City in the Sky (36 page)

Fire scored along the ships wooden sides, and its cannon roared back in reply. A single thought directed Lalen in closer, and she flamed the cannon all along one broadside. Explosions rocked the ship, tearing half of the ship away as the firepowder ignited.

The sky ship turned away, but Kolanis spotted a glint of light off of crystal through the smoke, and led Lalen in a swooping dive through the smoke. He only saw the crystals of the ship's lift rooms for a moment, but that was enough. Fire seared across the crystal, shattering the carefully aligned patterns and unleashing the energy pent-up in them.

Green fire immolated the ship, turning its entire hull and crew into little more than fine ash on the wind. The same fire seared across Kolanis and Lalen, and this time the dragon screamed in real pain before the Draconan brought her clear, breathing hard as he broke clear of the smoke.

As he did, his eye fell on another frigate drifting away, its deck aflame as its crew struggled to either bring the dying vessel to a safe landing, or at least keep it from hitting the city. With a cold grin, he turned his attentions elsewhere, trying to find enemies to kill.

There were none. It was over. Even as he searched, all seven surviving frigates suddenly withdrew, and the remaining wing-lancers p
ounced on and slaughtered the squadron of Skyborne that tried to follow.

It took Kolanis a long moment to realize why, and then his eyes were drawn to the sky close to the forts. The five battleships were moving away under the cover of the inner forts' guns, where no dragon could reach them.

Not a single dragon of the Black of Ninth remained in the air.

Erik surveyed the Square of the Gods with something akin to shock. The surviving Draconan infiltrators had fled when the forts started blasting dragons from the sky, but hundreds had died, their bodies being hastily cleared aside by the Aeradi soldiers as he watched.

Scattered across the Square, however, were the bodies no human could easily move. At least forty, possibly even more, of the dragons that had been shot down had landed in the Square of the Gods. Some were even still alive, though likely not for long given their injuries, and lashed out at anything that approached them in a pain-induced fog; but even the dead were impressive obstacles.

“Can we move the dragons?” Ikeras asked quietly from behind Erik. “They're blocking our archers’ lines of fire.”

“Yes,” Erik replied, “but not easily. We cannot afford the time. Besides,” he shrugged, “they'll break up the Claws’ ranks, and that is not a gift I'll lightly decline.”

He didn't even need to look at the older Aeraid to feel the man's tension. “Ignore the dragons and form the men up,” he instructed. “Keep the archers back to fire if we can, but we need a solid shield wall across the square.”

“I don't know if we have enough men,” the non-com admitted. “Soldiers are trickling in, and I'm shoving into the line as they do, but...”

“Most of these men have never trained together, let alone fought together,” Erik finished. He finally turned to face Ikeras squarely. Doing so, he caught a glimpse of movement over the other Aeraid's shoulder and gestured the non-com to silence.

Men came spilling into the Square in relatively neat lines. Not what a fully functional battalion, even of militia, should have managed, but still neat. Still better than most of the battalions Erik had seen today.

The handful of signal bearers bore the flag of the Second Kirmon battalion. Erik hesitated for a moment, and then gestured to Ikeras. “Continue organizing the men. I'll meet them.”

“Yes, sir,” Ikeras said. “Good luck, sir,” he continued. “You may need it. Kirmon follows Jaras, and the
sept
has tried to keep its regiment under officers of the family.”

Erik said nothing.

Kolanis barely waited until his dragons were clear of the forts before dragging the crystal tablet out again. He took a moment to breathe and regain control of his temper, and then wrote on it.

“We have to move against those forts,” he wrote swiftly. “As long as they're intact, we can't deal with the inner city.”

“Patience, Major,” came the almost instant reply, again in the general's own hand. “Wait.”

The Skyborne waited with bad grace for the several moments until more writing appeared, this time in a clerk's hand, suggesting that the general was having it sent to all of the Skyborne commanders.

“We have suffered a setback, but it is far from over,” the words said plainly. “While we can defeat the forts or the skyships with ease on their own, the price of defeating them in combination is far too high for us to accept.”

The tablet stayed the same for a moment, allowing the General's words to sink in. “While the price for taking the forts by dragon could be paid, there is no need,” Kolanis' commander finally continued. “The defenders at the shipyards are almost finished. Detachments of the Claws of the Dragon are already being deployed against the handful of soldiers who bar our way. Once they have dealt with sufficient of the forts to clear us a way into the city, Newport will be ours!”

It was with bared teeth and a far better mood that Kolanis swung Lalen around, allowing him to look down at the neat and deadly columns of soldiers moving into the city.

The man in charge of the Second Kirmon turned out to be a lieutenant. Despite the situation, he was impeccably turned out in the walking-out uniform of a Regular officer. Everything about the man, from the perfect uniform to the hair,
exactly
the length of the current style, set Erik's teeth on edge. On the other hand, the man had several hundred
Regulars
with him, so Erik swallowed his annoyance and stepped forward to meet the man.

Before Erik could say a word, the lieutenant came to attention and saluted. “Lieutenant Natan
sept
Kirmon, reporting with the Second Kirmon,
sir!” he snapped off.

“I don't think that's entirely necessary, Lieutenant,” Erik said dryly. Especially as, technically, the Regular lieutenant outranked his own militia captaincy.

The man only half-relaxed at Erik's words, still remaining stiff. “I brought my men as soon as your messengers reached us,” he said quietly. “Where do you want us?” he asked simply.

Realizing to his surprise that the Lieutenant was accepting his authority, Erik was taken aback for a moment. “Hold your archers back with the others in the center of the Square. Move the rest of your men to,” he paused, turning to survey his own formation, “the left flank.”

