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Some arrows fell to the sea, short of their targets. But some landed on the decks of their ships. I smirked as the soldiers cheered, unaware of how much danger they were in. Lash cracked his knuckles in the nest beside me and waved his arm.
The arrows lit in slow succession, like candles reigniting after a breeze. The oil sparked to life along each arrow, burning white hot, enough to catch the wet wood and rigging aflame. Men shouted for buckets of water to douse the flames, but with a push from my own fire powers they spread to their masts and twenty-three became twenty.
Feron lowered his shield just as the stern of the ships came close to crashing against it. A barrage of arrows flew into the sky, flying at us like a flock of pointed black birds. I waited until they started plummeting toward us and used one strong gust to throw them off course.
Myrrah opened her sails and overtook my middle ship. Feron followed her lead as Damien’s soldiers prepared another canon attack. I raised a fog around the closest black sails, obscuring their aim. The Shades loaded Nikolai’s mechanical bows once more and then nocked three arrows each.
Killian gave the order to fire and we sent our own flock of fatal birds upon them. Lash lit the arrows one by one and two more ships were set aflame. Their soldiers jumped into the thrashing water before we could stoke the flames like we had on the first ships.
Feron stood from his chair and closed his eyes. When he opened them thick strands of seaweed uncoiled from the water and wrapped around the necks of soldiers. Strangling them like tentacles and pulling others into the depths below.
We had taken half of the ships on this side of the city. Now all we needed to do was make a gap wide enough for me to cross the threshold.
Myrrah turned her ship sharply again, and Nikolai shot one of his bigger arrows. It pierced the hull of the closest ship and set an anchor with the same spikes he had used that night in Silstra. A rope tied their two ships together and I filled Myrrah’s sail with the power she needed.
Her boat took the lead of our tiny fleet as she pulled one of Damien’s ships into the hull of another. Its stern pierced through the wood with a loud creak. Elaran waited until the broken ship had turned enough to set its course toward a third and sliced through the rope altogether.
Feron’s ship was close enough to the others that enemy arrows could fall upon their decks. Pirmiith stood at the mast with a long bow almost as tall as he was. He aimed five arrows at a time, taking a soldier with each bolt.
Lash incinerated the enemy’s arrows before they could reach their sails or pierce the Elverin’s chests.
My shoulders relaxed as I took in the destruction. We had successfully destroyed the ships along the middle and created a space wide enough for my canoe to breeze through undisturbed.
I leaped down from the eagle’s nest and used a rope to slow my fall. Just as my feet hit the deck something sparked in the distance and a loud hiss sounded across the sea. My blood chilled, thinking there was some kind of ancient serpent under our ship, but instead the sea was lit in purple flame.
A line of violet fire ignited along the water and I noticed the sheen in front of each of Damien’s ships. That was why they weren’t crossing the threshold of the channel. They had other means of enforcing it.
“Gerarda, turn!” I shouted, but it was too late. The flames ignited underneath us like a lit fuse and the ship was blown in two.
Water filled my lungs as I was thrown into the sea. I surfaced to see the green sails of a ship lit with purple flame. The heads of theShades surfaced on the western side of the wall of flame while our two other ships sat on the east.
“I can’t control the flames.” Lash’s voice sounded in my ear. I was grateful the orbs of water hadn’t dissolved the moment I touched the sea. “They’re too strong and too wild.”
“Then we will swim under.” I let that thrashing power build in my belly and the water around me bubbled until I was lifted from the sea. The Shades looked up at me as I gestured my plan to them. When they nodded I dove from my high point along the surface and we swam below.
The flames descended into the water’s surface deep enough that some of the Shades had to cut themselves free of their cloaks to sink low enough.
I gasped for air as I breached the surface on the other side, my hair drying in the heat of Damien’s tainted flames. Feron was pulling Shades onto his ship using the weeds while I pushed them onto the deck of Myrrah’s with my waves.
Killian grabbed my shoulder, pausing for a moment to make sure I wasn’t injured. His jade eyes were full of worry until I squeezed his wrist.
“You need to leave now.” His words were stuttered from the swell of the waves.
I thrust us toward the rope ladder along Myrrah’s ship. Gerarda and Syrra were already climbing onto the deck while Vrail and Nikolai pulled Shades over the ledge. “Is everyone accounted for?” I asked Elaran and those on the other ship.
Gerarda had already begun her count. “We have eighty-three here.”
“Sixty-one here.” Lash’s report was cut off by his sudden need to turn a barrage of arrows to ash.
I did the math in my head. “That leaves us one short.” I scanned the deck for the brown hair and lanky limbs I was looking for. “Fyrel!” I screamed in a desperate plea.
Gerarda turned frantically looking for her in the sea but Nikolai lifted his head and shouted. “There!”
Fyrel was standing at the top of the mast with a bow in her hand. She shot in such succession that I could barely count her arrows as she emptied the three quivers along her back. Each shot struck her target in his chest.
I sighed with relief.
Myrrah steered the ship toward the shores of Volcar. Damien’s own fleet would have trouble turning to face us. I ordered the Shades to ready a canoe. When I turned, I saw that line of oil, barely visible floating in the waves of the sea. We would be on it in seconds.
