Taziri ran her fingers through her sweaty, greasy, tangled hair as she stared bleary-eyed at her console. The Halcyon ’s cockpit was cold and clammy. A faint sheen of moisture clung to the gauges and seats, making everything a bit unpleasant to touch or sit on. Still, she flipped her switches and tapped her needles and listened to the airship come to life. Beside her, Ghanima yawned.
“Ready to go home?” Taziri muffled an answering yawn as she wrapped her blue scarf across her nose and mouth. The warmth of her own breath wafted back onto her face, carrying the vague scent of a military breakfast with it.
“Definitely. I’ve had enough excitement for one lifetime. I just want a bit of home, and my sister, and some quiet.” Ghanima set her feet on the pedals and grabbed the controls. “So, tell me again how we know this thing is ready to go? It’s so quiet.”
“She’s always ready. It’s one of her many charms. Take us home.” Taziri waved at the ground crew outside as Ghanima eased the throttles forward and the Halcyon floated up off the grass as her propellers whined into the early morning breeze. The airfield slowly contracted below from a wide lawn to a tiny patch of green, nearly lost among the rough lines of the Lower City streets and rooftops. The sun was still over an hour from reaching the top of the eastern ridge and the valley glowed with a muted, colorless light.
“Have you ever seen the Shrine of the Mother?” Ghanima glanced over her shoulder.
“Once, a few years ago. You?”
“Not yet. Would you mind if I made a pass over it? Just to take a quick peek?”
“Why not?”
The city below rotated a bit and then the western slope began growing steadily larger as they cruised toward the steep mountain face. The trees blurred together into wide swathes of infinitely speckled greens, broken only by a thin pale line winding its way up the mountain. Taziri tapped the window. “There’s the Royal Road. It’s just gravel, you know. You’d think they would bother to pave the only road going to the royal palace.”
“Hey, what’s that?” Ghanima pointed straight ahead at a black speck on the road.
“Where?” Taziri squinted. “Oh. I see. Must be some poor messenger getting some exercise he didn’t ask for.” She smiled. “You’ve got really good eyes.”
“Thanks. Hey, I think there’s another one, just below the first one. And I think they’re moving pretty fast.”
Taziri reached up into her tool rack with a frown and pulled down her binoculars. It took her a moment to find and focus on the two figures on the road. “They’re on horses. The bottom rider has a white coat. Royal Guard, I guess. The top one…has a red coat.” She exchanged a worried look with her pilot. “It looks like Major Zidane.”
“So he made it back! But what’s he doing down there? Shouldn’t he be in Arafez with Kenan tracking down Doctor Medina?”
“I would have thought so, but something must have gone very wrong because that guard has a rifle in her hand.”
“So what should we do? Shouldn’t we try to help the major?”
“I don’t know.” Taziri glanced around the cockpit for inspiration. “The mountain is too steep to try to land near him. We can’t even fly near him. One stiff breeze would have us kissing those trees.” Her gaze passed over the winch by the door. “Ghanima, how’s the Halcyon feel right now? How’s the wind? How steady do you think you can hold her?”
“It’s pretty calm right now. No jitters in the controls. Why?”
“I want you to get above the major. I’m going to toss him a line.”
“What? You want to pick him up, straight off a running horse?”
Taziri hopped out of her seat and started pulling the winch rope out onto the cabin floor. She looked up with a shrug. “Why not? Do you have a better idea?” She pulled her goggles down over her eyes.
“Not yet, but by the time this is all over I’m sure I’ll have thought of one.”
Taziri felt the deck pitching and rolling as the airship climbed closer to the western mountainside. She unlocked the hatch and swung it open, letting a dull roar of cold morning air into the cabin. The slope of the mountain below was horribly skewed from the very low to the very high just a few yards to either side of the Royal Road. When she looked down, the road and the two riders seemed impossibly far away, yet when she looked straight out she saw a mountain forest that was much too close for comfort. She kicked the rope out the hatch and watched it uncoil into the fresh morning air.
“All right, that’s all the rope we have.” Taziri shouted over the wind. “Ghanima, we need to get lower, and speed up a little.”
She waved in response.
Taziri gripped the edge of the hatchway and stared down at the tip of the dangling rope. It was still behind the major, but Syfax was staring straight up at her and waving.
“He sees us. A little faster and lower!”
“Any lower and we’ll be in those trees!”
“We can handle a few trees!” Taziri slipped her hand into her shirt and wrapped her sweaty fingers around the silver compass pendant hanging around her neck as she muttered, “Please God, let us handle a few trees.” She watched the sloped forest reach out for the airship. Above the Royal Road, the trees seemed to be clawing at the gondola, their evergreen boughs waving out from the mountainside, while the trees on the lower side of the road were so far below them that she couldn’t see more than their topmost canopy.
A great mass of twigs and needles swept softly against the hull. Then something heavy slammed into them.
“Sorry!”
“You’re doing great!” Taziri kept her eyes on the rope. It was hanging just in front of the major’s horse now, but she couldn’t tell how much lower it needed to be. The major seemed to be pushing the horse even faster up the steep road. “Just a little lower!”
