Wolves of the Gods

CHAPTER TWENTY SEVEN

"Steady!" Biner shouted. Then: "Launch!"

The ground crew let go the cables and the airship shot into the sky-furnaces roaring, the twin balloons taut till near bursting.

Leiria's stomach lurched at the unaccustomed feeling of weightlessness. She leaned over the side, fearing she was about to get sick, then saw the rapidly diminishing figures on the ground and felt sicker still. She closed her eyes, willing the sickness to be gone. She kept them closed for a long time, concentrating on the sounds around her-Biner's shouted orders, the aircrew's reply, the pumping bellows and roaring furnaces. And finally, the oddly melodic song of the wind strumming the great cables that held the ship to the balloons.

The sudden snowstorm had delayed the launch well past the chosen hour. Biner had held everyone at ready, ground crew poised at the cables, aircrew scrambling about knocking off ice. Meanwhile, teams of Kyranian volunteers shivered in the cold as they kept the area swept free of snow.

Then there'd been a brief respite as the sun broke through, revealing a small patch of blue sky and Biner had launched the ship.

Now Leiria was crouched on the steering deck, wishing for all the world that she could be somewhere else. Anything, even a charging horde of demon cavalry, would be better than this. At least she'd be on nice safe ground.

"I know what yer thinkin', lass," she heard Biner say. "That if the gods meant yer to fly, they'd a provided yer with the belly for it."

Leiria opened her eyes to find the dwarf standing next to her. She nodded weakly. "I would have thought wings," she said, "or at least a few pin feathers. But you're right. Whatever god made birds must've started with the belly."

She groaned to her feet, forcing herself not to look over the edge. "I think I'm going to live," she said.

"Although I'm still not sure if I care."

Arlain came up, carrying a steaming mug. "Thith'll do the trick," she said. "Ith an old balloonitht cure for air thickneth."

Gratefully, Leiria drank. It was delicious-a thick, forthy elixir heavily laced with brandy. Her queasy inner world suddenly settled.

"Oh, that's much better!" she said. "My stomach's practically cheering."

"It's usually much smoother than this, lass," Biner said, taking her elbow and leading her over to the big ship's wheel.

"Here," he said, putting her hands on the wheel. "This'll give you somethin' to hold onto." He pointed to a mountain ridge off in the distance. "Keep her headed that way," he said.

Then to her great surprise and alarm, he bounded down the gangway to berate a lazy crewman.

"Wait," she cried, "I don't know how to-"

She bit off the rest as the dwarf vanished below. And she thought, if Biner wasn't worried, steering the airship couldn't be that difficult.

Leiria concentrated on the ridge, moving the wheel whenever the nose of the ship veered away from it.

At first she tended to oversteer and the ship yawed widely from side to side. She kept expecting someone to come running to push her aside and take the wheel. When no one came she soon forgot about everything else but steering the ship and quickly saw the way of it.

The combination of Arlain's elixir plus having something useful to do gradually did its work, and before she knew it, Leiria was actually enjoying herself. The air was clean and bracing and there was an incredible sense of freedom that came from floating so high above the earth. They were sailing just above a thick cloud cover, blue skies and a bright sun, mountains stretching away in every direction as far as she could see. At least that's how it appeared for a time. About a half mile from the ridge Biner had aimed her toward, it began to dawn on her that something was wrong.

Instead of fleeing as the airship approached, the horizon grew closer. The sky in that direction was still blue, but the blue seemed more … solid was the only description she could think of. But not hard, like metal, but soft, like … like … some kind of cloth. And now that she thought of it, the cloth was moving …

billowing … as if an immense window had been left open and the wind was pushing through the curtains.

Biner and Arlain must have sensed something was up, because they both came running up on the deck.

As Biner took over the wheel, Leiria pointed.

"Look," she said. "Through there…"

She was pointing through the gap of what she thought of as "curtains." Biner cursed and Arlain covered her mouth in alarm. Glaring through the opening was the familiar, evil face of the Demon Moon.

