She turned and finished her spell, sending a concussive bolt of thunder through its body. It convulsed, paying no attention as Raidon leaned down, cradled the creature's head between his arms, and squeezed.
The gray's eyes bulged as its breath stopped. A few moments later, it lolled, dead or unconscious. Either way, it was out of the fight.
The chill of her redirected spell released its clutch. Seren rubbed her hands together and blew on them. Tiny pins stuck her extremities as hints of feeling returned.
Two slaads remained, a gray and a red. Thoster and a few of his crew had formed a defensive line on the forecastle. With axes, sabers, scimitars, and the captain's clicking sword, it seemed Green Siren might actually turn the tide.
The red slaad was on the forecastle stairs, face to face with the captain. Thoster bore several deep claw wounds down the left side of his face and chest. He grinned as if he was having the time of his life.
Raidon took the stairs on the forecastle three at a time. His last step was a leap that put his foot into the small of the red's back. The monster stumbled under the blow. Thoster advanced a half step and pushed his sword into the creature's chest. It croaked, a sound charged with supernatural terror.
The crew, Thoster, and even Raidon paused in the face of the fearful sound, giving the monster the space it required to bounce straight up. It caught the mainmast crossbeam high over its head.
Seren was close enough to hit it with another volley of thunder. The red, still croaking, managed to retain its grip on the crossbeam. It swung itself in a great arc away from the ship and dived. Before it hit the water, it winked out of existence. Seren saw the telltale gleam of an arcane translocation.
The last gray tried to flee like its larger cousin, but it was not quite so resilient to Seren's spells. She caged it in a field of flickering fire, one specifically designed to anchor creatures in space. The captain, the monk, and the rest of the crew made short work of it, and its life was spilled out in stinking streaks of green and red.
Silence stretched into the aftermath for several heartbeats.
A tumult of voices went up as the crew checked to see who had survived the onslaught. A few called for a victory party.
Captain Thoster roared, "Secure the ship! What're you doing standing around jawing? Make sure there ain't more overgrown frogs hopping around down in the hold. Get this mess shipshape and see to the wounded. Then we celebrate. Tonight, triple rum rations!"
Men and women scattered to do Thoster's bidding, their fear and concern washed away by the captain's promise.
Seren wondered at the promise of rum, if it was so potent, perhaps she should avail herself of some too.
"And call the healer," demanded the captain. He held his rent shirt close around his chest as if to hide the extent of the wounds down his torso.
A fellow crawled up from the hold with a pouch. From it he produced a vial. "Restorative, sir," he said. "We're running low, I'm afraid. This is the last." Thoster took it and glanced at Seren and Raidon. "Each of us should take one swig. We should be at the top of our game before we begin the expedition." The captain handed the vial to the monk.
Raidon nodded and took a small sip. The wizard wasn't certain she could detect any change in the man.
When the vial passed to her, she took a large mouthful. Like ice water on a blazing day, the fluid cooled her mouth and throat. Scrapes, pulls, and pains she hadn't even realized she bore faded.
Captain Thoster finished the last of the fizzing blue liquid. The most serious cut, the one running down his face from his left eye to under his jawbone, slowly faded, leaving behind only the faintest of white lines to mark it.
"Seren," said the captain, as he dropped the empty vial. "What happened, if you don't mind my asking?"
She pushed away her thoughts of the slaad and sighed. "I warned you other things out of the Elemental Chaos might slip through when I summoned the gleamtails."
She raised her hand in a wide showman's gesture. Like stars over the world that had lost their way, myriad points of light swirled around the ship. Each one was a fishlike creature of the Chaos. Each gleamed its own hue, and among them some shone emerald, sapphire, and amethyst.
Seren continued, "And knowing that, I warned you both to be ready. The way I see it, events occurred as I predicted. Except now that I think on it, I didn't see either of you on deck as I finished the ritual. Perhaps if you'd been around, we could have prevented the creatures from crossing over in the first place."
