Ashe stumbled after the drakken, cursing her knee when she abruptly stopped. Her body went still, unable to go any further. It was similar to what had happened when she tried to flee the party.
“What are you stopping for, humir? There’s no time.” The drakken tried to yank on her arm but even the mighty strength of a draconem couldn’t get Ashe’s feet to budge.
“Godsdamnit. It’s the godsdamned Seal, isn’t it?”
“What’s this voidcraft?”
Ashe began a slow turn, gaze canvassing the hangar. Her body stopped as she faced the bullet-ridden line of airgliders, and try as she might, she couldn’t continue her circuit as if she was pressed against an invisible wall. Seeing as that was her destination, Ashe began to limp forward, easing behind rows of trucks. As she neared the edge of the truck line, she spied some soldiers lingering not far ahead. Burning a smidgen of aetheurgy, Ashe noticed a gleam on the ground. A glimmer of metal nestled under the overhead railing between a crate and a spare truck tire.
To Ruane, “Wait here.”
Pulling the mist around her shoulders, she disappeared. Just a speck of grey as she slithered from behind the trucks toward the metal object. In moments, she was across the empty hangar bay beside the tire and the crate.
At her feet was a disc of braided black steel housing four gemstone circles. A six-pointed star filled the center of the disc, piercing the four shards.
“The Seal of Terris.” What is the Seal doing in this hangar like this? “Talk about lucky.”
“Hail! Stop there!” yelled a soldier.
“Shit!” she squealed as she realized in her stupidity, she had dropped her mist cloak and was now visible for the entire bay to see, standing like a dunce holding the valuable Seal to Eminence.
Soldiers ran toward her, some opening fire. Ashe panicked and called upon her aetheurgy. The tattoo of two vertical zigzag lines upon her left forearm burst into life and the resulting lightning created from Aere exploded from her fingertips. The bolts cleaved into the rushing soldiers, piercing their drake scale armor, charring bodies and the ground alike. The awe and ease in which the magical aether ripped apart what moments before had been men caused Ashe to almost drop the Seal.
Ruane called out to her. Ashe stood stunned.
It was then that a monstrosity stepped into the hangar. It was enormous, cloaked in shadows and dust, mist circling its massive hind legs. Muscles bulged and claws scraped along the ground as it barreled into what appeared to be an office, but the building merely evaporated under the daemon’s swing. Two red eyes squinted through the darkness surrounding it, a wave of jet-black hair swam in the mist as the broken airgliders fell from the cable and rained down around the daemonic beast.
It roared, strangely sounding humir. “GODSBLOOD!”
Ruane yanked her off her feet. “Fucking move it, humir!”
The drakken carried Ashe toward a hatch that was no bigger than Ashe’s shoulders, and it led into a smaller hangar. It was only after the hatch was closed that Ruane dropped her on the ground with a shriek. The drakken made toward the waiting airship.
It wasn’t a big vessel, but it was a stout design, twenty feet from bow to stern, wings maybe half as long. Its sleek hull was curved underneath, joining two concentric circular propellers cast in metal, unlike the wooden hull.
Ruane used a taloned claw to press something, a button on the ground maybe, and a sliver of the mountain peeled away, revealing a gateway large enough for the airship to fit. Then the drakken nimbly climbed up, and the airship lurched as the engine engaged, the propellers fanning to life.
There was a heavy thud against the hatch, the wall shook with the brunt force of it.
“Time to go!” Ashe threw herself aboard as the airship lifted off the ground.
Just in time, too, as the hatch exploded into the small hangar, a deafening roar from the daemon, a claw punching through the stone, the mist raced through like a dam breaking. The beast lumbered into the hangar, hair swirling like the mist had before. It reached out with a massive claw toward the teetering airship.
“GODSBLOOD!”
Gargantua’s belly rumbled by the daemon’s bellow. Cracks formed along the stone walls of the floating fortress, huge chunks crashed all around them. Aetheurgy came to life. Terris shook. Aere wrapped around the stern of the airship.
“Do something!” she snarled at Ruane.
The airship zoomed forward, clear of the portal, clear of the daemon’s claw, heading upward toward the sky. Bullets struck the hull, struck the propellers, causing the airship to dip. But then it steadied. Ashe pulled herself upright and saw the daemon bellowing within the belly of Gargantua.
She wiped her eyes as the city of Drenth below disappeared into the Sea of Mist surrounding the desert.
Mist.
It hung in the sky like a layer of froth atop a freshly poured tankard of ale. It was dense, but not so thick the light of Nocturne’s moon couldn’t pierce the grey. The mist was all Ashe could see as Ruane struggled to keep the airship aloft.
“Shit!” she cursed as the vessel plummeted toward the ground. “Can’t you control this thing?”
“I don’t know how to fly!” the drakken yelled. The purplish exoscales of the draconem’s face was ashen. Which told Ashe she was best off keeping her mouth shut because she had nothing to offer as she had never flown an airship either.
They gained unwanted speed as the airship careened downward, the Sea of Mist purling in tenuous tendrils, creating a vortex around the crashing transport. The propellers turned at different rates, one sputtered while the other thrummed diligently. The bullets had done their damage. The metal engine grated as it churned in its attempt to hold the airship steady. With a futile effort, Ruane seemed to right the airship just as the sand dunes rushed up to meet them.
Ashe braced for impact.
The gritty sand did little to cushion the impact as the bow struck first, flipping the stern completely over. Wooden planks exploded upon collision, fragments flying in every direction. The propellers snapped, whipping into the surrounding mist-covered dunes. The sound of breaking glass filled the air as the wheelhouse shattered. Ashe and Ruane flew into the sands. Black smoke rose from the wreckage and mingled with the soft grey of the mist.
And then there was silence.
XLIX
Emre
“WELL, WHAT NOW, Emre?” Cadrianna asked.
The ragtag group—consisting of Lojen, Wick, Cadrianna, Finn, Val, and himself—huddled around a table within a squat building near one of the mine’s multiple entrances. Wick had turned on the aethecite generators upon their arrival, the piss-yellow light filling the empty structure. It was a mess hall for the miners, but it hadn’t seen much use lately, for there were cobwebs galore and a thick layer of dust on the floor.
