But at this rate, the Militia didn’t even need to bring Feylen out. Two artillery stations had gone down. The other five were running out of ammunition and had slowed their rate of fire. Most of Nezha’s warships were dead in the water, while the core of the Imperial Navy had sustained very little fire damage.
Time to rectify that. Rin stood up. “I’m going in.”
“Now’s the time,” Kitay agreed. He handed her a jug of oil from a tidy pile stocked next to the crossbow, and then pointed down at the channel. “I’m thinking center left of that tower ship. You want to split that formation apart. Get the ropes going and the rest will catch fire.”
“And don’t look down,” Venka said helpfully.
“Shut up.” Rin stepped backward, dug her feet against the ground, and broke into a run. The wind whipped against her face. Her wings rippled against the drag. Then the cliff disappeared under her feet, her head pitched downward, and there was no fear, no sound, only the thrilling and sickening lurch of the drop.
She let herself dive for a moment before she opened her wings. When she spread her arms the resistance hit her like a punch. Her arms felt like they were being torn from their sockets. She gasped—not from the pain, but from the sheer exhilaration. The river was a blur, ships and armies dissolving into solid streaks of browns and blues and greens.
Arrows emerged in her line of sight. They looked like needles from a distance; gaining in size at a frightening pace. She veered to the left. They whizzed harmlessly past her.
She’d gotten within range of the tower ship. She leveled off the dive. She opened her mouth and palms; a stream of fire shot out from her extremities, setting ablaze everything she passed.
She dropped the oil just before she pulled up.
She heard the glass shatter as the jar hit the deck, the crackle as the flames caught. She smiled as she soared upward to the opposite cliff wall. When she hazarded a glance backward she saw arrows lose momentum and drop back to the ground as they struggled to reach her.
Her feet found solid earth. She dropped to her knees and doubled over on all fours, panting while she surveyed the damage below.
The ropes had caught a steady, spreading fire. She could see them blackening and fraying where she’d dropped the oil.
She looked up. Across the channel, Venka methodically shoved another round of bolts into her crossbow loading mechanism, while Kitay waved for her to return.
The muscles in her arms burned, but she couldn’t afford too much time for recovery. She crawled to the edge of the cliff and hauled herself to her feet.
She squinted, mapping out her next flight pattern. She caught Venka’s attention and pointed toward a cluster of ships untouched by the fire. Venka nodded and redirected her crossbow.
Rin took a deep breath, jumped off the cliff, and swooped down, basking again in the rush of adrenaline. Javelins came whistling in her direction, one after another, but all she had to do was swerve and they soared uselessly into empty air.
She felt giddy as she set sails ablaze and felt the warm heat of the fire buoying her up as it spread. Was this how Altan had always felt in the heat of battle? She understood now why he’d summoned himself wings, even though he couldn’t fly with them.
It was symbolic. Ecstatic. In this moment she was invincible, divine. She hadn’t just summoned the Phoenix, she’d become it.
“Nice job,” Kitay said once she’d landed. “The fire’s spread to three ships, they haven’t managed to put it out—wait, can you breathe?”
“I’m okay,” she gasped. “Just—give me a moment . . .”
“Guys,” Venka said sharply. “This is bad.”
Rin staggered to her feet and joined her near the precipice.
Burning the ropes had worked. The Imperial formation had begun to splinter, its outward ships drifting away from the center. Nezha had seized the opening to wedge his warship straight through the main cluster, where he’d managed to blow smoking holes into the side of the floating fortress.
But now he was stuck. The Imperial Navy had lowered wide planks onto his ship’s sides. Nezha was about to get swarmed.
“I’m going down there,” Rin said.
“To do what?” Kitay asked. “Burn them and you burn Nezha.”
“Then I’ll land and fight. I can direct fire more accurately from the ground, I just have to get there.”