Two Necromancers, a Dwarf Kingdom, and a Sky City

by L. G. Estrella

  The other ninja rats immediately got to work. They jumped off his back to hack and stab at the griffin. Its powerful magic protected it from the worst of their attacks, but their wire was able to tangle its wings. It squawked in fury, and Spot spewed fire. The griffin lunged forward and locked its talons around his jaws. With his mouth forced shut, Spot’s blast backfired painfully. Spot gave an angry rumble and summoned his mantle of black fire. The ninja rats leapt clear to avoid the corrosive flame – his control wasn’t as good as his mother’s yet – and the griffin shrieked and reeled back. Spot drove his shoulder into the griffin’s chest and then arched his back as he raked his claws upward. Light sparked across its feathers as its magic fought to ward off the blow. However, his smaller size was an advantage this close, and he clung onto the griffin as he landed blow after blow after blow. An explosive thudded into the griffin’s side – one of the rats must have brought it – and the griffin’s magic shattered. Spot locked his jaws around the griffin’s throat. It gave a cry of fear and rage, and its talons raked across his scales. Spot sawed his teeth back and forth as blood poured down his face. Pain shot through him as desperation filled the griffin with new strength. It tore a gash along his side and another across his back, but Spot refused to let go. Finally, the griffin went limp. He tore its throat out and then let it fall as he searched for the ninja rats. A wave of relief swept through him. They were gliding nearby.

  Spot shifted his mantle of flames from black to white to heal his injuries and then swooped and collected the ninja rats before passing a roc rider to grab the one who’d fallen first. They squeaked in thanks, and Spot noticed the roc riders rallying around him. Apparently, the griffin knight he’d killed had been a leader of some kind. He bared his teeth and roared. He was a dragon! These skies were his! His silver gaze swept over the battlefield, as the fire in his blood burned hotter. There were still plenty of griffin knights around, which meant there were still plenty of enemies for him to kill!

  * * *

  Katie looked over the side of the city and fought the urge to scream. Was this how Gerald felt all the time? If it was, then no wonder he needed to carry a paper bag and a bucket everywhere. This wasn’t like the other missions they’d been on. They were horribly, hopelessly outnumbered, and help wouldn’t be coming for at least a couple of hours based on what Gerald had told her. There was a fleet of ships down there – an entire fleet – shooting at them. The only reason they weren’t already dead was because the city’s barrier was still at least partially active and because the fleet had somehow managed to anger the gigantic cosmic fungus.

  The titanic creature had waded into battle – it was so massive it towered over the fleet despite standing in the ocean – but it was clearly weaker here than in its home dimension because it was wilting under the fleet’s firepower whereas it had managed to withstand similar assaults from the Sky City. The air in front of it shimmered as it stopped time to halt salvos from several dreadnoughts, but there were so many ships firing at it from so many different angles at different times that it probably would have been better off hitting them with a shockwave of stopped time and then trying to kill as many of them as it could. Even weakened, however, its sheer size gave it a powerful advantage. It seized a trio of ships with its tentacles and crushed them before hurling the remains at the other vessels. She could almost have cheered except she knew it would turn its attention back to the Sky City once it had dealt with the fleet. On the upside, it couldn’t fly like the smaller ones had been able to, or it was too weak and damaged to fly. Her brows furrowed as time resumed. That was quicker than it should have been, and her gaze drifted to the massive sections of burnt flesh across its body. The smaller ones hadn’t really had any vital organs to aim at, but maybe this one was different. Then again, it could just be that it was weaker outside of its home dimension.

