XX

The Kurtz landing pads as he now knew them to be were rather simple structures. Platforms of wood risen above the flood zone and made flat, so that the massive airships could land. From a distance, it looked like they were circular in structure but now that Adrian was closer he could see that they were much less of a perfect circle and more of a pentagon-like shape. Around the sides of the platform were raised half-walls, likely to prevent anyone from walking off of the side and falling a good 30 feet or so bellow. The only break in the wall was one section where wide steps had been made, each step reinforced heavily with crossbeams cut from the trees surrounding it.

Adrain almost looked over his shoulder unconsciously to make sure Isi was keeping up but aborted the movement when he realized he was doing it. After all, it made no sense for him to look over his shoulder when he was alone, who would he be conferring with? The swamps? Isi had thrown a fit, practically melted down when he had told her she could not come with him, after all, the dirty white Kurtz uniform he was wearing currently, only slightly soiled by its previous occupant's blood when a led ball had taken the man in the forehead, would work well enough as a disguise for him, but would never work for her. After all, there were no women in the Kurtz military, not to mention even the color of her skin, which would be a sure fire way to get him caught. He had to physically restrain her as she had attempted to follow him, though only the once. In the end, she had made him agree that if he was not back by the morning then she would be allowed to burn the entire camp down with her sorcery, never mind the fact that she couldn't actually do that.

It was understandable, the way she was acting, after all the two of them were both quite aware of what happened to people the Kurtz captured, and here he was sneaking into their stronghold in an attempt to bring down their flying ships that could land men anywhere, lots and lots of men…

Should he be captured…

No, he wouldn't allow that to happen again, better to end it then live through that for a second time. Adrian watched the camp from the cover of a small stand of swamp cedars, the trees to small to have been felled for the construction of the landing area. He could hear the soft sounds of a white coat snoring, no doubt asleep at his post. Other than that there were the sounds of men working to make the landing pads and other things ready for the early morning landing of the craft. Dawn was still around two or so hours away but with it would come the Kurtz airships, and so even though the sky was still dark as tar men worked hard to make sure everything was ready for it.

What little brush there was had been stripped by the Kurtz soldiers, for burning or to make space for tents. Adrian could smell that a latrine had been dug nearby, ignoring the rather pungent aroma that thousands of men’s waste made when in the warm moist swamps he leaned out from behind the stand of trees he was in. He measured the distance between the two closest guards. Around fifty paces give or take, taking a deep breath and sending up a prayer to the gods he headed for the gap. Something under his foot shifted, writhing like a thing alive and he cursed under his breath as it caused him to stumble, creating a splashing sound that drew the nearest guard’s attention. The man turned and looked in Adrian’s direction, though the light of the torch that he stood near him made him relatively blind to anything outside the light’s radiance.

“Password?” he called out, gun raised as he scanned the darkness in front of him. The man waited for a few moments, gun raised as he stared out at the darkness before he lowered his gun and propped the butt of it in the marsh clod of grass on which he was standing, leaning forward and holding his hand in such a way to shield it from the light so that he would not be so night blind. He stood there for what felt like an eternity and kept scanning the dark before leaning back and scratching the stubble on his chin and leaning back, shrugging. “Collin!” the guard called, “Collin!”

“Huh?” the reply came from less than ten feet away from Adrian’s position, the thought of not even seeing the man and bumping into him thus rendering his entire plan, and likely his life a moot point caused his heart to start beating in his throat.

“You see anyone out there?” the first guard called.

“Oh yes there is an entire battalion of those damned Helheim mages right there, led by the wolfman and his swamp witch, they would like to talk to you,” the sarcasm in the man’s voice was stabbing.

“Yeah, yeah laugh it up, tomorrow night you get to be the bait, asshole.” the first guard growled. It was a pretty smart setup, apparently, the Kurtz commanders had decided they didn't like getting ambushed and so they had set up the parameter of this camp with a sort of built-in trap, though the two men had blown it entirely when they had spoken to one another. Moving slowly so as to not tip off the guards with any sudden motion Adrian slipped his hand into his pocket and pulled out the small tin of reagents and slowly pried it open, he ran his hands over the compartments inside feeling the soft powders as his fingers came into contact with them. It didn't take long for him to find the ones he needed, carefully he dipped his fingers into the brackish water at his feet and then put the wet digits into the powder, covering them with Solisur and Nitre. The spell was a difficult one, and one he could only hold for a few moments. He rubbed his fingers together and closed his eyes before he flared them wide and moved his hands in an intricate pattern, though no light from the spell flared up. Holding the spell in his mind he cast it in front of him, the only thing telling him that he had not fizzed the spell out was the fact that sound around him was muffled. The soft slushing of water around his boots, the sounds of the nocturnal insects as they buzzed by his ears, everything. It was like someone had covered his ears with their hands and he was hearing the world through those hands.

