No, I couldn’t think about that right now. I passed the flask back to Taka. “Take some.”
“More medicine?” Taka said.
“It’s not medicine, it’s secicao. It will keep you safe, I promise.”
“I trust you,” Taka said, and he took a swig from his flask. Faso also had his golden flask tipped to his mouth. He wiped his lips and then he bent down towards the spigot at Velos’ side.
Meanwhile, I turned Velos sharply towards the airships. On the way around, he let out a sharp spray of orange flame, with a faint tint of green in it, which doused the approaching swarm of Hummingbirds. Several of them sputtered and then spiralled to the ground. But it wasn’t enough to stop them surrounding us. I expected to get shot down there and then. But the things just barrelled in front of us and then formed a protective wall. A few knocked against Velos’ body and he let out a huge, bellowing roar.
“They don’t want to shoot us?” I said.
“They probably want to try taking us alive,” Faso said, “so they can later photograph our execution for the magazines.”
I felt a surge of anger rise up in me. Wasn’t killing Sukina enough?
From behind us, came another boom. A cannonball whizzed past us. Somehow, I knew they didn’t want to knock us out of the sky. Just scare us into landing. The chance of hitting a fast flying target like Velos with cannonball fire was pretty slim, anyway, even when automatons were doing the shooting.
Meanwhile, the Hummingbirds charged forward once again. Velos’ armour began to glow a faint green and the Gatling cannons whirred into life. They weren’t as strong as before, but still had enough punch in them to knock a Hummingbird out of the way before it hit me in the face.
“I thought you said the armour’s reserves were depleted?” I shouted back to Faso.
“The armour has a smaller emergency tank.”
“Good call!”
We were approaching the airships now. On one of the ones nearer to us, a blue-suited officer came on deck. He raised a megaphone to the sky. “Pontopa Wells, you are surrounded and outnumbered. I order you to land on the carrier if you value your life.”
“You’d kill us anyway,” I shouted back, even though I doubted they could hear me over the gunfire.
I took Velos down beneath the airships and then I circled around, and we tried skimming the surface of the water. We’d be a much harder target down here and Velos could create splashes with his feet that might confuse a few Hummingbirds.
“This is your last warning, Pontopa Wells. We will order the Hummingbirds to fire if you don’t surrender in five seconds.”
The Gatling guns continued to knock Hummingbirds out of the sky. But they had begun to slow a little, running out of energy and there was no way that they could destroy the approaching swarm behind us.
“Four…”
A carrier had separated itself from the main fleet and was gaining speed in our direction. All I had to do was wave my surrender and then land Velos on the shining silver platform ahead.
“Three…”
No, we’d stay close to the water. Velos sweeping up spray with his claws. In front of us, another swarm of Hummingbirds rose up from a carrier. Dragonheats, there seemed to be no end to them. The Gatling guns on Velos’ flank sputtered to a stop.
“Two…”
As if out of nowhere, Sukina’s voice sounded in my head. It had no comprehensible words behind it, but I could hear the harmony of a dragonsong. Then came a tingling sensation in my temples. Dragons, grey ones nearby. A good few hundred of them, at least.
Instinctively, I reached out and started a song to pull them in.
“One…”
The Greys latched on to my call. I could hear them approaching. The Gatling guns dropped slack on Velos’ side and the warmth from the armour started to fade. Some Hummingbirds pushed ahead of Velos from behind, but Velos hit them out of the sky with his flame. The other swarm swooped down at us, and the massive hull of the landing carrier came into view.
“Okay, time’s up, Miss Wells.”
Static came from the megaphone and the propellers from the airships roared into life. A shot came from the rifles, and I ducked out of the way of a bullet, seen through my augmented eyes. The second cloud of Hummingbirds closed in on us.
I swerved Velos to hug the side of the carrier and then we swept around the back of it. As we turned, I glimpsed Greys in the distance. They swept down on one of the carriers, knocking out a third swarm of Hummingbirds that had just emerged. Shrapnel-flak cannons roared around us and my heart lurched in my chest as I felt a dragon get shot out of the sky.
