The nobles and peasants gawp at a flash of white light from on high. A colossal ball of varicoloured fire engulfs the grand palace, then comes a deafening boom. The crowd erupt and trample each other, fleeing in all directions, and despite their efforts to subdue the panic, the city guard is ignored and swept up in the chaos. An arrow soars over the square and hits the throne in the regent’s private box, inches from his pompous head. He shrieks and wails as his bodyguards pull his royal arse behind cover.
“Coward,” Astrid tuts, and leaps out of the bakery window in one fluid movement, drawing a pale glistening longsword from her belt as she soars towards the street below – the only token she has of her heritage, the legendary enchanted sword, Icerend. She flicks her wrist, spinning it elegantly as she cuts her way through the guards charging towards her. Each strike freezes them solid and a second shatters them to glittering dust.
Regis frees the captives from their bondage while Remy attacks the executioner with her shield until he passes out from head trauma.
“Told you we’d be alright,” Bengeo laughs and throws off the noose from his neck then lifts George onto his broad shoulders. “This is gonna get rough, kid, so hold on tight.”
The town guard surrounds them, and Bengeo hits a soldier so hard it dents his helmet and he collapses in a heap. Esmerelda’s hands crackle with embers as she shapes a sphere of fire in her palms and hurls it at the others, setting them ablaze.
“Been a while since I did that,” she smirks as the screaming men drop and roll.
From her platform, Diamond watches the pandemonium spiral as Astrid’s loyal revolutionaries attack the town guard and burn the houses. A shimmer of light in the crowd catches her eye, and she spots the rogue princess herself, battling her way towards the cowering regent in his private box. In a flash Diamond leaps into the square and pushes her way through the crowd to confront Astrid. In an instant, their swords clash.
*
Ed rubs his stinging eyes, and chokes on the smoke. Ash flutters around him as the palace goes up in flames. Heaps of rubble collapse from the top of ivory spires and crash through the roof of the hall, scattering stone and glass everywhere. His vision clears in time to make out Tank’s silhouette. The knight walks fearlessly through the flames with his broad sword in hand. It isn’t long until the clang of clashing metal rings out over the crackling fire.
“Son of a bitch,” Valentine spits and coughs as he rolls onto his back. He forces himself on his feet and exchanges a nod with Ed, each letting the other know they’re alright.
“Jessica? Lauren?” the detective calls out.
“Fuck, that was loud!” Jessica rubs her ears with her fingers to stay the ringing in her head.
“Where’s Lauren?” Ed scans the room but can’t see her through the billowing smoke and dust.
“Over here!” Jessica spots her huddled by the wall, rocking back and forth with her hands covering her ears.
Tears stream down her face, her heart thuds like a stampede, her eyes dart wildly as the flames pour off the roof like water. The putrid stench of smoke brings her back to the worst moment of her life.
“I… can’t… brea—!” she gasps, and clings onto Jessica for dear life.
Jessica has never really thrived in high-pressure situations, but she’s all Lauren’s got right now and so tries her best to say something helpful.
“Oh shit.” Not helpful.
She pats down Lauren to check if she’s wounded – thankfully nothing but cuts and scrapes.
“I think… I think you’re just having a panic attack! Okay?”
She smacks the side of her head, wracking her brains until, eureka! The YouTube videos she’d watched to try and overcome her stage fright come flooding to her. The Zen voice of Jim Squits, the mind and wellbeing doctor in the tutorial, echoes sound advice in her mind.
“First thing we need to do is find a relaxing location.” Jessica looks around her. One of the roof beams collapses into the fire on the far side of the room and bursts into flames. “Okay, we’re gonna skip that part.” Her cracking voice instils no confidence at all in Lauren, who looks at her with desperation.
“We’ve got company!” Ed cries as a party of soldiers scramble over the crumbled wall to apprehend them.
Lauren folds in on herself as the surrounding noise hails her like bullets, but Jessica takes her face in her hands and locks eyes with her.
“I know you’re freaking out, but you gotta pull it together. Now inhale through your nose. One, two, three, four.”
Lauren stares into her wide, caring eyes, shining through the hellfire and smoke. If she can lose herself in those eyes then maybe she can overcome the trauma surging through her body and mind.
