Thiest ordered, “Ceilinel, get inside.”
Jade stalked toward the ruler, her head tilted, angling her approach to shield the retreating groundlings. Moon shifted, ignored the nervous jitter from the crew, and moved to flank her.
Ceilinel backed toward the nearest hatch but said, “Can you make it tell us what happened here? Are there more Fell inside the emplacement?”
The ruler braced itself against the railing. It ignored the groundlings and smiled at Jade. It said in Kedaic, “You have a fine consort, queen. My progenitor is pleased.”
Moon fought a surge of fury and made his hiss sound amused. “Is that the best you can do?” He tried to keep his attention on the towers, knowing the ruler’s job was to distract them. Whatever it said, it couldn’t have expected to find a Raksuran queen on a groundling flying boat.
Jade snarled, “Your progenitor will be in pieces. She’s nearby, is she? She put you in that tower for a reason.”
From behind them, Thiest demanded, “What reason?”
Moon said, “They want to destroy this flying boat. They knew it was coming.” He realized Stone wasn’t on deck anymore. He hadn’t shifted and taken flight, and he hadn’t gone inside, so he must have vaulted the railing in the confusion. He’s right, if the Fell aren’t above us, they’re below us.
“They want to escape.” Urgently, Rorra said, “Thiest, you need to get this boat out of here, now.”
Taking mental control of the Kishan garrison would have allowed the Fell to know a boat was on the way. If Raksura were really hunting Fell through this region, then this flight must want to capture or destroy the boat so they would have a clear path to escape through Kish. Neline and Pathial stood like confused statues, as if they had no idea where they were or what was going on. Ualck backed away from the ruler, his face set in a grimace of horror, as the Fell influence faded and he realized what had happened.
“What about the garrison?” Ceilinel asked from the hatchway.
The towers were ominously silent, no one observing the standoff on the flying boat. Kalam, backed up against the cabin wall with Rorra, said, “They may be all dead.”
Moon kept his attention on the ruler. The fact that it wasn’t talking was worrisome. It looked like it was listening. The ruler had been the Fell’s first plan, and it hadn’t worked, and they had abandoned it. They would be working on their second plan now. “Jade—”
“You need to go, now!” Jade snarled at Thiest.
The ruler shifted and surged toward Jade. It either hadn’t thought Moon would interfere or the mental command from its progenitor had allowed no room for caution. Moon hit it from the side and Jade bounced upward and slammed into it from above. Moon rolled clear of its flailing legs as Jade thumped it down to the deck and opened its throat. Thiest turned toward the steering cabin and shouted, “Take us up!”
Then a deadly cloud of dakti shot out of the tower windows.
The dakti swarm fell on the boat like an avalanche. A figure slung itself off the nearest tower and shifted into a kethel in mid-fall. Fire weapons roared as the Solkis fired into the dakti and the boat’s two big forward weapons turned toward the towers. Moon leapt up to slash the first dakti to reach the deck, then slapped the next two out of the air. Jade took down a second ruler, and Stone’s dark form leapt out of the trees below to snatch the kethel and drag it down into the foliage.
Dakti swarmed Moon and he slammed them down to the deck, ripping at their throats and wings. They fled abruptly and Moon caught movement out of the corner of his eye. The tube of the big fire weapon at the top of the nearest tower jolted into hesitant motion. Moon’s spines shivered as it swung down to point toward the flying boat. That’s wrong, that’s definitely not supposed to happen.
Then two Fell rulers came over the top cabin. One hit Ceilinel and the other struck Thiest, dragging both up and off the boat. Jade braced to leap but wooden disks from the big tower weapon hit the steering cabin with a patter like a sudden heavy rain. Moon yelled an incoherent warning to Jade and she changed direction in mid-leap.
Moon grabbed the nearest groundling, a random blue-skinned person, and flung it down the deck toward the stern. Jade snatched up Kalam and leapt toward Moon. Moon turned, pounced on Rorra, and bounced down the deck.
As he reached the stern railing, the boat bucked. A fire cloud belched up out of the weapon stations and heat stung his scales. Something hit him from behind and bowled him down.
Moon struck the thick moss of a cabin wall. For a scatter of heartbeats he couldn’t move, then Rorra dug her blunt claws into his shoulder. Moon forced himself to lift his head.
He had Rorra clutched to his chest and the weight atop him was Jade and Kalam. Fire consumed the whole bow of the boat. The deck was an angled mountain now, a jagged crack across it. Something important in the boat’s structure had snapped. Groundlings lay sprawled on the tilted deck, some trying to stand or groping for their fallen weapons. The stench of burned flesh and moss filled the air.
Moon realized the freezing chill in his chest was shock, that the sight of the fire and the stink of the weapon’s discharge had frozen him in place. Jade let go of Kalam, who woozily fell over on the deck, then pushed herself up.
“Are you all right?” Moon croaked the words out with effort.
“Yes.” Jade glanced back and bared her fangs.
Rorra turned in Moon’s arms, and gasped in dismay.
The boat twisted and jerked sideways. Moon reached up to grab the railing. Her voice gravelly with smoke, Rorra said, “The motivator, they’ve lost steering.”
Kalam levered himself up. “They got Ceilinel and Thiest,” he said, his voice shaking from reaction. “Maybe—They wanted the patrol craft out of their way, maybe they’ll go—”
“They’ll want to feed before they run.” Jade grated the words out as she uncoiled and came to her feet.
In the air above the boat the dakti swarm reformed, swirling back down toward them.
Rorra flailed and Moon gave her a push to get her upright. She pointed toward the stern weapon stations, still intact above the cabin. “I need to get up there, see if the weapons are working. Kalam, come on!”
The two groundlings headed for the nearest hatch. As Moon shoved to his feet Jade said, “You go with them.”
Moon twitched his spines in a negative. The Solkis still alive on the deck fired handweapons up at the dakti, temporarily scattering the swarm. It made his burns scars ache with remembered pain. More groundlings staggered out of the hatch with big tube things, directing a spray at the flames still licking the steering cabin. He said, “We’ve got to get to that big fire weapon on the tower. If there’s Raksura here, they can’t get close while the Fell have it—”
Her voice rough with rage, Jade said, “Not ‘we.’ I can’t let you, not again.”
“You want to die, or you want to fight?” Moon snarled back. He could just leap into the fray and make her follow him, but even furious he knew that was a terrible strategy.
Jade barred her fangs. Above their heads the starboard stern weapon loosed a burst of fire, shattering the cloud of dakti. It was the perfect moment; Jade snarled and turned to leap to the railing. Then she flung herself across to the big tower.
Moon followed and hit the curved wall just below her. He clamped his claws on the weathered rock. Movement under him made him flare his spines, but the dark shape weaving through the heavy foliage below was Stone. His big form coiled around the base of the tower and vanished; he must be looking for a way in.
Jade dropped to the nearest windowsill and paused for a heartbeat. She might have been trying to taste the air, but the smoke and Fell stench was so thick, scent was useless. As she jumped inside, Moon swung after her.