05 Dragon Blood: The Blade's Memory (7 page)

“I don’t need to hear that,” Cas said.

“Aw, are you pretending you haven’t imagined Zirkander naked? I’ll do my best to pretend I believe you.”

Sardelle wondered if Cas’s cheeks were as warm as her own. “I’m more interested in discussing how we’re going to get into the castle. It’s getting late enough that we could think about trying.”

“I have shaped charges, dragon bombs, and a nice stash of thermite that should be able to get us through metal doors and possibly walls of solid stone.”

Relieved that Kaika had instantly switched to work talk, Sardelle decided not mention that Jaxi could do those same feats, probably with less noise.

Just because I can burn through a wall doesn’t mean I want to
, Jaxi thought.
It wears me out and isn’t all that fun.

By all means, we must keep this mission fun.

I sense your sarcasm.

Who, me?

“If I can lead you to an old tunnel that collapsed decades or perhaps centuries ago,” Sardelle said, “do you think we could blow our way in without alerting the guards in the tower walls up there?” She waved toward the dark silhouette of the castle. “Our other option is to try sneaking in through the main gate, but it’s not open right now, and it’s hard for me to build illusions that can hide movement or fool multiple people at once.”

“How far is the tunnel from the closest tower?” Kaika asked. “The thermite doesn’t make much noise, but the explosives are another matter. I had planned to cut my way in through the sewage grate, but I’m not opposed to blowing things up. Ever.”

“No, I’ve gathered that about you.”

“Then we’ll get along fine, Freckles.” Kaika found Sardelle’s shoulder in the dark and gave her a rough shake.

“Sardelle, please.”

Is she still fantasizing about a dragon eating me, Jaxi?

Not at the moment. She had some burly young soldier in mind when she was discussing secret spots. It’s possible her interest in your soul snozzle was fleeting, references to his nudity notwithstanding.

Would her sewer grate be a better way in?

It depends on how fragrant you believe spies should be. You’ll have to swim through effluent after cutting through the bars, and there are two guards in the pumping station.

Sardelle passed on the information about the guards. While it was true this wasn’t her mission and she was only along to help, she would prefer to remain undiscovered and not have to subdue anyone.

Kaika digested the information silently before asking, “How do you know this?”

“I can sense the inside of the castle. Actually Jaxi can.”

“Jaxi?”

“My sword. She’s fond of thermite reactions too. You would probably get along fabulously with her.”

Perhaps so
, Jaxi thought.

“Uh. That’s disturbing.”

“Jaxi considers swimming through sewage disturbing. May I show you the tunnel?”

“I would prefer Captain Kaika’s route,” Cas said.

It was too dark to see Cas’s face, but Sardelle sensed a stiffness about her. Was she worried the explosives would make too much noise? Sardelle thought about digging deeper to get a better sense of her thoughts, but she had been doing far too much mental prying of late. She did not want Cas to sense her—as Tolemek had when she had grazed his surface thoughts once—and become offended by the intrusion.

“I can muffle the sound of the explosives,” Sardelle said, “so those standing guard in the towers won’t hear them.”

“Great,” Cas said, her tone dark rather than enthused at the idea.

Maybe she was remembering being buried in that rockfall in the pyramid. Sardelle opened her mouth to assure her that nothing that traumatic should happen here, but Kaika spoke first.

“Show me where this collapsed tunnel is, and then I’ll decide.”

Sardelle almost objected to the notion that Kaika alone would be responsible for the decision, but reminded herself that Kaika
was
the ranking officer on this mission. When Sardelle had worked with the army in the past, she had always held the role of adviser, not commander, so she ought to be used to letting officers take charge. Maybe it was just that she did not know Kaika well yet.

Or maybe it’s that I told you she’s had fantasies of your lover
, Jaxi suggested.
Perhaps I should have stayed quiet about that.

I wouldn’t let that get in the way of the mission.
Sardelle headed across the jagged boulders toward the spot Jaxi had shown her earlier.
I’m more mature than that.

Would someone mature have garnered the nickname Freckles?

Hush.

