Still, he had gained unexpected support from another quarter.
On that very morning, only an hour before their departure, he had come to an emotional crossroads and gone to confront Dallen Usurient, warning him that unless he came with them, the search was off. The threat was simple enough to understand. Usurient had at least as much invested in finding the sorcerer as Mallich did, and ultimately the consequences were his to bear, for better or worse. Since that was so, shouldn’t he be a part of this quest? Shouldn’t he be involved to the same extent as Mallich? Shouldn’t he be there to lend a practiced hand should the need arise?
In spite of what he had claimed earlier, Mallich was uneasy with the idea of traveling alone with Etris and The Hammer at his back and only the oketar and the crince for protection. Usurient’s presence would even the odds, should things start to fall apart. It would help maintain a balance between those who possessed a moral code and those who did not. Looking back on it, Mallich believed he would have ended up going anyway, even if Usurient had turned him down flat. But he wasn’t sure, and now he didn’t need to be. Because after suggesting that being present personally was the only way to guarantee there would be no further sleepless nights worrying over Arcannen, imagine his surprise when Dallen not only agreed but did so almost as if he had already made up his mind.
“I think you have it right,” the other said. “This seems to me to be one of those times when direct involvement is necessary. I wouldn’t want to spend my days wondering how this turned out if the news did not get back to me.”
“My thoughts exactly,” Mallich had said.
“Besides, I will take a certain pleasure being there when the life goes out of Arcannen’s eyes and I can see he knows who brought it about.”
There might be something else at work here, Mallich knew. Usurient was nothing if not devious. But he had resolved the other should take the same risks and, however this turned out, should share the same fate. Besides, the two of them together would have a better chance against the sorcerer than either one of them acting alone.
Now, skimming the jagged surface of the flats running down to the coastline from the mountains, passing through mist and soaking rain, he watched Usurient leave his post at the bow and start back for the pilot box. When he reached it, the Commander of the Red Slash swung up the ladder and climbed inside to stand next to him.
“Where do you think to land?” he asked, raising his voice to carry over the howling of the wind.
“Just ahead. Another mile at most, well back of the ruins. I would leave the airship there and walk in to see if Arcannen is in residence.”
“How will you know if he’s there or not with this going on?” Usurient gestured at the weather, the rain running down his dark face as he bent close.
“The animals,” Mallich answered him. “They’ll sniff him out. Even if he’s hiding belowground within the ruins–which I think is likely–they’ll catch his scent. We can ferret him out after that anytime we choose. In fact, better we do our scouting in this weather, when he will not be expecting us, than when it’s clear and he can see us coming.”
Usurient shook his head. “It might seem so, but he will detect us anyway if we do what you suggest.”
Mallich scowled. “What do you mean?”
“I mean he is smarter than you give him credit for. He is a sorcerer, Mallich. He won’t rely on his senses alone to keep watch. He will have set wards in place to alert him to our arrival. He will have strung them all across the flats leading to his safehold. They will tell him we are there the moment we pass through them.”
“What do you suggest then? We need to get close enough for the animals to do their work!”
“Indeed. But we need not come at him in the way he expects. Think on it a moment. Why did I choose this vessel for our journey? Why did I insist on leaving now when there was a storm approaching the coast and I knew we would have to fly right into its teeth?”
Mallich was irritated at the questioning and with the other’s self–satisfied attitude, so smug he could barely contain himself. “Why don’t you just tell me? That way I won’t have to wait a moment longer to appreciate how clever you are.”
The shadow of a smile twisted Usurient’s thin lips. “This airship is built to fly in heavy weather, and this weather is perfect for concealment. Our approach is all that matters. We’ll fly past Arbrox and out over the sea. We won’t land where he will expect us. And make no mistake–he will be expecting us. His wards are of no use if we don’t cross through them. We will land on a promontory I am familiar with farther north of Arbrox and then follow the coastline, skirting his wards. That way, none will be broken; no warning will be given. Your animals can sniff to their hearts’ content from the coast side of the ruins and tell you all you need to know, and he won’t suspect a thing.”
Mallich thought it over for a few moments and found no flaws in the other’s reasoning. He gave a curt nod and went back to working the controls.
They had flown another few miles at slow speed through the storm when Usurient had him change course, pointing the bow farther north from their current course to bring them to the promontory he was seeking for their landing. Flying almost blind, Mallich wondered how the other could be so certain of where they were. But rather than argue the matter, he decided to wait and see. The airship edged ahead, plowing the deep haze and sheets of rain, navigating the darkness. The wind had picked up and was blowing harder, and instead of clearing the air it was causing the mist and rain to swirl in sudden gusts that obscured things even further.
But finally they broke free and found themselves moving out over the Tiderace, and immediately Usurient had Mallich swing the airship back toward land, peering intently ahead, sighting whatever landmarks he could see that were apparently hidden from the hunter. He must have found them because within minutes he had them descending onto a plateau within a cluster of jagged rocks and scrub, settling carefully in place so that the ship could be anchored by The Hammer, who had at last deigned to do something.
When the airship was made fast, Mallich turned to Usurient, the other two still out of hearing while he spoke. “I will take the oketar now and find the sorcerer’s lair. You can come with me or stay here with them. It makes no difference to me.”
Usurient gave a quick glance at the giant, where he was still tightening the anchor ropes, and at Bael Etris, who slouched against the railing, watching. “You trust them here alone?” he asked.
Mallich snorted, his weathered face wrinkling. “I don’t trust them anywhere. But the crince will be watching them.”
“Then I’ll come with you.”
Much farther west, a disgusted Paxon and Avelene stood hunched against the advancing rain on the public airfield in the city of Wayford staring at their grounded clipper.
“What’s happened is the contacts between the parse tubes and the draws have frayed sufficiently that the power directed by the light sheaths into the draws is not reaching the diapson crystals. This happens over time, which is why the draws are usually changed out after, oh, maybe ten thousand flying miles or so. The exchange of energy just wears them down in the natural course of usage. Unless, of course, they are weakened deliberately. From no small amount of experience, I would have to say, after looking at yours, that they were tampered with.”