Chapter 217 Occupying the Ice Isles
After more than four days of flight, Sky City appeared above the Ice Isles. Shailen had already conducted a thorough investigation of the island's pirates — even without Sky City's help, his people would have launched the expedition, though it would have been far harder going.
The pirates on the island never imagined that the elves, said to be gentle and uninterested in worldly affairs, would set their sights on this place, let alone in league with that crowd from Heathermere. The moment Sky City arrived, Evan and the others gathered in the central magic tower. The mana crystal cannons ringing the city were already primed, and under the calculating power of the legendary mages, orders passed down the chain in an unbroken stream of mind-links.
Shailen released his insects. That they could withstand the bitter cold surprised even Evan. The information the insects relayed surfaced before everyone: the pirate fleet numbered ten main warships and twenty smaller vessels, all moored in the ice-free harbor. With the new year drawing near, every ship had returned to port.
Warehouses on shore were stacked high with supplies, and there were mountains of gold, silver, and jewels besides — some women were even reduced to selling themselves. In the taverns along the shore, pirates were drinking barley ale, lost in drunken stupor.
They had no idea death was about to call on them. The elven army, restrained under Elder Reed's command, stood ready, each warrior aboard an airship, poised to make landfall at any moment.
A dragon's roar sounded, and a wyrm rose from the ground below, two lesser drakes following behind it, each bearing a dragon knight on its back. No one had expected this band of pirates to field three flying dragons — one of them a true dragon.
They must have spotted Sky City and meant to fly up and ask what was going on. Heathermere gave the faintest smile and sent the order by thought. Without waiting for them to draw near, the mana crystal cannons on the city's near side flared to life. Three bolts of blood-red light lanced out, striking straight at the dragon and its riders.
It happened too suddenly. Transparent wards flickered into being around the two lesser drakes and their dragon knights, but under the crimson light of the cannons, the wards held for less than a second before shattering. When the blood-red glare passed, nothing remained.
The true dragon alone managed to roll aside, the red light grazing past its body. It let out a roar and opened its jaws, breathing a gout of flame straight at Sky City. Sky City flashed, its ward flaring to life; the dragon's breath struck the barrier, which rippled faintly before the flame dissipated — even as the dragon knight on its back raised a glowing dragon lance.
At that instant, the five magic towers blazed with strange light, weaving a great net that shot straight toward the dragon. The dragon lance had already begun to glow, but with a boom, the net rippled and closed, cinching tight in an instant. The dragon and its rider struggled, but the net of light had already seeped into their bodies. The men on the ground below had no idea what had happened before they saw the dragon already borne up into Sky City.
Sky City dropped lower, its mana crystal cannons pouring fire down onto the ground without pause, like a volcano in constant eruption. Explosions rolled through the harbor one after another — the thunder of the cannons mixing with the chain-detonation of alchemical gunpowder — until in the space of a few breaths the whole harbor lay in ruins.
The barrage gradually tapered off. Sky City had descended to half its cruising height, and five hundred elven warriors began landing from the airships in waves. Volleys of gale arrows fell like rain, and behind them came elven warriors bearing rapiers, blades flashing. What remained of the enemy had no strength left to resist. Evan watched the rapiers flash like lightning, appearing on an enemy's chest almost before the eye could follow — far faster than an ordinary sword, and far harder to predict. He found himself nodding inwardly.
They watched the whole battlefield from the central magic tower, seeing the elves sweep away the pirates' remnants with overwhelming force. The outcome was already settled, and the whole affair had gone far more smoothly than expected.
Catching sight of the gold and silver below, Shuang murmured to Evan, "Wang, let's go down too."
"That's spoils of war. Not ours to take," Evan said, just as quietly.
Just then Shailen closed his projection and said to Heathermere, "Honored lady, I'll be heading down now. Thank you for your help. Once things have settled, we'll honor the agreement."
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With that he left the central magic tower, walked a few steps to the edge of Sky City, and — without bothering with an airship — leapt off.
Evan smiled faintly and followed him out the door. Jessica hurried after them. "Wait for me — I'm coming down with you." The two of them reached the edge and likewise leapt off without an airship.
On the ground, looking around, Evan saw craters gouged everywhere, severed limbs scattered here and there. He regarded it all coldly; Jessica, too, remained unmoved. Shuang, though, could not manage the same composure — her face had gone pale.
"The mana crystal cannons really are devastating, especially mounted on Sky City. This is probably the first time in history that hot-weapon warfare has been waged from the air," Evan remarked.
