Air

by Rosie Scott

  “I'm fine,” I finally said. “I just wanted you to know.”

  “Trust me, I know. You tell me all the time.” Cerin leaned his face toward the top of my hair, where he kissed me. “I don't mind you telling me more, though.”

  I chuckled softly into his black armor, and the ship jerked beneath our feet as the iron-plated keel came into contact with the top of the wreckage. The deck vibrated as we scraped over top of the sunken wood. I heard Maggie cursing at the ship as if that would motivate it to clear the blockade. While our pace slowed, the steam engine helped to force our gigantic vessel forward until the scraping lessened toward the back end and then disappeared entirely.

  “Whoo!” Maggie yelled from behind us, and I glanced back with a smile. “I was right, Kai! Ain't nothin' stopping this thing!”

  With our battleship past the wreckage, we sailed into the cove, the mountains of the Golden Peaks rising above us on either side. It was early afternoon, and the sun was high in the sky. Even so, much of the cove was cast in shadow from the surrounding mountainsides, and the temperature immediately cooled. Ahead, the enemy battleship loomed in the center of the waters, both as a blockade to its harbor and as a threat. At least one hundred cannons were facing us, and as we neared it, I could hear the dwarves screaming orders.

  Even before the cannons were fired, the siege weapons were. Those nearest the bow backed off, letting darts from ballistae fire overhead. One of our masts was sideswiped by one of the projectiles, and splinters of wood clattered onto the deck below. Another flew directly through a sail, ripping its fabric and leaving it to whistle as the light breeze filtered through it.

  None of our soldiers fought back. They'd been told not to because I needed the energy from as many dwarves as possible. As soon as we were close enough to the other ship for my magic to reach, I summoned the enervat spell and sent it flying through the air. The black energy exploded into a crowd of dwarves surrounding a ballista, immediately dropping a dozen of them beside their siege weapon and rendering it useless until it could be reinforced. A cloud of black raced back toward me, sinking into my body and immediately giving me a high.

  “Be careful, Kai!” Cerin encouraged, following me to the right edge of the deck as Maggie began to turn the ship slowly in the water to allow me to board. If my lover was this worried while he thought he could be right behind me, I could only imagine how he was going to feel in mere minutes when I was left behind. I tried not to think of it.

  Focus.

  The bow of our battleship passed the bend in the cove, allowing the entire Narangar harbor to come into view for the first time. It was an absolutely beautiful and terrifying sight. The inlet to the port was fashioned to a point as if the ocean itself was an arrow directing us to the city. We were surrounded by mountains here, but the largest of them all was just at the end of the point, rising up as if rivaling the sun. It was snowy nearest its tip, and low white clouds kept some of it out of view, teasing that while we were down here in the heat of High Star, the highest tiers of the mountain were in the midst of a blizzard. Halfway down the peak, the snow melted into slick, gray rock, which opened up to a gigantic tunnel many stories high at its base. Before the cavern were traders and businesses and taverns made out of stone from the surrounding mountains. Many of these buildings had gold trim and decorations. After all, these were the Golden Peaks, named after the rich sources of the metal which encouraged the construction of mines the city's economy relied upon.

  The harbor itself was gigantic, lining both sides of the point in flat walkways of gray stone. It, too, was edged in gold, as if the dwarves were so overwhelmed with the metal that they sought to use it in everything they built. Ships of all sorts were lying in wait for us, true to what the Sentinels and I had figured. We had taken out a navy of theirs the size of our own throughout our battle thus far because we'd been able to file the ships down to our advantage. Here, however, there were multiple ships around this bend proving that Narangar's navy was double our own, and any warships that would show past the mountains would be at their mercy. They sought to use our own tactics against us. If our ship didn't focus on rushing out of the cove as quickly as it had come in, it would be barraged with constant cannon fire. Iron-sides or not, the ship would eventually succumb to its damages.

  True to our planning, a long-range cannon was fired from the harbor's land defenses, the cannonball soaring through the air toward us with an evil hum. The projectile hit the top edge of our ship's right hull, just beneath the railing. Because it had hit iron and not wood, the ball ricocheted off the thick metal, bouncing back toward the mountain beside us and crumbling down its rock.

