Page 12 of Of Blood and Fire
As we drew closer, a heated rumble started deep in Kaia’s belly and quickly moved forward, the sound growing louder and louder as we neared our targets. Then she roared and spewed forth her fire, sweeping them across the carts, her flames so hot both they and their contents were ashed in seconds. She swept her fire on, aiming for the birds, but the riders were on the move now. Two had cylinders raised and aimed our way.
Sweep right and up, I yelled, even as I twisted around and flung a thick stream of fire at the acid shooting toward us. It immediately exploded, and I flicked my flames on, chasing the stream to its source—the man, not the weapon. As he went up in flames, the two other riders ran for their birds.
One was on fire.
The other two had risen, their wings outstretched and their beaks open, screaming fury into the wind and rain.
Should kill,Kaia growled.
Keep flying up—the rain will briefly give us cover. Arc around, and we’ll hit them from behind.
Like this plan.
As has been noted, you’d like any plan that involved killing these birds.
Truth.
Instinct—or perhaps the slightest tremor in the air—whispered a warning. Kaia, sharp left and drop the right wing, now!
Even as she obeyed, a shadow shot past us—a shadow that was metal and dangerously spiked, with a long rope trailing behind it... one that was undoubtedly attached to a net. It was how they’d brought us down in Hopetown.
I swore, flung fire at the rope and the thick netting attached to it, then twisted around as Kaia surged higher into the storm. I couldn’t see the kind of fat tube they’d used in Hopetown, but then we were so far away now that it was hard to see anything other than the gleaming of gold. The birds were rising....
But we were in the clouds now, momentarily out of sight. Kaia did a fast turn, almost unseating me, and flew hard west, following the deep line of the Blue Steel Mountains for a good ten minutes before she turned back around and began the chase.
As we neared our starting point, I said,Drop.
She did, without question. As we flew over the top of the half crevice, I flung a stream of fire into the overhang and burned everyone standing in the deep shadows. My fire killed most of them before they could give voice to their agony.
We rose again, chasing hard after the two remaining birds.
Gold glistened briefly in the wet gray up ahead, though the birds were little more than shadowed outlines.
Rise, I said,then drop again.
The birds must have heard the wind of our approach and split to the left and the right. Kaia hit the closest hard, in what was basically a full body slam that squashed the rider against his bird’s spine. As the bird screamed and dropped, the other bird arced around and came at us, the rider already aiming his tube. I flung fire between us, and the bird instinctively jagged away, but the spray exploded. Kaia pitched sideways, but fine droplets of acidic fire still hit the edge of her wing and splattered across my face. I was never more grateful for the deluge of rain, which almost immediately washed the stuff away.
Hold, she warned, and then belly rolled up and over the incoming bird. Before either it or the rider could react, she flamed them both. The rider died instantly; the bird spiraled down, a burning blob of gold that eventually crashed into the ground I couldn’t see.
I took a deep breath and released it slowly. Another battle survived, though I couldn’t help wondering just how much longer Túxn would continue to favor us with good fortune.
Let’s head home, Kaia.
Good,she said.Am hungry now.
And I was bone-achingly weary. Part of that was undoubtedly due to the combination of the long day aloft and the aftereffect of expending so much flame, but I suspected the real reason was the lack of food intake of late. The Hutzelbrot, as good as it damn well was, could not sustain me for very long. Next time, I definitely needed to add trail rations to my food sack.
Next time, need eat meat before we fly.
There you go, bossing me around again.
Queen’s job to boss.
I laughed and pulled the oilskin sack between me and her spine, opening it just enough to get a hand in rather than theweather, and happily munched away through the long hours that followed.
Dusk was settling across the peaks—though it was more a sense of night encroaching than any sighting of the warm colors that usually came with sunset through the continuous curtain of rain—by the time we flew over Esan. Kaia trumpeted a warning to those on the wall then rumbled in amusement as soldiers immediately scattered.
She landed lightly, her claws barely scratching the black stone’s surface, and kept her wings outstretched to balance. I unlatched all my gear, then slithered down her leg, landing lightly next to her murderous claws. I didn’t take her harness off—right now, with the ever-present threat of an attack, we simply couldn’t waste time harnessing the drakkons every time the alarm rang out.
