Windcatcher: Book I of the Stone War Chronicles (49 page)

“We saw one, yesterday,” said Sebastian. “It was…surreal.”

“There are two types in the harbor. The big ones that carry a full force of soldiers and the smaller ones that run with a much smaller crew. I would think they’d use it for scouting, they’re quite fast in the air. Those would be your best bet, if you’d ask me.”

“Best bet on what?” said Sebastian.

“To get out of here, of course, you idiot. I’ll be damned if I don’t help my friend escape from these damned lands.”

“How do you know all this?” asked Raylan.

Marek touched the ring around his neck and grinned.

“It’s a burden, but it does have its advantages. You’d be surprised what you can pick up, just by being close to things.”

For someone who was just beaten up and has lived years in slavery, Raylan was surprised at how optimistically Marek could still look at the world.

“But even if we could take over one of the small airships…or windships, overpower its crew, we’d have no idea how to fly it,” remarked Sebastian.

“I know how…but that means…you’ll have to help me first…I want to come with you. Please, can you get me out of here…?”

Marek looked from Sebastian to Raylan and back.

“Are you sure you know how to fly it?” asked Raylan.

“Positive!”

Raylan looked at Sebastian, who read the question on his face. He returned it with a slow nod. Sebastian was certain Marek could be trusted.

“Okay, how many guards are there, inside? If we’re going to do this, we need to know as much as possible. Are they large or skinny? Do they have swords? Axes? Where will they likely be in the building? Who carries the keys? With just the two of us, we’ll need to use our speed to make this work.”

“There’s a minimum of three guards, at all times, and there are usually two in front of the building near the main entrance. They all have swords, but they leave them near the entrance and handle the prisoners with small iron rods. Those will likely be on their belts. The keys should be on the highest ranking soldier in the building. It should be the biggest one……I heard the key jingle when he kicked me…”

“How many rooms?”

“All the guards should be in the main room. There are ten cells on this row, five each side, but it’s another ten on the other side. So, after you enter turn left…mine is the third cell.”

Raylan ran over the information in his head, quickly.

“Alright, we’ll try and get you out, but you’ll have to wait. Stay quiet, rest up and let them ignore you. We’ll have to wait until our friend creates a distraction.”

“When’ll that be?” asked Marek, nervously.

Raylan saw that Marek’s face already started to swell on those places where the soldiers had hit him.

“Not for a while, just be ready when we come for you,” said Raylan. “We need to go. If we stay here, we’ll draw attention to ourselves. Let’s keep moving and explore as much as possible.”

“We’ll be back…I promise,” said Sebastian to Marek, who looked doubtfully as his old friend disappeared from view.

As they walked on, away from the slave cells, both of them took in as much of the details as possible. A number of the large airships were close by, being loaded up with the stones Galirras had seen from the air. Further down, they saw the ghol’ms being put on larger transport boats, to be moved to the various ships in the bay. There, they were loaded into the cargo hold, by a system of pulleys. Some of them were redirected to the airships, too.

They dumped the packs they had carried, so far, and grabbed a cart with stones, pushing it toward the end of harbor, where the smaller airships were located.

The ships were put on a wooden structure apparently made to fit the form of the ship’s hull. The design was similar to the bigger version they had seen above the caravel, but only had one of the large bladed wheels behind it to push itself forward. The cabin on deck was less elegant, too, although it did look like the hull had space for quite a bit of cargo.

Pushing the cart with stones near a few other similar carts, they walked around the small ship. The balloon hung flat to the side. He saw the long cloths, used to protect the balloon from arrows, spread along the side of it. Now that they were so close, Raylan saw some sort of pipe, running upward from the deck. The balloon was at the end of it, tied with a number of complicated rope constructions and metal rings. The side of the ship’s hull had a large kind of cargo door, which was currently open for loading. It did not seem to have any of the small hatches on the side, like the other ship had, just a number of smaller view ports.

They moved from spot to spot, avoiding contact as much as possible. If spoken to, Sebastian quickly answered with a general term. He spoke in short sentences to limit any chance of them recognizing any foreign accent. At times, they moved away from the water; at other moments, they walked the shore purposely. The night slowly progressed as the moon reached its highest point and then started his decline. They saw soldiers seek out places to lie down to rest, so they decided to do the same. Sitting against a few crates near the water, they rested and bided their time. Slowly but surely, the moment of action approached.

Raylan noticed that the disguise the armor gave him was actually giving him a certain safe feeling. From afar, no one would recognize them as any different from the Doskovian soldiers. Of course the ruse would never hold up against any direct, in-depth questioning. But as they sat there against the crates, looking at all the people go by, their armor felt like the safest place in the world, hiding amongst the masses.

Slowly but surely, their exhaustion seeped in. Their legs heavy from walking, their eyes fought to stay open. Eventually the world faded to a deep black, peaceful place as the harbor’s sounds blended into a monotonous noise that guided them to sleep.

Raylan jerked straight up. The sharp pain of a metal boot hitting his thigh woke him up quicker than a dog’s jaw stealing a sausage. Looking up, five soldiers stared at him and Sebastian, who from the looks of it, received the same gentle wake-up call. He did not see any light in the sky yet, but he was sure it could not be much longer, gauging how the moon moved closer to the ocean waters in the west.

We must have dozed off!

The closest soldier shouted at them. It took a moment for Raylan to remember he was not speaking Terran, as he tried his best to make sense of the jumble of words. Sebastian was already at that point and tried to answer in his best Kovian possible.

Unfortunately, the soldier did not seem satisfied by Sebastian answering for Raylan. He took a step toward Raylan, asking another question, directed at him.

