Air

by Rosie Scott

  BOOM! Ssshhhhrrr! Crrrk!

  I scrambled to stand. I recognized the sound of dwarven war cannons from our fight with the kraken south of the wildlands, though the cannonballs here seemed to be traveling a greater distance before they hit. The only reason I knew our ship wasn't targeted was that it didn't shake.

  I'd gone to bed late the night before because Uriel and I had talked for many hours about a variety of things. The sixth Sentinel was a great conversationalist and seemed to genuinely care about what others thought about everything, so he asked many questions. Thus, the majority of subjects we spoke of revolved around my own adventures which had led to being here. I hadn't gotten much of a chance to learn more about his own upbringing before Cyrus had relieved him, and it was only then when I'd finally gone to bed. My body's aching protests as I quickly dressed for the day reminded me that sleep should take precedence.

  My friends and I hurried up to the quarterdeck behind a mass of soldiers, the air becoming less thick and stuffy as we piled out onto the deck. I heard distant yelling before the sound of dwarven cannons cracked through the skies. Pushing past soldiers to get to the railing of the ship, I finally saw what was causing the ruckus.

  There were dozens of warships spread out over the ocean before our own, dotted across the blue waters like standing guardians. Most of them nearest us had the yellow and black sails of Eteri, but the rest had sails of green belonging to Chairel. The Eteri warships were sleek and pointed in design, the decks many times longer than they were wide. The majority of these allied ships were shielded, white life magic bubbling around the entirety of the vessel and disappearing below the waves to protect even that which we could not see. In the far distance, one of Narangar's ships released a volley of cannonballs into an enclosing boat, and the balls crashed into life magic, leaving the shield flickering as it weakened. The life mages on board scrambled to recharge the protections, while a soldier stood at the railing of the ship, both of her arms in the air. The skies darkened above the enemy ship before a low rumbling preceded a white-hot lightning bolt which cracked into a mast, leaving pieces of it crumbling and singing its green sails.

  The Narangar ships were all varied in design as if the dwarves prided themselves on experimentation. There were smaller and quicker ships with few soldiers which they were trying to use to board and take the Eteri ships. There were also medium-sized ships that rivaled our own and the size of the Galleon Stallion, which at one point had been the largest ship I'd ever seen. These ships were used for both brawn and maneuverability. Last, the most massive ships of them all were gigantic in every way imaginable, and I was a little shocked with intimidation.

  The dwarven battleships, as they were called, might as well have been moving fortresses. They boasted hundreds of large cannons which stuck out of windows along each bulky side, and much of the exteriors of the ships were lined in iron, adding extra armor and protection from the fire of Eteri's mages. Hundreds of dwarven men and women scurried around on board, tending to varieties of siege weapons. The battleships towered over the ocean many decks high, and near the back of the vessels was a vertically risen metal pipe releasing steam.

  My eyes were on the magnificent vessels as I walked up beside Cyrus, who held a large war horn in his hand, his blue eyes assessing the situation ahead. Eteri's ships outnumbered Narangar's, but the dwarven warships tended to be much larger, and the battle had barely begun. It was doubtful that Narangar had sent their entire navy. There would be more ships to contend with in the future.

  “Is it too late for me to switch sides?” I asked the Sentinel, who hadn't seemed to notice my approach until I was right next to him.

  Cyrus chuckled low. “Is this your first time seeing a dwarven battleship?”

  “It is.”

  “Intimidating, aren't they?” Cyrus asked sympathetically.

  “Not to you,” I replied, noting his calm tone.

  “Oh, you don't want to mess around with these things,” he said. “But they are not impervious. I've taken many down. They have their weaknesses.”

  “Mind sharing?”

  “They're slow,” Cyrus replied. “The cannons are devastating, but short range. You have more to worry about from the siege weapons on deck. The sides of the ships are metal, but the decks and sails burn as well as anything else. Only problem is, you can't take out one of them just by destroying its sails. The dwarves use some sort of sorcery revolving around steam to power their battleships when the sails are out of commission.”

