All of that went through Vanya’s mind as Javier handed him a spyglass. Vanya pressed it carefully to one of the lenses of his brass goggles, peering through it at the horde of revenants. The Legion was targeting the closest segment of the walking dead with poison bombs and other kinds of explosives. Bullets seemed to do nothing to keep them down, merely tore them to pieces that kept wanting to move. Fire was the only thing that had ever kept their people safe, and Vanya meant to do his duty to Solaria.
“I’ll aim for the rear of the horde and bring the starfire as close as I can,” Vanya said before passing back the spyglass. “Have the legionnaires focus their efforts close to the wall to drive them into my starfire.”
“Understood,” Javier said, already pulling out his televox. They’d traveled with a portable communications tower that was currently set up on the other side of the plaza, giving them a solid line of communication.
Vanya extended his arms in front of him, palms facing outward. He reached for the aether and drew its power through him, starfire erupting into existence around his hands. It burned molten hot, a white-gold flicker of ferocious heat that he sent streaking into the sky like a comet, one volley at a time. The bursts of starfire landed amidst the horde like a match landing in drought-dry kindling.
Starfire ripped through the revenants, fed by the dried-out husks of the walking dead who’d suffered since Rixham had been walled off all those years ago. They went up in flames, and Vanya guided his starfire through the revenant horde with fierce concentration.
Shouts from below resulted in a pause of attack as the legionnaires repositioned their artillery for closer attacks. The revenants tried to escape the starfire by lurching closer to the wall, but they were met by explosions driven by poison bombs that would hopefully incapacitate them.
Vanya flexed his fingers before initiating another volley of starfire, aiming farther to the left than before. He wanted to box the revenants in as much as possible, giving the Legion time to work on eradicating them with warden help. The sky turned hazy with smoke and ash, muting some of the eye-watering brightness of the rising sun that Vanya was staring into.
He squinted through his brass goggles, the rasp of his breathing through the gas mask filters loud in his ears, thrumming through his jawbone. He turned on his feet, concentrating to guide the starfire from a distance.
“A warden is requesting you pull the left flank of your starfire barrier closer to the wall. Revenants are trying to escape in that direction,” Javier said.
Vanya nodded and curled his fingers, starfire mimicking the motion as the searing heat of that fiery wall drew ever closer to the frontier town. “Any luck on air support yet?”
“The squadron over Temetry isn’t scheduled to leave for our position until midday.”
The Legion only had a certain number of military airships at their disposal for use of aerial bombardment on revenants. Some of those squadrons had been shifted out of Ashion once E’ridia joined the fight. More than half of those had been positioned at Solaria’s major cities in preparation for defense against the oncoming horde. The rest were meant to fill in the gaps in the vast expanse of open land and poison fields the Legion was fighting within to build a bulwark against the revenant horde. Vanya knew it might not be enough to make a difference.
“We’ll make do.”
He kept most of his attention on the starfire he controlled, keeping it contained within the revenant horde as it scorched the earth. He fought to keep it from expanding beyond the area, unwilling to risk the threat of a grassfire. Summer might be over, with the Eagle Constellation rising in the sky in honor of the Dusk Star, but that didn’t mean the brittle dryness of the desert and hill country would see rainstorms just yet.
Vanya was only distantly aware of the defensive maneuvers happening within the ranks on the wall, most of his attention on burning through revenants without damaging the tracks. Yadvir remained by his side, a constant presence working in tandem with Javier to guard him. Being so high up on the observation platform made him a target, but Vanya wasn’t about to hide.
So focused was he on the shifting line of starfire that he missed the initial conversation Javier was having with someone through the televox. He didn’t miss when both Javier and Yadvir shouted a warning practically in his ears.
“Get down!” Yadvir cried out, lending action to his words by yanking Vanya to the floor of the observation platform.
Javier instantly dropped as well, bullets peppering the air where they’d been standing and pinging against the body of the observation platform. A roar went up amongst the legionnaires on the ground and wall, a furious sound that was drowned out by an explosion on the groundinsidethe frontier town.
Yadvir snapped his wrist, wand cutting through the air as aether fled the clarion crystal tip. Magic surrounded them in a glittering golden shield while Javier lurched toward the control panel, grabbing for the radio that kept them in contact with the pilot. “Take us down!”
No sooner had he spoken than the gears clicked and metal screeched as the observation platform shuddered, descending toward the ground. Vanya shoved himself up onto one elbow. “Thank you.”
Yadvir smiled, more a baring of teeth than anything else. “No thanks needed, Your Imperial Majesty.”
“Do we know who was shooting?”
“A legionnaire on the wall. It looks like others took him down.”
“We’ll check if they’re arionetka,” Javier said.
If they were a fanatic instead, it still would not change Vanya’s course of action. He would continue to remain in the south, moving from town to city and back again, doing all that he could to burn revenants into ash with starfire. It was the least that he owed Solaria.
The observation deck settled on the ground with a judder. Javier kept a hand on Vanya’s shoulder, speaking into his televox. After a moment, a pair ofpraetorialegionnaires hustled up to the railing, and Yadvir retracted his shield only after Javier gave the command.
“We’ve confirmation the attacker was arionetka,” the shorter woman reported.
Javier offered Vanya his hand, helping him to his feet. “Their rank?”
“No rank, sir. Enlisted.”
Javier met Vanya’s gaze. “We should get you under cover.”
