She released him without a word, smiling at the way he groped for breath. He slumped as the fight he had been setting himself up for didn’t happen. Guilt came for her as she settled into the pilot’s seat. If she left him, he’d be safer, near the walls of the city. But she was a monster now, always was, and if having him at her back might improve her odds of this impossible thing, then that was where she wanted him.
He picked up one of the dozens of shells and took a seat near the edge of the craft. He secured a single strap over his lap and placed the shell there. Pulling out a blade, he turned it in his hand, then pointed at a spot on the shell. “I smack it here, right?”
“Yes.” Yaki turned and placed her hands on the flight levers. Dancing Fly rose beneath her control and joined the flock of paper cranes.
They flew out toward the circling dragon in in an inverted V formation, like a mouth about to swallow him up. Yaki swung them out along one of the arms, Fly a raven among a flock of white doves. Yaz’noth had been circling to gain altitude; he swept his gaze over the flock, and the wind crystal in the mouth glowed anew. Yaki heard the winds howl in objection for a brief moment before invisible streams of air ripped through the formation, scattering paper cranes in all direction, their fragile paper wings twisting and ripping under the assault. The mass of paper rendered the wind into a massive worm, weaving about the sky faster than any airship or dragon.
Yaki folded their wings and flung them high into the sky.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
The trouble with begging gods for assistance is that after you win, they expect all the credit.
Admiral Madria
As the wind itself tore into the flock of paper, Ishe knew the time had come. Dropping the bow of Sword downward, she pulled on the thrust. The port side dipped, pulling her onto her side. Yaz’noth neatly tucked in his wings and fell beneath Ishe’s charge. Portside elemental cannons fired belatedly and only clipped his shield before he answered with his own belated blast of plasma. Ishe cursed; if both lances could be powered at the same time, they would have had him. She turned the propellers in opposite directions, and Emperor’s Sword spun around, only to be slammed sideways.
“What the hell is that?!’ Ishe looked in the direction of the blow to see nothing but sky through a cracked window.
“He’s closing!” Raiju said.
Then, looking forward, she saw Yaz’noth flying directly toward them, wind crystal in his original mouth. The head on his shoulder bared its teeth. Ishe looked at the gauges on her console; the needle on the speed gauge vibrated at around zero. Nothing changed as she threw both propellers into reverse. The tips of her ears were tingling.
Abandoning the propulsion, Ishe flipped the propellers to neutral and stomped on the lift pedals. The ship struggled to rise as the screaming of the wind grew from above, the gale the dragon controlled shifting to keep them stationary. “Engineering! Give me more power to lift.”
Ishe’s felt every follicle on her body stand on end as the ship began to protest. Nutty moisture filled her nose as every bit of water began to cook from the wood. Slowly, Sword began to rise against the wind…too slowly to make a difference, as Yaz’noth flew beneath the horizon of her windows. Ishe cut the power to the front of the ship, and gravity fell away. The bow dipped till Ishe could see the market square directly below them. Yaz’noth had banked into a spiral, using his wings to pump himself higher. Stray surviving paper birds were dogging him, but he ignored their fluttering attempts to catch him. He’d spiral up and take the ship out precisely the way he’d taken the Odin’s Sphere. “Fine. If he wants us to dive, we’ll dive!” Ishe waited until Yaz’noth had almost circled around and ignited the thrust.
The wind screamed as if burned by the flame. Ishe’s world narrowed as she enabled the front of the liftwood hull and jammed it to full power. The nose began to lift and brought the very fountain that Shuri and Yaki had fought in front of into view. “Come on, come on!” Ishe fervently whispered as she killed the thrust for a half-moment. The bridge lurched up so violently that it seemed to leave Ishe’s stomach behind. As they reached the point where the mountains threatened to dip below the horizon of the windows, Ishe reactivated the thrust. They still fell, for one second, two seconds, Yaz’noth getting smaller. Then the vessel caught itself. They hurtled upward at the dragon. Ishe watched him swallow that crystal down. Both sets of eyes were on her now.
