Page 24 of Fly to Fury
This time, there was no exhilaration. No enjoyment of the moment his aeroplane took to the air. There was just the tense focus, the need to get into the sky to aid his men.
Fieran’s heart hammered as his aeroplane crawled upward. Agonizingly slowly, or so it felt.
Down below, a layer of crackling blue magic spread over Fort Defense, covering everything from the foothills of the Whitehurst Mountains down to the Hydalla River. Even from the growing distance between him and the ground, Fieran tasted the distinct sense of his dacha’s magic filling the air.
A smaller, blue-gray shield stretched over the aeroplane hangar. Pip’s magic. A few tendrils of his dacha’s magic reached for her shield, as if drawn by it, playing over the iron magic shield in little flickering tongues of lightning.
To the east, a swarm of black shapes bore down on Fort Defense. With the rising sun at their backs, Fieran had to squint to see them.
The Half-Breed Squadron had assembled into a swarm of its own while they had been waiting for the whole squadron to take to the skies. Lt. Rothilion’s aeroplane had the center position leading the charge.
As little as Fieran liked it, he turned to put his tail to the air battle as he continued to rise higher in the sky. He needed to create some distance between himself and the enemy before he circled around, otherwise they’d see his attack coming.
Fieran counted to ten as he headed west before he curved southward. He climbed his aeroplane even higher into the sky, the wind chilling against the silk scarf flapping around his neck. The foothills of the Whitehurst Mountains rose beneath him, the openings the trolls had put into the mountains looking like gaping mouths.
As he swept back north again, Merrik matching his movements, the dogfight came into view once more. Aeroplanes buzzed around the sky, a chaotic whirl of flashing propellers and biting bullets. The radio burst with shouting as the Half-Breed Squadron took on the Mongavarians.
“Lije, watch your six!”
“Tack, swerve right!”
“Your right or my right?”
“Your right! Now!”
“Got him!”
Even the elves had their voices raised, though they spoke in elvish to each other, making it easier for the human pilots to tune them out.
“The plan?” Merrik’s voice was taut, as focused andtense as Fieran felt, even as he had to shout into the cacophony.
“Let’s put ourselves between the enemy and the Wall to trap them.” Fieran flexed his fingers on the control column, drawing on his magic until it spilled over his hands. “I’m going to use my magic. I don’t think there’s any reason to risk lives by holding back.”
“Yes.” Merrik eased his aeroplane directly behind Fieran’s so that Fieran could shield him with magic as well.
This would be Fieran’s one surprise, but he had to unleash his magic eventually. He might as well do it now and let the Mongavarians know exactly whom they would be facing in the sky from now on.
With the Wall far below them, Fieran put his aeroplane into a dive at the battling aeroplanes. He unleashed his magic, letting it crawl over his aeroplane. It found the metal wires Pip had installed and eagerly played over them, her magic helping to direct his into a shield over his biplane.
With those wires helping him hold the shield over his own aeroplane more easily, Fieran gathered even more magic in his chest, ready and waiting. “Half-Breed Squadron, heads up. Magic incoming.”
The Alliance aeroplanes beneath where he was aiming abruptly peeled away, leaving the Mongavarian aeroplanes alone and vulnerable.
Fieran reached up and pressed the trigger of his machine gun, even as he released his magic. His magic danced along the stream of bullets, following it to slice through one the aeroplanes.
He poured more magic into the stream of his magic and released his tight control. The magic exploded outward, shredding through four Mongavarian aeroplanes and damaging a fifth.
Even as the blackened wreckage spiraled downward, Fieran swerved his aeroplane, directing his machine gun fire at two Mongavarians who were trying to gang up on an elven pilot. With his magic twining over the stream of bullets, Fieran sliced through the enemy flyers.
Bullets sparked against Fieran’s magic near his aeroplane’s fuselage as a Mongavarian swept down from above and to the side.
Fieran let go of the control stick with one hand and blasted his magic along that stream of bullets, incinerating them as he went until his magic reached the enemy aeroplane. It exploded, fiery debris falling from the sky.
Pointing the nose of his aeroplane upward, Fieran pressed his flyer for every bit of power he could, the engine gauge rising through yellow and getting dangerously close to red.
Murray swept past below, tossing magical globes out the side of his aeroplane. These burst into showers of water, which Tiny, speeding right behind Murray, turned into shards of ice that he blasted at Mongavarian aeroplanes, shredding wings and canvas as effectively as a cloud of bullets.
A Mongavarian aeroplane tried to turn upward to chase Merrik, but the heavier, less powerful craft just couldn’t keep up, weighed down as it was by its gasoline engine and fuel tanks.
