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Entry tags:
Girl Genius - Nuée Ardente - OC/OC - 5/9
The air was cool and damp. Sorin did not approve of that one bit. Bothersome golden light fell through the broken roof, the lack of door. He pressed his face against the only source of warmth, arms tightening thoughtlessly when it tried to get away from him.
It twitched and made a noise like chuckling.
Goddamn. He'd cuddled up, hadn't he.
"It haz been a while since Hy vas de little spoon," Velimir mused. Sorin harrumphed and rubbed his cheek against his exposed shoulder blade, bristles first. Velimir snorted at him.
The wounds really were healed. There were a few pockmarks, paler green, flesh almost entirely filled out underneath...
At least Sorin hadn't pressed his morning glory against him as well. He disentangled himself and sat up, rubbing at his face.
"Don't suppose you've got anything to shave with..."
"No. But iz good. Makes hyu look rugged."
He turned on his back, sat up. Sorin couldn't help but notice he was still cradling his arm. It was hard to see the state of the wounds under the bandage, but the bandage itself was gross with pink-brown ooze, which didn't presage great things.
"That looks pretty nasty. You should probably clean it some--"
"Nah."
Sorin frowned a little. "I don't care if you don't get infections, soon you'll be attracting flies."
Careless shrug. "Hy mean, de second Hy leave de house Hy vill be attacked."
"What?"
Velimir stretched, rounded his back. "Dey iz outside." He picked up his hat and put it back on, casually.
Sorin's stomach dropped. "Oh for pity's sake."
He jumped up on his feet, shoved the bottle back in his satchel and a wadded-up handkerchief in the middle so it wouldn't clink or break. Velimir sat there watching him, scratching at his growing sideburns.
"Why are you still just sitting there?! Would you rather wait until they were ready?"
"Hm. It vould be funnier." A faint smile. "Nah, Hy'm waiting until dey try to cross. Because then either dey will be busy with de drowning, or there vill be something to cross with. Mebbe both!" He waved his intact hand carelessly. "See? Hyu gots sum time to pee und things."
Sorin breathed out through his nose, massaged his temples, and started looking around the house for something heavy and solid enough to use as a weapon. Everything wooden was warped with age and either rotten through or brittle and full of splinters. Rocks might be hard to throw accurately from the back of a moving Jäger, might not be worth the extra weight.
"Whatchu looking for?"
"Weapon!"
Behind him, Velimir stood up, cracked his back. "Eh, diz place was looted already. Unless hyu want de rocks... Iz hokay, Hy'll protect hyu."
Sorin growled in frustration. "Maybe I'd like to defend myself some of the time? A little? Fire and bone, I can't even contribute in other ways, I don't even know what's edible out here or how to make a fire without matches. You don't even have weapons I could maybe sharpen."
"Oh." A pause. When he started talking again it sounded like he was smiling. "Hy do haff de boot knife?"
"You don't use it to fight, though. And it's too short-range for me. If I get that close to someone who's armed with more than their fists..." He slumped. The stairs looked a bit too hazardous for him to want to check out the half of the upstairs rooms that weren't crumbled open onto the sky.
"Put it on a stick?"
Sorin turned to stare at him, gave a long, slow blink. Velimir shrugged, walked up to the staircase, and ripped up pretty much the whole bannister. He held it out, balanced on his hand, and hummed a question.
"... You know what. Why the hell not."
"Awesome! Spear iz lots of fun." Toothy grin. "But furst, hyu go pee. So dat if they attack early hyu do not haff to go on mine back."
Pff. "Yes, mother."
"Und no lip from hyu, young man."
"Don't talk to me when I'm pissing, for heaven's sake."
--
In the end they had no rope to tie the knife on, and by the time they were about to tear Velimir's other shirt sleeve off and braid stripes of it together, the enemies that were gathering in the woods all around reached critical mass.
"Schtick's good enough!" Velimir yelled as he dragged him out of the house at a run, two seconds before it went up in flames.
Sorin followed him down the old stone quay at a dead run. They were in the middle of deploying some kind of fold-up bridge; the bank had gone fuzzy with steam as stone clanks shot lava into the river to make solid landings for the bridge's feet.
"Steam steam steam!"
"Hy remember!"
Lava arced overhead, fell sizzling behind them, before them, so close it felt like a slap of desert air. His eyebrows and the ends of his hair started to crinkle up.
He followed Velimir's jump across it, because what else could he do at this point.
"Hoy, not fun," the Jäger was grumbling as he picked up a rock to throw back. "Go!"
He was pointing at the other bank, in between two throws. Sorin hopped to the closest rock, wobbled. The shoulder bag wasn't great for balance purposes; he planted the banister in the water to brace on, vaulted to the next.
He really didn't think he could cross the whole thing like this. Hell. What if they thought to spray lava upstream and let the breeze carry scalding steam to him?
The current tried to tear the pole from his hand. He leaned harder, got it stuck in a crack, had to pull hard to free it again, and he was losing his momentum and would never be able to make it to the next rock if he stopped there. Gritting his teeth, he threw himself across.
He slipped on landing, landed chest flat against the rock, in the water down to his thighs. He scrambled back up, the breath knocked out of him, his muscles clenching painfully. This river was cold like the Polar Lords' own piss. Cripes.
He looked back, still huddled down on the rock and dripping, panting. Velimir had gone back down the quay, was drawing fire.
"Cross!" he yelled across the noise.
Sorin didn't know how. He was only a middling swimmer -- hot springs were plenty in his town, pools not so much. The water was so cold it made it hard to breathe. There were three more rocks breaching the surface and then nothing for about twelve, fifteen feet -- nothing to get caught on, nothing visible, but the water flowed fast there and the waterfall waited, and -- his tools, how was he meant to swim with them, or with his shoes, or --
Cross, he'd said. And the mechanical bridge had almost reached the island now.
Sorin took off his shoes, tied the laces together, slung them across his neck, and stood up.
Then he hopped as fast as he could across the rocks, before planting his pole and letting his momentum take him as far as it could.
The bottom of the river was a little farther down than he'd planned, and it fouled him, but he'd thrown himself over with desperate strength; he wobbled at the apex of his arc, almost falling backwards again, and then finished swinging ahead.
Splash.
Blue fire, so cold, his fingers and toes felt numb already. He rolled onto his back, the baluster held ahead -- jousting with the rocks, hah, smart -- and tried to aim himself toward the bank. The current tore him away ten times faster than he could move sideways, tried to pull him under. Already he was drawing even with the bulk of the island -- his cheap man's lance impacted with a rock full on, bruising his stomach, winding him. He kicked, wriggled for the current to swing him toward the bank before it could push hard enough to just dislodge him. Going over the rocks --
Calmer waters, barely -- he dogpaddled as hard as he could, water getting up his nose, sticking his hair to his face, so cold his muscles felt like they were seizing.
His hand hit a rock with so much force he stopped feeling the whole thing for a minute. He scrambled to grab a hold, climb up enough to breathe.
Another five feet to the bank.
The steep, embedded with sharp rocks bank.
He didn't want to go any farther. Panting, blinking hard, he shook water out of his hair, crawled his wobbly way onto his hands and knees.
Yeah, okay, he was just going to bridge the gap with the baluster and drag himself across hand over hand. Okay. Any second now.
Okay.
He was curled up around the stick two steps away from the bank and considering his climbing options when a hooved foot landed on the rock before his nose and a hand caught him by the back of the shirt to haul him out of the water. He gripped back with his free hand, wrapped his arm around Velimir's neck, not even shaking yet.
He clung like a baby monkey as Velimir scaled the slope. The jerk wasn't even wet. Well, Sorin was going to show him, mwaha... Okay, now the shivering was kicking in. Why not.
"Keeping der pole?" the Jäger inquired as he grabbed onto a tree to pull himself up.
"This pole is my new best friend," he stuttered into Velimir's shoulder.
"Ho?"
"I jousted rocks," he informed him, teeth clacking away.
The Jäger tilted his head back to squint at him. "Did hyu joust with hyu head?"
"No." Flatter terrain. (Somewhat; still slope-y, just not closer to vertical than not.) Trees all around. The sound of the river was slowly receding. "Just tired of all this crap."
A few of the trees were burning, but hey, you couldn't have everything.
"Hokay, hyu go on de back und we go. Sorin, sveethart?"
"Yeah, okay." He wobbled a little when he had to stand and take his own weight, wobbled some more when he leaned forward to put his shoes back on. "Wow. I don't feel so good."
A warm, dry hand cupped his face, patted his cheek, tugged the pole out of his clenched hand. "Hyu just have to hold on."
He did that. He was getting used to it now, arms wrapped around Velimir's collarbone -- not his throat, didn't want to strangle him -- knees clamped high, ankles locked together. Strong muscle flexing everywhere against him, warmth.
"I'm frozen," he mumbled, in case Velimir hadn't noticed.
"De good news is our enemy like der warm things!"
"Hrrfrgh."
"... Hy warm hyu up vith mine body de second we lose them, darlink," Velimir said, predictably, though the tone wasn't entirely flirty. More like flirty to hide... worried? Apologetic? His voice quieted a little as he continued. "Forgot how much cold hyu human types can take. Dun get hyuself sick now."
"I'll be fine. Just so tired..."
How long had they even slept for? He squinted, but couldn't make out the position of the sun. It had been dawn or almost when the werewolves gave up. He doubted it was even quite noon now.
