Breaking the Suun

by J. A. Culican

  I was falling.

  The rope had broken, snapped under my weight.

  I screamed. Something rushed at me. An ur’gel, I thought, coming to finish the job. I tried to free my ax, but it was impossible as I fell, twisting and turning in the air.

  And then something tugged the back of my shirt and jerked me to a stop.

  I rose again, my stomach flip-flopping at the sudden change. I looked up to see Stiarna, her front talons wrapped in my shirt. She pulled me close to her and I climbed over her shoulder until I was on her back, one leg on each side of her, tucked just below her wings.

  Leaning low, I patted her neck. “Let’s get them.”

  We approached the deck of the ship, where Estrid and Erik and Arun were doing a better job at holding on than I’d done. Stiarna pulled up alongside Arun, who was flat against the wheel, his face pale and his teeth grinding together.

  “Get them off the ship,” he managed to say. “Get them off and she’ll right herself.”

  I nodded, and we came out from under the deck and moved past the railing. The bottom of the ship—which was now the top—was covered with whatever ur’gels were left, all of them happily resting on their haunches while they waited for us to die. I was glad they were too stupid to think to finish us off while we were dangling helplessly over the ground.

  Stiarna hit them at full speed, scattering several of them who fluttered away with howling protests. We wheeled around and came back at them again. This time, I had my ax. I cut down two of them as we passed, Stiarna using her powerful rear claws against another. The ur’gels seemed too stunned to launch much of a defense, and we made three passes at them before the ship began to roll back into place. Some of them made a final, valiant attempt, standing their ground on the bottom of the ship. Stiarna dove at one, snatching him with her talons and tossing him overboard. The others quickly gave up after that, scattering to the wind, flapping away as fast as their wings could carry them.

  The Iron Duchess righted herself quickly when their weight was gone. Stiarna waited for it to stop rocking before touching down in front of Arun, who was on his knees, untying his hands with trembling fingers.

  Erik freed himself and rushed to the side, where he retched loudly over the railing. Estrid and I looked at each other and cringed, and then I turned to Arun.

  “They’ll be back,” I told him. “Probably with reinforcements. We have to do something.”

  I knew what I wanted to do. I wanted to get down. I wanted to get out of the air and plant my feet on solid, unmoving ground. I was done with flying.

  “We have to go up,” Arun said finally, color returning to his cheeks as he righted himself. “We’re near Lamruil. If we can get higher, past the veil, we can get help.”

  Right. Of course.

  Up it was, then.

  Chapter 23

  We didn’t have much of a respite from the onslaught of ur’gels. They came back before we’d broken through the veil, and this time, they were being more careful about it. They stayed off the deck and out of reach of our weapons. Instead, they dangled off the hull nets and perched on the masts, doing their best to weigh the ship down.

  “What kind of help will Lamruil offer?” I asked Arun. From what I knew of the High Elves, they were good fighters, but not quick to join any fight that wasn’t theirs.

  He was tugging on the lever, urging his ship higher. She was fighting him with every foot she climbed. “If we can get there, we can enlist the help of the High Elves living there to fight off the ur’gels. They don’t want these creatures there any more than we want them on our ship.”

  So, we would make it their fight, then.

  “I can’t get us there, though, not with all this weight on the ship.”

  I looked at my siblings. “Are you guys up for another fight?”

  Estrid slid her swords from their sheaths. “Always. I’ll take the ones on the masts.”

  Knocking his own sword against his shield, Erik said, “Send them down to me on the deck.”

  Arun nodded at me. “That leaves you and Stiarna the hull nets.”

  “No problem,” I nodded, looking at the gryphon on the deck, the thought of flying on anything making me queasy, but especially her made it worse.

  Stiarna stretched her wings wide readying herself for battle. Quickly, I jumped on her back, locking my knees tight around her sides. Exhaling, she launched over the side rail of the Duchess and towards the hull nets.

  Directly below us, more than a dozen flying ur’gel climbed up the nets, pulling the splintered wood from the side of the Duchess. Almost like they were attempting to claw their way into the bowels of the boat. If any of them found a pathway through they could easily get to the main deck where Eric and Estrid were focused on taking down their own assemblage of ur’gels.