  “Dwarves don't deal in sorcery,” I said, confused.

  “Aye.” Maggie's voice sounded out from behind and above me, and when I jumped because I was startled, she laughed. “Dwarves deal in engineering, love. Mechanics. Makin' things move on their own, ya see.”

  “No, not really,” I admitted.

  Maggie laughed boisterously and patted me on the back. “Listen, love, just make the ship sink, and it won't matter how it moves, 'cause it won't.”

  “Sounds good to me.”

  Cyrus turned to us. “You might want to cover your ears.”

  We did so. Cyrus turned back toward the rest of the Eteri navy as we approached them from behind, and put the war horn up to his lips, only blowing through it when he'd taken a deep breath.

  HUUURRRNNNNN!

  The soldiers on the allied ship closest to us took note of our approach, and one of them lifted a horn to his own lips, returning the gesture in greeting.

  Cyrus turned toward the deck. “Uriel!” He called, searching for the other Sentinel.

  “I'm on it!” Uriel's voice called back, from through a crowd of soldiers. It wasn't long before I saw the healer and a group of soldiers pulling small, wooden catapults over the deck for use. Each weapon was made out of wood beams which sat on a base, allowing it to be pulled over the quarterdeck with some ease. In the middle of the machine was a mass of stretched and twisted rope, and a long wooden arm with a pouch at its end sat above the cord, prepared to be filled with projectiles.

  “You crafty bastards,” Nyx commented, watching the soldiers secure the siege weapons in place along the deck. “I thought the Vhiri didn't use siege weapons.”

  “We don't usually like to,” Cyrus admitted. “The dwarves were nice enough to lend us a few of these some centuries ago, and we've simply stolen the designs and reproduced them for our ships. Onagers, they're called.”

  “What ammo do you use?” I asked.

  “Hollow clay balls full of calcint,” the Sentinel replied.

  Calcint. The highly flammable, sticky black sludge we'd always used to keep fire burning even in the worst conditions. It had kept torches lit for us in harsh winds and strong rains alike. With my eyes on the wood of the majority of dwarven ships, I realized just how deadly such contraptions were.

  “Does the calcint keep fire burning in the water?” I questioned.

  “For a while, yes,” Cyrus answered, “so if we're using it, don't plan on going for a swim.”

  Anto pointed to the distance, where two Eteri ships were maneuvering to each side of a dwarven vessel. As the dwarven warship fired cannons at the allied ships, the mages regenerated shields and sent magic flying into the warriors on deck. “How am I going to be able to fight at all?” The orc questioned.

  “You can come with me, love,” Maggie offered. “I'll be manning the onagers and waitin' for the moment to catch me a ship. You're a strong guy. Ya might have a hand for using grappling hooks.”

  Anto glanced up at the giant. “You catch ships with grappling hooks?”

  Maggie chuckled. “Aye. Ya board 'em, friend. Ships are mini movin' pieces of land, is all.” She nodded toward the warships Anto had been watching, where we could barely make out men and women throwing the hooks to the enemy ship. Some missed, but others latched over ship railings, securing a hold on the enemy vessel. Many throws later, and the dwarven warriors on board of the enemy ship braced for battle as the two allied ships slowly moved inward. Once the boats were all beside eac
h other, allied mages and soldiers all rushed into conflict with the dwarves, surrounding them.

  “Well, I'll help you then,” Anto decided. “Little else I can do until we get ready to board.”

  I glanced at Cyrus. “What's the plan for us?”

  The Sentinel watched the battle play out as our ship continued to make its way into the fray. “For the most part, we will follow Altan's direction. That is his ship.” I followed Cyrus's finger to a ship at the front of the battle, which was currently moving into a sideways position beside a dwarven battleship. The only difference between this allied ship and the others was the additional sail among its masts. Right now, the yellow and black Eteri sails had a big, bright red flag hoisted up among them. “Red means attack at will. Blue means follow. White means retreat.” Cyrus looked over at me with a knowing smile. “Altan's white flag grows dusty.”

  I chuckled. “So we can attack wherever we feel we are needed.”

