TWENTY-THREE

THE DRUID AIRSHIP SLIPPED OUT OF THE NIGHT WITH ITS diapson-powered running lights dark and its Troll crew at the ready, descending into Sterne like a ghost. The public airfield lay below, empty of movement, its vessels moored and secured, its lights still on for late arrivals but their pilots and crews asleep save the night watch. Stripped of their black robes and reduced to ordinary garb, Paxon and Avelene stood at the bow with the girl Lariana and watched the earth rise to meet them.

The plan was simple. They had chosen the public airfield to avoid alerting Usurient and the Red Slash to their presence. They had shed their Druid robes to allow them to move about the city unnoticed. Once disembarked, Lariana could to lead them to Arcannen. She would not be required to reveal herself to him while doing so. Instead, Avelene and Paxon would subdue him and free Reyn Frosch, and then all of them would depart for Paranor aboard the airship.

None of them really believed things would work out that way, although each thought so for a different reason. Paxon and Avelene had discussed how to overcome the sorcerer at length while flying in from the coast, but it always came back to the same thing—the element of surprise. Ostensibly, Avelene possessed the training and skill with magic that would allow her to render Arcannen at least temporarily unconscious—although she had never made practical use of either in a dangerous situation, so Paxon was doubtful. His own belief was that Arcannen would never be taken down by anything but brute force, so he was expecting to have to use his blade to achieve what was needed. Even then, there was no reason to think the sorcerer would still be alive at the end. Or even that Paxon himself would. Avelene, on the other hand, was confident in her abilities. Enough so that she had already told him that in a direct confrontation with Arcannen, her magic would prove superior.

What Lariana thought was a mystery. She wasn’t saying much beyond asking that she be given a chance to save the boy.

“He doesn’t know what he’s doing,” she kept insisting. “He’s being led around by the nose. He thinks Arcannen is going to train him to control the magic. But what Arcannen is going to do is train Reyn to obey him. I can see it in the way he’s acting with Reyn, how he’s manipulating him, twisting his thinking. I have to get to him and let him know.”

Paxon wasn’t sure what Lariana did or didn’t have to do, but he was pretty sure by now that she was keeping something from them. Maybe she believed what she was telling them. Maybe she actually thought she was right about Arcannen and Reyn Frosch. But there was a secrecy about her that kept him wondering exactly where her loyalties lay. Whatever happened in the hours ahead, he was going to keep a close eye on her.

“You will let him go when I have him safely back again, won’t you?” she asked at one point. “You’ll let us both go? You won’t lock us up or give us over to the Federation?”

She said it just as they were preparing to climb down the rope ladder and set out into the city. She sounded so poignant that it gave the Highlander pause. But Avelene was quick to remind her why they were there in the first place.

“We are Druids, Lariana. We have a mission to fulfill. Our obligation is to the larger population of the Four Lands, and to any unauthorized use of magic. Surely you can see that Reyn is a danger not only to himself but also to others. He has to find a way to control his magic. Arcannen is not the one to teach him. We are. At Paranor, we can help him. He can receive the training he needs. Real training, not something like what he’s been getting. You can come, too, if you wish. Your visit will last only as long as it takes Reyn to master the skills he needs. Then you are both free to go wherever you wish.”

She spoke the right words. She made the situation as clear as she could. But Paxon saw the look of doubt in Lariana’s eyes, saw the reticence reflected on her features, and understood at once what concerned her about Avelene’s words. However you looked at it, she and the boy would become prisoners anew. The boy, at least, would not be allowed to leave Paranor until it was deemed safe to let him do so. That could take months. It could take years. It might never happen.

She turned away from them without comment, climbing quickly down the ladder to avoid their eyes. But Paxon had already seen all he needed to see to know what she was thinking.

They departed the airfield without passing by the manager’s office, leaving it to the Trolls to sort out the arrangements for their stay, moving off into the darkness that wrapped the outskirts of the city, silent shadows fading from view.

“Where is it that we’re going?” Avelene whispered after they had left the airship behind.

Lariana turned. “It’s not far from here. He’s hiding in the cellars of the old Federation army barracks out by the bluffs. He thought that would be the last place anyone would look for him, and there are several ways in and out of the cellars if anyone should come looking.”

“It doesn’t sound as if it’s going to be easy to trap him there,” Paxon observed.

But Lariana shook her head. “There are three ways in or out. We can lock down two of them from the outside before we go in. Then it’s up to you.”

The city lay off to the right now, their path taking them along its eastern borders toward their destination. Neither Paxon nor Avelene knew anything about the abandoned barracks, so they were watchful as they neared the low, squat buildings that appeared all at once as they topped a rise and started toward a chain-link fence. There were no lights in the windows of the buildings; the entire complex was dark and empty looking. The grounds were littered with debris and overgrown with scrub; there was no sign of life.

When they spied the gates, Paxon moved into the lead, his black sword drawn and ready. But no one appeared, no sounds or movement drew their attention, and they reached the fence gates without incident.

Even so, Paxon experienced a twinge of uneasiness. He looked down at the huge lock on the gate holding a heavy chain in place. “We’ll have to break it.”

Avelene moved him out of the way, placed her hands on the lock, squeezed firmly while whispering something the Highlander couldn’t hear, and the lock opened.

She arched an eyebrow at him. “There’s a trick to it. You have to speak softly.”

Pulling the chain free from where it bound the gates together, she pushed the right side open before stepping back. “Lead the way,” she said.

Paxon moved Lariana up beside him. “Show us the doors we need to secure.” He lifted a cautionary finger. “And careful you don’t give us away.”

She gave him a cold look and started ahead. They bypassed the main entrance and worked their way around the building to a side door with a heavy iron bar, and she locked it down. She did the same with a second door. After that, she was ready to turn back, but Paxon insisted they investigate the entire outside of the complex. In case, he said, she might have missed a way in or out.

But they found nothing else in their search and arrived back at the main entrance. “Won’t there be wards in place?” Avelene wanted to know.

Lariana shrugged. “Can’t you find out? You have magic, don’t you?”

Ignoring the taunt, Avelene spent several long minutes testing the entry. She used words and hands both, murmuring as she touched and rubbed the smooth surfaces, creating small streaks of blue light that burrowed through seams in the metal parts and disappeared inside. Her absorption in the effort was complete, and at one point her eyes were closed and she was holding herself completely still. It made Paxon wonder what was required of you even to know that creating magic was something you might be able to do.