That happened in the past. It didn’t go well for Iskandia. Sardelle realized Eversong wouldn’t know that history, unless she had been in this era long enough to study events of the last millennium.
It will be better this time, when I rule.
Sardelle almost tripped. What?
The new emperor has promised me Iskandoth for my assistance here. Eversong almost purred the words into Sardelle’s mind. With so few left in the world with any power, ruling will be a simple matter.
So much for building a rapport with the woman. Sardelle couldn’t even feign to share this interest with her. You’ll find that much has changed, that people fear magic, and will risk everything to get rid of it. Sardelle thought of the queen and her organization and of those soldiers who had destroyed the Referatu three centuries ago.
Eversong sneered. Their fear means nothing, except that they will be easy to cow, easy to lead. In time, they will accept me as their ruler. And their only choice.
“I think I see it,” Tolemek whispered. He pointed into the gloom ahead.
At least Sardelle had succeeded in distracting the sorceress. Nobody had opened the trapdoor yet. They ought to have time to—
A great screech ripped through the air, and light poured down from above. Sardelle staggered back, imagining some explosive had been launched. Her heel caught on a bolt sticking up out of the floor, and she barely managed to keep from falling. She gaped up a ten-foot-wide hole in the ceiling, at the gleaming golden armor of the woman standing on the rim of it. Eversong smirked down at Sardelle, even as she held her soulblade aloft, the weapon shimmering blue in the air.
Do it now, Tolemek, Sardelle cried into his mind, even as she stepped forward and reached for Jaxi’s hilt.
She worried she would burn her hand on the pommel, but the leather wrapping the hilt wasn’t so hot that she could not draw her blade. A good thing, because Eversong only held her smirk for a couple of seconds. Then she leaped down, landing lightly on her feet. In that move, she displayed an agility that Sardelle could only dream of unless Jaxi was helping her.
No, she was trained as a warrior at the same time as she learned magic. Jaxi sounded so weary that Sardelle feared her blade might go limp in her hand.
No, but he drained me. I’ll do my best to help, but—
Eversong did not give them time to finish the conversation. She lunged forward, her blade leaving a blue streak in the sky as it swung toward Sardelle’s head.
With Jaxi’s help, Sardelle made the block in time, but the sheer power that rocketed up her arm made every joint from her knuckles to her shoulder hurt. More than a woman’s usual strength lay behind those blows.
Sardelle ducked the second strike. Eversong’s blade swept over her head and struck a machine so hard, it lodged into the metal. Steam spat out, startling the woman.
Sardelle tried to take advantage, leaping in and slashing toward Eversong’s exposed side. Jaxi ought to be able to bite through that armor.
Before they could find out, Eversong lifted her free hand. Raw power hurled Sardelle ten feet, her boots torn from the ground. She slammed into the side of some machine, the blow knocking all the air from her lungs.
“Need thirty seconds,” came a quick whisper from behind her. She had been flung in Tolemek’s direction.
Only the knowledge that he was back there with a mission to accomplish gave Sardelle the strength to climb to her feet. She charged at Eversong. It might be suicidal, but she had to be the distraction. She was the only one who could keep Eversong from seeing what Tolemek was doing—and stopping him.
A firearm rang out as Sardelle swung. She half expected a bullet to slam into her back, but nothing hurt her except the power of Eversong’s block.
That’s Kaika. She’s shooting the soldiers who have crept to the rim of the hole and are thinking of shooting you. Also, I can cut through that armor, but it won’t be easy. Jaxi frowned. Those are dragon scales that were molded with pure magic. I hate to say it, but this is the battle where Kasandral would have been more useful.
There’s no way he could be more useful than you. Sardelle hoped the encouragement would help. She kept raining blows at Eversong, but the woman blocked them easily. Only once did Sardelle manage to feint, then slip through her defenses. Jaxi left a knick in the fancy golden armor, but that was it.
Sorry.
Not your fault.
