The dragons are very close, Storyteller, Shulina Arya said as they flew over the city toward Bhrava Saruth’s temple.

Rysha and Trip rode on her back, and Rysha could feel the tension in his stiff body. He had to not only be worried about the attack—never before had this many dragons assaulted the capital all at once—but also about the performance of his weapons platform. Would it do everything he wished? And everything he had promised the king? Not getting a chance to test it first was asking for trouble.

They’ll be visible on the horizon at any moment, Trip said. I sense that they’re flying toward the city, but the temple is on that same heading. Shulina Arya, we need to get there first just in case…

You think they’ll attack your platform while it’s still on the ground? Rysha asked.

I don’t know, but I’m sure they know it exists. I had a gold dragon spy on it one day. It’s possible they don’t know exactly what it is, but they’re smart enough to make some guesses. The spy would have sensed the tainted ore.

I am very fast, Shulina Arya said. We will arrive first. And then we will go into valiant battle.

Rysha hoped she wasn’t thinking about confronting all eight at once. She would prefer to let those dragons sail overhead, become focused on the city and the fliers, and then come in from behind to attack one at a time.

The temple came into sight, its rocky island tucked inside the protective inlet. The gray and black weapons platform in the back was as large as the temple itself with railings to keep anyone from falling over the side once it was airborne and twelve towers positioned around the edges with weapons on them. At least Rysha hoped the rocket launchers had been mounted. She spotted someone in a white jacket with dark hair kneeling atop one of the towers.

Tolemek doesn’t have all the rocket launchers installed yet, Trip told her grimly. Only four of the twelve are mounted. I should have been here to help him this morning.

Rysha reached back and patted his leg.

Bhrava Saruth is not here to defend his temple. Shulina Arya sounded surprised. He is at the butte in the city where the fliers are taking off.

The city needs dragons to help, Rysha thought. Is there any chance Phelistoth or your parents are on the way?

My parents are not on this continent. They are doing more research on population problems and have been discussing breeding prey animals, the way humans breed livestock, to increase the availability of desirable food for dragons.

A noble pursuit, but not one that would help the city today. What about Phelistoth?

He is outside of the city at the house of magic, picking up the sorceress Tylie.

Good. At least, Rysha thought it was good. She hoped Sardelle’s children would be fine with all the adults in the house gone. Would the younger students watch over them?

She’d been a little surprised Sardelle had volunteered to go up with Zirkander, and that he’d seemed to expect that she would. What would happen to their children if they both died in battle? Maybe the odds were against that, but they had to have considered it. Were they so dedicated to the city and the country that they were willing to risk themselves? Maybe they believed it necessary, that to lose their sovereignty to the dragons would be unacceptable, for them and for their children.

As Shulina Arya dove toward the back of the temple, the first dragons came into view, two large, powerful golds leading the flight.

Rysha worried about what would happen if all eight descended to deal with Trip and the weapons platform—and her and Shulina Arya—before continuing on to the city. She pulled her spectacles strap out of her pocket and affixed it, having a feeling she would need that extra security before the day was over.

They landed in the center of the steel platform, with Trip leaping off before Shulina Arya folded her wings in. Rysha thought he would run up to talk to Tolemek, but maybe they were already in telepathic communication because he ran instead toward a ladder that led down into the platform itself, toward the area housing the engines.

Before he reached them, the deck thrummed, a sign of them starting up.

I feel the magic of this place, Shulina Arya said. Your mate has made powerful artifacts.

Will those dragons sense them? Rysha said.

Of course. But I also sense… There is something most unpleasant embedded in this structure. Shulina Arya lifted her taloned foot and peered at it, as if something distasteful might be sticking to the bottom.

The banded iron, Rysha said. We’re hoping dragons won’t like it.

I certainly do not. Shulina set down her foot but soon lifted the other one to peer at it.

I’m going to attempt to camouflage the platform now, Trip spoke into their minds. I’m not sure how effective it will be—the tainted ore will fight me. If Shulina Arya can help, I would appreciate it. Even under ideal circumstances, my meager talents wouldn’t fool dragons.

I will do so, Shulina Arya replied, though it is unfortunate that we don’t have a trap to spring. We could have lured them all down here.

The two gold dragons came into view again, flying over the cliffs above the island. They were much closer now, their powerful muscles rippling under their gleaming scales as they pumped their wings.

Rysha held her breath, feeling vulnerable and out in the open. Dorfindral hummed on her hip, seeming to cry, “Fight!” into her mind.

“Soon,” she whispered.

Four silver dragons came into view, following the golds, and two bronze dragons came after them. Trip had been right. Eight total.

One of the bronze dragons dipped a wing and peered down toward them. Had he seen through the camouflage? Since Rysha couldn’t sense magic, she had to trust that it was there.

The bronze straightened his path and continued after the others. The dragons disappeared over the cliffs, still heading toward the capital. Alarm gongs sounded in the distance. The city was alert. Rysha hoped it was ready.

