“Why do that?” Tyranny asked.
Wigg gave the privateer a wink. “Call them insurance,” he said simply. He then turned to face theJin’Sai. “It’s time to go,” he announced.
Tristan nodded and looked down the passageway. “Draw your swords!” he shouted.
At once the sound of several thousand Minion dreggans resounded through the tunnel, the combined ring of their blades unmistakable. Each armed Conclave member also drew his or her weapon.
“I want a group of warriors to surround the crate bearers and the Conclave members as soon as they exit the tunnel!” Tristan shouted. “Move toward the shoreline as quickly as you can! As the phalanxes grow in size I will issue further orders! Let’s go!”
Eager to be free of the oppressing tunnel, Tristan pushed past Wigg and led the way toward the exit.
UNKNOWN TO THE CONCLAVE, KHRISTOS HAD HEARDevery word.
The Viper Lord had first sensed theJin’Sai ’s supremely gifted blood nearly an hour ago, telling him that Tristan was nearing the shore. Forty minutes later, he and many of his vipers had quietly left their hiding places to flatten their bodies against the rock wall on either side of the tunnel. Its exit lay about one meter above the sandy beach and was the one from which the Vigors forces would soon spill forth to meet their deaths. Even now, more vipers slithered from other tunnels to take up places along the length of the rocky wall. When the Minions exited their tunnel they would be blindsided and slaughtered, their many comrades bunched up behind them ensuring that retreat would be impossible.
As Khristos stood eagerly waiting beside the tunnel exit, he called on the craft to linger over the great quality of theJin’Sai ’s endowed blood and listen to every spoken word. The sea waves crashed against the shore, and the beach lay pristine and unbloodied. But not for much longer, he thought.
For a moment he was tempted to simply stand before the tunnel entrance and loose bolt after bolt into it, killing as many Vigors worshippers as he could. Because of the enclosed space, he would surely destroy many of them. But he could not know whether Tristan, the two Black Ships, or the subtle matter were positioned farther down the length of the tunnel. If so, they all might escape. And so he waited patiently, determined to kill his enemies one by one as they exited the tunnel into which he had so cleverly lured them. Gripping his silver staff tighter, he held it steady alongside the rock wall, eagerly awaiting his prey. His enemies wouldn’t know what hit them.
Then he heard Tristan give his order to take the beach.
HAD TRISTAN’S GIFT OFK’SHARINOT SUDDENLY WARNEDhim of the impending danger, he would surely have died.
No sooner did he start to cross the plane of the tunnel exit than his blood started tingling wildly, signaling the rising of his unique gift. This time he followed Aeolus’ advice and he did not question it.
Leaping from the tunnel, he curled his body into a tight ball, presenting a smaller target. As he hit the sand he heard a deafening explosion. With his blood telling him that it was kill or be killed, he somersaulted twice across the beach, then came up swinging.
The bolt that Khristos sent raging from his staff had been meant to tear Tristan in half. Instead it missed him by mere inches, singeing his hair and skin. Unfazed, the bolt narrowly missed Khristos’ vipers that lay in wait on the tunnel’s other side, then went crashing into the curved rock wall surrounding the beach to send tons of rock shards crashing down.
Swinging his dreggan at the first viper he saw, Tristan sent the tip of the blade slicing across the monster’s throat. The thing’s head partly separated from its body and the viper crashed to the sand, its tail snaking about wildly before the beast died. But there was no time for Tristan to revel in his victory, for not only was Khristos again raising his silver staff, but several more vipers were charging him at once.
Turning on his heels, he let hisK’Shari take over again and quickly positioned himself so that the onrushing vipers were directly between him and the unknown being who so powerfully commanded the craft. Suddenly a shocking realization went through him.
No wonder our Night Witch patrols could not find the vipers! They were here waiting for us! But how…why…
Suddenly Khristos’ silver staff loosed another bolt. Employing his gift again, Tristan quickly fell to the sand. The bolt soared over the beach to crash into the vipers before him, then shot across the sea to finally fall into the waves, sending plumes of seawater and steam rocketing skyward. The three monsters facing Tristan exploded in a cacophony of blood, bone, and skin.