“Oh. nine hells.” Ishe swore as a tiny ship dove through the remains of the flock directly for Yaz’noth back.
“GO!” Yaki screamed. She gripped Gama’s shoulders, hanging on as he pitched Dancing Fly downward. The dragon had focused his entire attention on Emperor’s Sword charging up at him. “Remember!” she shouted over the wind.
“No chance of that, Captain!” Gama said as the wind attempted to rip their clothes from her body. The vivid silver patches of Yaz’noth’s wings flashed in the sunlight below them. Yaki had one shell gripped under her arm and another two strapped to her back. Yaz’noth sucked back his wind crystal, pitching his head back to swallow it down—and froze in mid-motion. A shiver of surprise went through his body.
“Hang on!” Yaki gave Gama a final squeeze and let go. When they were feet away from the dragon’s back, green energy crackled into existence. Gama pulled up at the last moment; Dancing Fly hit the barrier with its flat bottom. Yaki bent her knees with the impact, curling herself around the shell she carried. The shield flexed around Fly before pushing back, the deck of the little ship pitching upward. Free of any restraints, Yaki’s body tumbled backward, rolling through the air once before opening and smacking into the hard scales of Yaz’noth’s armored backside. Pain blossomed from the points of impact. The wind slid her over the smooth, overlapping scales, until her fingers found a scale pitted with rust and dug in.
Below them, Emperor’s Sword aborted its charge, the thruster dying as the propellers opened. A smile grew on Yaki’s face as she could imagine her sister cursing her name for wrecking her shot. Above her, Fly banked in a tight circle, Gama trying to pull Ishe’s trick of staying behind the dragon. Could Yaz’noth feel her weight on him? Time to give him something to worry about. Yaki lifted the shell in her hand and bashed its propellant canister against the ridge of a scale. She tossed it backward, and the shell exploded as it passed the dragon’s hips. Too far past the living-silver wound to do any real damage, but the scales beneath her rippled in a sort of shock. Yaki dashed forward as Yaz’noth’s neck bent so he could peer down his back out of the corner of his eye.
“You dare!” the dragon boomed. “Insect!”
As Yaki ran up the dragon’s spine, the scales turned beneath her feet when he tilted his body. Leaping forward, she gripped the mangled remnants of the cage he had strapped to his back. The bent bars provided hand- and footholds as Yaz’noth went into a steep roll, making the plane of his wings nearly vertical.
Yaki laughed at him. “Going to have to do better than that!” She let the words roll forth in Draconic as she picked her way forward. Even with the wind whipping at her body, the grip of a single hand provided her with enough support.
“How’s this?” he growled back at her, and the air filled with the metallic snap of chains. The entire structure lurched as the front half fell free. Yaki scrabbled upward as the metal box rotated under her; she was trying to climb the ladder of its bars even as it moved. She leapt off it as the last chains snapped free, wrapping all her limbs around the stout base of his wing like a bear cub climbing a tree.
“Better.” Yaki grimaced as she dug into the spots between the scales with her fingernails, several breaking in the process. Growling, Yaz’noth leveled out and the massive head curled around, jaw opening in the same way as before issuing its deadly blasts. But it only got halfway around before stopping. It started to shake.
“WHELP! LET GO!” the dragon who wasn’t quite Yaz’noth shouted with equal parts indignation and horror.
Yaki took the hint; letting go of the wing, she dashed a
s well as she could up the remainder of his back, her dagger coming out of her belt as he banked. There on his shoulder she could see the jagged cut that quicksilver pulsed out of in thick tendrils and into the severed head. Partial muscles and tendons had started to form, but the muscles were shot through with holes.
She dove before the steepening slope robbed her of her footing, and Yaki’s dagger bit into the shiny flesh. The liquid had a thick, jelly-like consistency, and the dagger slipped through it until it hit metal scales. The slice sealed almost as fast as the knife moved.
“No,” the dragon growled as Yaki pulled the earth shell free of the sling. She shoved it into the mass of quicksilver and smacked the side.