  “We’ve got this Stiarna.” I patted her golden feathers at her neck. “Let’s work our way from top to bottom.”

  I eyed a leathery winged ur’gel at the top of the hull nets as I let my ax fall from my belt and into my right hand. Stiarna made a beeline for the ur’gel just as his oily hand reached the top rung. My ax sliced through the back of his head, spraying black blood all over Stiarna’s golden coat. The ur’gel toppled over, taking another ur’gel with him as he plummeted to the ground below.

  The remaining ur’gels turned their attention to Stiarna and I as their fallen comrades crashed through the trees. Pushing off the side of the Duchess, the ur’gel took flight. I dug my fingers further into Stiarna’s neck as she whipped around flapping her massive wings towards the stern of the boat.

  “Now what?” I peeked over my shoulder.

  Stiarna clucked at me in frustration. If she were human, I could picture her rolling her eyes at me.

  I grimaced as I watched Estrid lithely climb the masts and start dispatching ur’gels, sending dead and alive alike to Erik, who quickly threw their bodies overboard.

  Stiarna shook her massive head and squealed with what I could only describe as glee as she soared in a circle to gather speed as I squeezed my eyes shut to avoid looking at the ground again. I had known if I never flew again it would be too soon.

  As she righted herself, I opened my eyes and looked at the mess below the hull and contemplated how to get rid of this many ur’gels without killing myself at the same time.

  Screams sounded from above as an ur’gel with shredded wings flew past me, his friends in the net watching him fall.

  “If you don’t want to end up like him, you can just fly away.”

  A small shuffling of wings, a scratching of a stomach, and a roar of laughter was my answer.

  Great.

  Squeezing Stiarna behind the wings, I edged her forward, slashing at one ur’gel while she grabbed another and ripped holes in his wings.

  Nothing from the ur’gels sitting in the nets. It was almost as if they were being controlled by some invisible force to stay there. To sacrifice themselves. No matter, they had to move so we could fly, not just float. Another pass, two more ur’gels. I paused, listening for the fighting on the deck, but it seemed just as dulled as here.

  Taking control, I led Stiarna back above the hull and hovered, watching my siblings work to clear the masts, Arun holding the ship steady.

  “What are you doing up here? Have you cleared them out from below already?” his voice cut across the air.

  “No, haven’t you noticed the lack of resistance to fighting? Almost as though they are drugged or something?” I asked them.

  “Who cares as long as we get them off the ship?” Erik shouted at me from the deck.

  “I don’t know. What if it’s a trap? What if there’s something worse? Bigger?” I couldn’t stop thinking this was too easy.

  “Get rid of the ur’gels in the hull netting or I’ll show you a trap.” Arun shouted at me as he slightly adjusted course, glaring over the wheel of the ship. Sighing I ducked back down to the hull, the ur’gels staring at me.

  “I was hoping you wouldn�
��t figure it out, heir.” A voice came from behind me. I rolled my eyes and turned.

  “Am not. For the last time.”

  “We shall see. I have no need to stay and watch the fight, you will come to me. I hope you enjoy the fight. There are plenty more of these.” I watched as she disappeared again, and heard the growling start behind me, the ur’gels waking from their trances.

  Spinning, Stiarna lunged at the one nearest her, while I cleaved the one nearest me, his head flying to the trees below, blood splattering his neighbor. We dodged and weaved as the ship rose slightly. Each body that flew from above, dead and alive, had wings torn so they couldn’t catch flight, helping the ship gain slightly more air.

  I could hear Erik and Estrid calling to one another, though not what they were saying as bodies hit the deck, shrieking as they were thrown into the sky with no way to save themselves. A small, tight smile graced my lips as I slashed and hacked at the ur’gels here, Stiarna crunching on their heads, wings, anything she could get her beak or claws on.

  Taunting them, I tried to get as many as I could to chase us around the ship, flying low through the deck so Erik could hit them with his shield, or Estrid could slash their wings if they wouldn’t go low. If they wouldn’t chase us, I just slashed their wings.