  As the ships continued to blaze away at the colossal monster – one of the dreadnoughts ventured too close and was promptly smashed to pieces by a gigantic claw – Katie considered her options. Her master was working frantically to help reactivate the star crystal. If they could get it working again, they’d be able to retreat and use their weapons. Above her, she could see Spot and the roc riders fighting to hold the griffin knights at bay. Avraniel had finally managed to get into the air too, courtesy of a roc rider, and the elf was busy burning anything she could hit. From what she could sense from the zombies scattered throughout the city, Amanda and Old Man were helping King Barin repel the first wave of boarders. A large drake could easily carry upward of twenty men, and there were probably teams of mages present who could help transport more troops. They might even have opened a stable gateway of some kind because there were more imperial soldiers arriving by the minute.

  She closed her eyes for a moment. She needed to focus. Worrying about everything wouldn’t do any good. She needed to focus on one thing at a time. It was like her master always said. Every big problem could be solved by breaking it into smaller problems that could be solved one at a time.

  “Come on, Gerald.” Katie summoned her shadows and formed them into wings. “We need to destroy as many of those ships as we can.” In front of her, the massive eldritch horror reeled as broadsides from a quartet of dreadnoughts severed one of its tentacles and pummelled its cylindrical body. A strange, sap-like substance gushed out of is wounds and all but sank a nearby galleon.

  “How?” Gerald asked. The bureaucrat clutched at her arm as the rats on his shoulders squeaked words of encouragement and comfort. On her shoulder, Rembrandt was a reassuring presence as he relayed reports from the other rats. More than five hundred imperial troops had appeared in the centre of the city, but King Barin had covered himself in metal and was moving to engage them with Amanda, Old Man, some of his brother’s golems, and plenty of dwarves.

  Katie grimaced as she thought about Gerald’s question. If she could land on a dreadnought, she could probably do a decent amount of damage or hinder its crew. But landing on a dreadnought was easier said than done. Dreadnoughts were protected by magic, and if she landed, she’d be well within reach of the crew. It would be nice to use some of their more exotic zombies, but they were needed to fight off the griffin knights and the boarders. She wished she’d brought Roger, but he was back home. She hadn’t thought they’d need him since they would be fighting goblins in the mountains. But even Roger would have struggled here because there was an entire fleet that was already alert and spoiling for a fight. However, there was one thing she could try. After all, her master had always said that there was no problem too big for a rock to solve – as long as you could find a big enough rock.

  “Gerald, how many boulders do you have stored away with your magic?”

  “Um… a lot? I must have at least a hundred, maybe more.”

  Katie stared. Setting aside his ability to store that much stuff, which was unbelievable, there was something she wanted to know. “Why do you even have that many boulders?”

  “Timmy asked me to store them in case he ever needed them for anything. I mean a boulder isn’t as big as a tower, but your master does have earth magic. He can throw them at…” He trailed off, and his eyes widened. “Oh!”

  “Yes.” Katie smirked. “Oh.” She wrapped her shadows around Gerald and took to the air. “We’re going to let gravity do the work, Gerald, because nothing beats gravity and a large rock.”

  Gerald remembered what had happened to Black Scales. “Does a tower count as a large rock?”

  * * *

  Captain Farrow was a proud imperial sailor, just like his father and his father before him. He had fought for the Eternal Empire for the better part of thirty years, and he had served with distinction in each campaign he had participated in. Most recently, he had helped the empire clean up some loose ends when their privateers – scum, albeit useful scum – had been drawn into a trap and exterminated. Admittedly, a handful had escaped, but that wasn’t his fault. He had performed well. Others had not. Like many of the other
captains here, he had been summoned to the naval base to help lead a great offensive against first the Shimmering Isles and then Everton’s outlying islands. By leapfrogging from one location to the next, they could conserve their strength and make transporting supplies, troops, and equipment easier. Instead of having to sail all the way across the ocean to attack Everton’s mainland – and arriving to any battle exhausted – they’d be able to attack it at their leisure from a much closer position.

  When a city had appeared in the sky above them, he had been caught completely off guard. However, everyone knew the legend of Skygarde, the Sky City. If the Sky City had somehow returned, then it could not be allowed to retreat to Everton or the dwarves. It had to be seized and its secrets unlocked for the good of the empire. Even if couldn’t be replicated, having the only flying city in the world would be an incredible advantage. Merely thinking of the possibilities it offered was invigorating. But if they were unable to capture it, then their next best option would be to bring it down and destroy it to deny their enemies access to its power.