Eversong grew bored of defending and took back the offensive, her sword slicing through the air with the speed of bullets. Her soulblade’s blue glow and Jaxi’s red were a blur of color that mingled before Sardelle’s eyes. A few times, Eversong hit the machinery again, and every time something clunked loudly or steam burst out, it seemed to surprise her. She would be even less familiar with modern technology than Sardelle had been when she had awakened. Sardelle wished she could think of a way to take advantage of that.
Eversong thrust her free hand toward Sardelle, fingers splayed. Sensing the wave of energy before it was released, Sardelle poured all of her energy into creating a shield, both to protect herself and also to protect Tolemek who was somewhere behind her. She felt Jaxi adding power to the shield an instant before the crackling blast of electricity flew from Eversong’s fingers. It was identical to the energy ball she had hurled at the fliers. When it slammed into Sardelle’s barrier, she deflected the burst, but the power staggered her, knocking her to her knees. The deflected electricity arced all over the room, throwing light and shadows and starting fires. The scent of charred wiring stung the air.
We can’t block many like that, Jaxi said. You should probably keep her from doing that.
No kidding.
After flinging the energy ball, Eversong had advanced several steps. She must have sensed that Tolemek was back there doing something to the dragon blood. Though Sardelle wanted nothing more than to get out of the way, to accept that she was overmatched and would likely get herself killed, she gritted her teeth and pushed herself to her feet. She advanced to block the woman.
“Sardelle,” came a warning from behind her. Tolemek.
Since Eversong had pushed her back, Sardelle was no longer under the hole in the ceiling. They had drawn close to where he was working on the dragon blood. Too close. Even though the battle was keeping Sardelle busy, and sweat streamed down her face, she could feel the power of that blood behind her. She tried to plant her feet, to defend without giving ground. If they failed here… they would fail everywhere. The capital would fall. Iskandia would follow.
“Duck,” Tolemek yelled.
Even though she feared she would be cleaved in half when she did so, Sardelle obeyed. At Jaxi’s behest, she also threw herself backward, rolling away from Eversong. The other soulblade came down like an axe, biting into the metal floor where Sardelle had been standing.
Thanks, Sardelle thought.
As she jumped to her feet, something flew over her head. A grenade?
Sardelle scrambled back even farther and would have kept going except that she smacked into Tolemek. He was rolling a second grenade across the floor, this one angled toward a big machine beside Eversong. As soon as Tolemek released his weapon, he grabbed her around the waist and hefted her from her feet. Sardelle tried to protest—his grenades wouldn’t do anything to stop the sorceress; she would simply deflect or destroy them—but he was leaping over a snarl of pipes and dragging her away from the light of the hole.
“Tolemek, we—”
The first explosion went off, the roar of the boom echoing throughout the cavernous engine room. Sardelle glimpsed Eversong standing in the midst of the flames, an invisible shield shimmering around her, a bored expression on her face. Then Tolemek was hauling Sardelle down an aisle, and she lost sight of the sorceress. Between the fight and his manhandling, she had lost her sense of direction too. Was he running for the trapdoor? If so, they would climb out only to be surrounded by soldiers.
A second explosion rang out, this one ten times more powerful than the first. The floor shu
ddered, and machinery toppled as Tolemek ran. Bangs sounded all around them, almost like rifle shots, but she realized machinery was toppling over, and pieces of the ceiling were tumbling down. Tolemek almost smacked into a beam as it crashed to the floor in front of them. He backed up, coughing and wiping his eyes. Sardelle took the moment to squirm from his shoulder. Tiny particles of debris clouded the air. Shards of metal flew everywhere. Another boom came from behind them, an entire chain of booms. Something heavy crashed through the ceiling from back in the direction of the hole.
“This way,” Tolemek rasped. He crawled his way over the beam.
Whatever was going on back there, the sorceress was not communicating to Sardelle anymore, nor did she feel that presence wrapping around her, threatening to smash her heart. She risked using her power to create a light in front of them. Tolemek picked up his speed, though when another explosion happened, this time to their side, he was pitched into a tangle of wires. Jaxi blazed, incinerating them.
