Page 18

Multiple sprays hit her body, wings, and Hannity. Both screamed, but Hannity nevertheless twisted, unleashing fire at the acidic streams that still chased them.

I swore and said to Yara, Rua’s wings are going to disintegrate pretty quickly, even in this rain, so fly underneath her and help hold her weight. Just don’t squash Kele.

Won’t, Yara said, and immediately chased after the younger drakkon.

Us? Kaia asked.

Fly high, swoop down fast, then bank so I can flame the barge holding the birds.

A fast sweeping pass wasn’t likely to kill any birds, but that wasn’t the aim. Causing chaos and buying us a little time was.

Kaia swooped upward, the air practically screaming in response to her speed. But that was nothing to the noise she made as we came down. She was furious and she was letting them know.

The riders scrambled for weapons, and several of the larger tubes swung our way. I rained fire down upon them, setting the men ablaze, then pushed my flames on, sweeping them through the two lines of agitated birds. I did little more than scorch the tail feathers of the first few half dozen or so, but that was enough to cause the others to panic. Hooded as they were, they’d have no idea what was happening, but they would feel the heat, smell the smoke, and hear the sharp squawks of those I’d hit.

It would take time to calm them down, time to get them harnessed and mounted. Even so, I doubted we had more than twenty minutes, at best, in which to disappear.

Kaia swung up and around and flew hard after the others. Rua was still in the air, though her movements were becoming increasingly unstable and her pain radiated through our link. The drizzly rain was no doubt helping to slow the speed of disintegration, but she still needed to be fully immersed in the water—as did Hannity, though I had no idea how badly she’d been hit—to fully wash the acidic shit from her wings. Otherwise, it would continue to eat through everything and perhaps even take both their lives.

We were never going to make it home. Not like this. Yara and Kaia could help keep Rua in the air if she maintained some flight capability, but if they had to carry her—though how in Vahree’s name they were going to do that, I couldn’t say—the gilded riders would catch us.

I hesitated, trying to remember the maps I’d seen of this area, then told the drakkons to bank left and head east, away from the Black Glass Mountains and home.

Why? came Kaia’s question, even as she and the others obeyed.

They’ll expect us to fly home. They won’t be expecting us to fly in the other direction.

Nothing out here.

There’s a chain of tiny islands . I had no idea how much cover they’d provide or whether anything actually lived there aside from seabirds, because I’d only ever seen them on a map. But they did have two important location advantages—one, they were nowhere near any of the Jakarran Islands, and two, they should be well away from the path any riders might take flying between Ezu and those barges. We need to get Rua and Hannity somewhere safe so that they can soak their bodies in the water.

Hope close. Rua bad.

Perhaps next time she’ll not ignore her queen.

She young. She will learn.

If she survived this lesson, that was. You’re a damn sight more understanding than I am. Drop lower. We won’t see the islands through the rain from this height.

She passed the message on, and all three dropped, Yara remaining underneath Rua, and Kaia flying beside them both, the very tips of her wings caressing the foamy crests of the bigger waves.

It took us another ten minutes to find the chain of islands. The gilded riders had to be in the air by now; I just hoped we’d been far enough away when we’d changed direction. If they had long viewers, we’d be in deep trouble.

We flew past the first two islands—they looked too small, little more than wide, flat specks of stone—but the third was much larger and shaped like a fisherman’s hook, with a high craggy range dominating the central area and a deep bay wide enough for a drakkon to bathe in.

As we swooped in through the heads, I asked Kaia to fly closer to Rua so I could signal Hannity. She glanced at me as we flew up beside her, and even in the gloom of mist and darkness, I could see the paleness of her face. Her leg was a raw and bloody mess. Diving into the sea was going to fucking hurt... but if she didn’t, she could possibly lose the limb.

Still might, depending on how much muscle and bone had been eaten away.

There was no signal designed for what I was about to order her to do, so I did a mix of shouting and over-the-top arm movements. She seemed to understand, because as Rua began to skim the water and her claws kicked up a fierce wave of spray, she clipped her backpacks and sword onto the ropes, then detached herself. The minute Rua plunged in, she rolled off over the back of her wing and dropped hard into the water. I twisted around to ensure she came up and saw her bobbing safely in the water.

Kaia ordered Rua to spread her wings to allow the sea to wash over the membrane, then swooped around and landed on sands that were as dark as the mountains that loomed above us. Yara did a circuit around the inner part of the hook, then landed beside us.

No beasts to eat , she said. But long fins in water. Flesh sweet.

Hunt in morning, Kaia said, in a voice that suggested she would take no arguments.

Once the sun is up, you two can hunt for us all. I unclipped myself, my packs, and my weapons, then slid down Kaia’s extended leg.