  Of course, things had not been that simple. The city had not arrived alone. It had been accompanied by a gigantic fungus monster with a cylindrical body and plenty of tentacles and other limbs. Perhaps the enemy had summoned it to aid them. Not long after they had begun to attack the Sky City, a stray shot had struck the monster, and it had turned its attention to them. Thankfully, despite its truly incredible size, it was already wounded. It was also able to stop time – which had boggled his mind – but it could only do so for a few seconds. Once they’d killed it, the empire’s mages would definitely be interested in studying it. If they could copy that ability to stop time, they would have a potent weapon to use in the coming war.

  With a fleet comprised of thirty dreadnoughts and their escorts, he was confident that it was only a matter of time before the creature fell. Indeed, most of the fleet had continued to focus on the Sky City. Its weapons were inactive for some reason, so it was best to destroy them now before they could retaliate. Unfortunately, only the most powerful ships could reach the Sky City. Due to how high it was floating above the ocean and the barrier that flickered intermittently around it, the fleet’s smaller ships were unable to hit it.

  However, the battle was clearly going in their favour. The barrier around the city was weakening with each passing moment, and there was clearly damage to the areas that helped the city stay aloft. If they could land a few more good hits to those, the city would fall. Moreover, their griffin knights and other forces had already begun their attack. If they were lucky, they’d be able to seize the city that way. True, there were dwarf roc riders and a little dragon – which made no sense since dragons never helped anybody – but the griffin knights were amongst the elite. They would eventually win, and once the aerial battle had been won, they could focus on helping their infantry take the city.

  Yes, this was shaping up to be a good day for the empire. Hopefully, he’d be able to get a promotion out of it. His father had never been able to make it to the position of admiral, but Farrow was still young enough that it was a possibility. Besides, Admiral Farrow sounded so much better than Captain Farrow. He was still smiling at the thought of a promotion or two when he noticed an odd sound.

  “What is that sound?” he asked a nearby sailor. “You hear it too, right?”

  The sailor nodded. “Aye, captain. It sounds like whistling –”

  BOOM.

  The dreadnought’s barrier flared brightly as the ship’s mages scrambled to layer additional protection over it. They both looked up to see what had caused the problem. Farrow’s jaw dropped. It was a massive boulder. It had fallen out of the sky and struck the barrier with enough force to almost crack it. Large chunks of rock split off the boulder and rolled off the shield around the ship.

  “What in the world?” Farrow muttered. “A boulder?” He looked up at the Sky City. The dwarves had tried to hit them with boulders from catapults, but the griffin knights had managed to destroy most of the catapults while the fleet moved into a safe position. “We should be well out of range – ah!”

  A second boulder followed and then a third. The ship’s defences managed to ward off the second boulder. The third boulder, which hit in practically the same place, was another story. It smashed through the barrier and continued its rapid descent, ploughing right through the deck. Timber splintered and metal tore before it finally came to a rest about halfway through the ship. Farrow breathed a sigh of relief. The hull hadn’t been breached. They were damaged, sure, but they were still afloat.

  “All mages on defence!” he shouted. “Someone find out where those boulders are coming from. It can’t be from the Sky City, we should be out of range, and the angle is wrong. Contact one of the griffin knights. See if they can have a look –”

  CRACK.

  Another boulder dropped onto the ship, less than three yards from the previous one. Unlike its predecessor, however, the barrier hadn’t been there to slow it down, and it was hitting an already damaged part of the vessel. It ripped right through the ship before tearing a hole through the hull as it plummeted through the bottom of the ship.

  “Oh… crap.”

