Part 33 (1/2)

*What about the tower?' he asked, pointing at the ruins. *Could we attach the heavy lifter to that and climb down from there?'

*It's a possibility,' Chu said. *I'll aim for it and we'll see what the air is like.'

*Well, that's something we can help you with. Every warden is taught to see the wind.'

*Really?' Chu looked deeply envious for a moment. *Then I guess you'll come in useful after all. Tell me when you're ready and you can start giving me directions. That'll make my life a lot easier.'

s.h.i.+lly edged away as Marmion closed his eyes and concentrated. The small amount of the Change Marmion called on didn't add much to that already buzzing in and around the structure of the heavy lifter. But she felt the s.h.i.+ft in the world as his mind interacted with it in much the same way as a musician might s.h.i.+ft key in the middle of a song.

Chu watched the warden with all the attention she could spare. Her desire seemed as keen as s.h.i.+lly's. Both of them lacked the innate potential for the Change that made Sky Wardens, Stone Mages, yadachi bloodworkers and the occasional wild talent like Sal the envy of everyone - although s.h.i.+lly had long ago gotten over her resentment of that fact.

When one of the bubbles in Marmion's torc began to glow like a miniature star caught in perfectly clear amber, Chu gasped. His eyes opened. They had turned a clear, translucent blue, the same colour as the sky.

*We're cutting across a dense current,' he said, leaning forward to peer out of the gondola. *I can see it running like a river from the southeast.'

Chu nodded. *That's what's making us rock. There should be another one ahead, tending south. It's usually there this time of day.'

Marmion's charmed gaze sought details where s.h.i.+lly could see none. *Yes,' he said. *You're taking us a little high. Bring us down and you'll catch it. There'll be some turbulence, but it won't last. It's just the boundary where the two flows brush by each other.'

Chu nodded and obeyed his instructions without hesitating. The lifter's nose dipped and a shudder ran along its length. s.h.i.+lly held on tight as the turbulence worsened.

A hand tapped her shoulder. She turned around to see Tom looking at her, slightly green around the ears.

*Is everything okay?' she asked.

He sat down next to her. *You haven't called Sal since we left.'

*I know. I figured you'd be tired from what I'd already Taken.'

*I am, but you're worried. You can try again if you want to.'

She was more grateful than she could say for the offer, even if she wouldn't let herself accept it. *He'll call me if he can. I'd rather you conserved your strength for when I really need it.'

Tom nodded quite seriously.

s.h.i.+lly had been half-joking, but his lack of amus.e.m.e.nt gave her reason to be seriously concerned.

*Unless you're trying to tell me that I should call him now? That you've dreamed me doing it?'

*No.'

*Okay. We'll just have to wait and see what happens, then.' Like always, she thought, telling herself to emulate his insouciance.

The heavy lifter shuddered and dipped again. When she checked their progress, she saw the Aad much closer than it had been before.

Chu and Marmion were still discussing possible landing sites.

*That rules the tower out,' said the flyer, pointing.

s.h.i.+lly craned her neck to see. Smoky brown haze hid the details, but a small group of people appeared to be waving at them from the summit of the ruined city's watchtower.

*Are they -?'

*I hope not,' said Chu. *Look at the base of the tower.'

She squinted to make out the details. The figures she saw were the same colour as the background stone, making their nature immediately obvious: they were man'kin. But what they were doing was less clear. They appeared to be circling the tower's ground level, stopping occasionally to strike the stone walls as though it was a giant drum.

Not strike, s.h.i.+lly corrected herself after a longer look. They were taking stones from the wall and flinging them away. Dismantle.

*Can we get down there to help them?' she asked Chu, filled with horror at the thought of what it must be like on top of the tower while monsters did their best to collapse it.

*I don't know.' Power surged through the propellers with a deep thrum. The dirigible's angle of descent steepened. Instead of travelling in a straight line, Chu guided them around a sweeping curve, with Marmion calling directions along the way. The gondola tipped and swayed like a ride in a fair. Tom's face turned greener than ever.

Behind her, the wardens tied ropes to eyelets along the gondola's edges. Banner walked from knot to knot, testing them for strength.

*I don't think it's them,' said Marmion as the tower came closer.

*That doesn't matter,' said s.h.i.+lly. *We can't just watch them die!'

*Too late,' said Chu as part of the tower's wall collapsed. The structure tipped like a drunken sailor. The people on the top ran hopelessly back and forth. One fell off.

s.h.i.+lly couldn't watch any longer. Marmion was right. None of them looked like Sal, Skender or Kail, but that was irrelevant. They were still people, and no one deserved to die in terror and agony.

When she steeled herself to turn back, the tower was gone. Only a rising cloud of stone and mortar dust remained.

*Now we know why Sal sent for us,' said Marmion. *The man'kin have gone on the rampage.'

*Is there anything we can do to stop them?' s.h.i.+lly asked, hoping it wasn't too late already. The thought of Sal on top of a tower like that, screaming, made her feel sick.

*They are creatures of the Change,' Marmion said. *To kill them, you have to kill the Change itself, and that is obviously impossible.'

*Not for the Homunculus.' A tiny candle of hope still burned in her chest for Sal; her sense of him remained undimmed. *Where it is, they'll be safe.'

*And unable to call us,' said Tom, his face a mask of concern.

*Yes, there's that.' s.h.i.+lly craned as far as she dared over the edge of the gondola. The heavy lifter hovered directly over the city. She could see several man'kin wreaking desolation through the already ruined streets. Rubble lay everywhere she looked. It was hard in places to tell what damage was new and what the result of time and the weather.

Twice more she saw people, none of them the ones she sought. Three ran out of a structure attached to the Divide wall and made a beeline for the edge of the city. A giant, lion-shaped man'kin chased them for a block, snapping at their heels. Its heavy tread brought down the remains of a nearby building. It stopped to perform an odd dance among the shattered stonemasonry while its victims took the opportunity to flee. s.h.i.+lly shuddered to think what the man'kin might have done had it caught them.

*Do you see anything?' asked Marmion.

She shook her head. A half-dozen flyers had kept pace with them from Laure. They circled warily around the heavy lifter, distracting Chu. The one with an att.i.tude problem had drifted away, possibly as struck as she was by the devastation below.

*If we've come all this way for nothing -' Marmion started to say.

*Wait.' s.h.i.+lly took his arm. *Look!'

One of the flyers on the edge of the ruin had suddenly dipped. It began to tumble, then just as suddenly recovered - as though it had left a bubble in which its charms had stopped working.

s.h.i.+lly knew only one thing that could have that effect.