Rua healed by then , Kaia commented. Will be able to hunt own.

“She was hit pretty hard, Kaia, and I’m not sure if we’ve enough webbing and bone straps to hold her wings together enough to reach the aerie.”

She young. Heal fast.

I hoped she was right, because I did not want to spend any more time on this isolated island than necessary.

Kele walked up and dumped her packs beside mine. “You want me to scout the area and see if there’s anywhere decent to hunker down for the night?”

I nodded. “You go left; I’ll go right. Just remember, we need to keep within easy reach of the drakkons, just in case the riders sweep past and spot us.”

“Let’s hope not, because the drakkons are easy targets when they’re on the ground.”

“So are we, and their acid tubes have greater range than our fire.”

“Yeah, but they’re also flammable, so we do have that advantage.”

True—and perhaps it was one we could use on the wall. Flaming arrows directed at the streams of liquid shit, perhaps? Though that might just result in a rain of fiery shit falling down on everyone, so maybe not.

Kele strapped on her sword, then spun and walked away, whistling softly. I did the same without the whistling, the sand crunching lightly under my boots as I walked up the beach and entered the thick vegetation. The majority of the trees here were cloud trees, which were often found on volcanic islands alongside blackwoods, their more prized cousin. They were a needle-straight and extremely tall softwood that used their cup-shaped leaves to collect all the water they needed to survive rather than drinking it through their roots.

I risked turning on the light tube—it was either that or use my flames, because the darkness under the trees was absolute—and quickly found several small creeks. I warily tasted each one, because if we were going to be on this island for any length of time, we would need fresh water—and was surprised to discover they were all free of the gritty, often acidic taste found in the runoff from newer volcanic islands. There was little else here—no volcanic caves, and no decent-sized rocky outcrop under which we could shelter. Túxn had given us all the luck we were going to get tonight; if we wanted shelter, then we were going to have to make it.

At least there were plenty of trees about to cut down and use.

I returned to the beach and walked down to the edge of the sand, my toes barely touching the gently lapping waves. “How’s it going, Hannity?”

She no longer bobbed about, so she’d obviously found ground on which to stand.

“It’s fucking icy in this water, and my leg is burning like nobody’s business, but other than that, I’m fine. Perfectly fine.”

Sarcasm dripped from her voice, and I couldn’t help the smile that twitched my lips. Though to be honest, I would have reacted a whole lot worse had someone asked me the same stupid question.

“It’s been close to twenty minutes, so the acid should have been nullified by now.”

Me leave? came Rua’s thought.

No, the acid caught far more of you than Hannity, so it’s better if you remain a bit longer.

Hates water.

Well, perhaps next time you’ll listen to Kaia and not get sprayed by the acid.

Her head dipped, and the faintest trace of regret ran through her thoughts. Wanted kill.

We all wanted to kill them, Rua, but it does no one any good if you and Hannity die.

Understand.

Which was not an indication of regret. Indeed, I suspected that, given half the chance, she’d do the same thing over again.

Do you really? I snapped. Because you risked not only your own life, but Hannity’s. If you ever do that again, you will not get flame. If you can’t obey your queen’s orders, we can’t risk giving you fire.

Understand, she repeated, and this time, I believed her.

Is young , Kaia commented again. Young foolish.

That does not excuse her actions, Kaia.

Know.

But?

You make good queen. Is why you my kin.

I snorted and glanced at Yara. Both she and Kaia had created large hollows in the sand and were now hunkered down within them, their tails curled around their bodies and something close to a contented rumble rising from their throats.

Me not ignore queen or kin , she said, then added, Sands warm.

Meaning the volcanic activity that had created this island was still ongoing underneath it. Perhaps Kele and I should dig a similar hole and just drag some wood from the forest to create a crude lean-to. Normally we would have constructed something within the forest, but with two big drakkons curled up on the beach and a third currently dominating the bay, there was little point.

As Hannity limped out of the water, I ran back to the tree line to grab a thickish branch. The beach wasn’t exactly a great place to be treating a bad wound, but if we could at least keep it raised and the sand out, that was half the battle.

I dragged the log down the beach and then motioned for her to sit. Once her leg was raised, I drew my knife and carefully sliced away her pants leg. The wound underneath no longer bubbled, but large chunks of the flesh on her thigh had been eaten away, and in one section, I could see bone. But given she could still use the leg and she hadn’t bled out, it had obviously missed major muscles and blood vessels, and that in itself was a miracle.

I rose to retrieve my medical kit from my pack, then gave her both a pain potion and one to fight any infection that might brew from being hit by what was basically shit. Once the pain potion had kicked in and I was able to start cleaning, sealing, and bandaging the wounds, I said, “Tell me, Hannity, did you see my signal to retreat?”

