The ship emerged from the great doors and into the haze of smoke. Great plumes of it rose from the countryside. The terraced farmland that surrounded the city had been ignited by the city’s defenses. Yaz’noth had come in so low that the shells had detonated on the ground instead of in the air. The Golden Hills would be ash gray by the end of the day.
You could fly away from this. Convince the Steward that political exile is all the rage, Coyote whispered from inside her head.
“That is not what I came here to do.” Ishe stomped on the lift pedal as she swung the ship around. The city was burning outward from the foot of the palace, the fire rippling out in a all-consuming ring, the entire High District a forest of flames and smoke. Only a few ships remained in the sky; the largest were three patrol craft, about the same size as Fox Fire, were timidly lobbing shells at the dragon. Yaz’noth was in the midst of climbing back up to the palace, and he was making good time.
“He’s going for the ridge cannons,” the Steward observed. “They’re designed so an enemy couldn’t take control of one and fire a shell into the city. But they will keep him grounded.”
“Then all I have to do is make him really want to fly.” Ishe grinned. “Raiju, tell engineering to prime the torch crystal.” Slowly, the Sword began to build up its speed as Ishe moved along the city walls. Yaz’noth did not seem to notice the ship as she maneuvered toward a position near to where the northern wall met the Spine. She’d get one free shot at this. Hopefully, it would be the only one she’d need.
A little glow crystal in the handle of the red lever shone with eagerness.
“All five crystals are active,” Heizo nearly squealed. He clicked into a harness at his panel.
Yaki frowned; while the air in the engineering room hummed with the voices of the crystals, they weren’t harmonizing, each voice fighting with one another to lead. Each crystal cast a different style of light according to their shapes. Crystals one and two appeared identical, smooth teardrop shapes. The others were diverse creatures. Crystal five had no points at all, rounded at both of its elongated ends. It was three and four that that made Yaki’s stomach twist; they had both entered the song on a wrong note. Four had a shaft of cloud through its core, and as three shone in anticipation, the glow twinkled off of a fine spider-webbing of cracks. These were older crystals with no business on a military ship. Yaki’s mind frantically tried to put the proper sounds together to ask her questions.
Heizo caught her gaze and smiled with patronizing reassurance. “Strap in! The captain controls the burn, and the acceleration could throw you into a crystal.”
She fixed him with a stare as she secured herself. “Ask crystals work together?”
“Nah! No need; as long as we keep them isolated on their own conduits, they won’t realize it!”
Sparks and Yaki shared a worried glance.
The newly christened airship shivered as Ishe pulled the red lever. The mechanism within the pilot’s console answered with a solid KER-CHUNK as a series of alchemical switches and transfers moved that intention down to the engine room. A switch opened and power flooded into the thrust crystal. A flame exploded from the back of Emperor’s Sword. First angry red, then focused into a solid blue. A cry of surprise could be heard above the sound of the roaring flame as everyone on board was thrown against either their harness or several cases, the nearest things aftward. The ship shot forward, looking to those below like a vengeful comet. The sound that followed the sight would be later described as the roar of a god. Emperor’s Sword had a battle cry.
Yaz’noth stopped climbing. The green energy of the shield crystal flickered into existence around his body, his tail curling up inside its protective range.
Ishe’s brain felt as if it would shake itself loose from her head. The entire bridge rattled under the thrust. Everything in the city grew as they continued forward. Yaz’noth loomed on the side of the mountain but not nearly big enough. She’d misjudged the angle, like a gunner pointing her cannon half degree a off. She opened the starboard propeller, and the ship immediately jerked hard, the wood groaning in sudden protest. Ishe snapped the propeller closed before the air could rip it off. A beam of energy lanced out from the portside mount, sweeping out across the emperor’s mountain. The green flare of the shield met it before it hit, countering the beam for a second before it burst like a bubble. The lance hit Yaz’noth’s backside and swept down his side, armored scales vaporizing in its wake.
