“See?” Jonas said, his own relief bringing a smile to his face and lightening the color in his eyes. “You’re all right.”
“How about now?” Myra asked.
Jonas smiled and nodded. He took his arm off of Twist’s back, holding his hand instead. Myra rushed closer to Twist, pulling him into an embrace that washed his Sight in a strange mixture of worry and relief. Twist closed his eyes, letting his Sight relax on its own. The subtle calm from Jonas held him stable long enough for Myra’s worry to ebb away. He heard Jonas speaking quietly with Skye but couldn’t be bothered to follow their words.
“Oh, you poor dear…” Myra murmured, her voice close to his ear.
“It was just a dream,” Twist said. “A very strange dream…but nothing more.”
Myra pulled back to look at his face. “You’re ever so brave,” she said sadly.
“I’m fine, really,” Twist said instantly, wishing she were more easily fooled.
Jonas turned to Twist. “All right if I let go?”
Though it was the last thing he wanted, Twist nodded to him. When Jonas took his fog away, Twist’s mind darkened and chilled, but he did his best not to let the others see. Jonas stood and walked away with Skye, leaving him alone with Myra.
“Are you sure you’re feeling better now?” Myra asked him, peering at his face.
Twist put on the best smile he could muster. “I’m sorry if I frightened you, my dear,” he said, pushing calm strength into his voice. “But I’m quite all right now.”
Myra smiled in return and nodded, reaching up to stroke his face. Twist breathed a silent sigh of relief to feel her concern vanish. Jonas and Skye hurried closer to them with an urgent air. Myra moved back, standing beside Twist now.
“This morning is just rolling right along,” Jonas said with a sigh. “Aden is almost here.”
“We should get ready for fight or flight,” Skye added, buttoning her red waistcoat over a sleeveless, pale-purple, shirtlike dress that fell past her hips and over her brown trousers. Twist recognized the garment as something that he’d seen Myra wear under one of her saris. Skye then slipped on Myra’s short, white, frill-edged jacket, constructing a look that seemed surprisingly feminine on her.
“I thought we agreed that Twist and I weren’t going to fight?” Jonas asked, pulling his jacket on as well. Twist found his own black jacket lying over the foot of his bed and stood to put it on. He was quietly thankful that his movements had lost their jerkiness. His mind was feeling much clearer as well.
“Well, whatever,” Skye said with a sigh. “Have you got a weapon?”
“Sorry, love,” Jonas said, shaking his head. “I’m armed only with my dashing good looks.”
Skye looked to Twist. “How about you? You’re not an insufferably cocky bastard.”
While Jonas mocked his offense, Twist picked up his walking stick from where it was, leaning against the wall with the rest of his luggage. “I’ve this.”
“Great,” Skye sighed darkly. She looked to Myra hopefully. “You don’t happen to have a little guarder-gun on you, do you?”
“Sorry,” Myra said, shaking her head with a smile. “Nothing like that.”
“Well then, we’re just going to have to improvise,” Skye said, looking to the watch that hung around her neck. “They’ll be rising out of that cloud bank any minute now.”
Twist leaned absently on his walking stick and took a moment to consider his near future. Once again, things were utterly beyond his control, and the air was charged with danger. He smiled slightly, noting the familiarity of the feeling. The prospect of spending long, peaceful days gazing on the heavens and mending clockwork now seemed lusciously sweet. Even surrounded by dragons, with no real certainty of being granted his freedom or even his life once the task was done, he would have liked to stay just to enjoy the momentary calm.
Though they had been warned not to leave the room, the walls of the building were made of transparent crystal, and Twist and his companions could see the plaza outside clearly if they pressed their faces close enough. Skye told them that Aden’s armada would be rising out of the billowing sea of clouds that ringed the mountaintop at any moment, and she continued to mutter occasionally to her watch as they waited.
“Sir, what was that?” Skye asked suddenly, her voice edged with fear. Twist looked to her as she held the murmuring watch up to her ear to hear it better. Skye’s face washed over with alarm. “Shiva?” she breathed.