Ed’s sword springs to his defence, quickly dispatching the first of the soldiers to cross the rubble. Valentine grapples the second and unwittingly throws him into the haunted cat portrait, where the canvas swallows the man in an instant with a wailing meow. The third soldier charges at the girls, and Jessica turns as the sword comes at her face. It soars past between her eyes as she trips backwards to get away. The soldier then swings for Lauren who scrambles on all fours in a fit of panic over the splintered wood and shattered glass, until her hand lands on an iron staff which she brings up to defend herself. Before her attacker’s blade makes contact, a burst of lightning erupts from the end and hurls him across the room. The air around her crackles and hisses. The fissure in her chest widens to a chasm and the staff rages.
Jessica shields her face and watches through her arms as reinforcements charge into the hall only to retreat as the lightning tears what’s left of the room to shreds.
“How is she doing that?” she shrieks.
“It’s the staff!” Ed replies. “She’s out of control, we’ve gotta get it away from her!”
Jessica takes a deep breath and goes to rush in, but Valentine pulls her back. “Are you crazy? You can’t go out there!”
Jessica defiantly tugs her arm from him. “Watch me.” With unbridled determination she sprints into the open. Jolts of electricity arc across the hall like a Tesla coil tearing up the marble floor by her feet, and with a well-timed leap she reaches Lauren, then places her hand over the staff.
“Let it go,” she cries over the crackle and wind as her hair stands on end. “I’ve got you!”
But the magic’s exertion on Lauren’s fragile body only brings more breathlessness. Her limbs tighten, her mouth runs dry and everything becomes a blur.
Jessica presses Lauren’s head tightly against her chest – duh duhm, duh duhm, duh duhm. Lauren clings to its beat and draws deep heavy breaths while Jessica prises the staff from her iron grip. It topples to the floor and the lightning dissipates as instantaneously as it appeared.
“It’s okay, you’re okay.” She cradles Lauren tightly. “Don’t crowd her,” she says as the others warily approach.
“S-sorry,” Lauren heaves, and wipes her nose on her sleeve.
“Don’t be,” Ed grins, “you just saved our butts.”
“Can you walk?” Jessica asks.
Lauren nods, and her legs tremble as she stands. She slips, but Valentine catches her and takes her in his arms. Ed leads them over the rubble and out of the burning hall, but Jessica runs back for the staff, rejoining them again quickly. They escape the palace just as the west side collapses entirely, shrouding the lush gardens in a haze of smoke which provides them with the cover they need to make it through the gate to the sky harbour unnoticed.
“Looks like they’ve barred the other gate!” Valentine points to the portcullis that leads into the merchant quarter.
“That means Remy and the others are trapped.” Ed pours his frustration into his fist and clenches until his knuckles turn white.
“Heeeey!” a deep womanly voice cries, and Avarice leans over the deck of one of many docked gunships. “Scrawny boy, this way!”
“Who or what is that?” Jessica asks.
“It looks like a troll, a girl troll?” Lauren says as Valentine sets her down.
They board the gunship and Avarice leads them straight to the cockpit where Ozrune stands before the flight controls and two chairs at the prow of the ship.
“We need to pick everyone up,” Ed says. “Can you fly this thing over the market?”
Ozrune tilts his head curiously. “Oh, I can’t fly this thing,” the wizard says plainly.
“Come again?” Ed gasps.
“I’m a scholar, not a pilot,” the old crow replies.
Ed frowns. “What kind of wise man are you?”
“Perhaps I can offer some encouraging words?”
Ed scrunches his face in his hands and swallows his boiling temper.
“This is why I never play as a mage,” he mutters and inspects the flight controls. “… Two seats mean two pilots,” he mumbles, “but what do these do?” He jiggles one of the yokes mounted in front of the chairs, but they’re unresponsive.
Lauren notices something familiar about the controls. Stepping backwards, she tilts her head and sees the bigger picture. The two adjoining consoles look like two sides of a game controller, and the steering yokes are like the thumb-sticks. Below each chair are two pedals, on the right and on the left, just like the shoulder buttons on a Game Station controller.
