He glanced at me. “Neve has been given a leave of absence. She’s not even supposed to be here—”
“She’s here under my orders, Captain; in fact, I will formally request her secondment to my division until the current situation is dealt with.”
The captain’s frown grew as he glanced at me. “Neve?”
“It’s only temporary, Captain, and I’m more than happy to help the commander out.”
“Then head over to three and see what weaponry they have left.” He glanced back to Trey. “Contact Kiro, Commander, and I’ll do my part.”
“Meet back here,” Trey said to me, and then left.
“Neve, what’s going on?” Ava said, as she came up behind me.
I turned around. “I’m off to fight a second battle at Blacklake. Find April for me; I need to know he’s okay.”
“Why on earth do you have to go?”
“Because the commander wishes it.” I hesitated, wondering how much I should tell her. “While the invitation to the masque was real enough, I’m not there to enjoy myself. I’m helping the commander ferret out a couple of spies—”
“Spies!”
“Quiet!” I looked around to ensure no one had overheard us. “This can’t become common knowledge.”
She gently cupped my face, her fingers cool against my skin. “It won’t, you know that. But how deep does the deception go?”
“The woman behind this attack is—was—an air witch from a non-ruling house. But there are others involved, others who come from higher houses.”
Ava swore. “I wondered how the bastards managed to blast the door open. The truth is, they didn’t. They had help.”
“Yes, although I can’t tell you why they went to all that trouble to retrieve one bracelet. To me, the prize doesn’t justify the cost, whatever the end design might be.”
“Until you know the end design, you can’t actually say that with any certainty,” Ava said. “Why hasn’t the commander gotten the carabinieri involved? Surely they should be the ones investigating this?”
“Lord Kiro is in charge of the investigation. I dare say he’ll call in the cops once all the threads of the plot have been uncovered.”
Ava nodded then leaned forward and dropped a kiss on my cheek. “Don’t get dead on me, Neve.”
I smiled. “Like most bad smells, I’m rather hard to get rid of.”
She snorted and slapped my arm—and hard enough to sting. “Stop putting yourself down, woman, whether in jest or not.”
“Yes, ma’am.” My grin grew as I stepped back. “I’d better get going. Kiss April for me when you find him.”
“I’ll clip him over the damn ear for causing us both so much damn worry first,” she said. Then, with a nod, she headed for the infirmary.
I spun and jogged across to armory three. Jon was looking a little worse for wear—there was a roughly patched but still bloody cut that stretched from his forehead down to his neck, and his bad leg had been splinted and was obviously in need of further attention, but his smile was wide and his eyes shone.
“The bastards thought I’d be easy meat,” he said, as I slowed down. “They soon learned otherwise.”
“Next time it might be best not to let them get so close before you take them down.”
He laughed and slapped my arm. “You could be right there, lass. What do you need?”
“Weapons. The captain’s given approval—”
“Aye, he’s sent through a message, which is why the armory’s open and waiting. Come along.”
We once again headed inside. I waited while he hobbled across to the near-empty storage lockers, my gaze scanning the shadows. The nearby shelves and lockers had been emptied, but down the far end, I glimpsed the shapes and shadows of the ancient weapons. Curiosity stirred and I walked down. The farther I got, the darker it became. It seemed the powers that be weren’t about to waste electricity where it wasn’t needed.
The shelves of old guns and other odd bits of machinery soon gave way to the even older, medieval-style weapons Jon had mentioned a week ago. But it was the glass swords that drew me; having used the knife a number of times, I could certainly see the benefit of having a longer blade. I picked up a couple, testing their weight and feel, but most of them were too heavy or too long for someone my size. But on the shelf close to bottom I found one that was perfect. Once I’d also found its scabbard, I headed back.
“What have you got this time, lass?” Jon said.
I grinned and showed him the sword. “The knife has come in handy, so I figured something bigger might be doubly so.”
He snorted and shook his head. “You’re definitely certifiable. But it’s yours if you want it.”
“And I do.”
I signed out the sword, the ammo, and the weapons, and then went over to requisitions to grab a new earwig—one that was multi-tuned, enabling communications between the various outposts and us when we were on escort duty. The speeder had been lifted up from the underground garage by then, and the heat from her engines rippled the air as she hovered in the middle of the courtyard. The speeders were triangular in shape and could carry up to four people across both land and sea faster than any other vehicle in the armory. But they were not without their problems, and were extremely fragile. Even rough weather could tear them apart.
Trey, Kiro, and two other men I didn’t recognize came out of the inner gateway as I approached the vehicle. The captain appeared and handed Trey a ledger. Once the vehicle was signed over, Trey motioned me to get in. I did so, placing all the weapons and the ammo in the storage bins before climbing into the driver seat. Trey spoke to the captain and the other three men for several seconds and then climbed in behind me.
As I closed the main door, the two strangers approached the gatehouse and a heavy rumble began to fill the air. The retaining wall sitting against the back of the gate began to slide away, until a clear enough path appeared for the gates to be opened and the speeder to go through.
“Ready?” I asked, as I punched in the coordinates.
“Hit it,” Trey said. “Push this damn thing as fast it can go.”
Which was precisely what I did. The speeder shot out of Winterborne, gathering speed as it accelerated over the remnants of the first wave of dirt. Dust plumed behind us, a beacon that would call to any Adlin left out here. It didn’t matter. They wouldn’t catch us on foot and they didn’t have the knowledge or the technology to do anything else. Trebuchets might have provided a problem had the Adlin been able to mount them onto a vehicle or at least fire them with some sort of accuracy, but they didn’t.
We shot through the darkness, the whine of the engines filling the air. The tension in the man behind me grew with each mile that passed, until it felt like every breath was filled with it. I wanted to tell him that it would be all right, that his daughter would be all right, but after what had happened at Winterborne, I dared not. We had no idea just how far this treachery might reach. He might trust the witches stationed at Winterborne, but witches weren’t the only ones who could destroy machinery and open gates. A single soldier armed with several well-placed bombs could achieve the very same thing. A week ago, I wouldn’t have thought such a betrayal possible, but my perception had certainly changed.
We didn’t see any Adlin and the sensors weren’t picking up any evidence of movement. I had no doubt they were out there somewhere, just as I had no doubt they’d been sent to Blacklake solely to retrieve the other bracelet.
The Blacksaw Mountains soon loomed large in the front windscreen. Trey leaned over my shoulder and said, “Can you contact Blacklake from here?”
I glanced at him. “You can’t?”
He half smiled, though it didn’t lift the tension from around his eyes. “I took the earwig out when I left Blacklake. The Reaches gentry don’t wear them, and I didn’t want to stir too much curiosity.”