Nothing happened. No hiss of flame. Nothing. The shell stood there, less animated than doorknob.
Yaki did not need the press of the Death Panther’s paw to know what she had to do. The stillness of the air told her everything she needed to know.
“Human, you will remove that now,” the dragon said. “Or I will make sure you suffer every imaginable pain.”
“You have already inflicted all of that on me, Yaz’noth!” Yaki laughed at the threat. “You wanted to know why I’ve survived this long? I haven’t. I’ve died three times so far. Once in that tree, once in your belly, and the last time when this heart nearly incinerated me, thanks to the Death Panther, who wants me right here. Right now.”
“You are speaking in gibberish, human!” The dragon shook his shoulders but Yaki held tight, digging her fingers into the quicksilver.
“I’m not talking to you!” Yaki shouted. “Yaz’noth! Your plan is shattered! The fires you set are spawning salamanders. So, here’s the deal. I’ll free you from this head, and in return, you put out the fires you started and then you go away. You dig trenches. Knock down buildings and do whatever you need to do. Swear on it!”
The dragon’s head gave a barely perceptible nod. Good enough.
“Get off my shoulder!” the dragon growled.
“You mad idiot!” Ishe screamed at Yaki as she fought her way across Yaz’noth. “You nincompoop! You emperor’s slut! You don’t board a dragon!”
She’d pulled Sword back a safe distance, hovering up and outside Yaz’noth’s range. Mother’s voice chided her for not attacking, but she had to see what her sister was doing.
“Captain!” Raiju’s voice climbed in alarm.
“What?” Ishe’s head swiveled to the left in time to see the a dark form fill the portside windows. Dancing Fly crashed through the wall in an explosion of timber and glass.
What was the point of enclosing the bridge if they made the walls out of tissue paper?! Ishe thought as the splintered hull of the pleasure craft bounced off the deck and plowed into couch. Fly’s liftwood bow met its ornate ironwood bulk and crumpled. Gama was hurled forward, along with most of the pilot’s chair. It flipped through the air and landed on its back, its momentum carrying him all the way to the other side of the room. He issued a low groan of pain.
“Nine hells and black seas! What the fuck are you doing, Gama?!” Ishe couldn’t stop herself from unbuckling from her seat as Drosa was already moving toward him. Wrenching her eyes back to Yaz’noth, she saw her sister dangling precariously from the jungle gym on the dragon’s back.
“Cut off his head! Don’t kill him! The one on his shoulder! That’s what Yaki wants,” Gama said to the entire room. “Or the entire city burns.
“Really, Yaki? That’s your plan?!” Ishe roared as she turned back to the window. Her jaw worked as her sister clung to the dragon’s shoulder even as he reached to pluck her off. She slammed herself back into the pilot’s chair and grabbed the thrust lever.
With one hand clinging to the dragon, Yaki extended the other toward the shell and concentrated. Well, she concentrated as much as one could with holding on to a dragon who didn’t want you there. She sensed another presence overlaying the shell like a smothering blanket. She tried to dig at it, pushing forward to reach the shards of awareness that lurked even in the smallest of crystals.
“Stop that!” The scales below her jerked. Yaki’s boots lost their purchase and her body swung free as massive talons darkened the sunlight. To avoid their grasp, she circled around the edge of the wound, probing it with her dagger and fingers, her hands getting coated in a silvery mix of quicksilver and dull red, pus-like dragon blood. They wobbled in the air, the talons, each one as large as Yaki herself, and scraped over the metallic hide at the place Yaki had been. As she was now on the far side of the grafted head, he couldn’t reach her. Couldn’t see her, either. Could he sense her? Nobody could get her there. “Get off me, you parasite!” The talons fled, only to come up from the other side.
In the distance she heard a continuous roar. Ishe. But what would she do? A stolen glance up and Yaki saw the shadow of Emperor’s Sword growing from the middle of the sun. A straight charge. One lance erupted into hot life, a seething spear of burning energy. She pushed herself back atop the shoulder. The dragon grunted with effort as the tip of his claw caught a boot. With a groan, Yaki hung on as the boot pulled free of her foot and tumbled below.
