by James Somers
Cables began to pop and fall away from the assembly of balloons which kept the ships aloft. This particular ship had all but stopped its bombing by now as they tried desperately to keep from losing the one thing keeping them aloft. No sooner did the crew run one way than they abruptly shifted directions. Gideon could not see the intruder.
Lines to the balloon rigging continued to fall away despite the hybrid crew's best efforts at stopping whomever was doing this to them. The Man-o-war floundered in midair as one whole assembly gave way. The balloons went up and fell apart completely as the cloth let go of its trapped hot air and its form. The sail cloth drifted peacefully down to the fires raging in buildings below.
The stern dropped, putting the ship vertical in the air near the Temple. The other section of balloon supports barely managed to hold, then snapped altogether. The Man-o-war plunged down into the streets of Evelah shattering like a bottle upon impact. Levi and the priests flying high above whooped for the small victory. "It had to be the boy," Levi said to himself. "He can't have all the fun!"
Levi angled his glider down and made a pass over one of the Man-o-wars still bombing the city. He was going too fast and soon overshot the balloon assembly. He realized getting from his glider to the ships would be far more difficult than he'd first expected. There were no landing platforms of any kind on a Man-o-war and Kline's description of how men landed these gliders assumed one would have a lot of room.
He passed beyond the first ship he'd strafed and gained a bit of altitude before coming upon another. There was only one way to do this, Levi surmised. He would have to drop off of the glider and hope to catch a hold of the rigging nets keeping the balloons fastened to the ship.
Levi made his approach. At the last moment he remembered the way he'd seen gulls land with their great wings pulled up and back in order to catch the wind and use it as a brake. As he passed over the balloon assembly, Levi pulled back on the wing-frame as hard as he could. The cloth caught the wind and made an abrupt climb before stalling altogether.
Now almost completely vertical in the air over the airship, Levi felt the sensation of falling. He and the glider dropped like a stone to the rigging nets. He crashed with the glider and started to tumble backward as the impassive breeze grabbed the wing-frame and tried to jerk it away. Levi worked frantically to disentangle himself from the glider.
The billowing cloth and netting beneath him began to fall away again as the wind lifted him skyward. He drew his cutlass and slashed the harness straps. With the final cut, he came loose and gravity took over again. Levi fell backward hoping he was still over the ship.
He landed on the billowing balloon, bounced once, then raked across the surface on a downward slide over the side. Levi clawed furiously at the netting passing fast under his fingers until at last he caught hold, stopping his descent. His feet dangled in the air. He had nearly fallen away completely. As it was, Levi had only managed to get a grip on the side of the balloon.
The glider tore away, out of control, tumbled and then fell toward the streets below. By now he had certainly been noticed by some of the other ships, if not the crew on this one. Levi took stock of himself and his weapons. He still had two cutlasses and two braces with five pistols apiece. He looked skyward and saw the other two gliders circling. Soon they would either attempt a landing, as he had on this ship, or go to another.
Levi looked down toward the deck. It was still partly obscured from him by the swelling balloon. That hopefully meant he was likewise obscured from the crew below. He sheathed his sword and started the trek downward. This part he was fully familiar with having spent his entire life at sea running the sail rigs like a happy spider since the time he could walk.
He paused halfway down and tried to use his cutlass to cut through one of the ropes. The braid parted as his blade sliced through. Then he stopped. Beneath the braided rope lay a sturdy metal cable. "Blast," he muttered. There was no way he could get through it. There had to be another way.
The more Levi thought on it, the more he realized his original plan had been foolish all along. If they had managed to sever the lines to the balloons, they would have gone down with the ship-a suicide mission. He remembered the few hybrids he had seen scurrying in pursuit on the ship which had already fallen from the sky. "Surely I can take down that many," he supposed. Then he smiled, put away his sword and started toward the deck again.
He scaled down the lines cleanly enough, but as soon as he hit the deck, one of the hybrids dropping grenades on the citizens below spotted him. "Hey! What are you doing?"