She hesitated. “Yes.”

“Then why didn’t you respond?”

“Because Rua wanted to attack, and it wasn’t like I could stop her.”

“And in truth, you weren’t opposed to the idea anyway?”

A longer hesitation, then, “No.”

Annoyance surged. “Damn it, Hannity, do you understand the problems it would have caused if you and Rua had died? Not everyone in Esan thinks it’s a great idea to be using the drakkons, nor does every drakkon think they should be helping us after nigh on being hunted to death. Your death, and hers, could have been held up as an example by both sides.”

Confusion flitted across her expression. “But I’m a soldier, and death is part of life—why should being on drakkon back be any different to courser?”

“Because fucking coursers don’t eat humans when they get mad.” I took a deep breath to calm down, and then frowned. “How did you know Rua wanted to attack?”

“I felt it. I can’t talk to her, but I can sense her emotions, and she was feeling murderous.”

“You should have signaled there was a problem. We would have dealt with it.”

“I know. I’m sorry.”

“If you do it again, you’ll return to regular scout duty—understood?”

She gulped and lightly saluted. I didn’t respond. I didn’t like chastising people and didn’t do it often, but both she and Rua had to be made aware that there would be severe consequences if they ever disobeyed direct orders again.

By the time I’d finished, Kele had returned, the ends of her coat bunched up in front of her stomach to form a basket. “Nothing in the way of caves, but I did find a couple of butternut trees. They’re a little off full ripeness but will still be edible.”

I nodded. The butternut nuts were slightly oily but lovely and sweet, though the shells could be bastards to crack, especially if still a little green. They were also extremely good at filling an empty belly, though eating too many of them could have you running to the bathroom. “Good find.”

She dropped onto her knees and poured the nuts onto the top of my pack. “There’s no sign of life other than a bunch of birds roosting on an outcrop of rock just off the shore. Unless the gilded riders do a sweep this way, I think we’re pretty safe.”

I nodded. “Let’s create a rough shelter, then I’ll contact Esan and let them know what is happening.”

“Four-hour rotating watch shifts, as usual?”

I nodded again. The drakkons would undoubtedly sense and see anything long before we did, but it never hurt to be cautious.

By the time we’d constructed our lean-to, tiredness was riding me, and my stomach rumbled with hunger. As much as I would have loved to do nothing more than simply eat the last of my rations, then curl up on the warm sands like the drakkons and go to sleep, I couldn’t. Not yet. As Kele began cracking nuts open with her sword hilt, I dragged out the quill and tablet and scribed home.

That , came my father’s reply, suggests they plan to hit us on two fronts.

Yes, but hopefully the riders will move their barges to another location to prevent a second attack and give us more time. Though we were definitely running out of it. Are we any closer to finding a means of neutralizing their acidic spray?

The engineers have worked out a system that can spray water across the outer wall and neutralize the acid, and the earth mages believe they can alter the stone’s molecules to better enable them to withstand acidic attacks.

The latter was going to take time—probably more than what we had—but it was pointless saying what everyone already knew. Has Damon said anything about the fire transfer spell?

The cursor pulsed for several seconds before the answer came through. Damon here. I’ve asked Angola to send additional witches. That way, we can do all three drakkons at the same time.

It took a couple of seconds for his words to actually register, because my silly mind had zeroed in on the fact that he’d been in the war room, very likely waiting for word from me. Maybe I was reading too much into such a small action, but it nevertheless had my heart singing.

It’ll take them too long to get here from Angola, though. In fact, given the build-up of both the Mareritt and the riders, there was a very good chance we’d be under siege before they even got close to Esan.

No. They will be here within the day.

I frowned. Even with the strongest wind at their back, it was, at best, a two-day sea journey from Angola to Hopetown—not that they could dock there now—and from there, on the fastest, strongest coursers traveling non-stop day and night, it would take a further two to three days to reach us. All of which meant it was logistically impossible for them to arrive here that quickly unless he’d called for their help almost immediately after our marriage, and at that point, we hadn’t even discussed the possibility of giving the drakkons fire.

How?

Explain later.

Frustration stirred through me, but I did my best to ignore it. His aunt no doubt lurked on the wall above them, mind snooping to gather all pertinent details to report back to Aric. While I had no idea why he’d want to keep this sort of information from his parent, maybe it was tied up with the whole “lives on the line” concerns that seemed to be the basis of all he was doing.

Including our marriage.

I take it this means you’ve sorted out the spell?

Not entirely. Risks remain.

All magic has risks. And I suspected neither Yara nor Rua would be happy to wait until we knew whether the spell was successful or not. They wanted fire… now .