The thrumming under Shulina Arya’s feet increased, and Rysha felt the reverberations through her body. One end of the platform tilted upward, then dropped back down. It wobbled like a top for a few seconds, and Rysha worried that meant it wouldn’t lift off. But then all sides rose at once. As incredible as it seemed without the help of balloons of any kind, the platform inched upward.

The enemy dragons have engaged your people, Shulina Arya said.

Tolemek ran down the ladder from the tower he’d been on and, without glancing her way, raced to a pile of materials, grabbed what he needed, and ran to the next tower. Trip climbed out of the engine area and also sprinted for the materials pile.

Rysha realized there was little she could do since she hadn’t seen the most recent blueprints and didn’t have any experience assembling rocket launchers. A part of her wanted to stay and protect Trip while he finished working, but she could check back on him later. The city needed her sword and Shulina Arya’s fangs and magic.

“Trip,” Rysha yelled, “if you don’t need us, we’re going to join the battle.”

Good, he told her. He was running toward a tower with heavy-looking materials floating in the air behind him, but he paused to look at her, to meet her eyes. Be careful. I love you.

Rysha’s heart lifted. He’d implied before that he felt that way, but he had never said the words.

I love you too, Trip. Rysha patted Shulina Arya’s scales to let her know she was ready to take off. You be careful too, she added. I’d be most distraught if you died before I convinced my family that they like you and approve of you.

You’re going to convince them of that? Trip climbed the ladder to the bare tower, nothing but the base of a rocket launcher installed there so far. I thought I had to make them a coffee maker.

That will certainly help, especially right now, since I don’t think they’ve yet hired back any of the servants.

They had servants to make the coffee?

Of course, Trip. Noblemen and women don’t make their own beverages.

He snorted. Major Kaika as queen is going to be downright scandalous, isn’t it?

I have no doubt of that. Rysha imagined Kaika getting up from some function at the castle and heading into the kitchen to refill her own beverage as the servants gaped in flustered distress.

As Shulina Arya flew over the cliffs and toward the harbor, Rysha wondered if Kaika would be in one of the fliers, taking her chapaharii sword into the air for battle again. It was hard to imagine her not wanting to fight, but with her hair not grown back from her last encounter with a dragon, she might not be as eager as usual.

Ah, excellent, Shulina Arya said, beating her wings hard as the battle came into view. There are plenty of dragons still left for us.

They were all left. The fight had barely begun. Fliers were still taking off from the bluff.

It looks like you can take your pick of worthy opponents. Rysha took a deep breath and drew Dorfindral. I’m ready.

* * *

The weapons platform rose ponderously, and Trip grimaced, watching the engines and propellers with his senses as his hands worked to ratchet down the base of one of the rocket launchers. A small stack of rockets gleamed in the sun, resting in the cradle he’d built into the top of the tower for them. He could sense the dragon-blood-derived acid inside, along with an explosive charge, but barely. His head throbbed from the proximity to the tainted ore, which was incorporated all throughout the platform, and most heavily concentrated in the rocket casings.

“In theory, you should pop magical barriers,” he muttered to the weapons. “We’re about to find out if that’s true.”

Are you steering this platform, Captain? Tolemek asked into his mind.

Not yet.

The weapons platform had to clear the cliffs before it could head south toward the city. Trip hoped it would move laterally faster than it was lifting, or the battle would be over by the time they reached the harbor.

There’s a wheel and levers in the wheelhouse that will let a mundane person steer it, Trip added.

As strange as it seemed, this whole structure would ideally be controlled by those without dragon blood, those who wouldn’t be repulsed by the tainted ore. With that in mind, he had designed it for mundane hands.

That wasn’t my question. I want to know if you’re going to keep us from running into that cliff over there.

I’ll handle it. Trip didn’t think they were close enough to worry about it yet. Just keep installing weapons, please.

Tolemek grunted. You sound like Zirkander. Except he doesn’t say please.

I’m low enough ranking that I’m used to asking politely for things.

It’s a good policy to maintain. Are we testing these rockets before we sail into the middle of the battle and start firing them? I know you said they would be drawn to dragons, but have you figured out how to make sure they go after the right dragons?

By asking our allies to make sure they’re farther away from us than the enemy dragons.

That’s it?

I couldn’t think of any other way to select targets based on their alliances or temperament. In the future, if the weapons platform proves effective, we won’t need our allies in the air.

Good luck telling Ravenwood’s female that. She seems bloodthirsty.

She just enjoys pitting herself against others in noble battle. Something that Trip could understand. He lamented that he would be stuck on the platform during the fight instead of in his flier.

Uh huh. Looks like company is coming.

Trip lifted his head. They had cleared the cliffs and could turn south toward the city now, but a dragon was heading their way. One of the silvers. Had it been sent to investigate the platform? Or destroy it? The dragons must have guessed it represented a threat.