  Stiarna squawked in joy every time she tore into another ur’gel, racing faster before floating slowly to taunt them, my unease at flying forgotten for the time being.

  Finally, almost all the ur’gels were either dead or trying to escape the netting on the hull, and tangling themselves more as they squirmed, making themselves easy to pick off, before tearing the corpses out of the net and dropping them like weighted stones to the surface below.

  An ur’gel sans head fell from above nearly missing Stiarna and me just as we veered right around the rudder. Its head followed, knocking out the ur’gel closest to us. In shock, that one plunged to the ground. More black blood sprayed around us as another part of an ur’gel fell from above.

  I’d have to remember to thank my siblings for the flying ur’gel parts later.

  One of the smaller, but faster ur’gels flew next to us. His sharp claws grabbed at Stiarna’s wing, tipping us sideways. My grip loosened as Stiarna dove below the boat, the ur’gel giving chase.

  Falling to my death was not what I had planned for the day. We needed to get out of the air sooner not later. But no, Arun insisted we go higher.

  Stiarna leveled us back up next to the hull nets just as the ur’gel crashed into us from behind. My already loosened fingers lost purchase and I tipped backwards off of Stiarna.

  Grabbing on to the last rung of the net I hefted myself up with my ax in hand. The butt of my ax rammed into the forehead of an approaching ur’gel as the blade sliced through its guts, leaving just two ur’gels for us to finish off.

  In horror, a thin ur’gel began to crawl through a hole in the Duchess. Its wings buzzed and legs stuck out like a bee squirming its way into a hive. Throwing my ax, I sliced through his wings as a howl left the ur’gel. Thankfully, my ax plunged itself into the side of the boat, we did not have time for an added mission of finding my loss ax. The ur’gel slid out of the hole and fell to his death below.

  One left.

  My eyes went to where I had last seen the ur’gel. It was gone.

  “Frida.” Estrid called from above as her head poked over the rail.

  My eyes glanced up taking in my blood coated sister, sword in hand. A wide smile spread across her face. “We got them all” she called down.

  “One more,” I muttered to myself. Of course, they’d finished off their batch before me.

  “Stiarna,” I called as I pulled my ax out of the side of the boat, scattering splintered wood around me. I needed to get into the air and find this ur’gel.

  A loud bang behind me had me twisting around just as the last ur’gel went to plunge his sharp claw through my back.

  Stiarna ripped it from the net, tore a huge gash in its wing, and the last ur’gel fell. Beside us, the ship finally began to rise.

  The deck was painted black with ur’gel blood, but everything else seemed “simply cosmetic” as Arun would say. They would be back, and stronger in number, but one thing was sure…

  I was so over flying.

  Chapter 24

  The veil parted around us, the white moisture from the clouds rolling around the masts and off the deck like smoke. The sun had nearly gone down now, but we weren’t met with darkness. Instead, the blue light of Gleet shone on a luminous city of green gardens and glass towers. The winding streets of the plateau were lit with the familiar yellow light of yooperlite stones. Arun had told me the elves used them, but I had never imagined anything quite like this.

  It wasn’t just what was on the plateau that caught my attention, but also what was around it. Dozens of airships like the Iron Duchess hovered around the island, some docked at what I guessed were air docks, while others floated lazily just offshore, their decks lit with yooperlite and revealing elven crews.

  In comparison to the serenity of Lamruil, we were like a blazetaur crashing the party, with our skeleton crew and a band of angry and determined ur’gels on our tail. I could feel eyes on us and knew the moment the ur’gels burst through the veil as well before I even turned around, based on the reaction of elves on other ships. They grabbed their weapons and rushed to their positions, ready to beat a quick retreat.

  Arun was digging around in a box beneath the wheel and came out with a red bit of cloth that he handed to Erik. “Run this up the mainmast. Quick.”

  “What is it?” I asked.

  “A distress flag.”

  On cue, an ur’gel landed in Erik’s path and jerked the red flag from his hand, tossing it aside. Erik drew up short, surprised, and the ur’gel got in a lucky strike, its nails slicing three cuts in the front of Erik’s shirt. I moved forward but Estrid was already there, reaching over Erik’s shoulder and plunging a sword into the ur’gel’s forehead.