“Ed, look!” She waves him over. “What do you see?” she asks.
He takes a long hard look then his eyes snap wide as it comes together. “Oh my God, I think I know how to fly this thing.”
He jumps in the left seat and grabs the yoke in front of him with two hands then looks back at Lauren. “Come on, I need a co-pilot with gaming experience.”
Lauren shakes her head. “No! No, I can’t!”
“Hey,” Jessica stays her quaking hand, “you got this.”
“Oh God.” Lauren takes a deep breath and ties her hair back, then takes a seat beside Ed and places her feet on the pedals.
“Everyone, buckle up!” Ed gives Lauren a nod to power up the ship.
She jerks sideways and vomits all over the floor, and the others take a broad step away while Ed gently rubs her back until she gets it out. She sits up, wipes her chin and nods that she’s ready. He hammers a triangular button between the adjoining consoles, and two colossal propellers roar to life on each side of the oblong hull.
“Okay, so if I’m left, and you’re right, then I control altitude and you control direction?” Ed says.
Lauren nods. “So we have to work like two thumbs?”
“Yeah. Hive mind.”
They exchange a foreboding look.
“Okay, hold on to your butts.” He presses forward on the yoke, and the ship tilts down and shunts into the dock beneath them, throwing Jessica and the others violently forward.
“Sorry! Inverted controls! My bad.” Composing himself, Ed gently pulls back this time, tilting the ship’s nose high, then he presses on the pedals, and the gunship rises with a loud hum.
*
Streaks of bright azure encircle Astrid as she twirls her glowing sword with graceful ferocity, and the blade howls as it prangs against Diamond’s unbreakable rapier, whose own enchantment makes it immune to the magical sword’s lethal freeze. Turning on her heel and ducking low, the captain avoids Astrid’s broad slash and unleashes a flurry of thrusts which the princess blocks, then with a flick of her wrist, Diamond spins her blade and disarms her foe, sending the Icerend flying across the courtyard. Astrid draws the silver bow off her back and fends off the captain’s strikes, but every swipe cuts the bow to pieces until the only weapon she has left is herself.
“Give it up, you’re hopelessly outmatched,” Diamond says.
Over the captain’s shoulder, Astrid spots a battalion of men rallying to the regent. If she’s not quick she’s going to miss her window. Her face blazes with hatred as she glares at her opponent. Leaping dexterously, she wraps her legs around Diamond’s sword arm as she thrusts it forward and in one fluid motion wrestles her shoulder from its socket. Diamond shrieks as Astrid throws her to the ground and takes up her rapier. The rogue princess recalls vividly the look of fear and despair on her mother’s face as her head was cleaved from her body. She was weak then, shaking as she hid under the bed with her mother’s blood flecked across her face, but she’s not weak now, and during her exile, she’s become far too accustomed to the sensation of blood.
“For my country! For my mother!” she howls. Summoning every modicum of strength in her petite frame, she hurls the rapier like a javelin. The sword soars towards the watch tower and pierces the regent through the heart. His lifeless body flops over the railing of his private box and crashes into the street with a bone-breaking wallop. Astrid quivers with relief. Bittersweet tears trickle from eyes aflame with rage. After fourteen years of plotting and training and suffering she has, at long last, avenged her family. She steps backwards, clutching her breathless chest as her act of vengeance sinks in. Her face darkens with malice and she vanishes amongst the crowd.
*
Two soldiers come at Remy from each side. The first’s spear prangs against her shield, knocking her over as the second raises a musket and takes aim.
With a gasp Remy ducks behind her shield before the gunshot sparks against it.
“That’s cheating!” she yells, scurrying to her feet with her shield held in front of her.
A second shot crackles through the air and the buckshot ricochets off the pauldron, knocking her down again. Even with her arm guard, it feels like she’s been stung by wasps. A quick glance and she breathes a sigh of relief. The shot didn’t pierce her armour, just put a nasty dent in it – why can’t she have nice things?
