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Syrra clenched her jaw and nodded. “Damien has fitted them with glass bulbs. We should assume they are filled with one of his new inventions.”
I gritted my teeth. “Violet flame.” The liquid in the glass was a dark purple color.
Syrra placed her hand on my shoulder. “We are not raiding their city, Keera. We only need to hold our own for an hour and ensure their ships cannot follow us home.”
Gerarda huffed a laugh. “Only?”
“Think of it as a chance to outshine Keera.” Syrra’s brow rose.
Gerarda grinned. “That does make me feel better.”
Syrra nodded at the first sun rising over the western horizon. “We will not find better cover than that.”
I nodded and grabbed the vial of water Nikolai had given me. It was infused with the same auric swirls as a portal threshold, swimming inside the jar. Gerarda stepped on a tiny faebead and let the light flash once before extinguishing it again. The signal for the other ships to ready their own bottles.
I poured the liquid into a wooden pedestal next to the ship wheel. There were three hollowed circles for me to split the water among. I swirled my finger in each pool three times until the faces of Elaran and Myrrah appeared in one and Feron and Lash appeared in the other.
“The sunlight will give us an advantage once I cast the fog.” I peered down at their nodding faces. “Feron and Lash, this will beyour chance to disable as many of their ships as you can. We attack their sails and we send their weapons into the sea.”
I turned to Myrrah and Elaran. “I won’t drop the fog until Nikolai’s weapons are in range. When the horizon clears be ready to shoot.”
They nodded as Nikolai’s head popped into their pool. “We’ve loaded the bolts to the starboard side of the ship and every arrow shaft is coated in oil. You and Lash only need to ignite them. Save your magic.”
We both nodded and Nikolai poured another substance into his pool. The water bubbled with golden light before floating into the air like a faelight. It rippled and then split into two orbs, and then they split too. And again and again until the pools were tiny droplets hanging in the air.
Two floated by my ear and I could her the whispers of Myrrah and the others, while a third hovered by my lips. The magic would last for just under an hour, giving us time to communicate across the three ships with ease.
At least in that way we were at an advantage.
“Open your sails,” I ordered. The sound of three giants sails dropping low echoed behind me as I raised my arms and pulled the sea into the air, concealing the horizon in a morning fog. The sunlight would make it hard to see our sails through the thick of it until we were well in range of their ships.
My brow trembled as I kept the fog around all three vessels and beyond while I called that whirling power forward in my chest. I cast three eternal gusts and sent them into each ship’s sails. We moved through the water like a blade, silent and deadly.
“Wielders at the ready,” I whispered as I let the fog disperse by a tiny fraction. Not enough to reveal our position but enough that we could see the black sails coming closer along the horizon. I turnedto the right and saw Feron at the stern of the ship. He was seated in a wooden chair with his cane tied to his hip.
When the black sails were close enough to see the shiny emblem stitched into them, Feron stood and turned to me.
His eyes were a bright violet, glowing in the distance.
I nodded and he raised his hands.
There was no turning back.
A deep rumble like far-off thunder rippled from the sea. The calm surface began to thrash—the only warning Damien’s ships had before three giant pillars of rock erupted from the sea.
Feron was cunning in his use of his power. Each tower of seafloor was erected right under one of the largest ships, shattering its hull like glass and sending its battalion into the raging water. He waved his arm and the towers fell, plummeting onto the sails and decks of the ships beside them.
Feron had managed to destroy seven of the thirty ships in one attack, but the drain on his power was already showing. He sat back down and wiped the sweat from his brow.
A battle horn cried from the smoking mountain. The soldiers might not be able to see us yet, but they knew we were here.
“We’re in range.” Nikolai’s voice boomed in my ear.
Killian raised his hand and issued the command. “Archers and bolts at the ready.” He dropped his arm and I dropped the veil of fog around us.
Canons exploded in the distance. Myrrah lurched her ship to the left, dodging their blows and aligning our own weapons at once.
“Fire!” Killian ordered as Feron used his power to shield our ships from their canon strikes. Our large arrows flew over the wall of earth between us. I dispersed my gusts, letting each ship coast, and climbed to the eagle’s nest.