He pressed his face against the Jäger's shoulder. It bounced against his face as Velimir hopped between the trees with his feet together like a prancing goat. Sorin didn't even care.
"Hoy. Keep talking. Tell me vhat hyu see."
Sorin groaned. "You jackass. You can't even let me sleep on you?"
"Either hyu talk or hyu walk!"
Damn it. He craned his neck to look behind them, cold water trailing across his face. "I see trees. Some of them are on fire. Not new ones, though. I see some more trees... And other trees..."
The Jäger chuckled quietly. "Hokay, fine. Just don't go quiet now. Hy dun know vhat to do for shock apart from brandy und cold water, und we just tried that."
He went quiet as he negotiated a slab of borderline vertical rock -- poing, poing, only grunting a little with the effort.
"What are your legs even made of, it's ridiculous. Do all Jäger jump like you?"
"Haha, no. Dat is mine per-sonal trick. Hy mean some of mine brothers can do that, but not a lot."
Sorin hummed, eyes closing again. "The glowy thing?"
"Not rare! De masters thot it looks nice und scary."
"Hm." Yeah, it was a little interesting. Less interesting than the exhaustion. He just wanted to sink in and...
"Hoy, lava buns!"
Sorin's arms jerked tighter around Velimir's neck. The asshole had almost dumped him!
"Tell me about home."
... Yeah. Home. He needed to survive and go back there. If only to tell everyone he was still alive. "Parents... little sister. She's sixteen. Brat. But she's tough. Master Iliescu's the blacksmith I'm apprenticing with..."
... Rozalia was the daughter of the blacksmith he was apprenticing with...
"... They've got to be sick with worry by now. Don't know when the letter will get there--"
Velimir braked so suddenly Sorin's nose hit his skull hard enough to make his eyes water, and the hat almost fell off. Velimir did an odd bobbing motion to get back under it and balance it again, and used the muscles in his shoulder and upper arm to get his injured hand to nudge it back the rest of the way.
"Ow! What the--"
"Hyu sent them a letter."
"I didn't tell them anything! Only that I was still alive. And I knew the postal stamp would tell them where I was, I wasn't planning to stay in Schwarzburg! I was going to go look for a caravan next thing. I'm not stupid!"
Velimir craned his head to look at him from under the rim. "Hyu told everyone hyu care. Dey probably guess thot already, but dey dun know. Now they know. Und dey chust haff to yell at you, surrender or dey die, und den vhat?"
Sorin bit his cheek. "They could do it either way..."
"Yes, but if dey doubt, vhen hyu dun allow it to move hyu, dey just shrug it off und tink hyu don't care after all und it dun work on hyu, und keeping hyu parents is worthless. Vhen hyu confirm, dey just think dey need to push harder." The Jäger sighed, shook his head. "Ach, kid."
Sorin swallowed. His throat had gone tight. "How -- how bad is it?"
Velimir started trotting again as he thought. "Hy dun know, but der Baron vill see de many forest fires und wonder already. If she thinks she can keep things hidden vith chust a leetle kidnapping of her own peasants... Hyu know her better. What do hyu think?"
Strangely, it wasn't the multiple instances of molten rock being shot at them that decided him. In the Viscountess' view no doubt they were fugitives, traitors. It was the fact that she'd been willing to have the clanks shoot lava at the aqueduct.
Ruining one of the greatest feats of engineering of the town, cutting off all water for the whole of Vulkanburg -- for the sake of killing them?
"Bad," he concluded. He pressed his forehead against Velimir's shoulder, eyes scrunched closed. Fuck. Fuck. "Blast me down to hell, I am stupid."
"Hyu iz inexperienced. Iz not de same thing."
"It's the same result," Sorin said, growling.
Velimir grunted. "True."
Sorin flinched, and then decided it made him hate Velimir less than soothing platitudes.
He took a deep breath, tried to think it through. As soon as the mail got to Vulkanburg this evening, the Viscountess would know she had leverage. "What do we -- is there anything --"
He couldn't figure out a solution.
"Can anything be done about it, or should I just -- just accept that it's going to happen and..."
He couldn't accept it, couldn't, but what could he do on his own? He was a burden already.
"De choices to make it not happen for sure is, attack de postal dirigible und steal hyu letter back, or be vith der Baron before tonight, so she haz bigger worm to fry."
He sounded calm, detached. It wasn't about him. It was normal for him. Things that happened. Things he didn't really have a reason to get worked up about.
It was Sorin's fault.
"How likely are we to get to the Baron that fast?"
The Jäger snorted quietly. "Vell. Ve could mebbe find a lost sciencey portal machine."
Damn it all to hell.
His hands were fisted on Velimir's breastbone. He tried very hard not to punch things, seeing as the only thing to punch was Velimir. "And on top of the sciencey portal machine, the postal dirigible will require a small army and a sky elevator, won't it?"
There was no reply for a couple of seconds. Velimir didn't throw him a glance, or anything, but the quality of his silence seemed... Sorin couldn't put it into words.
"... Velimir?"
"Hy know vhere ve iz. Mostly." A pause. "Hy know vhere de dirigible pass. Hy don't know vhat time it is und if it passed already. Hy don't know if de madgurl's hounds catch up before then. Hy do know if ve vant to meet it ve have to get to a pass, und dere iz no way we iz not seen. Iz all dead flat rock und no bushy trees."
Oh. "But -- if we did get to the pass... and we were in time...?"
"Den we get in de dirigible und dey can't get us. Unless dey vant to attack de postal services, but wooha, thot iz trouble. Dey dun joke about der letters."
"And if the dirigible passed already..."
Velimir shrugged. "Ve die."
And the Baron would never know. Not until she started her war. Sorin didn't care how fast Wulfenbach crushed her afterwards, there would be dead people first. A lot of them.
"And if we don't go after the dirigible to fix my stupid mistake and just keep going as we were?"
"Hy keep to de rocky slopes vhere her golems can't follow. She get hyu poppa und momma to tempt vith. Hy keep hyu from going." A pause. (She kills them, or maybe she doesn't.) "Ve iz in Ibarath by this time tomorrow."
Sorin swallowed.
"Can I run on my own for a bit, or -- how close are they?"
A tilt of the head, long floppy ears flicking to catch the wind. "Hm. Nah, hyu can. For a bit." Velimir slowed down, allowed Sorin to let go and slip to the ground. The slope was rocky, full of short bushes and hardy grass, but he could still manage it, if hardly with the same speed.
Velimir handed him the banister back. Sorin took it, feeling a bit silly for insisting they keep it. It would serve as a walking stick, at any rate.
He kept going at a trot for a while -- five, ten minutes, he wasn't sure, his eyes on the ground to make sure he didn't trip, his thoughts racing in circles.
'I keep you from going,' he'd said. Tie Sorin up? Or just overpower him? Anyway, that was... Velimir wasn't going to allow him to surrender. He just wasn't. No matter what Sorin wanted. Thought he wanted. Was forced to want.
It wasn't bad, having that route cut off from him. He didn't want to know what he might do if it was left open. Things he would be ashamed of himself about afterwards, for sure, if he survived. It was...
It was nice of him, actually. Should the Viscountess kill his family, Sorin would never have to wonder if she might have spared them had he surrendered (hint: pretty unlikely. They were a traitor's family, after all.) Should they die, he could tell himself it had been Velimir's decision.
Velimir's fault.
Yeah. No.
"Let's keep going." He swallowed. "No dirigible."
The Jäger peered down at him from an outcropping of rock five meters up. "Ho?"
"I can't be that selfish. You need to tell the Baron, the Baron needs to stop her, no one else can. You have to get there. It was my mistake, my -- I'll deal with it. I can't ask you to take so many stupid risks, endanger your mission--"
A bit late, it occurred to him to wonder... Had the Jäger even been asking for his opinion? Or just laying out facts to let him figure out the obvious -- that there was no way he would allow it?
Velimir hopped off his perch, landed beside him in a deep crouch, bounced back standing.
Smiled at him.
"Dat iz too bad. Hy chust see de dirigible comink right now."
Sorin stopped breathing.
"You can not mean what I think you mean."
The Jäger laughed. "Shore ken! C'mon, ve haff a big balloon to catch!"
He swept Sorin off his feet and threw him over his shoulder, threw himself across a gap. Sorin yelled a little, grunted when his satchel slipped and landed on his head. Oof. At this rate he was going to end up with a crown of bruises. He really needed to find a way to secure it better.
"You can't -- hff -- you can't do that! What if -- what if you die? Who will -- tell the Baron -- then?" He couldn't breathe enough to speak, argh! He braced against the small of Velimir's back, reared back. "Who will tell your friends!?"
Velimir allowed him to slip off his shoulder only until he could wrap his arm just under Sorin's ass, hold him standing awkwardly in his grip, thighs pressed to the side of his chest. The last time Sorin had been held like this he was seven years old.
"Sorin, sveetie. Either vay ve go, ve can die." He looked up at him. His eyes were such an ordinary human brown in the middle of all that blue-green skin. "Und if it looks like you die no matter vhat -- I vill leave you und go on. I like you -- but everyone dies. Mine brothers die, und humans die even more. We iz alive now, und in de meantime..." Velimir shrugged his shoulders. "Hyu way sounds more fun."
Throat gone tight, Sorin wrapped an arm around the top of his head (so, his hat) and hugged that, since it was what he could reach, and never mind that he almost pushed the flat top in. Velimir wobbled dangerously.
"Hoy! Hat on mine face! Halt! Halt!"
