Free Soulblade by Lindsay Buroker Page A

asked.
    “I haven’t been to Subarctic Zharr yet.”
    “We’re not going to land and find a wanted poster with your face on it, are we, Captain?” Cas asked.
    “Nah, that was a humanitarian mission. I helped them turn aside lava flows on an erupting volcano to save a town. It’s too bad we’re not going there. I could probably get us some of the vanilla bean alcohol they make here. It’s cracking.”
    “Colonel Quataldo says none of us will be showing our faces anywhere,” Duck said. “We’re landing twenty miles south of Tildar Dem and walking the rest of the way, so nobody will notice our fliers.”
    “Walking past the giant wolves and alligators and man-eating plants?” Pimples asked.
    “We’ll stick to the beach most of the way, so we’re less likely to run into hungry predators.” Did Duck sound disappointed?
    “Haven’t seen any airships along the coast,” Captain Blazer said. “We just getting lucky or do they not have any here?”
    “A lot of merchant ships come down here,” Tolemek said, “and a few of the bigger cities have air and naval fleets, but we’re on the stormy coast. The villages are smaller and more rustic here.”
    Cas relayed his words to the others.
    “Rustic jungle villages,” Pimples said. “Why would the Cofah emperor marry one of his daughters off to somebody from such a place?”
    “The king said her fiancé is a shaman,” Cas said.
    “A lot of the Dakrovian shamans come from this region,” Tolemek added, “and if I recall my history, dragons are believed to have originated on this continent.”
    Cas caught Tolemek looking over at Phelistoth. The dragon was shadowing them, but Tylie did not have a communication crystal, so they had no way to include her in the conversation unless she or Phelistoth spoke telepathically to the group.
    “The emperor has a few shamans working with the air military already,” Tolemek continued, “as you and your squadron have encountered, so this is likely about firming up a treaty to acquire more. I imagine Salatak is worried now that Iskandia has dragon allies.” He glanced at Phelistoth again.
    Cas wasn’t sure the silver dragon counted as an ally . His willingness to stay in Iskandia seemed to have more to do with Tylie’s choice to train with Sardelle than any interest in helping the nation.
    “Did any of you people who are snuggled up to the king’s bosom ever hear where that fireball flinging witch came from?” Captain Blazer asked. She had been among those who had returned in time to battle against the Cofah in their flying fortress, so she had seen firsthand the destructive power of Eversong’s fireballs.
    “The king doesn’t have a bosom, does he?” Pimples asked. “He seems fit for someone who sits on a throne all day.”
    “You’d have to ask Captain Kaika,” Duck said, a smirk in his voice.
    After a pause, Pimples said, “She says our intelligence people haven’t discovered where the sorceress came from yet, just that Sardelle thought she’d come out of a stasis chamber somewhere, much like our dragon friends. She also says—oh, ma’am, I can’t say that.”
    Cas snorted, imagining some comment about the king’s chest or his other manly attributes.
    An airship approaches from the southwest , a voice rumbled in her head. Phelistoth.
    Cas peered in that direction. Though mists clung to the landmass, the sky was clear over the ocean, and the sun still provided enough light to see for miles. “How far away? I don’t see anything.”
    Belatedly, she realized she was speaking to everyone, thanks to the communication crystal, and she did not know if the dragon’s message had been delivered to everyone. She also did not know if he could hear her from his position, about a thousand meters off her right flank.
    Forty miles away , Phelistoth responded. It is following the coast toward us.
    “Our coordinates for landing are another thirty miles down that same coast,” Duck said. “That’ll be a problem.