The Dragon Chase: A Tale of the Everburning City

Chapter 26: Tabitha

The flash of fire disappeared, evaporating into the air. Behind the explosion, the Midnight Songbird re-emerged, untouched.

Tabitha smiled in approval, pleased with how her apprentice handled the danger. He met the attack with just enough power to stop it, holding back his strength, and saving himself for when it might matter.

"You taught him Battle Crafting," Tabitha heard Mathias say, from beside her. His voice was quiet, barely more than a whisper, but the rasp in his voice sounded disturbingly like a dagger being drawn.

The cannons were firing another volley at the Dragon below, attempting to keep its attention focused on them. Adrian had reported that the Midnight Songbird had only two Valkyries to their twelve, and without cooling lines, the ship was in danger every time it needed to descend.

"I taught him. He picked it up faster than Coraline," Tabitha replied.

"But not Brenda?" Mathias asked.

Tabitha snickered a little as she answered, "Brenda's terrible at it. It's just hard to tell an avalanche it lacks finesse."

"Who else knows?"

"No one. I didn't even ask him if he wanted to learn," Tabitha answered, with a rueful smirk as she reflected on the night she dragged him onto a train and took him to an abandoned field near the last wall. He did extremely well, once he realised doing poorly could kill him.

"I wish I had known," Mathias said, harshly. "He's fighting without proper supervision."

"He has a shadow," Tabitha remarked but knew that wasn't what her evaluator was referring to. Shadows regarded Mathias the way civilians regarded shadows.

"Not one trained for a Battle Crafter. I'm not your shadow simply because I'm taller than you."

"Are you?" Tabitha asked, sceptically.

"Your hair poofs. Otherwise, I would be."

"Until you take off your stupid hat."

There was a pause as the Dragon turned its head back to the other ship, and began to build another gout of flame.

"Odd," Mathias reflected, just before something crashed into its face and knocked its head aside. The fireball crashed into the stones at its feet, carving a deep rivulet into the road.

"What?" Tabitha asked.

"How would you attack Gerald's ship?" Mathias asked. "Wouldn't you just set off the Valkyries on his deck?"

"It wouldn't work on a Combat Crafter. Within a Crafter's heat haze, the dominion of their will is nearly absolute. Gerald has his extended to cover the entire deck. We'd have to be in grappling range for me to try that. What I would try is using the exhaust ports below his ship first, and force him to contract his defences. Then set off the Valkyries, cut the tethers, and let gravity do the work."

"Yet the Dragon doesn't try anything like that. Even when you say it can Craft. It only uses the fires inside itself."

"Oh," Tabitha reflected, and silently cursed herself for failing to notice it before. The distinction could hint not only at how the Dragon would attack, but even at what it was.

It didn't help that it was Mathias who noticed first. Having it pointed out by someone who doesn't wield the flame was a little galling.

"Be irritated on your own time. Think about the implications," Mathias added, and Tabitha nearly lit him on fire. Flame-bitten shadow was too willing to poke at the coals.

"It's a creature of fire. We need to kill it the way we kill any fire," Tabitha said. She frowned, as the Cannons fired another volley at the Dragon, which had turned to confront a squad of soldiers harassing it with a staccato of Salamander fire. Its response was brutal, as the fire that swept from its open mouth broke the stone street and poured through the building behind the soldiers.