  I threw more death energy into the crowd of waiting dwarves, only adding more lives to my power. Dozens of them were already dead, but the battleships were massive and had many places to wait and hide. My body trembled with both power and anticipation as our ship finally pulled up beside its twin. Maggie slowed the battleship's pace, and my other friends probably expected to stop entirely. The voices of multiple friends rang in my head, words of carefulness and motivation swirling through my thoughts as I jumped over the gap between ships, the first and last of my allies to board the enemy vessel.

  Maggie kept going and prepared to turn the vessel back to the west, and in the meantime, some of the dwarves from the other boat had jumped over to ours. Even as my friends fought with the eager foes, they screamed protests.

  “Maggie! Stop the fucking ship!” Cerin's voice was hoarse with panic as the two decks separated once more.

  The dwarves were surrounding me, and weapons were immediately thrown and slashed into my shield. The immense strength of the small but brawny men and women was hacking the protection down quickly, and I regenerated the defense with the energy of the high I already had before building more death energy in my hands.

  The black magic swirled even more chaotically than usual, fueled by the rabid energy of my high. As the shield I'd given myself flickered with new weakness, I thrust the power down to my boots.

  Fff! The death magic exploded outward in all directions, seeping over the wooden deck and reaching dwarves dozens of feet away, the circumference of the spell wider given its power. I felt the magic suck my own life in an instant of fatigue before the energy was immediately returned to me in a rush that was actually pleasurable to experience. The dark fog crackled as it surrounded all bodies in its vicinity, stealing souls out of their vessels and returning them to me in an implosion of power that brought tears to my eyes.

  My senses sharpened even better than normal, overpowering me in such a way that I'd only ever known twice. The highs I'd gotten from fighting other gods were evidently from absorbing so much energy, and not necessarily because it had been a god at the other end of the spell. I knew this because that overwhelming power was mine once again, sharpening each sense until merely breathing felt like multi-tasking. Even as I fought through the dwarves that piled toward me from the stairs leading further down the levels, my newly sensitive hearing picked up on my friends' protests on the retreating ship.

  “Kai has been left behind!” Azazel was yelling, pleading. “We must go back!”

  Maggie wasn't responding. It was clear this distress bothered her.

  “Turn back!” Cerin screamed. I heard a scuffle and an exchange of magic. Then, the necromancer was quiet, kept calm by illusion magic.

  “What did you do, Cyrus?” Nyx's voice was demanding and accusatory.

  “Only what Kai asked of me,” the Sentinel replied, his tone pained. “This was her idea. She wanted you all to be safe.”

  “She wanted us to be safe?” Jakan scoffed. “What about her? She's in the middle of everything! She needs us!”

  “Kai's plan has nothing to do with a tidal wave, does it?” Anto questioned, his voice the calmest of the bunch.

  “No. She will summon a tsunami.” Cyrus exhaled heavily. “A simple tidal wave would not have a chance of destroying the harbor.”

  “I knew there was
something off,” Jakan grumbled.

  Cerin's protests started up again as the illusion magic wore off, and I heard clunks as he dropped pieces of his armor.

  “What are you doing?” Nyx.

  “Going after her,” Cerin retorted. “If none of you will turn this fucking ship around, I'll be leaving it.”

  “Seriin!” It was a voice I was unfamiliar with. In seconds, Cerin had quieted once again.

  “This isn't right,” Nyx seethed. “You're willing to resort to mind control to keep us from doing anything.”

  “It was Kai's request,” Cyrus replied.

  “Oooh, I'm sure it was,” Nyx spat. “If this doesn't kill her, I will.”

  At least I know now how I will die, I mused to myself. The deck of the battleship was cluttered with dwarven bodies, and the energies were so robust in my head that it felt like it was swollen. A dull ache throbbed near my brain stem, threatening me with the high's ability to be painful like it had been back in Tal.

