Page 63 of Of Blood and Fire
I swore and wearily rubbed my forehead. This fucking disaster of a day was never going to end, was it? But at least we now knew where the bastards had gone instead of chasing us down. Maybe they believed we were dead... and if our five weren’t so damn weary and—at least in Yara’s case—in desperate need of repair, I would have ordered them into the attack and shown them otherwise.
What about Mira and Halka?I sent back.Are they in the air?
The attack only started half an hour ago, not long after they’d finished their evening flyover. We sent a quill message, but they were coming back down from the aerie. I ordered them to return but haven’t yet heard from them.
Half an hour would have been about the time of the riders’ attack on us; hopefully that meant the ones over Esan weren’t yet aware it hadn’t been successful.
Kin at aeriecame Kaia’s thought.Mounting now.
Have them meet us at the top of this peak. They can provide protection as we dive into Esan.
Will.
Kaia increased our speed, and we rose up the mountainside fast, the silvery moon washing coldness across the peaks and silvering a few patches of early snow. There was no sign of the riders yet, but that would no doubt change the minute we arrowed down toward Esan.
As we neared the top, Lura and Kiko swept in from the nearby peaks that held the aerie. We soared over the mountainside in a line and dove down the other side.
To discover Esan was on fire.
CHAPTER
NINE
Smoke smothereda good portion of the fortress, and my heart leapt in fear. But after a moment, I realized it wasn’t damage but rather the haze of buffel grass burning across multiple rooftops. Ten gilded birds swooped and soared above the smoke line, but none darted into it. Either it affected their senses, or they simply didn’t want to risk diving into an unknown situation, especially given they knew we had at least one blood witch, having encountered—to their detriment—his barriers before.
There also weren’t as many here as I’d feared, but even though they hadn’t unleashed the entirety of the force we’d seen up on the Sheer, it was still two against ten.
Three,Kaia said firmly.We all flame as we drop.
We have Kele?—
We have anger,she growled back.We kill, drop under smoke, be safe.
I sucked in a breath and resisted the urge to argue. There was little point to doing so when she was so determined. And, in truth, it was probably the only way all three of us were going to survive against this many. Lura and Kiko might be fresher than Kaia and I, but they were also younger and newer to all this.
Tell them to move up in line with us. As the riders swing round to hit us, we flame as one and get into that smoke as fast as we can.I hesitated, scanning the visible areas, looking for recognizable landmarks sitting above the haze.Our current position will have us entering over the second levels. Tell them not to hit any buildings if possible.
Below us, one of the birds was swinging around and up. A few more seconds and they would see us....
Now, I said, and thumped my hands against her spine, bracing hard as she dove.
The turning bird saw us and squawked harshly, a sharp sound that rose toward us on the still air. The rider glanced up, then hit the comms bracelet on his wrist.
As the other birds and riders swept around, I said,Flame,and Kaia and I did so, as did the other two drakkons and their kin.
A fiery wall of white-hot death swept toward the middle six riders. They never stood a chance. We swept through their ashes and the waning backwash of drakkon flame and hit the smoke as one, punching through the thick, pungent layer. I twisted around, flames flickering across my fingers, ready to unleash if the remaining birds followed us in. The heavy haze swirled around Kaia’s tail, and the seconds ticked by with agonizing slowness, but no riders appeared.
Then we were through the smokey blanket and rocketing toward Esan’s buildings. Kaia bellowed a command and changed the position of her wings in an attempt to pull up. The drop in speed was abrupt, and it flung me back so hard the rope on the harness snapped. I lunged for the rope around her spine to prevent slipping past her wings and gripped hard with my thighs. Her tail flipped forward underneath us and smashed into a chimney, sending large chunks of stone flying and briefly unbalancing her; a rear claw raked across multiple rooftops,sending tiles and burning ropes of buffel grass into the streets below. The other remained tucked up under her belly in an effort to protect Kele as much as possible.
A crash came from behind us; I twisted around, saw Lura tumbling over several rooftops before somehow righting herself. I couldn’t immediately see Miri, and my breath caught in my throat, but after a moment I spotted her. She was several rooftops farther back and was just climbing to her feet, having obviously jumped from Lura’s back before she hit the rooftop. As she limped back to her drakkon, I turned to see how Kiko fared. She was the smallest of our group, and this had obviously played to her advantage, because she alone had managed to pull up without hitting anything or anyone.
We flew on, keeping between the rooftops and the base of the smoke layer, every now and again spotting the odd glimmer of gold. The occasional spray of acid made it through the thick haze, but it was easily avoided thanks to the fact it set off a chain reaction within the smoke that reminded me of a fiercely boiling pot. Was that the reason the riders hadn’t yet breached the barrier? Did they believe it was magic-enhanced?
It was certainly possible, given that odd reaction. The air mages might be busy protecting the walls, but we did have the other four blood mages here, and maybe they’d been brought into the fray.
We rose toward the palace level. Those manning the walls scattered, leaving room for the two younger drakkons to land. Kaia swept over the wall and approached the courtyard, bellowing in warning. Those who hadn’t already cleared the area did so fast. Medics waited to the left of the gate, watching our approach.
Can’t landon one leg, Kaia said.You jump.
