“You didn't get a good enough view when you were hovering over it?” Malacar asked. It was as sarcastic as she'd ever heard him.
Before Kir could answer, General Beyhue came up the stairs, supported under the arm of a sergeant. His head and eye were bandaged and his shoulder was bound roughly in a haphazard sling. “Highness! Merciful Serafin, we feared the worst.”
“Damnation! You look chewed on, General.”
“The kaienze sorceress was fierce, but I survived. I'm sorry that I could not keep her from your pursuit.” Beyhue dismissed the sergeant to other duties.
“Ithinar himself would have trouble with the likes of her. Don't fret,” Kir assured him. “What's our status?”
“We have the invaders routed. The libertines are safe in the cargo vault. They report only minor injuries. Our numbers are not in yet, but the loss looks minimal, all things considered. The healers tend the wounded as we speak. I will have accurate statistics soon.” Beyhue wavered and Lili moved in to prop him upright.
“Bertrand's holed up in forward command, General. He'll have you mended in no time. Let's get you on down there,” Kir suggested. As she turned, the steady tint and hum off the rampart flickered. “Was that the Barrier?”
Borloh, clutching a scrollboard, hailed them frantically. “There's a problem with the forward capacitor. A kaiyo flew into the gears and was crushed, but the carcass is stuck. The Barrier is about to collapse!”
“Get a crew down there on the double,” Ulivall ordered.
Borloh peered over the wall to confirm what he was reading on the scrollboard. “Already done, sir. I can see them descending now. The basan was stuck in the outer gears, so they have to take an outside approach. They're lowering their platform down from the top of the structure to work on it, but—”
It was too late. The Barrier flickered its last hum. It evaporated, leaving the fort completely unprotected.
A squawky puvlaquen on the wing seemed to recognize the lapse, and it smelled blood. It dove toward Beyhue. Inagor made short work of it, but the rest of the flying menaces realized the opening, and they took it. As the swarm rained in, swords twirled, arrows flew, and Elementals countered. Kir parked herself in front of Beyhue and Lili to provide cover against the barrage of Blazerfire the basans spat.
“The groundlings are on the move,” Avalir reported. He was scanning the field below the rampart. “They've brought in gale sharks for battering rams.”
“Form up and secure the gates,” Beyhue panted.
Borloh scribbled the orders over the message scroll promptly.
Malacar drove his weight against a long-tailed grunifler, knocking it back against the wall. Inagor clipped the creature's wings and they combined their strength to haul it over the rampart.
“If they breech the gates, Soreina will have another crack at us,” Malacar said. “We should evacuate. Fall back to Hili.”
“We'll lose the fort,” Ulivall argued.
Kir could not abide retreat. Fort Ellesainia was the first collaborative effort between Hili and Aquiline. To lose it now would be a failure that could set the tone of the future. “Let's buy the crews some time. If they can fix the capacitor, we won't have to—”
A thundering boom shattered the air like an ominous drum.
“It's the gale sharks. They've begun their ramming,” Avalir called from the wall.
The repetitive booming sounded like the Gods were knocking on the door. It trembled the stones below their feet and shuddered the lining of their guts.
Everyone hesitated, staring down like they could see the gate through the floor.
“Don't distract!” Kir ordered. “Every kaiyo we remove from the sky is one less to be hindering the Barrier crew. Let's cover them with everything we've got!”
The rampart was alive with battle. Archers launched their volleys and Elementals flew like wild fireflowers. Kir couldn't risk depleting herself with reckless casting, but her sword made fillet of so many flying kaiyo, she lost count.
The gale sharks rammed the gate again, cracking the air with the splintering of the portcullis.
“They're almost through,” Malacar called. He raced to Kir's side. “Time to go.”
“I'm not abandoning the troops,” Kir barked.
“He's right,” Ulivall said grimly. “Take the civilians and the counselors. Get them to safety behind the Hili border. Once you're beyond the southern wall, you'll be safe. The Defensives will hold, as they have for decades. We'll buy you time.”
“No! We will not lose this fort! Too many have died here for us to give up now. I won't have their losses be for nothing,” Kir argued.