Yes, but it’s theoretically possible that by giving the drakkons fire, you’ll lose yours. And, as I mentioned earlier, it remains possible that it will kill you both.

I would hate to lose my fire—I’d long depended on it as a means of protection, whether personal or when I was with my squad on scouting missions—but strangely, I wasn’t so worried about the possibility of this spell killing me. I trusted Damon. Trusted that, no matter how dangerous it might be to me, the drakkons, or—given the amount of personal strength it would take to perform a blood spell like this—himself, he wouldn’t do it unless there was a very good chance of success. No matter what his secrets, he was on our side when it came to the riders and protecting Esan. I was sure of that, even if everything else about he and I remained uncertain.

It’s a risk we’ll have to take . I paused. Not that I can speak for Kaia, or the drakkons as a whole.

There are some here who believe that by giving the drakkons fire, we are giving them the means to destroy us.

Who are these “some”? Not my parents.

No. Vaya, to name at least one. She believes we should be more cautious.

We haven’t got time to be cautious. Besides, the drakkons don’t do revenge. At least, not in the same way.

Vahree only knew, they could easily have hunted us out of existence from the plains and farmlands had they really wanted to—ballistas might successfully bring them down, but they were not the easiest of weapons to move around the countryside—but they’d simply retreated to more distant locations instead.

I agree, but you have to remember, people have feared them for a very long time, and that will not change overnight, regardless of how many drakkons help us through the current crisis.

Maybe not, but once the riders descend on us and their farms and livelihoods are destroyed, they’ll rather quickly change their minds.

You have far more faith in people than I do . The cursor blinked for a few seconds, and I had the strongest feeling that he wanted to add something else, something more personal, like “I miss you, I want you”… but maybe that was nothing more than a projection of my own emotions. Talk when you get back .

The tablet disconnected on their end, surprising me a little. I’d expected my father to get back online to offer a final few comments or to at least bid me to be careful, and I really hoped that the fact he hadn’t didn’t signal something had happened. Something like the riders who’d chased after us deciding to do a retaliatory run against Esan’s walls and people.

“Everything all right back home?” Kele asked, as I tucked the quill and tablet away.

I nodded. “They’re working on measures to protect the walls from the acid?—”

“I hope it also protects us from the fucking acid,” Hannity commented, “because that will wipe us out faster than it’ll wipe out the walls.”

I glanced at her. Her leg was still propped up on the log, but she’d created a hollow in the sand and looked as comfortable as she was likely to get with half a good chunk of her thigh eaten away. “I think they consider the walls the priority right now.”

She snorted. “No use protecting the walls if there is no one left to stand and fight on them.”

That was a truth I couldn’t argue with. I pushed to my feet. “I’ve got a drakkon to repair. Kele, can you grab your first-aid kit? It’s going to take the rest of the sealer and webbing we have left to repair her wing.”

Kele nodded, handed Hannity the nuts she’d cracked open, then walked over to her packs. I climbed out of our shelter and called Rua out of the water.

She grumbled something along the lines of “about time” and rather awkwardly walked out, tucking her good wing up close to her body but letting the other trail behind her. Perhaps with all the loose membrane, she simply wasn’t able to draw it any closer.

With Kaia and Yara watching on—more to keep Rua in check from any instinctive, snappish reactions than any real interest in what we were doing—we stretched out Rua’s wing and started the repairs. The wing wasn’t as damaged as I’d feared—no major bones had been hit, even if a good percentage of her wing membrane either hung loose or had been completely eaten away—so there was a good possibility she would be able to fly tomorrow if we had enough webbing and sealer to rejoin the majority of it.

It took several hours to do that, though, and we used everything we had. I asked Rua to keep the wing extended for a couple of hours just to give the webbing additional time to set across the wider holes, then grabbed Hannity’s packs and walked back to the shelter. After a quick meal, I took first watch. The rain eased, and a pale half-moon sat low in the sky, no doubt providing just enough light for any passing riders to spot us.

They didn’t pass. Nothing did, not even pipistrelles—small, winged creatures whose fuzzy black bodies were no bigger than my fist and whose leathery wings were a glorious blue-black in color—despite the fact they were readily found on most islands situated in warmer climes.

I woke Kele once my four hours were over, then lay down on the warm sand, wrapped my coat around me, and went to sleep… only for it to be haunted by images of Vahree reaching with greedy hands to claim the souls of my family.

I hoped it was nothing more than the natural tension that rose from facing an unknown situation and foe. Hoped that it wasn’t an indication that Mom’s seeress ability was finally rising with greater strength in me.

Feared that hope would soon give way to reality, and all that I loved would soon disappear in a cloud of acid dust.

* * *