“Very well,” Tristan answered. “Then this is where we leave you. Good luck.”
After Tyranny tossed her cigarillo overboard, she managed to give Adrian a wry smile. “If you wreck my ships I’ll have your hide,” she said quietly. Knowing that Tyranny was only half joking, Adrian swallowed hard and nodded back.
After saying goodbye, Tristan and Tyranny walked back to their litter. Soon they were aloft and heading back to the landing site.
Taking a deep breath, Adrian worriedly scrubbed her face with her hands, then called for a messenger. The female Minion was by her side in an instant. She clicked her boot heels together.
“I live to serve,” she said.
After repeating Tristan’s orders word for word, Adrian gave the warrior a stern look.
“Relay my orders to the other three acolyte pilots,” she said. “Leave nothing out. Should the acolytes have questions, bring their inquiries to me straightaway. Be sure to follow my orders to the letter lest you be responsible for the crashing of all four Black Ships.” Adrian turned her gaze westward once more. “I doubt that the Conclave would look kindly on such a disaster,” she added sternly.
For a moment the warrior’s face blanched, but she quickly recovered. “All will be as you say,” she replied.
“Then stop wasting time staring at me,” Adrian said. “Get going.”
The warrior again clicked her boot heels together, took a few quick steps, and launched into the air. After watching her land on the deck of theEphyra, the First Sister looked west again. She hadn’t meant to be so stern with the messenger, but like Tristan and Tyranny, she was nervous. Soon her earlier thoughts about Wigg and Faegan echoed in her mind, this time with even greater concern.
I hope those sly old wizards know what they’re doing.
“Are you sure this is going to work?” Wigg asked Faegan.
To say that the First Wizard was worried would have been the grossest of understatements. Like Abbey and Faegan, he was exhausted by the long hours and the mental stress of the last few days. After boarding the litter, Abbey affectionately touched Wigg on one arm, and Faegan situated his wheeled chair to his liking. As six stout Minion warriors took the litter aloft, Faegan cradled the precious jar of subtle matter in his hands. His usually impish demeanor gone for the moment, he gave Wigg a somber look.
“Will the cradles hold?” Faegan asked. “I don’t know. But they are the least of today’s worries, for they can be fixed if need be. The truly disconcerting part will come when we try to shrink the ships.”
Pursing his lips, Faegan looked at the subtle matter trapped in the simple glass jar. “Such amazing material,” he mused. “I suspect that we have only scratched the surface of its powers. But without more help from the Ones we will never grasp its true potential.”
“I know,” Wigg answered, “and I find that thought even more worrying.”
Suddenly an old wizard’s adage sprung from Wigg’s memories. His father first spoke it to him centuries ago, long before Wigg met Failee and she started the destructive rampage that would become the Sorceresses’ War.
“Worry is much like the payment of a debt before it comes due,” his father said, “neither of which will do one any good.” For the first time today the First Wizard let go a short smile.
As Wigg looked out over the grassy fields he was again awed by the mountain of wooden crates lying nearby. The crates were chock-full of supplies, foodstuffs, potable water, and arms. Each one had been precisely weighed by the Minions and the tally given to the Conclave mystics. The job had been a massive one. Even so, given the thousands of warriors taking part, the task had been finished in less than two days.
Then the mystics had painstakingly calculated the amount of subtle matter needed to do the job. The results were discouraging, for there wasn’t enough of the amazing material to perform all sixteen transformations. Only a bit more than half of what was needed lay imprisoned in the glass jar. If the expedition to Shashida was to go forward, the plan had to be changed.
And so a compromise was agreed to. Tristan suggested that they try to miniaturize only theTammerland and theEphyra, leaving theCavalon and theIllendium in their original states. This would provide Shailiha with two ships to use as she hunted down the Viper Lord and his servants. It also meant that only two ships could try to find their way across the Azure Sea to Shashida, but that couldn’t be helped. Aside from the fact that Tristan would lead the expedition, it had yet to be determined who among the other Conclave members would accompany him.
The wizards’ plan for the ships was simple on its surface, but it would be amazingly complex in its execution. If the cradles successfully held the monstrous vessels, the warriors would then load theTammerland. The cradles had supposedly been engineered with enough strength to support the great ships even after the vessels had been loaded to their bursting points. But the mystics could not be entirely sure about that, nor could they know whether the cargoes would successfully shrink along with the ships. As the first vessel descended, Aeolus and Jessamay would be standing by to use the craft should it be needed. Once theTammerland was loaded, the next part of the great experiment could start.
Wigg looked east to see the Black Ship fleet approaching. They were wondrous things to see as their bright red images of the Paragon painted onto their huge black sails shone brightly in the sun. Wigg was proud of the acolyte pilots; they had learned to fly the Black Ships well. That’s a good thing, he realized as he watched the ships fly ever nearer. We might soon need the acolytes’ services as never before.
As the ships reached the landing area, Wigg watched their Minion crews take to the air to furl the hundreds of red and black sails. The ships then hovered in the air alongside the massive cradles, their hulls casting huge, looming shadows across the grass. Faegan shouted out an order to the Minion litter bearers. Soon the litter was also hovering just a few meters away from theTammerland ’s gunwales.
“Ahoy!” Faegan shouted at Adrian. “Is all well?”
The First Sister left her place in the bow to come and stand at the gunwale. “Yes!” she shouted back. “You may start!”
Faegan turned toward Wigg. “It’s time,” he said. After Abbey gave Wigg a supportive squeeze on his arm, the First Wizard went to stand beside Faegan. “I’m ready,” he said simply.
“Slowly release your hold over the ship!” Faegan shouted out to Adrian. “As you do, we will take control!”
“Very well!” Adrian shouted back. Grateful that her part of the process was done, the First Sister gradually retracted her power, and the two wizards took up the task.
For a few moments theTammerland rocked gently as the transfer of power was completed. Because Wigg and Faegan were both doing the job, the strain on each man was not unduly great.
Faegan looked over at Wigg. “Just as we discussed, First Wizard,” he said. “We’ll take her down nice and easy.”
As the remaining Conclave members and thousands of Minion warriors looked up in awe, the amazing process began to unfold. After Faegan carefully handed the jar to Abbey, the two wizards raised their arms.
Little by little, Wigg and Faegan caused theTammerland to float sideways to a place directly above her new cradle. Then the wizards rotated her bow due east, perfectly aligning her keel with the cradle’s spine. Soon the great ship began drifting downward. While Wigg verbally dismissed the warriors carrying the litter, he partitioned his power to take personal control over it so that its descent might more perfectly match that of the Black Ship. Seeing that the process had started, the thousands of warriors aboard theTammerland crammed up against the gunwales to watch.
Her hull creaking softly, theTammerland descended past the tops of the cradle ribs. Seeing that an adjustment needed to be made, Wigg and Faegan changed the ship’s lean slightly toward starboard. As she continued to descend, theTammerland ’s keel neared the spine of the cradle. Wigg took a deep breath. Now we shall see, he thought.
With a great creaking of her timbers theTammerland settled into her new cradle. At once the cradle leaned frighteningly toward starboard. Wigg and Faegan immediately brought the ship a few meters back up, alleviating the stress.
Jessamay, Aeolus, and several thousand warriors ran over toward the cradle’s starboard side. As the mystics helped with the craft, the warriors quickly pounded more buttress timbers into the ground and shoved them up against the cradle’s starboard ribs, returning it to the vertical. When the cradle had been righted, Wigg and Faegan allowed theTammerland to descend once more. Soon the ship’s keel was again nearing the curved
