Page 75 of Of Scale and Blood

Rua banked sideways, and Hannity unleashed her flames, sweeping them across the barge, setting alight several of the men. But they were too far away for Hannity’s fire to melt the tents, and not precise enough to explode the tubes. And Rua was too low, too close to the barges, and far too close to the larger tubes now aiming her way.

Kaia roared an order to retreat even as I screamed mentally at her. Rua shook her head, as if in denial, then cut to the left, smashing her tail against the end of the boat and the tube built there. As metal cracked and men scrambled out of the way, the bolts holding the thing onto the barge lifted from the decking, and the whole tube toppled, almost in slow motion, into the sea. Hannity unleashed more fire at the dark liquid spilling across the deck and set it alight, but as the fire chased the liquid along the length of the barge, the guards stationed on the other barges unleashed their deadly weapons.

Help her,came Yara’s metal scream.Must.

Go no closer,I yelled back, physically and verbally.They’ll just hit us—and we’re no good to either of them if we can’t fly out of here. Kaia, bank left.

She immediately did, and I unleashed a stream of fire so hot it shone blue and white in the night. I whipped it around the bobbing light onto which the barges were tied and destroyed it. As the surrounding area dropped into darkness, I spread my fingers and sprayed the flames across the other three boats, trying to get at least a couple of the tubes—big and small—that were firing the liquid shit at Rua and Hannity.

I hit several, exploding them, but I didn’t hit them all. Five larger ones remained.

Two of those five unleashed a second round of liquid. Rua banked away from them, rising hard and fast, her wings a blur. My heart lodged somewhere in my throat, hoping against hope she would make it.

She didn’t.

CHAPTER9

Multiple sprays hit her body,wings, and Hannity. Both screamed, but Hannity nevertheless twisted, unleashing fire at the acidic streams that still chased them.

I swore and said to Yara,Rua’s wings are going to disintegrate pretty quickly, even in this rain, so fly underneath her and help hold her weight. Just don’t squash Kele.

Won’t,Yara said, and immediately chased after the younger drakkon.

Us?Kaia asked.

Fly high, swoop down fast, then bank so I can flame the barge holding the birds.

A fast sweeping pass wasn’t likely to kill any birds, but that wasn’t the aim. Causing chaos and buying us a little time was.

Kaia swooped upward, the air practically screaming in response to her speed. But that was nothing to the noise she made as we came down. She was furious and she was letting them know.

The riders scrambled for weapons, and several of the larger tubes swung our way. I rained fire down upon them, setting the men ablaze, then pushed my flames on, sweeping them through the two lines of agitated birds. I did little more than scorch the tail feathers of the first few half dozen or so, but that was enough to cause the others to panic. Hooded as they were, they’d have no idea what was happening, but they would feel the heat, smell the smoke, and hear the sharp squawks of those I’d hit.

It would take time to calm them down, time to get them harnessed and mounted. Even so, I doubted we had more than twenty minutes, at best, in which to disappear.

Kaia swung up and around and flew hard after the others. Rua was still in the air, though her movements were becoming increasingly unstable and her pain radiated through our link. The drizzly rain was no doubt helping to slow the speed of disintegration, but she still needed to be fully immersed in the water—as did Hannity, though I had no idea how badly she’d been hit—to fully wash the acidic shit from her wings. Otherwise, it would continue to eat through everything and perhaps even take both their lives.

We were never going to make it home. Not like this. Yara and Kaia could help keep Rua in the air if she maintained some flight capability, but if they had to carry her—though how in Vahree’s name they were going to do that, I couldn’t say—the gilded riderswouldcatch us.

I hesitated, trying to remember the maps I’d seen of this area, then told the drakkons to bank left and head east, away from the Black Glass Mountains and home.

Why?came Kaia’s question, even as she and the others obeyed.

They’ll expect us to fly home. They won’t be expecting us to fly in the other direction.

Nothing out here.

There’s a chain of tiny islands. I had no idea how much cover they’d provide or whether anything actually lived there aside from seabirds, because I’d only ever seen them on a map. But they did have two important location advantages—one, they were nowhere near any of the Jakarran Islands, and two, they should be well away from the path any riders might take flying between Ezu and those barges.We need to get Rua and Hannity somewhere safe so that they can soak their bodies in the water.

Hope close. Rua bad.

Perhaps next time she’ll not ignore her queen.

She young. She will learn.

If she survived this lesson, that was.You’re a damn sight more understanding than I am. Drop lower. We won’t see the islands through the rain from this height.

She passed the message on, and all three dropped, Yara remaining underneath Rua, and Kaia flying beside them both, the very tips of her wings caressing the foamy crests of the bigger waves.

---