Page 69 of Stalk the Sky
Gripping the stick with both hands again, Fieran tugged the stick and rudder hard over. He darted his aeroplane between the two airships before he climbed upward on the other side.
This time, he gripped the stick with his right hand as he blasted outward with his left hand.
The aeroplanes had been a tactical surprise, but those metal ramps and cages to launch the aeroplanes proved to be quite destructive once he destroyed the rest of airship’s structure.
A few yards away, two Alliance airships—the KAS Dominion and the Tarenhieli airship Flying Rose—pounded away at a Mongavarian airship between them.
Another one of those concussive explosions boomed, this time from that second line of surface ships farther out.
Other ships burned, columns of black smoke rising into the sky. The wreckage of airships dotted the waves, flames dancing as they, too, burned.
“Lt. Laesornysh.” A flyboy’s voice came over the radio. “They got Grady.”
Fieran flexed his fingers on the control stick, his magic burning hotter in his veins.
Grady, who wasn’t the shiniest tool in the toolbox. Grady, who had taken to the penguin sliding so much.
He hadn’t made it.
Another Mongavarian aeroplane swooped at Fieran, and he blasted out a bolt of magic. His magic ignited the gasoline, and the aeroplane exploded, what was left of the wings and tail spiraling toward the sea far below.
Time to end this before any more of his men didn’t make it.
Chapter
Twenty
Pip braced herself at the top of the cliff and poured her magic into her shield, expanding it farther and farther. Could she cover the airfield, hangar, and the harbor below?
Another shell hurtled from the sea and slammed into her shield. She grunted at the force, her shield snapping back several feet toward her as she strained to keep it from shattering.
One of the airships glided closer, and she gritted her teeth. She was strong, but there was no way she could hold back both a bombing and a naval bombardment. She wasn’t even sure she could hold back even one of those things.
She held her shield at her limits, protecting the hangar and cliff face, but leaving the rest of the harbor vulnerable.
Several more shells slammed into her shield while others fell into the buildings below, blowing out walls and crumbling roofs.
She cried out at the pressure, nearly falling to her knees.
Then a tromping sound came from behind her. A line of dwarves appeared beside her. They pounded their hammers and axes against the ground, creating a rhythm.
Yamrarlig nodded to her. “We stand with you.”
Dwarven magic gathered, funneling into her shield. Pip caught her breath at the iron taste of the magic, so strong and sharp. With the dwarven magic flooding into her shield, Pip pushed it farther, stretching it to better cover the rest of the harbor.
More shells pounded into her shield, a succession of blows that rang in her head and stole the breath from her chest.
She blinked past the blur to her vision as one of the airships drifted over the harbor, the big door opening in the bottom of the gondola.
It was still too much. She couldn’t hold the shield, and once that second airship arrived, her shield would shatter.
Baragh halted next to her. “What can we do to help?”
Nothing. No one had magic strong enough to help except Fieran, and he was far away over the main battle. The clouds in the distance glowed blue, marking his progress as he destroyed the enemy airships.
If she asked Baragh to call for Fieran on the radio, he would come. He would abandon his post to rescue her.
But that was just the kind of stupid thing he was worried about doing. And she could never ask him to leave his flyboys undefended to rescue her. She would have to rescue herself.