05 Dragon Blood: The Blade's Memory (29 page)

“You’re all right,” Kaika said. “For a witch.”

Sardelle resisted the urge to correct the word. “Thank you.”

Aw, you made a friend.

Too bad I lost another one.

You didn’t know Apex that well,
Jaxi said.

I was thinking of Cas, because I’m not sure she’ll be able to get over what she did and to work around Ridge again or to look me in the eye.
Sardelle wondered how Cas’s relationship with Tolemek would be affected. He could probably understand the idea of unforeseen consequences due to the tools one chose to wield, but Cas might not realize that.
I’m upset over Apex’s loss, too, especially since it will hurt Ridge.

Cas isn’t lost, especially if she left Kasandral behind. I do wonder if we should have taken him and thrown him into the deepest part of the harbor.

I got a welt just from touching the scabbard.
Sardelle rubbed her finger at the memory. Earlier in the night, she had done her best to heal the cut she had received in the fight, but she had a feeling there would always be a scar there that no amount of magic could heal.

True. Just so long as that Therrik doesn’t end up with it again.

That would be fine if he put it in storage, or the family crypt, wherever it was he got it.

Maybe more of the castle will collapse before people can dig it out, and it will simply be left under a few tons of stone for all of eternity.
Jaxi beamed contentedly.

I’m not sure we should pray for the further devastation of a one-thousand-year-old building that’s on the historic register.

I wasn’t praying, just smiling as I contemplated Kasandral’s entombment.

Dawn brought them to the house, where they were welcomed by a rooster crowing in the yard across the street and a foul-smelling bluish smoke wafting from the chimney.

“Tolemek must be at work already,” Sardelle said.

“Does he ever sleep?” Kaika stifled a yawn of her own.

“I don’t—”

A shriek came from within the house. Sardelle nearly fell off her horse. It had been a woman’s voice, not Tolemek’s.

“Who is
that
?” she asked, stretching out with her senses.

“Mrs. Zirkander?” Kaika guessed.

“She’s supposed to be staying with a relative,” Sardelle said, even though she had already identified the people inside the house. Tolemek, Duck, and Ridge’s mom, along with at least a dozen cats, the caged birds, and some other small creatures that had not occupied the house previously. What had happened? Tolemek couldn’t have been here for more than a few hours.

“Does she know that?” Kaika dismounted, then waved for Sardelle to hand down her reins. “Go check. I’ll take care of the horses.”

“You’re either being generous, or you don’t want to deal with Ridge’s screaming mother.”

“You’re perceptive, as well as serene.” Kaika gave her a lazy salute and led the horses around to the back of the house.

Another shriek pierced the early morning quiet as Sardelle opened the front door and peeked inside.

“There are snakes everywhere,” Fern cried.

She was spinning around the living room, one hand over her mouth and one pointing. Several new cages and terrariums had been added to the collection of living creatures inhabiting the cottage. They housed snakes, giant spiders, and a venomous lizard Sardelle thought she recognized from Tolemek’s lab. At the least, one like it had occupied a terrarium the time she had visited.

Poor Duck stood in front of Fern, patting the air in a placating manner, a placating manner that clearly wasn’t placating.

“There are snakes in my house, young man. Snakes. And spiders. Poisonous spiders!”

Sardelle thought about pointing out that venomous was the more accurate adjective, but decided that would do little to calm the woman. Where was Tolemek, anyway? Hiding somewhere and leaving Duck to deal with Fern’s wrath?

“Yes, ma’am,” Duck said. “I know. I helped carry them in.”

“You
helped
?” Fern gaped at him.

“It’s just temporary, Mrs. Zirkander,” he said. “Until Tolemek can find a real lab again. Uhm, the colonel said you wouldn’t be back for a while…”

“I came to check on the cats. And to make my son food. But there’s that man, that strange man with all the hair, in my kitchen.” She flung her hand toward the door. “And the
smells
he’s making in there! Those fumes will kill my birds.” This time, she flung her hand toward the cages in the rafters.

Sardelle crept in, following the wall toward the kitchen. Maybe it was cowardly, but she thought she might leave the explaining to Duck and check on Tolemek. Fern spotted her.

“Sardelle.” She rushed over and intercepted her.

