Marked for Death

Chapter 56

“What’s happening?” Esprл said, panic sharpening her voice. “I can’t see Kandler!”

“I can’t tell,” said Te’oma.

The changeling tried to peer through the smoke, but it was too thick. From their vantage point at the top of the stands looking down over Bastard’s damaged box, all she could see was the airship, her ring of fire crackling merrily away as it consumed its surroundings. Deothen and Bastard had disappeared over the other side of the ship, and Kandler, Burch, and Sallah had lured the last titan over that way too. The sounds of battle filled the air, but it was impossible to know who was winning the fight.

The airship still stuck out of the stands, the splintered boards of the seats cradling it like an errant child, keeping it from toppling over backward. The bottom of the hull had been bashed in at several spots, but the fires from the blazing floor seemed to leave it untouched.

The changeling looked back at the child. Esprл was being terribly calm, and Te’oma found it unsettling. She peered into the girl’s thoughts and read her murderous intent. The changeling realized she was lucky to still be alive.

“Look,” Esprл said to the changeling. “You’d think the ship would be burning too.”

“The hull must be treated against fire,” Te’oma said. “How else would you keep the ring of fire from destroying it?”

“I wonder if Brendis is all right,” Esprл said quietly.

The smoke surrounding the bridge was impenetrable. Te’oma gazed out at the ship. She’d hoped to somehow commandeer the thing and escape. Esprл, she knew, was thinking the same thing.

The ship seemed like she might be a lost cause now, but Te’oma still couldn’t tear herself away. The idea of hiking to Karrnath on foot held no appeal for her. The changeling stared down at the ship a moment longer and then turned to Esprл and said, “Let’s go find out.”

The changeling and Esprл picked their way down through the stands until they reached Bastard’s box seats. The entire structure had been knocked askew. Parts of it were destroyed, and flames rising from the floor licked the front parts of the box’s platform. The warforged who had fled from the fire seemed to be in no hurry to come back. With an enraged titan on the loose amid it all, Te’oma understood why. If it hadn’t been for the airship still there, the changeling would have knocked out Esprл and raced off in the other direction.

“There he is!” Esprл said. She pointed up at the bridge, and Te’oma’s eyes darted after.

The ship stuck in the stands at an angle. Brendis stood slumped over the wheel on the bridge. The leather strap lashed around his waist kept him from pitching forward into the flames, but the smoke swirling around him was nearly as deadly, the changeling knew. The young knight might already be dead.

“Let’s go see if we can help him,” Te’oma said. She gathered Esprл into her arms and started down toward the remnants of the airship.

When they reached the point where the ship met the stands, Te’oma stopped and surveyed the damage. She took two steps back and raced forward down through the wreckage of Bastard’s box to make a running leap across the splintered boards. Esprл screamed as they left the stands.

Te’oma landed on the tilted deck of the airship and rolled forward on her shoulder with Esprл still in her arms. When they came to a halt, Esprл stopped screaming. The girl flushed, embarrassed with herself for showing fear. They began sliding toward the bow, and she started up again.

The changeling wrapped one arm around the girl even tighter and reached out with her free hand, scrabbling at the deck’s surface, trying for a grip but finding nothing. Te’oma rolled over on top of the girl to protect her, and the two slid into the railing at the bow. The changeling shrugged off the impact but the flames licking through the railing’s wooden bars scorched her skin. As Te’oma shouted in pain, Esprл stopped screaming again.

The changeling reached over to her left, and made her way along the railing until she could climb the bars like a ladder. She made good time this way, even with the girl in her arms, and the pair soon clambered onto the airship’s bridge. The smoke up there wasn’t as thick as Te’oma had feared.

“Brendis?” Esprл said as she climbed over to the wheel, a tremor in her voice. Te’oma watched the girl to see what would happen. The young knight didn’t respond. The lower half of his face was covered with blood.

Te’oma reached over to examine Brendis. “He’s alive,” she said. Esprл sighed with relief. “His nose is broken. They always bleed like that.”

