Wizard's Blood [Part Two] (50 page)

One could argue whether she was lucky. The blow didn’t kill her outright, but the blow knocked her unconscious momentarily and did enough damage that she’d have little chance of survival even if medical attention was immediately available on the ground. As she lost consciousness, her shield dropped away, exposing the aircraft to yet another damaging swarm of the deadly missiles. Still in a bank, the plane began a rapid descent towards the ground. Presa regained consciousness to see the ground coming at her and knew she had only seconds before impact. She raised her shield instinctively, wrapping it around herself as tightly as possible. The plane smashed into the ground, tearing off one wing and sliding across the rocky ground, shedding bits and pieces as it slid. Presa tried to hold on, but lapsed back into unconsciousness as the plane slid to a stop.

Asari was the first one to reach the downed glider, and seeing the unconscious pilot quickly reached into his side pack and pulled out the spring loaded dart. He shot the pilot with the Karonabark and tranquilizer. Maybe the good looking brunette inside was dead, and maybe not, but she was a wizard and why take chances? Jolan arrived a moment later and looked at the pilot, noting the slow movement of the chest. This one was still alive. Knowing it wasn’t doing the pilot any favor, Jolan reached inside and grabbed the hand closest to him. The ring responded as expected, and moments later the head wound had been closed and the ragged breathing returned to normal. She would live, at least until the questioning started.

While the troops pulled the woman from the plane, he looked at the remains of the plane. He was intrigued by the fitting on the underside of the cockpit, and noted the somewhat burned, fire resistant material there. He was getting an idea how this thing might work. He could also see how the wings could be detached relatively easily for transport. He called for help and they pulled off the remaining wing. The men rolled up a wagon and, using the power, he lifted the damaged cockpit and placed in onto the wagon bed, ready for transport.

Directing the men to quickly gather a few remaining pieces he deemed worthwhile, they then turned and headed back away from the river. His spotter had seen signs of the enemy approaching in force. They needed to get back to the main force Wylan had positioned a couple of miles farther inland. They would greatly outnumber the enemy, and if the invaders wanted a fight, there were enough mages here to make a real show of the encounter. Most important, of course, was getting everything back to Cobalo for study.

Making sure Tishe had ridden on ahead with the unconscious pilot, Jolan then turned and hurried after the bounty from today’s work. They’d taken down two of the planes, not just the one they’d hoped for. That would have to cause a great deal of concern back at the airfield, and would gall Cheurt no end when the news reached him.

* * * *

“
Did you learn anything from the wreckage?” Vaen asked Jolan when they met the next day.

“
I know how it works now, but I’m still very surprised they were able to make it happen. They cut corners and took risks, and I’ll bet more than one pilot died during the testing, but in less than a year they managed to modify and jury rig something that worked better than it should have. The original designers of the craft would be appalled if they could see one of these gliders, and the huge reduction in performance that is being accepted, but for Ale’ald, it is an amazing victory. We have to find the rest of the gliders and destroy them. I’d also like to know where they are being built. Did the pilot know anything?”

“
She was quite stubborn, but that only meant her torment was more severe, and everyone will relent eventually. We know where the planes are stored and fly from, although getting in there still presents a number of problems. They had eleven of them by the way, so they’re now down to nine. She implied they get one a month. We know they want to relocate the planes north, we think into Seret. Not the airfield that we’ve seen near the river; somewhere else. We think they want to get within range of Carta. The factories are in Kimlelm, not in Ale’ald. That’s consistent with what we have been thinking and the few bits of intelligence we’ve gathered in the last week. Somewhere in Yermo, the capital. I’ve asked Wylan to have his spies focus on that area more. I suspect we can find out in short order.”

“
I can go after the airport then?”

“
I’d rather it wasn’t you, but suspect it has to be. You know best exactly what to look for, and are willing to use more of the power to make sure the planes and whatever, or whoever, else are destroyed to ensure there will be no more flights from that area. Get with Wylan and make your plan. The Queen has already asked for it to happen. We’ll need to brief her before we act.”

While Jolan, Wylan, and Kavel planned their assault on the airport in Belar, Ale’ald troops made an all out assault on Belth, in northern Seret. It wasn’t an unexpected target, but since all the activity had been confined for the past several weeks to the middle of the country, a certain carelessness had set in, and the defenders were not as ready as they needed to be. Owning both sides of a large stretch of the river allowed Ale’ald to launch a large number of the rafts for a second time without earning undue attention. The launches were made in the early evening, and for a long distance the rafts stayed close to the Kimlelm shores. Once they had traveled far enough down river, relying on the current to carry them silently in the dark of the evening past the few places where the defending forces might have noticed them, the men on board started paddling to transfer across the river to Seret.

Additional forces were positioned north of the city in an area that was somewhat mountainous and hilly, where it wasn’t thought likely to expect an attack. These forces were brought across the open bay from the Kimlelm side where Ale’ald had a number of ships waiting in the harbor city of Einau.

The forces continued to build and form into attack teams through most of the early part of the night. Dawn was still several hours away when the gliders made their first silent runs across the water from the temporary base that had been established in Kimlelm. The attacks were well planned and the targets clearly thought out in advance. The Ale’ald planners had been well informed. They knew where the defending troops quartered, and exactly where the headquarters were located.

Unlike many of the attacks made up river, five planes crossed the river at the same time this night, and the deadly load they carried all dropped within minutes on the first group of targets. Two thirds of the defending soldiers were killed in the initial wave of attacks, and the fact that the gas was non specific and drifted over wide areas of the civilian population didn’t seem to matter to the attackers. More than twenty percent of the civilian population died or were seriously sickened by the attacks. Panic resulted.

