“More dragons are coming in from the back half of the island!” someone yelled.
As her mount flew closer, Lesva aimed a bow at Syla.
Syla launched a projectile, tempted to aim at the rider instead of the dragon, but fire spewed from the blue’s throat, close enough to engulf the side of theStormslicer. Even as Lesva loosed her arrow, balls of energy streaked straight at her mount. Syla ducked behind one of the posts as her projectiles landed, one taking the blue dragon in the shoulder and the other in its chest.
A gargoyle-bone arrow streaked between the posts, grazing Syla’s shoulder and raising fiery pain, but she kept from crying out. The blue dragon’s wings had stopped beating, and it plummeted toward the sea. Unlike the other rider, Lesva remained on her mount, even twisting to shoot two more arrows as it fell.
Shoulder burning, Syla ducked lower, but lightning flashed in the dark sky, and she glimpsed more dragons coming from the other side of the ship. Arms stretched up, hands on the marks, Syla willed two more projectiles to race toward their enemies and protect theStormslicer.
Lesva’s last arrow sped toward her head, and, with weariness sapping her energy, Syla couldn’t dive away. The projectiles shotout of the weapons platform, deterring the dragons, but the arrow?—
One of the Royal Protectors leaped in front of Syla. The arrow pierced his chest and he cried out, tumbling below the edge of the weapons platform. He landed on his back within her view, face twisted in pain, but he met her eyes.
“Defend us, my queen,” he whispered.
“I will,” she managed, though she was stunned that he’d sacrificed himself for her.
Determined not to waste his life, she rose up again and summoned more of her flagging energy to fire further projectiles. Lesva’s blue dragon floated in the waves, not moving. Syla didn’t see Lesva and hoped she’d landed under the dragon and was dead too, but she doubted it. That woman had fallen off a cliff and survived.
We are coming,Wreylith spoke into Syla’s mind.With allies.
Thank you!Syla replied, relieved.
With dragons everywhere now, she felt overwhelmed, but she kept firing, keeping them away from her ship and the fleet the best that she could. In the distance, more dragons appeared, flying from the east, the mainland. Since Wreylith had gone in the opposite direction, those wouldn’t be her allies.
She spotted a green dragon at the lead. Was that Agrevlari? And Vorik?
Before she could feel any relief at seeing him, she realized a black dragon flew at his side. The general’s big beast. With his brother watching, Vorik wouldn’t be able to help her. And all those dragons and riders flying behind Vorik? They had to be his allies, his fellow stormers. They must have heard that Harvest Island was under attack and had come to help.
Fel saw them too and swore vehemently. He wasn’t the only one. As the crewmen fired cannons and tried to put out flames, they groaned and cursed.
“Sail toward the harbor!” the fleet commander called.
Thunder crashed overhead. Lightning flashed, but no branches arched down to strike the riders. The gods, it seemed, would only help so much.
With exhaustion making her legs leaden, Syla struggled to remain upright and launching projectiles. Each burst streaked inevitably toward an enemy, but each also sapped more of her strength.
“Moredragons?” someone demanded, pointing toward the southwest.
“The red one is at the lead!” another man cried. “Is that the queen’s dragon?”
Syla peered in that direction, struggling to see detail through her spectacles, the lenses dotted with water, rain spattering the side of her face with each gust of wind. A red dragonwasleading several others and coming from the direction of the rest of the island chain, and a small orange dragon flew at her side.
Wreylith, Syla said with certainty.
You have made a mess in my absence.
The mess came to me.
Keep blasting that contraption at them. I’ve found dragons to assist us but not nearly as many asyou’vefound.
We should have spied more thoroughly last night.
Clearly.
Six dragons trailed behind Wreylith and Igliana, but Syla feared they wouldn’t be enough to combat General Jhiton’s forces, especially with her energy flagging.
Still, as she willed more of her waning power into the weapons platform, she realized there were only a few dragons flying in the air above the fleet. With the help of the gods’ device, she’d brought down many of their attackers. A half-dozen dragons floated in the waves, and had more disappeared beneath them? Sinking dead below the choppy surface?
