The starboard wing lookout signaled the approach of a friendly dragon once again. Enfri turned to look to her right in confusion. Who would be coming to meet them this far from the battle? Maybe they were coming to tell her more about those airships.
"Your Majesty?" Saveen cried. The dragonet arrived in a hurry. She flapped her wings rapidly to stop herself from barreling into Deebee's side. The crewmen manning the starboard-side ballista ducked for cover before Saveen pulled up short.
"Winds, little one," Deebee scolded. "Don't be so reckless."
"Where's Ban?" Enfri asked Saveen, anxious.
The dragonet matched their course and speed, flying just beside and above Deebee's neck. "He's fighting Kimpo, but Draxa is coming! I'm faster than she is and got ahead of her, but she's coming this way!"
Lady Kora rose to her feet and drew her half blade. White etherlight flowed into the sigils on her armor. "Combat stations! The Inamorata downed three dragons at Mount Vorti, so keep your heads. I want ballistae armed and all crossbows at the ready."
Enfri turned in the saddle towards Kora. "Coordinate with Adar," she said. "We'll have to lead Draxa back towards the others and get help bringing her down."
"Grimdar's formation is pursuing her," Saveen said, "but she's got a wide lead on them."
"We can hold Draxa off until they arrive," Deebee said. "Well done, little one. We'd have been in a tight spot if you hadn't brought word ahead of her. You showed initiative and good sense."
Saveen winced.
"What's wrong?" Enfri asked her.
"You shouldn't thank me," she said miserably. "The marshal ordered me away."
Enfri felt her heart sink. "Ban... He doesn't expect to come back."
A low growl rumbled from Deebee's throat. "I understand what drives him, but it isn't worth his life. The boy has more value than he gives himself credit for."
Enfri glanced towards Pacifica over on Adar. The Ascendent's crew was watching the conference with Saveen though they were out of earshot. Pacifica should be told what was happening. She was as close to Ban as anyone.
"I want you to get to a safe distance, Saveen," she said. It tore at her heart, but Enfri knew there wasn't time to mourn Ban just yet. She called for the lookouts. "Eyes to the north. Tail watch, use tinted goggles and watch for an attack out of the sun-blind. I don't want a repeat of our spar with the Vagabond's crew." Enfri leaned forward to speak with Deebee. "Head northeast to give the port-side ballista a clear shot. We'll try to dive under Draxa's first charge. That should be easier than climbing with all this armor. Starboard ballista, be ready to fire on the Inamorata's stern once she passes over us."
Saveen broke away and headed towards the outskirts of the battle. Meanwhile, the crewmen acknowledged Enfri's orders, and Deebee banked wide on the new heading. The siege crews loaded the ballistae with massive spear-like bolts as thick as Enfri's arm. The bolts were specially made to shatter on impact, hopefully inflicting damage on the target dragon's wing membranes with shrapnel.
Almost as soon as Deebee leveled off from her turn, the port-side lookout blew a long and sharp blast on her whistle. Enfri could feel the entire crew tense. The archers aimed crossbows, and the ballistae began to whirr and clank as their clockworks primed for firing.
Enfri couldn't see past Deebee's wing. Draxa was coming at them from a blind spot. If not for Saveen's warning, Enfri and Deebee would've been taken by complete surprise.
"Hard to port," Enfri called.
The crew leaned into the bank, trusting their harnesses to keep them from falling. Deebee's sharp turn gave them a clear field of view towards the ivory dragon bearing down on them. Draxa was moments from goring Deebee with her tusks.
Kora swung her half blade and shouted at the top of her lungs. "Archers, loose!"
Crossbow bolts arced towards Draxa. Most were deflected aside by a conjured gale of wind, and the rest broke harmlessly against Draxa's scales. The ballista fared better. The wind spell did little to alter the huge bolt's flight, and it smashed against Draxa's neck. The bolt splintered, and shrapnel tore into her wings. The small rips sealed almost immediately, healed through her bond.
Enfri breathed out a sigh of relief. "Giving healing should at least distract her Moonstone from casting any..."
She cut off as a huge blast of spellfire shot from Draxa's back. Deebee used a two-point single somatic to erect a hasty fire ward to block it.
"How?" Deebee gasped. "Casting while being drawn from?"
At the base of Draxa's neck, Enfri glimpsed a woman with golden hair conjuring a second fire spell.
"It's Elise!" Enfri called out in warning. "Elise is riding her! Dive, love. Dive."
Half the crew lost their footing as Deebee plunged downward. The snap-locks were all that kept them from being sent hurtling away. Draxa and her murderous tusks passed close enough to them that Enfri could feel the heat coming off the ivory's body as she swept overhead.
