yards,” Breeze said. “Swing Carduus around the compass north to west and make each circuit wider than the last. Start at two hundred yards and widen by another two hundred on subsequent circuits. I'm going to bring Rathim on plane and use his power.”

Vorly snorted. Girl was getting a bit big for her britches.

Breeze looked up from her crystal. “Watch out for Caedu,” she said, looking past him.

Vorly turned and grabbed the rein back. Caedu was spiraling up in front of Carduus one hundred yards away. “Aw, fuck,” Vorly said, kicking Carduus into a hard bank to starboard. Unlike birds, rags didn't fly in flocks naturally. While they did roost together in the wild, they flew as individuals or in largely spaced groups. They liked their room in the air and got increasingly skittish the closer they flew to one another.

Vorly eased back on Carduus's turn and kept his eyes forward, scanning the sky for the rest of the flock. This turning around to talk was getting old fast.

“A thousand yards, if you please, sir,” Breeze said.

Vorly sighed, looked down at his crystal, and got a bearing on their position.

“A thousand yards, aye.”

“YOU COULD HAVE
got off when we landed,” Jawn said, not bothering to glance at Rickets. Jawn was too busy working his tracing on the crystal. The thaum on board had bowed to Jawn's seniority and vacated the sheet. He now sat a few feet behind Jawn. The look on his face was neutral enough, but he had to be pissed. Jawn would apologize later, maybe.

“What, and miss you in action? Not a chance,” Rickets said.

“Fine, but keep quiet and whatever you do, don't touch me while I'm on plane.”

“I'll be as quiet as a squirrel on the Day of Trees,” Rickets said.

“Hang on!” their driver, Rimsma, shouted. The rag shot skyward, then rolled to its left in a wide, sweeping move. The power of the beast was startling, but Jawn didn't panic as he had on the decrepit cow they'd flown in on. This dragon was raw, youthful power. It plied the air with impossible grace. Admittedly, takeoff and landing weren't nearly as smooth, but even then Jawn trusted in this animal. A desire to harness the rag's power welled in his chest, but he ignored it. Tapping into a dragon's deep inner being was an invitation to insanity and death, not that thaums hadn't tried it in the past. Assisting Breeze in the harmony process with Carduus had been heady enough, and that was barely scratching the surface.

The rag leveled out and its wings took on a rhythmic beat.

“I'm going in an opposite turn to Carduus, a hundred yards farther out,” the driver said. “I'll maintain this course, speed, and height until you say otherwise.”

“Perfect,” Jawn said, not bothering to correct the man. Breeze was calling the shots up here. Yes, he had more power, but she was far more
experienced with the crystal and doing things with it he'd never seen before. It was intoxicating. The urge to plunge deep into the plane infused his body like wine. Arrows and spears streaked the sky with thin, black blurs and somewhere below an enemy thaum was at work, but for all that he was happier than he had been since arriving in the Lux. Now he had to concentrate on echoing Breeze's movements on the crystal and augmenting her patterns.

“Pick up your pace, Black Star, you're creating a gap,” Breeze said, her voice coming over the crystal sheet with a slight background hiss.

“Sorry, Breeze, I'm on it,” Jawn said, increasing the speed of his tracing to keep up with hers.

“Black Star?” Rickets asked.

Jawn grinned but kept his attention on the crystal. “Breeze said my help stood out on the crystal like the flame of a black star.”

The rag lurched to the left, then quickly corrected.

“Sorry!” Rimsma shouted.

“A little warning next time,” Jawn said, unkinking his neck.

“Ballistas don't give you a lot of time.”

Jawn didn't bother to respond. Breeze's fingers were now circling an area on the crystal sheet. He felt the intensity of her focus through his fingers and channeled his process through the plane.

“I think we have her,” Jawn said.

“Let's hope she doesn't pull something like the one in Gremthyn,” Rickets said, his voice noticeably farther away than before.

The stink of charred flesh filled Jawn's nostrils. He shook his head, chasing the nightmare away. If he had anything to say about it, and he did, this thaum would die before she got the chance.

CARNY PLODDED THROUGH
the tall grass, dragging a stumbling and only half-alert Ahmist behind him. The blades of saw grass sliced his exposed skin and the bamboo slapped his body and rattled off his helm. He ducked every time, thinking it was an arrow.

He slashed at the grass and bamboo with his hewer with his free hand,
but it had little effect. The blade either stuck in the bamboo or slid off the grass.

Fuck the Lux.

“I'm lost!”

Carny paused in midswing. That sounded like Wiz. “Wiz! Move toward the jungle!” Carny shouted.

“I can't see it!” Wiz shouted back.

“Turn the fuck around!” Big Hog shouted. “It's the big green thing.”

“It all looks the same.”

“Head for the sun!” Carny shouted, noting it was still low on the horizon.

“Got it!”

Carny went back to hacking with one hand while dragging Ahmist along with the other. He was already sweating, tired, and feeling dizzy. He needed some Flower. Or some of that white powder. That shit had lightning in it.

The grass flattened and Carny was blown off his feet a moment later as a rag took off, the rush of air from the downward force of its wings like invisible hands pressing him to the ground. He curled into a ball as bamboo swayed back and forth with vicious force.

“Keep moving! Head for the jungle edge!” Listowk shouted from somewhere among the grass and bamboo.