  “You’re bleeding,” she said to Erik.

  Erik looked down at himself. “Mere scratches.” And then he dropped to his knees and toppled over.

  Estrid and I knelt beside him. There were three long gashes in his shirt. She pulled the shirt away, ripping it and revealing deep, jagged wounds beneath. Three of them, one of them flashing white bone beneath. I pressed a hand to my mouth.

  “The flag,” Estrid said.

  I nodded and stood, recovering the flag, and running it up the rope on the mainmast. It was a clear call to action. As soon as it was up, other ships began to move toward us instead of away. Captains shouted inaudible orders at their crews. Men could be seen running back and forth, pulling on ropes, and releasing sails, turning their airships in our direction.

  Estrid was pressing strips of torn shirt to Erik’s wounds. I longed for Aria, who would have been able to stitch his skin back together. Even for Beru or Ravyn, who would help us fight these monsters.

  “Go,” Estrid said. “Help Arun.”

  I was hesitant to leave Erik but saw what Estrid meant. Another ship was drawing up alongside the Duchess, and Arun was trying to keep her steady while fighting off an ur’gel who was hovering over his head. As I ran toward him, I threw my ax and sent the ur’gel tumbling to the deck.

  It landed on its feet, though, and more were coming. Stiarna swiped one out of the sky and pressed its throat between the sharp points of her beak. Estrid stood over Erik’s body and fended off two more who were playing with her, lunging one at a time and circling. Still others surged over the railing and shimmied down the masts. They couldn’t defeat us in battle, so it seemed their strategy would be just to wear us down.

  I slid to a stop, retrieved my ax from where it had fallen, and spun, swinging it in a wide arc at the nearest ur’gel. It grazed his chest from shoulder to shoulder, but the cut was superficial. I was panting. The ur’gel lunged but I was slow to react, sluggish and exhausted for no reason. It threw me across the deck and I crashed into anot
her body. Arms wrapped around my waist and kept me upright. I turned around to see a man in a three-corner hat looking up at me. His ears were tapered to points like Arun’s, marking him as a High Elf. He had a long sword at one hip, and a galestone pistol at the other.

  “It’s the air up here,” he said in a rough, unfamiliar voice.

  “What?”

  “The air is thinner. You’re used to the pressure below the veil. If you haven’t lived up here your whole life, it will affect your performance drastically.”

  That explained the sluggishness and the fact that the ur’gel had gotten a hit in. It was a monster designed for battle, I was not. I was a D’ahvol, true, but still not a monster, despite what some people thought.

  Beyond the man’s shoulder, I saw a ship and sailors swinging across from it to ours, landing and joining the growing battle on our decks. Other sailors lined the ship’s railing and loosed arrows into the ur’gels who were hovering around the Duchess. There was another ship on our other side doing the same. The man who’d been talking to me tipped his hat, then raised his sword and gave a deep yell before diving into the fray.

  I surveyed the fight, looking for somewhere to jump in. Arun looked like he was having a blast, but Estrid was still alone, defending Erik who had pushed himself to a sitting position against the railing and was swinging a sword at anything that came to near. Crossing to them, I nodded at Estrid and took my position at her back. I’d seen her and Erik fight like this countless times, and now it was my turn.

  It felt nice to have someone behind me. It left me free to focus all my attention on the ur’gels coming at me and Erik from the front. Two of them came at me at once and I pushed them back easily, taking a few steps away from Erik as I did.

  Estrid reached back and grabbed me. “What are you doing?” she snapped. “Never leave your partner unguarded.” Her tone was sharp and unforgiving. Mean. Like it had been whenever Savarah was around.

  I felt it too. The urge to snap back at her. To turn my ax on her. Instead of doing either of those things, I looked around and saw elf turning on elf, fighting over trivial things, like who had stepped on whose toes. I watched one pair arguing over whose turn it was to kill an ur’gel when that very ur’gel drove its claws through their chests, lifting them off the deck and tossing them overboard.