Caris nodded jerkily, cupping her hands together in front of her. She squeezed her eyes shut and reached for the aether, channeling it into their plane until it seeped out of her in the form of starfire, all flickering, white-gold heat in her hands. She fed it more power until it coiled around her forearms, almost like a living thing. Caris gripped the starfire in both hands and half rose from her crouch, raising her arms over her head and casting it outward over the security tower’s wall.
She spread her fingers wide as the starfire fell to the ground, expanding in size and rolling like a wave once it hit. It felt like a thread unraveling from the center of her chest, her awareness spreading outward without her say-so. She coaxed the starfire to burn hotter, to move quicker, guiding it toward the water as if it were a prairie wildfire with nothing to limit its spread.
The screams of those trapped on the ground were filled with agony, but they didn’t last all that long. Their eventual silence wasn’t a comfort, for Caris knew it was her power, her magic, her hand that had killed them. She straightened up, her head clearing the edge of the stone railing, watching as the sea of starfire swallowed the ground between the fort and the water and burned it black.
She clenched her hands into fists and yanked her arms back, pulling the starfire with her. It faded as it rolled back, leaving behind nothing, not even bodies, because bone could burn to ash at a high enough temperature.
Nothing on Maricol burned hotter than starfire.
Caris staggered once she released her connection to the aether, head throbbing, but less so than it had in the past. Then Nathaniel was there to hold her up, arm wrapped around her waist to steady her. “Are you all right?”
Caris swallowed against a throat gone dry. “Yes.”
He asked her that same question over and over throughout the many hours it took to withstand an attempted siege of the fort, and she always, always lied.
Twelve
HONOVI
The Warden’s Island was burned black around the fort, the shrubs and summer grass nothing more than ash when theCelestial Spriteanchored by the main gate inside the wall. The few hangar bays in the airfield were nothing but rubble now, so the crew anchored as if they were in the mountain peaks.
Temporary anchor berths were dropped, the clawlike contraptions digging into the fort wall for support, the only stone around. Lines were winched tight as the airship dropped nearly to the ground, its hull hovering a few meters over scorched dirt. Honovi stayed at the controls until Caoimhe gave the all clear.
“I’m keeping the crew on watch,” Caoimhe said grimly as they left the flight deck.
Honovi nodded, glancing up at the darkening sky. The battle to keep the Daijalan forces out of the fort had lasted hours. They’d run out of bombs well before that, forced to ration their limited supplies on targeted drops. They only had one war airship, while the soldiers had plenty of Urovan submersibles.
What no one had accounted for was Caris and her starfire.
That sort of power had ravaged the land and the submersibles surrounding the fort, melting metal along the shoreline and leaving no one alive. The Daijalans had resorted to firing from the water, intent on bombing the wardens into submission. There’d been more forces on the land past the lake, ready with more submersibles to bring to the fight. Honovi had passed along that information to the wardens halfway through the battle.
The wardens’ governor’s response had been curt at the time. “The tithes will prove their worth.”
Honovi hadn’t known what that meant until perhaps an hour after that brief communication. They’d done a wide circle back to the mainland to get eyes on the enemy forces there and had arrived in time to see a horde of revenants—both humanoid and animal—attacking the soldiers in the launch area. The revenants had been followed by wardens and tithes, the soldiers unprepared to be flanked by such a threat.
Honovi had done another flyby over that area before the sun fully set. Submersibles had been set aflame in shallow waters, body parts scattered across the pebbled beach. TheCelestial Spritehad picked up the wardens and tithes once the fighting had died down on the island, bringing them on board. The outside deck was crowded, but the wardens and tithes were good about staying out of the way as the crew worked.
Rope ladders were thrown over the railing, and Honovi saw the wardens and tithes off the airship first. A few had minor wounds they’d seen to themselves, but none which made it difficult to disembark. Once they had boots on the ground, Honovi hauled himself over the railing with practiced ease and descended the rope ladder to the rubble-strewn street.
The main gate had taken a beating, its doors damaged and hanging off broken hinges. Sentinel-class automatons stood guard around it, their Zip gun arms pointed at the shoreline and lake. The dark would hide the damage to the fort, but Honovi had seen enough while in the air to know recovery would take time.
He turned to face the small group waiting for him amidst the damage of a building that had been bombed. Caris stood there, covered in dust and dirt, her gas mask hanging off her belt. Nathaniel stood beside her, carrying a pistol in his hand.
Blaine wasn’t with them.
Honovi stilled, gaze settling on Caris’ tense figure. She looked a little too pale, exhaustion giving her skin an almost gray cast in the gas lamp light. “Where is Blaine?”
She stared at him, eyes wide in her narrow face. “Alive, but not here.”
“Where?”
“We had a traitor in our midst who sold us out for a profit. Sold your husband, too,” Delani said from behind Caris.
Honovi lurched forward a step, ears ringing as if he’d taken a blow to the head. “What?”
Delani was covered in dust, blood staining a bandage that had been wrapped around her upper left arm. A long scratch was scabbed over her cheek but not stitched. The wardens’ governor walked with a faint limp as she approached the group, pistol in hand, gloved finger resting against the trigger guard. She came to a stop beside Caris, eyeing him. “My thanks for your air support.”
“I don’t want your thanks. I want myhusband. What happened?”