Tristan quickly came to his feet to find that he was covered with bloody offal, the grisly sight nearly causing him to vomit. Determined to stay alive, he hacked down one viper after another. But given the huge number of servants at Khristos’ command, he knew that his death would not be long in coming.
Cursing his luck as he crouched by the rock wall, Khristos saw Minion warriors leaping from the tunnel to land on the sandy beach at an alarming rate. He then saw the other Conclave members exit the tunnel, surrounded by even more ranks of warriors. In moments the beach became a riotous madhouse of death-dealing.
At first the valiant Minions were killed with deadly precision by Khristos’ bolts and the vipers’ flashing talons and sharp teeth the moment they left the tunnel. But then some of the charging Minion ranks began fighting back. As their numbers grew, so did their chances of survival. Soon a huge battle raged from which neither side could expect any retreat or quarter, as countless more warriors and vipers swarmed from the many tunnels to join their fellows.
In the midst of the melee, Khristos quickly looked around to try to find Tristan and the Black Ships. But theJin’Sai had become lost to him among the struggling multitudes, and the Black Ships were nowhere to be seen. Suddenly the Viper Lord’s eyes caught something floating high above the Azure Sea. When he raised his face skyward he was stunned by what he saw.
“Wigg…” he breathed.
The hated Vigors wizard looked older than Khristos remembered, but there could be no forgetting Wigg’s craggy face or his highly arched widow’s peak. Wigg hovered high in the air some distance out over the ocean. A female craft practitioner hovered beside him-another Conclave member, Khristos guessed. The two cowards were looking down on the battle, refusing to engage. But then Khristos saw something else, and he immediately understood. A flood of emotions ran through him as he realized that Wigg might already have bested him.
Wigg held a wooden crate in his arms, as did the woman hovering by his side. Before Khristos could act, the First Wizard and Jessamay called the craft and set the crates free onto the air. As the crates flew farther out over the waves, Khristos realized what they contained, and he immediately raised his silver staff to destroy them.
But Wigg and Jessamay had seen the Viper Lord. Just as Khristos pointed his staff at the first of the hovering crates, Wigg and Jessamay raised their arms. The twin bolts that they sent streaking down at Khristos were met head-on by one the Viper Lord sent upward. The three azure beams collided in a great explosion over the Azure Sea, about half the distance to the hovering crates.
The explosion’s sound and fury were so massive and the resultant blacklash so great that Khristos was knocked off his feet and sent crashing against the rock wall, rendering him unconscious. Wigg and Jessamay were also affected when the echoing shock wave reached them and were thrown dozens of meters higher into the air as though they had suddenly being caught up in a hurricane.
Hovering weakly, his body and robe singed, Wigg desperately tried to regain his senses while the terrible battle raged on the distant shore. Jessamay was in still worse straits, but she remained airborne-at least for now. Knowing that Khristos would soon recover and attack again, Wigg summoned all the energy he had left, and he pointed at the nearest hovering crate.
Soon the crate turned azure and its leather belts slipped free of their brass buckles. But this time only one side of the crate lowered, while the other remained upright to reveal theEphyra. Again po
inting his hand at the case, Wigg focused his energy on the small vial of subtle matter that had been fixed to the top of the crate’s upright side. He watched breathlessly as the vial stopper wriggled free, allowing the subtle matter to sprinkle with agonizing slowness down over theEphyra. The First Wizard then put the reverse forestallment into effect that would restore the Black Ship to her original size.
But before Wigg could turn his attention to the other case, he heard Jessamay moan. He turned to see her suddenly go unconscious and start tumbling through the air toward the sea. Wigg quickly sent a wizard’s warp toward her, catching her in midair. He saw her back arch violently, but there had been no other choice. She might have suffered a broken spine, but hopefully her life would be saved.
With Jessamay safe for the moment, Wigg turned his attention to the other crate and quickly duplicated the process he used on the first one. As the vicious battle seesawed back and forth on the bloody beach, he watched the two crates with wide eyes, desperately hoping that his and Faegan’s plan would work.
With a groaning heave theEphyra began expanding in midair. Soon she outgrew her crate, splitting it apart and sending it crashing to the sea. TheTammerland followed suit and also started growing, splintering its wooden crate into matchsticks. As the crate bits fell away, Wigg watched the craft do its amazing work.
