The room shook and Bestion was thrown out of his chair and over the desk. He rolled across the floor, the pages of his journal fluttering around him, before coming to rest at the foot of the altar. A crack appeared in the chapel wall and through it Bestion could hear the churn of the angry sea. He closed his eyes and waited for the water to find him. But then he heard the song of the stone, and this time it wasn't a song of death.
'Bestion, Bestion!' It was Joseph, one of the Stone Seers. 'The stone, Bestion! It's calling to something. Something is coming.'
Maybe this was it. Maybe the Allfather had heard their prayers after all. Suddenly Bestion felt ashamed for ever doubting his god.
He followed Joseph and saw that something of the former brilliance of the stone had returned. The grey veins that had begun to marble its face were filling with a glow like the gentle fire of sunset.
'When did this begin?' Bestion said.
'Just a moment ago. The song suddenly changed. We believe that it is a call.'
'To whom, the Allfather?'
'We don't think so.'
'Then who?'
'Captain Tyron has spotted something approaching Morat from the east.'
Bestion felt a chill grip him then as he remembered the maw that had risen from the sea to devour them. Joseph noticed his pallor change and placed his hand on Bestion's arm. 'If Morat was in danger from this thing, I can assure you that the cadences of the song would be far different. Come on.'
Bestion followed Joseph out of the temple and across to the next island in the archipelago.
The fragments of the broken city now orbited the power of the stone, each small island linked by a hastily constructed bridge. Bestion looked around him at what they had lost and wondered how much longer they could survive.
Six islands away from the house of the Stone Seers Captain Tyron stood on an outcrop, watching the approach of a strange mound that moved swiftly through the water towards them, sending up plumes of spray in its wake.
'I spotted it on the horizon not long ago,' the Captain said as they approached. 'And when I trained my glass on it, I saw what appeared to be a human riding on its back. Look.'
The Captain handed his telescope to Bestion.
There was indeed something riding the mound of grey-green flesh, a figure with its arms outstretched and head raised. Bestion adjusted the magnification and the tattooed face that sprang at him out of the mist of spray was instantly recognisable.
'My God, it's Emuel. The strangers are returning! They must be the ones the ship's stone is responding to. Maybe they have brought Silus with them, maybe there is hope after all.'
The Llothriall sat not far from where Bestion and the two men stood and as the strange mound neared Morat, he could have sworn he saw the ship shudder, the wood of its hull briefly flaring with lines of magical fire.
The mound slowed as it drew alongside the small island and a hole dilated open in its surface. Through this scrabbled Kelos, Father Maylan, Ignacio and Jacquinto. Bestion got Captain Tyron to lower a rope and soon the visitors were before them.
'Gentlemen, I had thought I'd never see you again,' Bestion said, taking each of their hands in turn.
'And we had not reckoned on seeing Morat again,' Kelos said. 'I had thought it destroyed.'
'It may as well have been, as you can see. Sadly, what little we have won't hold together for much longer. It is only through the stone that we have managed to save this much and there have been few survivors. How did you find us?'
'We followed the song.' Emuel said. 'We sought the Llothriall.'
'Well you've found her and your vessel has certainly faired better than our city. Anyway, after your journey you must be hungry.'
'Starving,' Kelos said. 'But time is not on our side. Silus is in great danger, as is the rest of our world.'
'At least spare a moment to tell me your tale. Perhaps we can help?'
Kelos looked unsure, but at the urging of the rest of the crew he finally relented.
When they had finished their story, Morat finally began to fall apart.
Bestion and his guests only just managed to flee the chapel before it fell down around them and Jacquinto took a glancing blow to the head from a falling shard of masonry. The most appalling thing about the death of Morat was not the scale of the destruction or the sound of buildings tumbling into the sea, but the silence coming from the house of the Stone Seers.
As Bestion rushed into the building, not willing to believe that which he could no longer hear, Kelos raced after him.
'Bestion bring whoever you can find, we need to get out of here now.'
The cradle that had supported the stone for millennia shattered, shards of rock skittering across the floor as dust filled the air. For a moment the stone remained where it was, gently rocking from side to side. Then it dropped through the floor and into the sea below, a huge plume of water erupting from the hole it left behind.
Bestion and Kelos raced from the building to find the crew standing outside, trying to decide on the best route back to the ship, aware that they had only moments left before the whole of Morat sank.
The many islands that made up the ruins of the city were now beginning to drift apart, ropes snapping as the bridges that had connected them were torn in two.
'For Gods sake what is wrong with you lot? Don't just stand there, go! Get to the Llothriall!' Kelos shouted.
Following the crew Kelos all but carried Bestion across the first of the bridges, the supporting ropes beginning to unravel even as they raced over the planks. At one point Ignacio's foot went through a rotting board, shards of wood gouging into his ankle. Emuel tore the smuggler free, supporting him across the remaining span. As the crew cleared the bridge the island they had left behind cracked into two huge pieces and rapidly sank.
Bestion stared at the place where the house of the Stone Seers had been and then started to turn as the wave thrown up by the sinking island rushed towards them.
The island on which they now stood was suddenly shoved forwards by the wave. One of the Moratian survivors who fled with them stumbled as he tried to clear the gap to the next island, only to fall between the two islands just as they clashed together. Bestion looked away as a geyser of blood fountained into the air, but he could still feel the warm rain on his skin as they made it to the next rock in the chain.
Bestion looked towards where the Llothriall was anchored and realised that they were rapidly running out of stepping stones. As they leapt over the gap between one chunk of rock and the next the sea was already beginning to lap at their heels. He could see the strange, mound-like vessel that had brought the crew to the island skirting the scene of the tumult, as though it was searching for a way in to help them. However the sinking islands were packed too tightly for it to reach them.
The next island they leapt to lay just below the surface but, with a lurch, it suddenly rose from the water. And then Bestion saw the next island rising also, and the next, creating a clear path of stepping-stones to the ship.
'What's happening?' he shouted to Kelos, but then he saw.
Emuel was singing.
The stone of the Allfather may have died but it was now the stone on the Llothriall that was forging them a path as Emuel reached out to it. Ahead of them the ship blazed with the power of the song. Bestion gestured to those remaining survivors who were close enough to follow as they made their dash towards safety.
Kelos and Father Maylan were first on deck and they hurried to get the ship ready for departure as Emuel continued to weave his spell. Bestion held back for the moment, helping any of those who had escaped the tumult leap onto the ship. Beside the crew there were pitifully few survivors. He counted only a dozen or so before the eunuch's song began to lose hold and Morat finally sank below the waves.
The Llothriall was borne up on a sudden swell that whipped it into a spin, those on deck reaching for the handrail as their feet went out from under them. Above them all Jacquinto and Ignacio barely managed to hold on to the rigging as they worked at the sails. But then, with a crack, the silks unfurled, throwing rainbow swirls of light across the deck as they caught the sun.
They rode the crest of the wave thrown up in the wake of the sinking city. Bestion looked back but could see
