The Heavenly Host

“But she’s very good at that!” Zed exclaimed with a leer. She glared at the satyr. “She’s also a combat geomancer, which is something we are going to really need today!”

“Why? We are so high up that — ” Gastropé began.

“Gravity sucks!” Penelope shouted and gave him a quick kiss on the cheek. She then strode to a cushion on the carpet and began strapping herself in.

“She’s right. The force of gravity is still quite potent up here, and neither liches nor dragons have any real defense against it.” Peter smiled as he pointed to a cushion for Gastropé.

Zed took the very back center cushion; Peter moved towards the front center cushion. He and Penelope were in the two side-by-side cushions. “This is one of the older, smaller carpets. We are using nearly everyone today, so we’ve put some heavy hitters that don’t normally fly combat on the newer six-person carpets,” Zed told him. That explained why it had fewer seats.

“On the bright side,” Peter said, grinning as he strapped himself in, “this is the carpet I used to set my speed record. It’s a lean, mean flying machine!”

Gastropé got himself situated and strapped in; Zed double-checked from behind him. “Strapped in!” the satyr called.

Gastropé quickly began trying to shove his component bag into the pouch before him. He wished he had been able to wizardize his staff; that would have been really useful. As it was, he had a wand of fire bolts he had been barely able to afford in Freehold. It was one that was wizard-powered, meaning it had no mana of its own, but worked as a catalyst so he didn’t need the regular material components. Just some key phrases, will power and mana. Unfortunately, he hadn’t realized he’d be fighting creatures nearly impervious to fire, or he might have gotten something else. Nevertheless, what did he have that might be useful? He could do lightning bolts, but that would have to be done the traditional way and on a high-speed carpet, he’d likely fumble the spell and kill them all.

The carpet seemed to lurch as it came alive. Peter grinned. “We all good?” Everyone nodded. He smiled and turned around. “Up, up and away!”

The carpet began moving upward rapidly. Gastropé looked up to see the stormy cloud ceiling approaching quickly. He was sure they were going to crash into the roof when the clouds suddenly parted and they were up and out.

“Peter on carpet 69, we are cloud free!” Peter shouted. The link channel to the command center came online as someone, Gastropé could not tell whom, gave Peter some instructions. Gastropé, however, was lost staring up above them. The observation deck and view lenses had mainly been looking down or to the sides. He could now stare straight up into the darkest blue-black that he could imagine.

Nearly overhead and a bit to the east, mighty Fierd was a giant, angry ball of fire. However, off beside Fierd the sky was not the normal blue, but rather the inky blackness of the night sky. Only as one’s eyes dove towards the horizon did the sky turn blue. Gastropé gulped at the overwhelming majesty of the sight.

“We have our target!” Peter shouted as the carpet banked heavily to starboard. Gastropé grabbed onto the rope handle beside his seat as the carpet tilted. He had never felt this degree of motion on a carpet before.

They came out of the bank and raced over the roiling, angry cloudship, then suddenly there was open air below them, and they were diving at a terrifying speed. Up ahead he could see the small forms of the dragon-borne liches towards which they raced, below and aft of the ship.

Gastropé furrowed his brow as he watched the rapidly approaching dragons. “Zed, you said that the air was too thin for the aetós to fly?”

“Yep,” came the satyr’s reply over the linked circlets.

“So how are the ice dragons able to fly up here?” Gastropé asked.

ZZzzssstttt! Gastropé jumped as a giant bolt of lightning arced overhead towards the lich and dragon. It appeared to only briefly hit the dragon’s wing, but he could not be sure. The odd part was that the thunder was very mild and subdued compared to the size and proximity of the bolt. Clearly the air was too thin for loud thunder, just a zapping noise.

Peter ignored the lightning and laughed, as did Penelope.

“That is an excellent question!” Zed replied in answer to how ice dragons could fly at this altitude... “One that we carpet warriors have often debated.”

“Fortunately,” Peter said, “we have come up with the only possible explanation!”

“Which is?” Gastropé asked.

“It’s magic!” The other three all shouted in unison before bursting into laughter. ZZzzssstttt! Went another quiet lightning.

∼

Elrose hurried towards one of the topside portals. As he had gotten to the upper deck, he had been handed a high-altitude com unit for communication, breathing and warmth. That would save him some effort. A satyr had helped dial him into the same link that Maelen and the others on the top of the ship would be using.