“I’ll stay as close as I can, but once he dives down, I’ll lose him, Stephano,” said Miri. “You remember what it’s like in the deep fog. I wouldn’t be able to see you if you were right next to me, much less try to keep track of another ship!”
“This is why we had dragons, damn it!” said Stephano, slamming his fist onto the railing. “They could find Raven, fog or no fog. Look at Commander Hastind in that great bloody battleship sitting out there, blind as a bat.”
“I could fire the swivel gun, sir,” said Dag. “Draw the navy’s attention.”
“And they would fire on the Raven,” said Stephano.
“There he goes!” Miri called urgently.
The Silver Raven’s captain suddenly let all the air out of his forward balloons and dropped the prow of his ship. At the same time he pushed his airscrews to full, propelling the vessel into the mist and out of sight.
“Miri, follow him!” Stephano ordered, but even as he said the words, he knew it was hopeless. Once the Silver Raven was deep in the fog, the captain could sail off in any direction and leave them behind, with no way of knowing where he went.
Miri took the Cloud Hopper down as rapidly as she dared. Gythe had returned from stashing the Doctor in the storeroom (they could hear his angry yowls) and she and Dag and Stephano leaned over the rail, peering into the thickening mists until their eyes ached. Suddenly Gythe seized hold of Stephano and jabbed her finger.
“Look there!” Dag cried at the same time. He was leaning over the rail at a perilous angle, holding onto a line and peering into the Breath. “A firefly!”
“And it’s lavender,” said Stephano, smiling.
The small light shone palely, a tiny beacon guiding them through the Breath. The light was far below them. The Silver Raven had gone down rapidly.
“I hope I don’t crash into them,” Miri muttered, adjusting her course, letting the Cloud Hopper fall through the mists. “If I do, we’re both finished.”
The lavender light continued to glow. Stephano strained his eyes to see and his ears to hear when out of the mists below them came the sound of shouts and terrified cries and a bang.
“That was a pistol shot,” said Dag.
Stephano’s brow furrowed. “What the-”
Below in the mists, green light flared. Gythe gave a sudden gasp and a moan and backed up against a mast, cowering in terror. They could hear muffled voices and the sounds of gunfire.
“Get out of here, Miri!” Stephano cried. “Take her up! Fast as you can! Dag-the swivel gun!”
Orange eyes glowed in the mists. A bat flew past the ship, the speed of its flight shredding the mists. Green fire struck the Cloud Hopper; the boat’s defenses flared blue. Gythe cried out in pain and sank to the deck.
Miri’s fingers flew across the helm. Magical energy flowed into the balloons and the wings’ lift tanks. The smaller, light Cloud Hopper soared up through the mists toward the clear, sunlit sky above. Dag was manning a swivel gun, but, as he said in frustration, he couldn’t be expected to hit a goddam blur.
The lavender light had gone out, but they didn’t need Rodrigo’s signal anymore. The Silver Raven was also rising up swiftly out of the Breath. They could see the tops of her masts and the balloons, now fully inflated. Stephano and Dag both crouched tensely at the swivel guns, searching for the demons on their gigantic bats.
The Cloud Hopper burst into the sunlight. The boat was well out of the harbor area now, approaching the Old Fort. Stephano looked back toward the harbor and saw nothing out of the ordinary. Merchant ships and barges rode at anchor, resignedly waiting for the authorities to come to their senses and lift the blockade. Naval vessels were spread out from the naval station on the southwest edge of the bay, along the southern Rim east to the main harbor area. The northern shore was dominated by the Old Fort and the artillery batteries. The Royal Lion, pride of King Alaric and flagship of the western fleet, floated near the mouth of the bay.
“Dag, take the helm!” Stephano called. “Miri, take Gythe below.”
But although Gythe was obviously in pain, she refused to leave. Shaking her head, she allowed Dag to help her to a chair on the deck, but that was as far as she would go.
A gunboat, seeing the Cloud Hopper suddenly bob up out of the mists, was bearing down on them, though not with any sense of urgency. Trundlers could always be expected to try to slip past a blockade and were generally considered harmless, though the captain’s eyes must be opening somewhat wider at the sight of the Cloud Hopper’s two cannons, swivel guns, and the frog. Stephano could see no sign the navy had noticed anything out of the ordinary. The sound of the pistol shot fired down in the mists would have gone unheard, muffled by the Breath.
The Silver Raven sailed up out of the mists, emerging some distance from the Cloud Hopper. The sight of the merchant vessel appearing out of nowhere caused the navy gunboat to shift their attention away from the Cloud Hopper. Stephano swept the deck of the Silver Raven with his glass. He saw Rodrigo’s lavender coat and he gave a sigh of relief. Wallace was there, as well, talking to the captain. By his emphatic gestures and belligerent stance and the fact that he was aiming his pistol at the captain, the discussion was not going well.
“Flagship’s signaling, Captain!” Dag called.
Stephano lifted his spyglass, trained it on the Royal Lion. He suspected this flurry of signals must have something to do with the sudden and unexpected appearance of the Silver Raven. He could not read the flags; the codes were changed frequently so as to confuse any enemy who might be watching. He waited tensely to see if the gunboat, Capture, would respond and how it would respond.
The Capture fired a warning shot in front of the Silver Raven, ordering it to halt.
The Raven ignored the warning, continuing to add on sail in an effort to increase speed. The Cloud Hopper-now forgotten-trundled along gamely behind. The merchant ship, the gunboat, and the Cloud Hopper were now rounding a corner of the Old Fort, coming in view of the battlements and the guard towers and shore battery.
The battlements, made of magic-reinforced concrete and stone, were over a mile long. They ran along the northern Rim of the bay, up a cliff called the Short Step to the Old Fort, stretched along the shore until they reached the foot of the high, jutting cliff known as the Bastion. Beyond the cliff, the topography was wild and uninhabited, made up of hills covered with trees, outcroppings of jagged-edged granite, and spectacular falls of water where rivers cascaded off the continent and plunged into the mists of the Breath.
Stephano could see the long, black muzzles of the cannons of the shore battery thrusting out from the side of the cliff. He waited tensely for the shot that would cripple or sink the merchant vessel.
“Miri, bring us in close,” said Stephano. “We’re going to board the Raven. Dag, you’re with me.”
“Captain,” said Dag. He had his spyglass to his eye and there was a strange, strangled sound to his voice. “Look at that.”
Stephano had his pistol drawn and was standing by the port rail, ready to step onto the ship’s short wings. Miri was sailing the Cloud Hopper closer to the Silver Raven. Both of them turned to Dag, then shifted their gazes.
A darkish gray cloud rolled over the hills, moving at incredible speed, lit from within by flashes of green fire and accompanied by an eerie whirring sound-the wings of countless gigantic bats. Hell’s Gates had swung wide. Aertheum had sent his legions to attack in force.
Stephano was momentarily paralyzed by the astonishing sight. Then he looked at the naval warships, whose officers were watching the harbor, ready to stop smugglers. He looked at the fortress, at the guards enjoying the show. All unknowing, unaware of the horror about to break over them.
Stephano had to warn Hastind, make him see the approaching danger. He ran to the storage locker on the deck where they stored such objects as signal flags, rope, and patching material for the balloons and sails. He flung it open and dragged out a flag made up of four blocks: red and white on top and white and red on the bottom. The flag’s message was terse and to the point: Standing into Danger. Stephano hurriedly attached the flag to the lines and ran it up the mast of the Cloud Hopper. The question was: Would anyone see it and, if they did, would they pay attention to a flag being flown by a Trundler.