  “Yes. I have told the men to sail for that battleship.” Cyrus pointed off to the edges of the battle, where the gigantic enemy ship was moving in slowly to aid the others.

  “We're going in swinging,” I mused.

  “I like taking out the big ships first,” Cyrus admitted. “Lowers morale of the others and makes them easier to take. Besides, we don't want to give them time to maneuver that thing into the thick of battle. Mass devastation will follow.”

  “Will we try boarding the battleship?” Cerin spoke up, his pale face cast in shadow from his hood. I reached out to put an arm around him. Sometimes he just was too irresistibly attractive not to touch. The necromancer smiled over at me as he received his answer.

  “No. We try not to board the battleships. They are much taller than our own and require our men to climb, where they're vulnerable at the top. Besides,” Cyrus added, “boarding it would require us to pull up right beside it, where we'd be vulnerable to its short range cannons.”

  Our ship wasn't moving very quickly in the water given its weight and bulk, but it felt like we were racing toward the dwarven battleship anyway, likely due to the anticipation of taking it on. The enemy vessel loomed ever larger as we neared it, and soon it came to a stop as if goading us. Perhaps the dwarves on board knew they could not outrun our vastly faster ship, so they simply accepted the challenge.

  I rushed to the metal charger with Cerin, where Uriel was already standing guard. A robust shield was already protecting our ship, giving our surroundings an extra glistening glow. Cerin and I funneled more energy into it, ensuring the buffer would last.

  “Move into position!” Cyrus yelled, and the soldiers manning the ship began to turn it in the ocean to pull up beside the battleship. My eyes scanned over the dwarves on board the enemy vessel. These people had all been my allies once. Now, some had their eyes on me, as if connecting the things they'd heard with my image. It couldn't have been hard to pick me out of the crowd. Our ship was one of the few that had races other than Vhiri on it, and I was the only non-Vhiri with hair so red. I would probably be targeted, but at least I was used to that.

  The dwarves were not firing their cannons. They knew it would only be a waste of cannonballs from this distance. Instead, they were focused on positioning a variety of siege weapons at the edge of the deck. They had onagers much like we did, and given alchemy was something many dwarves were skilled at, I assumed they also could destroy our ship by fire once our shields were broken through.

  During the talk Uriel and I had the night before, he'd told me that many ship battles were a test of patience. The shields made the allied ships impervious for a time, which gave Eteri an immense advantage in the initial assault. However, energy for spells was not limitless. Once the life mages were out of power for shielding, the dwarven siege weapons could tear whole ships apart within mere minutes. Obviously, that made the Vhiri plan to throw everything they had into that first attack, in the hopes they could whittle down the enemy ship and its soldiers before their defenses were depleted. On the other hand, the dwarves had to focus on defending against the Vhiri magics while draining the shields with their weaponry. It was for this reason that Uriel told me the dwarves preferred to board ships whenever possible. Energy shields could defend against offensive attacks, but they could not protect against being infiltrated by grown men.

  Our ship was finally in position, perpendicular to the battleship and a few hundred yards from its left side. On our own deck, Maggie and Anto and the others prepared the onagers for an assault with calcint. On the enemy ship, the dwarves were loading ammo into a variety of siege weapons. I recognized some of them from my readings of military history, as many texts had sketches of them. There were catapults and ballistae, and as with everything else, the weapons had been tinkered with to achieve different results. One of the ballistae, for example, did not appear to have disposable ammo like the rest. Instead of loosing darts and spears into its foes, it was loaded with a long-bladed metal piece which was attached to it by a thick rope. This ballista was the only siege weapon on deck to be secured to the ship itself. Just by looking at the weapon, I figured it was not meant to kill, but to secure and pull enemy vessels. The damaged ship back in Makani came to mind. Something immense had pulled an entire section of the warship straight out of its hull, and this weapon looked like it could do such a thing.

  “Maggie!” Cyrus threw an arm toward the battleship.

  “Aye!” Maggie pointed down the line of soldiers at the onagers as they loaded the weapons, putting clay balls of calcint within pouches. “Fire!”

