Page 65 of Wings of War

“Then pull your magic back, put your butt in a flyer, and get yourself close enough.” Pip reached through the magic and gave him a good hard poke in the chest with her pointer finger. Now wasn’t the time for gentleness or soft words. Muka would have given Fieran a good thump on the back of his head if she’d been there.

Fieran blinked, then looked beyond her. His eyes widened, and he yanked back on his magic so fast that it slapped into the two of them with a force hard enough that Pip had to brace a hand against Fieran’s chest to keep herself from toppling into him. He grimaced, some of that hard edge disappearing momentarily from his face. “Sorry.”

“Don’t waste time apologizing now.” Pip used his shoulder to leverage herself to her feet.

He stood. With one last look at the distant city, he turned away. That blue glow on the horizon winked out, leaving Bridgetown utterly vulnerable.

As they turned, two more aeroplanes took off, surging into the sky to join the battle. The ground crews wheeled out the last two aeroplanes. Near the door, Merrik gave them a nod before he tugged down his goggles and climbed into one of the flyers.

Fieran glanced from her to the final flyer, waiting for him. “Once I take off, I won’t be able to hold the magic over the fort any longer.”

Pip straightened to give her small frame every inch of height as the weight of those words settled on her. “I think my shield can at least deflect one of the bombs off to the side. I’m powerful, but I can’t hold a shield over the entire fort.”

Fieran reached out, as if to clap her on the back, before he glanced at his magic-laced fingers and halted. “Protect the command center unless you’re ordered otherwise.”

Pip drew in a deep breath as she nodded. Then she gave Fieran a shove. “Go. Just make sure you bring back my flyer in one piece.”

Fieran nodded, then jogged toward the hangar. Pip hurried in his wake, even as the rumble of another flyer taking off reverberated from the runway behind her.

There was nothing more Pip could do but watch as Fieran climbed into his flyer, pulling his goggles over his eyes. Then their flyers were bouncing and wobbling as they maneuvered toward the end of the airfield just as one of the two-seaters took off. It must have been the one with Tiny and Pretty Face for it struggled to get into the air, ascending into the sky with almost painful slowness.

Pip stood in the hangar’s doorway and lifted her hand. In a wave. In a salute. She didn’t know.

First Merrik’s biplane, then Fieran’s, hurtled down the airstrip. Fieran hadn’t even waited for Merrik’s flyer to get safely into the air before starting his run, and the two of them rose into the sky one after the other.

As soon as the wheels of Fieran’s flyer left the ground, the sizzling crackle of his magic burst into a shower of sparks.

The remaining airship overhead surged forward, almost gleefully. That square door opened up once again, preparing to drop another cargo of bombs onto the now nearly defenseless Fort Linder.

A boom sounded—sharper than the explosions. It had to be one of their artillery guns, able to fire once again now that Fieran’s magic was no longer between them and the airship. But with the airship on the far southwest side of the fort—the opposite side from the gun emplacements by the river—the guns were nearly useless.

Would they hit one of their own flyers darting around the enemy airship? Could the artillery guns even send their shells high enough to hit the airship? She didn’t know enough about guns to know for sure.

With a deep breath, Pip cast her shield back into the sky over the hangar once more even as she dashed back inside. She grabbed the sleeve of the nearest man. One of the ground crew. “Spread the word. I’m heading for the center of the fort to protect headquarters. The hangar will be left unprotected.”

“Understood. Go.” The man waved her off before he raced to the nearest cluster of men, pointing back to her as he spoke.

Pip didn’t wait for more. She sprinted across the hangar, then out the far door. Her chest ached at leaving behind the hangar and her fellow mechanics to fend for themselves. But right now, it was more important that the base’s command center was protected. If she could extend her power over the infirmary and the communications hub, then all the better.

She resisted the urge to check the sky and search for Fieran. She needed her concentration to dart around rubble. The streets of the army base were clear of people now. Fieran’s shield had given them enough reprieve to get organized, manning stations and gun emplacements.

Pip skidded to a halt next to the three flagpoles in the central square of Fort Linder. To one side of her, a long brick building held the officers’ quarters. The far end of it was nothing but rubble now, and a fire crew pumped a stream of water onto the fire that crackled amid the wreckage.

In front of her, the headquarters and communications buildings bustled with life, both untouched by bombs and fire. Hopefully all of the underground telephone and telegraph wires that connected Fort Linder with the rest of Escarland hadn’t been severed by the bombs.

Behind her, the infirmary stretched in a long, narrow building, thankfully also undamaged. A truck was parked in front of it, and men were carefully unloading a stretcher.

Pip braced herself against the pole at her back, the cool metal soothing. She used the pole as a focal point as she raised a shield once again, stretching it as far as she dared so that it covered the entire central square of Fort Linder.

Overhead, the three flags of the Alliance Kingdoms flapped in the rising breeze, snapping as if in defiance of the airships that dared such an attack.

Pip squinted at the sky through the haze of her magical shield. Black specks of the flyers darted around the airships, only briefly visible in the glow of machine gun fire and the brief brightness when the airship’s cargo doors opened to spill more bombs onto Fort Linder. At this distance, the aeroplanes looked like flies trying to harass a wolf. Mildly annoying, yes, but easily swatted aside and ignored.

Another flyer burst into flames, spiraling toward the earth. Where was Fieran? Merrik? The other flyboys she’d gotten to know so well?

The enemy airship drifted closer, dropping bombs as it traveled across the sky over Fort Linder. Explosions tore through the buildings, and from here Pip couldn’t see if the aeroplane hangar remained untouched or had been hit.

Then the airship blocked the sky above her, casting a black shadow over her magical shield.

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