As Sardelle led Kaika and Cas across the rocky promontory, she kept an eye toward the towers on the back side of the castle, using her senses to monitor the guards there. Two stood watch in each of the three towers closest to the area Sardelle was heading. They were all alert, keeping their rifles close at hand and walking from window to window to peer out at the harbor and the promontory. She hadn’t expected sloth and laziness from soldiers selected to protect Harborgard, but it would have been nice. She would have to ensure Kaika set her bombs in a place that the explosion would not be visible from the castle. The sound waves from noise, she could indeed muffle, but when creating an illusion to hide something moving, she had to be able to touch the mind of the person watching, to adjust what he saw as he saw it. That was exceedingly difficult when multiple minds were involved.

You’re on the collapsed area over one of the old tunnels now,
Jaxi advised.
There were two once, but the other one is completely smashed in. It looks like there might have been an earthquake in the past and that nobody bothered to dig out the passages.

I see the spot.
Sardelle had turned her attention from the towers to the rocks beneath them. About ten feet below the surface, she sensed the opening. In one direction, it was indeed closed off, with rubble filling it from floor to ceiling, the wooden supports long since snapped away. In the other direction, the passage headed straight for the rear of the castle, cutting through the old basalt rock that had been hauled in a millennium if not millennia ago to form the protective harbor.

Sardelle found a dip they could hide in that would protect the three of them from view. She was less certain that it would hide the flash of light that might come with an explosion and thought about volunteering Jaxi to cut through the rock. But that produced so much heat, turning stone into red-hot molten waste, that it, too, might be visible from a distance.

Also, cutting through tons of rock makes my mind throb. It takes a tremendous amount of power, power I might need later if you get yourselves in trouble in there.

I’m hoping that won’t happen.

Optimism isn’t reality.

Very pithy.

Thank you.

“Straight down ten feet,” Sardelle said told Kaika when everyone had climbed into the depression. “Can you cut through that much rock and keep the explosion from flashing so that everyone in the towers can see it?”

“Might as well ask Cas if she can hit a bull’s balls at ten paces,” Kaika said, already pulling equipment out of her pack.

“I can hit anything’s balls at ten paces,” Cas said, looking at Sardelle rather than Kaika. For some reason, she had brought the dragon-slaying sword along on the mission, but it was her favorite sniper rifle that she patted lovingly.

“I’m glad I don’t have balls,” Sardelle murmured.

“That would have been a surprise for old Zirkander.” Kaika prodded at the rocks underneath them and lifted some sand to sniff. “Why don’t you all find another hole to hide in? It will take me a few minutes to set up. Sardelle, I’ll let you know when I’m ready for noise muffling. The thermite won’t cut through anything this thick, so I’ll probably use the dragon bomb, and those do tend to be loud. I’ll try to set it in such a way that it blows downward and doesn’t disturb many of the rocks on the surface, but you’ll need to be ready for the sound of boulders rolling away, as well as the initial explosion.”

“I understand.”

Sardelle crawled out of the depression and continued for at least twenty meters before stopping behind a boulder. Even though she’d heard Kaika’s training had involved learning how to do controlled demolitions, she could envision more rock than desired shifting and falling away or collapsing into the tunnel below.

Cas stopped behind the same boulder. It might have been Sardelle’s imagination, but she thought she glimpsed a slight leaking of pale green light from the end of her sword’s scabbard. According to Jaxi, Kasandral, the dragon-slaying sword had been wielded by an Iskandian king fifteen hundred years earlier, but Sardelle did not have any personal knowledge of the blade. It did not have a soul in it the way a soulblade did—Sardelle would have felt that—but it did have a…
presence
. It didn’t feel malevolent exactly, but something about it made her not want to touch it. Perhaps that made sense if it had been designed to slay dragons. Her own veins did carry a hint of dragon blood, however diminished over the generations.

“We’ll have to look up your new sword in the library when we get a chance,” Sardelle said casually, as if to make conversation and nothing more.

“Why?”

“Aren’t you curious about it? I’ve noticed you haven’t left it behind anywhere for long.”

