“Do you have a how you could lend me?” Mik asked, trying to gauge the distance through the storm.
“They’re out of range, mate,” Jerick said. “There’s nothing we can do but watch.”
Shimmer rose quickly through the blinding storm toward Tanalish. Lightning flashed all around them, and thunder shook the heavens. The wind swirled and gusted, smashing the driving rain into the metallic bodies of the dragons and the form of the struggling sea elf.
Ula twisted in Tanalish’s iron-thewed claw, but she couldn’t even reach her dagger to fight back. The gemstone key pressed sharply into her belly, but her web of jewelry held it in place. Lances of pain shot up her spine as the dragon squeezed her. “Let go of me!” she yelled.
If Tanalish heard the elf, she made no reply. Rather, the brass dragon wheeled to face the oncoming menace. She opened her mouth and belched a burning, sulfurous blood-red cloud. The cloud sparked and sizzled, billowing large despite the wind. The toxic vapors fanned out across Shimmer’s flight path.
“A warning, Shimanloreth,” Tanalish hissed. “Keep back. This doesn’t concern you.”
“Ula concerns me,” Shimmer rumbled. “She’s my friend. You have no right to take her.”
“She’s a thief, an enemy of the Order of Brass and a threat to the isles,” Tanalish replied.
“Fish oil!” Shimmer boomed. “Give her back or you’ll regret it.”
A smile creased the brass dragon’s scaly lips. “You’re no match for me, Shimanloreth. Your wing is crippled, almost useless. Fly back to the ship and lick your wounds.”
Shimmer didn’t reply. Instead, he lunged forward, extending his jaws toward Tanalish’s long neck. The move surprised the brass, and she barely jerked her head aside in time.
Shimanloreth’s fangs raked across her throat, and his powerful hind talons seized the leg holding Ula.
“Let go or I’ll drop her,” Tanalish hissed. She snapped at Shimmer’s face, but he ducked out of the way.
“You don’t dare,” Shimmer said. “Kell wouldn’t allow it”
Tanalish tucked her wings and sent them into a frenzied spiral. She coiled her tail around Shimmer’s and continued to bite at his face. Shimmer fought back, fending off her foreclaws with his own and counterattacking with his horns.
Red, oily sweat began to bubble up on his bronze carapace. He panted with the effort, his breath sounding like huge bellows.
Tanalish laughed and brought one armored knee up into her opponent’s belly. She jerked away, disentangling the two of them. Ula’s guts jumped as the brass dragon lurched upward again.
Momentarily falling, Shimmer lashed up with his head. One of the long spikes behind his horns slashed across Tanalish’s cheek, close to her eye. The brass dragon screamed.
“Son of a fetid egg!” she howled. “You’ll pay for that.”
Turning, she lunged straight at Shimmer’s eyes. The bronze dragon ducked aside, but it wasn’t his face Tanalish aimed for. Throwing her jaws wide, the brass dragon sank her long fangs into Shimmer’s left shoulder, right where it joined his crippled wing.
“Look at them go!” Trip said, using one hand to shield his eyes from the wind and rain. The battling dragons looked like metallic birds high up in the storm. “I wish they were closer, so we could see better.”
“So do I,” Mik added, hefting Ula’s fallen spear.
“Thank the gods they’re not,” Jerick the Red growled. “We’ve enough trouble as it is.” He was rallying his men to secure the sails before the storm ripped them to tatters.
Mik ducked out of the way of a loose line whipping over the deck. “Ship to starboard!” he cried, pointing. “Ship to starboard!”
Over the top of a huge swell surged Lord Kell’s trireme, its brass ram aimed straight at Red Wake’s hull.
Chapter Thirty-Three
Shimmer howled and tried to pull away, but Tanalish shook her head and sank her teeth further into his shoulder. They writhed together amid the storm, thunder crashing all around.
Ula felt as though she would be shaken to pieces in the lady dragon’s claw. Closing her mind to the crushing pain in her guts and spine, she wormed her left hand toward the hilt of the dagger at her waist. Her fingertips brushed the pommel, and hope sprang anew in her heart. Slowly, she wrapped her fingers around it and pulled the knife from its sheath.
Shimanloreth bellowed in pain as bits of flesh and blood splattered out of his wounded shoulder and wing. He smashed the side of his head against Tanalish’s face. They were falling now, her wings barely holding them aloft. She didn’t seem to care if they crashed into the raging sea far below.
He snapped at her eyes. The brass dragon blinked and loosened her grip momentarily. Shimmer rammed Tanalish with his nose, and her jaws ripped free from his shoulder. She spat out his flesh and turned to attack once more.
Shimmer opened his mouth and flashing white energy leaped from his maw into Tanalish’s startled face. The lady dragon screamed, writhing in pain. Her talons flailed wildly as every muscle in her huge body spasmed.
Tanalish’s claw jerked open. Before Ula could grab hold or lash out with her dagger, she fell, plummeting toward the storm-tossed ocean far below.
“Hard to port!” Mik yelled. “Hard to port!”
“Do it!” Jerick bellowed at his startled helmsman.
The mate spun the wheel frantically with all his might.
The brass-armored trireme lunged toward them over the heaving waves. A flash of lightning revealed Lord Kell standing by the triarch’s chair in the stem, his gray eyes gleaming in triumph.
Red Wake responded slowly, fighting against the pull of waves and wind. She veered left, her gunwale nearly dipping into the water as the raging surf threatened to roll her over.
Another flash of lightning. The trireme drove in on them, its brass-headed ram aimed for the galley’s starboard flank. A huge wave surged over Red Wake’s side, dashing seamen to the rail; many barely avoided being swept overboard.
Mik and Trip kept their feet amid the chaos. The sailor grabbed a boat hook and tossed it to Jerick, then retrieved two more for himself and Trip. “If the angle is shallow enough,” he shouted, “we can turn them away!”
“Man the boat hooks!” Jerick cried. “Prepare to repel attack!” But only a few crewmen reached the rail with boathooks in their hands. Mik and the rest braced themselves as the trireme swept forward.
The rhythm of Lord Kell’s drumchanter rose above the voice of the storm. The trireme’s triple banks of oars cut through the crashing waves. Standing in the stern, Kell shouted orders to his helmsmen.
Red Wake kept turning ever so slowly, the waves surging against her sides. She swung nearly parallel to the trireme’s course, presenting a difficult target for Kell’s brass ram.
“It’s going to miss us!” Trip cried.
“Not without our help it won’t!” Mik said. “Ready on the boathooks! Heave!”
They stabbed the long poles over the side and pushed with all their might. The iron heads of the hooks lanced into the trireme’s sides, each minutely altering the enemy ship’s course. The impact nearly knocked Mik and the others from their feet.
They held on and watched triumphantly as the brass warship swung alongside. The crew of Red Wake cheered, but Jerick barked, “It’s not over yet!”
The trireme shipped oars to avoid having them sheared off in the collision. The two ships groaned as their hulls met, side to side.
“Now!” Lord Kell called.
A company of brass-armored warriors threw grappling ropes onto Red Wake, catching her rail and tangling her rigging. The brass mariners hauled on the lines, lashing the ships into close contact.