“You’re crazy!”
“Not really.” She squeezed her compass cross a little tighter, driving its four silver points into her palm. “Just a little more!”
A dozen heavy tree branches smacked against the Halcyon in rapid succession, followed by the high-pitched shattering of the cockpit windows. A soft rain of glass slivers and shards flew back and peppered Taziri’s right arm and leg. She brushed them off her flight jacket as she glanced up at Ghanima, who waved back. “Nice to know this armor actually works.” She pulled a long splinter of glass out of her pants leg. “Mostly.”
She leaned out the hatch and looked down to discover the major clinging to the rope. His horse had slowed to a walk some distance behind them and Syfax was hauling himself up the rope, hand over hand. Dimly, she heard him yelling. She lurched against the winch lever and the rope spooled itself back up, bringing the major with it. “We got him! Pull up! Pull up! Get clear of the mountain!”
The deck twisted sharply under her feet as the airship banked away out over the valley. Taziri fell hard on her rear and then scrambled back toward the hatch just in time to grab the major as the winch pulled the last of the rope inside. They both fell back into the cabin and lay in a heap on the floor. Taziri staggered up a second time and yanked the hatch shut. She turned and leaned back against the wall, panting. “Remind me never to do that again.”
“I will.” Syfax stood up slowly. “What the hell were you thinking? I waved you off, but you ignored me. So I grabbed your damned rope and you left me dangling down there for a whole minute. I could have been shot a dozen times waiting for you to pull me up!”
Taziri smiled faintly. “It’ll go smoother next time. Promise.”
The major only glared back at her and then squinted into the wind pouring through the shattered cockpit windows. “We have to get to the Upper City. Chaou and Sade are probably there by now. We may not have much time to stop them.”
“The Upper City?” Ghanima twisted around to wince at Taziri. Her goggles looked massive strapped across her small face.
“Major, we can’t get to the Upper City.” Taziri slipped back into her seat and glanced across her gauges. “It’s a no-fly zone.”
“Are you kidding me?”
“Nope. They’ve got a dozen big guns spread out all around the queen’s private landing field and anyone who isn’t on the queen’s skybarge gets shot full of holes.” Taziri drummed her fingers on her console. “These are big, nasty guns. Half are artillery, half are high-speed mechanized rifles. It’s impossible for anyone other than the queen to fly into the Upper City. That’s why even Sade has to take the road.”
The major leaned forward over Ghanima’s shoulder to squint out at the mountainside. “If you can pick me up off a running horse, then you can drop me off somewhere too. Maybe we can circle around and find a ledge outside the city.”
“There aren’t any.” Taziri pointed to the map tacked to the wall. “The Royal Guards know their business. They’ve surveyed the entire mountain ridge and used explosives to break up all sorts of ledges and boulders, anything an enemy might try to use to approach or attack the palace. Besides, the winds are absolutely wicked up there. Even if we just wanted to drop you off the rope, we’d be hanging around in their gun sights for at least ten minutes, which is ten minutes too long. I’m sorry, major, there’s just no way.”
For a moment no one spoke, and the Halcyon ’s engines droned louder through the open windows. Bits of glass tinkled and crackled as they tore free of the shattered edges of the canopy. Finally, the major straightened up and said, “Can you at least take us up at a safe distance so we can see the Upper City?”
Ghanima shrugged. “Sure thing. Going up.”
The ponderous ascent gave them time to move farther away from the western ridge, and as the pale line of the Royal Road disappeared amidst the trees, the Lower City resolved into a tiny patchwork of crooked squares, bright gray roofs, and dark green fields. The view to port slid downward as the tiny airship floated higher until the stark rectilinear shapes of the Upper City of Orossa suddenly appeared, jutting from the wild crags of the ancient Atlas mount. At its base, the city sat upon a wide ledge carved into the living rock by human hands and etched by howling winds. Atop the ledge the city sprawled like a collection of toy buildings in the distance, a profusion of palaces and temples and towers, all impossibly straight and tall, sweeping and arching, elegant and imposing. The entire city glowed a faint shade of crimson gold in the bright morning light.
“There.” The major pointed half-heartedly. “The airfield. That green circle there, toward the northern end. And those little black things around the edge must be your guns.”
Taziri nodded. “Some around the field, others around the edge of the city. Look there, you can see the queen’s skybarge on the field. That’s the Star of Orossa. Huge old thing. Commissioned by the queen’s mother. It must be almost fifty years old now. They have to overhaul it completely every three or four years just to keep it in service.”
“Hey, it almost looks like they’re getting ready to lift off.” Ghanima reached over and yanked the binoculars off Taziri’s rack. “They are, they’re about to leave. There’s a bunch of people on the field.”
“What?” The major grabbed the binoculars and pressed them to his eyes. “But if the queen is leaving now, then Sade will have to kill her now, or else wait for the queen to get back. Ohana, it’s happening right now! We can’t wait for the guards to arrest her. We need to get down there now!”