“They'll be facing the largest stretch of open ground, where the Draconan formations will be most intact, and you're the only Regulars we've got,” he explained

“Understood,” Natan said calmly. “Thank you, sir.”

The lieutenant turned away and gestured to the other men with him, passing on Erik's orders quickly and efficiently. As his couriers and subordinates scattered, the lieutenant turned back to Erik.

“We are on the opposite sides of politics, my lord
septon
,” he said quietly. “I won't pretend otherwise. But today, the outer forts are gone. The shipyards are burned. My men may be the only intact Regular formation
left
. Our politics do not matter.”

“The
shipyards
?” Erik asked in shock.

“Most of the Regulars had muster point there,” Natan replied quietly. “We were heading there when your messenger intercepted us, but from the smoke we weren’t going to make in time to help.”

Erik inclined his head to the Aeraid. “You did the right thing coming here,” he told the junior man softly. “We can worry about politics after we've thrown the Draconans back into the sea.”

It took the Draconans fifteen priceless minutes to get the first wave converged onto the Square. Erik took full advantage of that time, pulling together his formations and throwing up what crude fortifications they could. The scattering of trenches and berms wasn’t much, but it would hopefully help slow down the formations the dragons' bodies would break up.

Finally, however, his scouts came running back into the square, passing through narrow lanes to reach Erik's position, gasping for breath. They didn't need to report, however, as their very presence said everything that needed to be said.

“Form up,” he bellowed from where he stood, just half between the line and the archers. The command echoed down the line as sergeants and junior officers repeated it and the men who'd been out of the line digging quickly fell back into formation.

An eerie silence descended over the Square, through which could be heard dragon cries and the crackling sound of burning houses. Then, cutting through the silence, came a steady thud-thud, like a drum. No-one in the Square of the Gods thought it was any such thing, and Erik could
feel
the tension as the men's hand shifted on their sword hilts.

Finally, the first even and glittering lines of the Claws of the Dragon came into view. Easily a hundred and ten men abreast and five deep, they advanced in even step, their feet hitting the ground simultaneously with a horrifying thud.

“Present arms,” Erik ordered, and again the order echoed down the line. There was something viscerally disturbing about the sound of almost a thousand swords being drawn simultaneously, and Erik shivered as he turned to the archers.

In their case, however, he'd delegated the command to Ikeras, and he simply nodded to the non-com, before turning back to face the oncoming Claws.

The first block of five hundred and fifty Draconans was followed by three more, making their attackers a full regiment of over two thousand Claws. The sight of that many soldiers moving in step was awe-inspiring. On the other hand, so were Aeradi archers.

“Ready!” Erik heard Ikeras bellow behind him as he judged the distance to the Draconan regiments himself.

“Aim!” the non-com continued, as the even ranks entered the Square, and the Aeradi soldiers lifted their own shields and swords.

“Fire!” Even before Ikeras had finished speaking, six hundred arrows were in the air. Ten seconds later, almost before the first salvo landed, six hundred more followed. The first salvo struck like a hammer, and the lead Draconan battalion staggered in its tracks as dozens of men went down, wounded or dead.

Erik pursed his lips in a silent whistle at the regiment continued to advance towards the solid line of the Aeradi defenders. Arrows pounded them, but they came on anyway. The bodies of the dragons forced them to split their ranks, but still they advanced.

“Swords ready!” Erik finally ordered, as the Draconans began to pick up the pace. Not quite a charge yet, as only the utterly battered lead battalion was in range for that, but close. With an almost audible noise, nine hundred shields lifted and sword arms extended as the Aeradi troops readied.

Then, finally, the Draconan soldiers broke into a trot, burdened by their armor, and then finally charged. “Archers cease fire!” Erik bellowed. “Aeradi, hold hard!”

“Hold hard!” echoed up and down the line as the lead Draconans hit. They'd charged across nearly two hundred yards of open field, their formations scattered by dead dragons and by trenches and walls, under fire the whole way, and they
still
had intact companies in their charge.

It didn't matter. Single companies may have been intact, but the total organization of the Draconan charge was gone. Only junior officers had control of their units, and it wasn't enough. The Draconans had started with twice as many troops as Erik had in his line, but what reached them was a roughly equal number to the defenders.

For a moment, Erik stood, watching silently as he tried to assess where to deploy his limited reserve, two companies of Regulars composed of troops that had drifted in after the Second Kirmon. The exchange of battle cries rippled back and forth: “Newport!” from the Aeradi troops, and “Dracona!” from the Draconans.

The Aeradi cries were clearly dominant on the left flank, where the soldiers of the Second Kirmon were proving the deadly competence of Aeradi Regulars on the shattered bodies of their enemies. The right flank was less certain, and Erik grabbed a signal flag, preparing to send one of his reserve companies to help hold the line.

Before he could act, the Draconans facing the Second Kirmon broke, running from their opponents. For a moment, the center and right-hand Draconan troops continued to hold, but Erik made a signal with the flag. Not the one he'd intended to make, but it was enough.

Natan
sept
Kirmon either saw the signal, or was intending the move anyway. As one body, the Second Kirmon and the militia with it began to march, rotating on the central portion of the Aeradi line as they swung to catch the rest of the Draconan regiment.

The Claws of the Dragon were loyal, highly disciplined soldiers willing to die for their country. They weren't prepared to die for nothing, however, and the remaining soldiers disengaged, fleeing to avoid being caught by Kirmon's troops.

“Archers, see them off,” Erik heard Ikeras bellow. Moments later, the archers resumed fire on the running soldiers. Every soldier they killed wouldn't come back to try again.