The changeling removed the leather belt that lashed Brendis to the wheel and lowered the knight’s limp form into the angle next to Esprл. She coughed on the smoke curling up into the bridge, and said, “We need to move this ship.”

The changeling grabbed a hold of the wheel and tried to turn it, but it didn’t move. “How does it work?” she asked.

The girl reached for the wheel and said, “Allow me.”

Esprл closed her eyes for a moment, and the ship shuddered. The movement startled her, and her eyes flung open wide. Their rims reddened by the smoke, they looked bluer than ever to Te’oma.

The rear of the airship pulled free of the arena floor, but the front remained lodged in the stands. The ship pitched forward, and Te’oma tumbled against the bridge’s console. Brendis’ limp form slid toward the edge, and the changeling reached out and grabbed him before he pitched over it.

“Stop!” she shouted until the girl brought the ship’s stern back down again.

“We have to pull back first,” Te’oma said.

Esprл nodded as she strapped herself to the wheel. “What about Brendis?” she said.

The changeling shoved the young man over and lodged him under the wheel. “Sit on him if you like.”

The girl narrowed her eyes at Te’oma for a moment then grabbed the wheel and pushed her feet under the knight’s body to keep him tight against the console. When she was ready, the ship started to move again.

Esprл coaxed the airship down and back. The craft slid back a few feet and then caught on something. The ship slid from side to side and then back and forth, trying to work around the catch, but it did no good.

Te’oma watched the girl concentrate harder. She ignored the fire, the man at her feet, and her kidnapper and put her every thought into pulling the ship free. The airship slid back a few more feet and then caught again before starting to shudder like the branches of a tree in a stiff wind.

A massive hammer-arm smashed up through the hatchway from the hold, sending splinters everywhere. Te’oma nearly jumped off the ship. Esprл screamed, and her hands came off the wheel. The ship crashed back to the arena floor, and the titan’s hand disappeared.

Te’oma thought the girl would melt to the deck in an utter panic, but instead Esprл displayed a steely resolve. “Too much,” she heard the girl mutter to herself. “We’ve been through too much!”

Esprл grabbed the wheel again, and the airship launched forward into the stands as if it might try to tunnel its way to freedom. Aloud crash echoed from the front of the hold. Then the ship switched directions and pulled out of the stands just as hard. With a spectacular splintering of the broken boards surrounding the ship’s bow, the airship slid backward without a hitch.

Te’oma smiled as the airship rose into the air. Her good mood was smashed flat as a bug under her boot when the weight in the ship shifted again, and the bow flipped up into the air. Before Esprл could scream this time, the hammer-fist stabbed through the hatchway again.

The hatch was too narrow for the titan to fit more than its arm though. The massive hammer-hand flailed about at random for a moment, hunting blindly for a foe, then it disappeared back through the hatch again.

Te’oma peered over the bridge’s console to look down the hatch. As she did, one of the titan’s turquoise eyes slammed against the inside of the portal. It withdrew just as quickly.

Te’oma glanced back at Esprл, who had turned white, despite her newfound resolve. Before the changeling could say a word, the hammer-hand stabbed up through the hatchway again. This time, it was aimed toward the bridge. It slammed into the outside of the console, and Te’oma dove aside as Esprл let out a little squeak.

When the changeling looked back, the girl’s color had returned. She watched as the girl stuck out her jaw, turned to her, and said, “Hold on.”

Te’oma slipped her hands through a set of straps on the bridge’s rear railing just in time. Esprл didn’t wait for her as she drove the airship forward again at a startling speed, heading straight for the arena’s stands again.

At the last moment, Esprл brought the airship to a wrenching halt. The change in momentum nearly pulled Te’oma from her straps. As she prayed to Vol that the battered leather would hold, she heard the titan in the hold let loose a final screech of fury and frustration and felt it slide helplessly toward the hole in the bow through which it had entered the hold. The ship tilted forward steeply as the massive creature slipped out through the holed hull and tumbled through the open air, crashing into the stands below, then the ship snapped back, and Brendis slipped loose from his spot under Esprл and went sliding toward the ship’s back rail.