"Starboard, loose!" Kora shouted.
A second ballista bolt followed Draxa as she passed. It was blasted out of the air by spellfire. Elise had been ready for it.
Enfri lost sight of Draxa as Adar, Pacifica, and Starra cast spells from above. The bright flares of their attacks caused Enfri to flinch, and she reached up to lower her goggles over her eyes, then snapped the tinted lenses into place.
"They're pulling some trickery," Deebee snarled as she leveled off her dive. "She and the ruffer boy swapped dragons."
A clever tactic, Shoen said in admiration. Tell me, child, do you understand why she does this?
Enfri wasn't about to let the spooks distract her. She wrenched her thoughts away and focused. "Reload for when she comes about," she called. "What's her course?"
"South by south-east," Kora replied. "Climbing for altitude."
Enfri furrowed her brow. That would be the least advantageous way to pursue Deebee's course. In fact, it was taking Elise directly towards...
"An empress deserves a dragon worthy of her."
"Come about and take us after them," Enfri shouted. "It's not you she's after, Deebee. Elise wants Adar!"
oOo
Ban's breaths left him through clenched teeth. His vision blurred and began to turn red. Ethershock was close at hand, so Ban used only enough ether to light the adhesion spells binding his feet to Kimpo's back.
Three paces ahead, the Moonstone Knight had his long knife in hand. He weaved it in concentric loops in front of him "Fancy another round, boyo?"
"Where is she?" Ban demanded. His own voice, enraged past reason, sounded alien to his ears.
"You lot aren't the only ones bringing some dirty tricks to the party. Switch riders and the ones staying behind give all they got to the ones going ahead." Cardin smirked. "My empress and my Inamorata can take all the two of us have to give. Nothing can stand against them. The usurper falls today."
A ruse, one that would allow Elise and Draxa to draw as much through their bonds as they needed to without weakening their partner.
Not a bad ploy, actually, Ban thought with begrudging appreciation.
Ban pulled his half blade from its scabbard and shouted his throat raw. He hurled the sword. As the spinning blade reached Cardin, the Moonstone vanished from sight.
Ready for that particular trick this time around, Ban lashed his hand out to the side where the ruffer was to reappear.
Cardin let out a strangled cry as Ban's gauntlet seized around his throat. He dropped his knife and clutched at Ban's fingers, struggling futilely to pull them away from his airways.
Ban pulled Cardin closer. "I'm not here for you," he said, then Ban threw Cardin over the side.
He strode up to Kimpo's head. No matter how she twisted about, he remained firmly in place. His legs burned with the effort, but his fatigue was a trifling thing. It was over. Ban's thrown half blade had found its true mark.
It was lodged a hand deep into the back of Kimpo's neck.
Ban sensed more than he saw Trell and Garret finally arriving to assist. They'd eluded their pursuers too late. The black and his Onyx abandoned Kimpo and instead dove to pluck Cardin from the air. The Moonstone was fortunate, but Ban didn't care one way or the other about Cardin's fate.
"Flames take you, Karst," Kimpo shouted. "Coward. Traitor! Monster!"
"I know," Ban whispered. He fell onto his sword and plunged it deeper, all the way to the hilt. Kimpo's blood, thick and bright red, shot out like a fountain over his arm. She howled, equal parts pain and fury. Her wings seized up, and she fell.
Ban twisted the blade and wrenched it sideways. It tore out from Kimpo's neck, savaging her flesh and sending a spray of blood to fall alongside them like scarlet rain. The gaping wound spurted with each beat of her failing heart.
Spent and shattered, Ban let go of the half blade and allowed the monster within him to die. His task over, Ban wept for his Huntress. He lay flat against Kimpo's neck and clung to her scales as he remembered the first time he'd stood here. He could see it so clearly, as if he experienced it again for the first time.
"I was terrified," he said through his tears. "Floundering coward. I didn't have much of a head for heights."
Kimpo snarled, her voice weakening beneath the loss of blood.
"Once you and I were in the air, our bond connecting us, the fear went away. I had Moon beside me. She always managed to give me heart from the very beginning. But even more than my lasichka, I had my mighty, red dragon. There was no height beneath me I needed to fear so long as you were there to catch me."
Ban placed his palms against her scales. As she fell uncontrolled, Ban needed to light his sigils with the last measures of his ether to stay with her. It was the least he could do.
"Forgive me," Ban begged her. "I wasn't strong enough to keep you."
Kimpo's eyes drifted closed. Her words were almost too soft to be heard. "...stars and hearth."