He swayed like he was losing his balance at the edge of the slope. Sorin released him, and he steadied in barely half a second, the big faking liar.
Sorin's throat was still a big knot and his eyes lakes in progress, though at least nothing was flowing yet. "You jerk. I should steal that hat off you. You'd deserve it."
Velimir scoffed. "Try it und your butt is mine."
He patted it. Sorin jumped a little bit.
"All good?"
Eyelashes lowered, Sorin nodded. "Mm."
"Goot, becuz der hounds iz almost on us."
--
The Viscountess figured out where they were going while they were still quite a bit away from it, and Velimir had to take off like a bat out of hell and zigzag through the woods to try to dodge the ambushing spider clanks. The thing was, the hounds had found their trail, and they were catching up.
The fifth time they blocked them from going back toward the pass, Sorin had had enough. "We're so danged close!" he snarled. The dogs didn't care. Baying, they sped on after them.
Velimir was spending all his breath keeping ahead of them, and it wasn't enough.
And they were alerting their enemies to their exact position...!
He'd been embarrassed of having kept the banister so long -- too-long plank that almost got them tangled up in thorn bushes more times than he could count, useless weapon more for his comfort than for any use it might see in reality.
He saw the polecat frozen in shock on its branch as they passed it, and he stretched past Velimir's shoulder with the banister held out and thwacked it right off.
Three seconds later the hounds' howls had definitely changed tones, and Velimir almost sent them to their deaths with his laughing fit.
"De stink!" he sputtered between two giggles. "Hyu iz evil! Niiiize."
Sorin didn't even know why he laughed then. Frustration and the absurdity of their situation -- how was this his life, his life wasn't this -- "I make it look good, though!"
"Mm, yes."
When they broke out of the bushes at the top of the slope he was still grinning.
There were stone clanks everywhere.
There were spider clanks. There was the Viscountess, riding in a golden one, far toward the back. It bristled with cannons.
The dirigible glided on the wind toward the pass, almost ponderously, only it was rising. "It's thrown its ballast," Sorin said, stomach sinking farther.
It had seen the gathered platoon. It wanted no part in it. By the time it crossed the pass it would be so high... How the hell were they meant to--
Velimir took off like a horse at the gate -- right for the stone clanks.
Trust him, Sorin told himself, trust him trust him trust--
The Jäger veered hard, so low to the ground Sorin felt his own elbow skim rock. Lava gushed overhead.
The dirigible kept rising.
Another hairpin turn; the hair on the top of Sorin's head crinkled with sudden heat. "Ken't get to her, raaaargh--"
"Then escape!" he yelled over the noise of the lava cannons.
The Jäger hissed in frustration. It didn't sound anything like human.
Sorin tightened his hold, brief -- a hug -- and then let go with one hand and swung the banister into a clank's legs, a last ditch attempt to trip it up. The wood splintered without slowing it down.
Swearing, Velimir escaped, racing for the peak. The dirigible was engaged in the pass now, nose passing through, the envelope maybe sixty or eighty feet long from tip to tip, the mostly-enclosed cabin underneath a much shorter twenty...
So far away.
Sorin had seen Velimir jump. He didn't know if the man could make it alone. There was no way he would make it while carrying Sorin.
"Can you throw me that high?"
Velimir grunted -- acknowledgement or surprise, he wasn't sure. "Hyu sure? Landing vill mebbe hurt--"
"Yeah, so will she!"
A short laugh.
They ricocheted off the rocks, once, twice, rising fast, and then -- and then they were jumping into the void and there was nothing underneath but air and then clanks and then her.
And then Velimir's hand was in his collar and flinging him off.
He pinwheeled in the air -- curled up on instinct, body howling -- he was going to die, going to fall and die, break himself on the rocks and --
He didn't even feel any pain upon impact, not at first, he only knew he'd touched down because something jarred his stomach even worse, and then his back hit something so hard he saw stars. The world swayed around him -- had he stopped? It didn't feel like he'd stopped. He couldn't breathe.
His knees were falling on his head. He was -- huh. Down was this way. He was upside down. He'd fetched up against the guardrail, on his shoulders and upper back, his ass in the air. He wriggled weakly, fell to the side with a thump.
Oh. Wow, was this hunk of rope messy. Whoops. He crawled out of it, kicked some rope off his ankle, tried to sit.
"Don't move."
Awesome. The dirigible had guards.
Well, of course.
He blinked up -- two people in mail uniform before him with long rifles. The cabin, the pilot, two more guards.
The lady aiming at him looked particularly no-nonsense.
"We've got to get to Baron Wulfenbach," Sorin panted, and raised a hand to feel his head. A rifle ratcheted threateningly. He dropped his hand. "The Lady of Vulkanburg--"
"The mail is neutral!" she snapped. Then, over her shoulder, as the other guard stepped up to Sorin to subdue him, "Drop the rest of the ballasts!"
Sorin kicked out at the man's leg with both feet, scrambled over him, threw himself into the narrow passageway between the cabin and the guardrail.
There was a door. He threw his shoulder into it. There were two guards aiming their rifles at him.
"Don't you dare!" he yelled, at the end of his patience.
The cabin was small. He pulled a wrench from his bag, swung it hard into the nearest rifle's barrel. Crack. Then he was in the pilot's face, his other hand in his collar, and talking very slowly.
"The ballast stays right where it is. If you abandon that man I will throw you down after him. Are we clear."
"Let him go or I'll shoot!"
Yeah, no. He had the pilot bent over backward on his command post. At this angle the bullet would come out of his head and hit the instruments. Sorin scoffed.
"You'd be doing me a favor--"
"I'm not joking!"
"Me neither, goddamnit!" he yelled back, looking up at the guard so fast the blood making its way down his temple took a swerve across his eye.
"Vell, dat's good," Velimir said, and put a companionable elbow on the shoulder of the guard whose rifle Sorin had dinged. "Now be a doll und dump de ballast, yez?"
A beat of silence.
"--Right away, herr Jäger."
Sorin shoved off the pilot, suddenly remembering he was still bending him over backward on his instruments, and then swayed. A hand caught his elbow, guiding him back to a chair; he slumped, boneless, hand rising to touch his skull. This time no one interrupted him.
Ow. He pulled his hand back, fingers coated in blood. His back felt like a giant bruise; possibly one with splinters in it but the pain was still too dull and diffuse to tell for sure.
"Um. Sorry for the... Yeah. Sorry."
He blinked again, staring at his hand.
He was alive. Velimir was alive. They were... Safe?
Velimir patted Sorin's arm, and turned to yell over his shoulder, "Dump de ballast before de madgirl forget what goes up comes down on her people und she fry us in de air!"
"Yes sir!"
Sorin laughed breathlessly, and went limp in his chair. He let his head fall back, only grunting a little when it thumped against the wall. Alive. Alive and rising fast, mountains sliding down in the windows and then the sky all around, puffy clouds and a few patches of blue.
"How did you even get onboard?" he thought to ask.
"Hy jump to a pine tree, grab de tip. Very swingy."
Huh. Using a tree as a catapult. Very Jägerish. He closed his eyes, letting his shoulders drop with his exhaustion. "Was the tree perchance on fire at the time."
"Ov corze."
"Knew it."
Velimir walked away to talk to the pilot and the head of the guards, something about confirming he was a Wulfenbach Jäger -- "Ho yez! Iz a sek-ret mission. Verra sottle." -- and whether he wanted them to change routes -- "Which we absolutely cannot do--" "Nah, iz fine, hyu go, we iz not stayink long." "Oh, good."
Sorin forced himself awake, felt around the bag for his much-abused handkerchief. It was stuck under a pile of shards that had been the bottle of brandy, which he figured out when his fingers met them. Ow. He sucked on his fingertip and glared tiredly at the mess. His tools would be fine, but... his bag was going to stink so bad.
At least the handkerchief should be mostly sterile now. He shook small shards out of it, then dabbed cautiously at his skull. It burned like all the fires of hell. When he measured with his index finger, though, the injury didn't seem that huge. Maybe two knuckles long.
"Say, hyu vouldn't happen to haff any food?"
Oh gears and grits. Food. Yes. Please. Sorin looked up hopefully. One of the guards winced back, traced his finger across his face. What was he -- oh right, yeah, blood. Sorin wiped it off as well as he could. His face must be abraded too, because it burned some more. He probably looked cleaner afterwards, though. "God yes. I haven't eaten properly in -- I can't even remember. Can you spare anything at all? Or, or even just water. Please?"
"Cripes," one of the soldiers said as he puttered around the cabin, "how old even are you?"
"Um. Nineteen? I'm an apprentice."
"Apprentice spy?"
Sorin spluttered. "Um, no. Blacksmith. I really want to go back," he added plaintively, eyes glued to the sausage sandwich the man was pulling out of a cupboard. "Thank you, you're really nice, don't feed him, he eats bugs, it's gross, he'll be fine."
"Hoy!" Velimir protested through the glass -- he'd stepped out to talk to the head guard lady. "Hyu little ingrate!"
"If you try to take this sausage from me I will shove you off the balloon. I'll shove everyone, and then I'll go on vacation to the sea. Yeah. Okay, I don't know what's wrong with me."
He gave Velimir a bewildered look. His hands were shaking around the sandwich. Velimir quirked him a side-smile that showed almost no teeth. "Iz combat nerves, keed. Just drink sumting."
"The brandy's dead," Sorin informed him.
