Page 98 of Of Blood and Fire
On way already, Kaia said
I smiled, though it held little in the way of humor. “Whether or not I am doesn’t really matter right now. You’ve ordered the others to get ready?”
He nodded. “The same time we sounded the alarm. Should be here in minutes.”
I stepped back, saluted, then hesitated and stepped forward again to hug him, just in case something happened. Then I turned and ran out, making my way up the stairs to get the harness and the rest of my gear. I didn’t have many Ithican glass arrows left, so I topped the quiver up with regular ones. They killed the Mareritt just as efficiently.
By the time I ran down the palace’s outside steps, the other kin were waiting. Kele stepped forward and saluted. Her face was no longer bandaged, but a ragged red scar ran at an angle from her brow, across her eyelid, and down into the deep hollow that remained in her cheek. “What’s happening, Commander?”
I gave them a quick update, then added, “You and Yara can hit the encampment with Aarvi, Cansu, and Kiko. We’ll take Taitia and Lura and go after whatever lies under that encroaching fog. Stay wary, because those new acid cannons have a greater range and spread and could easily take down a drakkon.”
And we did not want to lose any more drakkons. Or, indeed, their kin. None of us said it, but we were all thinking it.
They appeared over the rim of the valley’s head and dove toward us, their bugles ringing out across the peaks, a war cry none could escape. The drakkons were ready for war.
I wasn’t so sure I was.
Kaia came in first, smoke puffing from her nostrils as she landed. I scrambled up her leg and had barely clipped on when she rose sharply and swept out of the way for everyone else.
When everyone was in the air, I ordered Yara and her three to fly straight down over Esan, then sweep around the foothills of the Black Glass Mountains and hit the encampment from behind. They’d no doubt have rear guards posted, but it would nevertheless take the main focus of attention away from us. Plus, it would give us time to get into position.
As Yara bugled her battle cry and led her three away, we banked left and flew into East Arleeon, heading toward the Blue Steel Mountains so we could come in under the fog from the Ghost Forest end. The day grew brighter, the thick clouds of the early morning giving way to scattered ones, with bright bouts of sunshine in-between, but the wind was at our tails, so the flight over Mareritten didn’t take as long as usual. We swept aroundthe forest and started heading east, back toward the Mareritten encampment, looking for the long stream of fog hiding Vahree only knew what.
Kaia spotted it when we were about ten miles away from the Mareritten encampment. I dug out the long viewer and, once it was focused, studied the stream. The bulk of it remained as thick and gelatinous-looking as when we’d first spotted it, but it faded off severely toward the tail and was open at the rear. We could fly under it without having to worry about the fog’s composition.
I extended the long viewer to its maximum, trying to see if there were any rear guards or even anything that might indicate a possible trap. There was nothing. Or nothing obvious, anyway. Maybe the spell that had created the fog barrier was fading, or maybe they simply didn’t think we’d sweep in from behind. Which, to be honest, was very unlikely.
Unease stirred through me. Something was very wrong here. And yet... what choice did we have but to go in, given Damon had already said the only way to destroy mobile barriers was from the inside? We couldn’t let any more of those cannons reach Esan; our earth mages had fortified the main wall against such an onslaught, but they’d had no time to similarly strength Esan’s buildings or even the mountains that loomed high above us.
We attack?Kaia asked.
We attack, I confirmed grimly.The fog isn’t very wide, so we’ll have to fly in a step formation. Tell Taitia and Lura to fly slightly above each other—we’ll take the run closer to the ground.
With any luck, the wall of fire created by such a formation should be enough to utterly destroy whatever else might hide in that fog.
We swooped down and flew in, the daylight quickly giving way to the unnaturally greenish glow the underside of the fog emitted. In the distance, forming a long line, were a goodnumber of carts being drawn by bovine of some kind. There was an odd shimmer surrounding the cart directly ahead of us, one that didn’t extend to the warriors walking on either side of it. I tried refocusing the viewer, but it didn’t help, and I couldn’t help but wonder what that shimmer was hiding or why they’d need an extra layer of invisibility when everything under this fog tunnel was already hidden to outside eyes.
There were plenty of other warriors ahead too, most of them escorting carts that held either cannons—there were at least six of them that I could see—or weapons and supplies such as tubes and acid pouches. There had to be a couple of mages somewhere, too, if only to maintain the strength and opacity of the fog.
We swept toward them. Kaia’s inner furnace rumbled to life, and anticipation danced through her thoughts. The men walking beside the cart didn’t react in any way, despite the fact that, at the speed we were now approaching, they should at least be able to hear the scream of wind past wings. The inner unease ratcheted up several notches, but it was too late now to back out.
I shoved the long viewer away and said,Unleash.
The command was barely out when the men on the ground leapt up into the cart’s rear. The shimmer became translucent, revealing the biggest fucking cannon I’d ever seen. At that exact same time, the fog encasing us began to boil andretract.
Itwasa fucking trap.
All we could do now was erase the bastards before that trap completely ensnared us.
As one, the drakkon unleashed. A thick wall of fire rushed down the tunnel, turning the green glow a molten red in color and ashing everything and anyone walking in front of the cart, including the animal that drew it. But it simply washed over and around the cart itself and the men and weapons inside.
It had been shielded against fire, but had they shielded it against claws? There was only one way to find out.
Kaia, tell Taitia and Lura to increase their pace to get past that cannon, then take out as many of the Mareritt up ahead as possible. We’ll grab that cannon and crush.
Plan.As the two younger drakkons pulled ahead, she added,Fog touch wings, feel strange.
My gaze shot right and then left. The tunnel had closed in enough now that her wing tips were cutting through it, causing a stream of fog to bubble up and over them, leaving behind a strange build-up of gloopy material.
