Free Sung in Blood by Glen Cook Page B

said. "Half a dozen airships and a company of air marines. Could be anything waiting out there."
    "If it becomes necessary." Rider spoke to the propulsive demon. The ship surged forward.
    "Chaz. We're going down channel and crossing over. Tell Su-Cha." He began shedding altitude.
    The airship crossed the Bridge of the World just yards above the waves. It was seen by several merchantmen and fishing vessels, but Su-Cha reported none steering near the Hurm Islands. Rider took the airship up into the southern hills, finally grounded in a side canyon leading down to the Claytyne River.
    "Now what?" Chaz asked. He was working his sword with a whetstone.
    "We wait for darkness. And for Su-Cha."
    Su-Cha arrived first, but not by much. "They stuck Soup and Spud in a basement under the old ruins, then headed back for the north shore."
    "They just dumped them?" Chaz asked. "Didn't leave any guards or anything?"
    "Oh, there's guards. Fifteen or twenty smugglers and runaway slaves and such, that they paid to watch them."
    Chaz said, "Something's wrong here, Rider. Either it's a trap or we've been snookered into leaving town."
    "No trap," Su-Cha said. "I looked the place over good."
    "Perhaps Shai Khe has fallen victim to his own arrogance."
    "Well, at least we could have followed the fishing boat if the runt hadn't ... "
    Su-Cha was grinning his biggest grin.
    "What instructions were the smugglers given as to the care of our friends?" Rider asked.
    "They're to treat them well. Till they hear otherwise. The men from the boat—they were all orientals—paid the smugglers for two weeks."
    "And did you do what I suspect you did with your flares?"
    "Yep." Su-Cha grinned again.
    "And your mirrors?"
    "Right up on the masthead. Nobody pays attention to a bird."
    "Or a birdbrain," Chaz mumbled.
    Rider said, "Let's get flying, then. Soup and Spud are safe for the moment."
    "You just going to leave them there?" Chaz asked.
    "If we don't mess with them, Shai Khe will think we're off the trail," Su-Cha said.
    Rider took the airship back along the reverse of his approach route, but midway across the Bridge of the World he lifted into the normal air lane from Kaizherion. "Take over, Chaz."
    He busied himself in the rear of the cabin for several minutes. In time he brought forward a plate of frosted violet glass. He handed this to Su-Cha. The imp held it at eye level, extended, in both hands. "Ready when you are."
    Rider spoke one Word of Command. Su-Cha turned rapidly, staring through the glass. "There!"
    Rider marked the direction. "Charts, Greystone. Not the direction I expected."
    "Thought they would head for the city?" Su-Cha asked.
    "Yes."
    The boat was bound westward.
    Rider examined the chart. "They're hugging the coast. Trying to slip past the patrol in the Narrows. Go down, Chaz. Let's see if we can't raise the guardship."
    Finding the Narrows sentinel was simple. The trireme was showing her lights. There were no challengers on Shasesserre's seas.
    Rider went down the rope ladder, spoke with the vessel's commander. When he returned, he said,
    "All set."
    Su-Cha squealed maliciously, then spoke the Word of Command that ignited the flares aboard the fishing boat.
    The trireme was headed north already, cadence drum pounding. "They'll make it look like a rescue," Rider said. "But then they'll stay on station till they're relieved. Shai Khe will have to do without those men for a while."
    "We could use a few for a truth-drawing." Chaz opined.
    "The captain will turn them in as suspected smugglers. They'll be available."
    "There she goes!" Su-Cha crowed.
    A growing fire illuminated the strait.
    "Pity we couldn't follow them," Chaz said.
    Rider mused, "I don't think they would have led us anywhere. I suspect their function was to draw us away." He shrugged. "We'll see. Meantime, Shai Khe is short even more of his resources.
    Those can't be infinite."

XVI
    Rider used the ladder to deposit Chaz and Su-Cha atop the Citadel, then returned the airship to