“How long will it take to repair the stern?” he asked.
“Your best estimate?” she asked Scars.
The giant first mate rubbed his chin, thinking. “If the wizard and sorceress can keep us continually aloft and the Minion carpenters are as good as I have heard, I would estimate about eight hours,” he answered. “It won’t be pretty, but it will hold.” He gave Wigg and Jessamay a hopeful look. “Can you two keep us flying that long?” he asked.
Jessamay gave Scars a wink. “After what we’ve just been through, that will be the easy part,” she said. “But the acolytes empowering the other ships don’t have our stamina. We will have to fly in circles above them as they sail the waves and rest. But I agree with Wigg. For the time being, let’s keep putting distance between us and what just happened!”
“Very well,” Tyranny said to Wigg. “Steer your new course south by southwest, if you please.” Then she gave him a broad smile. “I could get used to this,” she added coyly. “I rather enjoy ordering wizards around!”
Wigg grinned back at the privateer. “South by southeast it is,” he answered.
With that, Jessamay stopped augmenting Wigg’s powers. Taking up the rest of the burden so that the sorceress could rest, Wigg altered the ship’s course. The other Black Ships immediately complied.
Just then several warriors appeared. They carried Faegan in their arms. As they lowered him into his chair, Jessamay hurried over to check on him. Traax and the warriors who had been in the flooded hallway appeared, as did Adrian. The surviving warriors who had helped to pull theTammerland into the air landed back on deck.
Faegan was exhausted, soaked with seawater, and shivering. Jessamay pushed some of his long salt-and- pepper hair away from his face. Tyranny and Shailiha also hurried over. The princess lovingly took the wizard’s shaking hands into hers.
“Your plan worked,” she said. “We’re free of them!”
“So I see!” he answered, his teeth chattering. “We were fortunate! For a moment there, I thought that-”
Suddenly a torrential wind tore through the night sky, howling and shrieking, from high above. It slammed down atop the Black Ships with such force that it plunged them seaward, threatening to crash them all into the waves. Doubling his efforts, Wigg met the threat in time and righted theTammerland only meters from the sea. Wheeling around, he was relieved to see that the acolytes aboard the other vessels had been equally successful. Each ship had survived, but was now flying along at the same low altitude as theTammerland.
“What is it?” Shailiha shouted. “What caused that strange wind?”
Running to the port gunwale, Tyranny looked first toward the sea, then into the sky. Nothing seemed amiss.
“I don’t know,” she answered. “I have seen severe wind shears out here before, but nothing so powerful as that. It was almost like-”
Then the sudden wind came again, howling and thundering its way down from the heavens. This time Wigg and the acolytes were better prepared. Even so, it was all they could do to keep their ships steady, to say nothing of gaining altitude. But unlike before, this time the wind didn’t abate. It just kept coming, forcing Wigg to use all his powers to keep theTammerland under control. That was when the thunder and lightning started.
As he tried desperately to keep theTammerland steady, a terrible realization overtook the First Wizard. He looked frantically at Faegan. Silently confirming Wigg’s suspicions, Faegan nodded back darkly, then pounded the arms of his chair in frustration.
“How could I have been so blind?” he raged into the night. “We have just caused our own deaths!”
As lightning tore across the sky in unbelievable patterns and the thunder roared, the sea became illuminated like it was daytime. Thirty-foot swells started overtaking the already-treacherous Sea of Whispers, their tips smashing into the ships’ keels.
This was no sudden storm, Wigg knew. This was the craft at work, and there would be no escape from it. Nor was there time to explain it to the others. At least we were aloft and our sails were furled when it hit us, he realized. Had the ships been sailing atop the ocean, the entire fleet would be lost.
Centuries ago, the Necrophagians had been brought under thePon Q’tar ’s control by Forestallment, Wigg realized. Now that they were dead, their Necrophagians’ Forestallments were being released, just as they always were on the death of their hosts’ endowed blood. But the dead Necrophagians hadn’t been just any practitioners- they had once been members of the Ones Who Came Before-with powers to match.
Suddenly the memory of the dying sorceresses of the Coven went through Wigg’s mind. When they had perished, the release of the sorceresses’ combined Forestallments had shaken the mighty Recluse to destruction. But because of the Ones’ once far greater gifts, the First Wizard knew that what the helpless fleet was about to experience would be far worse.
Suddenly another lightning flash came, lighting up the night. He looked up in horror to see a terrible sight.
Her acolyte apparently unable to keep control, theCavalon had somehow come to a place directly above and at cross angles to theTammerland. Then the heavens let loose again, sending down another terrible blast of wind.
While Wigg watched in horror, theCavalon ’s massive hull came plummeting straight down toward theTammerland. As the flagship’s masts snapped in two like so many matchsticks against theCavalon ’s keel, all Wigg could do was to brace for the impact, and pray.
CHAPTER XLI
The Heretics are to be feared; that much shall be true for as long as the great schism between the Vigors and the Vagaries goes unhealed. But it is thePon Q’tar-in all its terrible secrecy and wonderment-that shall remain the even greater threat.
“DISMISS YOUR HANDMAIDENS,”THE VOICES CALLED OUTto Serena’s mind.“It is again time to commune with you.”
At first Serena was surprised by the voices’ sudden arrival. Then she smiled as she realized that she shouldn’t be. She had hoped that she would soon commune with the Heretics of the Guild. Ensconced as she was on this lonely island, only they could rightfully inform her of recent developments, and her hunger for news grew by the moment.
Turning, she looked at the two handmaidens. “Leave me,” she ordered. With deep bows, the women walked to the double doors and quietly showed themselves out.
As she stood alone in Clarice’s crypt, Serena obediently waited for the Heretics to address her again. It was just after dawn at the Citadel, and golden rays were starting to shine through the crypt’s angled skylights. Like every morning, fresh rose petals littered the floor, their fragrant bouquet filling the air.
Walking to the pink marble altar, she looked down into her dead daughter’s face. She gently placed one palm against the corpse’s cold cheek. Soon, she thought.
“Serena,”the voices came again.“Return your thoughts to us.”
Taking a deep breath, the Citadel queen brought her mind back to the task at hand.“I am here,” she answered.
She realized that there was something different about the voices this time. They remained a chorus of immense beauty, comprised of male and female members. But today they sounded even lovelier and more commanding.
Feeling her endowed blood rise, she found herself drawn to the voices as never before. Overcome by an irresistible sense of reverence, she went to her knees and bowed her head.
“We have news of the enemy fleet,”the voices said to her mind.“The Conclave intends to take the Citadel, and to capture you and the Vagaries scroll. We ordered the Necrophagians to destroy them. But the Vigors wizards and their sorceress are clever. Because of their meddling, the Necrophagians are dead. For centuries they were valiant