A pale blue glimmer catches her eye. Lying discarded on the limestone street is Astrid’s Icerend. Remy rolls for the sword, taking it up in her left hand, then spins around and rushes the guard before he can fire again, slicing at his rifle with the enchanted sword. The barrel freezes in his hand. He drops it and gasps as it shatters against the ground. Remy wallops him in the head with the sword’s pommel, breaking his nose. She twirls the blade and points it daringly at the soldier with the spear, who hesitates to attack, partly because of the mad look in her eyes but mostly because this is his favourite spear and he doesn’t want it to shatter into blocks of ice. Instead, he backs away from her, only to be clobbered from behind by Bengeo.
For a very short-lived moment it looks like they have the upper hand, but any hope of victory leaves Remy as waves of soldiers arrive from the palace. Armed with muskets and blades, they surround the square and fire warning shots into the air. The remaining peasants disperse immediately, leaving Remy, Bengeo, Regis, George and Esmerelda huddled in the centre clutching their weapons tightly as the guards close around them.
“What do we do?” Remy asks.
“If we give up we’re dead for sure,” Esmerelda growls, and her palms ignite with wizard fire. “Might as well give ’em hell first.”
“Not the pep talk I was hoping for.”
A burst of wind kicks her hair across her face. Remy glances upwards and sees a huge gunship descending over the merchant quarter. The bluster from the propellers rips the gallows apart and throws up enough dust to shroud them from the gunners. Her knees give way. She’s certain the airship will unleash a barrage of gunfire that’ll obliterate them all. She’s already visualising what song she’d like played at her funeral when Avarice leans over the balcony with Jessica and uncoils three rope ladders, which flutter towards the street.
George cheers as Bengeo hoists him onto the ladder first. Then he lifts Esmerelda as Regis leaps onto another. Remy takes firm hold of the rope and the bandit climbs on behind her as the ship ascends.
Gunshots crackle from below, and the soldiers fire at will, but thankfully their rifles’ range is too stunted. Remy struggles up the ladder one-handed until Avarice and Regis hoist her aboard just before the ship crashes through the roof of a clock tower, smashing it to splinters.
“Who the hell is flying this thing?” the bandit yelps as he watches the tower collapse into the street below. Avarice lets out a hearty laugh. She’s having too much fun.
Jessica leads everyone to the cockpit where Ed and Lauren are fighting to keep the ship in the air.
Bengeo leans between them. “You’re doing a bang-up job an’ all, but mind if I—?”
“Oh, please do!” Lauren doesn’t hesitate a second before unbuckling herself from her seat and passing over the controls.
“Gods, does it feel good to fly something with some oomph again!” The bandit grins like the Devil as he takes the helm.
“Where did you get this thing?” Remy looks impressed.
Avarice shrugs. “They were not using it.”
“C’mon get us outta here,” Bengeo barks at Ed. “We’re going north.”
“Aye aye, boss.” Ed swallows his terror with a big gulp and helps Bengeo orient the ship north.
Remy gazes down at the city erupting in fire and chaos. Looks like Astrid’s revolution is in full swing.
“We’ve got company!” She leans over the console and points out of the window at a fleet of Runegard gunships rising from the sky docks.
Bengeo shoos her back. “Alright, listen up, this thing is a gunship, so it’s gotta have guns. We need asses on those cannons.”
“Yes, sir!” George sprints out of the cockpit.
“Wait!” Lauren calls to her brother, but he’s already gone.
“We’ll watch him,” Regis assures her, and signals Valentine to follow him.
George remembers the layout from when his character had to sneak aboard one in the game. Internally he’s geeking out at how it all looks so similar but doesn’t show it of course, because above all else an eleven-year-old boy has to appear cool at all times.
“C’mon!” He waves them over to a bulk hatch at the end of the steel corridor and attempts to twist the wheel lock, but he’s too weak to turn it. Regis does the honours. The hatch swings open and the boy scrambles down the ladder into the long metal room below. He gawks at the spherical turrets connected to each end, like an old World War II bomber.
Valentine points at the chairs and asks, “Are those—?”
“Guns!” George grins ear to ear as he jumps into one of the turrets. “This is gonna be legendary!”
“Why are these guys so much more technically advanced than anyone else?” Valentine looks bewildered at the machinery.
“Because they’re the bad guys,” George replies, “we’re the underdog.”
