Siren's Song by Mary Weber Page B

Draewulf bring to this capitol?”
    â€œFive by our count.”
    â€œMeaning he thinks it’ll be easy to take the city then.”
    Ahead of us the guard nods. “My thoughts as well.”
    â€œThe queen said Cashlin will last ten days,” I say over the noise.
    The guard stops. Turns.
    As do the others.
    I swallow. “That’s her estimation, anyway.”
    A moment longer and then the guard nods, turns, and pushes through a door to the West Courtyard where one of our airships is hovering in the center. Overhead, our other ship is flying low and as close to the mountain as possible. I twist my hand to pull up a shroud of thick fog to cloak them better from Draewulf’s eyes as we break into a full run.
    â€œKenan, I need to be in the captains’ room,” Eogan says. “And I’ll not accept an argument on it.”
    Kenan nods and eyes me. “Kel, you stay with Nym.”
    At the loading dock, Cashlin guards are waiting to wave us up the ramp. The young male with us doesn’t stop. He ascends ahead of us, and as I near the top, I spot two red-eyed Luminescents already aboard amid our crew scurrying about the deck.
    â€œYou’re coming with us then,” Eogan says to him in a statement, not a question.
    â€œIf I may, Your Highness. As well as those two Luminescents. Queen Laiha sends us as a token of assistance to King Sedric.”
    Eogan pats his shoulder and moves past the man toward the captains’ room. “Get us in the air,” he yells as the fourth bomb hits. And this time a shatter of glass crashes from the palace ceiling onto the rooftop nearest us.
    I duck even though we’re instantly rising up up up into the fog-cloak, with only the smallest lights to reveal the location of the other ships. I peer over the railing onto the city and palace that have black holes and smoke emanating from four different vicinities. All those people.
    Kel’s chilly hand grabs mine. “Can’t you stop them?”
    My surge of thunder snaps and a thread of lightning ignites over the city. It illuminates Draewulf’s five airships, eerily close, through the fog.
    I clench my fist and drag another shred of lightning down to tear through one of those ships. It lights up like a furnace—all spark and flame and wisps of shredded balloon—and then it’s falling from the sky onto one of the crystal streets.
    The next moment the fog is darkening, like ink seeping into it. The thick, blackening wisps swirl up and around where the other ships are, blocking them from my vision.
    I send in a gale wind to shove it away, but the darkness clings to the atmosphere like a plagued leech. Thick and unmoving.
    I send in another shredded bolt, but it slices right through the black cloud and explodes a section of housing below it. Litches. Three more attempts end in the same result, and it occurs to me that the cloud is doing more than hiding them. It’s acting as some sort of shield.
    My curled fist lets the sky sizzle overhead but holds off sending any more. If I can’t see them, I can’t hit them. Suddenly my wrist aches, my lungs ache.
    â€œWhat’re you doing?” Kel yells. “Why are you shielding them?”
    â€œI’m not. It’s Draewulf. And my ability’s still too weak to break through it.” I pull my hand from the boy’s and use both fists to shove a gust between us and those ships. Propelling us faster in the wind. Pushing us away from the city, away from that black cloud, and away from Draewulf.
    â€œIs Princess Rasha on one of those ships?” The Luminescents’ voices are eerily close.
    My gut lurches. Litch. I shake my head; I don’t know. But hulls, I hope not. I continue to force the gale to give us distance, then close my eyes as the sounds of Eogan shouting orders from the captains’ room, and the airship’s drone, and the crashing of glass and metal below swirl around me.
    After a