AS YET ANOTHER LIGHTNING BOLT SHOT DOWN FROMthe rumbling heavens, Wigg suddenly felt theTammerland lurch forward. The vessel’s unexpected rise in speed was unlike anything he had ever experienced aboard a Black Ship.
Looking up, he saw theCavalon ’s dark keel plummeting downward. But because of theTammerland ’s unexplained impetus, theCavalon was quickly nearing the flagships’ stern, rather than coming down amidships. Even so, there was no doubt that the two Black Ships would collide. The only question was how badly.
With only moments to spare, Wigg frantically looked aft. Straining with everything they had, Faegan and Jessamay were calling the craft, speeding theTammerland to help avoid a point-blank collision. Adding his gifts to theirs, Wigg called on all his remaining power. But even the three gifted mystics could not change the inevitable.
With a mighty crash, theCavalon ’s bow crashed down onto theTammerland ’s already-damaged stern. As theCavalon ’s metal-lined keel smashed a glancing blow into the flagship, theTammerland ’s aft deck and gunwales crashed apart, and her stern mast snapped in two to come tumbling down. With a tortured groan, theCavalon ’s keel slid across and off theTammerland ’s stern. Both ships crashed hard onto the roiling sea.
“Angle her back into the air!” Wigg screamed at Faegan and Jessamay. “We must get airborne again, before she floods with seawater!”
Faegan and Jessamay quickly obeyed. Her bow rising, theTammerland slowly took to the air, struggling against the relentless wind. Wigg looked back to see seawater again pouring from her stern. To his great relief he saw theCavalon also rise. Amazingly, she seemed to have suffered little damage. That was probably because of the iron strip each Black Ship bore along her keel, he realized.
Finally the terrible weather accompanying the Necrophagians’ dying Forestallments quieted. The wind returned to normal, and the sea below theTammerland calmed. The sun had started peeking over the eastern horizon, bringing with it the advent of a new day. Seeing that no more seawater was pouring from theTammerland ’s stern, Wigg gratefully returned the ship to level flight.
Exhausted beyond measure, the First Wizard looked around. Blessedly, all six Black Ships were airborne. At first glance it seemed that only theTammerland had suffered significant damage. As he set an easterly course, the fleet followed. The other Conclave members ran to meet him.
“It seems we’ve made it!” Shailiha said. “But what do we do now?”
Tyranny looked commandingly at Traax. The expression on her face told everyone that she was in a foul mood. Nothing incensed her as much as damage done to her precious fleet. She gave Traax a hard look.
“While theCavalon is still airborne, I want you and several others to fly up and check her keel!” she ordered. “Under no condition is her acolyte captain to put her back onto the sea until she has permission from you! When the acolyte can no longer sustain flight, she is to send us a warrior telling us so. If needed, Faegan, Jessamay, or Adrian will relieve her.”
Traax immediately snapped his heels and ran off to select several warrior shipwrights whom he trusted. Moments later, he and six others took to the air. Tyranny urgently waved Scars forward.
“Get as many warriors as our stern can hold and get to work on this ship!” she ordered. “Just a few moments ago, you told me that eight hours would suffice! I don’t care how much new damage has been done! I want this vessel atop the waves in that same time frame, or else!”
Scars knew that when Tyranny was like this, there was nothing to say about it. He immediately ran aft, shouting out threats and orders that would have reddened the cheeks of Tammerland’s most hardened brothel madam.
After angrily tousling her hair, Tyranny took a cigarillo from her vest pocket. Striking a match against one knee boot, she cupped her hands to light it. She took a deep lungful of smoke, then glared angrily at Faegan.
“That was fancy work,” she said, “killing the Necrophagians that way. I must say that I’ve never seen anything like it. But then I heard you castigating yourself. So what in the world just happened out here? Did your wizardly solution make things worse?”
Without waiting for an answer, she turned her glaring attention toward Wigg. “I was told that these endowed ships were impervious to damage!” she said.
Wigg raised an eyebrow. “For the most part, they are,” he answered quietly. “But not against each other, or the power of the Necrophagians.”
Sighing, Faegan looked up at Tyranny. He was still soaked and shaking from the cold. He knew that Tyranny didn’t mean to be harsh with everyone; that was just her way of getting rid of frustration. Even so, she deserved an explanation. His teeth still chattering, he coughed before answering.
“I forgot to take something into account,” he answered.
“I’m listening,” she said.
“The Heretics apparently controlled the Necrophagians with Forestallments, laced into their blood centuries ago,” Wigg answered for Faegan. “When we killed them, their Forestallments died with them. The resulting reaction is always the same-amazing lightning, thunder, and wind. The more powerful the practitioner, the more powerful are the atmospheric events when he or she dies. These were the strongest we have ever seen. We were lucky to survive.”
After taking another drag on her cigarillo, Tyranny seemed calmer. Sighing, she tousled her hair again.
“I’m sorry,” she said. “It’s just that as the fleet’s captain, it’s my job to get these ships to the Citadel in one piece. Once we’re there, the rest of you may give me all the orders you like. But until then these ships are mine.”
“I understand,” Faegan said. “You carry much on your shoulders. We all do. Even so, in a way, I’m sorry to have killed them.”
“Why?” Shailiha asked.
“Because if our assumptions about them are correct, the Necrophagians were once members of the Ones Who Came Before,” Jessamay answered. “Given enough time we might have been able to find a way to set them free. They would have been invaluable allies. But we’ll never know.”
As the sun rose in earnest, a respectful silence fell over the Conclave members. Tyranny dropped her cigarillo to the deck and crushed it beneath her boot. Faegan looked wistfully out to sea.
Shailiha walked over to put one arm around Faegan’s shoulders. As she did, the old wizard turned to look at theTammerland ’s ravaged stern. He shook his head.
“What have I done?” he breathed.
Squatting down, Shailiha took his hands into hers and looked into his eyes. “You did what you do best,” she answered. “You cheated death and gave us the chance to fight the Vagaries another day.”
Faegan finally smiled. “Thank you,” he said. He looked at Wigg. “The Necrophagians mentioned a group of Vagaries mystics called thePon Q’tar, ” he mused. “Have you heard the phrase before?”
Wigg shook his head. “No,” he answered.
“Nor have I,” Jessamay added.
“How much longer can you keep us aloft?” Faegan asked Wigg.
“Two hours at best,” Wigg answered. “That’s all I have left in me.”
Faegan nodded. “When you can do no more, one of us will relieve you. In the meantime I suggest that we all get some rest. I fear that what we just experienced will pale compared with the greeting we will get at the Citadel.”
Just then they all heard saws and hammers working, and Minions urgently ordering one another about. Although the noises were chaotic, they also sounded hopeful.
But as the Black Ship fleet flew east into the rising sun, Faegan’s warning about the Citadel clawed at every Conclave member’s heart.