37

The New York dome sizzled in the morning dew as we flew aboard Arecibo’s air ship. Numbness permeated my mind and body. I knew only now. The approaching battle. There was nothing else. I stood aboard the packed ship next to Arecibo. Gas mask covering my mouth and nose, I peered at the shore through blue-tinted goggles. The vapors floated past us, leaving sticky residue on the long sleeves of my tunic and armor chest piece. Hand to the chainmail bandolier draped across one shoulder, I adjusted the throwing disks and shrieking violets attached. A number of other weapons tinked against the metal, and I let my fingers glide over each one, checking their positions.

My men flanked us on either side. The morning sun glinted off their full body armor, and I searched the poles for the heralds. They fluttered, a wind blew off the water, not enough to affect our approach. The shore advanced quickly. Order novices and knights readied their gear behind us. I tracked their movements, watching their weapons.

Engaging the distance lens, I scanned the approaching shoreline. An Aero Squad dirigible milled in the space just outside the dome. Unusual for this area and type of day, but not alarming.

“One ship?” The woman next to him asked. She shifted in her outlander suit, pointing. “Have they nothing more?”

“As expected.” Arecibo nodded, his voice muffled within the filter. His black cloak and battle gear clanged as he shifted to maintain his balance. “The bulk of their forces are with the Governors’ Summit in Manhattan.”

The woman smiled through the glass of her face mask. “Perfect.”

Movement to our right in the shifting vapors pulled my gaze and I moved, ratcheting out the sections of my baton.

The Aero Squad dirigible flew near us, its search lamps slicing the noxious mist. It blasted a warning from its horns. A few seconds passed. Arecibo shook his head at the helmsman, who maintained our course.

An amplified voice sounded. “You are in protected territory of the Peaceful Union. Change course immediately. You have ten seconds to comply.”

When we didn’t turn, it veered toward us at full speed. Their cannon swiveled, aiming in our direction.

Arecibo didn’t move, and I stepped in front of him, blocking the trajectory should they fire.

Arecibo turned to the woman in the gown. “Care to give the order, my queen?”

She nodded with a smirk. “Attack.”

Arecibo shouted over his shoulder at the helmsman. “Now!”

We barreled forward, soaring for the dome at top speed. The Aero Squad’s bulky vessel gave chase but was no match for our battle class ship. I grasped hold of a rope rigging and fired the shocks in my hand mechanica to clamp on. Leaning over the railing, I peered down at the waters offshore. Soaring just above the waves, our ship led the way for an invisible battalion sliding beneath the surface of the sea.

The woman’s submersibles in attack formation sped toward New York’s Tesla Dome. Their spy scopes rose from the waves, and a pulsing tone blared across the waters to the shore. The sound rose in strength and volume, piercing the air.

My temple devices flared hot and I winced, activating shocks to correct the muscle tremors, giving me control over the painful spasms of my affliction. And then their anguish hit me; crushed into my chest. A blast of glacial pain. Their pull was vast, threading out from the city, slicing my mind with shrill rage and torment. My head snapped back and I brought my hands to my temples, panting. Tremblers…thousands of them.

“Control it,” Arecibo snapped. He pointed to the dome. “Control them.”

“Captain of the vessel,” an amplified voice shouted from the Aero Squad ship behind us. “Leave this area. You are unauthorized.”

Arecibo turned to me. “Take the ship.”

I nodded, flaring the tone from my temple devices and commanding the squad of Trembler Knights to follow. We climbed atop the railing, and I glanced over. The angle of trajectory to the ship, the distance to the deck, the movement of the waves, all of it registered as I let go of the railing. Power spiked down my spine from the device, and I shook with building strength. Teetering on the edge, a guttural scream erupted from my lips and I leapt.

I landed first, swinging with my baton and connecting with the soldier nearest me before he had a chance to raise his weapon. He flew back, toppling over the railing to the Atlantic below. My men followed, landing next to me, their bodies already trembling, teeth snapping.

The union soldiers scrambled, screaming in horror as we advanced.

A tracer blast lashed across the deck and I deflected it with my baton, throwing a shrieking violet with the other. It hit the deck with a crash as the metal spheres skidded under the feet of the Aero Squad crew. A curtain of purple vapor shot up from the minute holes in the grenade, and the scream of escaping gas enveloped them.

Confused, they fired wildly, missing as we attacked, ripping off their masks as they flailed in the eye-searing ocean mists.

Their helmsman flew out of his cabin, firing a revolver at a knight to my right. The rounds dinged off his armor and he leapt, growling for the soldier, shaking him until he was limp and tossing him to the planks.

We mowed through them. Showing no mercy. Dispatching them over the side. I took the helm, pulling alongside Arecibo’s ship. He pointed.

“Now, Blackburn,” he shouted and banked toward the dome.

I followed, scanning the terrain. In the distance, the blaring tone continued, and in my lens I saw the first of them. Tremblers, lunging and dragging themselves from every part of the sands and wasteland beyond the dome. A horde of shaking, snarling creatures headed for New York.

The submersibles rose in the water, their bulbous windows and brass shimmering in the waves as they sliced toward the shore. Modified cannons erupted from side panels, their barrels spinning, ready for battle.

Pain pierced my head, and I obeyed.

Kill the governors. Take the Union.