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68 - An Ancestors-Damned Madman

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Theo

“They see us!” Maritza shouted. “They see us and they’re coming! They’re really coming.”

I kicked my opponent in the chest and sent him tumbling down the stairs into his comrades. Gave me a moment for a glance up to the skies. Maritza wasn’t exaggerating. The Needlethroat was headed right for us. Though, “plunging” might have been the more appropriate word.

“Are they going to be able to slow down?”

Maritza winced, then cupped her hands over her mouth.

“You’re going to fly right through us! Slow down!”

But they were too far away to hear. Wouldn’t be for long, though. And, by then, it’d be too late to stop.

“I’m not sure they’re planning on stopping,” I said as the realization hit me. The komodo had turned from the corpse of the Dreadbore and was pursuing the Needlethroat. Its head was tilted up, mouth a smidge open as it ran. I could imagine the saliva pooling at the corners.

“This is gonna be close,” Maritza said, measuring up the distance between us, the komodo, and the Needlethroat. “Ancestors above. This is going to be very close.”

I didn’t have time to watch any longer though, as the soldiers on the stairs came again. I’d led us up the watchtower to create a choke point, and it’d worked. Those pursuing us could only come one at a time on the narrow stairs. Evened the odds a bit, but I couldn’t hold them off forever.

“Gah!” I slashed at the foremost of them. He was fast, though. Parried the blow aside, then came in low, aiming to cleave my feet. I had the height advantage, being farther up the staircase, but it also exposed my legs.

I jumped back as his sword cut into the wood of the stairs, then feinted forward, making him hesitate for a moment. Still, this was a losing prospect.

My arms burned from exertion. Felt like I’d been fighting all day, and everyone had their limits. And Maritza wasn’t a trained fighter; she’d never stand up to this lot in a sword fight.

“Back up, assholes!”

The eyes of the soldier I was fighting went wide, then a stool came flying from behind me. It drove the man backward, and he fell down the stairs. He grabbed the rail, held on tight, then made to advance again. At the same moment, Maritza reappeared behind me, this time with an entire chair.

The soldier froze, then slowly shook his head.

Maritza nodded back in response.

“I said back the hell up.” She hurled the chair and the soldiers scrambled back down the stairs. Made it a few steps before they were bowled over and sent rolling down to the next floor.

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“Looked like you needed some help there,” Maritza said as she clapped me on the back.

“I... uh.” I shook my head, half in disbelief and half in amusement. “Thanks.”

“Hold on to something!” A shout came carried on the wind and I looked up to find the Needlethroat bearing down on us. Suni was on deck, arms locked tight around a ballista, while Demetrias had a rope wrapped around his forearm and tied to the rail. Amidst it all, Senesio was at the helm. The ship was dropping so fast now it was hard to tell if it was flying or falling.

Glancing back, I could see the komodo, head still up and tracking their movement.

The soldiers below us had recovered, and from the number of bodies rushing up the stairs, reinforcements had joined them. They were a flight or two below, but climbing ever higher.

“You’ll have to jump!” Another shout. Suni, this time, yelling from the ship. And then, it became pretty apparent what Senesio was doing—or trying to do.

“Oh hell,” I said, swallowing hard.

The skyship’s downward descent groaned to a halt, the engines fighting the strain placed on them as Senesio stopped the fall just below the top level of the watchtower. The problem was he was off target. The bow was well wide of our tower and despite no longer falling, the ship still had forward momentum. But if they slowed down, the komodo would catch up.

Senesio spun the ship hard and the bow swung toward our watchtower, but too close.

“Too close!” I shouted. “Too—oh shit!”

The bow and forward engine of the Needlethroat swung right through the closest of the watchtower’s support beams. The whole structure shook beneath my feet, nearly spilling me over. I forced my momentum toward the side of the tower and then all at once, flung myself off. Maritza followed. For one perilous moment, we were suspended in the air, arms flailing as we fell and fell and then slammed down on the deck. I hit shoulder first, then cracked my head and rolled through a pile of debris.

The Needlethroat was still spinning, though, and its momentum carried it the rest of the way through the watchtower.

The Bospurians who’d been running up the stairs behind us all turned at once and fell back the other way or jumped down as the entire top half of the tower was smashed between our ship and the palisade.

I felt the Needlethroat tilt sharply as it made contact with the stakewall, the lower part of the hull held in place while the rest of the ship barreled over sideways. A terrible, scraping groan echoed from below and I grabbed the lip of the passage that led below decks, holding on for dear life as the ship pitched steeper, steeper—almost to the point of flipping—and then the stakewall gave way, collapsing beneath us in a great clamor. Our hull swung back beneath us, righting the ship so fast I was almost thrown off the other side as the deck leveled out.

“Ha! I’m a natural!” Senesio shouted triumphantly from the helm.

“You’re an ancestors-damned madman, is what you are,” Maritza shouted back. “And also, thank you.”

Senesio released the wheel in order to give a dramatic bow. He bent over forward, leaning in deep and spreading his arm out with a flourish.

And then the komodo’s head rose up behind him, flying toward the rear of the ship, jaws wide.

“Senesio!” I shouted, reaching toward him. But he was too far away, too late. There was nothing I could do.

The komodo’s jaws snapped shut on the back of the Needlethroat, clamping down on the rail and the lower decks. But just short of Senesio. Wood groaned, splintered, then ripped away. The komodo hissed, then fell back out of sight.

Senesio rose out of his bow and turned around to find the rear fifth of the ship torn away.

“Oh. Uh. I hope we didn’t need any of that?”

“Higher you idiot, higher!” Maritza shouted, rushing up to the helm then hitting the engine levers and raising us up into the sky. She didn’t stop until we were up among the clouds.

For the first time in what felt too long, everything was silent. I let my head fall to the deck and let out the longest sigh of my life. Up in the clouds, the air was cooler. Chilly, almost. And when I finally climbed to my feet and looked out, the only sign of the camp, or the chaos that had gone on there, was a single column of black smoke, rising up to stain the otherwise pristine morning sky.