Page 91 of Of Steel and Scale

As the birds drew closer, the riders became visible. One was holding a spear at the ready, the other a larger version of the metal tubes we’d discovered near The Beak.

You need to be upwind when you attack, I said.That metal tube is what sprays the kak.

Will. Her tone suggested any idiot would know that.

A smile tugged at my lips again, but quickly faded as I glanced behind us. The three riders had now formed a half circle, the two on the ends higher than the one in the middle. Fire burned around my fingertips, but I clenched them hard, resisting the urge to unleash. They were too far away for either flame or arrows to be effective; better to save both until a kill was a true possibility.

But Vahree only knew it was hard to sit here and do nothing except watch possible death fly ever closer.

The birds ahead were close enough now that I could see the wicked point on their beaks and the talons that protruded from the fluff of their underbellies. They were long, sharp, and deadly looking. Almost as deadly as the long spear one rider held.

Hold,Kaia warned, and then swept up vertically, climbing hard and fast into the clouds.

I gripped tight with my thighs, one hand on the rope, the other burning with so much heat my fingers were almost incandescent. Then, with surprising agility for a creature so large, Kaia belly rolled and dropped back down the way she’d came. It all happened so quickly I barely even lifted from her back. We came out of the clouds hard and fast, dropping underneath andbehindthe riders. As Kaia rolled onto her side and raked her murderous claws along one bird’s soft underbelly, I unleashed my flames, spearing them toward the rider’s helmet and weapon. As the metal melted around his face, he screamed, a harsh sound echoed by his mount. It lashed out with its long legs, its dagger claws scoring the sky where Kaia had been only seconds before. As she continued to bank away, she flicked her long tail, smacking the end across the bird’s head and neck. There was an audible snap as it was sent tumbling through the air.

It was then I saw the stream of brown arcing toward us. Horror dawned.Kaia!

See.

She flicked her wings and rose so sharply that I slipped back before the rope snapped tight, bringing me to an abrupt halt. The dark spray splashed across the end of her tail instead of her body and she bellowed again in fury and pain. I twisted around and threw flames at the bird and its rider, though there wasn’t a whole lot of heat behind it. They fell away from the stream, the flames doing little more than scorching tail feathers before fizzing out.

Kaia body rolled again and came up under the bird. The rider twisted around and aimed his weapon, but before he could hit the trigger, Kaia’s teeth ripped into the bird’s unprotected underbelly and tore it apart. As feathers, blood, and gore spilled all around us, the bird screamed, and dropped away. Kaia raised her head and swallowed the thick chunk of flesh and muscle she’d torn from the bird, then bellowed her triumph.

It was a sound that turned to pain. A heartbeat later, we also began to lose height.

Kaia?

Wing.

I quickly scanned the right wing, and then left. The latter was in tatters, the membrane destroyed by a thin, sweeping arc between three of the wing’s phalanges.

I looked down and saw the rider raise his weapon in triumph even as he fell to his death.

Drop to the sea, I said urgently.The salt will sting but the water will stop the liquid from destroying any more of your wing.

Others catch.

They’ll catch us sooner if you don’t stop that acid eating the rest of your wing. You must soak it for ten minutes, at least.

A deep, unhappy sounding rumble vibrated through her, but she nevertheless dropped sharply and swept down toward the waves. I twisted around; the remaining three riders weren’t yet within firing range but the distance between us was ever decreasing, and the land remained a very long way away.

We would get there. Somehow.

I would not let these bastards win. Would not let them deprive Gria of her mother when they’d already taken her brother.

Kaia banked sideways and skimmed the choppy ocean, dragging both her battered wing and her tail through the waves, forcing me to grip tightly with legs and hands or risk tumbling from her back. I have no idea how she was managing to stay aloft in the position, and I didn’t dare think about it too hard because I just might jinx things.

Her pain flooded our link, dragging tears to my eyes, but she kept her wing and tail in the water. A flume rose behind us, the spray glittering in the ever-increasing brightness of the day.

The riders drew ever closer. In Vahree’s name, how were they still aloft? We were well past sunrise now, so why didn’t these bastards just leave?

Had we really beenthatwrong about their capabilities? It was possible, I guess, but something within me just didn’t believe it.

We flew on in that impossible position for what seemed like ages but was probably little more than ten minutes or so before Kaia right herself and flew on. She remained low, the broken bits of her wing flapping like sheets in the wind. Pain continued to rumble through our connection, but so too did determination. She had no intention of dying today, either.

We flew on, but with a large chunk of her wing’s membrane torn, Kaia’s speed was dropping, and the birds were now within fighting range.

The one to our right made the first move, arrowing in hard and fast. He raised a long spear and drew his arm back, the black arrowhead gleaming with deadly intent against the blue sky.

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