nothing to mark the place where Morat had been. He finally found his legs, managing to stand as the ship stabilised beneath him. He left the rest of the crew and survivors behind him and moved to the prow of the Llothriall. There he looked up at the Allfather and, closing his eyes, he reached out in prayer. Yet this time he did not ask for forgiveness, or offer up thanks for his safety. Instead, he directed his anger at the azure sphere and offered up his rage to the god who had abandoned them.
Eventually the wave upon which the Llothriall rode lost its power and soon they were calmly negotiating the hills and troughs of the Twilight seas once more.
Emuel had sung the last verse and was now helping Father Maylan tend to the most severely injured of the Moratian survivors. Jacquinto and Ignacio were spending their time either up on deck, in the rigging or scanning the horizon for any signs of danger. Bestion, meanwhile, had found the darkest corner of the hold in which to lose himself; refusing offers of food, drink or friendship.
To starboard followed the Calma vessel that had brought Kelos and the crew to Morat. Kelos had yet to introduce the survivors to the aquatic humanoids, reasoning that now was not the best of times to reveal this strange new race to the Moratians. But time was something of a luxury and so, once enough of it had passed for the passengers to have at least begun to compose themselves, Kelos called a meeting.
He didn't think that the hollow-eyed survivors who stared at him from the edges of the cramped day room were ready for war, but that was precisely the reality they would now have to face up to. It didn't stop Kelos from feeling like an utter bastard, however, when several of the Moratians broke down and cried after he had explained the situation.
'If we allow the Chadassa to see their plans come to fruition then it will not just be Morat we'll have lost but the whole world,' Kelos said. 'I understand that now is not the time you want to be dragged into a conflict you did nothing to create, but if we lose Silus we lose all hope. The Land Walkers must not be allowed to march.'
'The Allfather has abandoned us,' Bestion said. 'What does it matter if we die?'
'Look, it was the Chadassa who were truly responsible for the destruction of Morat,' Jacquinto said. 'Don't you want revenge for that?'
'And after we have taken our revenge what then?' said a thin woman. 'Once we rescue this Silus, won't the Chadassa just come for us again?'
'If we stop the Land Walkers from being born, then the Chadassa won't be able to effectively attack Twilight,' Kelos said. 'Then, with the Calma's aid we will have our chance to regroup and put the Chadassa down for good.'
'And then maybe once this has all blown over we can search for new land,' Father Maylan said. 'Help you to build a new Morat.'
'So, you want to sail us into enemy territory, put our lives at risk,' one of the few remaining Stone Seers said, 'while you attempt to rescue a man most of us have never heard of, let alone met?'
'Believe me,' Kelos said, 'the Llothriall is one of the safest places you can be in that situation. This is no ordinary vessel.'
'Yes, surely you have heard the song?' Emuel said.
The Moratians didn't look convinced, but Kelos didn't have time to string out the argument any further. Already a deadly new army could be gestating in the vast womb of the Chadassa Queen.
'In order to persuade you that our course of action is the correct one,' Kelos said, 'let me show you something of the Llothriall's abilities. Emuel, I'll need you in the stone room. The rest of you follow me.'
The only one not to follow him onto deck was Bestion. Jacquinto and Ignacio offered to go and fetch him but Kelos told them to let him be for the moment.
The deck shuddered beneath them as Emuel began a new song. In a perfect circle, surrounding the Llothriall for about a mile, the sea suddenly became still, its surface now as smooth as a mirror.
'Are you sure this is going to work?' Jacquinto said as Kelos prepared himself. 'I mean, have you actually tested whether the Llothriall really can sail underwater?'
'No, but have faith. Go, do your thing.'
Jacquinto and Ignacio hammered free the heavy wood bolts that were threaded through the base of each mast. Kelos then called up a light breeze that lifted the sails and furled them tightly around each one. He then brought his hands up sharply, like a conductor calling for more volume, before bringing them down just as suddenly. As soon as he did this, the three great masts dropped, telescoping into themselves with a soft hiss, until they were flush with the deck.
Behind Kelos, the men and women watching him drew closer to one another as they found themselves standing on a vast ship without sails. The sky all of a sudden seemed that much wider and deeper above them.
But the transformation of the Llothriall was far from complete.
Kelos raised his arms again and brought his palms together. He said a word that had no meaning to his audience but which seemed to whisper deep inside their minds, eliciting a shiver from each individual as they felt the magic now working around them. The Llothriall began to grow, the wood of the hull to either side flowing above them, each edge curving towards the other before joining together, closing above them like a clam shell, sealing them in what many now felt to be a huge, lightless coffin. But Kelos coughed and said 'my apologies,' and then light began to filter in as organic portholes blinked open down the length of the ship.
'The beauty of the Llothriall,' Kelos said as his audience rushed to the windows, 'is that she is as proficient at sailing beneath the waves as she is upon them.'
There were gasps from those looking through the portholes as the Llothriall began to sink. No, not sink, Kelos thought, that would suggest that they were trapped in some kind of shipwreck. What the Llothriall was actually doing was submerging, the magic that now suffused every part of the vessel taking her into a gentle descent. Kelos couldn't help a huge grin plastering itself onto his features. He had wanted to try out this ability of the ship ever since he had first read of it.
There was the hiss of air being pumped through the great chamber in which they now stood and the light filtering through the portholes soon faded to a deep aquamarine.
'Ladies and gentlemen,' Kelos said, 'welcome to the world beneath the waves.'
It was so quiet.
The only sound that reached Kelos as he sat reading in the dayroom was the low murmur of Father Maylan's prayers. Usually there would be the sound of Jacquinto and Ignacio calling to each other from the rigging or playing dice, but tonight it was almost as if Kelos and the priest were the only ones on board. The rest of the crew and passengers had decided to get some sleep.
Kelos was too restless to sleep. He kept thinking about Dunsany. The prospect of his closest friend never waking up again scared him almost as much as facing the Chadassa in battle. He had tried to distract himself with books, but he'd been reading the same page on Brotherhood beliefs and heresies for the last hour and it was doing nothing to keep his mind off things.
He didn't realise that Father Maylan's litany had come to end until a knock at the door made him jump.
'Come in.'
It was Bestion. 'Mind if I join you? I couldn't sleep.'
'I'm surprised that anybody can. Of course not, please.'
Bestion gently closed the door before taking a seat opposite the mage. For a moment he didn't say anything. Instead he sat looking down at his hands. However, when he looked up and glanced over Kelos's shoulder his expression changed.
'My God, what are they?'
Kelos had forgotten about the Calma ships surrounding the Llothriall. He supposed that, in his worrying, he had become numb to their beauty.
'They are the Calma, or rather their vessels.'
Bestion went over to the window. Kelos, deciding that he wasn't in the mood for reading, joined him.
There were about ten Calma ships visible from this side of the Llothriall, but Kelos knew that at least twice that number followed in their wake. Shoals of gemfish surrounded the ships — drawn either to the lichens that encrusted them or their lights — making it difficult to discern their shape. If Kelos had been pressed to describe their appearance, however, he'd have to say that they looked like nothing so much as giant starfish.
'It was in one of those that we came to Morat,' Kelos said.