Feeling better now that your twin isn’t bothering you? Sardelle helped Tolemek to his feet. He grimaced, having twisted an ankle, but he led the way again.
No, and get moving. That acid of his is eating through the container quickly.
That was the idea. Sardelle leaped over another downed beam. If they have time to find the problem and fix it… She cut off the thought, worried the sorceress might be monitoring their conversation somehow.
Yes, but if you’re still on this flying contraption when it falls out of the sky, that’s going to be a problem.
I see your point. Sardelle ducked a tangle of wires and spotted the ladder leading to the trapdoor up ahead. Someone already stood beside it. Kaika, her face covered with soot again. Can you tell Ridge we’re ready for our pickup? She wasn’t sure if he would be close enough for her to contact.
I already told him.
And?
He’s having some troubles and isn’t in his original flier anymore, the flier with the back seat.
Erg?
He can’t get in touch with the rest of his people, either.
How are we going to get out of here, Jaxi?
Working on it, but Mr. Forsooth is still harassing me from under his pile of machinery. He—
Jaxi?
“Hope you all liked my explosions,” Kaika said as they approached. “And hope the witch didn’t.”
“Up.” Tolemek leaped for the rungs. “We have seconds, not minutes.”
Kaika cursed and followed him up.
Tolemek hefted the door, but only a few inches. He tossed a knockout grenade through before climbing out.
“Don’t we need to wait?” Sardelle imagined running through the gas and dropping to the floor, unconscious. They could fall to their deaths without ever waking up.
One more boom echoed, this time from the floor above instead of the machine room below.
“Never mind,” Sardelle said, realizing that had not been a knockout grenade.
Tolemek had already climbed out, with Kaika on his heels. Sardelle scampered up the ladder, but couldn’t help but reach into the chaos behind them—bombs were still going off—to check on the sorceress. Eversong was alive, but under a pile of rubble. Even her shields hadn’t been able to keep her from being buried. Kaika had been placing her bombs as a distraction, or perhaps to do damage to key machinery, but Tolemek must have thrown his very specifically, to drop the ceiling and a few tons of machinery on the woman. That first one had only been a distraction.
“Sardelle,” Tolemek barked down. “We need your help.”
“Coming.” Hoping Eversong would still be pinned when the fortress fell from the air, Sardelle pulled herself out of the hole to join the others. They had to figure out how to get off this flying monstrosity before it was too late.
Chapter 17
If Ridge’s chest hadn’t hurt so much, he would have been grinning, huge battle notwithstanding. Given the overall situation, he shouldn’t have been pleased, especially since he hadn’t yet figured out how he was going to pick up Sardelle, but the mischief he was able to wreak from within the Cofah flier tickled him. Oh, the maneuverability of the craft left much to be desired, but he kept finding it possible to sneak up on the enemy formations. Though he wore a different uniform, he slouched in the cockpit, and his cap and goggles and scarf did not appear any different from what the other side used. After sailing along with the Cofah squadrons, he lit into them, tearing holes into their engines and pounding the backs of their cockpits. When the pilots looked behind to see who was firing on them, he looked behind him, as if craning his neck to spot some vile Iskandian. Then he ran off to torment other fliers before they figured out what was happening. It felt like cheating, but this was an attack on his homeland, and he would use any advantage he could find to get rid of these invaders. He took down eight aircraft with his new trick before Jaxi’s voice sounded in his mind.
We need that pickup, or your favorite sword is going to drown.
Kasandral is here?
I’d melt your balls off for that, but I’m too tired. Jaxi did sound tired. Ridge hadn’t heard that before, and his gut furled into a tense worried knot. Sardelle must have tangled with the sorceress.
Is she all right, Jaxi?
She will be if you get us off this smoking pile of dung in the next thirty seconds.
Thirty seconds? Ridge glanced at the spot on the control panel where there should have been a chronometer, but the Cofah had left out that feature. Cursing, he fumbled in his pocket for his watch, the slight touch to his chest causing a fresh blast of pain. They had four minutes until the scheduled pickup.
Tolemek’s concoction is eating up the dragon blood right now, and Kaika set off a few million bombs too. We don’t have four minutes.
