CHAPTER FIVE

The FarReach Mountains

T he group of five Icarii had been searching for weeks with no success save for rumors and some unsubstantiated reports. They’d flown to Deepend, to discover that, yes, a group of men had come through, and they might have had a woman with them, but no one could remember much detail. One man suggested that the group had continued farther south, perhaps aiming for the FarReach Mountains.

StarWeb had never liked Ishbel, and by now had come to loathe her. Without even trying, so it seemed, Ishbel trailed havoc, murder, and heartache behind her. StarWeb could not understand why Maximilian was so besotted with the woman.

Personally, she would have let the kidnappers do what they wanted with the cursed woman.

And why would anyone want her, anyway?

Oh yes, of course, she was pregnant.

Wasn’t that a cunning move on Ishbel’s part. She probably felt that Maximilian was slipping away from her and so had conceived. She had known from the marriage negotiations how much Maximilian wanted a child, must have thought to herself, Ah yes, I can do anything with him once he knows I am carrying his child…

Who knew if it was Maximilian’s baby anyway?

Damn it! Why couldn’t Maximilian have picked someone else as his wife?

StarWeb grew progressively more ill-tempered as the days and weeks dragged by. In the evenings, when they sheltered by a small fire, or were together at the dining table of a roadside tavern, she reasoned that they’d done enough, they should return to Ruen, and Maximilian would just have to get used to the idea that he’d lost his wife almost as soon as he’d found her.

But none of the others agreed with her. BroadWing EvenBeat was the most vocal. Maximilian was distraught, his wife had been taken from him, she was carrying his child, and Maximilian’s life had already been too wrapped in tragedy to allow it to strike once more.

As if our lives haven’t also been wrapped in enough tragedy, StarWeb always thought at the last argument, but she never spoke the words aloud, knowing BroadWing and her other companions could see it written all over her face.

Besides, it wasn’t just altruism that drove the others onward in their search for Ishbel. It was also joy at having a purpose, joy at being allowed to soar over plain and mountain, joy at being able to discover new lands and skyscapes. It was either search for Ishbel and revel in life as they did so, or return to a useless existence in Ruen or wherever else they drifted.

Ishbel was an excuse, and they refused to let it go.

So they went on, day after day.

From Deepend they’d flown ever south, following a trail toward the FarReach Mountains. At that point StarWeb knew there was no holding Broad-Wing and the others back. The chance to soar over mountains almost as tall as the Icescarp Alps was irresistible, and as much as she hated to admit it, StarWeb enjoyed it as well. They had all missed the Icescarp Alps so much, and to feel once more the power of the thermals generated by the huge mountains…well, some days there was far more soaring done than searching.

Then, on the fifth day of the fourth week of the tenth month, they flew over a ravine, and they saw, far, far below, the thin trail of smoke from a fire.

Reluctantly, for the thermals were particularly enticing on this day, they spiraled downward for a closer look.

They crouched on a rock just below a peak that rose at least a thousand paces from the floor of the ravine.

It was cold here, and uncomfortable, but for the moment the five Icarii huddled close and peered down.

Their eyesight was excellent, as good as an eagle’s, and they could very clearly see the group of eight men…and the unmoving figure of a woman shackled to one of the men.

“It is her,” said StarWeb, every word forced out. “See the color of the strand of hair fluttering from beneath the hood? It is Ishbel.”

“Well, she’s alive, at least,” said ViewSky, one of the other Icarii. “She may not be moving, but they’d not shackle her if she wasn’t still breathing.”

“They’re taking her into the Tyranny of Isembaard,” said BroadWing. “Why, I wonder?”

StarWeb didn’t care. All she wanted now was to get out of here. Even the mere sight of Ishbel made her almost nauseated with hatred.

“We’ll need to report this to Maximilian,” she said. “It’ll be a long flight back to Ruen.”

“No,” said BroadWing. “We need to rescue her.”

“No!” said StarWeb. “Stars, BroadWing! We cannot try to rescue her! There are more of them than us, and—”

“We don’t fly away and leave her,” said BroadWing. “Dear gods, StarWeb, she’s pregnant! And they’ve shackled her! Stars alone knows what else they have done to her…look, they’re eating, but Ishbel not. We rescue her.”

StarWeb looked to the others for support, but they were all nodding at BroadWing.

Suddenly StarWeb felt very ill. They were going to risk their lives for that cursed woman?

“Imagine,” said ViewSky, “Maximilian’s face when we arrive back at Ruen with Ishbel.”

StarWeb did not know how ViewSky, or any of the others, imagined the manner in which they were going to transport the fair and ailing Ishbel back to Ruen…if one of them wanted to carry her, then they could bloody well do it without her aid.

“I think I have a plan,” said BroadWing.