Soulblade (25 page)

“I’ve obtained some information.”

A loud voice spoke from below, as if to rouse the men to action. Several sentences came out, with Quataldo and Kaika both listening intently. A bang followed, then the thunder of boots on wood. The guards Tolemek had seen took off down one of two rope bridges extending from the platform that held the police building.

“Had I known they were leaving, I could have saved myself a climb,” Tolemek muttered. He also could have saved his valuable compound.

“Most of the city has been called to help with a search,” Quataldo said, not bothering to whisper. Everyone had left the platform.

“A search for you?” Tolemek guessed.

“No, I don’t believe they’re aware of my existence. They’re searching for Zilandria Hallistan.”

“As in Emperor Salatak Hallistan’s youngest daughter, Zilandria?” Tolemek asked. “The one who’s down here to get married?”

“From what I heard, she disappeared a couple of hours ago. City guards claimed to have spotted her heading out into the swamp and followed her, but that someone helped her get away. That’s the story the police are circulating. I’ve also heard that a faction that doesn’t want the alliance between the city and the emperor kidnapped her. Another rumor suggests Chief Razthar found her an unwilling bride and fed her to the alligators.”

Tolemek blinked. “Does he have a reputation that would support that?”

“He’s a shaman. Shamans aren’t always adored, even here where magic is more accepted.”

“Yet they elect them as city leaders?”

“Leadership is taken by power, financial or magical, down here.”

“The wedding hasn’t occurred yet, so how could she have been an unwilling bride?” Tolemek asked.

“The custom down here is for men and women to try each other out before a final commitment,” Kaika said. “It’s supposed to be to the benefit of both parties, but only the men are allowed to run a comparison with other women at the same time. Both sides, however, can agree to break off the marriage before the ceremony. I assume that’s why she came down ahead of her father and his escort.”

“In this case, she probably doesn’t have the power to break off anything,” Tolemek mused, “as the emperor is responsible for the marriage of all of his kin. It’s a longstanding tradition to use them to cement alliances.”

“Right, so she might have found her groom wanting and decided to run away,” Kaika said. “I’m more inclined to put faith in the story the police are claiming.”

“As am I,” Quataldo said.

“What are we going to do about it?” Tolemek shifted his weight, more than ready to get off this roof.

“Take advantage of the chaos,” Quataldo said.

“To do what?” Tolemek asked, thinking of the young woman roaming the swamps out there. Even if he wasn’t a loyal Cofah subject anymore, he couldn’t help but feel he should do something to keep one of the princesses from being eaten by alligators.

“Our mission.”

Kaika nodded. “If the emperor sends troops out to help search, the ships will be more lightly guarded. It could be our chance to get to him.”

“My exact thoughts.” Quataldo pointed toward one of the rope bridges. “I’ve learned where the emperor’s ships are, naval and air. I can take us out of the city. We might even be able to sneak in before dawn. Tolemek, you’re with us?”

Nerves teased his stomach, but he nodded. This was why he had come along, for his chance to remove the man who’d placed a bounty on his head from power, and perhaps to see a wiser person sitting on the Cofah throne. He would have to hope that the princess knew what she was doing and could take care of herself.

Chapter 10

I
t took an hour to catch up with Phelistoth. Tired, sweaty, and grumpy, Cas struggled not to curse at him when they spotted him. He was still in dragon form, perched on a hillock surrounded by trees and water with his prisoner sitting on a log in front of him. Phelistoth’s sphere of light floated over the hillock, but the darkness might have been preferable, given the frosty glare that Zia leveled at Cas, Pimples, and Tylie as they walked out of the marsh. The princess might have been pleasant enough to deal with after they had pulled her out of the water, but any feelings of gratitude she’d had were surely gone now. Though she wasn’t bound, at least not physically, Cas wouldn’t be surprised if she was being restrained by magic.

Pimples shrank under the young woman’s glare.

“It’s not our fault,” Cas whispered to him as a reminder.

“Yes, but
she
doesn’t know that.”

“Phelistoth.” Cas shrugged off her pack and let it drop to the ground. Her shoulders ached after slogging through the marsh with it, especially since they’d had to run for much of that slog. It had taken forty-five minutes to elude their pursuers, and Cas wasn’t positive the guards wouldn’t continue to track them, especially now that she knew who they had. “What are you doing?”