“What?” Jonas asked, frowning.
Before Skye could answer him, the sound of a thunderous explosion drew everyone’s attention back to the plaza outside. Twist turned just in time to see a cannonball fly up out of the puffy white clouds and arch up over the plaza and out of sight without touching ground. An instant later, a shining black battleship broke the clouds and streaked into the sunlight. Its body reminded Twist of a heavy and powerful man-of-war—those old sailing ships that once dominated trading in the Pacific Ocean with a cluster of pearl-like white balloons where the ship’s sails should have been. The gaping mouths of easily forty cannons filled the whole of the hull on the side Twist could see, while massive silver propellers spun feverishly along the length of the keel.
Twist could only marvel at the savage beauty of the airship’s design for a moment before a handful of smaller crafts shot out of the clouds in hasty pursuit. The smaller flying devices—only ten feet across at most—had a curious shape of three or four independently spinning silver rings that orbited a central chariot in which a man appeared to be seated. As Twist struggled to imagine how such a device could manage to float above the ground, let alone fly about as quick and decisive as a hummingbird, he was startled to see the little ships unleash a rain of small-artillery fire on the giant airship.
The men aboard the exposed deck of the airship returned fire with rifles and smaller cannons, which the whizzing little crafts evaded brilliantly. Another thundering crack of cannon fire, from the clouds below, smashed into the stern of the airship with a terrific explosion of flame. The airship spun to one side, still flying but obviously badly damaged. Skye let out a shriek of horror, while the others only watched in stunned amazement. Outside, dragons had crowded out into the plaza to watch the battle with clear surprise and confusion.
While the airship crew attempted to right the limping ship and pick off the smaller attackers, a new disturbance broke the clouds. A mass the size of the plaza outside rose slowly from the now-ravaged clouds, glinting silver in the sunlight. This new ship resembled the smaller ones. Two huge silver rings spun smoothly around the whole circumference of the spherical ship, crossing each other in the front and held in place by thin arms that stood out from the central structure. The silver sphere that filled the center of the ship was covered in balcony-like platforms that each seemed to bear a cannon or gunman. Seated just above the cross of the rings was the extended mouth of the largest cannon Twist had ever seen.
The black airship, now hovering over the center of the plaza below and turning parallel with the huge silver ship, released a salvo that burst like a wave of fire and smoke at the larger ship. To Twist’s considerable surprise, the spherical ship moved suddenly to one side, slipping out of the way of the salvo with no perceivable effort at all. The cannon fire fell harmlessly into the clouds. The spherical ship continued to hover in place as it turned its central cannon toward the black airship with menacing slowness.
The door into the guest house opened suddenly, and Samay, in his long, glistening, emerald dragon form, rushed inside. “Did you call the Rooks here?” he demanded of Twist and his companions.
Skye turned to look at him, but her horror at the display outside was clearly deafening her to his question. She held a hand over her mouth and appeared about to cry.
“There’s more of them!” Jonas said, drawing everyone’s attention back outside.
Twist gasped as he saw a fleet of maybe fifty other black airships rise out of the clouds farther away, rushing to the aid of their fe
llow. The closest ones let out blasts of fire at the large spherical ship. The silver ball darted out of the way of most of the shots, but a few reached their mark with explosive effect. Still flying, the spherical ship darted away again and turned its massive central cannon on the coming fleet. A few of the fleet’s missed shots rained down on the gold-and-crystal complex with terrible crashes and clouds of sparkling debris. The dragons bellowed in startled fright or rage, and some of them took to the skies.
Samay took Skye’s waist in one silver talon, holding her face close to the tip of his pointed snout. “Can you speak with them still?” he demanded of her.
“Get off her!” Jonas growled, rushing for them.
Before he could reach them or Skye could answer, a blast of orange light rushed over Skye’s shoulder and threw Samay back onto the floor. The cloud solidified into Kali: her massive claws pinned Samay’s snakelike neck to the floor while she roared into his face. Outside, another volley of cannon fire, accompanied by more sounds of destruction, drowned out her voice.
