But it was undeniable that the formation was now less formidable than before, and there were more blind angles that couldn’t be covered by the silkmotic bolts.
Tanvanaki didn’t hesitate to take advantage of this newly discovered weakness of the Imperial airships. She ordered the remaining garinafins, who had been focused on massacring the crew of Spirit of Kiji, to return to the airship cluster and attack it with their claws before the crews could reload again.
This was the moment for the marshal’s last surprise.
“Plum Formation! Expose the sight lines,” Mazoti shouted. “Shockers, prepare for action.”
The crews of the airships carried out her orders. The great ballast balls shifted and the airships altered their positions.
Silkmotic Arrow and Moji’s Vengeance now also stood up on their tails and moved into the same plane as Heart of Tututika, Resolve of Fithowéo, and Vigor of the Twins. All five ships rotated until they were standing in the air, back to back, like five swordsmen preparing to meet enemies coming from every direction, their ballast balls dangling below them.
As the garinafins approached, the thin silk skin of the airships split, ripped, and fell away from the bamboo skeleton to trail underneath the airships like the tails of kites. Deprived of the structural support of the silk skin, the frameworks wobbled and flexed even more, as though about to come apart at any moment.
What are they playing at? Tanvanaki wondered. Again she held Korva back and watched as the other garinafins approached the rippling skeletal airships, which now looked like birdcages holding clusters of eggs. Flaps of garinafin hide taken from the dissected carcasses cradled the vulnerable gasbags, apparently an attempt at some shielding against garinafin fire breath.
Incredibly, the soldiers aboard the airships stopped winching their giant crossbows. Instead, they retreated into the interior of the cagelike hull, where, working in small teams, they assembled segments of bamboo into long lances fifty feet in length tipped with bronze. Then, dividing into two columns, they raised the lances into the air and braced themselves inside the cage, along two major structural members of the hulls like two walkways. Two lances pointed forward, and two lances pointed at the back.
They were preparing to meet the onslaught of the garinafins like foot soldiers bracing with pikes against a cavalry charge, except that the riders they faced had mounts many times the size of elephants. A brutal, desperate measure that had no hope of succeeding.
The garinafins flapped their wings and dove in, their sharp talons extended.
The soldiers on the airships braced with their long lances, their expressions grim.
The battle was about to descend into a primitive mêlée contest in the air, like the ancient duels of heroes sung in the sagas.
Mazoti glanced at the thin silvery wires attached to the bronze tips of the long lances and seemed to hear deep in her heart the humming of the power beneath her feet.
The first of the garinafins loomed up against the front of the ship, its claws poised to rip the fragile frame of Silkmotic Arrow asunder.
“Forward Kana team, attack!” Mazoti ordered.
With a collective grunt, the lance team on the left side of the ship dashed forward, thrusting the lance through the open lattice of the hull toward the chest of the hovering garinafin.
The garinafin was prepared for this. Easily and gracefully, it grabbed the tip of the lance and shoved it to the side. Though its jaws were still blocked by the lodged bamboo caltrop, its eyes seemed to curve into a cruel smile. The giant lance wielded by the puny humans was no match for its reflexes and strength.
“Forward Rapa team, now!” Mazoti cried out.
And the column on the right side of the ship dashed forward, thrusting their lance through the open lattice of the hull at the garinafin.
Contemptuously, the garinafin reached out with its other claw. This attack would be deflected as easily as the first. Once it had grabbed the two lances, it intended to drag the humans out from their gondola like ants crawling along some branch and toss them to the roiling ocean below.
The claw closed on the lance.
The garinafin shuddered. Some unseen force coursed through its limbs, and the entire hovering body convulsed in the air. The riders on the garinafin felt the same jolt: It was an indescribable sensation, as though some giant skewer had pierced their bodies in an instant and frozen all their muscles.
Time once again slowed down.
The garinafin tried to let go of the lances and found that it could not. The muscles in the claws no longer obeyed its will. The force coursing through its body seemed to grow stronger, as though a million red-hot iron lances had bored into its torso and were now twisting inside.
Lines of crackling silkmotic force crisscrossed the body of the garinafin, catching it inside a web of lightning sparks. The glow from the lines of power was so bright that the soldiers closed their eyes as they hung on, willing the power they wielded to hold and destroy the massive beast in front of them.
Burning patches appeared on the garinafin’s body, first on its feet, and then all over its torso. Dark columns of smoke rose. The garinafin convulsed and spasmed in midair along with its riders, puppets seized by a power that they could not understand.
With a loud pop, the garinafin’s claws finally freed themselves from the lances. The lifeless body hung in the air for a second before falling, plunging straight down to the ocean below. Lines of silkmotic force still raced and crackled over its body as it splashed into the water, raising up a large wave that drenched and rocked the stunned crew observing from Pride of Ukyu.
CHAPTER SIXTY
BATTLE OF ZATHIN GULF, PART II
The ascent grew steeper, and Zomi Kidosu stopped by the side of the trail, leaning against her walking stick.
“Do you want to rest for a little while?” Princess Théra asked, concern suffusing her voice. She reached out to support Zomi under her arm.
Zomi tried to catch her breath. “I’m just not used to hiking this far without my harness. I’ll be fine.” She squeezed Théra’s hand and gave her a quick kiss.
After weeks of silkmotic therapy, Zomi was now able to walk for the most part without her harness, relying on a walking stick only for strenuous hikes. She could feel her leg growing stronger every day with practice.
Princess Théra looked at the sky: The roiling, dark clouds in the east were fast approaching. She was worried.
“Maybe we can try this another day.”
Zomi shook her head. “We need to get to the open field before the rain starts. Don’t be distressed about me.”
The two had been climbing the mountain for hours. Traveling without an entourage so as to draw less attention, they each carried a large canvas bag stuffed full of experimental equipment.
The mountainside was deserted. Hunters and firewood gatherers had long descended from the mountains to avoid the approaching storm. The Damu Mountains were famous for sudden thunderstorms during the summer, and it was not a laughing matter to be caught on the mountains during one: The detritus trails left by flash floods and the split trunks of trees struck by lightning provided plenty of warnings.
But the lure of lightning was precisely why they were here.
Research into weaponizing the silkmotic force had been going on for months, and everyone was growing frustrated. Despite the best efforts of Miza Crun and Atharo Ye, exploding arrows that relied on the silkmotic spark as the firing agent was the best that the engineers could do.