Rich Wulf - Rise of the Seventh Moon

“What was that?” Omax asked.

“From the way she’s handling, I’d guess she’s going down,” Tristam said. “The Brelish are trying to shoot us down. If we don’t land soon we’re going to crash. Can you and Seren make it to the bridge safely?”

“Yes,” Omax said. “Why?”

“I need you two to try to land the ship on the main island,” Tristam said. “There may still be time to save Skyway.”

“What are you going to do, Tristam?” Seren asked.

Tristam looked toward the ship’s core. “Use the Legacy,” he said. “Even without Marth’s control sphere, I should be able to control it from the core itself.”

“The Legacy will only make matters worse, Tristam,” Omax said.

“No,” Tristam replied. “Only if I use it as Marth intended. It’s like you said, Omax-destruction is not its true purpose. The magic that Sharn’s architects used to construct Skyway is intended to be self-sustaining, but the Legacy has started a chain reaction that has crippled that. If I can access the Legacy’s connection to whatever plane it draws its power from and release that energy in one focused burst of magic, the chain reaction will stop. The residual enchantments will feed off that power. Sharn’s connection to Syrania should regenerate, and the main island will stabilize.”

“What kind of focused burst are you talking about?” Seren asked.

“I’m going to power up the Legacy and then destroy the Seventh Moon ’s containment core before it can activate,” Tristam said. “When the elemental escapes, it will release a burst of pure magical energy over Skyway. That should reverse what Marth has done.”

“That sounds incredibly dangerous,” Omax said.

Tristam shrugged. “I can’t let Sharn die while there’s still a chance I can help,” he said. He headed toward the core chamber. “You’ll have about five minutes before I can crack the core. Land the ship on the main island-or at least get it as close as you can!”

Omax grunted his assent and hurried off. Seren waited behind for a moment. Tristam looked back at her nervously.

“I’m sorry, Seren,” Tristam said, unable to meet her eyes.

“Sorry?” she said. “For what?”

“That I couldn’t finish it,” he said. “Even after everything Marth did, I was ready to forgive him. All I could see was my friend.”

Seren wanted to reassure him, to tell him it was all right, that to offer compassion to an enemy wasn’t weakness. She couldn’t bring herself to do it. She loved Tristam, but a part of her still hated Marth too much. Instead she just moved to him, pressed her lips to his, and smiled sadly.

“Good luck,” she said.

“Hurry up to the helm and help Omax and Shaimin,” Tristam said. “There still might be soldiers up there willing to put up a fight.”

Seren nodded and hurried off through the ship.

In the corridor adjoining the ship’s bridge, a Cyran soldier burst out of a cabin. He was only a year or two older than Seren. He held a sword in one hand and had a life ring slung over his shoulder. His eyes were wide with terror as he brandished the weapon at her.

“Please,” he whimpered, backing away from her. “I don’t want to fight. I just want out of here.”

“Go,” she said. She held out her empty hands to show she meant no harm. The man turned and ran away through the ship. She felt a strange sense of pity. So this was their enemy. These were the men who had served Marth. They weren’t monsters-just sad souls with nowhere else left to go. Had her life gone just a bit differently, she might have been in their place. She neither saw nor heard any other crew. Most of them had likely abandoned ship.

Seren pushed open the hatch to the bridge and stepped inside. Omax stood at the helm, his large hands grasping the controls. Unlike the Mourning Dawn , the Seventh Moon ’s helm was contained inside a large bridge. One wall was clear glass, displaying the Sharn skyline. Beneath them, Skyway’s central island trembled. Glowing fractures continued to spread through the clouds like a spider’s web. Airships circled at a safe distance around the Moon , occasionally releasing bursts of lightning in their direction. The Brelish were clearly wary of the ship’s power but were afraid to approach too close.

The helmsman still lay on the floor where Shaimin had killed him. Next to him lay a second body, now covered in Shaimin’s cloak. A pair of familiar velvet boots poked out from beneath them. The pungent odor of burnt flesh hung on the air. She turned away, covering her mouth and gagging.

“He knew the sacrifice he was making, Seren,” Omax said. “I think Shaimin intended to return the life that he owed to Marth.”

She turned away, unable to look at the fallen elf. Why did it bother her so much? She had seen men die before, and she had hated Shaimin. The elf had almost killed her. He had been the last member of their makeshift crew that she would have expected to make such a sacrifice.

The Seventh Moon bucked again as another blast took her, throwing Seren off balance. Omax’s hands gripped the helm so tightly that she heard the wooden handles creak between his fingers. Skyway was so close now that Seren could see panicked people running through the streets.

“Do you know how to fly an airship, Omax?” Seren called out.

“No,” Omax said, “but I do not need to fly her. I need only find a place to crash her.”

“There!” Seren said, pointing ahead and to the left.

Behind a crumbling mansion, a grassy courtyard the size of a large park offered a relatively flat landing area. Omax nodded and fought with the helm, steering the crippled airship down. Seren glanced around for something on the bridge that she could hang on to when the ship crashed, but found only one thing. She clung to Omax. He removed one hand from the helm, holding her to his side.

With a deafening crash and a violent wrenching, the Seventh Moon collided with Skyway. Seren turned away as the forward wall shattered, showering them with broken glass and soft earth. The airship continued her forward motion, digging a deep gouge through the courtyard. A terrible shriek of tearing metal was the proud vessel’s death cry as she landed for the last time.

The ship’s bridge tilted at a wild angle. Omax’s grip on the controls had not wavered, nor did he even stagger when as the ship collided with the ground. He held Seren steady against him until the ship finally ground to a halt. He released her and backed away from the helm. The ship’s controls now had three grooves where the warforged’s hands had gripped them. Dirt from the ship’s nosedive now filled half the bridge.

“Tristam,” Seren said, looking back. The corridor leading to the bridge had partially collapsed, filled with flaming timber and twisted metal.

“Climb out through the porthole,” Omax said to her as he entered the corridor, shoving timbers aside. “I will find him.”

Seren moved as if to follow him, but Omax stopped her with a look.

“Please, Seren,” he said. “I will move more swiftly if I am not protecting you as well. Go.”

Seren clambered up the sloped heap of dirt and wreckage. She felt glass bite her hands and knees but ignored the pain as she heaved herself out of the airship. The ground beneath her feet trembled as Skyway began to crumble. She climbed out of the crater the Moon had left behind and looked back.

In the sky overhead, the Brelish airships had broken formation and spread out across Skyway. Seren reasoned that, with the attacker dealt with, they were hurrying to evacuate anyone they could before the island crashed. The Mourning Dawn was nowhere to be seen.

Half the airship had disintegrated on impact, leaving a trail of burning wood across the courtyard. The ship lay on her side. From here Seren could see the hole in her belly that Tristam had made during their first escape from the ship so long ago; the same room where Marth had died. Only one of the ship’s struts had survived impact. The tip of the arm still burned with a bright red fire; the ship’s elemental was still intact. As Seren watched, the red light grew brighter.