Chapter 9 – Part 5

They wore winter clothes, the gloves tightly cinched by cords. Masks covered their faces, with bottles of fresh air attached, else they would fall faint in the thin air this high up. Steel cleats on their boots kept their purchase on a deck perpetually coated with ice. A wizard stood by with prestidigitation spells, trying to keep the deck and the equipment reasonably clear, but the equipment helped.

They were on a specially reinforced Lyrandar airship, a good half-mile over what was considered the safest maximum travel height. The Lyrandar crew had been reduced to the pilot and the captain, and a grand total of five Aundairian special forces operatives were preparing the barrels of incendiary fluid that they hoped to rain down on the center of the Reacher army encamped near Varna.

It was a tightly run operation, one that no one in the Aundairian command would have spent money on, under other circumstances. Dropping barrels from a great height was not the most accurate method of aiming a weapon, and the cost of each barrel rivaled that of a newly-minted warforged with a feather fall enchantment.

But something needed to be done to keep the Reachers off-balance, and a new offensive was not in the works, not after a dwarf named Chubat had carved through Aundair’s best battle wizards. So when an officer named Hackkim procured an intelligence source, one that the Reachers supposedly would not expect at all, the decision was made to move on it.

Because there are always those who feel a need to do something, if only because they cannot stand doing nothing.

Down on the ground, it was wet and cold, less than an hour before sunrise on the 4th day of Vult. This high up in the air, it was freezing cold, and perpetually wet as they flew in between the ragged clouds. The bound air elemental that powered the ship whined in protest at the temperature, and the Lyrandar pilot gripped the wheel tightly with gloved hands to make the thing obey.

Finally, a magical timepiece worn on the belt of the commanding officer chimed. The officer, a gnome with a penchant for artificer magic, called out a command over the winds that howled at this altitude, and the airship began a slow, angled descent.