Stoon started to speak, but Drust cut him off. “Not here. We’ll walk.”

They set off along the perimeter of the Keep’s walls, safely out of sight in the woods, trailed at some distance by the omnipresent guards assigned to protect the Prime Minister. There was activity all around them—the sounds of wounded men, of hammers pounding on wood and metal, of shouted orders and replies, and of timber being felled to fashion new masts and spars. The smells of dust and grime and blood wafted through the air, and the earth where the fleet had camped was already torn up and rutted. Drust tried to avoid looking at it or breathing any of it in. He tried to distance himself from the unpleasantness it caused him to feel. He had already done what was expected of him. He had made it a point to commend the airship commanders and their immediate subordinates on the courage they had displayed during the battle and had assured them they had not suffered a defeat, only a temporary setback. He had issued everyone a ration of ale and ordered a second to be served along with the evening meal.

Now he just wanted it all to go away. Or better yet, for their mission be over and done with.

“What were the final numbers?” he asked Stoon when they were safely out of hearing.

“Over five hundred dead—more than three hundred from the Wistral alone. She took everyone down with her. About twice that number injured. Some of those will die, too.” He paused. “Not a good day.”

Drust nodded. He could barely contain his rage. “You want desperately to tell me that you told me so, that you warned me an attack would fail, don’t you?”

Stoon shrugged. “You’ve just said it for me.”

“You think I accomplished nothing today?”

“Not knowing exactly what it was you wanted to accomplish, I can’t say. On the surface of things, it doesn’t appear much was achieved.”

Drust sneered. “You are so careful with how you word things. You should have considered a career as a politician; you have the skills for it.”

“I’m happy just as I am, thank you.”

“I’m a bit less happy with you than you are with yourself. You realize that, don’t you? Letting me think I was about to be thrown over the side of my own airship! I haven’t forgotten.”

“I have explained all that. It was the only way to dispose of Arodian. Anyway, with Edinja gone, as well, you have no immediate threat from within the Coalition Council. It’s what you wanted.”

Drust grunted, knowing that the other man was right but not in the least bit mollified by it. He was still shaken by how easily their assault on Paranor had been repulsed. He could still see that black cloud rising up from the Keep’s walls and swatting his airships aside.