The Kingmakers(9)

In the southern distance, the shadowy shape of an airship suddenly dropped out of the clouds, her descent rapid and foolhardy. Swarms of vampires surrounded her. She was a brig, and both Anhalt and Greyfriar immediately recognized the vessel. Edinburgh. No doubt, Anhalt's old friend and military colleague, Aswan Hariri, captained her. It didn't surprise him that Adele would have contacted Hariri for a mission so reckless. The man was more pirate than soldier, but his skill with a ship was unprecedented. Raucous cheers resounded down the line at sight of the brig, but began to fade as seconds passed and no more ships appeared out of the clouds. A single ship, and a small one at that. No fleet was coming to their rescue. Soldiers suddenly stood transfixed with dismay.

Vampires abruptly sloughed off the brig in great numbers, plummeting dead to the ground like swarms of dying birds. Soldiers watched amazed, pointed, and then resumed cheering.

Abruptly Greyfriar's tall frame reeled backward.

Anhalt turned. “What's wrong?”

“She's using her geomancy to burn a path to us. I can't go any closer.” His words were low and clipped. He was clearly in pain.

Anhalt felt nothing, but he understood that vampires were susceptible to some skill the empress possessed. He looked to the south, trying to discern what was happening. The staccato of machine-gun fire echoed, cutting through vampires still rising to intercept the brig. Already more creatures clung to the wooden hull of Edinburgh, crowding over the dirigible from which it was suspended. Scores of them were attacking the sail-crowded masts that extended from the sides of the dirigible. The black shapes were everywhere. Anhalt's chest tightened with fear for his empress. The small vessel could hold no more than a company of soldiers. By sheer numbers, the enemy would overwhelm them.

“Go to her!” Greyfriar commanded Anhalt. “Help open her way!”

The Gurkha general shouted to Hereghty, “Captain, we must secure the ground beyond our lines! Come on, form ranks and stand ready. Quickly now! Not a second to lose!”

Orders were relayed and men gathered at the edge of the trenches, clinging to their rifles and swords and pikes. Faces blackened with dirt and grime stared into the frozen land beyond their trenches where vampires rose and fell, swarming the little airship. Officers adjusted caps and tarbooshes and turbans. Swagger sticks swung smartly under arms with calls of “All right, lads! Look sharp now. Up and out. Mind your heads at all times.”

Captain Hereghty saluted Anhalt. “Ready, sir.”

“Very well,” the general snarled with pistol and Fahrenheit saber in hand. “Over the top!”

Whistles blew down through the trenches and machine-gun fire ceased. After seconds of silence, another whistle blew, only to be drowned out by the animalistic bellows of a thousand men as a khaki wave poured up onto the ground. Rifle fire commenced, popping across the field. Men ran and shot. Blades swung. Pikes jabbed at figures floating overhead. Some men stopped to execute burned vampires wriggling in the dirt.

General Anhalt could barely catch his breath from the excitement of the flood surrounding him, shouting and fighting. He yelled exhortations to the brave soldiers around him, even as his eyes searched the sky for the empress's ship.

Edinburgh tacked hard over and then righted in a strange maneuver. It had lost most of its forward momentum; there was no chance of outrunning the swarming monsters. No doubt, Captain Hariri was attempting to shake the creatures off, but those that lost their grip only veered back into place like black flies rising briefly from a disturbed carcass.

The ship was low enough and at such an angle that Anhalt glimpsed the deck. He saw the familiar red jackets of the White Guard, Adele's household troops, in a tight square around a lone figure, unmistakably a woman whose long auburn hair blew wildly in the wind. Their weapons snapped and flamed, bringing down any vampire that dared come close. The brig continued to rush toward Anhalt, sweeping so low now that the mooring lines dragged the ground.

Edinburgh made one more hard tack and then, without a sound or fanfare, the vampires clutching the airship or drifting in the air around it burst into flames. Anhalt heard their horrible and satisfying screams as hundreds of bodies dropped like burnt cords of lumber.

Soldiers on the ground pointed up with shock.

“Look! It's the empress!”

“What in the name of hell is she doing here?”

“She is crazy like they say! Bless her!”

Then the ship was past and Anhalt turned to race after it like a child chasing an escaped kite. Troopers on the ground dodged charred bodies of the enemy crashing to earth while others grabbed hold of Edinburgh's lines. Soon great clutches of soldiers were scrambling after the mooring lines, as well as the legs of their comrades who were being dragged by the slowing airship. Aboard the brig, airmen frantically furled sails and vented buoyants. The ship lurched to a halt just inside the trench line of the vast Equatorian camp.