Chapter 8

"Get us higher, and bring us around on the port side!" Caoimhe yelled.

The Celestial Sprite juddered hard as Honovi wrenched the levers to provide the engine with more power by emptying the ballast. Their ascent was rough, but they cleared the airspace where the anti-airship munitions were exploding, the sound like never-ending thunder in the weak light of dawn.

Honovi steered them around, seeing only sky all around them through the surrounding windows of the flight cabin. Scattered between their position and the horizon were airships from both sides of the war, all of them jockeying for control of the skies. Aeroplanes flew fast between airships, dodging bullets from Zip guns and artillery sent up from below as they attacked with their own guns.

"Sun is coming up," their navigator said.

Caoimhe studied the gauges rather than the maps long since tossed aside during the night. "Get us in formation with the others. I want the sun behind us."

With the allied forces having pushed in from the east, it meant they had the upper hand in the early morning during sunrise, while sunset aided the Daijal army. Flying with the sun behind them meant the enemy didn't have good line of sight for attacks. That didn't mean it would stop them from fighting.

"Falling into staggered formation," Honovi said as he kept half his attention on the gauges and the other half on the controls.

Most of the airships deployed in the skies over Amari were E'ridian. The Ashion army had lost many of theirs through attrition since last year, and the Legion's expertise lent itself more to land-based war machines than those that flew. Even with Eimarille's attack on Compass Air Force Base and the Ferric Repair Yard back in E'ridia, their air force was still something to be reckoned with.

The radio crackled to life, and Caoimhe snatched it up. Honovi kept his attention on steering them into position with the sun behind them. Other E'ridian airships joined them high above the reach of anti-airship artillery as aeroplanes flew around them, tangling with Daijalan aeroplanes in dog fights over the prairie.

The aerial battlefield had moved away from the trenches, spreading out around the plains surrounding Amari. Regrouping would help focus their efforts on a bombing run of the city walls, something Honovi knew the Daijalans were preparing to defend against, as they had before. But E'ridia had sent more airships to support the retaking of Amari, and Daijal had lost plenty in the past two weeks of heavy battle. Their war machines on the ground could be mass-produced, but airships took time to build. With Daijal trying to defend two fronts, Ashion and its allies had a better chance to break through now than they had before.

"All gunners, be ready for a line fight. Bombardiers, pick your targets," Caoimhe said sometime later on a local announcement through the radio, her voice echoing through the airship.

Honovi maneuvered the levers and toggles to pilot the Celestial Sprite forward. A glance to either side out the flight deck windows showed other airships flying with him in formation. Enough distance between them meant squadrons of aeroplanes could pass through and meet the enemy aeroplanes head-on.

E'ridian airships still had the higher altitude, and they used that to their advantage when many began to descend in sharp dives, picking out their targets of enemy airships. Artillery from the Celestial Sprite's fore gunners ripped through the air in bright lines of passage, arcing toward the balloon of the airship in their sights. Honovi took in Caoimhe's yelled orders and kept them in the current dive as aeroplanes buzzed past them, picking out their own targets. They came in at an angle, Honovi reading gauges and controls as he kept them dancing in the air with the other airship, just barely out of reach of their runners due to the angle of their guns and altitude.

The Celestial Sprite's gunners had no problem targeting the enemy airship. The streaks of their bullets led the way in the dive as he piloted the airship closer. The distance between the two airships was negligible when bullets were involved, and his airship's gunners didn't waste time with targeting the balloon. Their attacks went straight for the engine, ripping across the hull on the way to that vulnerable spot.

An aeroplane flew between them, above the line of fire, and took out an enemy aeroplane off their port side. The explosion filled the sky with smoke, making it difficult to see any oncoming threat. Honovi piloted them lower, flattening out the dive as he banked hard to starboard. His feet skidded against the decking even as he braced himself against the swing of the airship against the wires that connected it to the balloon. Honovi dug his heels in and wrenched himself back into position.

"Pull up! Pull up!" Caoimhe yelled.

Honovi obeyed without argument, yanking at the levers and switching toggles to get the Celestial Sprite to ascend as quickly as possible. They weren't quite fast enough as the airship they'd been targeting exploded, the force of the blast rocking their hull harder than expected. He flew them through black smoke with steady hands, squinting into the distance at their next target—another airship and, if they were lucky, the outer city wall eventually.

They still had bombs to drop, and Honovi had every intention of breaking down the gate to provide his husband and the others with reinforcements inside the capital.