“Of course!” Goro went on. “You have proven yourself a coward in one-on-one combat, but many who are cowardly with the sword show their courage when they step into a ship!”
Stars. “I’m not a coward because I refuse to kick around someone one-tenth of my—”
“If you were to face my champion in combat you would bleed like the Red Rivers That Lead to the Empty Sea!”
“You shouldn’t let him bait you,” Juno said. “I think at this point he’s doing it for sport.”
I was glad one of us was enjoying it. “Goro,” I said, “we’re defending ourselves, and your people as well. The Superiority were willing to turn on the UrDail for harboring us, and they’ll do the same to you.”
I winced. That might not have been the best thing to say—that we’d knowingly put them in danger by coming here. But we couldn’t go anywhere without putting people in danger, and we needed to—
“This is your opportunity to prove yourself, human,” Goro said. “If you are defending the sacred cliffs of Dreamspring, then you are already our allies. Our ship might not be as fast as yours, but she is no less fierce. We will fight by your side as equals.”
Oh. That sounded more like an…opportunity. If we flew together, fought together, he might begin to believe that we truly intended to be their allies and not their conquerors. FM continued to translate for the others, catching most of the gist. Our response was up to me.
“Excellent,” I said to Goro. “We are pleased to fight by your side.”
“Jerkface,” Arturo said. “Another large group of fighters has left the carrier ship, headed this way.”
“Jerkface?” Goro said. “My shipboard translator interprets that as—”
“It’s not what it sounds like,” Alanik said. “Just go with it.”
“Goro,” I said, “are there other ships that could fight with us?” I widened my sensors to get a look at the incoming ships. Scud. “We’re badly outnumbered.”
“We’re here!” Kauri said, cutting in over the radio. “And there’s a small airfield on the other side of the island. The Air Force That Does Not Belong to He Who Was Not King should be joining us soon.”
Stars. “Your names are so long,” I said to Juno. “Aren’t your people ever in a hurry?”
“We shorten them often,” Juno said. “We use the full names when we want to impress or intimidate.”
Ah, okay. That made more sense. And an influx of kitsen ships could only be a good thing.
“Skyward Flight, let’s push the ships away from the city. FM, Sentry, you two take up the rearguard. We don’t know what the enemy target is, and I don’t want civilians getting hit while our backs are turned.”
“Copy, Jerkface,” FM said.
I didn’t command the kitsen, and I couldn’t act like I did. “Goro and Kauri, if you fly with us, we’ll protect your gunships while you shoot down the incoming enemy. Is that strategy acceptable to you?”
“The enemy’s faces will glisten with tears as they know the honor of being defeated by the Ever-Glorious Crashing Waves of Time!”
I took that as a yes.
“Is that…the name of your ship?” Kimmalyn asked.
“Yes, treacherous human,” Goro said.
So he hadn’t entirely given up on baiting us.
“I’m calling you Crashing Wave,” I said. “Unless that offends you?”
“If I am calling you Jerkface, I believe the offense is to you, human.”
“Yeah, probably,” I said. My parents had been on me to change my callsign ever since I finished flight school. I should probably do it now out of respect. If I said that was why, no one would question it.
But the real reason I’d kept it wasn’t because I wanted to defy my parents. I liked my callsign. Spensa had given it to me, and it reminded me of her. I wasn’t going to change it.
Especially not now.
My flight pushed toward the new ships and I flew out to join them, watching their approach. The Superiority forces were inconsistently trained, and this batch looked like they hadn’t been in ships for long. Some of the Superiority groups seemed to have flightleaders, but these weren’t following any specific formation. If they had leaders, they didn’t know what they were doing.
My flight divided into three groups—a rearguard over the city, and then a two-pronged offense that came at the enemy ships from either side. The tactic was designed to break up a formation—and since a formation was already lacking, it sent the enemy ships into chaos. Goro and Kauri split up, one at the center of each prong, and Kauri especially seemed to understand our maneuvers and complement them.
Kimmalyn was ordinarily my wingmate, but I’d assigned her and Nedd to support each other. Nedd was usually Arturo’s wingmate, but Arturo had taken it upon himself to get Alanik up to speed to fly with us. I wasn’t sure how necessary that had been—she’d taught us as much as we’d taught her in terms of maneuvers—but I also hadn’t seen a reason yet to break it up.
A group of nearly a dozen ships slipped away from the rest of our flight and headed for the city.
“FM, Sentry,” I said. “We have incoming.”
“We see them,” FM said.
“Protect the city,” I said. “We don’t know their exact target, but—”
Scud. All of those ships seemed to be headed directly for me.
“I think we know what their target is,” FM said. “They saw what you did earlier.”
“Would you like me to read the meditation again?” Juno asked.
“No,” I said. “I think I’ve got it. Unless you have one in there about getting your birds to fly better.”
“Fly better!” Snuggles said.
“Let me see,” Juno said, flipping through his book.
The ships were rapidly incoming. I didn’t have time to wait for Juno.
“Cover me,” I said to FM and Sentry. “But keep your distance.”
“Done,” FM said.
Instead of turning and making the ships tail me, I flew directly at them. I pictured those birds over the ocean again, finding the rhythm of the waves, the way the nowhere pushed against my mind and my mind against it.
The ships scattered as I approached, all firing on me wildly. They didn’t want me to get too close.
I had an idea. “All ships, keep your distance.”