Jash understood and handed me the crossbow. I was the leader of this expedition. If we had to fight the constructs of the Wraith's dead crew, the responsibility or blame for that first kill to determine exactly how solid they were needed to fall squarely on my shoulders.

Phaelan stood still, waiting. A quick glance at me said he was holding the command to fire only for the sake of his new goblin crew members.

The phantom gunner lowered a glowing slow match to the cannon's touch hole.

I snapped the bow to my shoulder and fired.

The bolt took him squarely in the chest.

An eldritch scream echoed across the distance between the ships. The gunner's image flickered and vanished. The relief from the goblins around me was palpable. They were constructs. They might have looked like their dead friends, but they weren't them.

We waited.

We didn't have to wait long.

With another flicker, the gunner reappeared and smiled...

...and fired the cannon.

"Fire!" Phaelan screamed.

A broadside from the Kraken tore into the side of the Wraith.

The cannonball from the Wraith took a chunk out of the foredeck railing.

They didn't want to destroy our ship.

They wanted to board us.

How can you fight opponents who can regenerate as soon as you kill them?

You kill the mages maintaining and regenerating the construct.

We had to get to those Nebian ships.

Phaelan had drawn a wicked, curved sabre, prepared to join his crew in repelling boarders. "Can you stop this?" he shouted.

"Yes." I ran toward midship-and the hold.

Chapter 33.

Calik Bakari had Sapphira saddled and ready to join the fight.

"I need her," I said quickly. "They're constructs. Kill them and they come back. The mages controlling those things are-"

Calik flashed a fierce grin in realization. "On those Nebian frigates. Say no more, I'm on it. A couple of grenades and they'll lose control of everything, including their own-"

"You're good, Calik. The best. But those mages are protected. The Nebians won't leave any survivors. They can't risk it."

Calik stood back with a flourish, revealing a double saddle strapped to Sapphira's back. "While you work your magic from the backseat, me and Saffie will keep you out of harm's way. She'll toast 'em." He grinned broadly and tossed a grenade in his hand. "And I'll roast 'em."

I vaulted into the saddle. "Let's do it."

I'd planned to signal Bane and Dasant as soon as we were airborne, but it wasn't necessary.

As Sapphira rose farther above the Kraken with each beat of her powerful wings, Bane flying with Amaranth and her pilot had already cleared the Raven's mainmast. Dasant with Mithryn and her pilot were emerging from the Sea Wolf's hold.

All three dragons had been shielded against attack, magical and mundane.

Phaelan and the crew of the Kraken were successfully keeping the Wraith from closing to grappling hook and boarding distance. Kesyn and Talon were working together to spread a ward net to keep the constructs from swinging over from the Wraith into our rigging. Agata had armed herself with crystals glowing even a brighter red than the demons' eyes. I didn't know what those crystals could do, but I suspected the constructs weren't going to like it.

Until we could take out those mages, the crew of the Kraken was on their own against the Wraith and her goblin phantoms. The Raven and Sea Wolf were fully occupied with the two ships full of the dead and demons.

If there were any mages left on the two Nebian ships who weren't directly involved in maintaining and controlling the three ghost ships, they weren't making themselves known. We'd reached the halfway point between our ships and theirs, and I sensed no attack preparations. Though I'd believe that when nothing or no one tried to blast us from the sky.

Regardless of what was waiting for us, our ships didn't have time for us to feel out their defenses.

We attacked.

"Hold on to your crystal balls," Calik shouted before he sent Sapphira into a dive.

The dragon roared in sheer joy-right before she raked the upper sails with a column of blue fire. Calik timed his grenade drop for when we were directly over the Nebian's midship.

Seconds later, a gratifying amount of the ship's deck exploded upward.

So much for the ship being shielded.

Calik whooped and sent Sapphira sharply to the side, avoiding the resulting shrapnel.

I readied a fireball and hurled it down toward the ship's stern and the bank of windows that indicated the captain's quarters. I couldn't imagine a cabal of Khrynsani mages huddling in a dank hold to conduct their dark work. As glass and timber exploded outward, I glanced back at the Kraken and Wraith.

The Wraith and the ghost ships were still there.

Dammit.

Bane saw what had not happened and readied a fireball in each hand, his dragon's pilot going into a dive on the second ship.

The Nebians in the second ship were ready for them.

Black-hooded mages appeared in a circle around the Nebian ship's mainmast, the mast forming the nexus of spell maintaining the constructs and controlling the demons.

Amaranth must have sensed the incoming strike and banked sharply to the left, but the blinding column of red light took the dragon in the right side and her pilot and Bane in the right legs. Screams rent the air as the dragon went into a spin, leveling out at the last moment before crashing into the sea. Amaranth and her pilot's reflexes were all that had saved them from being roasted alive.