Thoster's brow furrowed in thought.
"Seren," said Raidon as he watched the crew attend to the needs of the ship and the wounded.
"Yes?"
"Now that the gleamtails are here, how do we proceed?" His eyes, black as the depths of the sea, turned their regard on her.
She wasn't ready to move on. "And where were you when I finished my ritual? You're the reason we're putting ourselves at such risk."
Raidon replied, "You're right, Seren. Please forgive me. My thoughts were elsewhere. I hope my lapse didn't cause you any lasting harm." He didn't look away as he spoke.
Seren had expected some sort of excuse or defense. She was put off by the simple apology. This one saw the world differently than most, that was certain. She wasn't sure she liked it. Maybe he thought his example would move her to apologize for not disclosing her time with the Red Wizards.
"Well," broke in Thoster, "I wasn't on deck because I have a ship to run. I guess I figured your warning was more for form than anything else. From now on, Seren, if you say jump, I'll ask how high."
Seren felt her mouth quirk toward a smile. The captain had that effect on her sometimes. Her defensive anger began to drain.
The captain continued, "What say we give this expedition a day before we start? I could-"
Raidon said, "Thoster, time is precious. We must find Xxiphu. We must quell what is likely waking even as we speak."
The sword on Raidon's back shifted, giving voice to a low, whispery tone, as if agreeing with its master.
The captain's grin dissolved.
"Xxiphu won't wait for us," said the monk.
Thoster raised one hand in a placatory gesture. His other still held the rents of his clawed garments closed.
"Hold on! I ain't backing out. I just want to give everyone a chance to be at their best. Me especially."
Raidon said, "Now is the time. We should begin our journey down." He nodded up at the gleamtails swarming around the ship's periphery. "Are we ready?"
Seren took a deep breath. Though the slaads' attack had rattled her, they hadn't disrupted the ritual. The gleamtails were present and keyed to Green Siren. Thanks to her.
She nodded. "Yes, we're ready. The magic is set. It should last a tenday at minimum. And you're right-the sooner we start, the longer the trip we can make. It wouldn't do for the school to break up while we're still below. The ship and all aboard would be crushed to flinders quicker than it takes to describe."
Raidon said, "That's a risk I am willing to take."
Thoster made a choking sound. Seren frowned.
She wondered if the half-elf had a death wish. Being crushed was not a risk she was willing to take. Which was why she'd modified the ritual even more than she'd described to Raidon. If the gleamtail jack school broke up prematurely, Seren had the option of bodily returning with them to the Chaos. Not the safest escape hatch, but far superior to staying behind in a ship suddenly unprotected from the weight of a continent.
She cleared her throat and motioned to Raidon. "Stand here in the center of the circle, where I've marked. This is the focus of the ritual. From here you can direct the school."
"Anyone can command the gleamtails?" wondered Thoster.
She swept her hand to include herself, Raidon, and the captain and said, "I've crafted the rite so any one of us can control the route the school swims, so long as we stand in the circle. It's as simple as thinking of a direction.
The school should respond "
/> The monk looked to Captain Thoster. "Are you ready?"
The captain stroked his chin a moment but nodded. He said, "We were ready to depart before. Same holds true now, despite that we lost a few good crew."
Raidon entered the circle scribed on the deck. His brow creased. The gleaming creatures surrounding Green Siren startled, but remained in the spherical pattern around the ship. The monk's head dipped.
The deck creaked. Some of the crew cried out as the Sea of Fallen Stars sucked the ship beneath the waves.
Water swirled up around the schooling gleamtail jacks, pressing its damp weight against the swirling, silvery forms that somehow sealed out the sea. Watery light replaced the sun, painting sails, wood, cloth, and flesh all the same shade of bottle green.
"It works," breathed Thoster. He grinned. "Imagine what I could do with these fish, coming up on an Amnian merchantman from below! I'd be the terror of the Inner Sea!"
Seren ignored the captain and watched Raidon.