Samay got over his surprise very quickly. A burst of blue flame erupted from his jagged mouth and struck Kali full in the face. The force of the fireball tossed the tiger to the other side of the room. Samay’s cobra-like form rose as the fire died, his alligator face painted thickly with rage and his spindly arms holding his claws aloft. Jonas and Skye both fell into fight-ready postures, while Myra stared in abject horror at the scene before her. Twist’s mind snapped into a furious speed, showing him how horribly the next few moments could end.
“Stop!” he bellowed, rushing to place himself between Samay and his friends. When the dragon’s gaze and all of his glowing anger fell onto Twist, panic tingled brilliantly on his skin. “Please, stop, all of you,” he said, forcing his feet to remain planted where they were. His voice wavered in his fright, but it didn’t fail him. “You still need us, and I won’t work for you if you hurt anyone in this room!” he declared with all the conviction he could muster.
Samay remained where he was, still glowering down at Twist, and let his claws fall to his slender sides. Jonas and Skye relaxed their posture but remained clearly alert, as Kali—apparently a bit dazed but unharmed—returned to stand at Skye’s side and stare at Twist in obvious concern. Still in shock, Myra watched Twist from the side of the room. As more sounds of battle filled the silence after his words, Twist struggled to come up with anything else to say. Everyone was now looking to him. He had to say something. He had to be brilliant. He had to end this battle before anyone got hurt. His threat would only hold for moments, and he knew it.
“Erm…” he muttered uselessly.
What could he possibly say to protect himself and his friends? He could guess that one of the forces outside was the Rooks, but had no idea who the others were. He had no idea what he was doing, no idea what was happening around him, no power, and no control over anything but his own words. In desperation, he glanced back at Jonas.
Jonas looked back at him with rich violet-blue eyes full of curiosity, hidden amusement, and no help at all. Something about the color or the disturbing idea that Jonas wasn’t concerned whisked Twist’s scrambling thoughts back to the chaotic game of chess that they had played just days before. At a total loss of any other inspiration, Twist turned back to the dragon standing up like a snake before him.
“Who is attacking us?” he asked sharply.
“Rooks,” the dragon said back with disgust. “You know that. One of you—” he began, glowering at Skye once again.
“Who else?” Twist asked, demanding the beast’s attention.
“Cyphers,” the dragon said dismissively. “But they were invited. The Rooks didn’t even know we were here.”
“Shit…” Skye hissed to herself.
“It was you!” Samay growled.
“Call off your friends, and we will call off ours,” Twist said, stepping into the dragon’s path as he began to move toward Skye. Samay paused and frowned down at Twist. “Hurry, man!” Twist snapped at him. “That’s your palace getting blown to bits out there! Tell them to stop firing before they hit the astrolabe!”
Fright flashed across the dragon’s face, and he turned without another word, rushing for the door. Startled by his own success, Twist needed a moment to remember his own words. He then spun around to Skye.
“Wow, that…worked?” Skye asked with a smile.
“Call them off!” Twist said hurriedly, rushing closer to her.
“Well, now—” she began, holding up a hand to still him.
“Do it now, or these monsters will eat us whole!” Twist shouted at her. “I only said that to get him to stop trying to kill you, but he’ll be back with plenty of his brothers if you don’t do what I said you would!”
“Damn it,” Skye grumbled, reaching for her watch. She turned away to look through the crystal walls as she spoke quickly into it.
Myra rushed to Twist with a brilliant smile. “You saved us!” she said, and wrapped him in a hug. “You’re so very daring and clever.” Her pride warmed him through, momentarily erasing his fright and confusion.
“Thank you, dear,” he said, gently pulling himself out of her embrace as he felt his tumbling emotions—half her joy and half his own confusion—threaten to overwhelm him. Not seeming to mind, Myra continued to smile fondly at him.
Jonas let out his anxiety with a noisy exhale. “Nicely done, Twist,” he said softly, looking to him in amazement. “You just saved us all. I knew you could do it.” Something in his tone stuck in Twist’s ear. Jonas had been far too calm throughout this entire encounter.