  With the snapping sounds of creaking wood, the onagers launched their ammunition through the air, the balls arcing toward the battleship's deck. Some of the shots missed. A few flew past the quarterdeck and into the ocean beyond, while one shattered and leaked black sludge over the iron siding. The rest broke over the deck, leaking the flammable contents over vulnerable wood. One of the clay balls even exploded into the side of a dwarf's head, knocking him unconscious within the crowd of soldiers.

  “Again!” Maggie yelled, her voice booming over the others. Men and women cranked the onager arms back to prepare for another round of ammunition.

  BOOM!

  Our ship vibrated within its shield as we were bombarded with cannon fire. At first, I was outrageously confused because Cyrus had said we were too far for the battleship's cannons, but then I turned to see a dwarven galleon approaching our left side, sandwiching our ship between two of their own. While we had been focused on attacking the battleship, they concentrated on aiding it.

  The galleon was a vessel the size of ours, and the dwarves on deck looked prepared to board. While their cannons were prepared to shoot another round into our shield, multiple dwarves on deck were readying grappling hooks. They were determined to stop us before their battleship could be destroyed.

  “Mages!” Uriel screamed and pointed to this new contender. “Throw everything you have at them! Don't let them board!”

  “We still have a shield!” Cerin yelled back in protest, as the onagers behind us fired more calcint at the battleship.

  “The magic only stops offensive blows, Cerin,” I reminded him, rushing to Uriel's side. “The grappling hooks do not harm. It won't stop them.” I skidded to a stop beside Uriel as the Sentinel threw more energy into the ship's charger. “Let them board, Uriel. I can use their men's energy to recharge our shields if they get close enough to leech from, and we can take their ship.”

  The Sentinel did not reply for a moment as he watched the ship near, his light eyes contemplating. Finally, he said, “Good idea, Kai. Focus on the battleship until they near.”

  Uriel started shouting out his change in orders as I hurried back to the right deck of the ship. By now, three rounds of calcint had been unleashed over the massive vessel, black sludge glistening over dwarves and wood alike. Some of the dwarves were throwing buckets of water over the calcint, trying their best to clean it off the deck before it could be used against them. Others loaded up ballistae and onagers before
unleashing stones and thick darts alike into our ship's shields.

  Fzzz...

  The sheer white energy of our ship's shields flickered with trauma.

  BOOM!

  The medium-sized galleon unleashed another volley of cannon fire into our left side. The shield surrounding our ship dulled. I heard Cerin yelling for Uriel, and my lover must have forced more energy into the defense system since the magic stabilized once more. But we couldn't keep this up forever. As I neared the railing of the right side of our ship, I lifted both hands to the sky, preparing to unleash a spell I hadn't used in years.

  Generat le meteora a multipla! I built the fire energy in my palms until it trembled with power, and forced it up into the air. Above the battleship, the light blue skies darkened into gray. Far above us came the sizzling of fire and the whistling of objects giving in to the coaxing of gravity. The dwarves on the enemy ship screamed orders at one another, and some abandoned the siege weapons they'd been handling in panic. The entire deck of the battleship brightened with orange light just before my spell hit.

  BOOM! A massive ball of fire crashed through one of the battleship's masts, lighting sails on fire and dropping charred splinters of wood into the pools of calcint below. Even before the ship was hit again, the deck was catching fire. The dwarves had prepared for this, and soon were throwing buckets of water over the fire, trying to put it out.

  BOOM! Another meteor collided into the left edge of the deck, collapsing two ballistae and upending the soldiers nearby. Another fireball later, and the quarterdeck of the battleship was engulfed in flames. The fire spread along the black sludge, scorching wood and greedily lapping out at armor and skin alike, lighting soldiers on fire. The desperate wails of burning people rang out through the air, harsh on my ears. On both sides of the deck, burning dwarves were jumping into the ocean, seeking the relief of its water. Once in it, however, those who had been splashed with calcint were finding that the water was doing little to combat the sludge.