this claustrophobic tunnel and set sail over the Azure Sea, for his destiny lay there and he would not be denied.
Wigg could sense Tristan’s restlessness to get moving, but the wizard remained apprehensive. Something tugged at his senses-something to do with the craft. The feeling had become stronger as he neared the tunnel exit. Perhaps it is the Ones’ spell, he guessed as he pondered the matter.
Wigg looked behind him to see the other Conclave members standing there. Farther down the tunnel, endless hordes of Minion warriors stood bunched together as far as the eye could see. Many more Minions still followed the trek’s strange path, their extended lines perhaps reaching as far back as the waterfall chamber.
Wigg could imagine Ox still trying to control the eager warriors with little at his command save his booming voice. Perhaps more than any of them, Ox would want to be here, standing beside hisJin’Sai. As Wigg looked down the tunnel, the millions of radiance stones in the ceiling added ghostly highlights to the warriors’ stern faces.
Tristan had been right about one thing, Wigg realized. Trying to move so many warriors through these tunnels was creating a monstrous logjam. They badly needed to exit onto the sandy beach, where everyone could get some breathing room. Still, something gnawed at the old wizard’s well-known sense of danger.
Standing just behind the Conclave, Taredd, Rhun, Arron, and Rafal had discharged their duties well and carried the two Black Ships without incident. At Wigg’s order the dark wooden crates had been set down on the tunnel floor. One crate still held the last of the precious subtle matter.
Tristan’s impatience was starting to overcome him, and he knew that Scars, Tyranny, Astrid, Phoebe, and Jessamay were also eager to walk out onto the beach. He gave Wigg a questioning look.
“Why are we waiting?” he asked. “We have arrived without difficulty. We must proceed!”
Wigg pursed his lips as he again looked out the tunnel exit. “There’s something strange out there,” he said, half to himself, “something more than the Azure Sea. There is a craft presence here that is eerily familiar yet also foreign.”
“Can you tell what it is?” Tristan asked.
Wigg shook his head. “Only that the craft is at work,” he answered.
The First Wizard glanced over Tristan’s shoulder, and he beckoned Jessamay to come forward. The sorceress squeezed through the crowd to stand with Tristan and Wigg. The First Wizard gave her a searching look.
“Do you sense anything unusual?” he asked.
Jessamay closed her eyes. When she opened them, a look of confusion crossed her face.
“I do,” she answered, “but it’s faint. How long have you sensed it?”
“For the last quarter hour,” Wigg replied.
Jessamay smiled. “Your gifts were always stronger than mine,” she said. “Had you not asked me to search it out I might have missed it altogether.”
“Can you identify it?” Wigg asked.
Jessamay narrowed her eyes while testing her gifts. “Sometimes the sensation feels like partly cloaked blood. But it changes from one moment to the next-it ebbs and flows much like the sea lying before us.”
Wigg nodded. “Exactly,” he said. “Would you care to hazard a guess about what it might be? I want us in agreement before we depart this tunnel.”
Jessamay thought for a moment. “I believe it is the spell that the Ones left behind to force the ocean sounds through these many passageways,” she finally answered. “It must be that because of the way it ebbs and flows. Otherwise I cannot say.”
Wigg again turned to look out the tunnel and toward the tempting sea. Its sounds still called to him, but now he was so close that it was impossible to say whether it was the sea that he heard, or the spell left behind by the Ones.
Jessamay must be right, he decided. Her analysis makes sense. Still…
Wigg turned to look at Rhun. “Bring me the crate containing the subtle matter,” he ordered. Rhun immediately came forward with one crate and placed it at the wizard’s feet.
“What are you doing?” Tristan asked.
“If Jessamay and I are wrong, I want the subtle matter with me,” Wigg answered. “The two ships can be replaced if need be. The subtle matter cannot.”
Wigg called the craft and pointed a bony finger at the crate. Soon the crate started to glow and the leather belts surrounding it unbuckled themselves and slumped downward. Wigg used the craft to slowly open the crate’s sides and lower them gently to the floor.
TheEphyra sat in her miniaturized cradle, still twinkling with subtle matter. By way of the craft, a glass vial containing the subtle matter had been attached to the ship’s cradle. The jar was about half full of the strange, twinkling material. Wigg reached down and freed it from its resting place.
Before his group had departed the palace, Tristan had watched as Wigg and Faegan transferred the subtle matter into the flat vial. They had then attached a stout leather cord to the vial’s top. The First Wizard now placed the cord around his neck, allowing the vial to fall to his chest, hidden beneath his gray robe. A faint outline of the vial could be seen, but it would hardly be noticed unless one knew what to look for.
Then Tristan saw something unexpected. A smaller glass vial containing still more subtle matter had been attached to the inside of the crate. Before he could ask Wigg about it, the wizard employed the craft to close and secure the crate with its leather straps.
Tristan scowled. “I saw a second vial,” he said. He turned and pointed at the other crate that stood among the warriors. “Does that crate have one inside it too?”
“It does,” Wigg answered. “Faegan and I fitted each crate with one before we left the palace.”
“Why do that?” Tyranny asked.
Wigg gave the privateer a wink. “Call them insurance,” he said simply. He then turned to face theJin’Sai. “It’s time to go,” he announced.
Tristan nodded and looked down the passageway. “Draw your swords!” he shouted.
At once the sound of several thousand Minion dreggans resounded through the tunnel, the combined ring of their blades unmistakable. Each armed Conclave member also drew his or her weapon.
“I want a group of warriors to surround the crate bearers and the Conclave members as soon as they exit the tunnel!” Tristan shouted. “Move toward the shoreline as quickly as you can! As the phalanxes grow in size I will issue further orders! Let’s go!”
Eager to be free of the oppressing tunnel, Tristan pushed past Wigg and led the way toward the exit.
UNKNOWN TO THE CONCLAVE, KHRISTOS HAD HEARDevery word.
The Viper Lord had first sensed theJin’Sai ’s supremely gifted blood nearly an hour ago, telling him that Tristan was nearing the shore. Forty minutes later, he and many of his vipers had quietly left their hiding places to flatten their bodies against the rock wall on either side of the tunnel. Its exit lay about one meter above the sandy beach and was the one from which the Vigors forces would soon spill forth to meet their deaths. Even now, more vipers slithered from other tunnels to take up places along the length of the rocky wall. When the Minions exited their tunnel they would be blindsided and slaughtered, their many comrades bunched up behind them ensuring that retreat would be impossible.
As Khristos stood eagerly waiting beside the tunnel exit, he called on the craft to linger over the great quality of theJin’Sai ’s endowed blood and listen to every spoken word. The sea waves crashed against the shore, and the beach lay pristine and unbloodied. But not for much longer, he thought.
For a moment he was tempted to simply stand before the tunnel entrance and loose bolt after bolt into it, killing as many Vigors worshippers as he could. Because of the enclosed space, he would surely destroy many of them. But he could not know whether Tristan, the two Black Ships, or the subtle matter were positioned farther down the length of the tunnel. If so, they all might escape. And so he waited patiently, determined to kill his enemies one by one as they exited the tunnel into which he had so cleverly lured them. Gripping his silver staff tighter, he held it steady alongside the rock wall, eagerly awaiting his prey. His enemies wouldn’t know what hit them.
Then he heard Tristan give his order to take the beach.
HAD TRISTAN’S GIFT OFK’SHARINOT SUDDENLY WARNEDhim of the impending danger, he would surely have died.
