He spotted Lesva in the water, clinging to a piece of wreckage. Blood dripped down the side of her face, and she looked dazed. Since she could—and would—recover quickly, it crossed his mind to ask Agrevlari to dive down and breathe fire on her, or let Vorik get close enough to swing with his sword, but the idea of attacking someone wounded in the water did not appeal to his honor. Not that she couldn’t dive and avoid both threats…
Ozlemar is aiming for your queen,Agrevlari warned.
That drew Vorik’s attention from Lesva. As he looked up to locate the threat, lightning flashed, and a jagged branch slammed into the bluff under the castle.
The vertical rock face was about where Vorik, Jhiton, and other stormers had exited the passageway they’d created to the mad god’s abandoned laboratory. Syla had said access to the nearby tunnels had been blocked and that one couldn’t get in that way again, but what if the lightning blew away a bunch of rocks? That hit had been so precisely in that area that it made Vorik wonder if an intelligence had guided it. Did the storm godwantto open access to those tunnels again? To his old laboratory?
Ozlemar descended toward theFanged Whale, and Agrevlari flew upward to intercept him, leaving Vorik no more time to muse about the bluff. He gripped his sword and met Jhiton’s eyes, his glowing inhuman eyes. Yes, there was definitely an intelligence involved here.
As more lightning branched down, striking buildings in the city and masts in the harbor, Vorik had no doubt of that. Sword in hand, he prepared to battle his brother again as Agrevlari and Ozlemar clashed.
There were dragonseverywhere. Cannons boomed, lightning struck all around, and fire streamed through the cloudy haze, flames erupting on ships, docks, and buildings.
From the deck of theFanged Whale, Syla shouted in frustration at the sky. When she’d used her magical ointment on that dragon, it had drawn a lightning strike almost immediately. She had no idea if her plan would work, if it was possible for magical lightning to recharge the reservoir of the weaponsplatform, but it was all she could think of that might. She’d spread it liberally on the reservoir, hoping that a direct strike would be more effective than the random blast at Harvest Island that had nearly killed her.
Remembering that she’d also willed some of her power into the ointment when she’d applied it to the dragon, Syla leaned her hand against a post and tried to do that again.
“Are you sure that’s not going to blow up if lightning hits it again?” Fel asked after she explained what she was doing and why. He glanced at her, though his gaze kept returning to the battle overhead.
Vorik and Jhiton were slashing at each other every time their dragons were close enough. And Agrevlari and Ozlemar attacked each other, too, using talons and fangs, each trying to tear great chunks of scaled flesh from the other. Their necks whipped about, their tails snapped, and they roared between bites, as if they were mortal enemies locked in battle for what had to be the last time. Vorik’s face was far more conflicted, his expression pained as he cut with determination for his brother. Jhiton’s face, aside from the eerily glowing eyes, was a chiseled mask of stone. There was no sign of humanity in it.
“I’m not sure at all, no,” Syla said, still trying to add power to the magic of the ointment, still hoping.
“Comforting. Where did the crazy silver-haired woman go?”
“I don’t know.” Syla had seen Captain Lesva fall into the harbor, but as the battle between brothers—and their dragons—grew more frenzied, Syla couldn’t look away from them for long.
What if Vorik had come back to her only to die scant minutes later? She’d barely gotten to hug him and hadn’t had a chance to ask him how his duel for the tribe had gone. Or to tease him about his love for blackberry cobbler. Damn it. She dashed tears from her eyes.
Agrevlari tumbled past just above the ship. Ozlemar sped after him, the dragons even more savage in their battle than their sword-wielding riders.
As if they’d been frustrated with each other for ages, they gyrated in the air, talons raking into each other’s flanks and chests. When he caught up, Ozlemar bit for Agrevlari’s head, almost breaking a horn. On the black dragon’s back, Jhiton leaned over with both swords and swung for Vorik’s throat. Vorik contorted himself, half sliding off Agrevlari on the far side, to avoid the slashing blades. How he didn’t fall off, Syla didn’t know, but he popped back up as the dragons batted their wings to fly apart and regain lost altitude. Agrevlari circled, reached a higher position, then dove for the back of the black dragon, giving Vorik an opportunity to slash Ozlemar’s tail. After drawing blood, he threw a knife toward Jhiton’s back. But his brother hadn’t lost track of him and turned, using a sword to knock the blade away.
A great rumble came from the clouds above the harbor, shaking Syla to the bone.
Watch out!Wreylith warned, disengaging from a battle of her own to fly toward the ship.
Syla echoed the warning to Fel and the crewmen as she jumped down and backed away from the weapons platform. Before she’d gone more than two steps, a huge branch of white-blue lightning shot from the clouds. It caught Ozlemar, making the black dragon screech in pain, on its way to the ship. Then it struck the weapons platform, and the air crackled and buzzed with tremendous magical energy.
Afraid she had made the wrong decision and the great marble artifact would explode, Syla jerked an arm protectively over her face. Fel did more than that. He knocked her to the deck and used his body to shield her.
The air kept sizzling, the intense power squarely striking the reservoir of the weapons platform, overwhelming Syla’s senses. Silver light flared from it, mingling with the crackling energy from the clouds. The lightning continued streaming into the weapons platform, and Syla risked squirming out from under Fel. None too soon. Wreylith had arrived, and she snatched Syla up.
If that receives more power than it can hold, it may blow up with such force that it destroys the ship,Wreylith said as she slung Syla onto her back.It may blow up all the docks and vessels in your harbor and some of the city around it.
Syla cursed and yelled for the crewmen to abandon theFanged Whale. With the brilliant lightning pouring down from the low clouds, many already had.
Fel had started for the railing but turned as a lone person climbed over it near him. Lesva, sword in hand, dripping water onto the deck, peered around. Fel glared at her and raised his mace. Lesva lifted her sword toward him as she gaped at the lightning, but she also kept looking around until she spotted Syla on Wreylith flying upward to help Agrevlari and Vorik. Despite lightning glancing off the black dragon, Ozlemar continued to fly. If anything, he looked invigorated. Jhiton retained both of his swords, and his eyes gleamed with swirling power as he urged his mount to fly at Agrevlari and Vorik.
“Crazy bastards, both of them,” Syla said, though she was sure the mad god’s hand guided them.
Agrevlari fights with us,Wreylith observed.Even though the rest of his kind are against us.
Yeah, I appreciate his help too.
If only they weren’t still so very outnumbered.
On the deck of the ship, Fel advanced toward Lesva, though he probably didn’t want that fight. She wasn’t looking at him. Her injured yellow dragon had returned, and it swooped downand plucked her up. Once she was astride its back, they flew toward Wreylith even as Wreylith flapped her wings in another direction, trying to catch Ozlemar.