  The cannons of the other ships in the harbor were not firing yet, and neither were the harbor's defenses. As I had surmised, my enemies did not want to risk injuring their people or damaging their own ship. I couldn't expect that to last forever. Though the dwarves may have been confused as to why one lone person had been dropped off in the midst of a well-defended harbor, they would soon resort to brash actions to figure it out and kill me.

  The battleship holding my friends left the cove with the sound of its iron undersides scraping along the wreckage as I headed down into the belly of the ship. I was immediately greeted by many of the dwarves which had been manning the cannons of the gun deck. I shot death energy into the initial crowd of them, and when the magic seeped back into my body, the pain in my head only deepened. It felt like someone was dripping white-hot magma into the center of my brain, and it was almost debilitating.

  Shing! Clash! Kk!

  The life magic surrounding me flickered once more. In both hands I built a new shield, using excess energy to make it stronger. When it was refreshed, I reached my arms into the crowd of foes, only adding more power to my high.

  I am unstoppable. The thought floated through my head, coated with a mixture of pride and ecstasy. The life force of hundreds of men and women was electric in my veins. They were throwing everything they could at me, and all they could do was whittle down my defenses before I simply recharged them. I remembered all of the times my foes had regarded me with fear. Even back in Sera when the witnesses to Bjorn's execution had fled, they had been screaming in terror.

  And I was so weak, then.

  The noises of life ceased. My own inhales and exhales echoed in my head, and my golden eyes searched for victims. When I found none, I lifted up a hand, seeking life from within the ship. I moved my hand around and below, finding nothing. Looking back up toward the deck, however, I found a red mass of energy waiting for me in the open air. Moving the spell around, I saw little blobs of red moving up the hull of the battleship, as if dwarves were pulling themselves up ropes from boarding boats.

  They've followed me. I noted this with little more than annoyance. My skull felt like it was going to crack with the immense power held within, so I lifted a hand to my head, dulling my senses with illusion magic. It was dangerous to do this while still in battle, but for as long as I had a shield, I wouldn't have to worry about not realizing I had injuries since no melee attacks could get through to me.

  The dwarves on the deck made no move to come after me, so I went to them, building the enervat spell between two palms. My boots clunked up the steps one at a time, and I reached the top deck just long enough to see a prepared ballista before I was forced into the ceiling of the stairway, at the mercy of the siege weapon's dart.

  The breath was knocked out of me as both the ammo and my body fell in heavy clumps to the stairs. I rolled down to the floor of the gun deck, and my hands immediately went to my gut, checking for injuries since I couldn't feel much pain thanks to the illusion magic. The dart of the ballista had surged into the life magic protecting me, and while it had forced me back and broken the shield, the protection had taken the brunt of the hit. I was only left disoriented.

  Phew! My sharpened hearing picked up on a throwing weapon twirling through the air, and I lifted an arm before my face defensively even before I knew what to expect.

  Shing! The thick blade of a throwing ax was cut deep through my left arm, stuck in a break of my ulna bone. I stared at it a moment, unable to feel its pain. The dwarf that had thrown it prepared another, and only then did I think to regenerate my shield. The second throwing ax ricocheted off the life magic a moment later.

  I leeched from the dwarf as he hurried down the stairs toward me, prepared to whittle down my shield. His body fell beside my own, stinking of ale, body odor, and gunpowder. For the moment, no more dwarves filed down. They were planning on continuing to ambush me at the top with the weapons on the ship.

  I stood up, but I didn't yet go up the stairs. I used the enemy's unwillingness to rush into the lower deck with me against them, taking the time to heal my broken bone while keeping an eye on the blue skies above the open doorway. Only when the arm was fully healed did I start to ascend the steps.

  It was possible to raise the dead of the gun deck and encourage them to go to the quarterdeck to kill the dwarves in wait, but I needed all the energy I could get. I hadn't expected more dwarves to pursue me; I'd expected them to use their cannons against the ship. Perhaps they had a reason for their strategy, but they couldn't have known just how much that aided me in my own plan.

