Page 103 of Suffer No Fools
He was also surprised by Jermain's fury over Frost's death.
"I would kill Coryn myself, if I thought an earth weave would stop her."
"Elsie's dead." Hugo said it with the certainty Tovey had felt through their bond when ice had rolled over their ship, freezing them in place and everything inside. Tovey hoped Coryn's spectral weaver was a frozen block of ice befitting the statue she'd stolen.
"Good." Jermain bowed his head. "I was so sorry to hear Frost was gone. We'd grown closer on your rescue mission."
"We'll add Frost to Coryn's war crimes." Hugo offered his hand, and Jermain shook it.
Jermain nodded and steeled his gaze. "It would be a pleasure to show you our fleet, Your Majesties." He bowed to Sovereign Oton, who dismissed him with a wave.
"I'm beginning to think we all need to do away with titles and pleasantries," they said.
Hugo laughed, and Jermain stumbled, his face red and flustered. Despite his ranking as one of Aquarion's elders, he seemed overwhelmed by the amount of royalty around them. Even Sovereign Oton's parents had joined them, both with their own cadre of guards and servants.
Tovey shivered and looked toward the docks. If there was ever a time for someone to make an assassination attempt on Hugo, this was it. He didn't like it.
He glanced beyond the beautiful tall ships Jermain had built and saw something he never wanted to see again in his life. How had they missed the warning signs? The tide should have gone out.
"There's a lock and dam system for the shipyard,"Stan explained through their bond."What's happening?"
"They've lifted the ice field."Hugo pointed to the sky, and Tovey felt it, the giant block of ice hovering hundreds of feet above the water."They couldn't break it, so they raised it with air."
"For what purpose?"Stan asked.
"They're going to drop it and destroy most, if not all, of our ships." Hugo spoke aloud, and Jermain startled even more as Sovereign Oton's guards turned toward the distant sound of sea birds coming in to feast on the fish left by the unexpected outgoing tide.
"Not on our watch." Tovey grabbed Stan and Hugo and launched into the air. They flew farther and higher than Tovey had ever dared before, landing easily on the northernmost ledge of the ice shelf.
"Efren and Nola will coordinate with the other water weavers to fend off the waves, but Aquarion will be ..." Stan stifled a sob. "Not again."
"Not again," Tovey promised him. "We're going to steal their air, and then we're going to lay the ice gently back in its place. Hugo?"
"We need Elsie's ship."
"Do you know where it is?
Hugo nodded. "I'll get the scales and burn the ship. All they'll find is ashes."
Tovey was grateful for Hugo's separate task. He didn't want Hugo to witness the moment he burned himself out trying to keep the ice shelf from tipping.
Finding the enemy air weavers was easier than he'd expected. They were on an airship not far from Luminest. They probably thought their height would protect them, but Stan propelled himself and Tovey to the same height using the ice instead of the ocean floor. Tovey set the enemy craft's canvas sail on fire, and it crashed to the ice.
Tovey wanted to burn them alive, but he held back. That would only damage the ice shelf. Instead, he cut off the weavers' air while they were distracted after the crash and balanced the ice on an air weave of his own. Once the enemy weavers fell unconscious, he gathered them in the basket and tied theirhands and feet with the rope they'd used to attach the sail to their ship. He was surprised there were only two. They had to be strong, to lift the ice shelf by themselves. Tovey had help from Stan and Hugo, and he wouldn't be able to hold it for long. They would have enough trouble trying to place the ice shelf gently in the water without letting it tip to either side.
They left the unconscious air weavers in their crashed air ship and flew to the center of the ice shelf. Tovey created a small tornado to drill a fishing-hole-sized opening through the two-foot-thick ice. He then widened it to the size of their tub, and then their house. Gods, he hoped this worked.
"Remember when we went ice fishing when we were kids?" It had only gotten cold enough to freeze the bay between Horseshoe Island and Aquarion once, and when it did, Tovey had made an ass of himself by lifting the layer of ice off so he could get to the fish below.
Stan laughed. "I seem to remember a young air weaver showing off and almost drowning us all."
"Almost." Tovey laughed. One of the older kids had drilled a fishing hole in the middle, and the elders had credited that as Tovey's saving grace when he dropped the ice back into the bay.
"Is it a big enough hole?" Stan asked.
Tovey laughed. "Probably not, but we'll be gentle and hope for the best."
It took both earth and air weaves to lower the shelf back to the surface and hold it in place. How Stan could anchor the ice to the ocean floor with tendrils of earth on all sides, Tovey didn't know, but it worked. The ice shelf landed in roughly the same place, give or take a few inches, and then it began to melt.
