A dragon’s cries may travel a great distance.
More than five miles?
Many more. A wolf’s howl can carry ten, and dragons are, naturally, superior to lupines.
Vocally superior too?
Certainly.
Another screech floated to Syla’s ears, and she winced as she stepped past the Royal Protectors to climb onto the platform.I’m not sure vocally superior is the right adjective to describe that particular dragon.
I will agree on that matter. Are you going to engage in battle? I will attempt to get past these presumptuous dragons who block my way.
Do you want help?Syla placed herself between two posts and rested her hands on the marks, though, now that she believed the weapons platform could only fire a certain number of rounds before being depleted, she was loath to send them off carelessly.
To stop Agrevlari’s caterwauling?
A magical silver energy ball down his throat may achieve that,Syla replied, though she couldn’t imagine attacking Vorik’s dragon. Even if Vorik was skulking around the ship, plotting ways to kidnap her and destroy her weapons platform, she struggled to think of him as an enemy. “Which is a problem,” she admitted softly.
Tibby glanced at her. “Are we going to attack the dragons?” She touched her chest, then pointed at Syla.
“Unless they leave of their own accord,” Syla said.
“You should blast them whether they show signs of leaving or not,” Fel said. “The stormers have already sneaked into the city and burned buildings. There may be Kingdom subjects lying dead in the streets. And we don’t know if the island lord or someone else who knows where the shielder is might have been kidnapped.”
Syla didn’t explain the possibly limited reservoir in the weapons platform, saying only, “That is something we need todetermine. It looks like we’re angling to head up the river toward the docks. We’ll see if the stormers oppose us.”
“We have to attack them, not sailpastthem.”
Syla waved toward the fleet commander and major—they were stepping into the wheelhouse. They hadn’t consulted her, but it wasn’t as if she had vast military experience, so she didn’t fault them for that. She was here to man the weapons platform.
“It’s such a beautiful island.” Tibby gazed toward the lush green landscape. “It’s a shame the stormers are targeting it.”
“All of our islands are beautiful in one way or another,” Syla said.
“True, but this one has the salt mine too. That’s an important resource for the Kingdom, and it’s full of history and something of a national treasure.”
“I remember the ancient carvings from my family’s visit years ago.”
“The mine itself is magnificent. An engineering marvel. I worked there for several months during an internship. Before I decided to specialize in agricultural engineering, I helped ensorcel some of the large drills, borers, and excavators.”
“So, the mine has significance because there are machines you touched down there.” Syla smiled faintly.
“I designed andbuilta couple of them.”
“Which involved touching.”
“A lot of it, yes.”
As the fleet sailed closer, the dragons circling in the area glanced toward the weapons platform, then flew farther out to sea. They didn’t leave entirely, however, and more dragons were visible in the distance. Was that green one Agrevlari? And, yes, there was Wreylith’s red-scaled form beyond him. Agrevlari and other dragons were flying toward her. To intercept her.
Syla clenched her fist, wanting to urge Wreylith to come but also worried about her. As great and powerful as she was, she couldn’t fight so many.
Unlike the dragons, the stormer ships moved closer to the Kingdom fleet.
“Are they going to barricade the river?” Tibby wondered.
The stormer ships weren’t positioning themselves to block the way but to ensure the fleet would have to pass well within their cannon range to reach the docks.