Her stubborn will rooted her feet to the floor and the broadsword raised again. Kir shoved her fatigue to the very pit of her awareness and took a high stance to ready for the next wave of wings. It was then that she noticed the oddity on the horizon. It looked like a brown nutshell, but it had to be the size of a building.
Inagor saw it, too. “What in Blazers is that?”
“That better not be a kaiyo, 'cause if it is, I fold,” Lyndal tried to joke. “Avalir?”
“It looks like a...” Avalir squinted his keen eyes and blinked like he couldn't believe what he was seeing. He shored up his courage to report the ludicrous vision, despite the disbelief of his own eyes. “...a ship.”
“Did a respillitan blind your beams?” Rendack scoffed. He stepped up for his own look through his farscoper. He cursed in Dimishuan. “It is a ship. It's a wenchin airship!”
The kaiyo and Barrier were practically forgotten in the shared stupor. The closer the airship got, the more obvious it became. The body was similar to a clipper, but the sails were angled back. Two big protrusions jutted from either side of the lower hull.
“Two things I didn't believe possible, and I get both in one day. A dragon, and an airship!” Gevriah breathed in awe.
“Don't get too excited. It's not one of ours,” Beyhue said darkly.
“The Chaos Bringer?” Lili asked. “Could he be coming here himself?”
Kir had no idea if Soventine had been building a secret airship, but nothing would surprise her anymore. Who else would have the means to commission such an advanced weapon? If it really was Alokien on that boat, things were about to fall apart quickly. Everyone recognized the reality at the same time, just as a shattering crack tried to split the air.
The gale sharks had won their battle with the gate. The fort was breached again. Before anyone could issue an order, an old familiar screech rang Kir's eardrums spiky. A malcraven, with wings flapping thunderous beats that cooled the air in gusts, burst over the wall and made a swooping pass. It dived again, shifting its row of beady eyes around to analyze its prey.
“It's a second-classer!” a sergeant called out, reporting the glaringly obvious.
A volley met the malcraven in mid-swoop. Each bolt bounced from the hide like rubber balls ricocheting off a brick wall. It screeched again and answered the assault with a dive that pummeled the archers, knocking them down, aside and two over the wall, as though they were nothing more than paper dolls. The monstrous kaiyo disappeared over the rampart to arc in a dive. The archer that died on impact was the luckier of the two. The other one was caught in mid-air, tossed around from the malcraven's mandibles like a tormented mouse in the death-play of a cat. The creature chucked him into the air and caught him over and over, each time ripping gashes from flesh. When it was satisfied with the game, the malcraven's long, tube-like tongue cracked through the soldier's nostril to slurp up the brains. The archer's agonized screams pierced Kir's pity, until someone on the wall sent a bolt of mercy through his skull.
There were frantic orders shouted around. It was all dizzying, and Kir couldn't keep track in the chaos.
“To cover!” Ulivall commanded, urging them back toward the stairwell.
Kir hesitated, watching the malcraven swoop on the updrafts over the wall. It was difficult enough to take one ou
t from the ground, but felling one in the air was nearly an impossible prospect. They had to get the Barrier back up before the malcraven found its way through the gate and into the fort.
“Come now, Highness,” Inagor pleaded, grabbing her arm. “To safety.”
“Yeah. I just—” Kir tried to find the words. How could she leave the soldiers to the horrors of the kaiyo while she cowered behind Barriered doors?
She had slain a malcraven before, and she could coordinate a unit's strategy to do so now. With an organized assault and direct commands from her, their specialized units could fell it. But then, this was only one. There would be more arriving anytime. Unless that Barrier went up, and soon, the fort would be overrun. Gensing and Soreina were probably making ready to infiltrate the breached gate, second-class kaiyo were about to enter, and an aerial craft of enemy origin was skipping on the high winds, straight for them...
“Kir,” Malacar warned urgently.
“I know,” she interrupted. Defeat tainted the forced breath she exhaled. “Sound the retreat. Fall back to Hili. May Nomah forgive me.”
