Page 55 of Of Blood and Fire
After a good half hour or so, we arced around to the left and began the long journey toward Mareritten. The end of the Black Glass Mountains came into sight, though from this distance it was little more than a darkly shrouded blot on the horizon. There was no sign of movement in the skies, either over those peaks or in the sea far below, and the inner unease strengthened. While it was well after sunrise now and the majority of the birds would be tethered for the day, we had no idea how many “lead” birds they had. While we hadn’t seen any roosting barges on our flight over, they probably wouldn’t be too far from the Sheer—presuming we were right about the birds not having the flight stamina of drakkons. Those who bore the communication bands would likely be up and patrolling.
We see, we destroy.
If we see them, yes, but let’s not look for trouble. We need to uncover what lies on top of that mountain first.
Destroy what there, then find and destroy the barges, Kaia stated firmly.Safer.
And it would be a fitting payback for the damage they’d inflicted on Rua and Hannity. She didn’t say that, but it was uppermost in her thoughts.
Our next course of action has to depend on who or what awaits on that mountain. If it’s soldiers and mages, or even a flight or two of birds armed with acid weapons, we might be in trouble.
Storm stop them seeing us.
It also stops us seeing them.
She considered this for a moment.Where soldiers come from?
That is the great unknown.
Need know. If do, we destroy.
We’re working on it.
Amusement rumbled through her thoughts.Work harder.
I rolled my eyes. The much younger me would never have guessed the queen I’d admired for so damn long had a wicked sense of humor and tendency to tease.
We continued on for another hour, until the peaks gave way to the broken foothills, then the long black beaches I’d traversed after the white fin had saved my life by dragging me toward these shores. There was nothing moving in the wastelands beyond the shores; no shadows or unusual fog clouding the horizon. The Mareritt might be hauling new war weapons toward Esan, but they obviously weren’t planning a two-pronged attack. Unless, of course, they simply didn’t want to get in the way of whatever the gilded riders and their soldiers on the peak had planned.
We swept around and followed the dark sands back into the foothills, keeping for as long as possible well under the storm that raged across the peaks. But as the mountain rose, so did we, the angle of our flight sharpening as we neared the Sheer. The rain was now so fierce it felt like ice, hitting exposed skin with such force that it drew blood. I shivered and tightened the hood around my face, but it didn’t really help that much. I checked theprogress of the other drakkons, but they were little more than shadows, three on one side, two on the other.
Instinct twitched. It was a formation they’d seen us fly before, even if in smaller numbers.
Kaia, I said abruptly,tell Yara and Cansu to sweep to the right, keeping in the cloud as much as practical, and come in from Esan’s side of the range.
She did so. As the two drakkons peeled away, I added,Tell the remaining three to fly directly behind us. We’ll do a single file flame run the minute we spot them.
Damage more if spread, she commented.
We need to change tactics. We can always swing around for another run once we know what we’re facing.
She made a low rumbly sound; she wasn’t in agreement about our formation, but she was willing to trust my instincts for the first run and come back for a more intense second attack.
We flew on, into the heart of the storm. Electricity crackled all around us, and the wind was so damn fierce that even Kaia struggled to fly straight. The icy rain had become a sheer gray curtain through which nothing was visible, not even the ends of Kaia’s wings.
Are you able to see where you’re going in this muck? I asked.
Is hard.
Meaning we could crash into a mountain?
Should see shadow before hit.
I am not entirely comforted by that statement.
Her amusement rumbled into my mind, and a smile briefly tugged at my lips. The wind was buffeting us sideways now, and bright flashes of deadly light danced all around us. Though none of the storm’s dangerous electricity had struck at us yet, I couldn’t help but pray for Túxn’s help getting us through. Our witches might be behind this storm, and they might have made some sort of allowance for our presence within it, but air wasnot earth, and—if the many tales I’d heard over the years about storms gaining a life and a will of their own were to be believed—tended to be harder to tame. Of course, those tales might be nothing more than stories told to trainees to instill a sense of caution, but the last thing we needed was a random lightning strike doing what the gilded riders had so far failed to do.
Eventually, the Sheer revealed itself through the gray. We flew in its shadow, following its stark line upwards, but any hope its bulk would provide some sort of windbreak was quickly lost. If anything, the air seemed even more volatile. As Kaia struggled to maintain an even flight path against the buffeting, I cranked up my inner heat and scanned the gray, looking for the riders and the soldiers. If theywerestationed on the plateau, then they would surely have watchers up here somewhere….
