"For now. We fight them as two separate fights, not as one. We will overwhelm each in turn."
Tahn's cough was one of agreement.
"Yes," he breathed. "Just as long as we fight."
They turned to watch the glider make its long floating approach. It had dumped its spoilers and was losing altitude, when it suddenly climbed impossibly fast, spun completely around and exploded in a hundred pieces.
Tahn leaped to the rail, stared, then keened the Kali howl of alarm. Ward squinted downwind in puzzlement, then saw it—the seething, wild slice of a wind devil arcing toward the fleet.
Curling, lashing, faster than any ship, it bore down on them in a track of boiling foam. Other ships took up the cry. Knives flashed as sheets were cut and sails crashed down. Seamen ran aloft to furl the wild cloth. Some of the leading corvettes tried to turn and run out of the way, but the wind was too fast.