Marked for Death

Chapter 43

Kandler rolled out of his hammock and padded toward the ladder. “How did you get the hatch open?” the justicar whispered.

The hatch flew open, and in the sudden light that poured through from the ring of fire surrounding the ship, Kandler could see that whoever was on the ladder, it was not the shifter. The figure was far too lithe and held herself with a distinctly feminine grace.

“Hey!” Kandler shouted and charged.

The intruder hauled herself up the ladder and onto the deck. Just as the figure was about to clear the hold, Kandler’s hand stabbed out and caught an ankle.

“Come back here!” he said.

The justicar yanked the intruder halfway back through the hatchway. As she landed with her belly on the edge of the hatch, she lashed out with her free foot and caught Kandler across the chin. Determined not to let go, the justicar held on through the first blow, but the stranger knew where to find him now. A second kick in the face smashed his nose flat. With a third kick, the intruder wriggled free and pulled herself out through the hatch.

Blinking away tears, Kandler wiggled his nose and decided it wasn’t broken. He lunged for the ladder, but just as he reached it the figure slammed the hatch shut.

“Huh?” It was Burch, stirring from sleep. “What’s going on?”

“The changeling!” Kandler said as he climbed the ladder. He shoved his head and shoulder up against the hatchway and pushed with all his might. He managed to leverage the lid up and back, and the intruder jumped away.

As Kandler stuck his head through the hatch, he saw the changeling standing above him, her form silhouetted against the raging ring of fire, the light of which reflected warmly on the gray clouds of the Mournland sky above. The thought that the creature had been on the airship with them-down in the hold with him! — made him roar with rage.

As Kandler scrambled through the open hatch, he heard Esprл’s scream from the bridge above him. Kandler stood and scanned the deck. Deothen, Sallah, and Xalt sat near the ship’s bow where the justicar guessed they’d been dozing. Kandler glanced up at the circular blaze. They were so close to the layer of clouds overhanging the Mournland that all he could see was the gray above and the black emptiness along the ship’s sides, as if they were floating through some nether realm far beyond the world he knew.

“Kandler!” Esprл screeched when she spotted the justicar from her spot on the bridge.

He turned and flashed a quick grin at Esprл then snapped his head about to look for the changeling. His daughter seemed safe, but no one on the airship would be out of danger until the changeling was dead. It was hard to pick the creature out in the dim light and flickering shadows, but the sound of Brendis drawing his blade brought Kandler’s gaze back to the bridge. There! He saw the changeling facing off against the knight.

She feinted a charge at the knight, and Brendis stepped backward, maintaining his guard.

“We finally meet,” the young knight said to the changeling.

Even to Kandler’s ears, his bravado seemed strained.

The changeling smiled at Brendis. As she did, she let her gray cloak unfurl around her. The edges of it splayed out farther, wider, and as the fabric thinned it became leathery and more formed.

Brendis watched in horror, holding his burning blade before him like a shield as the cloak fashioned itself into a massive set of batlike wings.

The changeling allowed herself a short laugh as she leaped onto the rear railing of the ship. The young knight recoiled, bumping into Kandler as the justicar came storming up on to the bridge.

“It’s a flying cloak!” Kandler snapped. “Now fight or get out of the way!”

The justicar snatched the sacred blade from Brendis’ hand. The young knight, still stunned by the changeling’s transformation, did not protest.

Kandler swung the burning sword at the changeling, but she sprang backward and fell into the inky night. “No!” he shouted. “Come back and fight!”

The changeling laughed again as she let her magical wings catch the air and bring her soaring back up toward the ship. “How stupid do you think I am?”

With that, she glided back into the darkness again.

Frustrated, Kandler snarled at the young knight. Brendis stepped back clear of the reach of his sword, still in the justicar’s hand.

“Burch!” Kandler said.

“Right here, boss!” the shifter called as he emerged from the hold. “Where’s my crossbow?”

“Get back down that hatch!” Deothen said to Burch as he stormed along the deck, brandishing his sword at the shifter. “We have the matter under control.”

“Saying it don’t make it so,” Burch scoffed. He spat at the senior knight and headed for the bridge.

Before Burch reached the narrow stairs, Sallah called out to him and then slid his crossbow across the polished deck at him. He stopped it with his foot, then kicked it up and snatched it from the air. “Thanks,” he said as he cocked it. Sallah slid over the quiver of bolts next.

“Sallah!” Deothen roared. “Stop arming our prisoners!”

Burch turned and pointed his crossbow at the senior knight. Deothen ducked to his knees, and the shifter’s shot sailed over his head. A cry pierced the black night beyond the ship’s bow, and Kandler caught a glimpse of a winged shadow turning back into the mists.

Burch snarled and stepped past the knight, swinging his weapon around to cover as much of the sky as he could. “She gets near the ring again,” he said, “I’ll drop her.”

Kandler lowered the flickering blade in his hand and scanned the darkness. On the ground in the Mournland, the air usually seemed still as a grave, but up here, with the airship soaring along, the wind whipped through him like a cold knife. Only the heat from the fiery ring dulled its edge.

As Kandler’s gaze hunted through the sky, Brendis stepped forward to take the weapon back from him. The justicar elbowed the young knight back. “Stay out of my way,” he said.

Sallah drew her own sword and set it ablaze with silvery fire as she raced across the deck, her long, red curls flapping behind her like a battle standard. She clambered onto the bridge where she found Esprл huddled next to the wheel.

“Don’t let her get me again,” the girl said. “Please!”

Esprл was gripping the wheel of the airship in white knuckles, and her entire body was shaking. She squeezed her eyes shut, and Kandler saw the red glow of the fire reflected off tears. The airship lurched slightly upward. Perhaps it was only the ship catching a pocket of air, but it was then that Kandler noticed a distinct trembling in the deck. Esprл was terrified, and it was affecting her control over the ship.

Sallah knelt down next to Esprл and stroked the girl’s golden hair with her free hand. “She won’t get past me,” the knight said solemnly. “I promise.”

Kandler reached down and patted Sallah on the back. When the lady knight looked up at him, he nodded his thanks.

Deothen stood in the center of the deck, directly under the crackling ring of fire that propelled the ship through the night. “Where is she?” he asked. “Has she fled?”

“There!” Kandler stabbed his silver-flame-coated blade past the ship’s rear railing. “She’s out on the rudder!”

As Kandler watched, the changeling slashed at the rudder’s leathery fabric with a black knife, trying to shred it to ribbons. The material resisted her blade’s edge, but she kept at it.

Kandler spied a mooring line lashed around a cleat on the rear railing. He picked up the loose end of it and threaded it through the rear of his belt. With a series of deft moves, he tied a tight knot and then leaped up to the rear railing. From there, he stepped out on to the rudder’s top spar and crept forward, balancing on the narrow beam of wood as the winds whipped around him.

“Kandler!” Esprл screamed.

A crossbow bolt sailed past Kandler and buried itself in the rudder’s frame. The changeling saw it, hissed, and took a step back. Kandler glanced over his shoulder. Burch was coming at them, reloading as he ran. He turned back just in time to see the changeling drop away into the darkness below. Kandler heard the clack of Burch’s crossbow followed by the whisper of a bolt shooting past.

Kandler looked back over his shoulder as he stood crouched on the spar, Brendis’ burning sword still in his hand. “Did you get her?” he asked Burch.

Before the shifter could answer, the changeling came around behind Kandler and blind-sided him from his perch. As the justicar toppled into the blackness, he swung about, let go of the sword, and grabbed the changeling, hauling her down with him. Brendis’ glittering blade arced out and away from them and tumbled through the dark toward the unseen ground far below.