“The underdog?” The detective shakes his head as he climbs into the last turret. “So how does this work?”
“I must admit I’m not familiar myself,” Regis replies.
George wastes no time. He grasps the joystick, and with the slightest movement the gun and his seat rotate. “Aim with the stick! See?”
“Yeah, looks easy.” Valentine gently tilts his joystick and is almost thrown out of his chair as it jolts sharply left.
The stolen airship rumbles violently as it sustains fire from two enemy vessels flanking them. George squeezes his trigger, sending a burst of cannon fire roaring across the night sky.
“Whoa!” he gasps as the vibrations rattle his little hands. A few well-placed shots down one of the Runegard ships before it can even get above the city.
“Great shot, kid!” Regis cheers, but George is too in the zone to notice, he’s busy blasting the enemy ships to scrap – who says video games don’t teach useful life skills?
They’re barely across the Great Lake before he downs another gunship on their starboard side. It drops out of the sky trailed by thick plumes of black smoke and plummets into the serene water below.
“Wooooo! I got another one!”
“I think mine’s broken…” Valentine clumsily jerks left and right while firing pot shots into the sky.
“C’mon! You’re gonna get us killed!” George yells. “Fire bursts, it’s way more accurate!”
*
The ship rattles as it tears across the dark sky, soaring over forests and meadows. Ed and Bengeo steer it high into the clouds to provide some visual cover from the bombardment.
“Agh, she’s tough, but she’s got a heavy arse.” Bengeo manoeuvres the ship evasively, but there’s no shaking the enemy. “Hey, crow, anytime you wanna step in would be great!”
Ozrune, who is sitting cross-legged on the floor in a deep meditative state, blinks one eye open and, with a sigh, stands. He exits the cockpit and opens the bulk hatch leading outside, his robes fluttering in the shredding wind as he climbs onto the deck and fixes his beady eyes on the imperial gunships pursuing them – one behind and another on the port side. Raising one hand, he clenches it slowly, bringing it into his middle, centring himself while the night sky around him lights up like the fifth of November. Ed gawks from behind glass as the wizard conjures a tremendous blue sphere which engulfs the ship, shielding it from the barrage of cannon fire thrown their way.
“Wizards,” Ed scoffs and pulls back on the yoke to keep them steady.
Each blast the barrier sustains weakens both it and Ozrune. The enemy is hot on their tail and has their sights locked. Bolts of white-hot energy ignite the sky, tearing through the clouds and into the stolen gunship. The barrier dissipates with a bang and a flash, and Ozrune drops to one knee to catch his breath.
“Magi-cannons?! Damn, there goes our trump card,” Bengeo curses. “Hey, old woman, know any spells that’ll get us out of this jam?”
Esmerelda shakes her head. “My magic is mostly good for patching things up, I’m afraid.”
“How about we launch you out of a cannon at them?” Bengeo says to Avarice.
“I would tear their puny ship apart,” the troll girl spits.
Remy leans over Ed like an overbearing backseat driver. “You’re gonna get us killed, pull up!”
“Will you just let me fly this thing,” he shouts.
“You’re gonna fly it into the ground at this rate!”
“Oh yeah? Well, you wanna try it with one hand?”
Unable to concoct a biting retort, she slaps him upside the head.
“Ow!” he whines, and looks back at her aghast.
“Keep your eyes on the sky!” she yells, pointing at the window.
“Will you two behave like adults for once in yer goddamn lives?!” Bengeo shouts, but as usual all he does is incur Remy’s wrath.
Jessica watches in disbelief while the three of them scream at each other like some dysfunctional family on a road trip. She looks at Lauren, standing beside her and notices her balling her fists.
“You okay?” she asks.
Lauren nods. “I guess, I just wish I wasn’t so useless.”
Jessica glances at the magic staff resting on one of the consoles and smiles. “You’re anything but!” She takes Lauren by the hand, snatches the staff, and leads her out of the cockpit, stopping before the bulk hatch to the deck.
Jessica plants the staff firmly in Lauren’s hands, swings open the hatch and points to the deck above the rest of the ship. “If we get you out there, reckon you can do that zappy thing?”
“Are you crazy?!” she yells over the shredding wind.