-47-
The Grand Entrance of the Dagnabber
Another Jolanock day is ebbing, and Dailan walks beside me to our rooftop abode. He feels not the weight of burden in our plight of destitution. He is a castoff of the streets, a boy without a name, a child without a home. Yet, his chin touches the clouds as he strides along in cadence to the merry beat of his heartdrums. He fears not for impending tribulations, he mourns not for erstwhile loss. His only concern is of the moment, the timepiece's now-tick, the here.
He is no longer merely surviving. Dailan is veritiably thriving.
- Excerpt from the transitory journal of Toma Scilio, Guardian Betrayer
Ithinar Steel surrounded Kir for protection. They made for the stairwell portal when another crack from the gate split the air. This time, it was answered with a booming shock wave of a different thunder.
“Highness! The airship! It opened fire—on the kaiyo!” Rendack called.
Kir spun on her heel, slipping between Lyndal and Amari. She raced for the wall to see for herself. The airship was clipping toward the gate, hellbent for the slay. It launched grapeshot from a starboard cannon to scatter the aerial units, then it spat a whistling explosive at the malcraven. On impact, the explosion shredded the wings and knocked it from the sky. It came crashing down into the mud on the bank of the river. The malcraven was not dead, but the shock stunned it enough to buy some time.
The next round launched at the gate, taking out everything within a hundred meter radius, probably including the gate itself. The channel water exploded like a waterfall in the sky.
“It's for us!” Lyndal cried. He waved at the ship, cheering it on.
The soldiers joined him in revelry. Kir thought her knees would give out again, but not in exhaustion. It was more of relief and thrill. A new well of energy found its way to her lungs, and she whooped with the rest of them.
The kaiyo seemed perplexed at the sudden turn of events. There was chaos on their front lines as they lost connection with their kaienze commanders in the disorder. Some of them fled, while several began fighting other kaiyo. The swarm was dissolving to conniptions, and Kir couldn't hold in the laugh. Soreina and Gensing must have been nursing panic.
The airship puttered slightly, like it was thinking of taking a rest in mid-air. It hovered for a moment, then turned toward the shattered gate and dipped through. The timing was impeccable. Just after the airship passed the portal, the Barrier flickered back to life. Another wave of cheers rolled.
“Barrier's mended!” someone cried euphorically.
“Let's go give this crew the royal welcome, and make sure they're not here to explode us, too,” Kir commanded. She bolted for the stairwell like she had sprouted a set of kaiyo wings.
They raced down the stairs, through the passages and into the central dockyard, where the airship had just settled its legs—its legs?—onto an open deck beside the channel. And they really were legs, six of them that spawned right out of the hull! Kir couldn't believe her eyes. The spinning oars whirred to a stop as the engines chuffed and puffed a few times before groaning themselves to sleep.
Most of the skirmishes behind the walls were in their final phases, with the teams mopping up what was left of the battered creatures. A short-tailed grunifler hadn't been dealt with yet. It was still dive-bombing and beating a twisty retreat out of blade range with every dip. A short bark from the airship's gun port knocked the grunifler from the sky, decapitating it with a bladeshot. Several platoons, Hilian and Alakuwai alike, cheered and crowded around as the gangplank rolled fluidly from its cradle and a hatch in the hull slid open. Kir muscled her way to the front line, stepping over stray kaiyo carcasses. She couldn't imagine which grand officer was about to make his way down the plank. Might it have been one of Farraday's Admirals, or the High General himself? Nobody had ever been successful in rigging together an airship before. The commission of so magnificent a creation could only have come from someone of wealth and resource. This ship was not built overnight, and it was clearly the work of a genius. Nobody gave their services away without a price. Kir wondered how much the airship's allegiance would cost them.
The cheers calmed to an eager droning as the troops waited for a glimpse of their savior. A head poked through the hatch and took stock of the blood-spattered, expectant audience collected below. It was a much shorter person than Kir had anticipated. As the boy eased onto the gangplank tentatively, she recognized his scrawny frame. It belonged to very last person Kir had expected to see, so it took a good long moment for his identity to work its reality into her brainworks.
“A kid?” and several other comments made their rounds in hushed chatter.
