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Ahead, one of Meadow’s ship prows had an enormous snake with a woman’s head, and it was headed right for them. Heedless of a small ship that hadn’t moved fast enough, it plowed through the water and hit the stern. Elira’s Fire wouldn’t be able to move in time to avoid its path.
“Brace!” someone screamed. “For Elira’s sake, brace!”
Oriel dragged Roth back. The deck split as fairies scattered and abandoned the cannons on the port side. One slipped from its mooring and disappeared. Oriel wished he wasn’t close enough to see the hideous snarl twisting the snake woman’s face, or the way the blank eyes coldly gazed upon everyone. On the side, he finally caught the name: Revenge.
Kalen’s soldiers must have gained control of the seventy-gun ship at that moment because it fired right at its fellows.
The Revenge took several balls, and the damage was so massive, Elira’s Fire shuddered since the Revenge’s prow was jammed into the side. Commanders screamed orders as the sailors tried to move Elira’s Fire away enough to break free of the other. The balance of the ship had shifted from the damage to the hull, and Oriel knew they were probably taking on water below, not that anyone cared right now. The ship wouldn’t have time to sink from that alone if Meadow had their way.
As they shifted, the prow loosened. Rhys threw a fireball at someone Oriel couldn’t see. Soldiers were reloading the remaining cannons. The Revenge shifted slightly as if they thought they had time to aim their broadside.
The deck thrummed as the cannons fired upon the Revenge. A flier took the chance to launch herself onto the woman’s hideous head. As he channeled her fire into the mental, the snake woman glowed with the heat, and the wood she was attached to started to catch.
Some of Kalen’s soldiers cheered. The Revenge listed to one side while the prow went up. An enemy panicked and jumped even though his chances in the ocean were probably quite small now.
The main mast cracked and snapped. It must have already been heavily damaged, and with the listing, the weight grew to be too much.
The seventy-gun ship fired again.
Oriel dared to look between two shields with Roth. Splinters flew as the already damaged side of the Revenge further crumbled. The woman was a mass of hot metal as the flier still clung to it, unhurt by her own power. More of the wood nearby caught fire, and those who had survived the onslaught started to abandon ship. A couple of fliers took off above it, but someone’s lightning knocked them out of the air.
Elira’s Fire still had life. As the Revenge started to sink, it hardly looked like a ship anymore.
Everywhere Oriel looked, he saw fighting. The two masses had been growing more entwined as cannons went off, magic flew, fliers started taking to the air since they were close enough, and ships rammed others.
Ships can’t turn in a second, and Kalen’s let out one more barrage of cannonballs into the enemy ahead to hit whoever. A few from their side started launching flaming oil orbs again. Magic and arrows still flew as they drew closer to the wall. Meadow’s fleet had been sliced in half, and as more gaps appeared, that meant more of Oriel’s men drew closer.
It also meant the cannons on the wall could start firing.
A ball narrowly missed the mizzenmast of Elira’s Fire. The flaming sail gave up, and the tattered remains came loose. Unfortunately, it blew right into a ship behind them, but there wasn’t anything they could do about that. There wasn’t much left to the sail anyway.
An eighty-gunner called the Flyer had made surprisingly good headway despite its size, although it had taken some heavy damage. It was still able to fire at the walls of Juniper.
Stone chips flew in all directions as grey dust exploded up and out. A cannon collapsed and took a couple of men with it as that part of the walkway was destroyed. Ten daring fliers headed for the wall with their weapons, and the first of Oriel’s army had breached the defenses.
Fliers from both sides grew more daring the worse the fighting grew. A ship didn’t get out of the way in time, and the prow of Elira’s Fire rammed into it. Wood splintered on both sides, but Elira’s Fire was bigger, and the little ship dangerously tilted. Someone slid along the deck, hit the railing, flipped over it, and vanished in the water.
Roth thumped Oriel’s back. “Almost.”
Cannons from the wall fired, and some weren’t being too careful about who they hit anymore with the enemy being so close. Men with longbows aimed for Elira’s Fire as she cut through the water, debris, and probably soldiers too. Plenty had fallen in. The water lapped at the walls and the rocks near the base. The most dangerous part was coming.
Kalen had agreed to sacrifice Elira’s Fire for this along with a few others. Oriel and Roth knelt with Kalen and Rhys as the stonework drew closer and closer.
If they had more speed and time to gain it, it probably would have been worse, but the shock of the hit still nearly knocked Oriel back. Their Elira prow which was made out of a few hundred pounds of metal and had the force of a ship behind it smashed into the stonework right below where a cannon was. At that moment, a different cannon fired at them and blew away part of the quarterdeck. A Commander who had been up there with his crossbow was no more. Oriel gripped onto Roth to help him keep him steady as wood flew behind them, and stone chips exploded ahead.
“Now!” someone screamed.
Oriel raced forward with the rest toward the prow which had created a crummy but working bridge. More fliers headed for the wall, and an enemy with butterfly wings suddenly launched himself toward Oriel.
He came from nowhere, but a fireball hit him in the face, and a dose of lightning made his wings spasm. Rhys, slightly ahead of Oriel, swung his sword, and the fairy’s throat opened in a spray of blood.
Getting onto the wall bottlenecked them, but some of their fliers helped cover them in those vulnerable seconds. With his sword and shield in hand, Oriel went for the nearest men at a cannon. Bravely, they had stayed and were trying to get a shot off even though death lurked ten feet away.
Oriel swung for one, and his blade bit through leather armor. The green-clad enemy screamed. The powder man broke and ran, but an arrow from one of the ships below drove itself into his skull.
Out in the water, the ships still fought, and more rammed others as the wall became a more desperate goal for those trying to get to it and those trying to keep the invaders away. Wreckage floated in the water, and some ships were listing so badly, they were useless. Cannons boomed from both sides, and the wall shook behind Oriel as it took more hits. Several fliers descended on another cannon farther down to fight for control.
Oriel dodged around it and threw a fireball at a powder man who had just panicked and tipped his sack of black powder. It exploded, and one of the loaders screamed as his armor failed to fully protect him. Another simply collapsed. The mangled corpse of the powder man didn’t look like a fairy anymore. Someone with a longbow aimed at Oriel but fell back when a blast from Roth hit them in the face.
