Lost mark 3 The Queen of Death: (12 page)

When the basket reached the ground floor, the guards showed Kandler and Sallah to the door. "The dockmaster returned to his post,” one of them said. "You can show yourselves back.”

The door to the tower slammed shut behind them. As it did, Burch appeared from where he’d been hiding behind the door.

Chapter

18

H
ave a nice talk?” the shifter asked as he fell into step with the others.

Sallah craned her neck up to see how far down the shifter must have climbed to get out of Ledenstrae’s place. She let out a low whistle.

"We’re getting out of here,” Kandler said. "They want to trade Espre for the airship.”

"And our lives,” said Burch. "This isn’t the kind of offer they let you refuse.”

Kandler smirked. "Then we’ll just let them figure out what our answer is when we’re gone.”

Burch pursed his lips and nodded. They walked along in silence toward the docks.

"You’re too quiet,” Kandler said, "both of you. What’s on your minds?”

Sallah winced. "I’m wondering if maybe we should run. After all, Ledenstrae’s sure to find the body of that guard that Burch took out.”

Burch snorted. "All three of them probably,” he said. "Can’t believe I let that last one slip like that.” He cracked

his knuckles. "Must be losing my touch.”

"How about you?” Kandler said. "That’s not what’s keeping you quiet.”

Burch shrugged. "Don’t know if I should say.”

"How long have we known each other?”

Burch stared at Kandler for a moment, a sad, wry look on his face. "All right,” he said. "How about we give Espre to her father?”

Kandler stumbled over a paving stone that seemed to have reached up to grab his foot. He righted himself, then glared back at the shifter. "You were right,” he said. "You shouldn’t have said a thing.”

"You asked.”

The anger rising in Kandler’s throat surprised him. He’d long thought he could trust Burch with his life. Now to hear these words come from the shifter seemed like the worst kind of betrayal.

They walked along, Kandler silently steaming. He wanted to say something, to shout at Burch for even suggesting such a thing, but he didn’t want to draw attention to them. He just wanted to get to the airship and leave.

Ledenstrae would have the craft tied down tight, of course, but Kandler figured the fangblade would cut through just about anything the dockworkers could muster. If he worked fast, he might be able to free the ship before the soldiers in the turrets could bring the heavy weapons to bear on them.

"Maybe he’s right,” Sallah said.

Kandler goggled at the woman. He had worried that she’d torn him from her heart upon announcing her intention to leave, but he’d never thought she’d stoop to sabotaging him like this.

"Think about it for a moment,” she said. "You’re about to fly across the ocean to challenge a land filled with dragons on behalf of Espre. Does it make sense to risk her life at the same time?”

"Right,” said Burch. "She’d be safer in Aerenal with Ledenstrae. Once we deal with the dragons, we can go get her then.”

Kandler stopped and gaped at them. "You’re both mad,” he said. "Since when have the two of you agreed on anything?”

Sallah frowned. "That should tell you that we’re right.”

"At least gnaw on it a bit,” Burch said.

Kandler stomped ahead. "No time for that,” he said. He turned back to focus a murderous glare on each of them. "Not a word about this to Espre from either of you. It’s better if she never knows.”

When they reached the airship, Kandler confirmed the worst. The airship had been tied down with thin, elven chains while they’d been gone. While they didn’t weigh enough to cause the ship to sag in the air, no steel was stronger.

There would be no quick and easy escape here. Still, Kandler was as determined to leave as much as ever. He scowled at the dockworkers as he approached the deck and stormed up the gangplank.

Espre greeted him at the gunwale, throwing her arms around him the moment he set foot on the ship. He held her tight, not wanting to ever let go. He knew as soon as he did he would have to look her in the eye and lie to her face, and he wanted to put that off for just a moment longer.

"You’re crushing me,” Espre said with a giggle. She pushed herself free, and Kandler lowered her back to the airship’s deck. She looked up at him with hope and excitement in her sparkling blue eyes.

"What happened?” she asked. "Did you really see my father? What is he like? I don’t remember anything about him really, although I’ve often wondered.”

Her face fell as she looked at Kandler. "What is it?” she asked.

Kandler shook his head. "I’m sorry, Espre. It wasn’t your father. Just someone who used his name to get us off the ship.”

"Why would someone do that?” she asked, disappointment marring her face.

Kandler swept his arms wide and tried not to look her in the eye. "They want the airship,” he said. "See what they did to her while we were gone?”

"We tried to stop them,” Xalt said. "They insisted, with swords.”

Kandler shrugged and patted the warforged on the back, glad that someone had interrupted his conversation with Espre. "I’m sure you did the best you could under the circumstances.”

"I was all for splitting their skulls,” said Duro, "but Xalt and the ladies here stayed my hand.”

"We didn’t want to start a fight that would have ended with us sailing away without you three,” Monja said. She looked at Sallah. "Is everything well?”

Kandler saw the lady knight scowl. He knew she liked this even less than he did, but he hoped she’d respect his wishes as Espre’s parent. He shot her a pleading look, which she caught with a resigned shrug.

"How would they have known to use my father’s name?” Espre asked without a hint of suspicion in her voice. The thought genuinely confused her.

Kandler hemmed for a moment, then tapped his head with a thick finger. "Psion,” he said. "Just like our friend up there at the wheel.” He pointed up at the bridge where Te’oma stood, still in Shawda’s guise.

"That’s funny,” Espre said. "I haven’t really thought aboVit him in years.”

"He’s been on my mind,” Kandler muttered.

"Now that they have us tied down, what is our plan?” Xalt said. The warforged looked at him with eyes as innocent as Espre’s.

"Break out of here,” Kandler said.