The half-elf pressed an open palm on his chest, on his glimmering tattoo. The lines of the stylized tree burst into a heatless blue flame. She took a measured pace back. The color was the hue that still visited her in nightmares. The Year of Blue Fire yet scarred the dreams of every wizard who lived through it, even those who lost only their magic. She took a second step away. Seren decided putting even more distance between herself and the fiery display wasn't unreasonable.
But the color wasn't quite the same blue throughout. At the flame's core burned a fiercer, more empyreal hue.
She supposed this was the power of the Cerulean Sign the monk spoke about so reverently.
The light slanting through the water above dimmed further. They were still descending, so smoothly Seren could scarcely detect the movement in the soles of her sandals. She walked to the railing and leaned out, trying to perceive where the protective field of air ended and the water began.
The boundary was smooth enough, but full of ripples, like the surface of a lake stocked with jumping trout.
Skating just above the water, the gleamtails swirled and sparkled, beholden to the edicts of her ritual. She studied the fish and their patterns, looking for any sign of weakness in the binding magic. She'd told the monk the protective shroud of gleamtails would last about a tenday. She was pretty sure that was true, give or take a day or two.
She heard Raidon speak, his voice strangely hollow. "I can sense the direction of Xxiphu. Its taint is strong, even though it lies buried miles below water and earth."
Seren saw shadows had grown and pooled across the deck. It was noticeably cooler too. But Raidon's Sign burned torch bright, illuminating his features from below.
Fearful faces of loitering crew were shades just on the edge of visibility.
The captain bawled, "Get back to your duties, you lazy dogs! And light the lamps! It'll be full dark soon enough, and you stand like savages around a fire while the cold dark claims Green Siren. Now, mover."
The crew dispersed into the work. The captain moved closer to Raidon. In the inconstant light of the monk's burning scar, Seren saw the captain had relaxed his death grip on his rent clothing. She saw his chest and stomach. In the strange light it almost seemed, just for a moment, that green and yellow scales covered the man in rough patches like some sort of odd piscine leprosy. Seren blinked away the odd hallucination and returned her attention to the gleamtails.
*****
Raidon held his place in the circle. The planking trembled with the energy of the wizard's ritual, communicating its presence by touch. The circle's influence flowed from the deck into him, tingling at first, but leaving in its wake a feeling of… something larger than himself. While his body stood in the circle, he sensed a newly forged link to a second body, a phantom form whose shape was that of a great sphere. A sphere whose surface was forged by schooling creatures plucked from the Elemental Chaos.
With hardly more effort or forethought than it took to move his own limbs, he propelled the sphere down through the darkening waters. And Green Siren plunged farther and farther into the cold depths of the sea.
Raidon shook free from the illusion, though not completely. He thought it unwise to risk losing contact with the ritual, but he wanted to keep tabs on the ship and the protective globe with his own eyes. The hollow in which the ship rode remained perfectly intact. The tiny gleamtail tailfins worked tirelessly. Whatever property allowed the creatures to swim the variable landscapes of the Chaos was being lent to the ship and crew.
"I ain't never seen the like," murmured Captain Thoster. Raidon didn't start at the comment, even though he had failed to notice the man standing so close, just beyond the edge of the ritual circle.
"How do you suppose the little monsters are keeping the air fresh enough for my crew?"
Raidon said, "Ask Seren, Captain. I have to concentrate, or I'll lose the way."
Thoster grunted and moved off, muttering that he should check the rum supply.
Raidon promptly dismissed the captain from his awareness. What he'd said was true. It was proving difficult to simultaneously direct the gleamtail-shrouded Green Siren while also following the guidance of the Cerulean Sign. With his hand upon the symbol, he could faintly sense the direction in which Xxiphu lay. But the more he focused on that guidance, the less he was able to feel the phantom shape of the protective sphere he steered. He had to juggle both perceptions in his mind, moving back and forth between them quickly enough that he wouldn't quite lose hold of either.