The sight of their old celestial enemy was driven home by the heavy throbbing of a huge machine and the whiff of the foul air of the Black Lands.

"No use cryin' over spilt air," Biner said grimly. "Besides, we were half expectin' it ever since we started on this little spyin' trip."

"I thirtainly wath never exthpecting that again!" Arlain said, jabbing a claw at the leering moon.

"Thomebody thould of warned me!"

"And then what would yer have done?" Biner said. "If we'd of spelled it out real plain-so we could be sure yer were scared sandless. I mean, Safar told us we were livin' in a false Caluz. That outside that little valley was the real world. Which is where we gotta go if we're gonna do any worthwhile eagleyein'."

"I know that," Arlain sniffed.

"So, if we'd a painted a picture for yer," Biner went on, "and made sure yer knew we'd be in the Black Lands again, complete with Demon Moon and crazy sorcery, what would yer have done, lass.

Decided not to go?"

"Don't be thilly," Arlain said. "Of courth, I'd thtill go! I haven't been flying in yearth! You couldn't have kept me off thith airthip with a whole army of Demon Moonth!"

She sniffed. "But it thirtainly wouldn't have been impolite to warn me!"

"Listen," Leiria broke in. "I don't know you all very well. Maybe this little bantering between you is just your normal way of facing a dangerous situation."

She indicated the flowing curtain, which they were moments away from sailing through. "But while you've been talking, we've getting closer to that!"

Biner frowned at her. "So? That was the plan, wasn't it, lass?"

"Yes," Leiria said. "But we weren't supposed to do it naked!"

Biner slapped his forehead. "Damn! I fergot!"

He shouted orders and several big crewmen raced to break out several large kegs. It was a little too late, however, because they were just knocking the tops off the kegs when the airship sailed through the curtains and suddenly they were sweeping over a bleak landscape-a frozen plain pierced by huge, tortured black rock formations.

As they entered the Black Lands Leiria was wracked with sudden pain. Every joint and muscle ached and her head throbbed as if she'd been stricken by some dreaded plague. She heard Biner and Arlain moan and the harsh wrenching sound of a crewman coughing up his breakfast.

Safar had warned them about entering the Black Lands without a shield to protect them from the wild spells. He'd even provided them with the means to make one-the contents of the casks the crewmen had been opening.

Leiria forced herself off the steering deck, going down the gangway step by agonizing step, feeling as if she were carrying a heavy load of hot bricks on her shoulders.

She stumbled over the crewmen, who were writhing about the main deck, clutching their heads and calling for their mothers. When she came to the first cask she almost broke down, falling to her knees and cracking her head on the rim. Somehow she found strength and pulled herself up, blood streaming down her face from a cut. She dug out her tinder box, feeling like an old arthritic woman as she tried to light it.

Finally it caught, and she threw the entire tinder box into the cask, hurling herself backward just in time as flames and smoke exploded up and out.

Leiria stayed flat on her back, watching the smoke curl under the air bags, then flow around the sides until both balloons looked like immense white clouds. Gradually, as Safar's shield took affect, she felt better. For the second time in less than two hours, she thought she felt well enough to care if she lived.

She clambered to her feet, muttering, "Damned flyers! Not a brain in their heads!"

The crewmen were also recovering and she set them to work tending the casks. They were to wait until the first barrel burned out, then light the next, and so on until someone told them to stop.

She returned to the steering deck, expecting to find Biner and Arlain waiting with shamed expressions and many apologies.

Instead she found them intent on the scene below.

Leiria's eyes widened when she saw what they were looking at. Beneath them was an immense army, drawn up under a thick steaming blanket of snow.

She heard camels bawling and the racket of armorers pounding out dents in shields.

Rising out of the center of the encampment was a snow-covered pavilion topped by a waving banner-the Demon Moon with the Comet rising.

Iraj had finally caught them!