The dragon at the bow of the Glorious Sun opened its gold jaws over thirty paces of bronze. The armored titan put away its blade and closed both hands on the prow.
The whole ship rang. Officers fell on the bridge. A row of instrument mirrors came loose and shattered on the deck.
“Reverse!” the commander called. “Break its hold!”
Blue fire roared from the stern. The hull pulled back. The titan set its feet in folded space. Pei Jing felt the pull through the link to its arms. He drew the dragon’s head up with one hand and held the hull down with the other. For a moment the ship seemed to bend around its own weight.
The keel snapped. The gold plating around the bow peeled back, and the dragon hung crooked over the opening. Spirit oil broke out in pale streams. The titan swung the wounded ship away from the mountain and out toward open water.
Pei Jing sprang from its chest to the flight deck. His boots landed on a red runner torn down the middle. Forty guards came at him in two lines. Their captain, Geng, led with two silver sabers. He was an Early Soul Formation fighter. The light from the first sweep cut across the deck and took the tips off the brass rails.