Understood. I’ll get the others. Get up on top of one of the back towers so we can see you.
How Ridge would “get the others” without being shot himself remained to be seen. Thus far, he had been avoiding the Iskandian fliers, so they wouldn’t target him by accident. Now, he flew toward the other side of the platform, where Ahn, Pimples, Duck, and Solk had just swept back into view. With the sorceress gone, they had been flying up and shooting the soldiers atop the walls, then ducking back under the platform, so they could come up on the other side. Solk had another two-person flier, so if Ridge could figure out how to tell her to go to the pickup spot, they could successfully get their people out. Unfortunately, Solk and Duck were too distracted to look in his direction.
Wait, Jaxi? he thought as he veered in their direction to help. Can you tell Cas to come get you? I’m not able to communicate with the others, right now.
Jaxi did not respond. Ridge feared he had waited too long to remember that she had spoken with some of the others before and presumably could again. She was probably too busy fighting to monitor him constantly.
“Damn,” he whispered, both because he had missed an opportunity and because his people were in trouble.
Eight of the Iskandian fliers were hanging with Ahn, Pimples, Duck, and Solk, shooting indiscriminately. Countless bullets riddled the side of Duck’s craft, and Solk looked to be struggling with her steering. Ridge hoped the enemy squadron would run out of ammo. He also hoped that Ahn had told the others to watch out for a friendly Cofah flier, since he still had no way to communicate with the rest of his squadron.
Ridge would have preferred to go straight in and join his squadron, but that would put him into the line of fire from the fliers chasing them. Instead, he angled in from ahead and to the side of them. Ignoring the pain it stirred, he stood slightly in his cockpit—something nobody else would do, because nobody else should have harnesses that had been cut away. He waved, his fingers curled into the Iskandian pilots’ all right/ready gesture.
Ahn spotted him. She raised a hand toward him, and he pointed upward several times, making his gestures dramatic so she couldn’t miss them. Two of the fliers on their tails had just fired rockets. For the last few minutes, Ridge h
adn’t had to worry about those, since they seemed to have a built-in command not to lock onto their own fliers. Solk and Duck didn’t have that luxury.
Ahn and Pimples dove down, probably intending to loop and come up behind their pursuers. Ridge rose up to skim along near the thrusters, hoping the Cofah would pass him without a second glance, but he was already turning to follow those rockets. Solk and Duck were both good, but he wasn’t sure they were good enough—or maybe the term was reckless enough—to perform the moves he had been doing to wreck the rockets. They zigzagged all over the sky to elude them, but he knew from experience that those blood-powered weapons would simply alter course and continue after their targets.
The sleek rockets were faster than fliers, so Ridge struggled to get behind them and put them in the sights of his guns without placing his own people there, as well. One zoomed so close to Solk that Ridge feared for her life. Some instinct warned her to duck in the cockpit and dive down as the rocket skimmed past, nearly knocking her cap from her head.
As it banked to come back toward her, Ridge saw his chance to catch up with it. Wishing for Ahn’s deadly accuracy, he sprayed rounds at it. The slender, fast-moving cylinder did not offer a large target, but at least two of his bullets smacked off it; he was certain of it. The rocket wobbled briefly, then continued on its inexorable path, picking up speed as it chased Solk.
“Up,” Ridge yelled, and pointed at the thrusters, though it was probably futile. She wouldn’t hear him over all of the noise.
He pushed his flier, trying to gain ground again. For an instant, he was behind the rocket and Solk’s flier was not square in front of him. He took a second to aim carefully and shot it in the back. Four directional flaps controlled its path, and he had the satisfaction of knocking one off. He would have preferred if the entire rocket blew up spectacularly, but the damage was enough. With its ability to steer compromised, the rocket sailed off uselessly into the distance.
Ridge searched around for Duck. He glimpsed him flying downward with smoke wafting from his engine. Ridge cursed, both because he didn’t know if that damage was something that Duck would be able to land with and because that stole one more of his people who was supposed to be available for the pickup.