“Almost! Got yo—” The dragon’s voice cut off as his neck snapped outward. Up toward the sun. His jaw opening. Yaki felt his attention lifting, his broadcast smothering of all crystals falling away. In that moment, Yaki felt the pulse of power crystals inside the dragon. As he belched forth his answer to the charge, Yaki reached out with both her hand and mind, reminding the crystals of their purpose.
Their answer was an explosion.
Chapter Thirty
There is nothing human about a dragon. Creatures of cruel hunger and cold intellect, they understand fear and power.
Rictus Hana, author of The Great Wyrm, the Known History
Yaki stared that the place where her right hand had been. The blast had taken it to the elbow. No pain. It bothered her less than the ground rushing up to meet her. One more thing heaped on her body. One more nail in the Flower’s coffin. The thought of being a fire-breathing cripple made her laugh to the wind tearing at her body.
Her gaze drifted beyond the stump to Yaz’noth falling, his long neck and tail trailing after his body.
As a thought about how glad she’d be to die from the impact the moment before Yaz’noth would land on top of her began to form, the dragon’s wings opened. He sprang up away from her. The momentum snapped his neck downward, bringing her into his view. A great grin spread across his muzzle as recognition sparkled in his eyes. With a dexterous twist of his body, he dove after her, mouth yawning wide.
“No, don’t!” Yaki shouted.
The teeth swiftly over-took her and closed like a cage of swords around her. His tongue pinned her against the roof of his mouth as a pressure took hold of her entire body, pulling her down into blackness. A rapid sliding sensation followed. Then, as the pressure ceased, dozens of writhing snakes coiled around her limbs. The smell slapped her in the face, the hot, sulfurous odor dragging up memories of being of split open. Yaki did not remember starting to scream but wasn’t about to stop. With her remaining hand, she wrapped her fingers around a batch of coils and yanked.
A grunt of hot surprise filled the dragon’s forge. An animal growl tore from her throat as she fought against the tendrils in the dark. They tightened around her limbs and pulled her out into a spread-eagle position. The stone-like appendages were able to lift her but not still her.
Not again! Never again! Yaki hissed, jerking her arm inward, and bit down on a single tendril with her teeth. It crunched like a piece of thick glass beneath a boot.
“Nrg!” As one, the tentacles withdrew with a sound like a hundred noodles being slurped up at once.
Yaki hit the floor of the forge with a grunt, its surface knobby, hard, and scorchingly hot. Yaki tried to punch it with a nonexistent fist. “Let me out! Spit me out this instant! Or I will cut myself open and rip your heart apart!” she shouted out, her chest bubbling, eager to light the world with a column of flame. She didn�
��t care if the threat were empty or not; she’d try, and now in the dark, she could hear the steady thrum…thrum of his heart
“You’re hurt.” Yaz’noth’s voice echoed through the chamber.
“Chew on your testicles, Yaz’noth!” Yaki stamped down the dragon’s inner wall. “You were going to split me open again!”
“No.” Although he said it with a hair of uncertainty. “Just storing you until I know that your sister understands our deal.”
“I’d rather be in your mouth for that.” Yaki’s lips peeled back from her teeth and she let out a low, threatening hiss. “I hate this place.”
“Amazing.” Yaz’noth’s tone took on a note of awe. Something poked her and Yaki slapped a tendril away.
“Touch me again and I’ll cut them off!” Yaki said.
“Please. I won’t hurt you. I need to see. That hiss sounds so much like a dragon’s and I can’t feel any of the crystals I put inside you…”
“I saved your worthless life, Yaz’noth! I told you why it worked. Now you have a job to do. Let me out and do it.”
Silence answered her. His heartbeats went by. Yaki attempted to cross her arms and failed. She probed the stump with her remaining hand, the touch sending bolts of pain up her remaining arm. Its surface was covered with tacky substance. Of course fate would take her sword arm.
“Yes,” he finally concluded with a mirthless chuckle, “I have defeated myself today.”
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