Twist gasped when understanding struck him suddenly. “You saw this in a vision! When we were playing chess, your eyes went purple, and you flinched! You knew this was going to happen!” Myra turned to Jonas in alarm.
“Quiet…” Jonas whispered, moving closer to him. “Yes, all right, I did. But I didn’t know it would be today, I didn’t know who Samay was until I saw him, and I didn’t know what was going on. I just saw you stop a big green lizard from attacking us. Now shut up about it,” he muttered urgently.
The sounds of the battle outside ceased suddenly. In the ringing silence and unexpected revelation, Twist had to struggle to keep himself from falling into a faint.
Once the battle had been put on hold, Aden and a handful of the captains from the other black airships disembarked to speak with the dragons in the open plaza. Many of the dragons hurried off to tend to their damaged palace, leaving Everest and Draig to meet with the Rooks. Once he found that the astrolabe hadn’t been damaged in the battle, Samay returned to escort Twist and his companions to the meeting as well.
“Why didn’t you say anything about your vision before?” Twist whispered to Jonas as they walked together.
“It doesn’t matter,” Jonas muttered back.
“But you could have warned us—”
“It wouldn’t have done any good,” Jonas snapped, cutting him off.
“But—”
“All I saw was you saving us,” Jonas snapped again. “I knew we’d be all right. And besides, I can’t change the things I see. Ever. There’s no point in saying anything. Now leave it alone, will you?”
Twist gave a sigh and shook his head. The tension in his neck was only building the more he tried to press Jonas. He reached up to rub at the sensation. “All right, all right…”
They all stopped in front of the fountain of lava, under the shade of the black airship fleet. The two huge dragons, Everest and Draig, stood on their massive talons to one side, one glistening white even in the shade, and the other pure red. Aden and a few of his Rooks stood to the other side, dressed in blue-and-black uniforms and armed with holstered pistols and belts of small magical bombs, and there were rifles resting on a few shoulders. Standing clearly at the front of the group—and more lightly armed than some of the others—Aden greeted Twist and his companions with a cordial nod.
“Sir,” Skye said, nodding back. Aden gave her a smile as he nodded to h
er.
“Is that one important to our work?” the white dragon asked Draig, pointing at Skye.
“Not that I know of,” Draig responded with a shrug of his red-scaled shoulders.
Everest glanced coldly down at Skye with his fully white eyes, as if she were nothing more than a pestering insect, easily swatted. She glared back at the monster, undaunted.
“Shall we begin, gentlemen?” Aden asked the dragons pleasantly.
“We are not men, gentle or otherwise,” Everest snapped at him.
“We’re waiting for the others,” Draig said, turning his long neck to look toward the huge silver ship that hung in the sky, just above the ground outside the open gates of the plaza.
When Twist followed the dragon’s gaze, he saw a small group of men in hooded, sand-colored cloaks approaching through the gate. Myra gasped and ducked back behind Twist, her fright tingling on his skin as she huddled herself down behind his shoulder. Jonas shifted himself closer to Twist, helping to hide her from the approaching Cyphers. Twist did his best to keep his alarm off of his face as he readied himself to fight at a moment’s notice. Draig’s angular features seemed to take on a curious look as he noticed Myra’s reaction, but he said nothing.
The man leading the group of Cyphers wore his hood back to reveal the brilliant blue color of his skin to the sunlight. His black hair appeared to be amazingly long as it hung in thin braids that looped around his neck and fell nearly to his waist, over his bare—but blue—chest. The only clothing that he wore, besides the sand-colored cloak, was a pair of golden britches and golden sandals on his bare, blue feet.
“Is he a djinn?” Twist asked Jonas in a whisper.
“No,” Skye answered, startling Twist. When he turned to her, he found a sneer on her face as she watched the Cyphers approach. “He’s just a man, but he wants people to think he’s a god.”
“So he paints himself blue?” Jonas muttered. “That’s got to be bad for one’s skin.”
“Besides that, he’ll surely catch a cold, dressed in such a ridiculous manner,” Twist added.
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