Velimir made a shocked face. "Oh no!"
"Stop laughing at me."
"Stop beink laffed-at-able!"
"That's not even a word!"
The head guard shook her head and leaned in the door. She was still frowning faintly and did not look happy, but she pointed at him and said, "Eat your sandwich," so he did.
It was a delicious sandwich, even if swallowing with his mouth dry and his stomach still randomly doing somersaults got difficult at times. The pilot was still throwing him little nervous looks over his shoulder.
Sorin was still holding the wrench he'd almost strangled him with. Whoops. He shoved it back into the satchel blindly, not bothering to put it into its slot. Shards went crunch.
"So den how long until hyu get to Vulkanburg?"
"Uh -- with this wind, we should be there in four hours? And then on to the relay point for the villages of the mountain behind--"
"Huh. No garrison dere either." Velimir looked at Sorin, stepped back inside toward him. Sorin hurried to swallow his mouthful.
"Yeah?"
The Jäger crouched before him, balanced on his hooves, elbows on his knees. "Doing good?"
"Better now." He furtively eyed what was left of his sandwich, then held it out with an eyebrow up casually and his cheeks reddening. Velimir snorted at him, but then stole it off his hand and swallowed it in one big gulp.
"Thenks." His voice went quieter, more personal. "So. Hyu want ve hide here until de big mountains?"
Not moving for five or six hours did sound good, but everything after that... "And have to cross over to Wulfenbach territory all over again?" Sorin grimaced. "Even if she lost track of us... I'm so tired of the woods."
Velimir nodded. "Right. Best get off sooner den later, den. Ve iz backtracking enough as it is."
Sighing, Sorin nodded and hauled himself out of his chair by pure willpower.
He made his way to the head guard, knees still a bit wobbly. "Ma'am? It's -- if you have to tell them where you put us down that's fine, but she's -- if she thinks you know something... You had better not stay in Vulkanburg long. It's -- not going to end well."
She stared at him like she thought she could cut his skull open with her eyes and read what was going on in there.
"But if you can -- send the Baron a message? Can you do that?"
"This is about the lava cannons? We were going to report those to him no matter what," she said dryly, but he thought she relaxed a little. "The Jägermonster said we should, as well."
"Okay, good. That's. Yeah, good. And uh, I'm sorry to tell you because it's, I mean, she won't be happy if she guesses that you know, and it's going to be hard to pretend you don't, but if you could make sure to tell the Baron, she has weapons of mass destruction and she's planning to use them?"
The face she made was ... "Oh, great thundering Lord, not again."
"Sorry."
"We'll be sure to send word," she said firmly, and didn't add, 'in case the two of you don't make it' which was a kindness, because she sure was thinking it.
To be fair, so was Sorin.
He nodded, feeling wobbly and a bit lost. What else should he... Velimir would probably take up the slack, he knew how these things went better, but sometimes he was kind of. Careless. About some things, the human relations part of things.
The balloon started to go down and Sorin made his way out of the cabin, leaning into the wind to breathe, eyes closed for a second. It settled him a little, though by far not enough.
"Five minutes," the pilot said crisply, and Sorin and Velimir looked at each other and nodded, and Velimir went back inside to the big locked door that didn't stay locked long.
"What are you doing?!"
Everyone started yelling, rifles waving. Sorin caught a barrel in his hand as it waved past his face trying to aim at Velimir and pushed it up toward the envelope. The guard tried to yank it free of his grip, and didn't manage. It was good to be stronger than someone for once. He'd missed it.
"Wulfenbach Jäger or not, the sanctity of the mail is absolute!" the woman was yelling, and the pilot was yelling, and another two of the guards were protesting a lot as well. Sorin winced a little and waited for Velimir to reemerge.
"Um, vhat's hyu last name again?"
"Petrescu," Sorin said patiently, and sighed. Maybe he should have gone instead. "Uh, can you read?"
"Not at all!" Velimir proclaimed cheerfully, accent so thick he could have choked on it. "But diz one schmells like hyu!"
Okay, so he could totally read. "Yeah, that's the one."
"We will not allow you to take--"
"Three villagers will die if this letter gets there," Sorin snapped back, and held out his hand. "Also it's mine anyways."
Velimir handed the letter over as he stepped out of the cabin. Sorin wasted no time in shredding it into pieces. He shoved them in his satchel to get soaked in brandy rather than spread them out as evidence over the landscape and stepped up to climb onto the back Velimir was offering him.
"Thanks for the help. And the sandwich. I won't forget."
Velimir hopped onto the guardrail and flung the two of them out and into the trees underneath. Sorin pressed his face against him and waited it out.
They made their way to the ground in a fracas of broken branches and startled crows. Velimir took a second to orient himself and started walking. Sorin squirmed a little.
"Put me down, I should walk."
"Hyu iz hurt."
"Not that bad. We can't have you tired out if... if stuff happens." He knuckled at his eye. "Also I need to wake myself up. I feel like I'm crashing like a balloon with an envelope full of lead." Or lava. Mm.
Velimir grunted his acquiescence and let him slide to the ground. Sorin paused to fish as much glass out of his satchel as he could and hide it under a pile of leaves, though he kept the biggest shard in case he needed to cut something and Velimir's boot knife was out of reach. Just... just in case.
"I really need to rinse this off soon." He grimaced. "Also drink. I should have drank up there." It was cold so high up on the slopes, but there wouldn't be snow. Water would be nothing but rivulets, though.
"Hy told hyu so."
Sigh. "You told me so."
"Hy find sumting soon," Velimir said, a little nicer.
He cupped Sorin's cheek, tilted his head up. Sorin blinked at him. Did he want to look at his wounds...?
He pressed a soft, short kiss to his mouth, crooked him a faint smile.
Sorin exhaled shakily against his lips and leaned against his chest, forehead pressed to his collarbone. Velimir's injured arm was caught between them; he twitched, tried not to put too much pressure on it. "Sorry--"
"Hyu iz doing good." A teasing chuckle. "Fur a soft, pretty leetle civilian, dat iz."
Sorin snorted his disdain. "Yeah, right."
"Hyu tell me to throw hyu, den when Hy get dere, hyu is knocking people over right und left und sneering in de face of guns und being all snarly. Rowr."
Apparently Sorin hadn't lost enough blood that blushing proved difficult, which was something he regretted a little right at the moment.
"... Was there another way to get up there?"
Velimir hummed thoughtfully, eyes raised to the brim of his hat in thought. "Vell. Hy managed it vithout someone to throw me..."
Sorin groaned and slumped back against him, forehead thumping on his collarbone and hitting the buttons of his collar. Ow. "You were doing so well with the comforting until just then. Right there. That is where you fell off the comforting wagon."
Velimir laughed in his ear and then kissed his neck just under it. Sorin shivered.
"Hy can try again?" he purred.
"No, too late, bzzt. We need to start moving before I fall asleep on you. Chop chop."
"Hy vould," Velimir said dubiously, "but hyu iz gonna fall on hyu pretty face."
Sighing through his nose at this totally unfair and biased assessment, Sorin pushed off his chest and straightened up.
Now he was standing straight and his hand was on Velimir's chest and he didn't really want to take it off. Hm.
"My face is not pretty anyway," he thought to say, thirty seconds too late. "I've got a manly nose and stubble everywhere."
"Iz very pretty stubble!" Velimir said comfortingly, complete with a wise nod.
"Oh, take a hike," Sorin exclaimed, and finally managed to push Velimir away and start walking.
Heh. He wasn't even entirely dry from the river. It was the middle of the afternoon and he'd crossed rapids and thrown a polecat at hunting dogs and flown like a rock thrown at high velocity at something painful and threatened armed people with a wrench.
Also eaten a sandwich. He could still taste it a little, if he concentrated. He was going to miss that sandwich.
He really wished they could have stayed in the dirigible, they could have afforded to curl up in a corner -- together, side by side, warm and safe, lulled to sleep by the wind and the whirring mechanisms, with people who hadn't wanted to kill them past the first...
"...They called you the Jäger," he said, and only heard himself once it was out of his mouth.
"Didn't tell dem mine name," Velimir replied philosophically.
Sorin frowned, dissatisfied. It... made sense, but. Still itched at him. He wasn't sure why.
"I think even if you'd told them your name..."
... He'd done the same, really. Thought of Velimir as a Jägermonster long before he thought of him as a person. It was a common attitude. They'd otherwise been fairly decent, but...
"Dey dun need to know mine name. Und iz not going to need it." He looked at Sorin, calm and steady, only glowing a very little bit under the hat. "By der way."
"Hmm?"
"Mine friends call me Veli. Unless dey is de superior officer und Hy did sumting dumb." A doubtful pause. "Or dey iz like, der Baron himself. Der Baron doez not call me Veli. Or his sparky people und assistants und things. Jah, no, dey don't need mine name either. Iz more, hoy, hyu! Gud enuff."
A pause.
"Hy mean. If hyu vanted. Velimir haz too many seellables. Mine own momma called me Veli. Good company."
Sorin chuckled despite himself. "Your mother?"
"Jah. Und mine sveetharts." Was he looking away? Oh. He was scratching at the stubble on his chin. Sorin's chest did something complicated with possibly smuggled helium bottles. "Und mine brodders Hy guess but dey iz too dumb for so many letters."
Sorin's shoulders shook with smothered laughter. "That is good company."
"Right!" Velimir told him, vindicated. Sorin smiled back, helpless to stop it.
"Right."