I swerved again to hug the other side of the massive boat. This would confuse the Hummingbirds. Some of them would barrel into the ship, others would have to climb over it, but it would take time for them to adjust their course. I let out another song to try and get the Greys to fly towards me.
But then as I looked over my shoulder, I could see the wall of shrapnel-flak and guns on the side of the ships would make it impossible for them to get through, without getting shot out of the sky. I sang another song to tell them to keep their distance. I looked over my shoulder again and noticed that Cini’s boats had started to turn away from me.
Another round of rifle fire. Velos roared and I screamed out and clutched at my arm as pain shot through it. It wasn’t me that had been shot. I looked down to see a hole in Velos’ wing. “Come on Velos,” I said. “You can make it.”
“They’ve got us,” Faso shouted. “Pontopa, we need to surrender.”
“They’ll kill us!”
“Maybe they’ll give us enough time to work out a plan.”
“No, we can make it,” I said. I looked around at Taka his eyes wide, his hands trembling where he gripped the handle in front of her seat, the whites of his knuckles showing. But he kept a brave face. “I can help, Auntie. I know a song.” I looked into his eyes and I saw the same kind of resolve that I would have seen on Sukina’s face.
I nodded. “Whatever you want, darling.”
He let out a melancholy harmony which both softened my heart and strengthened my resolve. I felt Velos gain some strength too, as he’d been weakening since getting clipped.
The airships ahead were gaining distance now. Soon, they’d be on top of us, and I thought maybe we could hide under their gondolas for a while. But there were some fat looking turrets on some of the cabins, with red eyes that would latch on to Velos and shoot him down in an instant.
We reached the next of corner of the carrier’s hull, and I turned Velos just in time to evade some Hummingbirds. The airships had their rifles cocked and ready, but they didn’t fire yet. Probably, they didn’t want to damage the front of the boat, perhaps there was fuel in there or something.
“You can’t keep this up forever, Miss Wells,” the voice boomed out again from the airship. “Surrender is your only chance.”
There was no point even trying to reply. We turned the corner again, and this time I kept watch with my augmented eyes for when the rifles would fire. But just as I saw the finger tighten on one guard’s trigger. A klaxon sounded, and a guard ran up onto the officer airship’s deck to point in the direction of the battle behind.
I looked in the same direction to see a silver line forming on the horizon, beneath the shrapnel-flak and below the Greys. Reinforcements had arrived. Sandao’s fleet, I presumed. The guards lowered their rifles, causing a temporary respite in fire. This didn’t stop the Hummingbirds approaching though. Another swarm of them buzzed towards us.
“Got it!” Faso shouted, as he fiddled with the control panel at the back of the armour. “There’s a secondary reserve.”
“What?”
“I’ll explain later… We have around a minute.”
Beneath me, Velos’ armour began to glow green again. The Gatling guns came back to life. They latched on to their targets and Hummingbirds began to fall out of the sky. The Hummingbirds fired shots back, one of which I had to duck out of
the way of, another that hit the armour. If it wasn’t for the armour, that shot would have gone straight through Velos’ heart. But instead it just deflected off into the water.
One by one, the number of Hummingbirds in the swarm dwindled. I managed to turn Velos around enough to meet them straight on. It seemed we didn’t have to worry about fire from the airships anymore. The airborne fleet had begun to separate again into two flanks, heading towards the navy. Now, instead of having the rifles trained on me, they had them trained on the horizon.
“It’s time to join the battle,” I shouted, and we ploughed forwards. Behind me, Taka kept singing her song. I could feel Velos’ pain, though he didn’t even groan. Still, I have no idea how he managed to carry on with that clipped wing. Perhaps it was the armour’s reserve tank and the secicao within it that kept him able to fly.
I wanted again to pull in the dragons, but the wall of shrapnel-flak still separated me and Sandao’s fleet. Another cloud of Hummingbirds emerged from one of the carriers, but this time it wasn’t sent off in my direction but towards the battle ahead. I kept Velos flying towards the fleet.