Raidon's straight-line dive toward the sea floor shallowed until Green Siren's trajectory angled west and down in equal measure. A couple of times Raidon noticed other aquatic creatures nearby. Some were nearly as large as the encapsulated ship, but all moved quickly away from the plunging vessel.
Finally they approached the sea floor. He sensed it as a slightly denser plain of substance, but really no different from the water above it, at least from the perspective of a gleamtail jack.
Green Siren plunged into it. Keel-first, the ship burrowed downward.
The silt and stone parted as if they were nothing more than filmy veils.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
The Year of the Secret (1396 DR), Xxiphu
Anusha's feet lost contact with the balcony. Someone was screaming. She realized it was herself. Terror ruled her.
Her thoughts loosened and evaporated like dew in the morning sun. Anusha's form too, starting with the golden armor, began to unravel into a mist of nothing.
A hand found hers and squeezed. Anusha grasped back with desperate strength. It was an instinctual response, her identity was peeling away, and-with it-reason. Horrified, she was aware of each memory as it smoked up and away toward a waking monstrosity hungry for minds.
Yeva jerked her down, off the balcony and once more into the slimed tunnels of brooding Xxiphu.
The moment she passed the threshold, Anusha's dream form solidified. She gasped, Tin Anusha!" She'd nearly forgotten. Yeva dragged her another twenty or so paces down the tunnel, away from the balcony exit.
Moisture filled Anusha's eyes. Dream tears, anyhow, as understanding washed over her at how narrowly she'd just escaped her end. She'd almost awakened from her dream. But the focus of her mind was now centered on the Eldest instead of her physical body or even the center of the orrery below. Waking would entail her mind and soul being eaten by and incorporated into an ancient horror. She'd have been consumed, gone forever.
Her situation was unbelievable. She was still alive, but how was she going to escape? Anusha couldn't leave the cursed city. If she did, she would start to wake up again. She couldn't stay either. Sooner or later one of the aboleths capable of seeing her would find her. Or the Eldest would fully rouse and call her to itself in an instant.
Tm doomed," she whispered from where she lay on the tunnel floor.
Yeva shrugged and said, "We're all doomed. Some of us just struggle at the end of fate's thread longer and harder than others before it is yanked. Beyond that, ete
rnal nonexistence is everyone's destiny."
Anusha shook her head, gazing out through the false hope the tunnel exit offered. "I don't think that's true."
Yeva said, "What else, then?"
"When we die, we go to a better place." The yellow-hued woman said, "Many things are possible."
Anusha nearly screamed. "But I'll be denied finding that out if the godsdamned monster on top of this godsdamned city eats my soul!"
Yeva blinked, then said, "True. The same holds true for me. If your mind falters, my mind dies too. I haven't even the hope of a body to return to. A moment ago, before I pulled you back, I faded too."
Anusha wanted to throw herself down and give up. Or run in a random direction screaming away her concerns and sanity in a blind panic. If her fate was death, it would be so much easier to get it over with.
A deeper, dispassionate part of her knew she wouldn't do any of those things. There was no one to surrender to.
That same, stark knowing reminded Anusha that giving in to fright was guaranteed not to lead to a happy outcome. She wouldn't consciously betray herself so. And it wouldn't be dignified!
She half smiled at herself and felt better for it. She said, "Thank you for pulling me back, Yeva. You did save me. Sorry to fall apart like this."
"I reacted very the same earlier, remember? You calmed me. I'm glad to return the favor."
Anusha replied, "Maybe I should-"
Something fiery and swift passed the balcony, sweeping highlights of orange and yellow illumination down the tunnel. Anusha had the distinct impression the object she'd glimpsed possessed wings of molten fire.
*****
Mapathious drew near the end of its journey and, with it, the term of its current contract. The unstable passage it traveled, composed of briefly unraveled planes and stretched reality, began to fray. The ring on the angel's finger pointed to a great cavity in the earth. The hollow vault was many miles deeper than any other subterranean passage it had ever visited. Mapathious was intrigued.
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