Imperial Reliquary by DB King & Shawn Whitney

Author:DB King & Shawn Whitney [King, DB]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2022-12-07T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 13

There was an explosion of sparks and flames licked upward. Surely both Erin and the fire manager who was tending the burning fireweed had been destroyed by the fireball that erupted from inside the box, Jaden thought.

He was about to fly up and try to rescue them, but the fireball caught the balloon, which burned like paper, trails of embers glowing and climbing upward, consuming the balloon bit-by-bit.

“Abandon ship!” Jaden shouted.

Nathan picked Malory up from the deck and put her over his shoulder. He rushed to the side of the balloon and leapt across to Melchior’s ship. Meanwhile, the stevies with their lifelong experience on ship rigging were already halfway across on the ropes connecting the two airships. Claire stayed back to coach the Seekers, who were facing death for the first time and beginning to panic.

“You’ll be fine if you don’t lose your heads,” Claire said. “My lot are a bunch of half-drunken fatsos and look at ‘em, like spiders they are. You can do it.”

Her confidence was infectious and seemed to be working. Feeling that she had that under control, Jaden turned back to the Noon Wraiths. He rushed back into battle, avoiding their whiplike attacks with his magical sight.

Near him, Hilda continued together with Tallulah, whose octopus limbs handled half a dozen quills simultaneously. She was thrusting and jabbing everywhere at once, and Jaden was more concerned that she would stab him than that she would suffer from an attack by the Wraiths.

Jaden fought to cover their retreat from the doomed balloon. Rolling, leaping, flying, he slashed and jabbed, accumulating quills and turning Wraiths into shriveled sacks that collapsed and turned to liquid on the deck, making it slippery.

He glanced back over his shoulder. The last of the Seekers, Roderic the Cheetah, was making his way carefully across the ropes.

Claire whistled to get Jaden’s attention and then she, too, began to make her way across. She stood upright on the ropes, unbelievably nimble given her large frame, and scurried along the ropes like a spider.

A Noon Wraith approached her, but she thrust her remaining quill at it, piercing it and sending it earthward, shrieking. However, she was left weaponless and more Wraiths were approaching her from every angle.

“Look out!” Jaden shouted and stabbed a Wraith, then leapt toward Claire.

Surrounded from all sides, she decided that she had no chance. With a battle cry, Claire leapt off of the rope and grabbed hold of a Noon Wraith. Her body trembled as dozens of the creature’s smaller quills punctured her flesh and injected her with their venom. Her eyes rolled back into her head as she lost consciousness and fell backward.

Jaden dove after her, but she was too far and surrounded by too many of the Noon Wraiths.

He had to turn away before she hit the ground, and he returned to the Seeker basket where the two twins were still battling.

The balloon was sinking at a growing speed and the number of Wraiths was becoming overwhelming. Jaden arrived

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