Xander gaped for a moment then closed his eyes and breathed deeply. He incanted a spell and opened his eyes to show only the whites of them. He blinked again a moment later, restoring them to normal.
“There’s a powerful magic rising in the ruins. It is ancient, but whether it is good or evil I do not know,” he said. He nodded to himself. “Yes…yes, it is elemental. Nothing foul about the magic itself.”
“I do know,” Bekka said, her face pale. “It is wicked and fey, Captain. We must hurry!”
“How long?” Dexter asked, thinking of the air spirits above them that had nearly ended their lives. Perhaps they were not evil, but as far as he was concerned, they were about as vile as vile could be.
“Not long…I think. Less than an hour.”
Dexter cursed and looked back to Rosh and Willa.
Willa shook her head. “It will take time and some fix this, Sir. Hours, at least.”
“We could fix it up there, Dex,” Rosh said, gesturing up towards the sky. “I’m meaning way up.”
Dexter nodded, he had thought of that. It had dangers of its own, of course: hull repairs in the void. Lose your grip on the hull and there would be some time spent floating through the void thinking about what you should have done instead of what you had done. That, and the trip back down would take a day or more, what with the world’s spin and the trouble with reentry.
“Anything you can do to protect us?” Dexter asked the wizard and the sorceress.
“It’s pure elemental magic-“ Xander began, spouting his disagreement.
“No,” Bekka stopped him. “I mean yes, perhaps, but look beyond it. The magic you speak of guards this place. What I speak of is deeper, hidden inside. It is what they seek and it is anxious to be released.”
“Xander?”
The wizard looked again, closing his eyes as he let his wizard’s eye study the lines of magic. He opened them after a long moment. “There is…something. I have trouble making it out, but yes, there’s something beyond the lines and wards.”
“You’ve got fifteen minutes,” Dexter said, turning to Rosh and Willa. “We leave then, whether you’re on the ship or not!”
Rosh looked to Willa, who turned to him as well, and then they both focused their attention back to the strut and stared at it for several long seconds. Then Willa started talking and Rosh listened intently. He turned and ran to the side of the Voidhawk, leaping and grabbing a rope to scale up it arm over arm. On the deck he slapped Logan in the shoulder. “Come on,” he demanded, leading the surprised priest below deck.
Dexter kept a wary eye and ear on the ruins. The sounds of battle had all but ended when he heard a great rumbling that translated even to the dirt and rocks around them. He heard Bekka, distantly, mumble, “earth.”
He glanced at her and saw she was staring distantly again. Before Rosh and Logan returned he heard a roaring sound that he had trouble properly identifying. “Fire,” Bekka whispered from above.
“Here!” Rosh cried out, gasping for breath. He tossed several boards over the side, dropping the planks and even an old remnant from a broken mast replacement. Logan carried, and tossed overboard, several coils of thick rope.
Rosh slid down the rope, grimacing as it burned his hand. He let go and dropped the final few feet to the ground, then ran over to join Willa, who was already trying to drag the supplies over one handed. Dexter helped them, but kept glancing towards the ruined temple.
“Water,” he heard Bekka say softly over the din of their scrambling repairs.
He glanced up, wondering what was happening. He wondered if any of them could survive the magical defenses. And worse, he was afraid of what might happen if they did survive them.
He heard a gasp then. Looking up he saw Xander stumble away from the railing. A moment later he returned, his face pale. “The wards are broken,” he said. “She’s right… there’s something ancient and evil. It waits, seeking to be freed from its imprisonment.”
“Rosh,” Dexter snapped.
“Ten minutes, Cap!” Rosh said, not bothering to look up. He was looping the rope around the wood, which he had arranged around the rocks and the remaining strut. Logan returned from another run, tossing a hammer and several iron nails to the ground near them. Willa rushed over and grabbed them a handful at a time and put them at Rosh’s feet.
Dexter scowled, ten minutes was fifteen minutes too many. “Prepare to sail!” He snapped, yelling to those aboard the ‘Hawk.
“Captain, I have an idea,” Xander called down to him. A scream so powerful it was nearly inhuman overpowered the mage’s voice though, coming from deep within the ruins.
Dexter stared at it, a cold sweat forming on his skin. “Rosh,” he said anxiously.
“I’m working on it!” Snapped the big man.
“Captain!” Xander called again. Dexter ignored him and hopped up on top of a pile of rocks to get a better view deeper into the ruins.
“It’s free!” Bekka gasped.
“I can protect us!” Xander screamed, his frustration at how he was repeatedly cut off or ignored overwhelming him. “Stand near the ship!”
Another rumble started deep in the ground, causing them all to vibrate. Willa called out a warning as it grew worse. She saw the strut shifting on the broken fountain. She moved closer to Rosh and reached out to pull him back.
The trembling turned into a powerful release of energy, making it seem as though the ground came up and slammed into them. The rocks Dexter stood upon crumbled under him and he crashed to the ground, grimacing as his elbow and shoulder absorbed the brunt of the fall. Most of the crew fell as well, though Logan flexed his knees and rode it well. Rosh and Willa went down and Rosh looked up to see the strut shifting as the fountain began to give way. Willa lay directly in its path.
Rosh launched himself off the ground, grabbing her and rolling her out of the way. He threw her as they rolled, tossing her free of the threat. His hands went to the leading edge of the strut, which was grinding toward him at an alarming rate. He flexed his arms and pushed at it, driving himself away across the rocky ground.
“Help!” He growled, knowing that as strong as he was, there would be no way he could hold up the entire Voidhawk as it shifted off of the crumbling fountain. No man could.
Logan leapt from the side, falling over a score of feet to the ground. He rolled when he hit, limping for his two first running steps but then moving normally as though he was unbothered by the fall. Logan kicked one of the stones into Rosh’s side, making him glare at the priest. The strut, descending slowly thanks to the slowly disintegrating fountain it had rested upon, touched the edge of the piece of rubble and for a moment, and halted.
Rosh scrambled away from it, and only just in time before the small boulder cracked and broke apart. The strut descended the rest of the way, crunching into the ground and cracking along its length further than it already had.
Willa was at Rosh’s side, trying to help him to his feet. Dexter was up by then as well, surveying first his crew and then the state of the strut. Their sails were not mended and only a few minor repairs had been made. Flight was all but impossible, especially with the elemental foes above them.
He turned and saw a foul looking mist enveloping the ruins. It spread slowly, but stayed low and close to the ground. It seemed they were running out of options.
“Xander!” He snapped. “Do your thing!”
Xander came to his knees and shook his head. He saw the mist deeper in the ruins and gasped. Then he rose to his feet and swung his legs over the railing. At the last minute he grabbed the rope and slid down it, burning his hands in the process. Cursing, he ran away from the ship several dozen feet, then turned and looked at it. He paced backwards a few feet before he finally figured he was happy with his positioning.
The wizard shooed Dexter away with his hands when the man tried to approach. Dexter stood still and watched, wondering what the wizard had in mind. He was their only hope, he hated to admit.
Xander reached into a pocket and pulled out some grainy material. It was some form of crushed gemstone, Dexter knew, and probably very expensive. Xander showed no concern as he began to walk in a circle around the ship, letting a small amount of it fall to the ground behind him. He moved as quickly as he could, but still it was a painstakingly slow process. Dexter glanced up and saw the mist was spreading, overtaking the temple completely now and beginning to move beyond it.