He took Velimir's big, rough hand. Velimir squeezed back.
They walked through the forest and held hands in silence until the war ferrets exploded out of the bushes and they had to run again.
It twitched and made a noise like chuckling.
Goddamn. He'd cuddled up, hadn't he.
"It haz been a while since Hy vas de little spoon," Velimir mused. Sorin harrumphed and rubbed his cheek against his exposed shoulder blade, bristles first. Velimir snorted at him.
The wounds really were healed. There were a few pockmarks, paler green, flesh almost entirely filled out underneath...
At least Sorin hadn't pressed his morning glory against him as well. He disentangled himself and sat up, rubbing at his face.
"Don't suppose you've got anything to shave with..."
"No. But iz good. Makes hyu look rugged."
He turned on his back, sat up. Sorin couldn't help but notice he was still cradling his arm. It was hard to see the state of the wounds under the bandage, but the bandage itself was gross with pink-brown ooze, which didn't presage great things.
"That looks pretty nasty. You should probably clean it some--"
"Nah."
Sorin frowned a little. "I don't care if you don't get infections, soon you'll be attracting flies."
Careless shrug. "Hy mean, de second Hy leave de house Hy vill be attacked."
"What?"
Velimir stretched, rounded his back. "Dey iz outside." He picked up his hat and put it back on, casually.
Sorin's stomach dropped. "Oh for pity's sake."
He jumped up on his feet, shoved the bottle back in his satchel and a wadded-up handkerchief in the middle so it wouldn't clink or break. Velimir sat there watching him, scratching at his growing sideburns.
"Why are you still just sitting there?! Would you rather wait until they were ready?"
"Hm. It vould be funnier." A faint smile. "Nah, Hy'm waiting until dey try to cross. Because then either dey will be busy with de drowning, or there vill be something to cross with. Mebbe both!" He waved his intact hand carelessly. "See? Hyu gots sum time to pee und things."
Sorin breathed out through his nose, massaged his temples, and started looking around the house for something heavy and solid enough to use as a weapon. Everything wooden was warped with age and either rotten through or brittle and full of splinters. Rocks might be hard to throw accurately from the back of a moving Jäger, might not be worth the extra weight.
"Whatchu looking for?"
"Weapon!"
Behind him, Velimir stood up, cracked his back. "Eh, diz place was looted already. Unless hyu want de rocks... Iz hokay, Hy'll protect hyu."
Sorin growled in frustration. "Maybe I'd like to defend myself some of the time? A little? Fire and bone, I can't even contribute in other ways, I don't even know what's edible out here or how to make a fire without matches. You don't even have weapons I could maybe sharpen."
"Oh." A pause. When he started talking again it sounded like he was smiling. "Hy do haff de boot knife?"
"You don't use it to fight, though. And it's too short-range for me. If I get that close to someone who's armed with more than their fists..." He slumped. The stairs looked a bit too hazardous for him to want to check out the half of the upstairs rooms that weren't crumbled open onto the sky.
"Put it on a stick?"
Sorin turned to stare at him, gave a long, slow blink. Velimir shrugged, walked up to the staircase, and ripped up pretty much the whole bannister. He held it out, balanced on his hand, and hummed a question.
"... You know what. Why the hell not."
"Awesome! Spear iz lots of fun." Toothy grin. "But furst, hyu go pee. So dat if they attack early hyu do not haff to go on mine back."
Pff. "Yes, mother."
"Und no lip from hyu, young man."
"Don't talk to me when I'm pissing, for heaven's sake."
--
In the end they had no rope to tie the knife on, and by the time they were about to tear Velimir's other shirt sleeve off and braid stripes of it together, the enemies that were gathering in the woods all around reached critical mass.
"Schtick's good enough!" Velimir yelled as he dragged him out of the house at a run, two seconds before it went up in flames.
Sorin followed him down the old stone quay at a dead run. They were in the middle of deploying some kind of fold-up bridge; the bank had gone fuzzy with steam as stone clanks shot lava into the river to make solid landings for the bridge's feet.
"Steam steam steam!"
"Hy remember!"
Lava arced overhead, fell sizzling behind them, before them, so close it felt like a slap of desert air. His eyebrows and the ends of his hair started to crinkle up.
He followed Velimir's jump across it, because what else could he do at this point.
"Hoy, not fun," the Jäger was grumbling as he picked up a rock to throw back. "Go!"
He was pointing at the other bank, in between two throws. Sorin hopped to the closest rock, wobbled. The shoulder bag wasn't great for balance purposes; he planted the banister in the water to brace on, vaulted to the next.
He really didn't think he could cross the whole thing like this. Hell. What if they thought to spray lava upstream and let the breeze carry scalding steam to him?
The current tried to tear the pole from his hand. He leaned harder, got it stuck in a crack, had to pull hard to free it again, and he was losing his momentum and would never be able to make it to the next rock if he stopped there. Gritting his teeth, he threw himself across.
He slipped on landing, landed chest flat against the rock, in the water down to his thighs. He scrambled back up, the breath knocked out of him, his muscles clenching painfully. This river was cold like the Polar Lords' own piss. Cripes.
He looked back, still huddled down on the rock and dripping, panting. Velimir had gone back down the quay, was drawing fire.
"Cross!" he yelled across the noise.
Sorin didn't know how. He was only a middling swimmer -- hot springs were plenty in his town, pools not so much. The water was so cold it made it hard to breathe. There were three more rocks breaching the surface and then nothing for about twelve, fifteen feet -- nothing to get caught on, nothing visible, but the water flowed fast there and the waterfall waited, and -- his tools, how was he meant to swim with them, or with his shoes, or --
Cross, he'd said. And the mechanical bridge had almost reached the island now.
Sorin took off his shoes, tied the laces together, slung them across his neck, and stood up.
Then he hopped as fast as he could across the rocks, before planting his pole and letting his momentum take him as far as it could.
The bottom of the river was a little farther down than he'd planned, and it fouled him, but he'd thrown himself over with desperate strength; he wobbled at the apex of his arc, almost falling backwards again, and then finished swinging ahead.
Splash.
Blue fire, so cold, his fingers and toes felt numb already. He rolled onto his back, the baluster held ahead -- jousting with the rocks, hah, smart -- and tried to aim himself toward the bank. The current tore him away ten times faster than he could move sideways, tried to pull him under. Already he was drawing even with the bulk of the island -- his cheap man's lance impacted with a rock full on, bruising his stomach, winding him. He kicked, wriggled for the current to swing him toward the bank before it could push hard enough to just dislodge him. Going over the rocks --
Calmer waters, barely -- he dogpaddled as hard as he could, water getting up his nose, sticking his hair to his face, so cold his muscles felt like they were seizing.
His hand hit a rock with so much force he stopped feeling the whole thing for a minute. He scrambled to grab a hold, climb up enough to breathe.
Another five feet to the bank.
The steep, embedded with sharp rocks bank.
He didn't want to go any farther. Panting, blinking hard, he shook water out of his hair, crawled his wobbly way onto his hands and knees.
Yeah, okay, he was just going to bridge the gap with the baluster and drag himself across hand over hand. Okay. Any second now.
Okay.
He was curled up around the stick two steps away from the bank and considering his climbing options when a hooved foot landed on the rock before his nose and a hand caught him by the back of the shirt to haul him out of the water. He gripped back with his free hand, wrapped his arm around Velimir's neck, not even shaking yet.
He clung like a baby monkey as Velimir scaled the slope. The jerk wasn't even wet. Well, Sorin was going to show him, mwaha... Okay, now the shivering was kicking in. Why not.
"Keeping der pole?" the Jäger inquired as he grabbed onto a tree to pull himself up.
"This pole is my new best friend," he stuttered into Velimir's shoulder.
"Ho?"
"I jousted rocks," he informed him, teeth clacking away.
The Jäger tilted his head back to squint at him. "Did hyu joust with hyu head?"
"No." Flatter terrain. (Somewhat; still slope-y, just not closer to vertical than not.) Trees all around. The sound of the river was slowly receding. "Just tired of all this crap."
A few of the trees were burning, but hey, you couldn't have everything.
"Hokay, hyu go on de back und we go. Sorin, sveethart?"
"Yeah, okay." He wobbled a little when he had to stand and take his own weight, wobbled some more when he leaned forward to put his shoes back on. "Wow. I don't feel so good."
A warm, dry hand cupped his face, patted his cheek, tugged the pole out of his clenched hand. "Hyu just have to hold on."
He did that. He was getting used to it now, arms wrapped around Velimir's collarbone -- not his throat, didn't want to strangle him -- knees clamped high, ankles locked together. Strong muscle flexing everywhere against him, warmth.
"I'm frozen," he mumbled, in case Velimir hadn't noticed.
"De good news is our enemy like der warm things!"
"Hrrfrgh."
"... Hy warm hyu up vith mine body de second we lose them, darlink," Velimir said, predictably, though the tone wasn't entirely flirty. More like flirty to hide... worried? Apologetic? His voice quieted a little as he continued. "Forgot how much cold hyu human types can take. Dun get hyuself sick now."
"I'll be fine. Just so tired..."
How long had they even slept for? He squinted, but couldn't make out the position of the sun. It had been dawn or almost when the werewolves gave up. He doubted it was even quite noon now.
He pressed his face against the Jäger's shoulder. It bounced against his face as Velimir hopped between the trees with his feet together like a prancing goat. Sorin didn't even care.
"Hoy. Keep talking. Tell me vhat hyu see."