Kandler stood on the bridge of the
Phoenix
and outlined a plan of action. Monja, Te’oma, Duro, Sallah, and Xalt riveted their attention to him as he spoke. At his request, Burch had taken Espre to the ship’s bow. He didn’t want her to hear everything he had to say.

"Why can’t I help?” Espre had said.

Kandler’s chest tightened as he continued to lie to her. She’d proven herself to be both capable and dangerous. Under other circumstances, he would have find something for her to do, perhaps not vital but important enough to let her discover a bit more about what she could do. Right now, though, ke had told himself he couldn’t risk even that much.

Kandler’s plan was simple enough. It involved Te’oma and Burch sabotaging the nearest ballista and catapult, which the dockmaster had trained on the airship. At the same time, Kandler and Sallah would destroy the posts to which the chains holding down the
Phoenix
were bound. Breaking through the wood would prove easier than hacking away at a chain, even with such amazing swords as theirs.

Monja would take the wheel, with Espre at her side, while Xalt and Duro provided cover with their crossbows. With luck, they wouldn’t have to kill too many elves.

"You worry about harming those who would hold us captive?" Te’oma asked, disbelief marring Shawda’s normally stolid face.

Kandler fought the urge to beat the visage from the changeling, all too aware that such commotion would bring the guards running to see what was going on. Then he wondered if he could somehow work that into the plan.

"They’re just doing their jobs,” he said.

"Is that what you told the people you killed when you worked for Breland?”

Kandler stared at the changeling for a moment. "If you want to pick a fight with me, can you wait until we’re back in the air? I’ll be happy to dump your body overboard then.”

Te’oma smiled back at him. "Whatever you say,
boss."

The label brought Burch back to mind. Kandler had his back to the wheel and the rest of the ship. He turned around to look for the shifter, but he could not find him anywhere.

Espre was gone too.

Kandler lashed out and caught Te’oma around the throat. "Where are they?” he said as he bore down on her. The pressure started to choke her, and it guaranteed that if she tried to lash out or run he’d slam her to the floor.

Sallah put a hand on Kandler’s shoulder, but he shrugged it off. Duro and Xalt gaped at the scene unfolding in front of them.

"I’ve seen this coming for days,” Monja said with a sigh.

"Where?” Kandler said louder. He squeezed the changeling’s neck harder for emphasis. She began to turn pale, and he wondered if it was from a lack of blood or because she meant to change shape again.

"Don’t know,” Te’oma said. She tried to shrug, but Kandler, wary of a trick, shook her like a rag doll.

"She’s telling the truth,” Sallah said.

He glanced at her and saw the pain in her eyes, along with the ugly image of his angry visage reflected there. Disgusted, he shoved Te’oma away. She fell to her knees and coughed and hacked fresh air into her lungs.

"The rest of you stay here,” Kandler said, not caring how nasty his snarls might sound. "I’m going after my daughter.”

Chapter

19

I can’t believe that Kandler would keep me from my father,” Espre said as she and Burch entered the basket that would take them to the top of the tower. The shifter shot her a look, and she blushed. "You're right. I can.”

She leaned over and panted as the basket began to ascend. They’d run hard to make sure they would get here before Kandler, and she wanted to catch her breath before she met her father.

What would this Ledenstrae look like, she wondered? She had no memory of him at all. Her mother had taken her from Aerenal while Espre was still an infant, and she’d not been in her father’s presence since. Had she ever? Had he held her even once?

She ran a hand through her hair, worried now that she might not measure up to his expectations. The time on the road from Mardakine to here had not been kind to her. She’d not had a bath since shortly after she’d awakened in Fort Bones—unless she counted getting dunked in the frigid underground lake in which the dragon Nithkorrh had lived
.

She knew she didn’t look much like a princess. Her mother—always practical—had never treated her that way. That was part of the land she’d left behind, and she and Espre had to carve out their own way in this strange new place.

Kandler had even fewer illusions about proper society and culture, of which there had been none in Mardakine anyhow. He’d been trained as a soldier, an agent, but never as a father. Despite that, she knew he’d done his best.

At first, after her mother had died, Espre had feared that Kandler would send her away, perhaps back to Aerenal, to live with people she didn’t know. Then, after he’d made it clear he would do his best to raise her, she wondered if he’d only offered to do so out of some sort of sense of duty to her mother.

Over the years, though, she’d come to know that Kandler loved her for herself, not just for whose daughter she might be. She admitted to herself that she’d come to love him too.

I

That’s why it hurt so much that he’d decided to keep her from her father this way. Did he think that she would just jump into this stranger’s arms and let him steal her away? Did Kandler really think so little of her? Was his faith in her so small?

Burch moved in the basket next to her, and she looked at him. The shifter seemed to be standing on his toes, ready to leap from the confined space as soon as he could. She reached out and grabbed his arm, both to steady him and to gain his attention.

"Isn’t he going to kill you?” Espre asked.

Burch stopped squirming around and stared at the girl with his yellow eyes. "Probably. We’ve known each other a long while, but it’s never good to get between a papa and his cub.” He shrugged. "Kill’s probably too strong a word.”

"I meant figuratively.” She shuddered. "He wouldn’t really kill you. Would he?” Her voice sounded far less sure than she wanted it to.

Burch shrugged.

"Why did you tell me when he wouldn’t?” she asked.

The basket reached the end of its journey, and Burch escorted her out into the room beyond without a word. She tugged at his shirt. "Burch,” she said.

He didn’t look at her. "Did I mention Majeeda’s here too?”

"What?” Espre said, her guts filled with ice.

"Hello!” a strange elf said in Elven as he strode into the room from the balcony beyond. His white hair shone in the late-day sunlight, complementing his pale skin and contrasting with his robes of black linen. His golden eyes sparkled with joy.