"In the past, battles were fought from the ground. Even when there was an aerial assault, it was usually just dragon knights, and apart from dragon's breath, that wasn't hard to defend against. But what we just saw erupting like a volcano, at that altitude, with that kind of force — there's simply no defending against it. It seems Sky City's arrival has changed the shape of warfare itself," Jessica said.
Evan nodded. "War is becoming three-dimensional — from the ground into the air. The future will belong to hot weapons. I doubt even Sky City is invincible. Sooner or later, someone will develop anti-air firepower."
As the two of them mused on this, a powerful surge of magic erupted ahead, followed immediately by an even stronger one. Amid the roar of magic, Evan and Jessica exchanged a glance — they could tell that the first surge had felt unfamiliar, but the one that followed was more recognizable: a wave of nature magic. It could only mean one of the elves' great masters had struck. With the sound of an explosion, the earlier, unfamiliar surge vanished.
Evan and Jessica ran toward it and found Reed standing there, a corpse lying folded on the ground before him like a broken doll. Reed glanced at the two of them and gave a slight nod. He was a strikingly handsome elf; that he had become an elder meant he was no longer young, though he still looked it — his temperament, though, ran somewhat cold. Evan wasn't surprised by that. Shuang paid none of this any mind, her eyes darting about until she spotted a warehouse-like building and pointed. "Let's go there."
Evan headed inside at once, Jessica following. Reed gave them an indifferent glance, then turned and strode off in the other direction, no longer concerning himself with the place.
It was a warehouse. During Sky City's bombardment, the warehouses had been deliberately spared, so this one had suffered no damage. Inside were all manner of supplies — grain, blades. None of it interested Evan, nor Shuang. What interested her was gold and silver. As she rounded a mountain of stacked goods, a pirate lunged at her. Evan casually pointed a finger; the man's body stiffened as the water in his bloodstream broke down, hydrogen and oxygen flooding his veins, and he collapsed. A few more pirates behind him cried out and fled for their lives — they hadn't been caught in the earlier bombardment, but what became of them now, Evan cared nothing about.
Then Evan froze. Jessica froze too. Before their eyes, silver ingots lay stacked in neat rows, and beside them, gold bars stacked just as neatly, like bricks.
Shuang threw herself at the gold bars, and in a blink several of them had vanished. She sighed with regret. "Not enough space. It's already full."
Evan and Jessica exchanged a look. Worldly wealth or not, it was simply too tempting. Without a word to each other, both reached out and summoned a bar through the air. The gold was heavy, but in their hands it felt weightless. Four gold bars vanished into their grasp, and they were about to continue when they heard footsteps behind them and stopped.
Shailen walked in. Taking in the scene, he too froze for a moment, caught in his own private struggle between heaven and earthly desire. After a moment he turned to the elves behind him. "Seal all of this. Once our allies come down, we'll divide it according to the agreement."
The elves acknowledged the order. Evan asked, "Any casualties?"
Shailen sighed. "How could there not be? Even with Sky City's firepower breaking nearly every resistance on the ground, we still lost five or six, and another dozen or so wounded. I don't know if what I've done here is right or wrong."
"Who can say what's right or wrong. But with this step taken, the elves will never again be seen as the gentle folk of old. After this, I doubt anyone will think of your people as peaceable."
"Everything has its price. Do nothing, and you're left behind by the times," Shailen said, resigned.
Shuang was still gazing longingly at the gold bars. Evan asked, "How many prisoners?"
"We haven't finished the count. A few hundred, probably. A few dozen women and children among them — most of the women were sold into prostitution."
"What do you plan to do with them?" Evan asked.
"The able-bodied pirates are easy enough — we need labor to rebuild this place. The women and children are trickier," Shailen said. "As for the badly wounded prisoners, I've already given the order to have them executed."
A flicker of reluctance crossed Evan's face, but what was done was done — and pirates were no innocents at sea either. Good and evil find their reckoning in the end.
"Give the women and children to us," Jessica said.
"Yes, give them to us," Shuang called out as well.
"I suppose that'll have to do. I'll go speak with Heathermere and Roland," Evan said, and Jessica nodded in agreement.
"Worst case, this immortal will give up the gems and pay a visit to that old man's laboratory," Shuang declared.
They returned to Sky City and went straight to Heathermere and Roland to raise the matter. Heathermere frowned, considered it a moment, then agreed. "Let them come up to Sky City. They've had hard enough lives. Those with somewhere to go, give them some money and send them home. Those with nowhere to go can serve as servants here on Sky City."