“Yeah, my Heart’s improved, too. It’s… bigger. The cracks and weaknesses are gone. And it’s… spherical?”
She frowned at him. “What do you mean, spherical?”
“It’s a big word, I know—”
She feinted a backhand at him and he flinched with a laugh. “It’s a huge black sphere, now. Perfectly smooth. Easily four or five times larger than it used to be.”
“No way.” She sat back on her heels. “It changed shape? I didn’t know Hearts could do that.”
“Nor me. But now I can use the Marinating Technique all the time. I drain ambient mana while Ignited, so that I never run out of mana.”
“Scorio, that’s a Pyre Lord technique.” She sounded flat out disgusted. “They can send out vortices that drain mana all around them, sending it directly to their Hearts. Blood Barons and up can send them out ever farther so they can drink mana from ever larger areas.”
“Well, I don’t do that. I just cause mana to endlessly fall into my Heart so my reservoir never runs dry.”
Naomi shook her head. “Ridiculous. You’re going to have to teach me how that works.”
“Sure. But we might need some imperial jelly. It didn’t make sense to me until I had Nox’s bath to help regulate the process. I don’t even know exactly how to explain it.”
“I’ll get in that disgusting slime pool if it allows me to manifest a Pyre Lord ability.”
“And we’ll need high grade mana to infuse into the pool.”
“Whatever. We’ll find it. My Heart is powerful, but my reservoir is finite. You saw me run out of mana against Evelyn. Do you think I can learn it before we kill Praximar?”
Scorio stilled. “So we’re going all the way?”
“Of course. You said he pulled the strings. Would all this have happened without him?”
“No.”
“Then he dies.”
“You think we can kill a Pyre Lord? An Autocrator and the chancellor of the Academy?”
“Yes.” She sounded absolutely convinced. “I don’t know how, yet, but we can do it.”
“Good.” Scorio felt the rightness of that resolve. “You know, it’s funny. When things were going well for us—at least, when I thought they were—it felt like I was losing my way. But now everything seems crystal clear. I feel… calm. Focused. Resolved.”
“I feel nothing but unrelenting hate and fury.”
“Well, that too. But all of that emotion is like a storm raging outside my mind. Inside I feel… ready.”
“Yeah.” Naomi sighed. “I know what you mean. Relieved, even. It’s been… a very long two years. On some level I was able to lean on my experience being alone in the ruins, but this was worse. Back then I’d always felt alone. But to have made friends and lost them… it made everything worse.”
“You didn’t lose all of them.”
“No.” She stared at him, unsmiling. “I didn’t. But I don’t want to start crying again. You said Dameon’s island is floating into place tomorrow. What’s our plan?”
“The Golden Circuit is a good half-day’s flight by Sloop from the Chasm camp. Nobody above was preparing for a journey, not that I saw, so I’m guessing Dameon’s planning to come to the camp.”
“Manticore has a full-sized whale ship. It’s visited the camp a couple of times over the past few years.”
“Praximar’s generous. But that makes sense. Dameon’s collecting everyone in the camp. So he’ll fly in on his whale ship.”
“Do you think Evelyn’s lover recognized you?”
Scorio considered. “I don’t think so. I hit them fast and from the sky. Nobody outside of the Fiery Shoals knows about my wings, and I doubt word has already reached Dameon seeing as Moira is sabotaging communications. Her lover might think it was a fiend of some kind.”
Naomi rubbed her chin and finally nodded. “Yes. So they’ll give up Evelyn for lost.”
“You don’t think they’ll mount a search?”
“She’s a Dread Blaze with excellent mobility powers. If she was alive she’d have emerged from the Chasm already. Mana isn’t a problem down here. The fact that she’s been gone for a day or two will tell Dameon all he needs to know. And the man’s a bastard. He’ll abandon her.”
“So they’ll load up and fly back on the whale ship to Azurith, then teleport to the Fiery Shoals. That’s some eighty Manticores.”
“The best ambushes come when least expected. He’ll be wary while he’s out here, especially when he learns of Evelyn’s death. But once he gets back to Azurith he’ll relax.”
“For good reason. He’ll be surrounded by nearly a hundred loyal Great Souls.”
“I doubt he beds down in the same great hall as they do. He’ll have his own quarters. We take your Sloop… no, we can’t risk running into him on the way out.”
“We could leave now,” suggested Scorio. “Fly out past the Golden Circuit and wait for Azurith to come in. Then approach it from the interior, come in low and anchor to its underside while Dameon’s gone.”
Naomi nodded. “That sounds good. Sloop’s small enough that we should be able to find a spot under the island to hide it. Then we crawl up onto the island proper and scope out the castle. Observe it and formulate the next step there.”
Scorio laughed. “This plan is mad. I love it.”
Naomi flashed a smile and rose. “Then we’d best get going.”
She brought nothing with her but her water cannister. They climbed back up the cracks to Bronze, then out along a mined seam to the cliff’s face. There Scorio convinced Naomi to climb onto his back and wrap her legs around his waist as he flew up the remaining distance; his huge wings allowed them to rise with slow but inexorable beats, his Marinating Technique ensuring that he never ran out of mana, his Gold-tempered body making it so that he never grew tired.
It was a day cycle outside. Scorio flew to the far side of the Chasm from the camp, and together they crawled up the last few hundred yards of raw cliff face and over the rim into the forest.
They both assumed their monstrous forms and together raced through the undergrowth. Fiends cleared out before them. They swept out wide, curving in gradually through a night cycle and by dawn had found The Sloop once more.
A mess of fiends were inside the hull, trying to rupture the Bronze tank, but Scorio’s aura of command sent them fleeing. Scorio unwound the anchor then flew up to the rising whale ship to land behind the wheel. Naomi raised the chain as he drained the air around them of Copper, keeping the ship low, and tacking into the wind they sailed away from the Chasm.
Scorio remained alert throughout their passage out of the foggy valley. He flew low and hugged the rocky slopes. If Dameon’s great whale ship came through early, hopefully it would surge down the center and miss them.
But eventually they broke out into the sunlight once more, the wilderness outside the Golden Circuit revealing no sign of Azurith or Dameon’s ship. Scorio kept them low and fought for as much speed as possible, skimming over banks of Iron, tapping Copper to glide over declivities of Coal. The fleeting sun arced overhead, night fell, deepened to pitch, and lightened to dawn just as they passed over the Golden Circuit’s rotten course.
“We’re in the clear,” Naomi called back from the prow.
“Now to go to ground.” Scorio guided them deeper into the Farmlands till he spotted an abandoned barn. They slowed as they approached it, and a wordless glance set their course. Naomi leaped down in Nightmare Lady form and heaved the massive double doors open. Scorio released Coal so that The Sloop sank low, furled the sail so that their momentum slowed to a crawl, and with the Nightmare Lady hauling on a guide rope, nudged The Sloop inside the barn.
It fit like a hand inside a glove. The anchor secured them just beneath the rafters, and when they closed the doors their camouflage was perfect.