“Get the ladies set, and we’re ready to ride,” Burch said, ignoring Xalt’s reaction.
The shifter started stuffing clothing and other odds and ends into another three packs with practiced ease. He threw some things aside, discarding them as either useless or too heavy or both. Everything else went into the packs until they bulged near bursting.
“All right,” Kandler said as Burch kept working, “here’s the plan. Sallah and Burch, you head for the stables. We’re going to need horses to get out of here. Otherwise, they’ll ride us down at first light.
“Brendis and Xalt, you’re with me. We need to get the gates open, or we’ll just end up riding around the central yard.
“Monja, you stay with Esprë just outside the stables and keep her safe until we’re ready to go.
“When we open the gate, you’ll all hear the signal. Get on those horses and drive them out of the place—all of them. We don’t want to leave any behind for them to chase us with.”
“What if we get separated?” Sallah asked.
“Don’t.” The justicar frowned. “If something happens, just head south as best you can. Burch knows our scents. He can track us down and bring us together if it comes to that.”
“I want to help,” Esprë said, looking at Monja. “I don’t need a bodyguard.”
Kandler’s frown deepened. “We’ve all risked our lives to rescue you, and we’re risking them again for you tonight. If something happens to you, it’s all for nothing.”
Esprë glared at Kandler. He knew the look from other times she’d raged at him. He wanted to keep her safe, and she wanted her freedom. They’d gone over it countless times, but this was different.
“I’m not trying to shelter you,” he said to her, reaching out to caress her shoulder. As he did, he noticed—not for the first time—how slight she was. Next to Monja, she was huge, but viewed against his battle-scarred hand, his sense of her youth almost undid him.
“This is bigger than you and me now,” Kandler said, trying again.
As he spoke, he saw her shoulders tense. He wondered if she could feel the dragonmark itching, burning between her shoulders. Had it grown since he’d last seen it? He wasn’t sure he wanted to know.
Esprë looked up at him with red-rimmed eyelids framing sky-blue pupils. She rocked there on the bed for a moment then nodded slowly. She understood.
At that moment, Kandler wished more than anything that he could take the burden of the mark from her. It wasn’t fair that such a sweet young elf had to endure such a thing, to be afflicted with it, but nothing in life was ever fair, he guessed. Why should it start now?
“All right,” he said, giving her shoulder one last squeeze.
“Get some sleep,” he said to everyone. “We move out in just a few hours, and there’s no guessing when or where we’ll get to rest again.”
“Why don’t we just steal the airship?” Monja asked. The question leaped from her mouth like it had been burning her tongue since the conversation started.
“It’s not ready yet,” Kandler said, “or so Berre says.”
“It would probably get us out of here,” Burch said, “if we could get on it.”
Kandler nodded. “The skeletons will work on it all night long, dozens of them. We couldn’t get past them. We’d have to destroy them all.”
“It’s exactly what Berre would expect us to do,” said Sallah. “We need to at least make a feint at it.”
Kandler licked his lips. “Good point. Xalt, we have a new job for you. While the others sneak into the stables, I need you to go up and try to start a conversation with whoever’s on the airship.”
“About what?” the warforged asked, his ebony eyes blank as ever.
“Anything—the weather, what it’s like to be a stack of walking bones. Whatever. They can’t answer you. You just need to distract them for a moment, make them suspicious. That should be all the rest of us need.”
“I’ll go with him,” Monja said.
Kandler shook his head. “I need you with Esprë.” He hoped he didn’t sound as desperate about that as he felt.
“When the skeletons figure out what’s really happening, Xalt may not be able to get away. I can keep them away,” she said, fingering the silver, eight-pointed symbol of the Sovereign Host that peeked out from behind the top of her tunic, where it hung around her neck on a colorful strand of woven fibers.
Kandler started to protest, but Brendis cut him off. “I’ll stay with Esprë,” the still-pale knight said. “I’m still not …” he swallowed, and Kandler wondered if he might vomit. “I’d be better in a protective role, I think.”
“That leaves me to tackle the gates alone,” Kandler said with grim resolve. “If that’s how it has to be—”
“I’ll go with you,” Sallah said.
“No,” Kandler tried again.
“She’s right, boss,” Burch said. “You might need help at the gate. I can wrangle the horses on my own.”
Kandler began to say something, then stopped and shut his mouth. “Did I have a say in any of this?”
Esprë reached out and put a hand on his arm. “I know just how you feel.”
29
The crackling fire roared past the window of the room in which Kandler slept, and he awoke. He pried open his eyes to see Xalt’s shape silhouetted in the window, a warm, flickering light setting off the edges of his form from the night beyond.
“What is it?” Kandler asked, sure he wouldn’t like the answer.
“Sounds like an airship,” said Burch.
“Ours?”
Xalt shook his head. “The skeletons are still working on an old ship in the yard. This craft must be the military one Berre referred to.”
“It’s early,” Kandler said. “Damn Karrnathi efficiency.”
“Does this change things?” Brendis asked.
The young knight looked as if he’d been sitting on the edge of his bed watching the others the entire time. There were only three beds in the room, and Burch and Kandler had taken the others, as Xalt had insisted that since he didn’t need to sleep, the beds were useless to him.
Kandler nodded. “I’m just not sure how.” He paused to think for a moment. “We should let them unlimber the new ship, tie it down. The crew will be tired and want to sleep. Once they’re settled, we can move. We need to be out of here long before dawn.”
A knock at the door made Xalt jump. Kandler and Burch fastened on their weapons as Brendis crept toward the door, his hand on the hilt of his sword. Before he could put his hand on the door, it burst open, and Esprë, Sallah, and Monja spilled into the room.
“Did you see the airship?” Esprë asked.
Kandler nodded as he stood to gather the young elf in his arms for a quick embrace. Then he turned to the others.
“The plan’s the same,” he said. “We just need to sit tight here for a bit. Then we move.”
“Are you sure this is still a good idea?” Xalt said.
Monja looked up at him as the two strolled across the fort’s open yard toward the battered airship. “It’s a little late for second thoughts,” she said. “They’ve already spotted us.”
Xalt stared up at the ship with the black, unblinking stones that served as his eyes. Skeletons still swarmed over the thing like ants across an anthill, building, building, building. The banging of hammers and the high-pitched rhythmic zipping of saws didn’t skip a beat as they neared, but an overseer in full Karrnathi armor—black, solid, and covered with burled spikes—standing on the bridge pointed down at them as they approached.
Xalt marveled at how well the repairs had gone so far. He hadn’t thought animated skeletons capable of such craftsmanship, and the thought shamed him. Many breathers underestimated warforged in the same way, considering them nothing more than heartless killing machines. He’d spent his entire life—most of it, anyway—proving that notion wrong.