“I’ll be with you every step, promise!”
“No… I can’t!” Lauren tries to give back the staff, but Jessica pushes it towards her.
“You can do this!” Her eyes glimmer like a beacon on a bleak night – how can Lauren say no to that? It would be like letting down Bambi.
She hesitantly nods, and reluctantly follows Jessica up the ladder onto the deck.
The enemy ships release another burst of magi-cannon fire. Ozrune forces himself up and concentrates his energy. His hands pulse with a white plasma as he forces them together and the light swells into a glowing sphere which he hurls upwards before it explodes into a dozen magic missiles that soar outwards and clash with the oncoming projectiles, illuminating the sky.
“Hold on!” Jessica shouts to Lauren whose face flashes red, blue and green in the exploding light.
They shuffle along the deck, clinging tentatively to the safety railing and to each other as the brutal wind batters them. Once they reach the bow, Jessica ducks behind Lauren and takes hold of the guardrail with one hand and with the other grips her belt.
“Okay, here goes!” Lauren shakes the staff, but nothing happens.
“What’s wrong?” Jessica yells.
“I don’t know, it’s not working!”
“Why n—?!” BOOM!
A direct hit from the enemy ship blows a gaping hole in the deck. Splinters scatter in all directions, and the girls are thrown away from each other.
Lauren covers her ringing ears tightly, and her vision tunnels as the stench of gunpowder floods her lungs. She picks herself up and tries to stay her long hair from flailing over her eyes. Sweeping it back, she sees Jessica lying deathly still.
“Get up!” she shrieks. “Please get up!” Tears stream from her bloodshot eyes, her mind flashes – glimpses of broken glass… the metallic tang of blood… the stench of hot tar on a sweltering August day… more flashes… everything shifts… a car overturned… she’s calling to him, but he’s not moving. She can’t either. Cracked bones, split skull, she’s never known suffering like this… but no, that’s not now!
She claws her way to Jessica. Never again, she tells herself. She’s not losing anyone ever again.
“Get up! Get up!” She shakes Jessica until she comes around.
“What the fuck was that?” Jessica coughs and looks up at Lauren’s frightened face staring back at her. “Okay, this was a really dumb idea!” No kidding.
The air crackles around them as the staff works its magic. Black clouds swirl and lightning strobes from the staff’s end, while the metallic hull conducts the arcing electricity and scatters it across the ship. An enemy gunship closes in on the port side, cannons booming. Lauren thrusts the staff at it and the lightning crackles across the sky and tears the ship to pieces.
Bengeo and the others look out at the sky baffled.
“Storm came out of nowhere!” the bandit says.
Ed scans the cockpit and notices Lauren and Jessica are missing. “Oh no.” He shoots Remy a look that churns her stomach.
“What?” she asks, knowing she’s not going to like the answer.
*
“Aim for the magi-cannon!” George cries over the rat-tat-tat of gunfire.
“What the hell is a magi-cannon?” Valentine replies.
“The big gun,” Regis cries. His eyes grow wide as the cannon’s charge disperses a bolt of energy right at them. The swordsman pulls George from his seat just before the blast strikes. With a head-splitting boom the gunnery is blown apart. Regis clings tightly to George with one arm and the ladder with the other as the G-force threatens to hurl them into the sky. Valentine frantically unbuckles himself and springs out of his seat before the whole module gets sucked into oblivion. His wrinkled hands grasp whatever they can find, and he skirts his way to the ladder and reaches out to Regis. As soon as they clear the hatch, George slams the bulk door shut, dispelling the violent wind. All three of them collapse against the walls with a sigh of relief. George lets out a nervous laugh, happy to be alive, while Valentine, whiter than white, tries not to empty the contents of his stomach.
*
Lauren’s bounding pulse fuels her adrenaline, which in turn fuels the magic. The staff ignites a sudden sense of connection with the world around her. It comes all at once, a rush that overwhelms her senses. Her body shivers as the wind bites her face, she breathes with the tide thrashing against the land. Her ears quiver with the blaring drum of her friend’s racing heart and with the beating heart of the world – a pulse, shared by all living things. She screams amidst an awakening deep inside herself, as though roused from a bad dream. Strobing arcs of wrath engulf the enemy gunships entirely. A head-splitting bang rings out across the sky as they break apart in a burst of fire and light. Her hands tremble as she snaps open her eyes – BOOM! A blinding explosion scatters the enemy ship into chunks of burning debris that hail the deck.