Slowly he stepped forward, careful even as shadow’s path not only masked his sound but also his movement by bending a portion of the light around his form, casting him and an impenetrable shadow. Adrian skirted the spot he had heard the voice come from, even with his ensorcelled shadow he didn't wish to get to close, sometimes a shadow where it shouldn't be was just as telling as a person’s body. After them, Adrian passed a few dozen more centries without incident, which brought him to the heart of the Kurtz camp. The camp propper was positioned around the landing platform, which rose above the tents on stilts so that it would stay above the water even in it should raise. Patrolling around it was a squad or two, and the camp was rather busy despite it being in the grey hours of the morning after all with three crafts coming in and only two landing pads everything needed to be ready and prepared so that the offloading of troops and supplies could be done as efficiently as possible to free up a space for the third dirigible to land.

The Shadow’s path spell wore off leaving Adrian completely visible, so he did the only thing he could. Stepping out from between two tents he walked into the view of a group of soldiers like he belonged there. He had often found that the key to getting around questions was to act like they were beneath you. As he came into view several men snapped to attention as they caught sight of the Sergeant’s pin on his right breast, which drew the attention of two men he hadn't seen. Standing a little further back sharing a pot of something steaming were two Lieutenants, both of them looked around at the commotion, and while one looked away once again bored, the other focused his attention on Adrian. “You there, Sargent, please come join us,” he said, waving Adrian over. Cursing at his bad luck and lack of foresight Adrian nodded and walked over. “Come sit,” the man said, his curly blonde hair spilling out from under his black-furred cap.

“Yessir,” Adrian said, slurring his words slightly, mimicking the accent of a particular guard he remembered from his time in that damn workcamp, from what he had been able to pick up that man’s accent was one common to the fishing cities on the southern edge of Kurtz.

“I am sorry Sergeant,” the Lieutenants said, pouring and passing a cup over to Adrian, who took a sip and forcefully resisted the urge to not curl his lip in disgust, these damned whitecoats seemed to really enjoy there Jaruas. It was a dark bitter drink that in Adrian’s opinion needed to be dumped into the dirt for as bad as it tasted. He refused to even think about how the stuff was made, seeing as it involved picking up the droppings from a particular animal that ate the Jarus seeds… “I don't seem to recall your face, and I normally know all the Sergeants and officers.”

“Begging your pardon sirs,” Adrian said, lowering his head slightly so as to not look them in the eyes. “But tha’s likely due to my just getting a field promotion an’ all.”

“Ah, yes, that makes sense,” The man said nodding, “quite the maneuver those blue bastards did wasn't it?” he smiled bitterly and shook his head, “ah well, no matter, if the tables were turned I would have done the same, its just a shame that the wolf and the witch are on the wrong side, I would love to have them helping us, not working against us, that would be marvelous.”

“You want those bastards help?” the other Lieutenant looked at the first in disgust, “me I just want to string them up for all the pain and suffering they caused our boys, damn blighters.”

“Yes, you have said as much,” the first man sighed, “and what say you, Sergeant -”

“Morsten,” Adrian said, thinking of a common enough Kurtz name.

“Ah, well it is a pleasure Sargent Morsten, Leutinit Alton at your service.” he did a quarter bow which Adrian responded in kind to, albeit a little bit deeper. “As I was saying, what say you about those two Morsten?”

“I don’ know much, just that most men don’ wanna fight, they’d rather be home plowin’ the women and fields and the like,” Adrian gave a half smile, “personally I would rather be on the sea, or-” he looked over at the platform, “perhaps in the air ‘s not so bad.”

“You’ve never been on a dirigible? The general will be taking a skiff up to brief the field marshal before they land, though I doubt you will be lucky enough to get on that detail,” Alton glanced t the platform were men were gathering around a small craft that more resembled the ballons Adrian was used to seeing then the massive airships on their way in“Well it is a sight to behold, the land from so high, mayhaps you can get on one, one of these days before you go back to plowing and sailing no?” he asked with a laugh and slapped Adrian on the back.

“Mayhaps,” Adrian said nodding, “apologies sirs, but I best be back to my duties and such’,” he stood up, forcing himself to take one last gulp of the Jaruas and place the now empty cup down.

“Of course, of course, we wouldn't want to keep you,” Alton waved him off, and Adrain walked away quickly but not too quickly. Now he had a way to get to at least one of the airships before they landed, he just had to figure out how to get on that skiff...