Sorin groaned. "You jackass. You can't even let me sleep on you?"
"Either hyu talk or hyu walk!"
Damn it. He craned his neck to look behind them, cold water trailing across his face. "I see trees. Some of them are on fire. Not new ones, though. I see some more trees... And other trees..."
The Jäger chuckled quietly. "Hokay, fine. Just don't go quiet now. Hy dun know vhat to do for shock apart from brandy und cold water, und we just tried that."
He went quiet as he negotiated a slab of borderline vertical rock -- poing, poing, only grunting a little with the effort.
"What are your legs even made of, it's ridiculous. Do all Jäger jump like you?"
"Haha, no. Dat is mine per-sonal trick. Hy mean some of mine brothers can do that, but not a lot."
Sorin hummed, eyes closing again. "The glowy thing?"
"Not rare! De masters thot it looks nice und scary."
"Hm." Yeah, it was a little interesting. Less interesting than the exhaustion. He just wanted to sink in and...
"Hoy, lava buns!"
Sorin's arms jerked tighter around Velimir's neck. The asshole had almost dumped him!
"Tell me about home."
... Yeah. Home. He needed to survive and go back there. If only to tell everyone he was still alive. "Parents... little sister. She's sixteen. Brat. But she's tough. Master Iliescu's the blacksmith I'm apprenticing with..."
... Rozalia was the daughter of the blacksmith he was apprenticing with...
"... They've got to be sick with worry by now. Don't know when the letter will get there--"
Velimir braked so suddenly Sorin's nose hit his skull hard enough to make his eyes water, and the hat almost fell off. Velimir did an odd bobbing motion to get back under it and balance it again, and used the muscles in his shoulder and upper arm to get his injured hand to nudge it back the rest of the way.
"Ow! What the--"
"Hyu sent them a letter."
"I didn't tell them anything! Only that I was still alive. And I knew the postal stamp would tell them where I was, I wasn't planning to stay in Schwarzburg! I was going to go look for a caravan next thing. I'm not stupid!"
Velimir craned his head to look at him from under the rim. "Hyu told everyone hyu care. Dey probably guess thot already, but dey dun know. Now they know. Und dey chust haff to yell at you, surrender or dey die, und den vhat?"
Sorin bit his cheek. "They could do it either way..."
"Yes, but if dey doubt, vhen hyu dun allow it to move hyu, dey just shrug it off und tink hyu don't care after all und it dun work on hyu, und keeping hyu parents is worthless. Vhen hyu confirm, dey just think dey need to push harder." The Jäger sighed, shook his head. "Ach, kid."
Sorin swallowed. His throat had gone tight. "How -- how bad is it?"
Velimir started trotting again as he thought. "Hy dun know, but der Baron vill see de many forest fires und wonder already. If she thinks she can keep things hidden vith chust a leetle kidnapping of her own peasants... Hyu know her better. What do hyu think?"
Strangely, it wasn't the multiple instances of molten rock being shot at them that decided him. In the Viscountess' view no doubt they were fugitives, traitors. It was the fact that she'd been willing to have the clanks shoot lava at the aqueduct.
Ruining one of the greatest feats of engineering of the town, cutting off all water for the whole of Vulkanburg -- for the sake of killing them?
"Bad," he concluded. He pressed his forehead against Velimir's shoulder, eyes scrunched closed. Fuck. Fuck. "Blast me down to hell, I am stupid."
"Hyu iz inexperienced. Iz not de same thing."
"It's the same result," Sorin said, growling.
Velimir grunted. "True."
Sorin flinched, and then decided it made him hate Velimir less than soothing platitudes.
He took a deep breath, tried to think it through. As soon as the mail got to Vulkanburg this evening, the Viscountess would know she had leverage. "What do we -- is there anything --"
He couldn't figure out a solution.
"Can anything be done about it, or should I just -- just accept that it's going to happen and..."
He couldn't accept it, couldn't, but what could he do on his own? He was a burden already.
"De choices to make it not happen for sure is, attack de postal dirigible und steal hyu letter back, or be vith der Baron before tonight, so she haz bigger worm to fry."
He sounded calm, detached. It wasn't about him. It was normal for him. Things that happened. Things he didn't really have a reason to get worked up about.
It was Sorin's fault.
"How likely are we to get to the Baron that fast?"
The Jäger snorted quietly. "Vell. Ve could mebbe find a lost sciencey portal machine."
Damn it all to hell.
His hands were fisted on Velimir's breastbone. He tried very hard not to punch things, seeing as the only thing to punch was Velimir. "And on top of the sciencey portal machine, the postal dirigible will require a small army and a sky elevator, won't it?"
There was no reply for a couple of seconds. Velimir didn't throw him a glance, or anything, but the quality of his silence seemed... Sorin couldn't put it into words.
"... Velimir?"
"Hy know vhere ve iz. Mostly." A pause. "Hy know vhere de dirigible pass. Hy don't know vhat time it is und if it passed already. Hy don't know if de madgurl's hounds catch up before then. Hy do know if ve vant to meet it ve have to get to a pass, und dere iz no way we iz not seen. Iz all dead flat rock und no bushy trees."
Oh. "But -- if we did get to the pass... and we were in time...?"
"Den we get in de dirigible und dey can't get us. Unless dey vant to attack de postal services, but wooha, thot iz trouble. Dey dun joke about der letters."
"And if the dirigible passed already..."
Velimir shrugged. "Ve die."
And the Baron would never know. Not until she started her war. Sorin didn't care how fast Wulfenbach crushed her afterwards, there would be dead people first. A lot of them.
"And if we don't go after the dirigible to fix my stupid mistake and just keep going as we were?"
"Hy keep to de rocky slopes vhere her golems can't follow. She get hyu poppa und momma to tempt vith. Hy keep hyu from going." A pause. (She kills them, or maybe she doesn't.) "Ve iz in Ibarath by this time tomorrow."
Sorin swallowed.
"Can I run on my own for a bit, or -- how close are they?"
A tilt of the head, long floppy ears flicking to catch the wind. "Hm. Nah, hyu can. For a bit." Velimir slowed down, allowed Sorin to let go and slip to the ground. The slope was rocky, full of short bushes and hardy grass, but he could still manage it, if hardly with the same speed.
Velimir handed him the banister back. Sorin took it, feeling a bit silly for insisting they keep it. It would serve as a walking stick, at any rate.
He kept going at a trot for a while -- five, ten minutes, he wasn't sure, his eyes on the ground to make sure he didn't trip, his thoughts racing in circles.
'I keep you from going,' he'd said. Tie Sorin up? Or just overpower him? Anyway, that was... Velimir wasn't going to allow him to surrender. He just wasn't. No matter what Sorin wanted. Thought he wanted. Was forced to want.
It wasn't bad, having that route cut off from him. He didn't want to know what he might do if it was left open. Things he would be ashamed of himself about afterwards, for sure, if he survived. It was...
It was nice of him, actually. Should the Viscountess kill his family, Sorin would never have to wonder if she might have spared them had he surrendered (hint: pretty unlikely. They were a traitor's family, after all.) Should they die, he could tell himself it had been Velimir's decision.
Velimir's fault.
Yeah. No.
"Let's keep going." He swallowed. "No dirigible."
The Jäger peered down at him from an outcropping of rock five meters up. "Ho?"
"I can't be that selfish. You need to tell the Baron, the Baron needs to stop her, no one else can. You have to get there. It was my mistake, my -- I'll deal with it. I can't ask you to take so many stupid risks, endanger your mission--"
A bit late, it occurred to him to wonder... Had the Jäger even been asking for his opinion? Or just laying out facts to let him figure out the obvious -- that there was no way he would allow it?
Velimir hopped off his perch, landed beside him in a deep crouch, bounced back standing.
Smiled at him.
"Dat iz too bad. Hy chust see de dirigible comink right now."
Sorin stopped breathing.
"You can not mean what I think you mean."
The Jäger laughed. "Shore ken! C'mon, ve haff a big balloon to catch!"
He swept Sorin off his feet and threw him over his shoulder, threw himself across a gap. Sorin yelled a little, grunted when his satchel slipped and landed on his head. Oof. At this rate he was going to end up with a crown of bruises. He really needed to find a way to secure it better.
"You can't -- hff -- you can't do that! What if -- what if you die? Who will -- tell the Baron -- then?" He couldn't breathe enough to speak, argh! He braced against the small of Velimir's back, reared back. "Who will tell your friends!?"
Velimir allowed him to slip off his shoulder only until he could wrap his arm just under Sorin's ass, hold him standing awkwardly in his grip, thighs pressed to the side of his chest. The last time Sorin had been held like this he was seven years old.
"Sorin, sveetie. Either vay ve go, ve can die." He looked up at him. His eyes were such an ordinary human brown in the middle of all that blue-green skin. "Und if it looks like you die no matter vhat -- I vill leave you und go on. I like you -- but everyone dies. Mine brothers die, und humans die even more. We iz alive now, und in de meantime..." Velimir shrugged his shoulders. "Hyu way sounds more fun."
Throat gone tight, Sorin wrapped an arm around the top of his head (so, his hat) and hugged that, since it was what he could reach, and never mind that he almost pushed the flat top in. Velimir wobbled dangerously.
"Hoy! Hat on mine face! Halt! Halt!"
He swayed like he was losing his balance at the edge of the slope. Sorin released him, and he steadied in barely half a second, the big faking liar.
