Page 94 of Magick and Lead
I shook my head, bewildered by the analogy.
“They shoot its ass! And get a new lion. Or maybe a tiger. You feel me, Inman?”
“Yes, sir,” I muttered with a glance at the window. The other pilots were getting into their planes, firing up their engines.
“Don’t be a dead lion, Inman! Do you understand?”
I nodded. “Yes, sir.”
But despite all he’d said, I couldn’t follow Blaize. How the hell was I supposed to lead everyone away from Essa if Blaize was leading?
I opened my mouth to object, but the threat in Peckham’s eyes warned me to silence.
“Good. Now, get your ass out to that plane and follow Blaize like a good little soldier—before Idolock you in the brig,” he snarled. “Go!”
I was about to object. But then, out the window and across the tarmac, I saw a long black sedan pulling through the base’s entry gate. An Intelligence vehicle. The spooks were here… and that was my cue to go.
I gave Peckham a salute and jogged off to my locker, where I grabbed my flight helmet, goggles, gloves, and scarf, then I raced out the door. The planes were already fired up, some of them taxiing for takeoff, and the tarmac sounded like a nest full of monstrous hornets. I hurried to my new Silver Wraith, shouting to one of my fellow pilots as I passed her.
“Hey, I missed the briefing. Where are we going, anyway?”
“Dragon sighting in Ironberg, last seen heading north,” she called over the drone of the propellers. “We’re going to sweepnorth, then if we don’t find the lizard, we’re going to come back down the coast.”
North. Straight toward Essa.Great.
There was no time for more talk. The planes around me were starting to taxi. I bounded up and into the seat. The ground crew pulled the blocks out from the wheels as I fired up the engine. In seconds, I was bounding down the runway then lifting into the air.
Lay low. Don’t take off, okay?I thought in Essa’s direction.I’m going to try to get them to change course somehow, but right now we’re heading your way. …Essa?
Something was wrong. The simnal wasn’t working. When I probed for Essa’s mind, I didn’t feel her there. It was probably just because Parthar was still so far away, I told myself, not because Essa had closed her mind to me—or because of whatever Kortoi had done to Othura. But whatever the reason, it was dangerous. If our planes caught Essa in the air, alone, with no other Skrathan to help her, she’d be in trouble. I had to figure out some way to divert our squadron, and I had to do it fast…
I leaned on the plane’s throttle, making the engine roar as I pushed ahead from my place on the right side of the V formation until I was flying next to Blaize at the front of the V. He noticed and glared at me through the glass circles of his goggles. Then he looked ahead and pushed his own speed, pulling slightly ahead of me.
If only aces had simnal. Or telegraph lines stretched between planes. Then, I could talk to Blaize and try to convince his dumb ass to change course. As it was, I’d have to be more creative.
I pushed the throttle until I was next to him again, inching in so close my upper wing was overlapping his, then hit the flaps, thumping his wing with mine. This time, his head snapped toward me fast, a snarl of outrage on his face. I pointed emphatically back the way we’d come. He lifted his fist and gaveme a middle finger, shaking it for emphasis. Then he pushed his speed even faster, until his engine was screaming, pulling ahead of me once again.
The bastard. I should have known he wouldn’t make anything easy….
Below us, the shoreline extended until it was lost in mist, dark blue sea on the right, a patchwork of green and amber fields on the left. Soon, we’d be reaching the farm. Then, it would be too late.
I lowered my speed and jogged left, falling in behind Blaize. He wouldn’t like this. Neither would Peckham. If I’d been cruising for a court martial before, I’d be sure to get one now. But I couldn’t risk the squadron spotting Essa.
I clicked off the safety, put my finger on the trigger of the machine gun, and took a deep breath. This was it. I was standing with my toes at the edge of a cliff. One more step, and I’d be falling. This was an action I couldn’t talk my way out of, a leap I’d never climb back from. Open fire on Blaize now, with the whole squadron watching, and I’d never be the Silver Wraith again. Never be a hero again. I’d be a fugitive. An enemy of the state.
Throwing it all away. For her…
Everything I was. Everything I had. Everything I’d worked so hard to become. And that was if Blaize didn’t turn around and blast me out of the sky.
Still... for Essa…
For a girl who flew across an ocean to kill you…a cynical voice inside me said.
No,I thought, for the woman who had every reason to kill me and still couldn’t bring herself to do it.
If our situations were reversed, she’d do the same for me. Shehaddone the same for me when she rescued me from that tower after I’d been sentenced to death.
And yet it would be so easy to simply keep on flying. To perform the mission normally and hope Blaize didn’t happen to catch sight of Essa crossing the channel. To continue to my old life. A hero.
