Scherlic caught a puff of smoke through his seeing glass, far away on the other side of the huge fleet: Deniz had made contact with the enemy. Scherlic saw the heart of the armada still moving inexorably forward, and marking an enemy flagship by its cluster of gold and red flags, Scherlic called out a series of runes, singing constantly as he sent the Infinity surging ahead.
The eight Buchalanti ships sailed forward together, and unlike the Veldrin and enemy ships, their weapons didn’t point from their sides in long rows. A ship faced forward, so its weaponry should face the same way.
The three storm riders led the pack like hounds on a scent, with the blue cruisers guarding the flanks and the dreadnoughts lagging behind. Two mortars jutted from the front of the storm riders, whereas each blue cruiser carried four of the Louan devices. The dreadnoughts’ weaponry was of an altogether different nature.
Scherlic glanced at the bladesinger standing on the deck, with one hand on the mast and the other shading his eyes. Scherlic knew the man’s goal: to find which ship or ships contained the enemy’s essence and to do all he could to sink it. Scherlic had been searching, but so far he hadn’t seen any sign of a vessel being especially protected.
Scherlic returned his attention to his course. The point of a wedge, the Infinity struck directly into the armada’s core.
Realizing the threat from the deeper sea, the enemy vessels came around, rotating slowly to bring their cannon to bear. Clouds of smoke rose from the enemy warships and cruisers, the smoke seen a split second before Scherlic heard the thunderous roar that followed.
The cannons’ range was greater than the mortars, and Scherlic’s voice rose as he called on the runes built into the very fabric of his ship. The deck lit up and the Infinity came alive from planks to sails in a splash of vibrant color. A series of balls smashed into the storm rider’s side. Scherlic winced as he felt his beloved ship tremble beneath his feet.
Sparks followed each strike, but the lore held, and the heavy balls didn’t penetrate the Infinity’s enhanced superstructure.
Scherlic now led the Buchalanti vessels deep into the armada’s soft belly. Each of these enemy vessels stole wind from the other, but the lore built into the Infinity and her sister ships meant they could sail with impunity through the clusters. Scherlic’s voice rose as he used every bit of his skill to keep his ship moving, to turn away from the broadsides and navigate around the smaller ships.
He set his eyes on a warship directly ahead; he was chasing this ship’s stern and would easily catch up to the slower vessel.
Scherlic’s weapon master lined up the twin mortars and fired a salvo of orbs.
The glowing spheres sailed through the air. One struck the warship on the outside, just below the waterline; another landed in the mass of grotesque revenants. Taking sight as he fired, the weapon master launched more orbs at the rigging.
The enemy ship burst apart with a series of detonations as the prismatic orbs exploded. Clouds of flame flung up splinters of wood and pieces of bodies. In seconds the vessel sank below the waves.
Scherlic’s crew didn’t cheer, but set their sights on the next enemy ship. Risking a glance around him, Scherlic saw more warships destroyed in the hail of prismatic orbs from the storm riders and blue cruisers.
Scherlic’s breath came ragged, but he chanted through the roar of blood in his ears, fear coursing through his body as his weapon master fired a salvo at an enemy cruiser. The sailmaster called on every rune carved into his ship’s hull to ward off the growing frequency of cannon fire. Another enemy warship exploded, and then Scherlic nearly cried out as he saw the storm rider on his right flank break up under a direct volley of leaden balls.
A blue cruiser came up to fill the gap, and yet another enemy warship went down, but Scherlic could see the blue cruiser’s runes had faded on half the decking. The lore was failing.
Scherlic looked for the Veldrin fleet but couldn’t see Deniz or his naval force. Then he forgot all about Deniz when he saw one of the biggest enemy warships he’d yet seen emerge from behind a screen of smaller vessels. Most of the enemy ships were painted in the garish hues the Veldrins seemed to prefer, but this ship was painted with black pitch. A small golden flag indicated it was a flagship. High on the mast a second flag displayed a black withered tree on a field of white.
Scherlic signaled and one of his men bellowed, “Brace yourselves! Ramming speed!”
Forgetting about the formation, Scherlic pointed the Infinity’s prow at the black warship. Below the waterline, the storm rider’s steel ram carved the sea, ready to plunge into the vulnerable planking of its enemy. Scherlic chanted the runes in quick succession, singing with all his strength, feeling his wondrous ship alive beneath him in the way a Hazaran rider must feel his mount.
Scherlic would strike from an angle so the enemy couldn’t broadside him. The black ship was doomed.