The dragon’s bellow of pain and rage told Ishe two things: they had hit him but they hadn’t killed him. She slammed the red lever back to its original position and the cut the thrust. They’d need to make the next run much closer.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Crystals are a puzzle. I eat iron, you eat grass or meat. Crystals, however, disperse energy without any sort of input. This breaks a rule the ancients had about energy, but many argued that crystals do consume something important, but they couldn’t decide what.
From Thoughts of a God, Yaz’noth
“Single-shafted whelpings and poisoned stones!” Yaki didn’t care what language she cursed in. The tone of her voice communicated the sentence fine as she pointed to crystal four. Its cloudy core had doubled in size while it powered the lance. Worse, the crystal itself screamed in pain with a thought that jabbed through Yaki’s skull.
“I should have used that one for the liftwood,” Heizo wailed as he frantically fiddled with a switch on his panel. Clickclickclick. He wriggled another switch. “It should be off! Why’s it still glowing?”
“It’s dying!” Sparks shouted back.
Yaki pulled off her restraints and quickly sheathed her hands in the far-too-large leather gloves that had dangled below her panel. “MOVE!”
Sparks start to unstrap herself. “Where?”
No bothering to answer, Yaki ran to the cloudy crystal’s pedestal and slapped the palm of her glove against its surface. The crystal’s torment sliced into her mind; Yaki let out a cry and flinched back. Nothing within the crystal but pain. No memories, no identity, nothing inside. Nothing to be done for it. After moment of examining the clamps that held the crystal in place, Yaki reached out, grabbed one, and pried it off the crystal’s surface.
“That’s not how those work!” Heizo screamed as if he’d been stabbed. “You’re breaking it!”
Yaki bent another one. It screeched the agony of strained metal. Sparks ran up and stopped, her blue eyes wide. “What do I do? How do I help?”
Pointing at the patched-up wall, Yaki croaked, “Make door!” and turned back to pry the remaining clamps off the overloaded crystal.
“Aye!” Sparks took a moment, the crystals in her “hair” trading arcs of energy for a moment before they all lit up. She plucked a large hatchet from a hook by the door and ran to the thrust crystal. Shucking one glove, she touched her blue hand to the thrust crystal, then raised the axe above her head; its blade shone red and ignited as if it were a crystal-enhanced weapon.
Fire streaming from the ax, Sparks charged at the hastily patched wall and chopped into it with a two-handed swing. It cut through the wood as if it were flesh. The scything heat left the axe head midway through her second swing, stopping with a thunk. Wood tumbled out of a two-foot-tall span as Sparks wrenched the smoking axe out of the wall. Beyond engineering’s bulkhead lay the hull, an even thicker barrier.
Yaki looked down to see her gloves smoking where they held the power crystal. They had no time. Yaz’noth could breathe out a lance of energy; could she? Throwing off her heavy glove, she slapped a naked palm to the crystal’s surface, heard the hiss as her flesh seared. The crystal’s agony exploded in her head like a fire shell had been forced through her ear. Screaming, Yaki grabbed hold of the agony. Burn bright! she commanded it before heaving the entire bulk into the air. The liftwood hull offered little more resistance than the air itself. It left a charred outline through which the crystal tumbled once and disappeared from view, its shrieking hum fading.
Chi
ll air rushed into the engineering room. The three of them stood, waiting wide-eyed, and breathed a moment, then two.
Blue light flared, and the world answered it with a bellow. The ship shook as if seized by a giant hand and used in a game of dice.
“What in the nine hells was that?” Ishe snapped as a collective groan rose from those on the bridge. There would be bruises beneath her harness tomorrow. And she’d be glad to worry about them then. Beside her, Raiju clawed his way back to his feet and wiped blood from his nose. His entire body had thwacked into his console like a side of meat on a butcher block. The Steward and Shuri were still belted to the couch.
In front of them, Yaz’noth still clung to the mountain. He reached the collapsed remains of the palace and watched her with both sets of eyes. The blast hadn’t come from him. Ishe asked, “What was that flash?”
