As he wondered how many loyal warriors had survived the beach only to be boiled alive in the sky and on the sea, Tristan’s stomach turned over. Soon the smell of cooked flesh reached his nostrils to confirm his fears. Then he heard more horrible screaming and saw hundreds of Minion corpses, their dark silhouettes barley visible in the fog, tumbling downward and splashing into the sea.
“Higher, Ox!” Tristan screamed, desperately hoping that the heat would dissipate with more altitude. “You must take us higher!”
Straining with everything he had, Ox angled upward and his strong wings started to climb. Tristan’s skin burned and there was so much hot water running into his eyes that he could hardly see. He knew that unless Ox soon climbed out of the steamy fog, the end would be near for them, too.
Just then Ox broke through the rising water vapor to find clear air. Desperately wiping the water from his face and eyes, Tristan ordered Ox to fly in a circle and search for the ships.
Soon the terrible geysers stopped, and the water vapor began to dissipate. The prince looked down to see the azure waves littered with bobbing Minion corpses, sometimes grouping like tiny dark islands adrift on a sea of death. Then through a break in the parting clouds Tristan saw theTammerland. He pointed to the ship and Ox immediately understood. Diving through the rent in the superheated fog, they plummeted toward the flagship.
As they neared theTammerland, Tristan was relieved to see most of the heated fog diffusing and some of the Conclave members gathered on the bow deck. The ship was covered with hot seawater, its main deck still steaming in the gradually lessening heat. Ox set Tristan down atop the slick deck and theJin’Sai immediately ran over to where Wigg stood at the starboard gunwale.
“What’s our situation?” Tristan demanded.
When the First Wizard turned around he looked hunched and frail. He stared at Tristan without seeing him, his aquamarine eyes glassy and unfocused. Tears streamed down his cheeks.
“I should have known,” he said faintly. “Jessamay and I knew that it felt like cloaked blood…so many warriors dead, Jessamay hurt, and it’s all my fault…how could I have been so blind…then the geysers came…so many more died…the water is full of bodies…”
Tristan grabbed the wizard by the shoulders and shook him roughly.
“Wigg!” he shouted. “Take hold of yourself! I must know our situation!”
With Tristan’s commanding voice ringing in his ears, the First Wizard seemed to partly regain his focus. His skin, hair, and robe were steaming and soaked through, telling Tristan that the wizard had nearly been killed. He collected himself, then he wiped the tears from his face.
“We have lost many warriors,” he said, “not just to the vipers but also to the terrible geysers. But the geysers have stopped, and it seems that the man-serpents will not swim into the superheated sea. Aside from Jessamay, the other Conclave members were not badly hurt.”
Tristan let go of Wigg and he took a quick look around.
Jessamay lay unconscious atop a Minion stretcher, being tended to by anxious warrior-healers. She was scalded and soaked, and her injuries appeared severe. Parts of her body could be seen here and there through ragged burn holes in her drenched doublet, boots, and breeches.
Tyranny stood nearby with an open wine bottle in one hand and a smoldering cigarillo dangling between her lips. She too was soaked, her dark hair matted. Her sword, its hilt stained with viper blood, lay sheathed on her hip. She said nothing as she looked into Tristan’s eyes, then lifted the bottle to take another long slug. Her left hand was bleeding, but she ignored it; viper blood covered much of her clothing. Scars stood behind her, his torso and trousers also smeared with viper blood and offal.
Tristan turned back to face Wigg. As he did so, he saw thousands of warriors winging their way back to the Black Ships. Many were so tired and injured that they were crash-landing onto the decks.
“What caused the geysers?” theJin’Sai shouted.
The First Wizard drunkenly shook his head. “I don’t know,” he answered. “I’ve never seen their like. Perhaps the release of the subtle matter caused them…”
“Where are Phoebe and Astrid?” Tristan demanded.
“They’re here aboard theTammerland, awaiting further orders,” Wigg answered weakly. “They are exhausted but unhurt. We cannot fly the ships out of here, Tristan. We are too exhausted, and Jessamay is unconscious.” Then Wigg finally managed a short smile. “But the wind is good,” he added.
Heartened that all the Conclave members had survived, Tristan returned Wigg’s smile, then affectionately placed one hand atop the wizard’s shoulder.
“You did the right thing by sending Ox to me,” he said. “Had we not retreated when we did, we might have lost everyone.”
Tristan turned to look across the waves. The sea had calmed and the fog was gone, but the water still steamed. Thousands of Blood Vipers still congregated at the shoreline, hissing and writhing about each other in an orgy of victory. The sight incensed Tristan, enticing him to return to the bloody beach and kill them all. He turned to again look at Wigg.
“Those monsters are under the control of a hideous-looking Vagaries wizard,” he said. “He seems to have been morphed by the craft for some reason. I had two chances to kill him but I failed.”
Wigg nodded. “Khristos,” he said.
“You know him?” Tristan asked.
Wigg nodded. “He is a dark part of my past-the past that I foolishly thought I had forever left behind. But even now Failee’s deeds continue to rear their ugly heads.” Tired and shaking, Wigg looked at Tristan with worried eyes.
“Khristos is a powerful Vagaries wizard,” he said, his eyes going glassy again. “He must be dealt with decisively…it seems that the craft has changed his appearance, but I recognized him just the same…Shailiha must be told about…”
Just then Wigg’s aquamarine eyes rolled back and he fainted away. Tristan caught him and handed him over to Ox. The huge warrior lifted Wigg into both arms as though he weighed nothing.
No sooner had Ox taken up Wigg than another unsettling sound tore through the cavern. Tristan wheeled around, looking and listening. This time the noise was different. Not only was the sea roiling again, but the entire subterranean cavern was shaking violently, and the rumbling sound grew louder by the second.
On and on the terrible rumbling came, causing the swelling waves to crash against the ships’ gunwales and once again put them in danger of capsizing. Tristan lost his footing on the slick deck, and only by grabbing some rigging did he keep from tumbling overboard into the deadly sea.
Tristan looked across the deck. “Tyranny!” he shouted.
The privateer and her first mate were already struggling to reach him, but the going was hard. Without warning another terrifying manifestation of the craft appeared.
On either side of the ships, two giant dark walls started rising from the depths. They nearly scraped the ships’ sides as they came roaring upward. Tristan, Tyranny, and Ox could only stand and watch, bewitched by what they saw.
The craggy rock walls rose straight up past the ships, thundering so loudly that Tristan thought his eardrums might burst. Their flat tops stretching for endless leagues, higher and higher they rose until they neared the ceiling, thousands of yards above. On reaching the ceiling, their flat tops ground agonizingly against the radiance stones. Tons of rock debris came crashing down into the sea, narrowly missing the ships and sending plumes of water high into the air. Then everything went deathly still.
Tyranny and Scars carefully made their way across the slick deck to stand beside Tristan. At first not one of them could speak, stunned as they were by the amazing sight.
The two Black Ships lay trapped in a narrow channel of aquamarine water that stretched away into infinity. The black rock walls loomed up from the channel on either side like dark giants waiting to crush the vessels between them. Sharp and forbidding, they seemed to stretch away forever on either side of the slim waterway.
As the channel water calmed and slapped gently against the ship’s sides, Tristan collected his senses and looked around. Ahead could be seen only the limitless expanse of the tunnel-like channel. Behind them lay the viper-infested beach. The ceiling radiance stones lying trapped between the opposing rock walls provided bright, constant light.
As the last of the rubble broke free and tumbled into the channel, the rock walls settled and the wind calmed.
