You dont have to tell me that, King Peter.
Estarra took his hand, and along with their well-armed ceremonial escort, they boarded a specially outfitted diplomatic shuttle. Peter had mixed feelings about going back to the Palace District. On the chaotic and dangerous night of their escape, they had flown off while tremendous battles raged around them. Back then, the two of them had done what they thought best for humanity.
Now perhaps he could come back and fix things.
120
Del Kellum
ASolar Navy cutter flew down through the turbulent air battles to pick up the Mage-Imperator. Jorah raised his hands to signal the Ildiran ship, which touched down on the skymines open deck, its engines still roaring for an immediate departure.
Before the cutter opened its hatch, the green priest peered down into the clouds where the derelict had vanished some time before, but she saw no sign of her daughter. Both of them were distraught by what the half-breed girl had done, though Jorah said he could tell through thethism that Osirah remained alive.
Kellum didnt know what the girl hoped to accomplish, and he wasnt holding his breath for a miracle to happen. Jorah took Niras arm and pulled her toward the small Solar Navy ship. She is gone now she will succeed, or she will fail. It is up to her. Once he got the green priest aboard the cutter, Jorah shouted into the noise, Join us, Del Kellum! Adar Zannh will do everything in his power to keep us safe.
Kellum shook his head. It may sound corny, but the captains supposed to go down with his ship. Live in the sky, die in the sky. thats an old Roamer saying.
As more explosions rumbled overhead, and a fireball streaked so close to the top of the skymine that it melted some of the high towers, the Solar Navy pilot insisted that they had to depart. Kellum stood his ground, refusing to leave, and finally with a brisk wave of farewell, the Mage-Imperator and Nira flew off.
He thought longingly of his dear Shareen Pasternak, killed on a skymine that had been destroyed by hydrogues. And now a little girl had gone down in hopes that the hydrogues wouldrescue them. How ridiculous was that? He shook his head. As a counterpoint to these dismal thoughts, he clung to the satisfying knowledge that at least Zhett and Patrick had gotten away. They must be safer on Earth.
Now that his beloved skymine was nothing more than a gigantic, lumbering target, Kellum had to make the call. Swallowing hard, he slapped the main intercom button so hard he hurt his palm. This is Del Kellum listen up! Im sounding a full evacuation of this skymine. All personnel, get to a ship. Any ship you can find. I cant guarantee youll be safer out in the open, but were sitting ducks here.
Most of his workers had anticipated the announcement. Dozens of ships, including tiny maintenance vehicles with a range of no more than a few kilometers, sprang away from the lower decks, putting as much distance as possible between themselves and the skymine. They wanted to be far from the huge facility when the faeros circled in.
Countless ellipsoids swooped and looped like aimless sparks searching for victims, hunting down any escaping vessels. Most of the Roamer defenders had depleted their icy projectiles and were now running.
Flaming creatures closed in on all the skymines. Nearby, six fireballs threw their fury against a helpless cloud harvester owned by clan Hobart. Exhaust towers crumpled and melted; gas storage tanks burst, spewing a jet of flames to knock the levitating facility off its axis. The flames peeled away the armored structural plates, dismantling the whole facility. Finally, the lower ekti tanks ruptured, and the Hobart skymines emergency signals and calls for assistance abruptly ceased. The gigantic wreck became a roiling mass of smoke and explosions. Its altitude engines failed, and the once-graceful city tumbled down into the deep clouds.
Kellum watched it mournfully, wondering if this disaster was similar to what Ross Tamblyn had experienced as his Blue Sky Mine fell apart in the air.
Below he saw an unnatural storm cell bubbling up from the stirring layers of mist, and his heart froze as an ominous, yet terribly familiar, spiked diamond vessel breached the clouds like some spherical sea leviathan. Oh, hell.
Another one rose, then another.
As the faeros continued to throw themselves at the Solar Navy warliners, and the Roamer ships expended their last few ice projectiles, an armada of hydrogue warglobes rose up to meet them, shrouded in glittering wental mist.
121
Jess Tamblyn
With their water sphere skimming atop the cloud banks, Jess and Cesca called upon the watery entities within the depths of Golgen, drawing sparkling smoke into a windy vortex. Diaphanous wisps of sentient fog curled toward the fireballs, ready to strike.
Jess could feel the warrior wentals around and within him thrumming with unaccustomed fury.Faeros! He nursed that anger into a determination that he fed back to the wentals as he led the charge upward. The sky was so full of vessels in chaotic motion that even the vast gas giant seemed crowded.
Though the rising mist looked deceptively ethereal, whenever it touched a fireball, the result was like a boiler explosion. The watery entities seethed with animosity. This was vengeance for the devastation of Charybdis. Yes, the wentals had learned.
Jess could sense the faeros incarnate in one of the largest fireballs, another corporeal presence guiding the elementals an avatar like himself, and yet entirely different. Jess could feel Rusah like a burn on the skin, a fire in the mind. This man had single-handedly changed the war with the faeros and taught them how to defeat the hydrogues.
Jess knew thatRusah must be the wentals main target.
Cesca understood as well. If we can defeat him here, then there will be no need to go to Ildira. He chose this battlefield. Now lets turn it against him.
Sparking a deep and implacable determination among the wentals, the two directed their water ship up toward the central ellipsoid. Rusah led his charge to find and destroy the Mage-Imperator among the numerous Solar Navy warliners, but so far he had been unsuccessful.
A sudden intense turmoil occurred from below, though different from the battle above. He could feel what was about to emerge. Cesca looked at him, startled. Hydrogues.
Hydrogues,the wentals said inside his mind.They will fight here.
Jess could not curb his surge of anger and disbelief. The drogues will turn on us! Its like letting loose a wolf to fight a mad dog.
The wentals, though, responded with a firm confidence Jess did not feel.We will keep them chained.
When the clouds parted, a large armada of spiked spheres shot into the open, bright skies dozens, and then dozens more. And tumbling along with them, drawn up by the warglobes, came the small derelict. From inside the diamond globe, Osirah used her communication systems. The hydrogues are outraged that the faeros have come to their world. I convinced them to help turn the battle.