“Power crystal explosion.” The Steward’s voice drifted through the bridge.
“What!? Raiju, get engineering on the horn! Give me gunnery.” Ishe pulled the tube to her mouth. “Simon! Update.”
“Portside lance is dead, Captain!” Simon squeaked back.
“Raiju?” Ishe said.
“Engineering had to jettison a power crystal. It was flawed. They say they’re rebalancing the load and everything will be back up shortly.” Raiju relayed the report in clipped military style.
As if he heard her distress, Yaz’noth flung himself from the mountain. His great silver wings opened as he swooped low over the city, daring the cannons above to fire on their own city. “I need those lances back up, Raiju!” Ishe frantically adjusted her angle to the dragon’s new heading. “All hands, prepare for another charge.” If she used the lift network correctly, she could turn the ship sideways and scythe him from above.
That familiar snicker whispered in from the depths of her brain. He’s baiting yooooou.
Ishe watched his lazy circle a moment longer, her hand posed on the red lever. Once again, she froze her toes off on that mountainside, watching Yaz’noth slowly climb toward the Odin’s Eye. In a dive, he could match their speed, but only if had altitude. Deny him the altitude and he couldn’t maneuver. Force him higher in the sky, and he’d have to contend with the cannons. “Time to find out how well you dance.” Ishe pulled the lever and stomped hard on the lift pedals.
Emperor’s Sword roared as sparks danced along the outside of her hull. She shot toward the city.
Yaz’noth cut his wide circle short and banked toward them. His eyes glinted in the afternoon sun. When the ship passed over the wall, Ishe cut the thrust and they popped up into the sky as the liftwood found its own momentum. Yaz’noth breathed forth his blue lance and swung his head as if it were the hilt of a sword. It sliced through only empty air. Reengaging the propellers, Ishe wheeled the ship and angled the ship’s cannons downward, trying to sight the dragon below through the windows in front of her.
You’ll never hit her with a sloppy swing like that, Yaz’noth thought at the elder him.
“Shut up, whelp,” the elder growled as his wings beat harder.
Not likely; you’re going to kill both of us. I fail to see any incentive not to annoy you with every ounce of my remaining being. And with that, Yaz’noth used one of the few muscles he had left and closed his eyes.
Instantly, the body wobbled; a wing clipped the top of a tall temple that the elder couldn’t see from his place on the shoulder. “DAMN YOU!” the elder frothed. “Your purpose is served!” Yaz’noth tried to hang on to his eyelids but let go of his control a moment before the elder pried him lose. They both saw the strange fire-riding ship angling her cannons at them, high above.
The Elder barely got the shield up in time. And while his consciousness dallied with the shield crystal, Yaz’noth began to worm his way back into his muscles.
Yaz’noth banked hard as the salvo of five ice shells slammed into the shield. Wind and lightning crystals might do more to overload the shield, but Ishe didn’t have any of those. The dragon himself seemed distracted, his wings beating with slow, unhurried strokes as he began to climb: probably tiring, or his old head somehow proved a distraction for him. Either way, Ishe followed the curve of his flight and used the propellers to maneuver behind him. He grasped what she was doing too late and she stayed on his tail. “Prepare both lances for firing.”
“She’s drawing too much power to the propellers!” Arch shouted to be heard over the wind. “Putting crystal three into lift power!”
Yaki sucked in a breath and looked to crystal three. Located just to the side of the hole, its glow highlighted its many cracks and fractures. It seemed to be holding for now, though. Her gaze slid past it, out into the city. Smoke rose from buildings scattered throughout the city, while the upper district blazed like fiery crown on the top of the hill. They were circling over the heart of the city, the main market district. Would that burn too?
