Marcus crossed his arms, bracing for the news Layne was about to give him.

  "There's a huge army at the end of the gully." Layne pointed in the direction he came, along the dried riverbed.

  Marcus frowned. "How many?"

  Layne shook his head and sighed. "Thousands. Must be."

  "Are they coming this way?" Marcus said.

  Layne shrugged. "I don't know. They were still forming up when I was watching. Then I came back."

  Marcus cleared his throat and gazed at the Firestorm for a moment. "Better to know now than find out later. Let's go see together."

  They were nearly out of fuel and had only one shot, the one that was still loaded into the side cannon. Other than that, the upright only had two knives to defend itself. Against a well-armed and well-stocked foe in greater numbers, they would be no match.

  The two followed the dried riverbed through the forest, in the opposite direction which Marcus departed. The journey was much more straightforward, it led directly to a concrete sluice at the forest's edge.

  With the sun falling toward the horizon, the two found the army still rallying right where Layne described: upon a manmade series of depressions made to guide flowing water. All the pathways were dried up, easily traversable. These pathways converged into a vast drainage ditch, that led straight to a city afar, which was easy to observe with the forest being on higher ground.

  The city was cut in half by a deteriorating wall. The north side was filled with newer two- and three-story stone and stucco buildings with clay tiled roofs. The south side, that which was surrounded by the dilapidated wall, filled with giant metal structures that reached toward the sky. Metal girders jutted from these forms, which tilted away from each other like old trees ready to fall. A sight not unfamiliar, they'd seen the same kind of thing in the former capital of Samnia on the other side of the continent, out west.

  "Looks like they're starting to make camp." Layne pointed at a growing encampment of tents on the other side of the formed army.

  Marcus took stock of the plains. There was no sign of an upright anywhere. No smoke plumes, no tracks.

  "You think they're getting ready to come after us?" Layne's voice was shaken.

  Marcus thought back to the encounter with the dragon, and how it laid waste to hundreds of men in the blink of an eye. As he opened his mouth to speak, the three airships they spotted overhead before returned from the south, to their right.

  As the dirigibles came to a slow, ropes tumbled from the hulls. Men on the ground rushed and tied them to anchors embedded in the ground. Over the course of a few minutes, the ground and ship crew constructed a crude lift system out of a wooden platform and ropes in an orchestrated sequence of steps. Despite the high winds and the sway of the ships, in no time the two groups began transferring goods and men from ground to ship and back.

  Able-bodied men sat on the large platform which was picked up by a crane system set up over the edge of the airships’ hulls. Wounded were lowered. After that, crates of goods, armor plates, and ammunition were hoisted up to the aircraft from a growing baggage train of wooden horse-drawn carriages that organized around the makeshift lifts.

  "A stray upright is a terrible force, but not the biggest problem the Arcadians have right now." Arminius called out from directly behind the two.

  Both Marcus and Layne jumped in place, each spinning on their heels to face the knight that loomed over them.

  The gray-haired warrior smiled. "You're both awful rangers. The only other way you could have made yourselves easier to find was if you had dropped a map when you left, with a big red 'X' marking where you were going."

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  Seeing the knight's familiar face, Marcus sighed in relief. "Well, we're glad you found us first."

  Arminius pointed toward the army and airships. "They're fighting a multi-front war, of which there's no end in sight."

  Marcus and Layne followed his armored digit and observed the army's growing encampment.

  "A barbarian invasion and a rampaging dragon." Marcus blurted out.

  The knight retreated his hand and nodded. "Threats significant enough that it got the Arcadians to patch things up with Etrusca. No small feat."

  "Good, then they're distracted, and we can finally go home." Layne nodded with a hopeful tone.

  Arminius passed a glance to Layne, then focused on Marcus. "I don't think it will be that easy. The politics of uprights aren't exactly straightforward nor simple."

  Marcus turned to look at the knight. "What do you mean?"

