Karl Schroeder - Ashes of Candesce - Book Five of Virga

She made a moue, eying him. "I'd be happy to drop you off with a pair of foot-fins and a bottle of water. Maybe in a handy cloud, once we've left the city behind. What do you say?"

There was no way they were going to survive the next five minutes, but the offer was touchingly generous. Jacoby said so.

"Threading the needle," said the pilot. "This could get bumpy." The yacht's engines roared and with a stomach-churning slewing motion, they dropped into the narrow gap between a mansion and a school. Jacoby caught a glimpse of astonished faces, pointing fingers.

"So tell me, what was the plan?" When he didn't answer, Venera reached out and grabbed his chin, turning his face to hers. "Focus."

A crash came from somewhere behind them and the ship shook. In his peripheral vision Jacoby saw another tier of houses slide up past the windscreen.

He wasn't about to tell her his plan, but Inshiri's was another matter. "The hostages were bound for somewhere outside Virga," he said. "Derance called it the 'arena.' I'm unclear on the aeriography--"

"That group we set free. Were they the only ones?"

"So far, yes. But we were expecting another consignment."

"From what nations? Name names, please."

The yacht hooked a string of pipes and water exploded over the nose. The pilot cursed. There was another slamming crash from aft. Jacoby tried to hang on to everything all at once.

Engines roaring, the yacht hovered for a moment, hesitant in the face of thick towers, a barrier of heavy cables, and an open canyon that was, unfortunately, crisscrossed by several layers of catwalk bridges. Muttering some mix of prayers and curses under his breath, the pilot slid them toward the bridges.

"Really, Venera, you talk like you have the upper hand, here. But the fact is, the only thing keeping you alive--apart from him "--he nodded at the pilot--"is the fact that I am still alive. Why should I give you any details?"

The yacht took out a bridge. Townsfolk were fleeing ahead of it, and so far at least they hadn't hit anybody. Jacoby heard the hatch behind him open, and the voices of a dozen soldiers all say "Ow!" in simultaneous sympathy as another bridge snapped.

"Uh, Commander, not to, well, you know, overstate the obvious, but I thought you might want to know--"

"Not now!" she snapped at the bomb expert. He ducked his head and closed the hatch.

They were free-falling. Fanning's hair lifted like some black halo around her head. She put her pistol to his forehead and said, "Jacoby, I'm out of patience with you. Who are they? How many ships do they have? What sort of agreement are they making with these countries?"

Buildings whipped by, faster and faster. If they hit anything now, the yacht would be smashed into kindling.

Better give her something to keep her quiet . "It's about Candesce. They're mustering support for an incursion into the sun of suns. They promise they're not going to shut off the field, only tune it down--"

"Ha!" she said. "You were never that naive. Besides, they would need the key to Candesce to get in, and Chaison gave it to a precipice moth. Last I saw it was flapping its ugly way into winter."

He just looked at her, and Venera's eyes widened. "But that's impossible," she said. "How could they have it when it was given to..."

"We're through!" whooped the pilot. Clear blue sky had broken across the windshield.

* * *

WITH A BRILLIANTflash, the yacht was knocked end over end. Jacoby tumbled, hit the wall, the ceiling. Spangled with shock and pain, he dimly felt Venera's feet on his chest; she pushed off, making him huff, and then he blinked and saw her strapping herself into the copilot's chair. The windscreen was cracked in a dozen places, and ahead and to starboard, another blossom of explosive fire lit the sky.

"Who are they?" she demanded. "How many?"

For a confused second Jacoby thought she was talking to him, but then the pilot pointed. "Six ships. That must be what chased ours away."

"Not guns in the city. Ships! They've been laying in wait for us?"

"Of course they've been laying in wait for you," huffed Jacoby. "You haven't realized that this was a trap all along?"

He saw the dawning realization on her face. "Then the real Thavia of Greydrop--"

"Works for me, damn it."

"But the hostages, they were genuine--"

"Of course they were! You wouldn't have fell for it if I'd used fakes."

"Ma'am," said the pilot, "I think they're launching bikes. Ideas?"

"Oh, yes," she said grimly. "I have an idea." Now it was her turn to point. The pilot groaned.

"First you tell me to drop us through a city, now it's clouds of razor wire and mines ?"

"Don't forget the piranhawks," she said past a tight grin.

"No!" Jacoby clawed his way forward. "Not that way!"

The hatch behind them opened again. "Uh, ma'am? The boys were wondering--"

"Tell them to brace themselves," she called. "We're going to lose those ships in the ruins of Spyre."

She chuckled and rubbed her hands together. "Somebody's going to write a book about this," she said giddily. She leaned toward the pilot. "How's your penmanship?"

"Venera, give up to me now," pleaded Jacoby. "The alternative is much, much worse!"

"Bah," she said. "I'd rather die than be your prisoner again."

"That's not what I mean!"

Clouds lay ahead of them--but unlike the white and peach-touched thunderheads that dotted the sky above and to all sides, these were speckled and black, like thin smoke. Venera indicated the highlights of the view. "Spyre was an open cylinder twelve miles long," she said. "It had a lot of defenses. There's the razor wire, yes, but there were also clouds of caltrops, and of course the mines."

The pilot nodded vigorously. "Yes, about those--"

"I doubt we'll see any. They're navigation hazards; I can't see the neighbors tolerating them now that Spyre's gone. And it would be cheap to dispose of them; two men with machine guns could pick them off from a safe distance."

"All right."

"Venera, please! Don't go this way!"

Something long and silvery shot past to port. "Razor," said Venera unnecessarily. "Oh, look--"

"I see it, I see it." The yacht twisted, throwing Jacoby against the bulkhead again.

Well, there went any chance he'd had of keeping this capture from Inshiri. With Derance dead, there was nobody loyal to her who'd seen what had just unfolded in Fracas--but that was about to change.

"The old defenses made a kind of shell around Spyre," Venera was saying. "Egg-shaped, fifteen miles long by ten. Once we're in there it should be clear and we can take a more leisurely path out. Those big cruisers will have to circle around, they don't have our maneuvera ... What the hell is that?"

A mist of spiked balls flew past, then a few strands of razor wire, and then they were into open air again. Venera and the pilot were suddenly silent, and Jacoby looked past them and saw that there was indeed nothing to hide anymore.

"There must be ... hundreds," whispered Venera. For the first time, she looked afraid.

Oh, more than hundreds. Jacoby had long ago lost count. He shook his head, defeated and resigned.

"Run up the white flag," said Venera quietly.

They glided, engines idling, into a cloud of warships miles in extent.

17

KEIR HESITATED, THENreached out to rap on the door. It was ornately carved, and like everything else in Aerie's new capital city, smelled of wood shavings and fresh paint.

"I said, just a minute !" Leal sounded frantic.

"What, you're not even decent yet?" He heard the assurance in his own voice; back in Brink, he would never have teased an adult like this. But that time was increasingly a blur.