Kaz shook his head. ‘Those Crystin,’ he said. ‘They take the fun out of everything.’ He smiled toothily.
To this day, I haven’t been able to tell if Kaz genuinely has a death wish, or if he just likes to act that way. Either way, he’s a loon. But, then, he’s a Smedry. That’s virtually a synonym for ‘insane, foolhardy lunatic.’
I glanced at Bastille. She watched her mother move above, and seemed longing, yet ashamed at the same time.
That’s the sort of thing they expect her to be able to do, I thought. That’s why they took her knighthood from her – because they thought she wasn’t up to their standards.
‘Um, trouble!’ Australia said. She’d opened her eyes, but looked very frazzled as she sat with her hand on the glowing panel. Up ahead, the fighter jet was charging its glass again – and it had just released another missile.
‘Grab on!’ Bastille said, getting ahold of a chair. I did the same, for all the good it did. I was again tossed to the side as Australia dodged. Up above, Draulin managed to block the Frostbringer’s ray, but it looked close.
The missile exploded just a short distance from the body of the Dragonaut.
We can’t keep doing this, I thought. Australia looks like she can barely hold on, and Bastille’s mother will get tired eventually. We’re in serious trouble.
I picked myself up, rubbing my arm, blinking away the afterimage of the missile explosion. I could feel something as the jet shot past us. A dark twisting in my stomach, just like the feeling I’d felt on the runway. It felt a little like the sense that told me when an Oculator nearby was using one of their Lenses. Yet, this was different. Tainted somehow.
The creature from the airport was in that jet. Before, it had shot the Lens out of my hand. Now it used a jet that could fire on me without exploding. Somehow, it seemed to understand how to use both Free Kingdoms technology and Hushlands technology together.
And that seemed a very, very dangerous combination.
‘Do we have any weapons on board the ship?’ I asked.
Bastille shrugged. ‘I have a dagger.’
‘That’s it?’
‘We’ve got you, cousin,’ Australia said. ‘You’re an Oculator and a Smedry of the pure line. You’re better than any regular weapons.’
Great, I thought. I glanced up at Bastille’s mother, who stood on the nose of the dragon. ‘How can she stand there like that?’
‘Grappler’s Glass,’ Bastille said. ‘It sticks to other kinds of glass, and she’s got some plates of it on the bottom of her boots.’
‘Do we have any more?’
Bastille paused, then – without questioning me – she rushed over to a side of the cockpit, searching through a glass trunk on the floor. She came up a few moments later with a pair of boots.
‘These will do the same thing,’ she said, handing them to me. They looked far too large for my feet.
The ship rocked as Australia dodged another missile. I didn’t know how many of those the jet had, but it seemed like it could carry far more than it should be able to. I slumped back against the wall as the Dragonaut shook, then I pulled the first boot on over my own shoe and tied the laces tight.
‘What are you doing?’ Bastille asked. ‘You’re not planning to go up there, are you?’
I pulled on the other boot. My heart was beginning to beat faster.
‘What do you expect to do, Alcatraz?’ Bastille asked quietly. ‘My mother is a full Knight of Crystallia. What help could you possibly be to her?’
I hesitated, and Bastille flushed slightly at how harsh the words had sounded, though it wasn’t really in her nature to retract things like that. Besides, she was right.
What was I thinking?
Kaz moved over to us. ‘This is bad, Bastille.’
‘Oh, you finally noticed that, did you?’ she snapped.
‘Don’t get touchy,’ he said. ‘I may like a good ride, but I hate sudden stops as much as the next Smedry. We need an escape plan.’
Bastille fell silent for a moment. ‘How many of us can you use your Talent to transport?’