"We"re going to be in trouble."That was the conclusion Phoebe came up with upon hearing the scout reports for the morning. Aurian forces were swarming all over the area. Surveyors were all over the highlands. Heavy construction machinery was starting to arrive one after the other at a new base site two hills away. Phoebe felt quite certain that Auria was intending to fortify these highlands, and the plateau where the Red Fang was sitting on was soon to be a building site. In a matter of hours, somebody, maybe one of those surveyors, was going to come up to the plateau and spot their airship.
"What do we do? Do we fight or flee?" Alex asked.
"We"re leaving." Phoebe decided. "But not without our people. We"re going to pick them up."
"Is that even possible? They"re hours away even by airship, and there are soldiers all over the place."
Phoebe turned to a lynxmouse. "I need you guys to steal something."
"Squik?" [What is it?]
"It"s a piece of cloth that looks like this." Phoebe drew a picture. "We need two or three. The bigger, the better."
"Sqeek!" [On it!]
Alex stared at the picture as the lynxmice scurried off. "That"s… are you sure? I mean… that"s really quite a risk."
"I"m sure." Phoebe nodded.
The picture she drew was the Aurian flag.
***
That day, several sentries and base managers got into a lot of trouble. The general in charge of the area was particularly miffed when he ran an inspection of the base camps and found several of them neglecting to raise their very own flag!
"But… but it was right there!" was the common excuse almost all of them gave.
He didn"t believe a word of it.
One particularly creative manager said that mice had stolen the flag. Mice!
He was punished double.
***
A tense five hours followed, with a lot of tiptoeing and hoping that neither the Aurians or the Germat forces would notice…
But at last, the two parties reunited and took to the skies hastily.
"Shall we keep flying low?" Mindy asked.
"No, we might get shot at by some desperate defender." Remian said. "Take us into the cloud cover…"
Phoebe jumped. "No! There are Bulraki Horned Ships in the cloud cover! Take us above it! There are whole fleets in the skies above the clouds, but they"re all tiptoeing around each other and n.o.body"s shooting yet! We"d have better chances there!"
"Okay!" Mindy darted in to captain the ship, leaving Remian and Phoebe on deck.
Remian and Phoebe started their own private reunion, with a lot of catching up and planning and sharing hopes and fears about their trip back…
They broke through the cloud cover and very quickly wished they hadn"t.
***
At this point, it seems best to explain the circ.u.mstances that led to the circ.u.mstances before continuing any further.
***
Asda had been enjoying the authority and respect of rulership when, over the past month or so, she began to realize she had been losing the authority and respect of rulership, and in fact, all other sorts of authority and respect while she was at it. Was it because she didn"t dress in a properly dignified manner? Was it because enemies were spreading lies and rumors behind her back? Was it a growing coup by some malicious cousin? Was it because she was a girl?!
She made great efforts to root out the problem. The Fal"Herim Asda Intelligence Division worked overtime to quash rumors and rumor-mongers. Anyone speaking ill of her was brought in for questioning and thoroughly interrogated, their houses and histories searched. Her entire wardrobe began to be more and more ornamented with symbols of dignity and wealth, such as gold and jewelry. Half her known cousins (and a few she suspected were actually cousins) ended up exiled, the other half practically under house arrest. A large campaign to create literature and educate the ma.s.ses on the power of girls, especially young girls, was spread throughout the country and all their allies, beginning with the theatrical play, "Magical Transforming Girl Reina". All future theatrical productions that lacked an overwhelmingly strong young girl character in the story was banned.
There was one particular old advisor who advised her that all the above were really bad ideas. He was sentenced to death, but managed to escape capture somehow. He could never return to Fal"Herim on pain on death.
Anyway. Asda tried all sorts of means to make herself more popular and more respected among her people, but they just kept giving her weirder and weirder looks. She made herself an actress, and fellow heroine in "Magical Girl Reina". She demanded lynxmice and all other sorts of mice be vilified in theatrical plays. She even went around offering free rat traps to all n.o.ble households in Fal"Herim.
Nothing worked! In desperation, Asda remembered what her brother had been so focused on – foreign aid and international reputation. Perhaps, if the kings of the world recognized and respected her, she would finally find honor among her own subordinates!
So she went to war, insisting that an image recording crew and broadcast team accompany and record her. Sixteen airships left Fal"Herim to join the world war at the Neutral Zone. Fourteen of them arrived…
What happened to the other two?
"How should I know?" – Asda.
There, they found the great floating island that was the Ira Caliphate Mothership and happily joined up with their allies. Asda had just met the captain of the greeting party at the Mothership"s berthing ring, when she saw an altogether familiar airship appear out from the cloud cover below.
"That"s the Red Fang!" she gasped, pointing. "It was stolen by bandits who live in the Wildlands!"
"So… what do you want to do?"
"I want it back!"
***
On the other hand, Mandy was there too. She was with the Ashdale Third Logistics Sky Fleet as a member of the ninth "volunteer" (paid, and rather pressured into enlisting) logistics corp (transport guards), under the command of Sir John Stout.
Sir Stout, as he liked to be called, was speaking to Mandy in a soft and gentle tone that he always used with Mandy (and only with Mandy, ever since he met her) when a certain drab airship popped out from the cloud cover.
"That airship!" Mandy gasped. She s.n.a.t.c.hed up the spygla.s.s in his hands and immediately looked at the figures on deck, marking two of them straight away. "That"s my ex-husband… and his new girlfriend!"
Sir Stout"s face darkened on the spot.
***
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Remian was murmuring to Phoebe in a low voice about how smart she"d been and how well she had led the others so far, and Phoebe was starting to turn a little red, when the first shots started flying.
"What the…?!" Mindy gaped.
"Incoming fire! UltrLong Range Artillery! From Ashdale!" Sandra shouted.
"What?! Ashdale?!" Mindy"s eyes almost popped. "Why are they shooting at us?! What did you say to them?"
"I didn"t say anything!" Sandra yelped. "They didn"t even hail us! Why are they shooting at us?"
"We"re still flying the Aurian flag! What do you think?!"
"Evasive action! Skirt the clouds!" Mindy barked. "Focus barrier power on the Ashdale side!"
"More incoming! Six frigates from the Ira Mothership! They"re… oh, sc.r.a.p, it"s Asda! They"re… are those… grappling hooks?!"
Bombardment from the left. Boarding parties on the right. What to do?!
"We"re dead! We"re so dead!" one of the Neutral Zone survivors whined.
"Hard to starboard!" Mindy growled. "We need to get away from that artillery fire!"
"What? But we"ll be boarded!"
"At least then we"ll have a chance! If we can hold them off long enough, we might just get through! We have no such chance against artillery fire!"
"But… but…!"
"Do it! All hands, battle stations! Prepare to receive boarders!"