52. Mani's Trial
Mani fights for his life...
The Queen’s Aerie is a MMF fantasy romance (romantic fantasy?) in 57 parts that I serialized throughout 2023/2024! If you are just now joining the story, you can catch up by starting here. Full story ToC here.
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Previously: Rodgardae finally took to the skies...
Agadart raised her head, taking the warmth of her body with her. The cold ocean winds snapped over Mani and shook him out of his reverie. Something had caught her attention, but he did not see anything different from when he first stepped out of the cabin, except perhaps for the fact that Consort ver Kleelan was not there anymore. The Iskaryyvan forces were still circling the urshvalkin, and…then he saw what she was staring at. The circle was tightening, getting closer.
The ten Wattish dragons who made up the whole of the Queen’s Flight were still flying above them, but were dropping their altitude. Mani looked over at where the emperor had been curled up and saw him staring back, his dragon eyes glowing white with rage and pain. He managed to pull himself up on his front legs, flapping his wings a little. They were still covered with old blood but Mani realized that it had, indeed, been over a day since the emperor had fought with Ro and then Agadart; his injures were obviously too severe to have healed, but a dragon as powerful as the emperor would still heal faster than most.
Agadart turned her back to Mani, blocking his view of the emperor, and screeched at her enemy with a queen’s roar. It vibrated through Mani’s bones and he starting moving backwards, away from them. If they decided to dual on the deck of the urshvalkin Mani could easily get swept right over the edge.
Both dragons were bristling at each other, and despite Agadart’s slight size advantage, the emperor was furious and desperate enough to be a serious challenge. Her flight would know to stay out of it and work to keep Iskaryyvan dragons out of it too, but Mani realized that the number of ships and dragons had grown significantly while he had been wrapped up in his connection with Agadart.
All the forces that had been directed at Watt were now facing the lone urshvalkin that he was on with his queen. Ro and all his flights might be on the way, but were not there yet.
Everything felt frozen for a long moment, no one moving except the dragons in the air. Then a single cannon shot rang out, and within a hair’s breadth of time the roar of dozens more followed. Some cannons hit the urshvalkin, causing it to list to one side due to the force of the impacts. It then swung back up like a pendulum, and Mani nearly lost his footing.
There was another round of cannons, a few more hitting the deck and other parts of the urshvalkin. As Mani worked to try to figure out where the hell he could go that might be safe, he saw Agadart looking around wildly, uncertain whether to attack the emperor or the ships firing at them.
The cannons went off again, and someone had modified their aim because a cannonball slammed into one of Agadart’s flight, causing the dragon to scream in pain and spiral down into the water. Spurred into action, Agadart launched herself off the deck, the force of it sending it tilting even more violently. The emperor’s claws scrambled for purchase as Mani fell flat on his back. He lost track of where Agadart was as he tried to get to his hands and knees while the deck pitched and rolled from the continued assault. Out of the periphery of his eyes he saw dragons lunging in and out, enough that he could tell that the fear of the emperor’s survival at the hands of an enraged queen dragon was keeping most Iskaryyvan dragons from being too risky.
He assumed that the cannon fire was aimed either purposefully low at the waterline, or high up to hit enemy dragons. It was still a hell of a risk for ship’s captain to take, he thought as another round of explosions ripped through the air. He knew a few, at least, hit their mark as the urshvalkin shuddered and started swaying dangerously under Mani’s feet. He scrambled for the only stable thing on the whole deck, which was the small little cabin where he had first woken up. It was not much better than simply sliding down over the edge into the dark, dangerous waters.
The urshvalkin tilted even more steeply in the other direction, and waves crashed up high enough to send water streaming down the wooden planks. He slipped and fell to his knees again with a painful thud that he felt up to his teeth but could not hear due to the sounds of the battle raging around him. Once the first flash of blinding pain had passed through him, he shook his head and wiped the saltwater that was being splashed into his eyes and started crawling to the only protection he might be able to grab, if he could just get to it: the lone, empty cabin.
He was still a couple of meters away from the door, which was being slammed open and shut from the onslaught of waves, dragons, and cannon fire around the urshvalkin. He thought that with a burst of energy he might be able to make it there and at least have something to grab onto, but just as he pushed off with his feet, the entire urshvalkin tilted dangerously up to one side, and it was unfortunately the wrong way as the bottom dropped out from under Mani and he collapsed against the wood, watching the little cabin rise up into the air above him. He rolled to one side as he started sliding down the deck, heading straight for the ocean, trying desperately to avoid the furniture that was spilling out the door. Chairs tumbled past him while he desperately fought to find purchase even as he kept sliding down the steep grade of the listing urshvalkin.
He started screaming instinctively just as his feet were hitting the water and he saw a clawed hand reaching up out of the sea to grab the high edge of the urshvalkin and yank it down. Mani barely had time to register what he had seen with his own eyes before the urshvalkin violently tipped back the other way and Mani found himself slip-sliding straight into the small cabin, banging his shoulder on the doorway as he tumbled in. Knowing that the urshvalkin was going to tip back the other way, he angled his body to slam up against the opposite wall instead of back out the door and braced himself for impact. As he collided against the wall, he cried out in pain.
His mind burst with the violent colors of both Agadart and Ro, and while he knew he could not actually hear them over all the noise and the rushing waters and the battle guns, he felt their calls of fury and frustration deep in his bones. But they could not get to him — Agadart was besieged with enemy dragons attacking her, and Ro was simply too far away.
Even as he tumbled about the small cabin and tried to avoid getting sent back out the door, he marveled at the feeling of them, a connection that was even richer and more complex than the one he had previously shared with Ro. Their thoughts were a chaotic jumble of what they were feeling and doing, and despite being thrown about like a child’s toy in a washbasin, he knew they were coming for him. He knew they would be able to save him if he could just hold on long enough without getting his head bashed in or falling into the drink.
Eventually the urshvalkin’s pendulum-like sway that had been tipping the deck back and forth so dangerously started to slow down. Mani had lost track of time in his effort to keep from being too banged up. He was catching his breath as the sway became a little faster but less deep, sitting on his ass with his back to the wall near the door, when he felt it.
He didn’t even hear it at first, because his ears were ringing from the barrage of sounds from the battle and the splashing of the waves and the screams of dragons, but he knew immediately what was happening: the urshvalkin was starting to break apart.
He figured at least one of the broad, flat-bottomed boats under the deck that made up the body of the urshvalkin had taken several lethal hits below the waterline from a cannonball…or perhaps been attacked by the weird underwater kraken whose claw he had seen pulling on the deck. As the sound of the urshvalkin violently ripping apart reached his ears, he realized that the little cabin which had been his sole source of safety in the midst of the chaos was going to become his coffin.
He screamed again as the roof was ripped away and a red and gold, bloodied claw reached in to grab him.
