VII
Isiah staggered a bit as he watched the horizon tilt, his eyes and brain not agreeing on what he was seeing. Kaspar and Caelian slipped off the walkway and tumbled onto the grass. He looked back at Miah. She was holding her stomach and looking down. The bearded adept was on one knee and looked terrified. The wind had picked up.
Miah reached over and grabbed the adept. “Can you fix this?”
“I don’t know.”
“Try,” she said, and shoved him back towards his group. “I’ll help them,” she said to Isiah.
“Be careful,” he answered, and he started running back towards the structure. It was now like running along a hillside. He waved his arms as Kaspar and Caelian got up and clambered back onto the walkway near the next post. One of the adepts there tried to stop them and Caelian flattened him with a jab and a right hook.
Kaspar started hacking with his longsword. Caelian put a hand on his shoulder to stop him as she saw Isiah crossing back over the field.
As soon as he was close enough, Isiah shouted, “Stop! Change of plans!”
Kaspar lowered his longsword and used his other hand in an exasperated ‘what are you talking about’ motion.
“What is it?” asked Caelian.
“The ritual they’re casting cancels the effect of the sky shards already in the island. If we don’t let them continue the whole thing’s going to drop.”
Kaspar rolled his eyes. “Well, that’s just fantastic! Who the hell came up with this stupid plan?”
Caelian raised a hand. “Isiah, we can’t let them fly this thing into the city.”
“I know, I know.” The rogue brought his free hand to his forehead. “I’m... I’m working on that. Look, we’re still a long way from Pillar’s Reach and Miah’s trying to help stabilize the island. That’s our first order of business. So for now we can’t let anything else happen to this--” He stopped in mid sentence and his eyes went wide and focused on something behind them.
Caelian turned to see the dreadgoblin pirate skyship coming up from below the island. “Oh, bloody hell.”