“Yes?” Sardelle asked. After the night she’d had, she did not want to be interrogated about spiders, but she forced a smile.

“You look tired.” Fern clasped her hands, then wrinkled her nose. “And you smell of smoke.”

“That’s what she gets for traveling with Captain Kaika.” Duck smiled, but raised his brows in a question when he met Sardelle’s eyes.

“I’ll explain soon.” Sardelle knew someone would have to share the details as to what had happened, and that it was either up to her or Kaika, but she couldn’t bring herself to blurt out that Apex had died. She needed to sit down first and brace herself with coffee, since she felt like doing nothing except sleeping after being up all night again.

Duck’s expression grew worried, but he did not question her further.

Now you’ve got him thinking something happened to Ridge and that you don’t want to share it in front of his mom.

I’ll explain soon
, Sardelle promised.

“Please, you can use my bathtub to wash up. So long as there aren’t snakes in it.” Fern curled a lip toward a terrarium as she wrapped a sinewy arm around Sardelle’s waist. “Come, this way. I’ll heat some water for you and make tea. Or do you prefer coffee?”

“I—ah.” Emotion thickened in Sardelle’s throat, surprising her and making it difficult to get more words out. It had been so long since someone had mothered her, and she hadn’t realized how much she had missed it until Fern’s solicitous arm came around her. With a pang of longing, she realized she wanted this, wanted to be welcomed by someone, to be part of a family again.

“Nobody offered me coffee,” Duck said as Fern steered Sardelle toward the kitchen. “I was
shot
, remember?” Duck clutched his shoulder, though neither of his wounds seemed to be bothering him anymore. That reminded Sardelle that she needed to attend to Kaika’s injuries before falling asleep. Kaika was so stoic that one could easily forget she
had
injuries.

As Fern pushed open the kitchen door, she pointed back at Duck. “You move those snakes and spiders out to the shed in the yard, and I’ll bring you coffee and apple bread.”

“Oh?” Duck brightened. “A lot of apple bread?”

“I brought the ingredients over to make several pans. Ridge forgets to eat, so I have to fatten him up when he’s here. A woman likes something on a man to grab on to, right, dear?”

Sardelle flushed, the memory of grabbing on to things in Fern’s bedroom coming to mind. Ridge wasn’t exactly skinny; he had all of those nice, lean muscles to hold on to. “I’m fond of his current physique.”

Duck grimaced. “I’ll get to these cages. Anything to keep from hearing about the colonel’s physique.”

The familiar tingle of dragon blood washed over Sardelle as she stepped into the kitchen. Six vials hung in a rack on a counter next to Tolemek, who was hunched over a microscope, oblivious to the fat gray cat butting its head against his jaw. Another cat sat on a stack of sketches while watching a hairy-legged spider amble across a rock in a small terrarium.

One of the exterior doors thudded shut, and Fern peeked back out into the living room. “Ridge didn’t come back with you, dear?”

Sardelle winced. “No. We were separated. The MPs took him.”

“Oh. Well, he’ll tell a few stories and charm his way out of any trouble.”

Sardelle wasn’t so sure about that. She was glad she had an excuse not to mention that Ridge wasn’t with the MPs anymore and wasn’t anywhere that she could sense him. Since Fern did not believe in magic, there was no point in bringing that up.

“I’m in need of a blacksmith to craft a delivery mechanism for my concept,” Tolemek said without lifting his head.

“Is he talking to me or to you?” Fern whispered to Sardelle.

“Is there a local blacksmith?” Sardelle asked.

“Datlesh, several blocks away.”

“Then I think he’s talking to you.”

“Is he always so rude?”

Tolemek frowned over at them, dark circles under his eyes and a frown riding his lips. “Your son has given me an impossible task, no time to do it in, and no resources with which to do it.”

“So, yes.” Grumbling, Fern headed for the stove. She frowned at all of the equipment cluttering the counters on either side and a kettle boiling something miasmic. “How am I supposed to make that young man something to eat with all of this…
this
?” She batted at the blue steam wafting from the kettle, then threw open the windows.

“Is Cas with you?” Tolemek asked Sardelle. “I didn’t—” He glanced at Fern and lowered his voice. “I didn’t sense that sword return.” He waved vaguely toward the yard.