Sorin's throat was still a big knot and his eyes lakes in progress, though at least nothing was flowing yet. "You jerk. I should steal that hat off you. You'd deserve it."
Velimir scoffed. "Try it und your butt is mine."
He patted it. Sorin jumped a little bit.
"All good?"
Eyelashes lowered, Sorin nodded. "Mm."
"Goot, becuz der hounds iz almost on us."
--
The Viscountess figured out where they were going while they were still quite a bit away from it, and Velimir had to take off like a bat out of hell and zigzag through the woods to try to dodge the ambushing spider clanks. The thing was, the hounds had found their trail, and they were catching up.
The fifth time they blocked them from going back toward the pass, Sorin had had enough. "We're so danged close!" he snarled. The dogs didn't care. Baying, they sped on after them.
Velimir was spending all his breath keeping ahead of them, and it wasn't enough.
And they were alerting their enemies to their exact position...!
He'd been embarrassed of having kept the banister so long -- too-long plank that almost got them tangled up in thorn bushes more times than he could count, useless weapon more for his comfort than for any use it might see in reality.
He saw the polecat frozen in shock on its branch as they passed it, and he stretched past Velimir's shoulder with the banister held out and thwacked it right off.
Three seconds later the hounds' howls had definitely changed tones, and Velimir almost sent them to their deaths with his laughing fit.
"De stink!" he sputtered between two giggles. "Hyu iz evil! Niiiize."
Sorin didn't even know why he laughed then. Frustration and the absurdity of their situation -- how was this his life, his life wasn't this -- "I make it look good, though!"
"Mm, yes."
When they broke out of the bushes at the top of the slope he was still grinning.
There were stone clanks everywhere.
There were spider clanks. There was the Viscountess, riding in a golden one, far toward the back. It bristled with cannons.
The dirigible glided on the wind toward the pass, almost ponderously, only it was rising. "It's thrown its ballast," Sorin said, stomach sinking farther.
It had seen the gathered platoon. It wanted no part in it. By the time it crossed the pass it would be so high... How the hell were they meant to--
Velimir took off like a horse at the gate -- right for the stone clanks.
Trust him, Sorin told himself, trust him trust him trust--
The Jäger veered hard, so low to the ground Sorin felt his own elbow skim rock. Lava gushed overhead.
The dirigible kept rising.
Another hairpin turn; the hair on the top of Sorin's head crinkled with sudden heat. "Ken't get to her, raaaargh--"
"Then escape!" he yelled over the noise of the lava cannons.
The Jäger hissed in frustration. It didn't sound anything like human.
Sorin tightened his hold, brief -- a hug -- and then let go with one hand and swung the banister into a clank's legs, a last ditch attempt to trip it up. The wood splintered without slowing it down.
Swearing, Velimir escaped, racing for the peak. The dirigible was engaged in the pass now, nose passing through, the envelope maybe sixty or eighty feet long from tip to tip, the mostly-enclosed cabin underneath a much shorter twenty...
So far away.
Sorin had seen Velimir jump. He didn't know if the man could make it alone. There was no way he would make it while carrying Sorin.
"Can you throw me that high?"
Velimir grunted -- acknowledgement or surprise, he wasn't sure. "Hyu sure? Landing vill mebbe hurt--"
"Yeah, so will she!"
A short laugh.
They ricocheted off the rocks, once, twice, rising fast, and then -- and then they were jumping into the void and there was nothing underneath but air and then clanks and then her.
And then Velimir's hand was in his collar and flinging him off.
He pinwheeled in the air -- curled up on instinct, body howling -- he was going to die, going to fall and die, break himself on the rocks and --
He didn't even feel any pain upon impact, not at first, he only knew he'd touched down because something jarred his stomach even worse, and then his back hit something so hard he saw stars. The world swayed around him -- had he stopped? It didn't feel like he'd stopped. He couldn't breathe.
His knees were falling on his head. He was -- huh. Down was this way. He was upside down. He'd fetched up against the guardrail, on his shoulders and upper back, his ass in the air. He wriggled weakly, fell to the side with a thump.
Oh. Wow, was this hunk of rope messy. Whoops. He crawled out of it, kicked some rope off his ankle, tried to sit.
"Don't move."
Awesome. The dirigible had guards.
Well, of course.
He blinked up -- two people in mail uniform before him with long rifles. The cabin, the pilot, two more guards.
The lady aiming at him looked particularly no-nonsense.
"We've got to get to Baron Wulfenbach," Sorin panted, and raised a hand to feel his head. A rifle ratcheted threateningly. He dropped his hand. "The Lady of Vulkanburg--"
"The mail is neutral!" she snapped. Then, over her shoulder, as the other guard stepped up to Sorin to subdue him, "Drop the rest of the ballasts!"
Sorin kicked out at the man's leg with both feet, scrambled over him, threw himself into the narrow passageway between the cabin and the guardrail.
There was a door. He threw his shoulder into it. There were two guards aiming their rifles at him.
"Don't you dare!" he yelled, at the end of his patience.
The cabin was small. He pulled a wrench from his bag, swung it hard into the nearest rifle's barrel. Crack. Then he was in the pilot's face, his other hand in his collar, and talking very slowly.
"The ballast stays right where it is. If you abandon that man I will throw you down after him. Are we clear."
"Let him go or I'll shoot!"
Yeah, no. He had the pilot bent over backward on his command post. At this angle the bullet would come out of his head and hit the instruments. Sorin scoffed.
"You'd be doing me a favor--"
"I'm not joking!"
"Me neither, goddamnit!" he yelled back, looking up at the guard so fast the blood making its way down his temple took a swerve across his eye.
"Vell, dat's good," Velimir said, and put a companionable elbow on the shoulder of the guard whose rifle Sorin had dinged. "Now be a doll und dump de ballast, yez?"
A beat of silence.
"--Right away, herr Jäger."
Sorin shoved off the pilot, suddenly remembering he was still bending him over backward on his instruments, and then swayed. A hand caught his elbow, guiding him back to a chair; he slumped, boneless, hand rising to touch his skull. This time no one interrupted him.
Ow. He pulled his hand back, fingers coated in blood. His back felt like a giant bruise; possibly one with splinters in it but the pain was still too dull and diffuse to tell for sure.
"Um. Sorry for the... Yeah. Sorry."
He blinked again, staring at his hand.
He was alive. Velimir was alive. They were... Safe?
Velimir patted Sorin's arm, and turned to yell over his shoulder, "Dump de ballast before de madgirl forget what goes up comes down on her people und she fry us in de air!"
"Yes sir!"
Sorin laughed breathlessly, and went limp in his chair. He let his head fall back, only grunting a little when it thumped against the wall. Alive. Alive and rising fast, mountains sliding down in the windows and then the sky all around, puffy clouds and a few patches of blue.
"How did you even get onboard?" he thought to ask.
"Hy jump to a pine tree, grab de tip. Very swingy."
Huh. Using a tree as a catapult. Very Jägerish. He closed his eyes, letting his shoulders drop with his exhaustion. "Was the tree perchance on fire at the time."
"Ov corze."
"Knew it."
Velimir walked away to talk to the pilot and the head of the guards, something about confirming he was a Wulfenbach Jäger -- "Ho yez! Iz a sek-ret mission. Verra sottle." -- and whether he wanted them to change routes -- "Which we absolutely cannot do--" "Nah, iz fine, hyu go, we iz not stayink long." "Oh, good."
Sorin forced himself awake, felt around the bag for his much-abused handkerchief. It was stuck under a pile of shards that had been the bottle of brandy, which he figured out when his fingers met them. Ow. He sucked on his fingertip and glared tiredly at the mess. His tools would be fine, but... his bag was going to stink so bad.
At least the handkerchief should be mostly sterile now. He shook small shards out of it, then dabbed cautiously at his skull. It burned like all the fires of hell. When he measured with his index finger, though, the injury didn't seem that huge. Maybe two knuckles long.
"Say, hyu vouldn't happen to haff any food?"
Oh gears and grits. Food. Yes. Please. Sorin looked up hopefully. One of the guards winced back, traced his finger across his face. What was he -- oh right, yeah, blood. Sorin wiped it off as well as he could. His face must be abraded too, because it burned some more. He probably looked cleaner afterwards, though. "God yes. I haven't eaten properly in -- I can't even remember. Can you spare anything at all? Or, or even just water. Please?"
"Cripes," one of the soldiers said as he puttered around the cabin, "how old even are you?"
"Um. Nineteen? I'm an apprentice."
"Apprentice spy?"
Sorin spluttered. "Um, no. Blacksmith. I really want to go back," he added plaintively, eyes glued to the sausage sandwich the man was pulling out of a cupboard. "Thank you, you're really nice, don't feed him, he eats bugs, it's gross, he'll be fine."
"Hoy!" Velimir protested through the glass -- he'd stepped out to talk to the head guard lady. "Hyu little ingrate!"
"If you try to take this sausage from me I will shove you off the balloon. I'll shove everyone, and then I'll go on vacation to the sea. Yeah. Okay, I don't know what's wrong with me."
He gave Velimir a bewildered look. His hands were shaking around the sandwich. Velimir quirked him a side-smile that showed almost no teeth. "Iz combat nerves, keed. Just drink sumting."
"The brandy's dead," Sorin informed him.
Velimir made a shocked face. "Oh no!"
"Stop laughing at me."
"Stop beink laffed-at-able!"
"That's not even a word!"
