across the arena floor in a dead sprint.
The titan leaped into the air after the retreating duo and came down hard on all three remaining limbs. The floor beneath Kandler and Sallah bucked like a wave, throwing them from their feet. The titan was on them in an instant. It smashed down at Kandler with the stump left over from the ruin of its hammer-arm and pinned his leg to the ground. Sallah pulled on Kandler’s arm, striving to drag him free, but it was like trying to drag an anvil chained to an anchor. There was no escape.
The titan lined up its axe-hand over Kandler’s head, like a butcher measuring a cut of meat. The creature raised its arm to deliver the killing blow-
A bolt the size of a lance slammed into the back of the titan’s arm, and the axe-hand went spinning into the air. It landed inches from Kandler’s face, embedding itself a full foot into the floor.
The titan screeched in frustration. Still pinning Kandler to the floor, it turned its head about to see who had dealt it such a telling blow. Kandler looked over too and saw Burch grinning from behind a ballista as the shifter rushed to reload the device.
The titan swept Kandler and Sallah away with the stump of its hammer-arm. Tangled in each other’s limbs, the pair spun across the arena floor, toward the airship still resting in the stands.
The justicar saw the ring of fire rushing at them, and he flung himself between Sallah and the fire. When they spun to a halt, Sallah was clear of the blaze consuming the floor of the arena, but Kandler found himself lying in the flames.
The lady knight pulled Kandler from the edge of the fire, his clothes already burning. She wrapped her arms around him in an attempt to smother the flames, then rolled them around on the sawdust-coated floor until the tongues of flame licking at Kandler vanished.
When the flames were out, Kandler lay on the floor on his face with Sallah lying on top of him. His skin was flushed from the fire, and his eyes were squeezed closed tight.
“Kandler!” he heard her call. “Kandler!”
The justicar peeled open his eyes and looked up at the lady knight. He started to smile at her but coughed instead. “Thanks,” he said between hacks. Then where he was and what was happening struck him. He pushed free of Sallah and said, “Burch.”
The pair looked back in the direction from which they’d come. The titan had swung out wide so it could get a running start at the shifter, who was still reloading the ballista. He’d gotten the bow winched back and was lifting a bolt into place as the titan lowered its head and charged.
“Burch!” Kandler yelled, his clothes still smoking, as Sallah helped him to his feet.
The shifter slammed the bolt home and brought the weapon about to bear on the titan’s new position. Without its arms, the creature couldn’t reach up to tear Burch from the wall on which the ballista was perched. Barreling along at its top speed, it seemed determined to bring down the whole wall instead.
Kandler’s breath caught in his chest as he watched Burch sight down the bolt’s path and point the weapon to where the titan would be in an instant. The justicar didn’t see how the shifter had any time left to fire, but Burch calmly waited for the creature’s head to fall within his sights and then pulled the ballista’s firing lever.
The bow-wire snapped forward, hurling the bolt straight at the titan’s head. It slammed into the creature’s face and came splintering out the back of its armor-plated skull. Kandler and Sallah cheered, but their joy didn’t last long.
The titan’s headless form lost little of its forward momentum. It slammed into the wall beneath Burch’s position and tore through it like paper. The massive weapon and its shifter handler went down atop the titan’s corpse and disappeared in a crush of wood and steel fragments.
Chapter 56
“What’s happening?” Esprл said, panic sharpening her voice. “I can’t see Kandler!”
“I can’t tell,” said Te’oma.
The changeling tried to peer through the smoke, but it was too thick. From their vantage point at the top of the stands looking down over Bastard’s damaged box, all she could see was the airship, her ring of fire crackling merrily away as it consumed its surroundings. Deothen and Bastard had disappeared over the other side of the ship, and Kandler, Burch, and Sallah had lured the last titan over that way too. The sounds of battle filled the air, but it was impossible to know who was winning the fight.
The airship still stuck out of the stands, the splintered boards of the seats cradling it like an errant child, keeping it from toppling over backward. The bottom of the hull had been bashed in at several spots, but the fires from the blazing floor seemed to leave it untouched.
The changeling looked back at the child. Esprл was being terribly calm, and Te’oma found it unsettling. She peered into the girl’s thoughts and read her murderous intent. The changeling realized she was lucky to still be alive.
“Look,” Esprл said to the changeling. “You’d think the ship would be burning too.”
“The hull must be treated against fire,” Te’oma said. “How else would you keep the ring of fire from destroying it?”
“I wonder if Brendis is all right,” Esprл said quietly.
The smoke surrounding the bridge was impenetrable. Te’oma gazed out at the ship. She’d hoped to somehow commandeer the thing and escape. Esprл, she knew, was thinking the same thing.
The ship seemed like she might be a lost cause now, but Te’oma still couldn’t tear herself away. The idea of hiking to Karrnath on foot held no appeal for her. The changeling stared down at the ship a moment longer and then turned to Esprл and said, “Let’s go find out.”
The changeling and Esprл picked their way down through the stands until they reached Bastard’s box seats. The entire structure had been knocked askew. Parts of it were destroyed, and flames rising from the floor licked the front parts of the box’s platform. The warforged who had fled from the fire seemed to be in no hurry to come back. With an enraged titan on the loose amid it all, Te’oma understood why. If it hadn’t been for the airship still there, the changeling would have knocked out Esprл and raced off in the other direction.
“There he is!” Esprл said. She pointed up at the bridge, and Te’oma’s eyes darted after.
The ship stuck in the stands at an angle. Brendis stood slumped over the wheel on the bridge. The leather strap lashed around his waist kept him from pitching forward into the flames, but the smoke swirling around him was nearly as deadly, the changeling knew. The young knight might already be dead.
“Let’s go see if we can help him,” Te’oma said. She gathered Esprл into her arms and started down toward the remnants of the airship.
When they reached the point where the ship met the stands, Te’oma stopped and surveyed the damage. She took two steps back and raced forward down through the wreckage of Bastard’s box to make a running leap across the splintered boards. Esprл screamed as they left the stands.
Te’oma landed on the tilted deck of the airship and rolled forward on her shoulder with Esprл still in her arms. When they came to a halt, Esprл stopped screaming. The girl flushed, embarrassed with herself for showing fear. They began sliding toward the bow, and she started up again.
The changeling wrapped one arm around the girl even tighter and reached out with her free hand, scrabbling at the deck’s surface, trying for a grip but finding nothing. Te’oma rolled over on top of the girl to protect her, and the two slid into the railing at the bow. The changeling shrugged off the impact but the flames licking through the railing’s wooden bars scorched her skin. As Te’oma shouted in pain, Esprл stopped screaming again.
The changeling reached over to her left, and made her way along the railing until she could climb the bars like a ladder. She made good time this way, even with the girl in her arms, and the pair soon clambered onto the airship’s bridge. The smoke up there wasn’t as thick as Te’oma had feared.
“Brendis?” Esprл said as she climbed over to the wheel, a tremor in her voice. Te’oma watched the girl to see what would happen. The young knight didn’t respond. The lower half of his face was covered with blood.
Te’oma reached over to examine Brendis. “He’s alive,” she said. Esprл sighed with relief. “His nose is broken. They always bleed like that.”
The changeling removed the leather belt that lashed Brendis to the wheel and lowered the knight’s limp form