Raylan could not understand, let alone answer. He felt his muscles tense, reacting to the danger. Slowly, his left hand checked for his sword. The soldier noticed, immediately, and put his own hand on his dagger. He shouted another question, or perhaps a command, Raylan had no way of knowing. This was getting ugly, really fast.

Raylan slid his foot forward, adjusting his body’s position to have his side closest to the enemy. The less area to hit, the better. He checked, in the corner of his eye, to see if Sebastian was ready. He knew Sebastian was only a self-trained fighter, the difference between them would probably be quite big. He had to try and take down as many as possible, right away, and keep the enemy focused on him so Sebastian would be put less on the defense. He would have to be quick……

Raylan shifted his foot to launch his attack, when he felt a familiar tingle enter his head.

“
I am going to get started!
”

As Galirras dark shadow glided overhead, following the harbor waters to the south, he let out a large deep roar directly above Raylan and Sebastian. It was so loud, even Sebastian and Raylan flinched from the surprise, for a second.

“
That was some roar! Have you been holding back all this time?
” replied Raylan, privately. “
Go get them!
”

The five soldiers in front of them completely forgot their inquisition as they looked at the sky in shocked surprise. Galirras’ dark shape shimmered in the light of many torches. His wingspan was an impressive width at forty feet already. He let out another roar, announcing his arrival, before using his front claws to topple over a large pile of crates. As they crashed heavily to the ground, the weapons inside tumbled all over the ground making even more noise.

Trumpeting in a job well done, Galirras flew on to the south side of the harbor. Picking up crates and slamming them into people and wagons…cutting a rope to the sails of a ship…Galirras left a trail of chaos for the soldiers to follow.

By now, the alarm was going off, following Galirras’ movement. The five soldiers in front of Raylan and Sebastian sped off without giving them a second glance. It looked like they were all taking the bait.

“Come on! We need to get Marek, first,” said Raylan. And, without a moment’s delay, they ran straight for the slave cells.

Corza woke to the sound of thunder. Or at least that was his first thought. A deep sound rolled across the sky. He lifted his head, groggy from the little sleep he got. The invasion planning kept him up most of the night. It was too bad sea travel normally did not fare well with him, or he would have skipped the night and slept on one of the ships. But he knew the travel would not be comfortable for him, so he had reluctantly headed for his room, late last night, after most of the details were taken care of.

When shouting and yelling followed the sound of thunder, the feeling that something was out of order crept up to him. The harbor was never quiet, but things sounded more out of control than usual. He grabbed his armor and quickly put it on. Just tugging on the last strap, a pair of hurried footsteps was heard running down the hall, followed by a quick and loud knock.

“Sir? Are you awake?”

“I am. Come on in, already. What’s with all the ruckus?”

“The dragon…the one we’ve been hunting. It’s here!”

“What do you mean, it’s here?”

“I mean here! In the harbor! It flew into the harbor and started trashing things. It is currently on the south side, attacking one of the ships.”

Corza had little time to process it all, as he heard another loud crash, coming from outside. He looked out of his window, which looked out toward the south. He saw the glow of fire, rising up from behind some of the buildings. Soldiers ran back and forth, some toward the fire, others toward the presumed location of the attacking creature.

Wasting no more time, Corza ran downstairs. The sounds of chaos increased, as he came closer to the final door. Only to explode with intensity, when he threw it open and stepped outside into the night. People shouted everywhere. Soldiers ran with buckets, forming a line from the water to the fire. Guards moved in small squads toward the south side of the harbor.

Corza saw a shadow move across the water. It never stayed still for long, if at all. Suddenly, the shadow came straight toward him, growing in size as it drew closer. At the last moment, it adjusted its flight, bending off to the right, releasing a crate which crashed heavily into the roof of one of the buildings across the street from Corza.

For only a brief moment, Corza saw the dragon in the shimmering of the torches. He marveled under the sight of it.

Yes. You’ll be mine. What a marvelous and destructive creature you are!

“You,” said Corza to the soldier who had come to get him, “go get the netting squads and have them meet me at the southern entrance. Get the crossbows squads up on the roof, but only fire nonlethal shots. You hear me? The person that kills that dragon, I will flog to death myself! I want it captured alive.”

The soldier sped off with his orders. Besides the door, two guards waited for their general.

“Follow me and try to keep up,” said Corza, as he marched off toward the south end of the harbor.

“Captain…Dreck…has Captain Sellock checked in, yet?” said Corza, after looking over his shoulder to see who he was speaking to.

“No, sir. Nothing has come in, yet,” answered the captain.

“Well, send out a rider to retrieve his party from the northern coastline…and send orders to Colonel Mercar to launch the Firestorm. I want this dragon hunted on his own turf, as well as from the ground. Make sure he has some steel nets before taking off.”

Corza had ordered the creation of the nets, after it became clear the dragon formed a real threat to any soldier trying to attack it, head on. They were made of thin steel mesh, specifically designed to weigh down the animal and restrict its movements.

As Corza arrived at the water, he saw the crew of one ship fighting a fire on deck, while another two boats had their ropes cut, trapping the men under a large fold of the heavy mainsail. Corza surveyed the bay. Something was off. He could not pinpoint it yet, but the spectacle seemed off, in a way.

“Where are the soldiers accompanying the dragon? They would not leave such a valuable asset unprotected,” he said, to himself.

“Sorry, sir. What?” said the soldier at his side.

Ignoring him, Corza said again, “The enemy soldiers. Where are they? And why isn’t it attacking any of the other ships?”