“Prepare to dive!” Ishe’s voice filled the room, bringing Yaki back from her thoughts as the floor pitched beneath them. She had little to do in this moment as the fire crystal came to life, bathing them all the red glow of a forge, but only for a moment as the details of people gathered on the rooftops became clear. Crystal one, connected to the propellers, burst into brilliant blue life as the force crystals became a ring of light, turning the driveshaft so fast that the transmission began to smoke. The view outside swung and there was Yaz’noth, mouth open, glowing with blue light. The wound they had inflicted on that first pass shone like a liquid mirror.
Crystal three joined the chorus of power as her electricity surged through the hull a second before crystal two lit with a beam that lanced toward him. A green crackle of energy intercepted it as he twisted out of the way. His mouth flared with the counterstrike. The floor slammed up against Yaki, and as the scene through the hole fell away, the blue of Yaz’noth’s deadly breath weapon filled the view with flesh-scorching heat. Yaki’s heart stopped for a moment as she waited to burst into flame. But the heat receded. Sword had moved out of his range.
“Arses and eggs!” Yaki swore. They had to disable that shield, or this was going to drag till the city transformed into cinders and ash. As the glow of crystal three receded from blinding to bright, it revealed that its density of cracks had grown. This wasn’t a stalemate, either. They’d lose maneuverability once they had to toss that crystal. He still outranged them. Ishe was wielding a knife against a fully armored opponent. They needed a second ship for the flank. Yaki undid the buckles of her harness and headed for the door.
“Where are you going?” Heizo asked.
“Need new crystal,” Yaki said. “I get.”
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Pray to the spirits for they may answer. But as soon as you believe they must answer, they will not.
Seek Fire, Chief of the Turtle Clan of the Low Rivers Tribe, Lorekeeper
“Come on, you overgrown sack of evil shit. Come on and follow the birdie.” Ishe eased off the lift pedals. She didn’t need engineering’s report to know that if she pulled that sort of stunt again, things were going to start breaking. “Raiju, I need a report on his location.”
“He’s following. Simon says…” He listened to his funnel for a beat. “He’s sticking out his tongue and it’s a crystal?”
“It’s a wind crystal,” Ishe said, pointing Emperor’s Sword directly at the palace. And I’m willing to bet that he can’t breathe fire while he using it. She needed the dragon to make a mistake. “I am the Storm Coyote,” she said as a thought struck her. She needed a storm.
“Captain Yaki is heading for Dancing Fly. She says you need another power crystal or another ship.”
Ishe chuckled. “Yaki knows we need to stop dueling and turn this back a battle too.” She twisted in her seat. “Your Excellency, I need a paper army.”
The Steward stared dead ahead at the ruins of his palace, mouth open slightly. He blinked. “Not without paper,” he said, voice flat.
“Go with Yaki. She’ll get you to the industria
l district. Flood the sky. Try to blind him.” Ishe felt the toothy grin as the plan formed in her mind.
Shuri growled, “You dare command the Steward!?”
“Yes,” the Steward said, his head cocking to the side. “Yes,” he repeated with more force. “One would expect the kami to intervene, but they are silent. Do they see the outcome or are they merely angry?”
“This is hardly the time for such questions!” Shuri snapped.
“And yet they come,” he answered dreamily.
“Just go,” Ishe said. “She won’t wait.”
They drifted toward the door and Ishe refocused on the scene before her. She found the palace rubble looming far closer than she had left it. I need a pilot, she thought to herself as she spun up the starboard propeller to turn the ship. “Raiju! Where is that thrice-cursed dragon?!”
The thunder of the big cannons answered her.
“Busy dodging some shells, I bet!” Raiju grinned.
“Can you fly this?” Gama asked somewhat late in the process of launching Dancing Fly. The launch doors were open before them and the smoke waited like an ocean below.
“Find out!” Yaki told him as she buckled herself in, and as she waited for him to do likewise, another voice called out.
“Hold!”
Shuri pushed through the circle of crew that surrounded Dancing Fly, the Steward trailing behind her. “You must carry us to the industrial district,” she said with an imperious air, saving the Steward the trouble.
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