Phelistoth ignored Cas and shared a long look with Tylie, the kind that usually meant they were communicating secretly with each other.

“What do you people want?” Zia asked.
She
wasn’t ignoring Cas.

Cas looked at Pimples, wishing they had brought Captain Blazer. Someone with more rank. Someone who knew what to do with a princess, not that Cas knew if Phelistoth would even let them touch Zia. What could he possibly want with her?

“I honestly don’t know,” Pimples told Zia.

“Who are you?” she asked.

“I’m Farris,” Pimples said. “Like I told you. This is Cas.”

Zia’s eyes closed to slits. “I thought you were from the city at first, until I realized you’re speaking the wrong language. You’re too pale to be Cofah.”

“But intriguingly and attractively pale, right?” Pimples asked.

Cas elbowed him. This was not the time for flirting.

To her surprise, Zia snorted. It wasn’t exactly a sign of true amusement, but she didn’t glare at him the way she was glaring at Cas.

“You must be Iskandians,” Zia said.

Cas was surprised that she’d had to work it out, that she hadn’t guessed right away from the accent. But she supposed an imperial princess would lead a sheltered life most of the time, until trussed up and sent off to marry a foreign man in a foreign country. Maybe she had only read about Iskandians in books, much like winged alligators.

“Are you travelers?” Zia’s gaze lowered to Cas’s and Pimples’ rifles. “Hunters?”

“Travelers,” Cas said, amazed the young woman hadn’t guessed they were soldiers. They weren’t wearing their uniforms, since they had come to skulk around uninvited in a foreign country, but she thought they had a military mien about them, even without the clothing. She
was
wearing her army boots.

“Travelers with a dragon?” Zia shot a glare over her shoulder. Phelistoth and Tylie still seemed to be communicating. Tylie’s frown spoke of rare disapproval.

Cas suspected she wouldn’t like whatever Phelistoth eventually told them. She was very aware that the night was passing and that they were farther from the city and from checking on Tolemek and the others rather than closer.

“The dragon is inexplicable,” Pimples said when Cas didn’t answer.

I will go now
, Phelistoth announced into Cas’s mind.
You will stay. Guard the prisoner.

“Uhm, what?” Cas asked.

Zia stood up, only to be shoved back down onto the log again by some invisible hand.

“Phel.” Tylie crossed her arms. “We’re not going to guard your
prisoner
for you.”

Phelistoth transformed into his human form. He strode over to Tylie, though he slowed his pace when he drew close. He put an arm around her shoulder. At first, she merely continued her frown and stood with her feet planted. He bent his head low, murmured a few words, then walked toward the edge of the water. She let herself be guided along.

Pimples looked at Cas. She shrugged, but let her lips thin to show her displeasure. She didn’t know what was going on, but she didn’t like that a dragon seemed to think he was in charge of this portion of the operation.

After speaking for a couple of moments, more telepathically than out loud, Tylie lowered her arms. Phelistoth transformed into a dragon again and crouched at the edge of the water, spreading his wings.

“We’ll be back before dawn,” Tylie said.

“We?” Cas asked. “You’re going too? Where are you going?”

Tylie hesitated. “To talk to someone.”

Phelistoth gazed at her, his big dragon head above hers, his eyes far more reptilian than human. She shook her head and did not say anything else. The idea that he might be controlling, or at least manipulating her, crossed Cas’s mind, and it made her uncomfortable. She didn’t know what she could do about it. Once again, she wished Sardelle was here to advise them. She would even settle for Sardelle’s sarcastic sword.

Tylie climbed onto Phelistoth’s back, scrambling up his smooth, scaled side and making it look easy.

“Uh, we’re not going to keep your prisoner here against her will,” Pimples said.

She will stay. You will guard her from predators.
Phelistoth leaped into the air and flew out over the water, staying low to avoid branches. He and Tylie soon disappeared from sight.

Pimples spun toward Cas. “Are we taking orders from a dragon?”

Cas sighed. While she admitted it might not hurt to have the emperor’s daughter as a bargaining chip—was it possible they could trade her for him?—she felt as affronted by all of this as Pimples.