Each ship agonizingly lengthened and grew taller, her spars, hull, sails, and masts groaning in exquisite pain like tortured souls being stretched on dungeon racks. On and on the spell went, continuing to enlarge the vessels until they regained their original size. Their huge bulk soon overshadowed the beach, the effect so mesmerizing that some of the desperate fighters paused for a moment to gawk up in abject wonder.
Although the ships had been enlarged, Jessamay dangled precariously some one hundred meters below Wigg, and the First Wizard’s plan was unraveling fast. Jessamay was to have empowered theEphyra and kept her aloft while Wigg did the same with theTammerland. But Wigg was still dazed, and the strain of simultaneously holding Jessamay and enacting the One’s spell had weakened him far too much for him to empower both ships.
He stole a few precious moments to look down at the battle. Even now, neither side had gained the upper hand. Explosive azure bolts streaked here and there among the fighting, but from so high up he couldn’t tell who was casting them. Nor could he learn whether Tristan or any of the other Conclave members had been killed. Knowing that there was little he could do to change the outcome, he concentrated what remained of his energy on saving Jessamay and the two Black Ships.
Just then the Ones’ spell ended, leaving Wigg’s rapidly dwindling gifts the only way to keep the ships airborne. To his horror, the massive vessels began plummeting toward the sea, listing crazily as they fell. With a monumental effort he empowered theTammerland on her way down, holding her steady in the air while she righted herself. With his other hand he lifted the warp holding Jessamay, then moved her toward theTammerland and let her fall onto the ship’s bow deck. But he had been too late to save theEphyra. As he watched her plummet toward the Azure Sea, he felt his heart rend in two.
I beg the Afterlife, he thought. What have I done?
Finally regaining consciousness, Khristos gathered himself up from the sandy beach to see that many of his vipers had surrounded him and were staving off the vicious Minions who wanted him dead. He quickly levitated into the air above the fray, then pointed his silver staff at the cluster of warriors ringing the vipers.
Khristos’ azure bolt launched straight into the warriors’ midst, sending blood, armor, and body parts flying. Landing in a blood-soaked clearing a few meters away, Khristos looked up just in time to see one massive Black Ship hovering in the sky and the other plummeting crazily toward the sea.
With a mighty crash theEphyra hit the waves, sending a plume of water high into the air. She bounced, then crashed violently down again into the ocean. As the seawater fell around her, Khristos strained his eyes, hoping that the ship had been smashed into kindling. When the scene cleared, he raised his fists and shook them at the sky.
TheEphyra had survived.
He watched transfixed as the Black Ship heeled over and nearly cap-sized. To his chagrin, she finally righted, her rigging swinging violently to and fro as she settled down. Many of her spars were broken and one of her masts lay across the main deck, but she looked otherwise intact.
Casting safety to the winds, Khristos cursed and ran toward the shoreline. Again raising his silver staff, he pointed it at the stricken ship’s bow. If he couldn’t destroy both ships, he would at least try to send one of the black bastards to the bottom.
But just as he raised his staff, a figure lunged across his path, blocking his view. Khristos snarled and was about to sidestep the fighter when he saw the pair of dark blue eyes boring into his and sensed the stranger’s supreme blood quality.
TheJin’Sai.
As the battle whirled around them, for a moment the two enemies glared at one another. Then Khristos screamed and pointed his staff at Tristan’s chest.
With the imminent threat washing over his senses, Tristan’s blood tingled with yet greater strength and his sword blade suddenly glowed with a bright azure hue. This had happened only once before, during the climactic battle to take the Recluse. But there was no time to think. With Aeolus’ warnings again ringing in his ears, Tristan widened his stance and stood his ground.
This second bolt Khristos sent at Tristan was again a narrow one, designed to cut theJin’Sai in half. Tristan raised his sword with blinding speed. As the searing bolt struck his dreggan blade, its power was immediately reflected back toward Khristos. Had the wizard’s reflexes not been so fast, it would surely have killed him.