“You can stop now!” Jessica cries.
But it’s too late, the conjured storm feeds on Lauren’s unprecedented panic attack and grows exponentially. Black clouds swirl and crackle around them as rain lashes down like needles, soaking them to the bone. As it dawns on Jessica how monumentally out of her depth she is, Ozrune comes to their aide. His billowing robes lift him up, and he glides gracefully towards them. With a flick of his wrist, the wizard disarms Lauren and summons the staff to him, then with it he redirects the lightning away from them, and launches it at the black sky.
He calls to Lauren. “Condition your mind, step into your fears and push through until you transcend yourself. Ride the emotion, do not shy away from it. Control it before it consumes you!”
“She’s trying!” Jessica shrieks. Her worn soles slip and slide about the deck, and inch by inch she crawls towards the ladder, but the wind beats her back, and she grasps the railing tightly, hugging Lauren’s waist and cursing her past self for this incomprehensibly stupid idea.
Then like an angel sent from heaven to save them – a grey, horned, snarling angel, tethered by rope to the inside of the ship – Avarice appears over the ladder. The troll girl looks in fear at the raging tempest. She’s never seen anything like it. Such unimaginable destructive force is something a troll should revere, but she’s inherited enough of her mother’s sensibility to know that this is nothing to be desired.
“Come!” She throws Jessica the end of the rope.
Her dainty hands reach for it as it flaps violently in the wind. Avarice reels it in and throws it again. This time she catches it and quickly fastens it around herself and Lauren.
Lightning hammers the deck and the gunship jolts downwards, hurling both girls into the air. They flail in the squall, tumbling through the night, but the she-troll reels them in with all her might while Ozrune holds back the unforgiving force of nature. He thrusts the staff downwards, conjuring a gust of wind that pushes the girls onto the deck, before the wind sweeps him off the ship and hurls him into the clouds.
Lauren can’t muster a scream. Panic possesses her like a twisted marionette, crushing her chest as the storm amps up, releasing an endless chain of lightning across the sky. Everything goes dark and with a wheeze she slips away.
The rope blows out of Jessica’s hand and both girls slip across the waterlogged deck. She clings to Lauren’s belt with one hand and spreads herself flat to stop them sliding.
To make matters worse, a barrage of lightning strikes the ship, killing the engines.
“No, no, no!” Bengeo turns pale as the gauges and dials on the consoles all drop to zero. “We’re dead in the air!”
“How do we fix it? Turn it off and on again?” Ed asks.
“How would that help?” Bengeo snaps.
“Well, have you got any bright ideas?!”
“Yeah, buckle up and brace!”
Ed whimpers and pulls back on the yoke with all his strength to keep the hulking heap of metal they’re riding straight enough for an emergency landing. The gunship descends at breakneck speed and bursts through the black clouds, revealing the snowy forests scattered between the frozen mountains.
The knot securing Avarice to the ship comes loose and she slips over on the deck. Remy catches it in her hand and winds it around her arm, while she screams for help at the top of her lungs, trying to keep them from being hurled into the tundra. Her desperate pleas fall on Valentine’s ears on his way to the cockpit. He looks back while Regis and George continue on but hesitates to investigate until she screams again. He then races down the corridor and finds Remy practically upside down, with her feet pressed either side of the hatch and the rope wound tightly around her left arm and across her body. The gunship smashes treetops to splinters and pounds across the frozen tundra, hurling him against the ceiling. Remy loses her footing and slams into the door as she’s sucked outside. The detective grasps her ankle, but the force pulls him with her, and both of them are hurled off the deck, along with Avarice who shields Lauren in her arms while Jessica clings tightly to her back.
Relentless snow blankets the ship in white, and what’s left of the gunship collides with a towering spire of ice. Ed and Bengeo scramble from their seats and dive clear as it shears the cockpit in two until the ship grinds to a brutal halt and lies smouldering in the snow.