twisting yank. After the neck vertebrae snapped, Wigg lifted the skull high and blew the dust from it.
“I beg the Afterlife,” Tyranny muttered. “Why on earth did you do that?”
“It’s just as I thought,” Wigg said, his curiosity forcing Tyranny’s question aside. Holding the skull out, he turned it to face them. As the empty eye sockets glared at them from the distant past, they looked eerie, menacing.
“Does either of you see anything unusual about this skull?” Wigg asked.
Tristan was intrigued, and he walked nearer. Therewas something unusual about it, he realized. The skull was highly elongated. He looked back into Wigg’s eyes.
“It’s oddly shaped,” he answered. “It doesn’t look entirely human.”
Just then the Minion officer neared. “This is what I was referring to earlier, Jin’Sai, ” he said. “There are many human skeletons here, and some look like this one. This armory is but one room. I can scarcely imagine what we might find if we were to search the entire ship.”
“Why does the skull look like that?” Tyranny asked. “What was wrong with him?”
Wigg smiled. “There was nothing wrong with him,” he answered, “for a Blood Stalker.”
“That’s a Blood Stalker skull?” Tyranny asked.
“Yes,” Wigg answered. “Believe me-I saw enough of them during the Sorceresses’ War to know.”
“What were Blood Stalkers doing aboard this ship?” Tristan asked.
“Serving their superior masters, I presume,” Wigg answered. “In any event, we can now be sure of at least two things. First, this stalker was named Marcus, and he held the title of Carnifex. And second, theIntrepidus was commanded by Vagaries worshippers, for only they employed Blood Stalkers.” After setting the skull down, Wigg took another look around.
“If this ship could talk, her tales would surely be fascinating,” he added softly.
Just then Tristan heard several of the Minion warriors cry out, and he turned to look. The subtle matter had returned and was flying into the armory through one of the many smashed windows lining the tilted port hull. After all of it entered the room, the amazing substance gathered itself up for a moment and hovered above the dusty weapons, armor, and skeletons. Then without warning it divided into three distinct streams, and they headed straight for Wigg, Tristan, and Tyranny.
Tristan panicked as he felt the azure matter wrap around his waist and hold him fast in its iron grip. In moments Wigg and Tyranny were similarly caught up. Before Tristan could cry out, the subtle matter stream lifted him high into the air. Wigg and Tyranny soon followed him, and the three of them could only look aghast at one another.
“Don’t fight it!” Wigg shouted as he watched the others struggle. “We have no choice but to obey! If the subtle matter wanted to kill us, we would have been dead long ago!”
Tristan started to shout out something, but before he could, the subtle matter whisked him up toward one of the smashed-out windows. Wigg and Tyranny watched in horror as the azure powder dragged Tristan out through the window. Before he knew it, Wigg was taken out the same way, followed by Tyranny.
Dazed and frightened, the wizard and the privateer soon found themselves hovering in the air by Tristan’s side, directly over the narrow channel. Tristan could hear his warriors shouting from inside the ship, and the many others still on the rocky ledge started desperately running as they tried to come to the aid of theirJin’Sai. Some took to the air in an attempt to free Tristan from the subtle matter’s grasp, but Wigg sternly ordered them back.
For several moments the three captives hung in space and looked at one another in terror, wondering what might happen next. But before Wigg could shout out another warning, he got his answer.
The three subtle matter streams spun their captives around to face the dead end. To their amazement, the edifice started to rumble and thunder, just as had the rocky walls near the sandy shore when they first rose to meet the cavern ceiling. The captives watched breathlessly as a thin azure line formed down the center of the end wall. Then the wall began to part, its divided surfaces magically receding into the side walls and sending tons of loose stone crashing down into the channel. The terrifying space in between looked pitch-black and infinite.
Suddenly an awful wind arose, its force so strong that Tristan thought it might throw theIntrepidus free of the rocky shelf and into the channel. The waves rose to many times a man’s height and swayed violently to and fro, imprisoned between the unforgiving walls. Just when Tristan thought he could take no more, a vortex suddenly appeared within the depths revealed by the parting rock walls. It reminded him of Faegan’s portal, but this could not be Faegan’s work, for it was far larger than any portal that Faegan could summon, and its color was much more dazzling.
Soon the howling wind and the whirling vortex had become so overpowering that the three prisoners blacked out. As the wind tore at them, they hung unconscious in the subtle matter’s grasp, and awaited their unknown fates.
Tristan was the first to be called. Without warning the subtle matter holding him flew directly into the depths of the whirling vortex. His arms and legs flailing in the air, Wigg soon followed. Tyranny went next. When the three were gone, the vortex disappeared and the rock walls rumbled shut, leaving no trace of what had just happened. The terrible wind died, allowing the channel waves to again find their equilibrium.
As the stunned Minions looked on, a deathly stillness crept over the channel, the rocky ledge, and the mysterious ghost ship that lay upon it.
TRISTAN AWAKENED GROGGY AND DISORIENTED. HE WASlying prone, and he had no idea how much time had passed since he had been pulled into the vortex. His vision was fuzzy and his head swam sickeningly.
Raising himself up on his elbows, he saw several figures standing before him, but their images were too hazy to distinguish. He tried to look around to find Wigg and Tyranny, but his blurred eyesight failed. He shook his head, trying to clear his vision.
Fearing that he had entered Rustannica, he sat up groggily and reached behind his right shoulder to grasp his dreggan. To his horror, he found that his sword and his throwing knives were gone. He also realized that his clothing had been changed. He now wore a dark blue silk robe wrapped oddly around his body. His knee boots were gone; in their place, thick socks and wooden thong sandals clad his feet.
“You will not need your clumsy physical weapons here in the People’s Palace, Jin’Sai, ” he heard a female voice say. “Please calm yourself. We mean no disrespect, but our magic is far more powerful than that of your Conclave mystics. You feel drugged because you are unfamiliar with our vortex. We deeply apologize for any discomfort you might have suffered, but it was the only way. The feeling will pass, and your vision will clear momentarily.”
As he tried to see through the haze, Tristan thought he saw one of the figures raise a hand and point it at him. At once his eyesight began to improve.
First the cloudiness disappeared, then his double vision cleared to reveal a scene of startling beauty. The room in which he lay was magnificent in its exotic splendor, and the woman who had just used the craft to aid his eyesight was remarkably beautiful. Her long dark hair was piled atop her head in a strikingly unusual way, and a silken robe wound around her body revealed a tantalizing hint of the graceful figure that lay beneath it. Several more women dressed the same way stood beside her, their hands folded gracefully before them.
“Who are you?” he demanded. “What have you done with my friends?”
“They are well,” the woman replied. “Because of the strength of your blood, you are the first to awaken.”
“Where am I?” he asked.
The woman bowed deeply from the waist. As she did so, the others followed suit.
“You are safe,” she answered as she remained bowed in his presence. “You are the firstJin’Sai to reach our side of the world, and your arrival has long been anticipated.”
Rising and looking into Tristan’s dark eyes, she smiled. “Welcome, Jin’Sai, ” she said. “Welcome to Shashida.”
Robert Newcomb
Rise of the Blood Royal
IV