“Pontopa, you’re crazy!” Faso shouted. “We’ll never get through that shrapnel-flak.”
Yet I knew there was no turning back now. We would push forwards and we would make it. We’d return to Gerhaun and give Sukina a proper funeral. Although, I hadn’t quite yet worked out how.
But still, I knew this would be the right way.
So, I gritted my teeth and pushed down on Velos’ steering fin to get him closer to the water. We were going in.
31
We were losing. Though we had dragons and we had bigger guns, Gerhaun’s naval technology was a little outdated and, as I drew closer to King Cini’s boats, both Faso and I noticed the green pipes running through the hulls.
“My technology!” Faso said.
“I know,” I shouted back. He didn’t have to state it for what must have been the thousandth time. Cini was using secicao to power his automatons and now his boats, it seemed. And this technology would be here to stay.
Only a couple of ships on Cini’s side were sinking, their hulls now tipping below the water. But in the distance, I could see smoke and fires on hulls, swarms of Hummingbirds descending on naked steel superstructures.
Then there were the Greys. I could feel their pain. What must have been a good several hundred of Gerhaun’s best now had been reduced by half. Each lost life tugged on my heart as I felt it sink beneath the water. Could we really win this battle? Could we really defeat a much larger foe?
“You can, Pontopa,” Sukina’s voice came in my mind. “Your strength is within.” Again, it must have been a figment of my imagination. My own head telling me this, nothing else.
“What’s the use,” I said back, just like I was talking to her in the collective unconscious. I considered the inviting Hummingbird carrier again. To land on it would be easy. Then all this would be over.
The boat in question was getting closer to us. Funnily enough, that thing hadn’t sent out any Hummingbirds. Maybe it needed extra space for Velos – huge beast that he was. Or maybe it was saving a bigger weapon for a last resort. I shuddered as images flashed passed my mind of what that could be.
Behind me, four airships were also closing in on us. The rest of the airships were now some distance between us and the distant fleet.
I felt drained, and I wanted to collapse. So, I raised my hip flask to my lips to take another mouthful. But the secicao had almost gone, so I only got about half of what I’d usually get.
I steered Velos back towards the enemy fleet. In the distance, a smaller cloud of Hummingbirds disengaged from an emerging swarm, the larger cluster swerving off towards a small cluster of Greys. I could also feel Velos running out of energy. The secicao in his armour had virtually ran out.
“There’s not much left in him!” Faso shouted. “Dragonheats, Pontopa, you need to turn around.” He had stood up in his seat now and Ratter was perched upon his shoulder, its red eyes glaring at me. A Hummingbird approached us, and Ratter shot it out of the sky using the cannon in his throat.
Velos doused the rest of the approaching swarm in an orange flame. One by one, they sputtered and fell to the water before they had chance to release a shot. Velos still had something in him after all.
But then my heart lurched as I felt five more Greys fall out of the sky. I let out a song to try and at least give the rest of the flock some heart. But my singing was so meek that I doubt it fell upon a single dragon’s ear. Taka seemed to catch on and he also began to echo the song. The dragons on the other side of the barrage turned around to start to form into a larger group.
“Safety in numbers,” I said back to Taka.
He simply nodded then he pointed over to the larger carrier, the one we were meant to land on. “Auntie Pontopa, look!”
Out of one of the funnels of the ship emerged what must have been thousands of Hummingbirds. These weren’t the standard bronze variety. Instead, they were tinted green. As they approached, an olive coloured cloud began to surround them.
“My technology, again!” Faso said. “What happened to patent law? Dragonheats, we’re screwed.”
“Pontopa Wells,” the voice filled the air again. The officer’s airship had drawn ahead of the other three ships and the blue suited officer stood on deck, once again with the megaphone to his mouth. “As you can see, the battle is lost. I’ll give you three seconds to turn Velos around or our new technology will cut you out of the sky.”
I felt a pull then, a need to draw towards those Hummingbirds. They had something I wanted…
“Pontopa, resist it,” Sukina, again inside my mind. “This isn’t you.”