The head guard shook her head and leaned in the door. She was still frowning faintly and did not look happy, but she pointed at him and said, "Eat your sandwich," so he did.
It was a delicious sandwich, even if swallowing with his mouth dry and his stomach still randomly doing somersaults got difficult at times. The pilot was still throwing him little nervous looks over his shoulder.
Sorin was still holding the wrench he'd almost strangled him with. Whoops. He shoved it back into the satchel blindly, not bothering to put it into its slot. Shards went crunch.
"So den how long until hyu get to Vulkanburg?"
"Uh -- with this wind, we should be there in four hours? And then on to the relay point for the villages of the mountain behind--"
"Huh. No garrison dere either." Velimir looked at Sorin, stepped back inside toward him. Sorin hurried to swallow his mouthful.
"Yeah?"
The Jäger crouched before him, balanced on his hooves, elbows on his knees. "Doing good?"
"Better now." He furtively eyed what was left of his sandwich, then held it out with an eyebrow up casually and his cheeks reddening. Velimir snorted at him, but then stole it off his hand and swallowed it in one big gulp.
"Thenks." His voice went quieter, more personal. "So. Hyu want ve hide here until de big mountains?"
Not moving for five or six hours did sound good, but everything after that... "And have to cross over to Wulfenbach territory all over again?" Sorin grimaced. "Even if she lost track of us... I'm so tired of the woods."
Velimir nodded. "Right. Best get off sooner den later, den. Ve iz backtracking enough as it is."
Sighing, Sorin nodded and hauled himself out of his chair by pure willpower.
He made his way to the head guard, knees still a bit wobbly. "Ma'am? It's -- if you have to tell them where you put us down that's fine, but she's -- if she thinks you know something... You had better not stay in Vulkanburg long. It's -- not going to end well."
She stared at him like she thought she could cut his skull open with her eyes and read what was going on in there.
"But if you can -- send the Baron a message? Can you do that?"
"This is about the lava cannons? We were going to report those to him no matter what," she said dryly, but he thought she relaxed a little. "The Jägermonster said we should, as well."
"Okay, good. That's. Yeah, good. And uh, I'm sorry to tell you because it's, I mean, she won't be happy if she guesses that you know, and it's going to be hard to pretend you don't, but if you could make sure to tell the Baron, she has weapons of mass destruction and she's planning to use them?"
The face she made was ... "Oh, great thundering Lord, not again."
"Sorry."
"We'll be sure to send word," she said firmly, and didn't add, 'in case the two of you don't make it' which was a kindness, because she sure was thinking it.
To be fair, so was Sorin.
He nodded, feeling wobbly and a bit lost. What else should he... Velimir would probably take up the slack, he knew how these things went better, but sometimes he was kind of. Careless. About some things, the human relations part of things.
The balloon started to go down and Sorin made his way out of the cabin, leaning into the wind to breathe, eyes closed for a second. It settled him a little, though by far not enough.
"Five minutes," the pilot said crisply, and Sorin and Velimir looked at each other and nodded, and Velimir went back inside to the big locked door that didn't stay locked long.
"What are you doing?!"
Everyone started yelling, rifles waving. Sorin caught a barrel in his hand as it waved past his face trying to aim at Velimir and pushed it up toward the envelope. The guard tried to yank it free of his grip, and didn't manage. It was good to be stronger than someone for once. He'd missed it.
"Wulfenbach Jäger or not, the sanctity of the mail is absolute!" the woman was yelling, and the pilot was yelling, and another two of the guards were protesting a lot as well. Sorin winced a little and waited for Velimir to reemerge.
"Um, vhat's hyu last name again?"
"Petrescu," Sorin said patiently, and sighed. Maybe he should have gone instead. "Uh, can you read?"
"Not at all!" Velimir proclaimed cheerfully, accent so thick he could have choked on it. "But diz one schmells like hyu!"
Okay, so he could totally read. "Yeah, that's the one."
"We will not allow you to take--"
"Three villagers will die if this letter gets there," Sorin snapped back, and held out his hand. "Also it's mine anyways."
Velimir handed the letter over as he stepped out of the cabin. Sorin wasted no time in shredding it into pieces. He shoved them in his satchel to get soaked in brandy rather than spread them out as evidence over the landscape and stepped up to climb onto the back Velimir was offering him.
"Thanks for the help. And the sandwich. I won't forget."
Velimir hopped onto the guardrail and flung the two of them out and into the trees underneath. Sorin pressed his face against him and waited it out.
They made their way to the ground in a fracas of broken branches and startled crows. Velimir took a second to orient himself and started walking. Sorin squirmed a little.
"Put me down, I should walk."
"Hyu iz hurt."
"Not that bad. We can't have you tired out if... if stuff happens." He knuckled at his eye. "Also I need to wake myself up. I feel like I'm crashing like a balloon with an envelope full of lead." Or lava. Mm.
Velimir grunted his acquiescence and let him slide to the ground. Sorin paused to fish as much glass out of his satchel as he could and hide it under a pile of leaves, though he kept the biggest shard in case he needed to cut something and Velimir's boot knife was out of reach. Just... just in case.
"I really need to rinse this off soon." He grimaced. "Also drink. I should have drank up there." It was cold so high up on the slopes, but there wouldn't be snow. Water would be nothing but rivulets, though.
"Hy told hyu so."
Sigh. "You told me so."
"Hy find sumting soon," Velimir said, a little nicer.
He cupped Sorin's cheek, tilted his head up. Sorin blinked at him. Did he want to look at his wounds...?
He pressed a soft, short kiss to his mouth, crooked him a faint smile.
Sorin exhaled shakily against his lips and leaned against his chest, forehead pressed to his collarbone. Velimir's injured arm was caught between them; he twitched, tried not to put too much pressure on it. "Sorry--"
"Hyu iz doing good." A teasing chuckle. "Fur a soft, pretty leetle civilian, dat iz."
Sorin snorted his disdain. "Yeah, right."
"Hyu tell me to throw hyu, den when Hy get dere, hyu is knocking people over right und left und sneering in de face of guns und being all snarly. Rowr."
Apparently Sorin hadn't lost enough blood that blushing proved difficult, which was something he regretted a little right at the moment.
"... Was there another way to get up there?"
Velimir hummed thoughtfully, eyes raised to the brim of his hat in thought. "Vell. Hy managed it vithout someone to throw me..."
Sorin groaned and slumped back against him, forehead thumping on his collarbone and hitting the buttons of his collar. Ow. "You were doing so well with the comforting until just then. Right there. That is where you fell off the comforting wagon."
Velimir laughed in his ear and then kissed his neck just under it. Sorin shivered.
"Hy can try again?" he purred.
"No, too late, bzzt. We need to start moving before I fall asleep on you. Chop chop."
"Hy vould," Velimir said dubiously, "but hyu iz gonna fall on hyu pretty face."
Sighing through his nose at this totally unfair and biased assessment, Sorin pushed off his chest and straightened up.
Now he was standing straight and his hand was on Velimir's chest and he didn't really want to take it off. Hm.
"My face is not pretty anyway," he thought to say, thirty seconds too late. "I've got a manly nose and stubble everywhere."
"Iz very pretty stubble!" Velimir said comfortingly, complete with a wise nod.
"Oh, take a hike," Sorin exclaimed, and finally managed to push Velimir away and start walking.
Heh. He wasn't even entirely dry from the river. It was the middle of the afternoon and he'd crossed rapids and thrown a polecat at hunting dogs and flown like a rock thrown at high velocity at something painful and threatened armed people with a wrench.
Also eaten a sandwich. He could still taste it a little, if he concentrated. He was going to miss that sandwich.
He really wished they could have stayed in the dirigible, they could have afforded to curl up in a corner -- together, side by side, warm and safe, lulled to sleep by the wind and the whirring mechanisms, with people who hadn't wanted to kill them past the first...
"...They called you the Jäger," he said, and only heard himself once it was out of his mouth.
"Didn't tell dem mine name," Velimir replied philosophically.
Sorin frowned, dissatisfied. It... made sense, but. Still itched at him. He wasn't sure why.
"I think even if you'd told them your name..."
... He'd done the same, really. Thought of Velimir as a Jägermonster long before he thought of him as a person. It was a common attitude. They'd otherwise been fairly decent, but...
"Dey dun need to know mine name. Und iz not going to need it." He looked at Sorin, calm and steady, only glowing a very little bit under the hat. "By der way."
"Hmm?"
"Mine friends call me Veli. Unless dey is de superior officer und Hy did sumting dumb." A doubtful pause. "Or dey iz like, der Baron himself. Der Baron doez not call me Veli. Or his sparky people und assistants und things. Jah, no, dey don't need mine name either. Iz more, hoy, hyu! Gud enuff."
A pause.
"Hy mean. If hyu vanted. Velimir haz too many seellables. Mine own momma called me Veli. Good company."
Sorin chuckled despite himself. "Your mother?"
"Jah. Und mine sveetharts." Was he looking away? Oh. He was scratching at the stubble on his chin. Sorin's chest did something complicated with possibly smuggled helium bottles. "Und mine brodders Hy guess but dey iz too dumb for so many letters."
Sorin's shoulders shook with smothered laughter. "That is good company."
"Right!" Velimir told him, vindicated. Sorin smiled back, helpless to stop it.
"Right."
He took Velimir's big, rough hand. Velimir squeezed back.
They walked through the forest and held hands in silence until the war ferrets exploded out of the bushes and they had to run again.