Page 7

"It's tough being popular," says Kalistratos, smiling dryly. "Seems like everyone wants a piece of you."

As my eyes adjust to the light, I see that the flyer frames at the cave's entrance are bashed up against the rocks, like a pile of discarded oyster shells.

"At least we won't have any trouble finding fuel," I say. "Kalistratos, we can pluck your tail feathers first."

"Pluck your own tail feathers, you damn phony monk."

Using a Gnosis spell, I command my illuminated staff to float freely by my side and climb up the pile of flyers to get a look inside. Kalistratos comes after me.

"Tyler, wait here," he says.

"Fuck that. I can help."

He moves Eggy to his back and finds his way up the mess of broken timber. A proud grin forms on Kalistratos's face.

"What are you smiling at?" Tyler demands.

"You've come so far. I remember when you struggled to climb a tree!"

I reach the top, and as I move from hull to hull, I direct my staff into the dark wreckage. Its green light spills through the gaps, throwing a cartwheel of shadows onto the cave wall. I'm searching for something useable. Then I see it, deep within the wreckage—a flyer core. It's been dislodged from whichever ship it once powered, and lies cradled by broken timber like a discarded amphora. It's made of a dark metal and looks like a small kiln or furnace.

"The mouth is on the other side," I say. "We must turn it."

"Ready?" Tyler says as we gather around it. "One, two, three..."

Moving it is quite a task. The three of us are straining, and Kalistratos nearly loses his footing on a precariously angled hull plank. The wood is soft and brittle, and it starts to creak and groan along with us.

"Son of a bitch weighs a ton," grunts Tyler.

"Almost there," I say. "Almost?—"

With a loud snap, a plank gives out and the core tumbles away like a loosed boulder. Kalistratos grabs Tyler and pulls him out of the way as it smashes through the side of the hull and flies to the ground below with a loudgong. We all exchange a glance.

"Shit," Tyler says, staring at the hole in the wall with wide eyes and gripping Kalistratos's bicep. "That wasn't me."

Then the structure begins to make some very concerning sounds.

"Take him andgo," I say urgently to Kalistratos.

I know his powers are weakened right now—he doesn't have enough phoenix energy to halt time for all three of us. Kalistratos's eyes flash with acknowledgement, and in the span of a heartbeat, I feel the surge of his power washing over me like a crushing wave. He and Tyler vanish from in front of me, reappearing on the ground outside the wreckage in a blur of motion.

I grab my staff and launch myself from board to board, the structure groaning and splintering beneath my feet. For one terrible moment I look up—everything above me is coming down in a thunderous avalanche of wood and metal. Below, Kalistratos hangs onto Tyler's shoulder, sweat streaming down his face asboth of them scream at me, their voices lost in the deafening roar of destruction.

A massive beam plummets toward my head. I throw myself sideways, feeling it crash into the platform where I'd been standing a split second before. The impact sends me sprawling across boards that crack and buckle under me. I scramble forward as the flooring disintegrates, and something—a broken mast, a chunk of hull—slams into my shoulder, spinning me around and launching me toward empty air. Instinct takes over. I swing my staff in a desperate arc, driving the tip deep into solid wood, and use the momentum to vault myself upward through a gap in the collapsing maze.

As I fall backward, three pole shards fly down at me like giant arrows with splintered tips set to rip a hole through my torso. Gnosis energy blasts from the end of my staff, bouncing off them like green chain lighting and shattering them into a shower of splinters.

I tuck hard, somersaulting backward as splinters whistle past my face. The ground rushes up to meet me and I hit it in a hard crouch. The avalanche roars down above me. I reach deep for my phoenix power, and thrust my hands toward the earth. Rock responds to my call, surging upward in a protective half-dome that breaks the avalanche of debris like a wave on a ship's bow.

The thick haze of dust slowly dissipates as the last few pieces of wood bounce across the ground and roll to Tyler and Kalistratos's feet. Tyler's slow applause echoes around the now silent cavern.

"You justhadto do that flip, didn't you? Fucking show-off," Kalistratos says through a grin.

"Pleased you liked it," I say, bowing.

We gather around the flyer core lodged in the sand. Kalistratos and I set it upright, revealing a mouth that belongs to a decorative face worked into the metal—complete with an outstretched tongue and two bulbous eyes inset with crystals for pupils.

"How does this thing work?" Tyler asks with a frown as he crouches down to look inside the mouth.