And with Sikander having reclaimed his mount, and Lakshmi hers, either Arjun or Udai was carrying a cannon that would do him no good. That thought weighed on my mind, because the cannon would slow a fire zahhak down, reducing its ability to maneuver, and making it even more vulnerable to attack without a man to fire it. Viputeshwar could ride with Udai or Arjun, but he couldn’t be in two places at once, and we had no gunners waiting for us onshore. I frowned. In a perfect world, we’d return to Kadiro and fight when we were fresh, but there was no way that Ahmed Shah would be stupid enough to let that happen. If we retreated, if we tried to hide ourselves away in a fortress, we would be slaughtered.
I stared back at the enemy zahhaks, formed up into two long lines across the sky. The acid zahhaks were closer to us, outrunning the fire zahhaks of Yaruba, which had climbed a little higher. I recognized the formation at once. It was the tactic I had devised for Ahmed Shah to use against the Firangi fleet, the tactic that had given him the victory that had led to all of this. He intended to catch us with his acid zahhaks, force us into a tight, turning fight, and then let his fire zahhaks strike down from above, their superior position enabling them to take easy attack passes at us without exposing them to danger in return.
I turned my head to look north, and was relieved to see the rocky outline of the shore in the distance, the brown cliffs looking fuzzy and indistinct thanks to a thin layer of white haze that hung low on the horizon. Our enemies were closing in, but I thought we might just make it.
“Only those who need to land should land,” I shouted, so that I would be heard over the roar of the wind in our ears. “The rest of us will maintain top cover.”
“I suppose that’s you, me, and Viputeshwar?” Arjun asked.
I nodded, because that was the absolute bare minimum. “And your father, if he wants to free himself of that cannon’s extra weight before the battle begins.”
Udai Agnivansha nodded his agreement.
“Once we’ve landed and corrected our positions, we’ll fly straight for Kadiro, climbing as we go. The rest of you will not descend to our altitude. Keep your height. We can’t risk ceding a major advantage like that to Ahmed Shah.”
“And what would you like us to do if he catches up to us, your highness?” Sikander asked.
“We take them head-on,” I replied. “We’ll aim ourselves for the fire zahhaks, forcing the acid zahhaks to climb if they want to meet us, and then we’ll blow right through both of their formations. We’ll keep running once we’re past them, the thunder zahhaks taking the lead and climbing, while the fire zahhaks and ice zahhaks offer them a choice—attack the slower targets and risk getting killed from above, or chase the thunder zahhaks in a climbing fight they can’t hope to match.”
“The thunder zahhaks will give us the advantage in the head-on pass,” Tamara allowed, nodding her head as she digested the plan. “And because they’ve broken themselves into two lines, they can’t bring the full weight of their numbers to bear.”
“We’ll actually have them outnumbered at each moment in the fight,” Haider agreed. He was smiling at me. “We may not even need those Zindhis, your highness.”
“We’ll need them,” I replied, because I knew better than to believe that we could knock out eight of the enemy in two passes without taking any casualties in return. And even if we did that, it would do nothing more than even the odds. The fight would still be a bloody mess. I couldn’t risk weakening Zindh and Registan in the same day. And if the crown prince of Safavia died defending me, the political fallout would be a nightmare.
But there was nothing I could do about it now. We were approaching the cliffs. I pointed at them, waving my hand to get Sultana’s attention, and I said, “Down!”
She understood what I wanted immediately, curving her wings back and picking up speed, the slipstream battering the side of my body as we raced down toward the bluffs overlooking the sea. She alighted easily on the rocky desert ground, and set me down with a gentleness that I hadn’t imagined possible from a zahhak.
I picked myself up, surprised to find that I was none the worse for wear, and was immediately greeted by Sultana’s snout in my face. She sniffed at me, looked me over carefully, like a nervous mother. I stroked her scales, telling her what an amazing zahhak she was, what a perfect angel, how singularly wonderful, and she puffed out her chest and flicked her tail feathers in response, looking well pleased with herself.
I climbed into the saddle, securing my straps carefully so that I didn’t end up falling off again, noting as I did so that Lakshmi was hugging Mohini’s neck tightly, Viputeshwar was getting used to sighting down the barrel of the cannon in Arjun’s rear saddle, and Udai was busy hurling breechblocks into the dirt. I glanced back at the southern horizon, startled by how close the Mahisagari acid zahhaks were to our own fliers orbiting high above us. There wasn’t much time left.
“Lakshmi, get in the saddle and get airborne now!” I shouted. I gave Sultana’s reins a shake to get her moving. She hurled herself off the cliff and into the air, strong beats of her wings propelling us higher and higher as we circled. I waited only as long as it took for Lakshmi, Arjun, and Udai to get their zahhaks into