Kir started forward, her mind in a tizzy. “Dagnabber?”
Dailan followed her voice and his face lit like someone had shined a light on him. “Saiya Kunnai!”
He clomped down the gangplank at a gallop as Kir pushed through the parting troops. They stopped an arm's length away, sizing each other up for a long pause.
How was Dailan here, and with an airship? It cast Kir into fuddles she had trouble working through. He looked healthy, well-dressed, and the most precious thing Kir had laid eyes on since Inagor's vambrace made its shiny debut. An uncharacteristic and unbridled cry of excitement rolled from Kir's lungs. Dailan answered back with his own as they reached out in a sort of jiggy embrace. They danced and squeezed their arms around each other. Kir knew she didn't look any sort of a Queen, or even much of a Guardian for that matter, but she didn't care. She had wielded her Kion for the first time, Dailan had brought her an airship, and the menacing kaiyo army was on the other side of a Barrier. Kir didn't figure it to be a Queenly occasion.
“Spit n' spillage, Dailan!” Kir calmed her jubilations down and slapped hands on his shoulders, giving her clan brother the once over. He was almost a full inch taller than she remembered. She measured him to the height of her chest with a flat hand. “You've grown.”
“Yeah?” Dailan boasted all the pride of a strutting rooster. His cheeks flushed and his chin raised so far, he might have floated away if Kir's hands hadn't been rooting him down by the shoulders. His head was a mile high.
“We are overjoyed to see you, Dailan, but how are you here?” Ulivall asked, coming up on Kir's flank.
“We flew! All the way from White Tower!” Dailan announced. “Did you see what I done to that hoard'a nasty that'as fixing to tear down your door? I kinda busted the door up with them, and I'm right sorry about that. But it splattered them kaiyo across the river, didn't it?”
Kir searched behind him, seeing no crew disembarking down the plank. A redheaded girl with wide eyes that perused the audience of soldiers in awe was making her way down, but she was alone.
“We? Where's this vessel's crew?” Malacar asked.
“That's us,” Dailan said, pointing between himself and the girl, who gaped
at him like he was a prince. “This is Captain Bounty. I'm First Mate and Chief Mechanologist. We shared the flying. Only takes two days from White Tower on this boat!”
“Mechanologist? Got learned up in Havenlen, did you?” Kir chuckled indulgently. She acknowledged the girl with a nod, but there were someones suspiciously lacking in Dailan's company. Her heart somersaulted in a flash of anxiety. “Wait... Vann? And Scilio? They're not onboard?”
“They're safe with the Underground back in White Tower. Shunatar's knee-deep in the library scrolls and I figured you'da got what you needed from the Master Prophet by now, so me and Emmi come a'blazin' to fetch ya.”
Through her sigh of relief, Kir couldn't help the twinge of disappointment that Vann wouldn't be walking down that gangplank with a dazzling smile.
“Where did you commandeer this vessel?” Ulivall asked, entirely cognizant of Dailan's natural propensities.
“We didn't steal her,” the girl defended, finally finding her voice. “My father designed and built her. When he died, she became mine by right of inheritance. I've taken on Master Dailan as partner and crew.”
“Crew? How can a ship be manned by only two?” Eshuen asked incredulously.
“She don't have as many sails and ropes to fuss with as a proper wavebuster needs,” Dailan explained.
“Your father must have been a shipwright of the highest order, Captain Bounty,” Kir offered, finally turning attention to the girl. “I'm Kir. Some call me the leader of this outfit. Welcome to Fort Elle—” A slain grunifler near Kir's feet spewed a man-high fountain of muck into the air with a squeaking wheeze. Kir stared down at it and blinked at the interruption. “—sania. If I'da known you were coming, I'da tidied up a little.”
“The pleasure's mine, Your Highness. Dailan's told me all about you,” the girl said, timid in her awe of Kir, but unfazed by the dead kaiyo's addition to their introduction. “You can call me Emmi. Most everyone does.” She cleared her throat and added, “If that's appropriate.”
Bardian's Redemption_Book Four of the Guardian's Vambrace Page 57