Khristos wheeled but the bolt struck his right shoulder, causing him to drop his staff. Tristan lunged forward and kicked the craft weapon far across the sand. Weakened with shock and falling to his knees, Khristos again tried sending a bolt Tristan’s way, this time from his fingertips. But the bolt fizzled halfway to its target and crashed into the beach, sending charred sand high into the air. As the sandy cloud cleared, Tristan raised his dreggan high and charged in for the kill.
But again the wizard was too fast. Summoning his last bit of power, Khristos levitated from the sand and soared away to seek protection among his many vipers. As he left the ground, Tristan swung his blade at him, but it fell short.
Enraged, Tristan tossed his sword into his left hand, then reached behind his right shoulder to grip a throwing knife and let it fly. The silver dirk cartwheeled over and over, its double-sided blade a whirling blur.
Seeing the knife coming, Khristos twisted in midair, causing the blade to miss his heart. But he hadn’t been fast enough to avoid it altogether, and the dirk buried itself in the same shoulder that had been struck by his returning bolt. Screaming in agony, he pulled the knife from his shoulder, then crossed the sand and landed amid another group of battling vipers. Hissing and drooling, the hideous things quickly surrounded their beloved master and defended him with their lives.
Khristos could no longer be seen, but Tristan knew where to find him. TheJin’Sai was about to charge across the bloody sand and tear into the group of vipers when he felt a strong hand grip the back of his left shoulder. Knowing that he was being attacked by another viper, he had no choice but to forget Khristos and whirl around.
Reaching across his chest with his right hand and raising his bloody sword high with his left, he grasped the enemy’s wrist and swiveled left. As he came around he found himself staring into a familiar face.
There stood Ox, bloodied and exhausted. Ox immediately shouted out an order, and he and Tristan were quickly surrounded by more Minion warriors to keep yet another throng of advancing Blood Vipers from reaching them. The massive Ox gave Tristan a desperate look.
“Wigg say you must come now!” he shouted above the fighting. “Black Ships safe but we losing fight! Wigg say hurry! Must cross blue sea!”
That wasn’t what
Tristan wanted to hear. Instead of sailing away, he wanted to kill the unknown Vagaries wizard if it was the last thing he ever did. Then Ox grabbed Tristan by the shoulders and roughly spun him around to face the rocky wall on the other side of the beach.
“Look, Jin’Sai!” Ox screamed. What Tristan saw sent icewater pouring through his veins.
The sand between him and the rock wall was covered with the dead and the dying, blood, and body parts from both sides. The casualties seemed to be roughly equally divided between Minions and vipers, but in the continuing melee Tristan couldn’t be sure. Then he looked to the rock wall, and he knew.
Thousands more vipers still poured from hundreds of tunnels, threatening to engulf the Minions once and for all. But no more fresh warriors were jumping to the beach to confront them. The tunnel floor from which the warriors had exited dripped blood down the rock wall, and vipers were slithering inside it to look for wounded stragglers. Some of the Minions still struggling on the beach had taken to the air to hack their dreggans downward on the vipers. Even so, it was clear that the odds were turning against them. Tristan knew that without an order to retreat, his forces would fight and die to the last. He swung around to look into Ox’s pleading eyes.
“Wigg say we must go now!” Ox shouted. “There be too many vipers! He say if we stay, all warriors die!”
“Where are the other Conclave members?” Tristan shouted. “Are any dead?”
“Ox not know!” the warrior shouted back. “But we must go!”
“Have all our warriors exited the tunnel?” the prince shouted. “I refuse to leave anyone behind!”
“Only warriors in tunnel be dead ones!” Ox answered. “I be last one out! Please, Jin’Sai! We must gonow!”
Finally surrendering to the desperate situation, Tristan angrily put aside his desire to continue the fight.
“Blow the retreat!” he shouted.
With a relieved look on his face, Ox quickly reached for his bugle. He sounded the retreat call twice, then scooped Tristan up in his beefy arms and took to the air. On hearing the bugle and seeing theirJin’Sai leave the beach, the surviving warriors also took flight, many of them carrying wounded comrades in their arms. As the warriors soared away, the thousands of vipers slithered toward the shoreline, waving their arms and hissing loudly in celebration of their bloody victory.
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