His heart sank. Shai Khe was a relentless and merciless opponent.
He allowed his wizard's senses to extend. This was a good time and place to jump someone tracking the missing men.
They were there, just ahead in the breezeway, hidden beneath trash and inside shadows. There were eight of them. They had several mystical devices that would have been potent had they taken Rider unaware. They were growing impatient.
Rider produced a deck of plaques the size of tarot cards. He shuffled out the one he wanted.
It portrayed a man asleep, dreaming hideous devils. The devils were about to seize and drag him through a fiery gap in a background wall. There were graven words around the plaque's margin.
Rider read them aloud.
As he spoke each word, it disappeared. After he spoke the last, the picture itself faded. The plaque crumbled into dust which dribbled between his fingers.
Rider went back and told the City Guards they could collect another eight customers in the breezeway. Then he set out after the receding disturbance marking the location of his men.
He loped to the waterfront, where he immediately identified both the vessel they had unmasked and the outbound fishing smack carrying them. The ship reeked of old sorceries forgotten by all but their victims.
Rider raced back to his chariot, pounded through the streets to the airship yards, where, in accordance with standing instructions, his airships were ready for immediate flight. He selected the fast vessel he had used before.
Liftoff was hectic, as he had to cover the places of crewmen not present, but once he was aloft he had no trouble. He reached through the web, touched Chaz and Preacher, told them he wanted everyone atop their tower of the Citadel. He tried to reach Soup and Spud, but a grey null intervened. They might be unconscious. Or worse.
Chaz and Su-Cha were in the parapet when Rider halted the airship above the Citadel. Both carried packs. Rider hastened to the gondola door, dropped a rope ladder. As Chaz and Su-Cha scrambled up, Greystone and Preacher appeared.
"What's up?" Chaz demanded as he clambered aboard.
"The game is afoot. They snatched Spud and Soup. What are the packs?"
"Some odds and ends we threw together. Just in case."
"The laboratory secure?"
Su-Cha chuckled. "And then some."
XV
Chaz repeated the news for Preacher and Greystone. Rider ordered the ship demon to proceed toward the Golden Crescent at speed, for the fishing boat was near the limit of the web. He had to get the vessel in sight first or lose it among a hundred others.
"I think I've been outmaneuvered," he said.
"How's that?" Chaz asked.
"The boat is leaving the web. To follow we'll have to keep it in sight. Which means they'll be able to see us, too."
"How about an invisibility spell?"
"Wouldn't hide something this big."
"What about an angel?" Su-Cha asked. Already he had shed his shirt and sprouted wings.
Rider understood immediately. "An albatross or eagle would be less flashy."
"Dig out some of those mirrors and flares," Su-Cha told Chaz. Already his head was avian.
"A shape to go with his brain," Chaz said, ransacking the packs. He produced signal mirrors and four small flares, which he placed in a pouch the imp grew among his ventral feathers. Su-Cha retained rudimentary hands beneath his wings.
Rider spread a maritime chart. "The ship is here, now, and headed so. If there are others around, watch the one that is in a hurry. They're making all the speed they can."
Su-Cha squawked and plunged through a hatch Preacher opened. In a moment he was headed out over the strait on long white wings.
Greystone looked over Rider's shoulder. "They headed for the Hurm Islands?"
"Maybe. They could shift course once they're sure they're clear of the web."
"How soon?"
"I've lost them already."
"Signal from Su-Cha," Chaz said. "He has them."
Rider peered out the window. Far away, a mirror flashed.
"Keeping their heading," Chaz read.
"Tell him not to get too close," Rider replied. "What do you know about the Hurm Islands, Greystone?"
"Not much to know. Uninhabited and considered uninhabitable. Except for the biggest, Radhorn Island, they're little more than marshy places off the mouth of the Claytyne River." The Claytyne emptied into the Bridge of the World from its southern, Saverne side. "Long ago, before the seas were ours alone, there were naval fortifications on Radhorn. Earlier still, pirates nested there, lying in wait for ships headed west."
Rider nodded. "And these days it's suspected of being a hideout for smugglers. The ruins of the fortifications would provide a good hiding place for a pirate airship."
"But Odehnal said Polybos House," Preacher protested.
"Let's forget that for the moment. Chaz. Can you make out Su-Cha?"
"Only when he flashes an all right."
"Maybe we ought to call for an all-out raid," Preacher 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."