pounded his fists against the sides of the litter.
Worse, Shailiha still lay unconscious in his lap, her fragile soul barely clinging to her wounded body. If she didn’t receive treatment soon, the venom coursing through her bloodstream would surely kill her. Even so, Faegan didn’t dare hurry her into the Redoubt for fear that the palace had also been overrun.
Then they saw theIllendium hovering in the air, and even from this distance they could see that it was filled with Blood Vipers. With one Black Ship taken and the other destroyed, the Conclave’s ability to defeat Khristos would be drastically weakened-perhaps to the point that the Viper Lord could savage all of Eutracia at will. The death and destruction that he could cause with even one Black Ship at his command, while the Conclave had none with which to counter him, would be unstoppable.
As Khristos’ next bolt struck the hull of theCavalon, Faegan started to doubt his assumptions about what the Viper Lord was trying to accomplish. Trying to destroy a Black Ship with azure bolts could be done, but it would take a long time-more time than Khristos had available. And then Faegan understood fully. Khristos was trying to set theCavalon ablaze. Shouting out to the Minions, he beseeched them to fly faster and take him within range of the Viper Lord.
Seeing the Minion forces cross before the three magenta moons, Khristos cursed, then loosed another bolt against the mighty ship. The first two had been largely ineffective, but the third highly concentrated beam sent against the same spot finally sent wood shards flying from theCavalon ’s starboard side, and smoke started drifting into the air from the jagged wound that had formed. Khristos had little time before the enemy would be on him, and he knew that he must work fast if he and his vipers were to escape in theIllendium. He quickly backed away from the ship to gain a different perspective.
Khristos pointed his staff directly at theCavalon ’s mainmast. At once her furled sails were set free and went tumbling down. Knowing that the sails were far more vulnerable to fire than were the ship’s timbers, he loosed a narrow bolt from his staff to thunder straight toward the exposed mainsail. At once it burst into flames, then started setting fire to the others around it.
Laughing into the night, Khristos caused all the other sails to come rolling down and quickly set fire to them as well. Returning his attention to the smoldering hole in theCavalon ’s starboard hull, he quickly loosed bolt after bolt against it, finally setting it ablaze. But just as he was about to join theIllendium and fly her away, the litter bearing Faegan and Aeolus appeared in the night sky. Soaring toward theIllendium, the Conclave wizards seemed determined to stop her from escaping before attacking Khristos or trying to save the burningCavalon.
Knowing that he could not defeat both wizards at once, Khristos cursed aloud. He realized that if he was to escape with theIllendium, his best course would be to board her quickly and spirit her away. While theCavalon burned, Khristos quickly made for the riverbank.
As they neared theIllendium, Faegan and Aeolus understood the unfolding disaster all too well. TheCavalon was burning, and their badly outnumbered and exhausted Minions couldn’t retake theIllendium without suffering unacceptable losses. Cursing his decision to leave half the warriors behind in the center of Tammerland, Faegan looked at Aeolus.
“If we deal with theIllendium first, do you believe that we can then save theCavalon from destruction?” he shouted.
As the fires raged aboard theCavalon, Aeolus anxiously tried to decide. He desperately wanted to save the burning ship, but the threat from the viper-ladenIllendium was great. If theIllendium turned to attack the palace, the vipers aboard might well take it. Of equal worry, the ghostlike Viper Lord might escape them yet again. While Traax and the throngs of exhausted warriors hovered alongside the wizards’ litter, they desperately hoped for an order that would send them to attack the vile creatures that had commandeered theIllendium.
“Perhaps!” he shouted back at Faegan. “With Shailiha incapacitated, you are in command! What are your orders?”
Faegan decided that there was but one course of action. It was drastic, and once he set the needed spell into motion there could be no going back. Clearly the vipers must be dealt with first, and in a way that would cost the fewest Minion lives. The Conclave could continue battling Khristos without the Black Ships, but not without enough warriors. His mind made up, he looked at Aeolus.
“I’m going to call the spell!” he shouted. “There seems no other choice!”
Aeolus gave Faegan a grim look, then nodded. Harsh as the crippled wizard’s decision was, Aeolus could also see no other way.
“Very well!” he shouted back. “But you must allow me and the warriors to start trying to save theCavalon! If the fires advance farther we will surely lose her!”
“I understand!” Faegan shouted back.
Looking over at Traax, Faegan barked out a series of sharp orders. Unable to believe what he just heard, Traax gave Faegan a searching look.
“You want us toretreat?” he demanded. “But the enemy hovers directly before us. They’retaunting us to attack! I beg you to let us finish this here and now!”
“No-you will follow my orders!” Faegan angrily shouted back. “There are not enough of you to win, and Khristos knows it! Take Aeolus into your arms and then order all your forces to obey him! You must do your best to save theCavalon! Leave only my litter bearers behind! You are to also order a patrol into the palace to see if it is safe! If so, the princess must be immediately taken to the Redoubt!”
Although he could not fathom Faegan’s logic, Traax had no option but to obey. “I live to serve!” he shouted. Scooping Aeolus up in his arms, the Minion commander shouted a series of orders to his troops, and they all flew toward the strickenCavalon as fast as their wings could take them.
Left hovering in the night air with only Shailiha and his litter bearers, Faegan looked across the night sky toward theIllendium. Soon after the discovery of the subtle matter and the decision that two of the Black Ships would try to sail across the Azure Sea and find Shashida, Tristan had insisted that his Conclave mystics combine their knowledge to devise a unique spell-one he hoped he would never be forced to use. Even so, he ordered that it be infused into every Black Ship and readied for immediate use should their path lead them to Rustannica and thePon Q’tar rather than to Shashida and the Ones. It was that same spell that Faegan would now be forced to call forth. It remained untested, for summoning it successfully would have produced the direst of consequences. As he hardened his heart, Faegan raised his arms.
Summoning all his power, he recalled the elegant series of calculations. Straining and shaking, he finally loosed the spell that had been laid deep into the age-old timbers of theIllendium.
The resulting explosion seemed to tear apart the heavens. Bursting from the inside out, every rib, beam, mast, spar, and other bit of wood that was theIllendium ruptured mightily in a massive azure detonation of the craft. As the shock wave and debris reached Faegan’s litter, for several awful moments the wizard was sure that the warriors bearing it would lose their grip. Yet despite the awful concussion, the warriors held fast.
When the great ship exploded, so too did every Blood Viper aboard her. Soon blood and bits of flesh rained down, and Faegan, Shailiha, their litter, and the warriors bearing it were covered with the awful stuff. Leaving behind no surviving part of theIllendium larger than a matchstick, the cacophony finally subsided as tons of debris fell to the ground. As the smoke cleared and the Minion bearers regained control of the litter, only the nighttime sky remained where the mightyIllendium had hovered moments before.
Lowering his hands, Faegan sadly looked around. The enchantment for theIllendium ’s self-destruction had worked well. Although he had killed every Blood Viper aboard her, he felt little sense of accomplishment. Shouting out a new set of orders, he told his bearers to take him and Shailiha to the palace as quickly as he could.
From his place by the river’s edge, Khristos watched the unexpected explosion with mixed emotions. He had lost many vipers this night, and he had failed to take theIllendium for his own. But the Conclave he so hated had lost much more. Many of their warriors had been slaughtered; one Black Ship was destroyed, and fires still raged aboard the other. Had he also known that the woundedJin’Saiou lay near death, he would have judged the night a near total success. Smiling, he walked down the riverbank and entered the Sippora to join the rest of his forces waiting downstream.
Moments later he was gone.
CHAPTER XXXVI