  The knight turned and beckoned them. "Come, while you parked in a poor position, it's better than hoping not to catch a stray bullet here."

  The three ascended the gentle slope and reentered the forest.

  "What I meant was that galivanting around without papers is a surefire way to get yourselves into trouble." Arminius spoke as they walked back to the Firestorm.

  "What do we care? We have an upright, and a good one if what you said earlier is true." Layne piped up.

  The knight, in the lead, let out a thunderous belly laugh. "And do you think you can simply walk up to any old village and refuel? What about supplies for yourselves and your ground crew?"

  Marcus squeezed his eyes shut and pinched his nose.

  Then Arminius looked over his shoulder and squinted at Layne. "Do you even have a crew?"

  Marcus sighed. "No, we don't have a crew."

  Layne looked away with a subtle shake of his head.

  The knight shrugged. "No crew. No papers. No plan." He turned his attention back to their path following the dried riverbed. "It would be wiser to descend back into the Kourion Lowlands from where you came and sink that thing in the marsh if a return home is your desire. You're not going to make it much farther without all three, and even then, you have a slim chance of crossing into the Midlands alone and unaccosted."

  Marcus stared at his feet.

  Layne stuffed his hands in his overalls and lowered his posture.

  They arrived in silence. Darkness began to creep from the shadows of the trees as day turned to evening.

  "But you kept your word and did as you said you would." Arminius stopped and squared off with them. "In the process netting me a hefty bounty."

  Layne scoffed and stared out into the forest.

  Marcus shrugged. "You're welcome."

  Arminius smiled again. "I owe you a piece of it, considering you did the hard part."

  Marcus blinked and tilted his head. "What do you mean?"

  "You might not have noticed, but during the fight in the marshlands, the cannon battery wasn't doing a whole lot to your upright." Arminius pointed at the Firestorm.

  "Well, if we didn't get control of it, you would have sunk it into the marsh." Marcus looked at the upright.

  Arminius laughed. "That was a long shot. Even the mud and muck is no match for that thing."

  Marcus scoffed, shook his head, and looked away. "You wouldn't say that if you were the one trying to stop the cockpit from rusting out."

  Arminius’s eyebrows raised, and he held a smirk. Then he cleared his throat and motioned toward the far side of the upright. "I found these barbarous thugs wandering aimlessly. Perhaps you might be able to put them to good use."

  Marcus blinked and leaned to see what the knight pointed toward.

  "Hey." Ekkehard displayed his palm toward Marcus. The mechanic stood shoulder-to-shoulder to Simon and the child soldier.

  "Just when I thought I'd finally gotten rid of you lot." Layne blurted and rushed over to the three with his arms out.

  The mechanics stood around two horse-drawn carts: one with a jump box, and the other loaded with a tank of fuel and various wooden crates. Marcus smiled and walked over to reunite with his friends.

  Arminius stood with one hand on his hip, the other resting on the pommel of his sheathed sword. "Now that I've shared the good news, it's time for the bad."

  The mechanics stopped clamoring and turned to the knight.

  "It would be easy if we could just march over to the capital and all were well-and-good." Arminius crossed his arms. "But that would be the fast track for you all to end up on the business-end of a guillotine."

  Marcus stepped forward away from the group of mechanics. "What's the plan, then?"

  "I have a few connections in Kourion City that would look the other way should a rogue upright suddenly show up." The knight stared at the Firestorm.

  "So we have to go back through the marshland." Marcus said.

  Arminius nodded. "It's not the mud I'm worried about though. It's the mercenaries." He pursed his lips. "And this thing has a huge bounty out on it."

  Marcus turned to look at his friends, who all had solemn expressions. Then he focused on the knight. "Is there any other way?"

  "We could trek through the forest; hope we have enough fuel to make it across the border to Etrusca and then pray they're more lax on their laws regarding upright entitlement." Arminius pointed in the direction Marcus once traveled.

  "The dragon is that way." Marcus said.

  Arminius sighed. "Then no, there's no other way."