With her once more, Ban could again feel the same sensation he'd felt on the slope of Mount Vorti. An echo that felt like something familiar. Something lost. It called to him, just as something inside his soul called back to it. Ban knew it for what it was now.
It was him.
Elise's spike had ripped his soul apart. It stole from Ban the piece of himself that could reach out and hold tightly to another, leaving behind a scar. That torn remnant of Ban Karst hadn't been lost. Only misplaced. It survived within Kimpo. Still with her. Still bonded to her. Beside that missing shard of his soul, Ban could sense a choking presence. Wrathful and unclean. It held on to where it did not belong, grasping to Kimpo like the clinging strands of a spider's web.
"My Huntress."
"Little warrior..." Kimpo whispered. She was almost gone, and the ground had almost arrived. "...my Ruby Knight."
Ban nodded and flared his sigils as hard as he could. He would hold on until the end.
"Again and forever, love."
He closed his eyes.
oOo
Deebee hammered her wings as hard as she could to gain altitude. She rose in slow circles, a direct climb too difficult at this height. The ivory they chased was constrained to the same tactic. Deebee was catching up to Draxa, but slowly.
"What's beneath us?" Enfri called out.
"Nothing but open field, Majesty," one of the lookouts shouted back.
"We need to lighten our load. Signal Dahvid to release the bombs." She waited until she felt the belly nets release then pushed vitality through the bond. Deebee's wingbeats grew faster, and they drew closer to Draxa. "What's Adar doing?"
"The Ascendent is leading her on, Majesty," Kora reported. "The Inamorata can't keep up with him."
Enfri felt spell echoes from ahead, pounding in her head like drums. She and Deebee were rising higher and higher until Enfri looked down and all she could see of her army was an indistinct mass within a field of green. The peaks of the Dragon's Roost Mountains were beneath them, and Drok Moran looked as small as a child's dollhouse. The air grew cold and thin, and each breath Enfri took was barely enough to fill her lungs.
Air sickness, Enfri thought in a haze. Common among visitors to settlements within mountainous regions. Identified by nausea, fatigue, and headache. Treatment involves removing oneself from the environment, remaining within confined spaces, or prolonged exposure and acclimation.
She was vaguely aware that none of those were an option at the moment. For now, she and the rest of the crew only appeared a little sluggish and short of breath, but they'd need to reduce altitude before much longer. Otherwise, her crew would start passing out from hypoxia. Deebee was unaffected, and Enfri made a note to conduct a study on dragon respiration once she had an opportunity.
Above, spellfire flashed between Draxa and Adar, bursting apart as it met with the defensive wards surrounding both dragons. Crossbow bolts fell around Deebee's head like rain. Most had been shattered after they failed to penetrate the Inamorata's hide, but enough droplets of blood accompanied them that at least a few were causing injury.
I wish Jin was here, Enfri thought. We'd only need to catch one drop, and she'd be able to force Draxa to land.
You cannot rely on your savage forever, Shoen raged.
I know. I must fight my own battles. If you were ever going to give me advice on how to beat Elise, now's the time.
I will do no such thing, just as I do not give your aunt insight into your vulnerabilities. This contest would be meaningless otherwise.
Enfri wrinkled her nose. It was already meaningless. People were dying, dragons included. Her Diamond Knight and Ascendent were in peril. Enfri had dear friends, the family she'd chosen for herself, risking life and limb for her, and there was nothing about it that had meaning.
"I have her in range, love," Deebee panted. "I'll need a little ether from you."
"Take it," Enfri replied.
Deebee held her claws forward and formed a double somatic. The air around them flashed as a force spell shot from her claws to arc towards Draxa and Elise. Sparks erupted from where it struck against wards, and Draxa altered her course.
"We have her," Kora shouted. "The Ascendent is coming about. We can take her together."
Enfri felt a small but triumphant smile pull at her mouth. Adar swooped around, changing his role from pursued to the pursuer. Deebee joined him on his starboard side and they dove together at Draxa. The ivory furled her wings and lost altitude at a terrifying rate. She seemed particularly adept at dives and began to pull ahead even as Deebee and Adar tucked their wings in to follow.
Lookouts signaled approaching friendly dragons. Enfri craned her neck to see the massive, black shape of Grimdar moving to intercept Draxa. The Gladiator was by far the largest dragon in the battle, and it was doubtful that even the Inamorata would be a match for him in a direct fight.
Pursued by two Imperial breeds and her escape blocked off by Grimdar's formation, Elise had nowhere to go.
Enfri's thoughts were interrupted as the tail watch blew a warning signal. Enfri turned in the saddle as a spike of fear stabbed into her heart. A black dragon came in behind them, a dragon with two riders, one with a battered fedora and the other with a white bowler.
