“All right,” he says. “I’ve got you on the ship. What’s the plan?”
I make a face at him. “What plan? I have no plan! I just want to stop this thing from shooting everybody!”
His head tilts in such a way that reminds me of how he used to look in his silver helm. “Okay then. We have to clear the deck, bring the ship out to sea, and then get to the engine. Follow my lead when we’re up there. This isn’t the first time I’ve taken down one of these things.”
I raise a brow.What have you been doing these past few months?
“Ready?” he asks.
“Ready,” I say.
With one final leap, we clamber onto the deck, face to face with a crew of soldiers and goblins.
“Take the wheel!” Ezryn cries and draws a massive blade from the scabbard on his back. “I’ll deal with this lot.”
“Take the wheel?” I repeat incredulously. “I don’t know how to sail orflya ship!”
Ezryn’s blade moves with deadly precision, striking down two goblins with a single swing. “It’s easy!”
The wheel is a massive thing, forged from obsidian, the spokes sharp like fangs. A goblin stands on a box, arms stretched as far as they can go to hold on to each side of it. A sword dangles off its hip.
I draw my bow and nock an arrow. “Care to move or will I have to shoot you?”
The goblin drops the wheel and faces me, maw open in a horrible snarl. This isn’t one of our local moss-covered Briargoblins, but one of the Green Flame, its eyes glowing with infernal hatred.
“Too slow,” I growl and release the arrow with a sharp twang. It finds its mark right in the chest. The goblin staggers back. I rush forward and snatch its blade from the scabbard, draw back my arm, and sever its head from its body.
“Good luck coming back afterthat,” I growl. Quickly, I run over to the wheel and grab the spokes. “Okay, I’ve got the wheel. What now?”
“Get us out over the open water!” Ezryn cries, parrying the blow of a spear-wielding soldier. He swings his blade back, swift and sure. Already, bodies litter the deck.
“Get us out to open water,” I murmur. “Sure, can’t be that hard.”
There’s nothing left to do but try. I tighten my grip on the spokes and spin the wheel as hard as I can to the left. The ship careens to the side, deck angling upward in a sharp diagonal. A goblin screams and falls over the side of the deck to the ground below.
Ezryn steadies himself on the mast, while kicking one of the soldiers backward. He follows the goblin, tumbling overboard. “Hold her steady, Rose!”
“I’m trying!” I cry, correcting the other way. The ship balances out with a thud.
Okay, nice and easy. I can do this. I relax my fingers on the wheel and concentrate on the sea below. The ship is over Corsa Tuga, but I’ve got to get it out past the harbor. Slowly, I spin the wheel. The ship follows my command.
“That’s it!” Ezryn says. He ducks under the legs of one soldier, his blade up to cut them down the middle, before leaping to his feet and spinning in an arc that downs three goblins.
My chest heaves as the airship surges over the destroyed dock and out over the ocean. There’s only one other ship going in this direction. I recognize its crew.
Dayton runs back and forth across the deck, pointing up at us. His voice carries over the wind and hum of the engine: “Keep up with the airship! Don’t lose it!”
Delphia at the helm snarls back, “I’mthe captain! I make the orders!” She spins her own wheel, following right after us. “Keep up with the airship! Don’t lose it!”
With a grunt, Ezryn takes the head off the last soldier. Thedeck is quiet as he stands amid the pools of blood, his white shirt stained red, face speckled.
“What’s next?” I ask.
He gives a half smile. “Now, let’s crash this ugly thing. Come on.”
Warily, I leave the wheel and follow behind Ezryn. He leads me over to a metal hatch and flips it open. “My brother may have been the engineer behind these airships, but he didn’t have a way to power them. That was until he joined with the Below.”
He jumps into the hatch, not even bothering to use the ladder. I scoot down the rungs into the dim underbelly.