Levi crossed his arms across his chest as he ran toward the soldiers lined at the railing where they were dropping bombs over the side. He whipped out two pistols, one in each hand, and fired. He shot the first hybrid right between the eyes. As the creature fell, Levi ran past, firing the second pistol at the next in line. Like shooting fish in a barrel, he thought. Could they make this any easier lining up on the rail like that?
As the next creature went down, Levi dropped the first pistol and reached for another. He continued hand over hand, firing, dropping, firing, reaching for the next pistol until he had killed ten with ten shots. But there were still two left on deck.
He reached for another pistol as a wolfish hybrid launched toward him with a huge battle axe in hand. As the beast raised the weapon above its head, Levi realized his braces were empty of pistols. He pulled one of his cutlasses just in time to attempt a deflection.
Levi pressed his hand against the back of the blade and raised it as the battle axe came crashing down. His sword shattered under the impact and the axe came down toward Levi's head. He fell backward against the rail as the blade bit deep into the wood next to his face. The creature freed the axe and raised it again for the deathblow.
Levi drove the shattered end of his sword deep into the hybrid's belly. The beast lurched back and fell to the deck, trying to remove the fractured sword from its middle. Levi snatched up the axe and laid into the beast like splitting firewood, ending it quickly.
Only one remained. He heard heavy footsteps approaching and whirled around to find a broadsword driving toward his chest. He didn't have time to react. Only a last thought of how close he'd come to taking the ship. The hybrid shouted its war cry and lunged.
Inches from Levi's chest, the sword and its owner were thrown sideways. The hybrid tumbled across the deck as a bewildered Levi watched. Ethan appeared on top of the creature's shoulders as it tried to get back to its feet in shock. He drove his blade down and let the beast fall to the deck beneath him.
Levi smiled, elated. "Glad you finally made it, lad!" He heard noise behind him and turned to find both Kline and Devon rounding the base of the balloon assembly with arrows nocked to their bows. They stopped and looked at one another, when they saw Ethan and Levi standing there on the deck smiling among all of the dead soldiers.
"Better late than never," Levi called, laughing. "Don't worry there's plenty of work still to do!"
RETRIBUTION
Their efforts so far had taken out two Man-o-wars from Mordred's airship armada. Twenty eight of them remained, flying over Evelah dropping bombs as they went. There were now too many plumes of smoke rising into the sky from the city to be counted. These flying ships had to be stopped before they reduced the city to rubble beneath them.
Levi, never happier than behind the wheel of a ship, had formulated a plan quickly. The other ships seemed to still be unaware that this Man-o-war was now working for the other side. "Let's see how you like a taste of your own medicine," Levi said and pushed the lever forward that would cause the fans to rotate faster.
Ethan and Levi had run a quick inspection as they searched for supplies needed for the captain's plan. They had found the stern of the ship modified so that horses yoked to a large treadmill of sorts churned out the power feeding to the fans on the sides of the ship, propelling it forward. "Horsepower," Levi said surprised. "What will they think of next?"
A system of gears a
llowed more of the power coming from the steady pace of the animals to actually generate fan power, or less if that was desired. Levi cranked it up all the way and the ship lurched forward beneath them. "Takes a while to get your air legs," Ethan said as he stumbled next to the Captain.
"Aye, but isn't it grand?" Levi said. Captain Bonifast, clearly pleased with his new command, was ready for action. As they came upon the stern of the first target, Levi began issuing orders. "Ethan, get to the starboard cannons."
Ethan shifted to the ethereal plane and arrived at the first of twelve cannons in the starboard lineup. They hadn't been any use to the hybrids on the city below them, but up here where they were on the same level as their enemy, they would do very nicely.
The Man-o-war ahead of them had been cruising along at a steady clip until the hybrid soldiers onboard spotted the airship coming up fast at their rear. Ethan watched as they attempted an evasive maneuver, probably fearing the captain of this vessel had simply lost control for some reason.