Through Bane's best shields.

It was as if they hadn't even existed.

They were hurt, badly.

And out of the fight.

Discharging that spell had given me a moment's glimpse of the top of the Nebian ship's mast, glowing with the same red light as the Wraith.

They were using the mast as a signaling device, linking the mages to the construct they'd created.

Break the mast, break the spell, destroy the ship.

I fully intended to do all three-especially the last one. The Nebians weren't the only ones who didn't want word of what was happening here to get back to the Seven Kingdoms, and to the Conclave and the Guardians in particular.

I didn't want the Nebians and the Khrynsani to know that they'd failed.

And fail they would.

I saw precisely how I could make it happen.

"Get close to Dasant," I said to Calik, nearly having to yell over the wind.

Calik turned Sapphira to intercept Dasant's dragon. When Dasant had us in his direct line of sight, I communicated my plan in the hand signals we knew all too well. Even at that distance, I saw Dasant's eyes widen as I gestured.

That made two of us. I couldn't believe what I was about to do, either.

I knew Bane would give us what support he could, but I wasn't going to count on it.

Dragons attacked from the air, usually from above.

The mast was protected and so were the mages and the ship, from the top of the mast to the waterline.

We were at sea, with wind and waves.

As the ship moved, so did the waterline.

The mages' shield didn't. It couldn't. Manifesting and controlling the constructs that were the Wraith and its dead crew took all of their power and concentration.

As a result, the shield was like a glass dome over the ship, rigid, inflexible.

Sentry dragons were very flexible.

We would strike in that instant when the ship rolled with the waves, exposing a sliver of the ship's hull.

Dasant would execute his attack run from port near the bow. I would strike from starboard near the stern. We would bank sharply toward open water, staying below the ship's guns to get clear.

I quickly told Calik the plan.

I had never seen such an evil grin. He liked it. He liked it a lot.

"So, how low can she go?" I asked.

"Your legs strapped in?"

"Yeah."

"Good. Those fancy boots of yours might get wet."

Calik and the other pilot sent the dragons into a broad swoop, then a dive from farther out than would be needed for a conventional attack run, but vital for gathering speed.

Sapphira leveled out mere inches above the waves, her wings tightly tucked, her body like a fire-breathing arrow aimed directly at the Nebians' waterline. We had to be far enough away to maintain speed, close enough to be targets for the Nebians' guns. Only I could see the gap between water and the shield where the hull was exposed. Sapphira would fire on my signal. Then Calik would rein her sharply up and to the stern, toward open water. Mithryn's pilot would bank her toward the bow. The goal was to avoid the mages' shield and the destruction caused by each other.

At least that was the plan.

It sounded great in theory, brazen, suicidal even.

Brazen if we lived. Suicidal-and stupid-if we didn't.

I summoned fireballs to supplement Sapphira's flame. She was aiming at the waterline. I would target just below the surface. Water extinguished fire, even a dragon's. Mine wasn't normal fire; it was formed and propelled by magic. Dasant and I could go under the mages' shield and right through the hull of the Nebian vessel. The pilots would make any minute adjustments to our mounts to keep us on target and out of the water. However, Calik couldn't do anything about the spray sent up by the force of Sapphira's bulk and speed flying over the water.

One bobble, one wingtip in the water, could send us into a deadly, neck-breaking tumble, where we'd be easy prey for the Nebians' guns.

Calik was nearly horizontal in the saddle, lying flat against Sapphira's neck. I did the same as much as possible, but instead of Sapphira's neck, my cheek rested against the saddle bow, giving me an angled view around Calik without affecting our wind resistance.

I knew I might die in the next few seconds, but I'd never felt more alive.

I held my hands down and out of sight, relying on my harness to stay in the saddle, keeping the fireballs out of the sight of the shouting and screaming Nebians on the deck until the last instant. I felt Sapphira's sides expand against my legs, inhaling in preparation to breathe fire. I raised my arms slightly, my fists holding the concentrated red fire ready to launch.

If I miscalculated, Sapphira's fire would hit the shield and the backblast would consume us all.

My field of vision narrowed, focusing on the section of the hull most likely to clear the water for the best exposure, but before Sapphira had to peel away or crash into the side of the ship.

"Fahrat!" I screamed. Fire.

Sapphira fired, I launched, Calik veered us all away.

Explosions punched holes in the waterline of the Nebian ship.

The plan had been for Sapphira to half extend her wings to get enough leverage and wind to stay below the ship's railing. A similar maneuver had been part of her training.

Sapphira had other ideas.

I didn't know if it was that she'd seen her sister struck by the mages' spell, or whether it was the heat of battle, pure stubbornness, or all of the above.