  * * *

  Katie watched as the dreadnought began to list badly to one side. Its crew leapt off the stricken vessel and swam for other ships as the once mighty ship filled with water. Her master really was right. As long as she could find a big enough rock – and somewhere to drop it from – she could solve any problem. She’d thought he was being silly, but it was hard to argue with results. The barriers and other defences around dreadnoughts were not as formidable as those around fortresses, and they were typically designed to focus more on magical attacks since rocks and other projectiles could usually be intercepted by the ship’s mages or weaponry. But boulders dropped from a mile up were much faster and harder to spot, especially with the morning sun in their eyes.

  Way up here, she and Gerald were also relatively safe. The dreadnoughts would be hard-pressed to reach them, and the cosmic fungus seemed more interested in wiping out the fleet than in going after her and Gerald. Still, it was only a matter of time before someone noticed them. When that happened, they’d have to run for it. Katie was good in the air, but she wasn’t stupid enough to think she could take on a griffin knight in an aerial duel. She and Gerald would simply have to do as much as they could while they had the chance.

  “Keep going,” she urged Gerald. She had a good hold on him with her shadows. “Just keep dropping boulders. If you miss, don’t worry. You’ve got plenty more. A good hit or two can easily sink a ship.”

  Gerald nodded grimly. It was probably for the best that he couldn’t hear the sailors screaming in terror as their ship sank. “Right.” He summoned another boulder. It appeared beside them and plummeted to strike a galleon. The impact almost cracked the ship in half, and it sank in a matter of moments. He stared. “I just sank a ship. Me. A ship.”

  “If you feel guilty,” Katie said. “Blame gravity. All you’re doing is letting go of a boulder. It’s gravity that makes it dangerous.”

  “I’m not sure that makes sense,” Gerald said. “But I guess it does make me feel a little better.” He pointed. “Maybe we should go that way a bit? There are some dreadnoughts clumped together. It should make it harder to miss.”

  Sadly, they were only able to account for another four dreadnoughts before they were spotted. Katie took one look at the group of griffin knights headed their way and immediately decided to flee. As good in the air as she’d gotten, griffins were one of the few creatures that could give dragons a run for their money in the sky. She was not going to outmanoeuvre or outrun them in a fair contest. She’d need as big a head start as she could get. Despite her best efforts, it wasn’t long before they were in trouble. Blasts of magic hurtled past them – some fire even got close enough to singe her hair – along with crossbow bolts and even a net. She would have started screaming, but she didn’t want to panic Gerald. To make ma
tters worse, carrying Gerald was slowing her down and making her a bigger target. She wasn’t going to abandon him, but they wouldn’t last much longer at this rate.

  “Go faster!” Gerald wailed. His frantic squirming was not helping at all. “Katie, you have to go faster! They’re gaining on us, and the griffin at the front looks mad and hungry!”

  “I know!” Katie hissed. She spotted a group of roc riders and waved frantically. “Help! Hey! Help!”

  The roc riders must have noticed her because they shifted to put themselves on a collision course with the griffin knights behind her. One of the dwarves raised his spear, and Katie may have screamed even louder than Gerald as the griffin knights and roc riders turned the air around them into a maelstrom of magic. The roc riders raced past, and she heard – and felt – the impact as the two groups ran into each other. One especially crazy dwarf even waited until the magic of the griffin knight he was fighting had dwindled before he leapt off his roc with his axe held high above his head. He brought the weapon down on the griffin knight with a sickening crunch before the griffin bucked and sent him plummeting toward the ocean, only for his roc to catch him at the last second.

  Unfortunately, for the roc riders, they were brave but badly outnumbered. One roc went down, its belly torn open, tumbling end over end toward the water as its rider cursed furiously. Another was suddenly surrounded by a trio of griffins, and it didn’t last much longer after that. A third roc was trying and failing to shake off a pair of griffins in hot pursuit when one of its pursuers was engulfed in black flame. The animal’s magic warded off the brunt of the attack, but it was less fortunate against the black-scaled meteor that struck before it could restore its defences.