Page 99 of Of Blood and Fire
Does it burn?
No.
Is it affecting the others?
They smaller. Not touch yet.
Movement dragged my attention back to the Mareritt. Two were raising the damn cannon while several others were loading acid pouches into place.Get that fucking thing, Kaia.
She roared in agreement and unleashed her fire, creating a blanket around the cart that covered her intent. Then she banked, snapped her tail forward, and smashed it through the cart, sending it and its contents high into the air. As a pouch dropped to the ground and exploded, spraying acid into the air that was swiftly destroyed by her fire, she swooped in, grabbed the Mareritt and the cannon in her murderously large claws, and crushed them all. Once she’d released the remains, she flew on, chasing after the younger drakkons. They were burning everything they saw, but we now knew that everything we saw might not be everything that was here....
The thought had barely risen when Lura bellowed and dipped sideways, her wing half shredded.
She’d been hit by acid.
Kaia, tell her to get out of the tunnel and fly back to the Igna River so she can wash down that wing. Ask Taitia to drop her speed and fly with us.
What of fog?
It’s less dangerous to Lura than the acid right now.And I crossed mental fingers as I said that, because who the fuck knew if that was true or not? The fog tunnel continued to contract, and the buildup on Kaia’s wings was increasing. It might not be worrying her, but I couldn’t escape the notion that it was intentional. I just didn’t know why.
As Lura disappeared through the green, glowing fog and Taitia dropped back, I added,We need to find and kill the mages so we can see exactly what else is hiding underneath this shit.
How do?
I hesitated.Let’s get out of this fog and come in at them from the opposite?—
The rest was lost to Kaia’s bellow of fury. I twisted around, saw the cart and the four men armed with small tubes standing on either side of it; saw the large tube emerging into existence, getting ready to fire....
I screamed a warning. Kaia banked sharply and rolled up into the fog. It was thick and wet and weirdly felt like slime, and while it ran off my hair and clothes, it clung to Kaia’s scales. Unease once again sharpened, but I had no time think about it as she dove back into it and swept up on the wheeled tube from behind. The men around the cart spun to face us, but Kaia’s flames erased them. This cart, like the other one, was protected, so she extended her claws once again, crushing them all as efficiently as she had the other one. Then she continued, keeping low, sweeping back and forth just above the ground to ensure there was nothing else there hidden by magic.
How bad is the burn?I asked.
Hit tail.
Bad?
No retreat. We kill.
I drew in a deep breath and tried to ignore the feeling that retreat was theonlything we should be doing right now. But Esan’s safety was on the line, and it had to come first. Too many people would die if whatever tubes remained up ahead were allowed to reach the Mareritten encampment.
Hopefully, Yara and her drakkons were now attacking it, but if they had mage magic protecting the machines here, they’d have it in the encampment. Still, any chaos the others caused meant there’d be fewer Mareritt to attackusif the worst happened and we went down.
Not go down,Kaia said.Simple.
It was, except for the fact I had a really bad feeling they were specifically targetingher, perhaps convinced by the riders that she was the key, that without her, the rest of the drakkons would be directionless.
No like these feelings. Stop.
I laughed, despite everything.That’s like telling the sun to stop shining. Let’s get out of this section of the tunnel and come back at them from the front end.
She rumbled her approval, bellowed an order at Taitia, and as one, the two of them banked and cut through the fog. It continued to feel like slime and continued to cling to Kaia’s wings. I glanced across at Taitia as we flew side by side along the outside of the tunnel; where Kaia’s wings were half covered, there were only small pockets of the stuff smattered randomly across Taitia’s wings.
Is fine. Just feel heavy. Not hurt,Kaia commented.
I didn’t like the sound of it being heavy, but it didn’t seem to be affecting her ability to fly, so maybe I was worrying for nothing....
The day remained cool, but the sun was hidden behind a darkly ominous-looking bank of clouds. The air mages had promised no rain, but there was a bit of me wishing that itwould, if only to provide additional cover. Right now, we were standing out against the gray like, well, like blood on ice.