Levi came up fast on the Man-o-war and then spun the wheel sharply to port bearing their starboard guns on the enemy's stern. "Fire, Ethan!" Bonifast yelled at the top of his lungs.
The cannons had already been primed and loaded. All they needed was a man to ignite them. Ethan pulled the ignition cord on the first as the enemy ship passed before him. The flint fell and ignited the powder within. The first cannonball rocketed away.
It plowed, not into the stern exactly, but into the helm. The soldier who had been manning it ceased to exist as the iron ball smashed through the wheel and the fan assembly-all blasted to splinters in a moment. Ethan realm shifted down the line of cannons, igniting each with lightning speed and precision, doing the work of an entire gunnery crew in seconds.
The stern of the enemy Man-o-war disintegrated under the brutal barrage of cannon fire. Powder stores somewhere below deck exploded. Bonifast's ship was thrown away by the blast just as another Man-o-war came into the fray.
The new enemy attacker fired several of its portside cannons. One of the balls flew over the deck while another sailed into Bonifast's starboard side. Ethan leaned over the deck rail in order to inspect the damage. He turned back to Levi still cackling behind the wheel. "Ah, I love this ship!" he exclaimed. "That blast would have sunk us in the water!"
Levi pulled the control cord which connected to the coal stove vents currently supplying varying amounts of hot air to the balloons above them. The vents opened further, causing the ship to rise dramatically. The enemy ship fired again, but too late to catch them as Bonifast ascended higher into the sky.
He called to the other priests, Kline and Devon, as they stood at the rail with arrows dipped in pitch and aflame. "Light em' up, boys!"
As the enemy ship passed beneath them, Kline and Devon let fly their flaming arrows. They streaked black smoke down to the billowing, ballooned sail cloth. As soon as the arrows struck, the pitch ignited the fabric, now dry from all of the hot air pumped into it. The fire spread across the top quickly on both sides of the balloon rigging.
In moments, the air bags holding them aloft had burned wide open. The ship dropped out of the sky like a stone. It shattered in pieces inside one of the King's famous prayer parks-places built for contemplation of Shaddai's word. Fortunately, no one was currently using them. The citizens of Evelah were still busy running for their lives from the aerial onslaught.
"Let's get after them, boys!" Levi shouted. He opened up the horsepower to the fans and took the high road hoping to strafe as many of the Man-o-wars as possible before they knew what was happening. Clearly the flames were their weakness and Levi intended to exploit that advantage as long as he could.
Ethan joined Kline and Devon at the rails. They ran back and forth from port to starboard, firing flaming arrows, their tips dipped into the black pitch and then lit from the coal stoves burning beneath the ships balloons. The attack proved more successful than they might have anticipated.
Most of the Man-o-wars had been too busy to even notice the other ships going down. And their own bombs falling to the city below kept up so much racket they hadn't even noticed the cannon fire. Now their ignorance had come back to bite them. Most of the crews didn't even realize what had happened to them. One minute they were the kings of the sky, bombing innocent civilians below and pocking the landscape for years to come, the next moment their own hot air balloons were bursting into flame above them. They dropped like dead birds to the waiting city below.
The majority of the Man-o-wars went down rather easily given Levi's better plan of attack. Still, there were a few which managed to put up a good fight. By the time the last of the airships had fallen, Levi's new ship was pocked full of cannonball holes. She never would have lasted in the open water. When Levi finally brought the ship down for a landing, in the main courtyard at King Stephen's palace, pieces were still falling off of the hull.
The great Man-o-war airship landed with a groaning smack against the pavement stones. Ethan watched as the King's guard gathered around the ship as it rocked back and forth, wobbling on the keel. Despite the modifications Mordred's people had made in the design, it still appeared to be meant for a water landing.