I guess we’ll get a chance to test the weapons, Trip replied. But not this one. The launcher isn’t operational yet.

He envisioned himself grabbing one of the rockets and throwing it like a spear.

Towers Two, Five, Nine, Ten, and Twelve should have working launchers, Tolemek said from his spot on Tower Six. I made sure one on each side of the weapons platform was operational.

Good idea.

Trip jumped up, thinking he would have to run to the closest working launcher, but he saw that Tower Two already had a rocket loaded in it. He could detonate it remotely with his power.

He eyed the dragon’s approach, its silver form growing larger as it flew over the suburbs along the coast north of the city. When Trip had been making his calculations, he’d decided the ideal range for the weapons would be less than eight hundred yards so the dragons wouldn’t have much time to react. The rockets would launch like bullets, but he could still envision the magical creatures twisting quickly enough to grab them out of the air with their talons, then throwing them away before they could explode.

“Three… two… one… now,” he whispered and pulled the launch lever with his mind.

He sensed a click, as the ignition system activated, but the rocket didn’t fire.

Cursing, Trip leaped from his tower and ran across the deck. He magically elevated himself to Tower Two as the dragon swooped in close. The silver came right at him, talons extended, and Trip sensed it drawing upon its power.

Azarwrath? he asked as he wrapped a barrier around himself. He knelt behind the malfunctioning launcher, in part for cover but mostly because he had to fix it.

He realized right away that his barrier was thin and weak, barely extending beyond his body. He groaned—it was because he knelt on the tainted iron. Even the small bit threaded through the top of the tower was enough to disrupt his abilities.

Lending my power, the soulblade said as the silver hurled a mental attack.

Something like a hurricane battered Trip’s mental defenses as the dragon came in. Fortunately, its attack was weaker than Trip expected. Maybe the tainted iron affected it, even though the dragon wasn’t touching the platform.

It screeched, and its talons slashed as it neared Trip, trying to snatch him up like a falcon snatching a mouse from a field. Those talons clashed against his barrier and bumped off, but the blow sent a jolt through him.

Trip snatched one of the rockets from the cradle as the dragon flew away, banking to come around and attack him again. He hefted the weapon to his shoulder and hurled it toward the creature’s chest with all of his physical and mental power.

The dragon tried to dodge, but it was too close. Trip sensed its barrier popping and the rocket continuing through. Even though he hadn’t thrown it with the power of one of the launchers, it was designed to explode on impact, and it did.

Trip funneled more power into his barrier as it blew, yellow fire engulfing the dragon, and a wave of energy flowing in all directions. It hammered Trip’s defenses, and he dropped to one knee, gritting his teeth and struggling to keep up his magical protection. He imagined the tainted ore under his knee mocking him, and for a second, he was back in Bhodian’s barge, defenseless as his powers flagged.

The dragon thumped to the deck, screeching in pain. A gunshot fired, and Trip shook his head, thrusting the memories from his mind. He jumped to his feet in time to see the silver also recovering, running and flapping its wings as it headed for the side.

Tolemek fired again, using a pistol loaded with his acid bullets. The dragon’s defenses were down after the beating it had taken, and acid already coated its scales, oozing between them and biting into flesh. The bullet smacked it in the backside. The dragon didn’t stick around to take more abuse. It leaped over the railing and flew away.

Trip jumped down from the tower and ran to the side of the platform to see where it went. Had they hurt it badly enough to put it out of commission? Or was it merely inconvenienced and on its way to attack someone else?

The dragon flew toward the harbor, then dove abruptly. At first, Trip thought it was after a flier or ship down in the water, but it plunged below the surface. He sensed its pain, its attempt to get rid of the acid burning through its scales. They might not have killed it, but Trip hoped its discomfort meant it wouldn’t be able to return to the battle.

“If I’d known you were simply going to throw the rockets like hook balls,” Tolemek said, coming up beside him, “I wouldn’t have bothered installing the launchers.”

“The launcher didn’t work.” Trip jerked his thumb toward the tower.

“Ah, this is why I wanted time to test everything.”

“Me too.”

Trip ran back to the tower, hoping he could quickly find and fix the problem. The weapons platform was almost to the harbor now, and he could hear the pounding of machine guns, the cries of men and dragons, and the thrum of propeller blades. Again, he wished he was in his flier, but he had to accept that he’d chosen this fate for himself and that once he got his platform fully operational, it had the potential to be far more helpful to his country than Trip alone.

He just hoped he could train others to operate it, because between the dragon’s attack and the power-sucking attribute of the ore, his head ached so badly he thought he would throw up. And the battle had just begun.

Some of the fliers are heading this way, Tolemek told him. He’d climbed one of the other towers and had a good view of the battle. With a gold dragon chasing them.

This way? Why?

Maybe they think we have a working rocket launcher to use.

Trip groaned. Would any of the others work or did they all have the same problem?

He peeked up from his work. He was about to find out.