Trell's hunting cry grated against Enfri's ears as he swept between Deebee and Adar. The Watchman's fishhook-like claws tore at them both. The blow deflected off Deebee's armor, but a bloody gash opened up in Adar's flank. It sealed quickly as Adar drew from Pacifica, but it was enough of an injury for him to abort his dive. Deebee continued on as Adar pulled up short.
"You cut quite the striking figure, sweetling," a mocking voice called out. "I must say, I appreciate how you dressed up for our little outing."
Enfri bristled at Garret's tone. The odious actor wove wards around his dragon while Cardin cast his attack spells.
The crew returned fire with crossbows to little effect. The port-side ballista clanked as it launched a massive bolt. Cardin intercepted the projectile with spellfire.
"You are no match for me, Watchman," Deebee roared. "You chose the wrong side."
"That remains to be seen, Storyteller." Trell turned his head to breathe out dragon fire. Wards swept the blaze aside, but it concealed him as he banked away from Deebee.
"Blustering imp," Deebee snarled. She prepared to bank after him.
Enfri held her back. "Leave him and stay on Elise. Her dragons are coming to rescue her."
Deebee blew white smoke from her nostrils in frustration and kept on course.
"Renegade formation incoming, Majesty," Kora reported. She came up alongside the saddle and pointed ahead. "Amethyst, Beryl, and two Rubies. Grimdar has no bonded knights with him. They're outmatched."
"Then we'll help them. Deebee!"
"Diving on the Overseer," she said as she angled her dive towards a brutish violet dragon. "Never much cared for her. An arrogant bully if I ever met one."
As they homed in, the ballistae fired. The Overseer's Amethyst blasted one bolt away as he shouted a warning to his dragon. The other projectile drove deep between the violet's wing and torso, the shaft breaking apart while the tip remained lodged in the joint. Shrapnel ripped through the wing membrane. The Overseer howled and lost altitude as she struggled to stay aloft on one wing. The wound couldn't fully heal until the bolt's head was pulled from the joint.
"Well shot," Enfri said in praise to the siege crews.
A shadow swept over her. She looked up in time to see a rose dragon pass overhead and a tiny shape fall from her. Deebee's crew pulled away as a young girl landed in the midst of them.
Small and thin, the girl had a light umber skin tone and couldn't have been much older than fourteen. Her blonde hair was cut short to her jawline, and her green eyes were sunken and wild. The Aleesh girl grinned as she stared straight at Enfri and pulled knives.
"Repel boarders," Kora shouted. She drew her half blade and detached her snap-lock.
The girl moved like a striking snake. Her knives swept out and slashed the throat of the nearest crewman. She ducked beneath the attack of the next man and spun around him, plunging a blade into his kidney as she passed. She got in close, inside her opponents' reach, and stabbed wildly. In the blink of an eye, she'd killed four of Enfri's crew.
The savage violence stunned Enfri. The girl fought like a rabid animal. Enfri found her voice and called to her crew. "Snap-locks!"
Kora was nearly to the Beryl Knight, but paused. She echoed the order as she knelt and secured herself to the harness.
"Roll, Deebee!"
Crewmen clung to the harness while others lost their footing and snapped against their restraints. The Beryl Knight grabbed the corpse of one of her victims, still secured to the harness, to keep herself from being flung away.
With a shout and sigils flared, Kora lunged and slashed the dead crewman's restraints with her sword. The body flew off Deebee's back along with the Beryl Knight. Before the girl had gone far, her rose dragon swooped by and caught her.
"Formation status?" Enfri called, feeling ill. She couldn't take her eyes off the bodies of her slain crewmen and watched their blood run along Deebee's scales.
The starboard lookout answered her. "Renegade Amethyst and Ruby disabled, the rest are falling back," he said. "All wings taken wounds. Gladiator and Vagabond are returning to ground."
It'd been a short engagement, but one of the fiercest since the initial clash. Enfri could only take what comfort she could that it hadn't been worse. If nothing else, her side had come out on top. "Where's the Inamorata?"
The crew scanned the sky. A young woman cried out from near the tail and pointed into the air behind them and to port. "Inamorata and Watchman gaining altitude at two-two-five."
Enfri didn't yet have much of a head for how the Altieri called out relative positions, but Deebee seemed to understand perfectly. She banked sharply to come about.
"That's where we left Adar," Deebee said. "Elise is making another go at him."
"Winds and storms, we can't let Elise get her spikes on him. She can't do to Adar what she did to Kimpo."