Sardelle hadn’t realized he could sense it too. She groped for a way to tell him that Cas hadn’t come back again, but knew she would have to explain the whole night once she started. Maybe it was just as well. The story would not grow any more pleasing for having been delayed.

“Come out into the living room for a couple of minutes, please,” Sardelle said. “I’ll tell you what happened. Uhm, Fern, the coffee would be welcome. Thank you.”

A moment ago, Tolemek had been complaining about not having enough time, but he did not hesitate to walk away from the microscope and lead the way to the living room. His face was grim. He knew something had happened.

Sardelle took a deep breath and followed him, bracing herself to share the news.

• • • • •

Dawn found Ridge sailing among the low-hanging clouds off the Iskandian coast, appreciating the sea breeze tugging at his scarf, the thrum of the propeller in his ears, and the subtle vibration of the flier under his butt. This was where he was meant to be. He wished he could forget the trouble he had left behind, but he kept worrying that he hadn’t been able to contact Sardelle and let her know where he was going. He also worried that he was on a duck hunt when the ducks had all flown south for the winter. He was going entirely on what Therrik had believed. Who knew if anything reliable existed in that brain?

Even if Therrik was right about the lighthouse, there were more than a hundred of them to search. He had already visited two and found them empty aside from surprised lighthouse keepers he had roused from bed. He refused to feel dejected until he checked the one on that island he had been thinking of, as that seemed an ideal spot. But he couldn’t help but realize it could take weeks for him to investigate all of the lighthouses, even if he ruled out half of them as impractical.

Ridge dipped below the clouds so he could gauge how far up the coast he had gone. He had passed the town of Crasgar’s Bay, and the waves churning and breaking against the rocks below told him he was flying over the thirty-mile-long Fury’s Cauldron.

“Twenty more miles to the island lighthouse,” he said, knowing the spot was right in the center of the Cauldron. Briefly, he wondered why he had spoken aloud. He had his communication crystal activated in case anyone tried to contact him, but he had already flown out of range of the base. There probably wasn’t much point in having the device active, except that he hoped he might chance across some of his people on the way back from their fool’s mission. When he had left, he hadn’t risked lighting lamps in the hangar or checking the telegraph machine, not when he had worried that the MPs would catch up with him at any moment. No, he had pushed open the rolling doors, then run straight to the two-man flier. He was certain Therrik hadn’t had any authorization to let him go—his disappearance had probably already been discovered. Had there been fliers and pilots to spare, someone might have sent one after him, but there was no one in the city left to chase him into the skies. He wouldn’t likely suffer further punishment until he returned. If he didn’t find the king, he wasn’t sure if he dared return at all.

Before he could lament his fate further, movement in the distance caught his eyes. A dark shape flew through the gray clouds, its size too great to belong to a bird. The craft was heading in his direction, toward the capital, so hope rose in his breast. Maybe one of his people was returning.

Ridge tapped the crystal. “This is Colonel Zirkander from Wolf Squadron. Identify yourself.”

Initially, Sardelle’s communication crystals had only gone out to Tiger and Wolf Squadrons as a test, but everyone had seen the practicality of them—so much so that nobody had questioned too much exactly what technology had produced them—and they had been installed in all of the military fliers across Iskandia. Thus, Ridge expected a prompt answer.

Instead, only silence came back to him. He repeated the call. The dark craft rose, the clouds obscuring it from view. An uneasy feeling replaced the hope Ridge had felt. He nudged his flier upward, picking a route that would let him intercept the craft if it did not change its route. It
might
be a non-military flier—there were a few handfuls of decommissioned and private ones out there, such as the two craft that were maintained by Harborgard Castle. But it might be something else too. The clouds and the early morning light had made it hard to tell the color, but it definitely had dark paint, dark paint that reminded Ridge of the unmanned fliers that had tried to shoot him and Sardelle down in Cofahre.

Seeing one here wasn’t entirely unexpected, but it was surely unwelcome. He had hoped they would have more time to retrieve the king and get the squadrons back to the city.

As he searched the sky, the clouds whispered past his face, leaving droplets of moisture on his goggles. He wiped them with his scarf. With the visibility poor, he would need all the vision he could claim to spot another flier up here. Since his own propeller buzzed in his ears, he would never hear an enemy approach, not until a machine gun rang out, so his eyes were all he had up here. His eyes and his intuition.