Rysha lashed out and felt the popping of a magical barrier, but she couldn’t quite reach that eye. Then the dragon’s neck whipped toward her, and its maw opened wide, flames licking past its spear-like fangs.
Rysha almost shrieked in terror as those fangs lunged at her, and she realized she was the dragon’s target. But she clamped her mouth shut, gritted her teeth, and jumped up as the jaws snapped at her. She drove her sword upward, the blade glancing off a front fang and sinking into the top of the dragon’s mouth.
The gold jerked his head back, yanking the sword from her grip but not before pulling her from Shulina Arya’s back.
This time, Rysha couldn’t tamp down her alarmed cry. She tumbled through the sky as the male dragon shrieked, the noise battering her brain as well as her ears. Pain pulsed through her as she fell, but she twisted, trying to making sure her feet would hit the water first, though she feared she was so high that it wouldn’t matter. The landing could break every bone in her body—or kill her.
She hit something far sooner than expected. The envelope of the Iskandian airship. It gave a little, and she bounced off. She glimpsed a fiery inferno on the deck of the pirate airship as she flew upward and then started dropping again, this time to the side of the freighter. She spotted the ocean, hundreds of feet below, as she picked up speed, plummeting like a boulder.
Then some invisible power grasped her, slowing her descent. She stopped altogether, hovering and looking up at the bottoms of the two airships. They were both smoking now, dark gray clouds hazing the air all around the battle.
Something huge fell past Rysha, startling her. A gold dragon. For a sickening second, she thought it was Shulina Arya. But it was the male, falling limply toward the ocean below.
I have you, Storyteller, Shulina Arya announced, flying into view, but I was not able to extract your magic-hating sword, I regret.
Extract? Rysha stared down as the male hit the water with enough force that he instantly plunged below the surface. She groaned as she realized Dorfindral must still be thrust into the roof of his mouth.
We will get it back. Shulina Arya sailed under Rysha, and they were reunited, dragon and rider.
Rysha was glad, but she also grimaced, realizing she had nothing to contribute to the battle until they could retrieve the chapaharii blade. She tried not to think about what would happen if the ocean was far, far deeper here than the Lagresh harbor had been.
Your officer has engaged the sorceress, Azarwrath said.
Good.
Trip was glad he didn’t have to speak out loud, since he was panting with pain. He’d been shot in the arm, and agony blazed from the wound. He made himself continue to manipulate the flight stick, taking them back around so he could help Grady.
The colonel was down on the pirate ship’s deck, battling a sorceress and someone with a chapaharii bow, neither of which Trip had sensed. The aura of the gold dragon glowing so brightly dulled everything nearby. Besides, he admitted with chagrin, he hadn’t expected mages and chapaharii weapons out in the middle of the ocean with pirates, so he hadn’t thought to look for more than the dragon.
Nor did I, Azarwrath confessed. Get us closer. I can finish off the sorceress. She is running from your colonel while the pirates get in the way—they are protecting her.
Trip accelerated into a dive, the smoky deck of the enemy airship coming into view again. He saw Grady, whirling and slashing, deflecting bullets fired at him and cutting down pirates. He was a deadly force, but Azarwrath was right. The sorceress had run behind a lifeboat mounted near the railing.
Can we destroy this foul vessel? Bhrava Saruth asked, flying past on the opposite side of the airship and peering at the deck. I can burn more than its little balloon.
Not yet, Trip told him. We have a man aboard it.
Trip focused on the sorceress as she used her power to bring down a support beam that was over Grady’s head. Trip shifted his attention to hurl it out of the way, though Grady must have heard it snap, because he sprang to the side before it would have struck. He glanced in Trip’s direction and lifted a hand.
The sorceress also glanced in Trip’s direction as he flew closer, her expression far less friendly.
Azarwrath sent lightning streaking toward her. Trip sensed her putting all her energy into her defenses. He squinted at her and imagined those defenses being ripped away. They fell instantly, and the lightning slammed into her, wrapping all around her and charring her flesh. She screamed and tumbled away from the lifeboat, slamming into the railing. Azarwrath hurled a blast of wind. The railing broke, and she fell over the side.
Trip winced, always more disturbed by killing human beings than dragons. He reminded himself that these people had been attacking an Iskandian freighter.
His flier’s momentum had carried him past the pirate vessel, and he banked to come back in again. The crew ought to be ready to give up with their sorceress dead, but the man with the chapaharii bow might still be firing arrows. Earlier, one of those arrows had popped Trip’s barrier right before a barrage of rifle fire came at him. He’d weaved and tilted his wings crazily, but the confines of the ship had limited his maneuverability, and that first bullet had taken him by surprise.
“The Iskandian airship is falling faster,” Ahn said. “A lot faster.”
Trip shifted his focus to it, hoping he had the power to levitate it or at least slow its fall enough that it wouldn’t be destroyed when it landed in the water. Unfortunately, he had never attempted to affect something so large.
He’d barely started trying when he sensed someone else using power on it. The airship halted a few dozen yards above the ocean, its crew members on their knees, bracing for impact. They lifted their heads in surprise.
Ah, finally I have done some good, Bhrava Saruth announced. Shulina Arya was hogging the battle with the male.
It’s not my fault you were so slow to attack, Shulina Arya said.
I could have attacked with great speed, but I did not wish my assaults to strike you as well as the male. You were so close to him that you could have licked his tail.
I bit his tail.
Trip looked around for Shulina Arya, wanting to see Rysha, to make sure she had come through unscathed. That archer had added an unexpected element.
She is fine, Azarwrath said. Only you were shot.
That’s good then.
It would have been better if you hadn’t been shot. Telryn, I know you are accustomed to shooting things with this flying contraption, but as a sorcerer, there is no need to get so close.
I’ll keep that in mind.
Trip spotted the bronze dragon in the distance. Telmandaroo had stayed out of the way, never engaging. That was fine. Trip was happy he hadn’t worked with the pirates against his team.
But where was Shulina Arya?
Look down, Azarwrath advised.
A dead gold dragon floated on the waves not far from where the Iskandian airship hovered. Shulina Arya was flying in circles around it.
“What’s going on down there?” Trip asked curiously.