The Gods Awaken

must be off to find the king his heads.'

Another bow. 'With your permission, of course.'

Olaf made a weak-fingered wave, babbling, 'Yes, yes. You must not tarry. You have the king's commission!'

Tabusir strolled away, leaving a group of very shaken officers in his wake.

He looked up at the clearing skies, thinking, What an excellent day this has turned out to be.

In his mother's quarters, Rhodes was thinking the same thing as Clayre made an apology so rare that no matter how hard he racked his brains, he couldn't recall another such incident.

'I humbly beg your pardon, my son,' she said, 'for being the cause of our quarrel. You were right to worry about the mural and I should have listened to your concerns.'

Rhodes was about to press his advantage and make her grovel more before accepting her apology, but Kalasariz hissed a warning and he thought better of it.

'It's a thing of the past, mother,' he said, forcing magnanimity. 'We'll not speak of it again.'

He paused, giving Kalasariz time to suggest how to proceed. Then he said, 'Have you figured out how the mural disappeared from your chambers, mother?'

Clayre sighed. 'I'm afraid not, my son,' she said. 'Nor do I know how it came into Safar Timura's possession, much less how he managed to use it against us.'

She raised a golden wine cup to her beautiful lips and drank sparingly. Then she said, 'The trouble is that the mural was there for so long that I'd quite forgotten it. Oh, I had heard stories. Stories that I believed were myths. That the mural depicted the first great king of Syrapis and his daughters. One taleteller even had it that the king portrayed was the grandfather of Alisarrian.'

Clayre took another sip of wine. After a moment of reflection, she said, 'Although I thought these tales were only myths, I must have sensed some truth in them. For it is the only one of the ancient murals in my chambers that I did not use or alter in any way for my magical purposes. And although it does not excuse my forgetfulness, it does explain why I put it from my mind.'

The Queen Witch placed the goblet down quite firmly, her eyes growing fierce. Her fabulous looks so intensified by the emotions roiling within that even Rhodes was stricken by his mother's beauty.

'But I promise you this, my son,' she said. 'Before this journey is done I will find a way either to nullify the power of the mural or use it to use it our own advantage.'

Both Rhodes and Kalasariz were relieved to hear this. 'Do you think we can continue the expedition with some hope of success?' the king asked.

'Without a doubt,' Clayre said.

Then she waved at her gilded table, where the map was still pinned against the tiles by the four black candles. The replica of the Nepenthe now sitting a few hair's breadths from the coast of Aroborus.

'I can also report that our efforts were not completely unsuccessful,' she said.

Rhodes looked carefully at the scene and gradually he detected slight movements in the ship. A little fluttering of the sails. An almost imperceptible pitch and roll of the hull. Then he realized that the ship was not quite touching the parchment of the map. And that it actually rested on seas so faint that a flicker of the eye would make them vanish.

'The last time,' Clayre said, 'my only mistake was that I tried to interfere. It was Jooli's fault, really.

Honestly, that girl could drive the most patient of people mad. Still, I shouldn't have tried to kill her.

That's what alerted Safar Timura to our presence.'

Again, she raised the chalice and sipped. And she said, 'I won't make that same mistake again. As you can see, I've got a very weak spell working for us now. One that's impossible for our enemies to detect and yet we'll still be able to follow them.'

'That's certainly good to hear, mother,' Rhodes said. 'But don't we still have the problem of catching them? I mean, our delaying tactics didn't work, correct?'

Clayre smiled, her perfect features glowing with delight. 'Actually, they worked quite well,' she said.

'Naturally, it would've been nice if we could have ended the race quickly by killing them. On the other hand, we've accomplished the next best thing.'

'Which is?' Rhodes asked.

The Queen Witch's lovely smile twisted into an ugly, gloating expression.

'Which is that they've lost that little bastard, Palimak,' she said. 'He fell off the ship and fools that they are, they're searching for him now.'

She pointed at the miniature Nepenthe, which had moved half an inch down the coast of Aroborus.

'If the winds stay with us,' she said, 'we ought to catch them within a week!'

The prospect of victory excited Rhodes. But the hope that Palimak might be dead made him positively tingle.

But then Kalasariz spoke, his mental whispers dousing Rhodesa€™ joy as effectively as a large pail of cold water. He said, Remember, we need the boy's body. Just as we require Safar Timura's.

Otherwise you will not achieve your dream of taking their powers to overwhelm yourenemies- especially your mother.

The king's mouth went dry. He grabbed up the wine flask and drank down half its contents. His mother observed this with barely concealed disgust.

'But what if he has drowned, mother?' he asked, voice thinning with tension. 'What if he fell into the sea and sank to the bottom? That'll do us no good!'

'Corpses don't sink, they float,' she said. 'And if he floats, I'll find him, never fear. And if he didn't drown…'

She paused, turning to gaze upon the Nepenthe with eyes as fierce as a demon's.

'If Palimak didn't drown,' she said, picking up where she'd left off, 'by the time I'm done with him he'll curse the gods he holds most holy for sparing him from the sea!'

CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO

EEDA'S SECRET

Coralean had never felt so sick in his life. From the shelter of the bridge he could see the storm-driven waves boom under the Tegula, lifting her up, up, up, then dropping her down so far his stomach thought it had found a new home, lodged at the back of his throat.

Torrents of rain lashed the ship in a never-ending fury. Great seas burst over the sides, flooding the decks until they were waist-high and the men had to go about their duties with safety lines tied about their waists.

Captain Drakis checked the sails with a critical eye to make certain there was just enough canvas spread, but not too much. Then he studied the compass heading and nodded in satisfaction.

'She's right on course, me lord,' he said. 'Lucky thing we caught this storm. If she holds, we'll cut the lead that scurvy dog Rhodes has over us by half or more.'

Coralean gulped back bile and forced a smile. 'Surely the gods must love the name of Drakis,' he said with false cheer. 'Considering the bonus I'll be blessing you with when we overhaul the king.'

'Aye, that be the truth, me lord,' Drakis replied. 'Luck's favored the Drakis family far back as even me granny can remember. Even when we was lubbers not one of us ever went hungry more'n a day or three.

'Just when we'd be down to thinkina€™ old boot leather'd make a lovely meal, the gods'd send along a drunk with a fat purse and a skinny neck, if ya know what I mean.'

Coralean's stomach did a somersault that was only partially inspired by the heaving deck. Seasick as he was,