Chapter 14
Abigail nudged Kallistos into a shallow dive, Magda riding her right wing, two more Sky Knights in formation trailing behind them. This was her favorite moment. They’d been flying for hours, gliding on the wind, covering distance to the coastline and then floating above the shore toward the first of the shipyards. Tipping her wyvern forward, feeling the exhilaration of acceleration, the wind drowning out everything but her thoughts, leaning into her steed’s neck, descending toward her target, she forgot all of her concerns-the present moment eclipsed past and future, thrusting her into a place where there is only now.
With a slap against his coarse hide, Kallistos flared his wings, rapidly slowing their descent until he was nearly hovering on the wind. It was crushing, but Abigail expected it; she pressed herself against her wyvern’s neck and waited out the pressure of such sudden slowing, then sat up into the calm that followed, throwing her firepot very deliberately before coaxing Kallistos into a climb just moments after it was away. She watched the clay pot filled with liquid fire shatter harmlessly against the shield covering the single-berth shipyard cut into a secluded cove on the north coast of Fellenden.
She turned away, back toward Fellenden City, still looking over her shoulder as her scout team followed her lead. A dozen drakini tried to give chase, but the wyverns easily outpaced them.
***
“It is as we feared,” Abigail said. Her most trusted advisors were seated around the long table, and scores of officers lined the walls of the room. “Zuhl has established at least five shipyards along the northern coast. Each is protected by a powerful magical shield and several drakini.”
“Beg pardon, My Lady,” said a commander in the Fellenden legions. “What’s a drakini?”
Abigail nodded to Magda.
The Reishi triumvir stood, prim and with perfect poise, nodding deferentially to the officer who’d raised the question, then facing the assembly with grim purpose and sobering presence. “Drakini are a creation of Zuhl, the blending of dragon and man. They stand seven feet tall with blue-scaled hide that’s proof against steel. They have broad powerful wings, a long snout lined with needle-sharp teeth, and claws capable of rending flesh from bone. Also, they breathe frost cold enough to paralyze even the most hearty warrior.”
“How do we fight such a thing?” another commander asked, this one from the Ithilian Army.
“Most of you won’t,” Abigail said. “Prince Conner will lead the bulk of our ground forces against Irondale. We’ll leave two legions of the Fellenden Army commanded by Prince Torin to guard the city, while the remainder of our forces will move to destroy Zuhl’s best foothold on Fellenden. Nine wizards, including Mage Dax and Wizard Sark, will lend support to the assault along with two wings of Sky Knights.
“Forty-seven ships of the Ithilian Navy left Elsmere three days ago. Two wings of Sky Knights, led by Flight Commander Corina will coordinate with them to systematically destroy Zuhl’s shipyards … and his ships, if the opportunity presents itself. These wings will include nearly all of the witches in the flight, since they’ll need magic to defeat the shields.
“Zuhl outnumbers us. His army is bigger than all other armies in the Seven Isles put together. As long as his soldiers remain on the Isle of Zuhl, they’re no threat to the world. Let loose, they’re the end of us all.
“The attack on Irondale is cleanup work, necessary and vital, but not worth one single life on our side. Zuhl has abandoned over four legions of his men, choosing to send his ships to establish other shipyards rather than reinforce his foothold on Fellenden.
“He’s forsaken those men, but we have not. Play on their fear, poison their courage with messages of the truth, tell them in every way possible that Zuhl has abandoned them. Use their doubt against them to break their resolve and gain entrance to the city … then kill them all.
“Zuhl cannot be allowed to control Irondale. His men hold to a code of conduct that does not accept surrender-they will fight to the death, and that makes this a hard business. I would burn Irondale were it not for the countless innocent people within its walls living in terror of Zuhl and in hope of our arrival.
“That leaves brute force … or something else. I’m hoping that Conner and the wizards under his command will find that something else.”
“I have something in mind,” Conner said, with a polite nod.
“I suspected you might,” Abigail said. She had worked closely with both Conner and Torin over the past weeks; both men had proven to be dedicated to the Old Law and willing to learn at every opportunity. Both had become her friends, familiar and close, trusted and relied upon. She feared for them both, even as she placed them in harm’s way.
“The Ithilian Navy and the Sky Knights will bring the fight to the shipyards and destroy them one after the next,” Abigail said. “Good hunting.”
***
Abigail floated easily on the high winds, Magda at her right, looking down at two wings of Sky Knights lining up to begin their attack runs. Nearly fifty wyverns flying in two strict V-formations began to shift into four columns.
As the attack began, each Sky Knight in the first wave cast a spell … a blue orb shot forth from each in turn, each orb hitting the shield and weakening it. A single witch wouldn’t be able to collapse such a powerful shield, but two dozen, each casting the spell in succession, brought the shield down on the first pass.
The next wing threw firepots into the recently constructed berth, igniting it with dozens of orange splashes of liquid fire. Nearly a thousand men scattered into the forest, fleeing the rapidly growing conflagration. A lone figure on the shore of the cove launched a string of ice shards at the Sky Knights, while drakini started rising into the air. One of the wyverns in the middle of the attack run took three hits to one of its wings and broke formation, beginning to spiral toward the ground.
Another of the Sky Knights matched the wounded wyvern’s speed and course from above, while the Knight below guided the rescuing wyvern’s claws into the harness of her saddle. Together, they turned south, one wyvern supporting the other.
Abigail wanted to dive toward the enemy, to bring the fight to Zuhl’s priest on the ground and to the drakini rising toward her, but it would serve no real purpose. The ship berth and the bare skeleton of the warship growing within had been destroyed-that was the objective. She would leave it to the Ithilian Navy to mop up the enemy.
***
Anatoly was waiting for her when she landed. Snow still blanketed the ground in northern Fellenden, so the army was moving slowly. The bulk of the forces were encamped on the plains just south of the Iron Oak while the Rangers had moved north to scout the city and establish a forward operating base.
Abigail and her Sky Knights had succeeded in burning all five of the shipyards along the northern coast, but the Ithilian Navy had reported that the soldiers and workmen had disbursed into the forest. That left nearly five thousand enemy personnel, led by priests and supported by drakini, running loose in the Iron Oak.
Anatoly rode up leading her horse as she fed Kallistos.
“What’s happened?” she asked, after one glance at his grim expression.
“Prince Torin has gone missing. We have conflicting reports, but the one thing they all have in common is a woman.”
Abigail left Kallistos to a handler and mounted her slightly skittish horse, patting her on the neck. Magda joined them and they made their way to the command tent.
“I trust you’ve heard the news,” Conner said when they entered.
“What do we know?” Abigail asked, taking her seat at the head of the table.
“In simplest terms, a woman arrived, talked her way into a meeting with Torin and then left with him and six of his personal guards,” Conner said. “The odd part, aside from Torin leaving his command, is the differences in the reports. The men all said that the woman was more beautiful than any woman they’d ever seen, but the women all said she was hideous and demonic-looking.”