But there was something in that swarm. The Hummingbirds had now lined up in a lattice formation, and a larger black Hummingbird was floating in the centre of this. Instead of a gun, it held a large transparent flask in its arm, and I could see what was in the centre of that flask. Exalmpora. Drawing me towards it.
“I must have it,” I said back to that voice in the collective unconscious. “Alsie took Francoiso and Sukina away from me… I’ll hunt her down and I’ll kill her.”
“Pontopa, don’t let it take control.”
“Auntie… Auntie!” Taka was screaming. Perhaps he hadn’t seen the Exalmpora. No, he knew it was there. But he had more power to resist. As Francoiso said, children had more control over these things.
“That’s it,” said the officer over the loudspeaker. The secicao-powered Hummingbirds charged forwards.
“What do I do?” I asked that voice in my head. Could it really be Sukina?
“You know what to do…”
“But…”
“Just do it…”
I looked back at Taka. His eyes were wide, his hands clutched on the bar in front of him. But still, he had this knowing look. “Auntie, you do your part, and I’ll do mine.”
“What?”
“Mamo’s here. I heard her voice. She’s with us, Auntie.”
“Taka?”
“Just sing!”
For a split second, I was stunned by Taka’s brashness. But then I swallowed down my pride and I snapped into life. I turned towards the Greys in the distance and I sang a dragonsong. This one wasn’t to heal, not to give courage, not even to give strength, but to protect against what Taka was about to do. Somehow, the plan had already formulated in both our minds.
The song I let out created a shroud that I threw out towards the dragons in the distance. I saved a little for Velos as well, and it seeped out of me like two tendrils into his ears. He roared, deafened by my song. Then my hearing went too. We needed to do this if we were to survive.
Despite the shrapnel-flak raging around me and the cannons booming not far away now, I managed to become strangely calm. I kept my distance from my fear as well. Taka looked into my eyes, knowingly and then his mouth opened wide.
Neither me nor the dragons heard the sound he let out. But the Humm
ingbirds did. The first of them had just come close enough to fire upon us. I grimaced for a moment, expecting to be knocked off my perch.
But Taka’s mouth remained open and the Hummingbirds carried on in the same direction. One knocked hard against my shoulder, causing me to yelp out in pain. That same Hummingbird lost its momentum and fell into the water.
The rest continued into the wall of shrapnel-flak and buried themselves there. Then a green explosion erupted from the black cloud and the secicao-powered Hummingbirds were no more.
I don’t know where the knowledge of my song had come from. These things often just came to me at the heat of the moment. But I made a mental note that if we could second-guess Alsie then we could also use it to guard against her scream.
Once their deafness had worn off, I continued my songs to direct the cluster of Greys to reform and engulf an approaching swarm of Hummingbirds in flames. In numbers they became stronger. They had just needed a leader to organise them.
I continued to sing to tell the dragons exactly what to attack. It wouldn’t be true to say I could see through the dragons’ eyes, but I could feel each dragon’s soul and somehow, I knew exactly what note would cause each one to react. Taka sang with me, but his notes were more focused on keeping up the Greys’ courage.
With our song and the might of the dragons, we coordinated an attack that destroyed every single Hummingbird. And not one dragon fell in the process.
“You’re back, Auntie,” Taka said.
I was. But we still had a barrier to cross. That cloud of shrapnel-flak kept being renewed by the cannons. If we tried to pass it, we’d arrive on the other side torn to shreds. Velos had no reserves left in his armour and I felt how his muscles wanted to give out. His last strength was dwindling, and he was drawing closer and closer to the sea.
“No, Velos,” Taka shouted. He changed his song to strengthen Velos, while I still focused on the Greys. I wished they were over on the same side as us, so we could fight this battle together. Maybe with Velos, we could divert some of the fire so Sandao’s fleet could move in. Sandao’s boats themselves had been keeping a distance and I couldn’t quite see what was going on over at the horizon.
Dragonseers and Airships Page 28
