Ethan had helped some of the priests to secure their ailing High Priest in a secluded chamber within the Wayland Temple. The man appeared to be nearly a hundred years old, barely skin and bones left to him. He was surprised someone had not formally replaced him, but apparently it was not the way things were done. For all his years, Isaiah still remained vital, and Ethan hoped the man would stand as his own High Priest for years to come.
He and Seth and the other Nodian Order priests had spent several hours drilling the men of Wayland's Temple. Much improvement had been made despite their initial resistance to being told what to do by foreigners. They simply had no time left to prepare.
Levi had taken it upon himself to organize what weapons he could from their armory, passing Ethan once again with a trolley full of swords, crossbows, and gunpowder kegs. He paused long enough to giggle, saying, "Who would have thought they would have this stuff here?" He went on his way muttering about each grain of the stuff being worth far more than gold for whatever he had in store. Ethan couldn't be sure since The Order here had no cannon to speak of. Still, Bonifast was notorious for his ingenuity if nothing else.
Ethan found Isaiah and Seth with Emory in one of the main halls of the Temple. They were arguing amongst one another, when Ethan joined them.
"Despite my agreeing with you completely, we really have no choice in the matter," Emory said to an exasperated Isaiah. "We are bound to do the King's will and he's made it clear."
"What's going on?" Ethan asked.
"The King has requested-" Seth began.
"Demanded is more like it," Isaiah cut in.
"-that his royal guard be assembled," Seth said.
"What's so bad about that?"
Isaiah barely controlled his fury. "The problem is that he's demanding a bodyguard of one hundred of The Order's finest warriors." He looked at Emory, disgusted. "Apparently they are under contract, with His Majesty, to provide exactly that."
"It's been that way since before I even joined The Order, Master Isaiah," Emory explained. "There's nothing I can do about it."
"But that's nearly a third of the warrior-priests available here," Ethan said.
"Yes, and they'll all be needed desperately on the frontlines when Mordred attacks," Isaiah said hotly.
Emory shrugged his shoulders. "I'm sorry, but there's nothing I can do, truly."
An hour later, Ethan watched with the others as one hundred of the Wayland Order's priests marched in their priestly robes, outfitted with swords and bows, toward King Stephen's palace several miles away.
"It's a mistake, what the King is doing," Seth said.
"It may be one of his last," Isaiah added.
Ethan simply watched them go. He thought, probably, that one hundred men, even priests of Shaddai, would make very little difference, when considered against the size of Mordred's forces. He wondered very much if these Wayland priests would fare well at all against the hybrid soldiers. The giant Anakims were an altogether bigger problem, to say the least. One strike from their great arms would dash half a dozen men to the ground.
As he stood there wondering how they might possibly put up a fight against Mordred's army, an odd shadow and then another, passed over them. Ethan turned to find something he had never seen before-never even fathomed. A Man-o-war sailing ship drifted over the Temple suspended in the air by what appeared to be great tents of sail cloth. It remained as silent as a cloud except for the occasional groaning of the wood.
Ethan stood there on the Temple balcony stunned by this odd bird, until Isaiah threw him to the ground. He noticed Seth go down as well, then he heard the great explosion nearby. A section of the roof, higher up, mushroomed out in a gout of flame heaving ceiling tiles, wood, and concrete over them in a great wave which tumbled down, landing in the courtyard below.
More explosions followed in rapid succession, deafening them as debris rained down upon them from every direction. Ethan scrambled to his feet, realizing they must flee.
"Grenades!" Seth shouted as he helped Isaiah to his feet again.
Man-o-wars filled the sky over Evelah in mere moments while their crews dropped round grenades down upon the city. The fuses streaked white smoke behind them, trailing down, down until they tumbled onto roofs and exploded. Minutes into the attack the streets were filled with people scrambling for any cover they could find from the deadly rain.
The floating Man-o-wars continued southeast across the city in a line strafing everything in their path. Buildings exploded. Many already had been leveled and more burned. The King's soldiers patrolling the streets tried to fire crossbows back at their attackers with little effect. The ships were simply too high up.
Ethan, Isaiah and Seth ran back through the Temple. At least one of the ships had remained overhead trying to pummel Shaddai's Wayland Temple into dust. Shockwaves rattled the entire structure as plaster and glass shot away from walls.
Deeper and deeper into the Temple they ran, trying to escape the onslaught from above. "If we stay in here we'll all be killed," Isaiah said.
"I think that's the idea," Seth said as he followed down one of the broad staircases. The priests were running about like ants, trying to save themselves, but no one really knew where safety could be found.
"We've got to stop those ships," Ethan said. "I can go on my own faster."
Isaiah looked reluctant to separate, but conceded, finally, as another blast shook the building. "Watch over him, Seth," Ethan said.
Seth nodded. "Hurry, but stay safe."
Ethan shifted out of physical sight and launched out of the Temple through the crumbling walls into the sky, heading for the ship circling above them. As soon as he reached the ship, a pack of demons came upon him.
Ethan defended himself, dispatched three of the malevolent spirits, then dropped back into the physical world out of their sight, landing on the deck. Immediately, a dozen hybrid soldiers descended upon him from the rigging while others continued their work bombing the city below.
He took his sword, procured from the armory of Wayland's Temple and struck down the first two with little trouble. With the hybrids vital organ strikes yielded faster results. Even hybrids still had to walk in physical bodies. As soon as the third hybrid was struck through the heart, Ethan tried to slash some of the lines connecting the ship to its balloons.
Fire bellowed hot air into sail cloth from coal stoves below. Ethan had seen leaves catch the wind from a fire and shoot into the air high above the flames. He'd also heard Mr. Howinger speak of birds riding currents of hot air and supposed this must be based upon the same thing. If he could only cut the ship free from the rigging nets, it would plummet out of the sky and be smashed to pieces on the streets of Evelah below. Not a pleasant prospect for the citizens beneath them, but better than bombed to death from above.
Ethan struck the ropes and saw the hemp lines scrape away, revealing metal cables beneath. No wonder these can hold an entire Man-o-war aloft! He tried again, but his sword only bounced away. "Great!" he said, then shifted to the spiritual plane. He'd seen the demons searching, but he had no choice. As soon as he became visible to them again they surged toward him with their weapons ready.
Ethan pulled his ethereal sword and whipped it fast into the cable. It cut through the cable like it wasn't even there. The Man-o-war buckled as the support gave way. The demons attacked and Ethan had to shift back to the physical in time to escape them again. He leaped past more hybrid soldiers then shifted again and cut another support.
Over and over again he played the mouse to many cats until the entire stern section fell away from its support balloon. The bow section couldn't maintain the full weight of the ship and snapped. Ethan, still in the physical, fell with the ship as it plummeted. The Man-o-war dropped vertically into one of the larger buildings in the city.
One of the hybrids grabbed him, looking for anything to hold onto as they fell. The impact threw them apart as the entire deck shattered next to them. Ethan managed to shift again while the hybrid fell away into the storm of fragmented lumber exploding all around them. One ship down, too many more to go.