The Alchemists of Loom (Loom Saga #1)(79)
Leona looked at the triumphant smile Camile wore and rolled her eyes. “Don’t you start bragging.”
“The one thing Sybil was good for!” Camile called back.
“You practiced shooting with Sybil?”
“Someone under you needed to know a little about Loom’s weaponry. I thought it would pay off eventually.” Camile winked.
Pay off it did. Leona vowed that when they returned to Nova, she would see Camile rewarded handsomely by the Dono. She would figure out later what that reward would look like. For now, she would remain focused on what would get her back to Nova: killing Cvareh.
Men and women ran around the airship, shouting and screaming. Just a tiny little act and their peaceful night was thrown into delicious madness. Leona rounded the airship, watching them sprint to the back balconies in confusion. She caught glimpses of crowded hallways and utter chaos within.
But she didn’t see Cvareh or the Wraith.
She would remain on her glider until she had visual confirmation of them. And, if she must, she would hand-pick them from the airship’s rubble. On the lowest balcony in the back, a crowd was beginning to amass. They tripped and stumbled over the pitching of the airship as it continued to fall through the sky. Small gliders were being loaded frantically. Dragons stepped forward to man each of them, their magic more certain to provide sustainable lift or flight than any Chimera’s.
Leona made an involuntary gagging motion at the sight of it. Dragons helping Fenthri. It was disgusting. She wanted her kin aboard those tiny fliers, certainly. But Fenthri? Let them all die; there were far too many of them anyway.
Still, she hung back. She waited. She would not charge in hastily. She would let her plan unfurl like a banner of victory on the winds she had called up beneath her wings.
Leona was taking another loop toward the front of the airship when she felt the characteristic snap of magic across her mind. Time resumed itself normally—there had been only a second of stillness. The Fenthri moved as normal, completely unaware of what had happened. But the Dragons all looked at each other blearily.
She frantically searched the decks for the source of the time-stop. A commotion summoned her attention, men and women shouting in panic at a group of three that had pushed their way onto a tiny emergency glider. The young Fenthri—Florence—shouted at her master, who was fending off others from getting on their emergency escape. In the back was Cvareh, looking like the complete idiot he was behind the relatively simple handles.
This was what she’d been waiting for. Leona dove, landing her small vessel hard atop the heads of Fenthri, crushing them into a bloody smear on the deck beneath her. The other Fen scattered and pushed on all the edges of the deck in panic. More rescue gliders launched. The Wraith’s girl pulled a few others onto the platform where she and Cvareh stood.
Leona charged.
“Cvareh—go!” the Wraith screamed.
“Ari!” Florence cried.
“Go, go now if anything you ever said to me was true.” There was a bitter pain in the Wraith’s voice that hadn’t been there before.
“I’m not letting you go anywhere!” Leona lunged.
The Wraith spun and met her, blade to talon. Leona bared her teeth and the woman did the same. She was truly hideous, flat teeth and gray skin clashing with bright Dragon eyes. But she moved with the speed of a Dragon, and responded with the strength of a Dragon, and she had no hesitation in any of it.
The small glider carrying Cvareh and the Wraith’s girl dropped away. Leona turned her head skyward. She didn’t see Camile, but she trusted the other Rider to respond. “Camile! On Cvareh!”
“Oh, she won’t be,” the Wraith announced triumphantly. “Canisters that can take down Dragons in one shot are rare. I’d been holding onto that one… But I was hoping for you.”
Leona roared, pushing off the Wraith. The woman slid as the deck tilted, the captain struggling to keep the airship as level as possible. She spun in the crimson blood of her fellow Fen that oozed from under Leona’s glider.
She was expecting the Wraith’s barbed whip. And rather than dodging it like a fool, she snatched it from mid air, her hand on the hilt of the golden dagger. It struggled against her fingers, like a bird trying to break free. Leona held it all the tighter. She yanked, trying to catch the Wraith off-balance.
But the Wraith jumped, and the winch box on her hip propelled her to Leona. She stepped off the ground on her toes, twisting in the air over the line to bring her heel across Leona’s face. Leona reeled, releasing the dagger to free her hand. She slashed and the Waith dropped backward, rolling away as Leona tried to shatter her bones with a mighty step.
They matched blow to blow, dodge for dodge as the failing airship plummeted through the sky. Leona knew they were nearing the ground when the Fen began to take their chances jumping for trees rather than meeting the earth with the airship. She growled and threw the Wraith off her, leaping for her own glider.
“I’m not letting you go!” The knife on the end of the Wraith’s line looped around her neck, forcing Leona to fall backward or be choked into submission.
Free of the cable, Leona gasped for air, the bruising in her neck quickly healing.
“If I’m going down, you’re coming with me,” the Wraith declared.
“You’ll die, and I’ll be unscathed, ready to skin your little pet and Dragon alive.” Leona snarled, still sliding her feet back to her glider. Even if there was a chance for her to survive the carnage, she didn’t want to risk a stray beam or spear of wood carving her through the heart. Not when her glider rested right next to her.