“Where would I leave it? Back in the fliers? I’m already worried about them being vandalized or stolen while we’re gone. At the colonel’s mom’s house? The soldiers were already there doing a search, so I don’t think it would be safe to leave it there, either.”

“A valid point,” Sardelle said.

Maybe she was dwelling too much on the blade. It made sense that Cas would want to keep it safe, especially since her father had been the one who had brought it to Owanu Owanus with the intent of killing the dragon. He was a dangerous man, and having the sword would only make him more dangerous, especially if the dragon ever showed up in Iskandia with Tolemek’s sister. Better to have such a powerful weapon in friendly hands.

“Ready,” came Kaika’s soft call.

Sardelle closed her eyes, seeing the explosive that had been planted with her mind. It was surprisingly compact. It amazed her what humans had accomplished in the last few centuries, even without the help of sorcerers and dragons. Maybe they had no need for her people any longer; perhaps someone had sensed that three hundred years ago when planning to destroy the Referatu. But no, she had been valuable to Ridge on his mission. Magic could still play a role in this society—if they would let it.

“I’m ready,” Sardelle called back.

As Kaika lit the fuse and scrambled away, Sardelle cupped the air around the depression, hardening it into a dense barrier that would contain the sound wave. She made certain it would not keep the bomb from blowing through the rocks they desired.

When it detonated, the raw power railed at her container. She had tangled with a few rockets now and knew what to expect, so she was prepared. An extremely faint boom reached her ears, but she felt certain nobody in the castle could have heard it, especially with the roar of the surf in the distance. The light she had expected never brightened the air, so she assumed Kaika had done something to control that. Sardelle grudgingly admitted that the captain knew what she was doing, and she probably did not need to worry about getting in trouble by following her lead.

Kaika scrambled back toward the site of the explosion, and Sardelle let her barrier dissipate. Cas led the way to join Kaika while Sardelle crawled across the rocks more slowly, checking the guards again. One of them was looking in her direction, and a nervous worm wriggled in her stomach. Was it possible he had seen something? Some rocks shifting? It was a cloudy night, promising of rain, and it was dark enough out on the rocks that Sardelle had trouble even seeing Cas and Kaika. She didn’t think the guard could have seen them.

Look closer,
Jaxi suggested.
He has a few drops of dragon blood in his veins.

Sardelle froze. Of course. She had encountered other random Iskandian subjects with dragon ancestors, the blood so diluted that it was unlikely they could ever do much in the way of magic or even knew that they had the power to try, but they might have a few vestigial senses that were superior to those of other humans. That guard might have felt some itch of intuition when she had used her power.

“Sardelle?” Kaika called softly. “Are you coming? It looks like it worked.”

The guard was still looking in their direction, but Sardelle risked crawling the rest the way to the hole—she did make sure to stay lower than the rocks, just in case his eyes were sharper than average too. She trusted Jaxi’s assessment and did not reach out to examine him more closely, not wanting to risk him sensing her. She would have to hope that whatever he had felt wasn’t enough to make him warn a superior that castle security should be increased or that the rocks should be checked. How would he explain what he had sensed to magic-fearing comrades?

When Sardelle reached the edge of the hole, the faint smell of gunpowder or something similar lingered over the tang of the salty air. Kaika had already dropped down, and Cas disappeared soon after, sliding down the slope until it grew vertical, then letting herself fall. She landed without making a sound. Sardelle was not as agile as the two soldiers, but she followed the same route, confident that she could land without breaking anything since she could sense the contours of the rubble filled tunnel below.

Don’t be cocky
, Jaxi warned and slowed Sardelle’s fall.
You have the athleticism of a chubby boulder.

Though Sardelle wanted to offer an indignant retort, her heel caught on a rock as she landed. Had she come down on it at full speed, she would have fallen on her butt instead of merely fumbling and catching herself on the nearby wall.

“Watch out,” Kaika said quietly. “The floor of this tunnel is a mess. There’s rubble everywhere, not all of it mine.”

“I see that.” As Sardelle moved forward to join them, she had to clamber over and around everything from pebbles to waist-high boulders. “Anyone mind if I make a light?”