Just as the ship leveled she hit hard and her metal keel plowed a gouge in the earth. As theTammerland skidded dangerously across the bloody grass, Shailiha and some of the acolytes were thrown to the floor. Straining with everything they had, Wigg and Adrian managed to take the violently weaving ship skyward again.
Azure bolts rained down with greater ferocity, and the ship suffered another direct hit, forcing her to rock sickeningly. Tristan heard a mast crash down atop the deck above. Then another mast crashed, this one landing atop the bow area. To his horror, he suddenly smelled smoke. He spun around to see a dark plume drifting down through the damage that had opened up in the deck above, and he knew.
The sizzling azure bolts had set theTammerland afire. But with no warriors stationed topside, little could be done about it. Acrid smoke poured into the room, and everyone started coughing. The acolytes were able to use the craft and rid the room of smoke. But the fires above had already become so intense that there was little the women could do about them.
Coughing violently, Tristan helped Shailiha stand, then looked out the starboard window. So many azure bolts were raining down that they seemed to crowd out the sky, and they thundered into the earth in such numbers that the air was literally filled with smoke, flying dirt, and clumps of sod. Tristan strained his eyes to look at the Recluse. Wigg had them dead on course again, and the blazingTammerland was picking up speed.
Then another bolt hit the flagship, nearly throwing Tristan and Shailiha to the floor. TheTammerland ’s groaning timbers and the fire raging topside made him wonder what was keeping her together. He helped his sister to her feet.
Tristan looked toward the Recluse again. The time had come. He turned toward the waiting acolytes.
“Now!” he shouted. “You must do it now!”
The acolytes immediately called the craft and joined their powers. Raising their arms, they sent azure beams forward to fortify the bow joint where the port and starboard walls met. As the beams saturated the walls and their connecting joint, the black exterior of the ship’s bow started to glow with an icy blue.
Tristan snapped his head around to look out the starboard window again. As the ship closed on the Recluse, he nodded to Tyranny. She quickly gazed over Wigg’s shoulder to help him stay on course while the wizard strained to give the vessel every last bit of speed.
“Come five degrees to port!” she screamed. His muscles nearly cracking, Wigg steered a course correction.
“Too far!” Tyranny shouted. “Come back two degrees!”
A sense of helplessness gripped Tristan as he realized that he no longer controlled the situation. Now everything depended on Wigg, Tyranny, and the acolytes. Wrapping one arm around Shailiha, he grabbed a wall cleat and braced himself. He looked out the window again. The great ship was still dead on course and gaining speed.
“Steady!” he heard Tyranny shout. Amid all the noise and explosions, her voice might as well have been a distant whisper. “Steady…”
Forty meters to the Recluse, Tristan guessed. Thirty, twenty, ten…
With a massive crash, Wigg set theTammerland down directly atop the stone bridge spanning the muddy lake bed. Sparks flew from her metal-lined keel as she screeched agonizingly against the rough stones and tore across the bridge toward the Recluse.
In a massive explosion of wood and iron, theTammerland ’s bow plowed straight into the Recluse drawbridge.
Everyone was thrown to the floor as the fortified bow smashed through the wooden drawbridge, obliterating it. As the ship jammed her bow through the stone drawbridge arch, her abrupt stop brought her stern into the air. Then her keel crashed back down atop the wide bridge in a cacophony of broken wood, split stone, and mortar dust. Tristan held his breath as he wondered whether the bridge would hold the ship’s weight. It did. But with no cradle in which to rest, she would soon heel over to port or starboard on her deeply curved hull. If she rolled too far, all could be lost.
Tristan scrambled to his feet and ran to his window. His plan had worked! TheTammerland ’s bow had obliterated the raised drawbridge, and it protruded deeply though the stone archway that had once surrounded it.
Suddenly theTammerland started to heel far to port. With her bow still held fast by the archway, it was being literally twisted away from the ship’s hull. As her massive black timbers groaned and snapped, the room holding Tristan and his group started to drunkenly roll. In mere seconds theTammerland would break away from her bow altogether, heel all the way over, and tumble off the bridge. Tristan frantically turned to look at Wigg and the acolytes.
“Now!” he screamed. “Bring her about!”
Wigg and the women raised their hands again. While azure bolts continued to rain down and fires still raged topside, they struggled with all their might to free the ship. To his delight, Tristan suddenly felt theTammerland right herself and move astern. With a great wrenching sound, she freed her bow from the stone archway. As the ship retreated, the archway lintel and parts of its surrounding walls fell in, accompanied by shards of black, battered wood.
At once Wigg and the acolytes rotated their arms, and the massive ship pivoted in the air to again land atop the bridge. But this time her stern faced the castle. Tristan felt her settle; then he heard the huge stern door drop open and his fighters start charging off the vessel.
Tristan ran to take Adrian by the shoulders. “You know your orders!” he shouted. “You must stay aboard and keep theTammerland balanced on the bridge until everyone is off! Then get out of here! After that, if you have no choice but to let her tumble onto the lake bed, do it!”
“I will!” Adrian shouted. “And good luck!”
Tristan and the others left the room to go charging down the hallway. They finally reached the stern stairway and ran down to theTammerland ’s lowest deck.
By the time they reached the stern launching area, pandemonium reigned. Just outside the lowered hatch, azure bolts were exploding everywhere, and warriors and red envelopers were crisscrossing the air between the ship and the castle. Minions by the hundreds were hurtling themselves off the hatchway deck, trying to get airborne. Struck down by azure bolts or quickly seized by envelopers, many died before they could snap open their wings. Angry shrews prowled the muddy lake bottom, greedily feeding on fallen warriors both living and dead. So many screams cut through the air that they combined to form an uninterrupted cry of anguish.
Tristan stared out the hatchway to see the remains of the drawbridge archway. Behind him, hundreds of mounted highlander horsemen waited for the first waves of warriors to clear a path so that they could charge across the bridge and into the Recluse. But shrews by the hundreds stood in their way atop the bridge, fighting the Minions and making an advance impossible.
When the warriors realized that theirJin’Sai had arrived, they quickly cleared a pathway for Tristan and his group. They soon reached the stern hatchway. Just meters away, shrews, envelopers, and Minions were dying in droves as the terrible battle seesawed back and forth atop the bridge and smoke-filled air. As his hand closed tighter around his dreggan, Tristan searched the sky.
Where are you? his heart begged. We need you now!
Just then the sky went black as the keels of the other three Black Ships loomed overhead. With the acolytes aboard them empowering the vessels, Faegan, Jessamay, and Aeolus were finally free to do some death-dealing of their own.
At once azure bolts tore from gunwales of the Black Ships to strike the Recluse. Following Tristan’s orders, the acolytes were keeping their ships high. This meant that the only targets Serena’s consuls had were the ships’ keels, while the wizards and the sorceress rained destruction from above.
Azure bolts tore into the guard paths lining the tops of the castle’s red-stained walls. Parts of the barbicans exploded, bringing screaming consuls down with them. Many were on fire as they fell to the mud and the floor of the inner ward. Then more bolts rained down, this time tearing into the herds of shrews barring the castle side of the bridge. Shrews and warriors alike exploded and blew skyward. Tristan mourned the warriors, but he knew that their deaths couldn’t be helped. Soon a gap in the fighting opened up, allowing a brief window of opportunity to cross the bridge and storm into the Recluse. Refusing to wait any longer, Tristan turned around to look searchingly at the women he cared so much about. Then he turned to Wigg.
“Watch over them,” he said.
