Whispers of the Skyborne (Devices of War Book 3) (45 page)

The
lethara
crumpled toward the crashing surf. The veil fell, though it didn’t look as though it had fully encapsulated the city before sinking.

Could the great Shankara tribe fall so easily? Queen Nix with all her power had been unable to bring about the fall of Shankara, no matter how hard she’d tried. Shankara had sunk out of existence, making the world
think
they’d died by her hands.

But this time—this time was different. Shankara fell by the might of the great El’Asim.

Taileh had heard rumors of his power. Whispers of fear and derision.

Staring in disbelief as the
lethara
fell, one thing became painfully clear to her.

They should fear the El’Asim, not ridicule him.

Hail the size of fists fell from the sky.

Grabbing Neira by the leg and armpit, she quickly darted beneath the bar covering of the hollowed wall and slipped into the cave, bruises forming along her arms and shoulders.

A tall, forbidding woman greeted her at the cave entrance, an arrow notched and sighted. “Taileh,” the woman said. “I thought you were told never to come back.”

Taileh raised her head and slid Neira to the ground. “I was needed,” she said softly. “I couldn’t stay away.”

Pleron City: Haji

H
AJI WAITED FOR
S
YNN TO
give the order. When had the man become patient? Haji hadn’t seen it coming and didn’t know when that attribute had sprouted, but he wished it hadn’t. He wanted to be in that cavern at that moment, tearing the enemy to shreds before more came at them from behind.

Granted, Synn had set up their own people at the rigger and the destroyers, but he’d been able to disable the mechanical beasts. If Synn, of all people, could figure it out, Haji was sure the Han could as well, especially since they were his units, likely by his design.

Though how many leaders were as careful with their designs as Synn and Haji?

He didn’t know. He could hope the Han wasn’t, otherwise, they were pinned with an enemy on either side of them and only a tight stairway to traverse.

The trails of the blue dragons disappeared up the legs of several of the soldiers. Hundreds of blue dragons, no larger than a thumbnail, took down a dozen of the Han’s men without lifting more than a finger.

The men collapsed. The few remaining ran to them, trying to discover what had taken them out.

“Release the air jellies,” Synn ordered, his voice low and quiet in Haji’s ear.

Haji didn’t have to repeat the order as it hadn’t been given to him. He didn’t understand how Synn had bonded to a
lethara,
much less to the falcons who fluttered their wings around them. One more thing to add to the great mystery of Synn El’Asim.

The air jellies launched into the air and moved like ghosts in the night, the blue from the land eaters reflecting on their pale skin.

A half dozen of the remaining leather armored men shouted an alarm.

One of the three land eaters twisted, removing its wide-mouthed face from the wall.

More of the Han’s men fell as the blue dragons moved from one man to another, sliding their poisonous slime along the flesh of their victims. The air jellies only had to touch a man with the tip of a tentacle. Their victims fell to the ground in convulsions.

Haji stared at the top of his best friend’s head with a bit more respect than he ever thought he’d feel for the man. Synn was stupid, rash, moved without thinking.

But this.

This was well thought out and brilliant.

They hadn’t needed all these men after all. He had thought that many more of these men and women would be lifted home to be buried or cast off with the rest of the dead.

“Du’a,” Synn said softly into the communication unit, though he wasn’t speaking to any of his leaders. “Take the menagerie home.”

Haji didn’t hear a reply, but the air jellies retreated from the cavern they’d invaded. The girl holding the cup of water backed up, the
lethara
in tow, and all the falcons launched themselves into the air with a cacophony of sound.

“I will,” Synn said quietly. “Haji, the land eaters are yours.”

Haji didn’t have Briac’s plows with him. They were too big to maneuver down the stairs, and the
Layal
was vulnerable on the ground. They’d remained behind as protection. Haji turned the head of his skitter around, what the eyes saw showing on the screen in front of Haji’s face.

They’d trained, but had never brought their combined powers into battle. Not like this. “Wynne. Rashidi.”

Wynne stepped up, fluttered her wings for another two steps, and then launched herself into the other room, her unit following. They went to the ceiling and disappeared into the darkness.

The one land eater swayed its head first one way, then the other as if trying to see the people attacking them.

Rashidi slung his bag over his shoulder and jerked with his head. His unit preceded him into the room. He knelt just this side of the door and pulled out a glowing blue ball. “Flash,” he said into his communication unit.

The remaining two land eaters stopped mining the wall and turned. Their metallic limbs clanked on the hard, rock floor.

Gripping the rough opening with one hand, Rashidi hopped on the balls of his feet. He released a puff of air then twisted, rolling the ball along the floor. He ducked into the room, disappearing from Haji’s view.

A searing light filled the room. The light didn’t diminish.

The land eaters stumbled, their multiple limbs flailing.

“Fahd. Jabr,” Haji ordered.

His remaining skitter units rushed into the room.

