Soulblade by Lindsay Buroker

Author:Lindsay Buroker [Buroker, Lindsay]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Science Fiction & Fantasy, Fantasy, Epic, Sword & Sorcery, Science Fiction, Military, Space Marine, Steampunk, General Fiction
Amazon: B0176Y70FA
Published: 2015-12-22T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 11

Tolemek crouched behind the high, gnarled roots of a mangrove, one of the last trees before the marsh opened up into the seawater inlet that held seven imperial navy ships. Five airships floated in the air above, anchored to trees on the other side of the bay. Tolemek never would have felt safe coming this close during daylight hours. He didn’t feel safe being this close at night, either, especially when he estimated they only had an hour until the sky started lightening.

He’d heard the footsteps and voices of soldiers on patrol as he, Kaika, and Quataldo had crept through the trees to this viewpoint, and he guessed that an entire company was out in the woods, watching for intruders. The two elite forces officers hadn’t seemed daunted by the idea of sneaking in here for a look, but then, Tolemek hadn’t noticed that anything daunted Kaika. Quataldo seemed built from the same mold, if a less chatty, barb-slinging version of it.

Tolemek rubbed his thumb over the textured surface of one of his knockout grenades. He’d been carrying it since they left the city, anticipating he would need it. So far, Quataldo had warned them when to duck, hide, or drop to their bellies, with some intuition that seemed as powerful as Sardelle’s magical senses, but as they crouched behind the trees, Tolemek’s own senses alerted him that they had more to worry about than being stumbled upon by soldiers. He closed his eyes and reached out with his mind, trying to pinpoint the source of the uneasy feeling, the uncomfortable prickle at the back of his neck that he had learned to associate with the presence of something very powerful.

He touched Kaika’s back. She was sharing this mangrove while Quataldo, as usual, was off scouting or maybe hiding halfway up a tree so he wouldn’t be noticed if Tolemek and Kaika were captured again.

“It’s lower,” Kaika whispered.

“What?”

“My butt. I thought you wanted to resume our discussion of butt fondling.”

“Not at this time. There’s a dragon out here somewhere. I think it’s in the trees over on that side, under that airship.” He leaned around the mangrove to point to the spot. Clouds and mist hugged the shoreline, making it hard to pick out objects in the sky, but he could see the hint of its oblong hull. The airship seemed larger than the others, and he wondered if it was the emperor’s craft. He also wondered how Kaika and Quataldo planned to get up to it, if it was his.

“Let’s hope that we’re insignificant to him,” Kaika whispered. “Just some more humans wandering around in the trees out here.”

“Her.” Tolemek remembered the voice that had spoken into his mind as they had approached the city earlier in the night. Unfortunately, he didn’t seem insignificant to the dragon. She had picked him out to question, presumably because of his blood. Maybe something else, too, since dragon blood alone wasn’t all that rare. He couldn’t imagine what, though, unless she had recognized him from the outpost.

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