Deebee redoubled her efforts. "I don't want that anymore than you do, but the others are hurt and can't keep up with me. I can't fight Draxa and Trell on my own."
"You won't have to, Lady Storyteller," Dahvid shouted. The Dellish alchemist climbed up from the belly nets and pointed to the east. "New wing coming in fast as anything I've seen."
Enfri turned to look. Her eyes went wide with shock as she watched Almo the Rampart charge into the fray. The Eldest of the blues roared a challenge as he came at Draxa and Trell from the flank. With a thunderous impact, the Rampart collided with Trell. The two dragons roared and clawed at each other as they hurtled downward. Enfri got a brief glimpse of Cardin and Garret desperately holding on to Trell's scales. Then, she caught sight of Almo's rider.
The blood runner.
"It's Krayson," Enfri said in amazement. "He came back?"
He brings it back to you, Shoen cried out in excitement. Can you not sense it, girl? The bloodsong is unclaimed. Take it, and you can defeat even Elise Alinwe. Hesitate, and she will bleed it from the keeper's veins and take it for herself.
Enfri shook her head. She spoke her response out loud. "I don't know why they came back, but Krayson and Almo just gave us a chance. We're going after Elise now!"
You will fail.
"As you say, love," Deebee said.
Adar was moving slower after Trell wounded him. He must have already drawn as much healing from Pacifica as he dared. As Draxa came upon him, Adar and the arcanists aboard him focused their spellcraft on wards.
It was the wrong choice.
Draxa didn't cast any spells. She lowered her head and drove her tusks through Adar's hind leg. The Ascendent roared in pain as Draxa pulled herself free, then Elise leapt onto his back.
The Inamorata kept close to Adar in case she was needed. It appeared that was nothing more than a formality. Elise didn't need help.
Enfri could hear shouts and screams even at this distance. Elise's sorcery tore into the crewmen, burning them and ripping into their bodies. Starra and Reyn worked together, and Enfri sensed the power of their unison link's spell echoes. Even they were unable to hold Elise back.
Elise spun arcane forces around her, moving up toward's Adar's neck with determined strides. She was enraged, frustrated by her earlier failure to defeat Enfri, and she unleashed that fury on the crewmen.
Enfri gasped as an apotheosis hammered into her mind. Then another. Elise cast incredibly powerful spells using her enormous stores of ether. She blasted through Starra and Reyn's wards like they were nothing.
Do you understand now? Shoen mocked. You thought you struck a blow against her, but it was no more than good fortune. If your aunt truly wished to kill you, she could have done so as easily as snuffing out a candle. The only reason your silver isn't hers already is because Elise wishes to keep you alive. Stop this pointless conflict and take your rightful place as her heir.
"I'm not as weak as you think," Enfri whispered. "I saw the truth. She's afraid of me."
This will be yet another hard lesson for you, child.
Elise cast a fire spell down at her feet. The blast shattered golden scales, as well as a set of steel binds. Adar's harness shook then tore away from his body. It fell, dragging Starra, Reyn, and all of the surviving crew with it. The men and women tethered to its tangled length were screaming in terror.
"No!" Enfri cried. "Deebee!"
Strength flowed through the bond into Deebee. Her wings beat strong as she threw herself towards the falling harness, claws outstretched. She seized it in her grip, and the added weight pulled her downward. Half of Adar's crew was dead, but their bodies remained secured to the harness. Deebee was carrying the weight of two full crews, and her wings weren't enough to bear them all and stay aloft. She sank downward, away from Elise and Adar.
And Pacifica.
The princess stood from the rider's position, hands forming somatics. She conjured blasts of spellfire, but Elise batted Pacifica's attacks aside as if they were buzzing flies. Even drawing ether from Adar, Pacifica's inexperienced wizardry wasn't a match for the power of a hierarch.
Losing altitude, Enfri couldn't do anything but watch as Elise stalked forward.
A spell echo reverberated through Enfri's core, a tempestuous and hideous sensation that she'd felt before when she touched on Krayson and Saveen's bond. Elise unlocked her bond with Kimpo in preparation of forging another.
"Deebee!" Enfri cried out helplessly. Sheer panic consumed her. "We have to do something!"
"I'm sorry, love," Deebee panted. She was overexerting herself just to hold onto the harness. "Winds and flames, I'm so sorry."
Just as they were almost too far away to see what happened, Elise cast a spell of force that struck Pacifica in the heart. Broken and bleeding, Pacifica was thrown aside, and she fell. A second spell echo was accompanied by Adar's tortured roars of agony.
Elise forged a bond with the Ascendent.
From below in the harness, Enfri could hear Reyn screaming as Pacifica's body struck the ground.