Wynne and her flying dragoons launched themselves from the ceiling, attacking the land eaters from above, finding chinks in the armor, inserting blasting sticks.

Rashidi’s shield unit did the same from the ground.

Haji engaged his skitter unit and ran along the base of the wall, trying to find an opening.

The large land eaters were not immense, not like the destroyer they’d encountered above. And they weren’t versatile or mobile like the skitters. They were slow, heavy.

“They’re loaded down with pleron,” Synn said. He entered the room, a bandana wrapped over his eyes. Haji wasn’t sure how he could see as he stared up at the land eaters in the cascading light from the flash bomb, his Mark hissing along his bared chest and arms as if he were surveying a sunrise.

Haji turned to the land eaters. “How many people do you think reside inside each unit?”

“Three.” Synn’s tone was confident.

How did he know that?

“I say we push them over the edge,” Rashidi said. “Who knows how deep that hole is.”

The original tribal families did, probably.

“It’s a good plan,” Synn said, his Mark rising leisurely in long, lava whips. “Let’s destroy the units as much as we can first.”

Wynne retreated back to the ceiling with her unit. “Rashidi.”

Each land eater was peppered with dozens of blasting sticks.

Rashidi slipped out of the shadows, red globs in both of his hands, the rest of his shield unit following.

“Get out of here, Synn,” Haji said.

He paused, but nodded and ducked behind the wall.

Rashidi lobbed his two red blobs at the land eater nearest him. One landed on its head, the other on its back. “Ain, Geb,” he shouted and ran for the opening to the room.

Two of the shield men ran toward the land eaters.

The rest ran for the exit.

Haji nodded toward his skitter units and they exited as well. He wasn’t as comfortable around the explosives as Rashidi’s unit seemed to be, but he knew he had some protection via his skitter unit. “Do you think that’s enough?”

“It’s enough,” Rashidi growled. “Clear the room!”

Moments later, an explosion rocketed out of the room in a rush of dust and dirt.

Rashidi looked up at Haji and grinned a feral grin. “It was enough.”

Ryo hopped off the rear docks, ignoring the incoming storm. Winds pushed at him, demanding his attention.

He simply didn’t care.

Tokarz had landed in a rather large, flat meadow. That had been a bit of luck for Ryo. Not for Tokarz. Ryo didn’t want to blast the man’s ship to bits. He wanted to wring the life out of the man’s neck, watching as his face turned first red, then purple as he fought to gasp his last breaths.

The
Basilah
was parked on her eight retractable feet behind him like a great mountain in and of herself. His pilots and a few of his warriors stepped out with him, but did not advance with him toward the enemy ship.

It lay like a broken animal, each end on its opposite side. The people who milled around were not in great condition.

One man Ryo could see had lost an arm.

Another screamed, holding his bleeding knee, the lower half of the leg dangling by what appeared to be a thread of blood.

People hung off the ragged sides. They yelled. They scrambled for weapons. Some cried.

No children.

Ryo stopped and folded his hands in front of him, his head bowed. He would not decimate Tokarz’s people when they were so obviously broken. That was not the way of the El’Asim.

It
was
the way of the Ino, the way that had been beat into him since he could hold a stick. He was no longer Ino. He was El’Asim, like his little brother. He would not attack a people who had so little left.

Tokarz stumbled out of the mid-level part of the ship, crumpling to the ground as he landed wrong. He stayed there for a long moment, his black leather tunic ripped along the shoulders and back. The glass eye-patch covering one eye glowed blue as if with hot anger. He pushed himself to his feet, his oily black hair hanging in hanks around his face, and limped forward

Ryo could have eased the man’s journey.

Could have.

This man had claimed to have murdered the El’Asim tribe when they’d gathered to celebrate his sister’s wedding. This man boasted that he’d murdered hundreds of men, women, and children. This man bragged that he, and he alone, had set the El’Asim ships ablaze, setting off bombs that had blown them out of the sky a thousand metres above the ocean.

No. Nothing in this world would make Ryo ease this man’s journey.

Tokarz stumbled to a stop, sagging where he stood. He rolled his one eye, scraping his tongue along his teeth, and straightened his shoulders. “Ino Ryo.”

Tokarz must have known better than to soil Ryo’s name with his mother’s taint. Ryo blinked slowly, not taking the bait.

Bowing his head to one side, Tokarz stood as tall as his wounds allowed, his lips curled. “That was a rather unmatched fight, don’t you think?”

Ryo narrowed his eyes. “You’ve had as many months as we did to strengthen your defenses and offenses.” He raised his gaze over Tokarz’s shoulder to the broken ship where the wounded and non-wounded continued to gather. “Your laziness was well rewarded.”

Tokarz flinched, pulling his lips off his teeth.

“I can provide medical attention to your wounded.”

The bright blue light of Tokarz’s eyepatch rose, the other eye narrowed.

“In exchange for your life.”

“And you think I would give it.”