“No.” Cas nodded to Zia. “We won’t keep you here.”

“That would mean more to me if I could step away from this log.”

“You mean you can’t even get up?” Pimples asked.

Zia tried to stand, as she had earlier, but it was as if something forced her back down.

Confused, Cas stepped closer. She had seen Sardelle use the air or wind to move things around and even levitate objects, but as far as Cas knew, she couldn’t do anything that might be permanent.

Pimples waved his rifle through the air above Zia’s head. It didn’t encounter anything. He tried swiping through the air to either side of her. Cas did not know if magic could be tested with logic. She looked toward the water lapping at the reed-choked beach and hoped the alligators had gone to bed. They had barely driven the last batch off and might not have without Phelistoth’s help. She didn’t want to be stuck in one place, trying to defend Zia. She also didn’t care to be stuck here because a dragon had ordered it. They needed to find Tolemek and Quataldo. She should also report in to Captain Blazer with this rather significant new development.

“Maybe it’s tied to the log itself,” Pimples mused, lowering his rifle to rest the butt on the ground. “Can you scoot up and down it?”

Zia had been watching him test the air, her expression somewhere between amusement and exasperation. She answered his question by scooting her butt along the log to one end and then the other.

“Maybe we just need to carry the log along with her on it or next to it, and then we can take her with us,” Pimples told Cas.

“We?” Long sleeves hid Cas’s slender arms, but she pretended to flex a biceps to remind him that she wasn’t the brawniest person on the squadron. Pimples wasn’t that muscular, either, a few inches shy of six feet and lean of limb. The idea of them carrying a log was laughable.

“Take me where?” Zia frowned at them. “I was heading to a certain place when I ran into you and your dragon. If I could escape this strange prison—” she thumped her knuckles on the mossy bark, “—I would continue on to my destination.”

“The Cofah ships in the bay?” Cas asked. “Wouldn’t the soldiers just return you to the city to marry your new beau?”

Zia’s face froze in a concerned expression. Tylie had whispered that she was the princess, Zia presumably being a nickname. Maybe Cas shouldn’t have revealed that she knew, but she had no interest in playing games with the young woman.

Zia looked back and forth from Cas to Pimples, as if their faces might give her crucial information she needed. Cas would have thought she appeared less intimidating than he, at least to someone who didn’t know her reputation for marksmanship, but it was after gazing at Pimples for a moment that she confessed.

“I planned to sneak aboard one of the ships,” Zia said, her focus dropping to the dirt at her feet. “I assumed they would eventually get tired of looking for me, or assume I’d been eaten by something in the swamp. The wedding would be called off, and the ship would return home. From there... I hadn’t decided yet fully. If I return to the palace, it’s likely my father would simply arrange everything all over again. I’ve been considering the ramifications of
not
returning to the palace. Of disappearing.”

“I assume you didn’t agree to the marriage in the first place,” Cas said.

“I said I’d give it a try, because—well, I’m not good at confronting authority figures, especially my father. It’s a weakness, I fully admit that. I’m much more comfortable writing down my objections to something, where I can take my time and outline my arguments, come up with supporting evidence.” She cleared her throat and shrugged self-consciously. “Let’s just say that my father isn’t interested in reading my notes. I’m his eleventh child from his third wife, so I’ve never been a huge priority for him. That was always fine with me. I didn’t have that many responsibilities or expectations either. This came out of nowhere. As far as I’d heard, my father wasn’t even planning to marry me off to anyone. We have enough alliances to last ten generations. But all of a sudden, since the Iskandians found some dragons, he’s sure we need shamans to come to the empire and teach a new generation of sorcerers.”

Cas rubbed her chin. As much as she had objected to this diversion, they were getting free intelligence from the woman. Either Zia still hadn’t figured out that Cas and Pimples were soldiers or she was only worried about her own fate and didn’t care.

Pimples sat next to her on the log, a sympathetic expression on his face. He looked like he wanted to take her hand, but he clasped his hands in his lap instead. Cas tried to decide if he was hoping to gain her trust and get more information from her or if he was hoping she might run away and have babies with him. Knowing him and his romantic notions, the latter was probably more likely.