Carny climbed back to his feet and then hauled Ahmist up by the collar of his aketon.

“I'm fine,” Ahmist said, shrugging away Carny's grasp. His lower lip stuck out as if he were going to cry. At some point he'd tried to wipe the blood off his face, which now made it look as if huge claws had gouged him.

“Great, you lead,” Carny said, pointing the way forward.

Ahmist pushed past him and stomped his way through the vegetation. Carny followed close behind. The swish of the grass and the crunch of bamboo as the shield moved might as well have been the sound of a herd of brorra, not that the slyts didn't know they were there. Still, Carny felt increasingly exposed despite his inability to see more than a few feet in any direction. It was a relief when he parted the last of the grass and made it to the jungle's edge. He looked down at his bare
arms and winced. He was bleeding from a dozen cuts and bruised all over.

“What took you?” Big Hog asked. He was crouched down a few feet away to Carny's left. He'd already cocked his crossbow and was chewing on a piece of saw grass as if it were soft bread. How he didn't cut his mouth to pieces, Carny had no clue.

More soldiers crashed through the bamboo and arrived near Carny. He spotted Bard, Trunk, Knockers, and the Weasel. He looked again.
Fuck, that's Razchuts.
Weasel's dead.
He reached back to tug his rucksack around and grab some Flower, then remembered everything had spilled out on the rag.

“Fuck.” He looked for Listowk to start getting them in order.

“I see movement in the trees!”

Carny squinted, trying to make out shapes. A crossbow fired. Several more followed, the metallic twang of their bow arms loud in the morning air.

There was no return fire.

Carny pressed himself closer to the ground. “LC?”

No answer.

“I heard him a flicker a go,” Big Hog said, pointing over his shoulder toward the clearing.

“LC? Where are you?” Carny shouted again, spinning around to try to catch a glimpse of Listowk.

“Easy, Carny, I'm here,” Listowk said, stepping out of the clearing with the Wiz in tow. Listowk had already festooned his uniform with leaves and saw grass.

Carny smiled in relief. “Thank the Druid.”

Listowk waved away the thought. “Don't thank Him yet,” Listowk said, looking around. “Red Shield on me!” he shouted, raising his crossbow in the air and waving it.

“Carny, cock your crossbow,” Big Hog said, motioning at Carny's weapon.

“Fuck,” Carny said, sheathing his hewer and unslinging his crossbow. “I completely forgot.”

“All that damn weed you chew,” Big Hog said, chomping happily on his stalk of saw grass. “Rots your brain.”

Carny ignored him and cocked his weapon while keeping an eye on the jungle.

Knockers came up and crouched down beside him. “Carny, where'd the slyts go? Did we scare them off?”

“How the fuck should I know?” Carny said, looking up into the treetops.

“It's just that I—”

“Get down!”

Something large crashed through the canopy of trees twenty yards in front of Carny and blew apart with an ear-piercing crack. There was no smoke or fire, but a moment later a rain of shredded leaves and branches tumbled to the ground.

“What was that? Was that a rag?” the Bard shouted.

“Stay down!” Listowk shouted back. “It wasn't no rag. I think—”

Two more objects plowed into the jungle canopy and disintegrated with the same loud crack. A third one flew over the canopy and struck thirty yards behind the shield in the clearing. Wooden splinters flew into the air, scything down swathes of grass and bamboo.

“High fucking Druid, it's thaumics,” Big Hog said.

“It ain't thaumics!” Listowk said, crawling forward and picking up one of the splinters. Carny did the same. The splinter was warm and smeared with something like pitch, but it hadn't been on fire. It was a good three inches long and sharp at both ends as well as along its length. He grabbed a few more. They were all about the same size.

“Some kind of catapult shot maybe, or a ballista bolt that flies apart when it hits something,” Carny said.

Wraith appeared at his side and leaned in to peer at the splinters in Carny's hand. “I wonder if they're poisoned.”

Carny flung the splinters away and wiped his hand on his thigh.

“Let's go,” Listowk said, standing up and pointing at the jungle. “Wraith, take spear tip. Bard, you back him up. Carny, take Knockers and Ahmist and cover our rear. We'll push through to the rag and set up a perimeter. If we run across any slyts, fire, reload, and keep moving.”

Wraith set off into the jungle, easing through the vegetation like water. Carny kept an eye on the shield as they transitioned from the clearing to the
jungle, every few flicks scanning the clearing. He cradled his crossbow in the crook of his right arm, his finger resting just to the side of the firing lever. A shadow flitted overhead and he ducked, tensing for the loud crack, but none came. He looked up. The rags were circling the area, their wings flapping slowly and easily. From this distance they looked peaceful, gentle even.

“Just us left,” Knockers said, patting Carny on the arm.

Carny turned and motioned with his left hand toward the jungle. “Knockers, then Ahmist. I'll take the rear.”

Knockers nodded, following in the trail of the shield. Ahmist stood still, his crossbow clutched tightly in his hands.

“Ahmist, move,” Carny said, easing himself a couple of feet to the right of the soldier so he could see his face. Ahmist's eyes were closed and his lips were moving. The fucker was praying.

Carny stepped forward and kicked Ahmist in the thigh, propelling him forward. Ahmist turned, his eyes flashing open. Carny glared back.