Levi threw over a rope ladder lashed to the rail and shimmied down quickly, ignoring the presence of the soldiers for the more urgent matter at hand. "You men, there, go and get something to brace the ship. Quickly! Don't stand there gawking at me! Go before the balloons deflate and allow her to roll onto her side!"
The soldiers, looking quite confused, broke up to go and do as he'd bidden them. The majority of the soldiers remained, however. King Stephen was among them, watching Levi. He approached the Captain, but Ethan noticed that the man didn't have the same demeanor about him as before.
Stephen actually smiled as he came upon Levi, still in action trying to get the ship properly settled. Ethan passed through the spiritual plane, appearing next to Levi while Kline and Devon climbed over the side as the Captain had done.
Ethan wondered if his presence with Levi might change the King's expression, but though Stephen looked thoughtful when he saw him, he continued to smile. "Captain Bonifast, once again you prove to me that your loyalties are as solid as ever," Stephen said.
He shook Levi's hand vigorously. "I couldn't have done it without Ethan, Your Majesty," Levi said, indicating him with a pointed finger resting on the boy's chest.
King Stephen looked at Ethan, even bowing his head slightly. "Yes, of course. My apologies, young man. I realize now that my earlier fears were far too hasty on your behalf."
Ethan wasn't quite sure how to take the drastic change in the king, but was glad for it nonetheless. "Not a problem, Your Majesty," Ethan said. "I only hope our efforts were enough."
"Aye, I saw a massive dust cloud to the north as the attack began," Levi said. "Despite this victory, I fear we've only seen a glimpse of what awaits us when Mordred arrives."
"And it can't be far off now," Ethan said. "Those Man-o-wars have given Mordred's army time if nothing else."
The king nodded solemnly. "Well, I suppose all we can do now is do our best and hope for the same. Come with me gentlemen and we'll go over our planned defense."
Levi and Ethan, with Kline and Devon strode after King Stephen and his entourage heading inside the palace. For the most part, the palace remained in good order. The Man-o-wars had hardly made it so far into the city before the counter attack had begun. The city of Evelah smoldered as buildings continued to burn and lives lay broken in the streets. And the worst was still yet to come.
SEIGE
Gideon rode his horse as hard as the animal would go, trying to remain ahead of Mordred's army on the way to Evelah. He had diverted from the main road almost a mile away so that he could round the wall through the bordering forest and come into the city through The Order's secret tunnel. Coming back into the city, he couldn't believe the damage he found.
Before him, in the street, lay one of the huge Man-o-war battleships he had witnes
sed rising out of the Azure Sea earlier in the day. The massive balloons which had been rigged from their sail cloth appeared to have been burned away somehow.
As Gideon scanned the city before him, he saw multiple fires with plumes of gray smoke rising into the approaching twilight. He could see more airships in similar states of destruction lying throughout the area where he was. Some had landed in the streets, while others had fallen upon houses and other buildings in Evelah, collapsing them under their weight.
He wasn't sure how, but King Stephen had evidently been ready with some plan when the strange ships arrived. The only activity he could spot at the moment was families trying to search the rubble for loved ones and the wounded crying in the street.
The army would begin their assault upon the wall in less than an hour. He had to find some way to fight without being recognized. Gideon realized he was still wearing the armor of Wayland's King. Now all he needed was a helmet to match, then no one would know who he was. As night began to fall, he went through the debris filled streets in search of a fallen soldier from whom he might borrow a piece of anonymity.
After a briefing by King Stephen and his War Master, Ethan and Levi found themselves marching to the wall. This would be the inevitable first line of defense for the city. Every man able to wield a weapon had been conscripted into action. What remained of Evelah would have to fight for their lives tonight.
There was a full moon shining down brightly upon the city. Evelah still smoldered behind them all the way to the palace's outer perimeter. In the event the wall was breached, the King would be escorted back to the palace by his special guard comprised of the priests in The Order here in Wayland. Now, they stood upon the wall, ready to fight along with the King himself.