  I threw the death energy over the crest of the staircase, forcing the spell into the waiting dwarves before they could notice my ascent. Only when the spell imploded back into me did I know it had worked. The ballista was fired again, but its dart harmlessly split the wood above my head, raining sawdust into my hair. Realizing they'd been outsmarted, the soldiers rushed forward just to have their lives stolen from them in the stairwell.

  I fought my way back up to the deck, using nothing but death magic. When I was finally in the open air of the quarterdeck again, I noticed the harbor of Narangar was filling up with soldiers. Directions were being screamed. My sharpened hearing even picked up on my name. They knew I was here. I felt relief for that because if any of my foes made it out of this fight alive, I wanted Sirius and Queen Edrys to mourn this harbor with the knowledge I had taken it from them.

  My head felt like it was exploding. Thinking the dull senses spell to have faded, I recast it, just to find I'd only refreshed a still active spell. This high was even worse than the one I'd had after fighting Hades because I was in tears despite attempting to trick my brain's pain receptors with magic. I fell to sit on the deck facing west. The battleship that held my friends was now only a brown speck on the horizon. Even with my sharpened senses, I could no longer hear them or their ship.

  Be safe, I pleaded, as the explosion of multiple cannons vibrated from the harbor.

  Shhhheeeerrr...! BOOM!

  The battleship shook violently beneath me. The cling of multiple cannonballs hitting iron pierced through my head, and my right arm was soon covered in the snow of wood chips. Other than a simple glance back to ensure I wasn't going to be squished by a mast, I paid little mind to the barrage of the harbor's defensive weapons. I figured the chances were low that out of the entire surface area of this gigantic ship, one of the cannonballs would hit me. It humored me that I could be so nonchalant in the middle of such danger, but I was in intense pain and felt just on the cusp of uncertainty for this plan's outcome.

  BOOM! Another volley, another shake. I kept my eyes on the ship in the distance, wondering how my friends were faring. I hoped that Maggie and Cyrus weren't receiving most of the blame for this.

  BOOM! Then came creaking. The main mast was falling, but I didn't move. The large piece of wood fell directly down onto the center of the deck, crashing into another and causing that to fall as well. Railings and deck alike were cracked and split, an
d the quarterdeck now felt as if it were leaning down toward the ship's center. My teeth rattled with the resulting tremors, but I was off to the side of the wreckage's path, so I was safe.

  Yelling echoed out from the harbor next, and no more cannonballs flew my way. Perhaps the dwarves thought I was dead. They'd been able to see me on the deck while fighting their men, but they'd also seen me collapse. I was no longer in their view, and they were no longer in mine. Maybe they thought I'd bled out from prior injuries, or that I was killed by the ship itself as it fell apart. I assumed they were now directing their soldiers to board the other boats and seek me out.

  Then, like a blessing sent from the heavens, just the slightest echo of a welcoming noise floated over the soft breeze from miles away. If it weren't for my overpowered senses, I wouldn't have been able to hear it.

  HUUURRRNNNNN!

  My fingers fell to my belt, where the war horn Altan had given me earlier in the day was still attached to me and secured.

  My friends are safe. Even if I die here today, I can know that and be at peace.

  Though my skull felt like it was shattering, I pulled myself up off the deck. I wasted no time in lifting both hands in the air toward the west.

  Generat la wava a major.

  I started funneling energy into the spells. Before it even took from what I had leeched, it was pulling from the weather and environment, sucking the breeze straight out of the air.

  Ding! Ding! Ding!

  It was an alarm bell, and it was being rung frantically in the harbor. The dwarves clearly had thought me dead, because seeing me stand on the deck again was causing them to panic. The defensive cannons were fired once more, and as I continued building the spell I sidestepped to the bow of the ship, putting as much space and as many obstacles between the cannon fire and my body as possible.

  The ship jolted beneath my feet as it was hit. Given the continuous sounds of the metal balls hitting the iron-side, I mentally thanked the dwarves for building such a magnificent vessel. They'd done such a great job designing its defense that they hadn't thought about ever having to fight against it.