Those defenders that hadn’t been killed or sickened were hindered by the number of their compatriots who were dead or dying. Most were far from prepared to be rudely awakened and rush immediately into defense of the city. Besides, for the moment there was no one to defend against. By the time the surviving troops had somewhat organized, the second wave of attacks began from the air. The mages available to help protect the men were far too few. The ranks of the mages had been quietly reduced the past few weeks as the need for their abilities drew the best of them back into the areas that were actively being contested upriver. Many more soldiers and civilians died, and some fled. By the time the second wave was finished, Belth’s military was down to about a tenth of its nominal strength.

Thirty minutes after the planes had departed and the winds had cleared away the remaining gases, the troops that had landed earlier started their attacks. They took the river port defenders first. Once the port was theirs, landing additional troops from the sea was straightforward. Ale’ald had dedicated virtually the entirety of its remaining fleet to the task.

Then the Ale’ald soldiers moved inland. The defending army was far too small now to put up a reasonable defense. The city fell quickly. Two companies of the attackers headed directly to the regional headquarters. There they killed or captured all of the military leaders for the area. Fortunately none of them knew anything about the portal system and very little about the covert activities that Wylan had running. That important secret remained safe for the moment. The secret communications gear was destroyed at the last minute when it was clear the facility was destined to fall into enemy hands.

By the time dawn began to break, the city was owned by Ale’ald. Those civilians who had managed to sleep through the night woke to find themselves in the same condition as the civilian population of Kimlelm. They were now prisoners of war. They would be expected to do exactly as told, or they would be summarily executed. Their function would be to support the invading troops and to supply a labor force for Ale’ald. The use of prisoner labor had freed up tens of thousands of Ale’ald citizens to fight the war. A few were required to watch over the slaves, but the advantages were significant.

Word reached the central command in Carta before dawn, and as the day progressed it became clear that the country had to rethink its distribution of forces. Carta was now at risk of attack. If the enemy could hold onto Belth, which seemed likely in the near term, they could establish an airport, land troops and supplies, and have a direct weeklong march to the capital city. In addition, Ale’ald now controlled over half of the river border between Seret and Kimlelm. It was starting to look like nothing would be able to stop the enemy advance.

“
When do you want to make this attempt?” Vaen asked.

Jolan was surprised she would bring the matter up with Nerila present, but he trusted her implicitly, and if Vaen wanted to talk about the mission while she was here, that was her prerogative. They had discussed the mission the previous afternoon with Wylan and Kavel, and tentatively set the schedule for the next evening. The loss of Belth had been a shock. Wylan had been distressed and blamed the failure on himself, whereas the decisions that had been made had been endorsed, and in some cases insisted on by the Queen. The largest concern had been the accuracy with which the enemy had targeted their points of attack. They either had more spies running free in Seret than was previously suspected, or they had an inside source of information. None of them wanted to think about the fact that, had they taken out the warehouses filled with rafts when they’d first found them, the attack might not have been possible. Now it was imperative they take the initiative and go after the remaining supplies of the craft and as many of the planes as possible.

“
No change in the schedule seems warranted,” Jolan replied. “We’ll go in after dark tomorrow. There is a portal we’ve mapped less than two miles from the woods, and Kavel’s agents have chosen where we’ll make our entry.”

“
There’s no portal inside of the town?”

“
There probably are, but we don’t know. That’s one of the mixed blessings about this part of Kimlelm. It must have been really popular for some reason a thousand years ago. There are so many portals, the maps don’t attempt to show them all. What maps we have don’t help very much. Nerila will tell you the maps that locate the portals reflect conditions before the War of Mages. Too much has changed. Even the terrain is often different. The old language doesn’t always help either. Names are often vague or refer to something that had meaning then, but the reference is lost to us now. The only way we can be sure where one of the portals is requires making a jump to see where we end up. That often means scouting around a bit to determine exactly where we are located. Not only does that greatly increase the risk when running around in Kimlelm, but it takes time. Time is something we haven’t got. If we wait too long, the planes might not even be there.”

“
Where would they go?”

“
Good question, but they had some located not too far from Belth. From what our agents tell us, that was a temporary location for the move on Belth. They really want the planes located in Seret. Since there haven’t been any flights for a couple of days, we are hoping they have been moved back there. I’m afraid that will change once Ale’ald gets its forces settled into Belth. It doesn’t look like we are ready to push them out at the moment.”

Vaen nodded then said. “You mentioned popping out and looking around. Nerila is here with something that Altz uncovered. I think it might be helpful to you.”

Nerila smiled. She looked good and, unless she was eating too well, she was a couple of months along. She and Rifod must be getting some time together.

“
Remember when we found the tunnel to the Nexus it had the mini-portals that allowed you to see what was at the other end of the jump?”

Jolan had no trouble recalling the scene. At first they hadn’t been sure since the Nexus room was dark and the portal near the entrance had been dark. “Don’t tell me you’ve found something like that for all the portals?”

She smiled and nodded eagerly. “It’s a maintenance mode function. It would be difficult for the portal to display something under normal operating conditions because many destinations are possible. But if a portal is set to maintenance, and a single location is chosen, then it is possible to put the system into a viewing mode, one-way or two-way, so you can see what’s on the other side just as we did in Tilano.”

“
You’ve tried this?”

“
Of course. It works really well.”

“
So we could set it up and actually spy on the far end through the portals. Someone on the other end wouldn’t even know the portal was active unless they knew what to look for.”