The Ships of Air (The Fall of Ile-Rein) Read Online Free

strained, having to nearly shout to be heard over the roar of the surf.
    “I’m afraid so.” Gerard winced away from the spray as the waves broke around the launch’s hull. He was a tall man in his early forties, with dark hair just lightly touched with gray. He was currently wearing Syprian clothing, battered dark pants and a loose mud-stained white shirt with a green sash; he was a sorcerer and had been Tremaine’s guardian before she was old enough to assume control of the Valiarde family fortunes. “It’s nearly impossible for us to call up weather magic so quickly, but we’ve seen the Gardier do it before.”
    Florian gave Tremaine a concerned look as she approached. “Is that all of them? Ander already took the Gardier on another boat.”
    “We’re the last,” Tremaine told her, looking around for the Syprians. They were gathered in a group over by the rocks, and Giliead, hands planted on his hips, was talking to them. Ilias had gone to stand at his side. That doesn’t look good, she thought grimly. She noticed Giliead didn’t have the canvas-wrapped bundle anymore. “Where’s Ixion? Did they put him in the boat?”
    “On the other one.” Gerard nodded, indicating the launch wallowing in the surf a little further down. “That’s the boat you’ll be taking. I want the sphere to stay fairly near him.”
    “Are they coming?” Florian shielded her eyes from the spray, watching the Syprians worriedly. “I know they think the engines are magic, but it’s their only chance.”
    “I’ll go see.” Stumbling in the wet sand, Tremaine went over to join the group.
    Arites, a young man with wild brown hair who was a Syprian poet, was standing with Dyani, Gyan’s young foster daughter. She was a slight girl with dark brown hair tied back in a loose ponytail. Gyan himself looked grave, and Halian was fuming with frustration and anger. Most of the others hovered between confused and rebellious. “I won’t do it,” one of them was saying stubbornly. He was big like Giliead, but with darker hair and a boxer’s mashed nose. “It was bad enough letting them curse the Swift , and we saw what happened to her—”
    “It was Ixion’s curseling that did that,” Gyan objected. Tremaine was glad he was on their side. He was an older man, with a heavy build and a good-humored face, balding with a long fringe of gray hair. He was much respected by the other crew. “And Gerard’s curse got us out of that prison—”
    “But you can’t ask us to get on that wizard ship!”
    “It’s not magic,” Tremaine protested helplessly. “The lights, the engines, it’s steam turbines and—” She stopped in exasperation when she realized the words were coming out in Rienish because there were no equivalents in Syrnaic. “Dammit!”
    “I’ve been on the wizard ship,” Ilias began patiently. “It’s not—”
    “You’ve got nothing to lose,” the man snapped at him.
    Ilias’s expression went stony and he stepped back, reflexively drawing away from the group.
    That did it for Giliead. He looked the men over with grim contempt. “I’m going. Anyone who wants to stay, we’ll send help back to you. If the howlers or the Gardier wizards leave anything.”
    “Wait.” Halian fixed an eye on the objector and said, almost too quietly for Tremaine to hear over the rising wind, “So you’re captain now, Dannor?”
    “Maybe he ought to be,” somebody else piped up.
    Without taking his eyes off Halian, Dannor backhanded the offender in the mouth, saying, “When I want you to talk for me I’ll tell you.”
    “Tremaine!” Gerard shouted from the launches. “We have to go!”
    “Go on!” she turned to yell. “We’ll take the other boat.” I hope . She could feel the sphere shaking violently in its bag and wondered if it was responding to the argument or the growing storm.
    “The thing is, Dannor,” Halian said, still softly, “either you’re making yourself captain, or you’re not.”
    Dannor