Much of the stricken neighborhood remained aflame, but the Minions were battling the fires. Faegan watched as throngs of citizens wandered aimlessly through the bloody streets in search of loved ones. The sounds of crying children, neighing horses, wildly barking dogs, and groaning citizens and Minions still filled the air. Duvessa and her warrior-healers were doing everything they could to stem the suffering, but they too were exhausted and could only do so much. The gutters ran red with blood, bodies and body parts littered the shiny cobblestones, and hungry flies were already gathering atop the corpses. As the news of the singularly important death spread, all the surviving mystics and hundreds of spent Minion warriors had congregated to mourn the shrouded corpse lying in the street.
Faegan wearily moved his chair closer. Her courageous death will long be remembered, he realized, and her life’s story would resonate in everyone’s consciousness for longer still. How can we possibly tell Tristan and Wigg about our failure to protect her? he wondered. Will either of them ever trust us again? Still unable to believe, with a trembling hand he reached down and pulled back the makeshift shroud.
Abbey had died quickly, they told him. She was last seen fighting three vipers at once, and she had succumbed to their attacks before Minion warriors could reach her. She bled out quickly from the viper talons that had slashed at her throat, then she had fallen to the ground, where her innards were ravaged by the terrible beasts. Finally some frantically struggling warriors reached her and ensured that the vipers responsible for her death had suffered horribly before being killed.
Faegan looked down at her face with bleary eyes. The herbmistress and partial adept had been instrumental in defeating Wulfgar and Serena, and in ensuring that the Vigors had not perished from the earth. Many of the people gathered here owed their lives to her several times over. She had been a handsome woman, with long dark hair lightly streaked with gray, a strong jaw, and a shapely figure. The only partial adept on the Conclave, her specialized use of the craft would be sorely missed. Faegan had enhanced her time enchantments so that her body would not immediately fall to dust, even though she had been more than three centuries old. Raising his head, Faegan looked out across the carnage-ridden neighborhood.
Wigg will be inconsolable, he thought. Because I am his oldest friend, the grim burden of telling him should fall to me. But how does one do such a thing?
Just then Faegan saw a Minion warrior approaching in the night sky. As the warrior neared, the wizard saw that he carried someone, the victim’s arms and legs dangling lifelessly earthward. On finally recognizing the warrior and his charge, Faegan’s blood ran cold.
Traax landed before the crowd and quickly handed the princess over to Aeolus.
“You must help her!” he shouted urgently.
As Aeolus and Faegan stared in horror at Shailiha, the blood drained from their faces. “What happened to her?” Faegan demanded.
“She was struck by viper venom!” Traax answered. “It continues to burn her even now! But I fear that her eye took the worst of it!”
“Hand her to me!” Faegan shouted.
As Aeolus quickly laid the princess in Faegan’s lap, Faegan looked at the burns and pockmarks on her face. Calling the craft straightaway, he induced a spell over the venom to try to stop it from doing further damage. He also called another spell to help control her pain and to keep her unconscious. Then he carefully lifted the damaged lid of her left eye. He closed his own eyes and bowed his head in sorrow.
“How bad is it?” Aeolus demanded.
“Very bad, I fear,” Faegan answered. “We might be able to help her, but to do so we must hurry back to the palace. There is no time to lose!”
Seeing Abbey’s corpse for the first time, Traax took a sharp breath. “Is she-?”
“Yes,” Faegan answered. “We can no longer help her. Shailiha is now our greatest worry. Summon a litter at once! Half of our forces will remain here and continue to quell the fires and help the wounded as best they can. The rest of our warriors will accompany us home. Duvessa and her group will remain here as well. Go and give the orders! We must leave now!”
As Traax hurried off, Faegan reached down and removed the gold medallion from Shailiha’s person and placed it around his neck. After doing so, he sadly rocked the princess in his arms, just as he might cradle a child who had been taken mortally ill.
“Why did you take her medallion?” Aeolus asked quietly.
“I did it for both Tristan’s and Shailiha’s sakes,” Faegan answered. “There is no telling when Tristan might again use his medallion to contact his sister. Do you want his next glimpse of her to be like this?”
“I understand,” Aeolus answered. “But doesn’t Shailiha need to be wearing the medallion for it to work?”
Faegan shook his head. “No,” he answered. “The needed spell is contained in the two medallions, not in their wearers’ blood. That is why the Ones cautioned Tristan so strongly about not letting the medallions fall into the wrong hands.”
“And you know how to call the spell?” Aeolus asked.
Before answering, Faegan cradled the stricken princess closer. “Yes,” he answered simply. “We can only hope that Tristan does not contact us before we have had some time to try and help her.”
Just then a litter arrived, its six stout warriors landing it quickly before the hushed crowd. With Shailiha still lying in his lap, Faegan levitated his chair up and over the litter’s sides. Aeolus joined him, and before they knew it they were soaring through the air toward the royal palace.
As the litter gained speed, Faegan looked down at the stricken princess’s face, then back toward the fires that were finally starting to come under control. Keeping pace alongside, Traax and half the exhausted Minion survivors accompanied the two wizards and their fallen leader. As they hurried on, Faegan sadly closed his eyes.
You have won this day, Khristos, he thought. We killed many of your vipers, but Abbey is dead and the Jin’Saiouwill likely never be the same again. If it is the last thing I ever do, I will hunt you down and kill you, I swear it. But where were you this night, you bastard product of the Vagaries? If attacking Tammerland was so important, why weren’t you there, leading your vipers?
All at once the terrifying realization hit him, and Faegan took a sharp breath. Looking over at Traax, he barked out new orders as fast as he could.
THE MINION SENTRIES DIED QUIETLY. AFTER SLITHERINGon their bellies up the banks of the Sippora, Khristos’ vipers had quietly flanked the camp. They then closed the circle to surprise and kill the unsuspecting sentries by first blinding them with their venom and then slitting their throats. Some of the warriors had seen them coming and fought back, but the several hundred Minions were no match for the thousands of Blood Vipers that commanded the element of surprise. Confident that the palace had not been alerted, Khristos again motioned for his vipers to slither their way through the dewy grass toward his next targets.
Watching from the safety of the camp, the Viper Lord wished he was going with them. But he would hold back where he could not be seen from the palace’s parapets. Nor could he use his silver staff to help his servants kill the Minions guarding the Black Ships, for that would certainly cause uproar among those warriors guarding the palace. While he stood alone among the Minion dead, his servants expertly went about his bidding.
Fifty warriors patrolled the area surrounding the two Black Ships, and they died as quickly and as quietly as had their more numerous brothers who had guarded the war camp. When one of his lead vipers slithered back to whisper news of their success, the Viper Lord rushed to where the others waited for him. As he looked up at the great ships, he knew that he must hurry in his mission, for once it started, those Minions left behind to guard the palace would surely see what was happening and attack him.
TheCavalon and theIllendium rested peacefully in their massive wooden cradles, their hulls and masts twinkling beautifully in the night. Deciding to steal theIllendium, Khristos ordered his vip
ers to stealthily board her in the darkness. Silently slithering their way up the cradle spars, the thousands of monsters took possession of the great ship.
Once they had all boarded, Khristos would remain on the ground as he empowered the ship into the air. Only after he had taken theIllendium a safe distance away from the palace grounds would he set fire to its mate, then fly through the air and land on theIllendium ’s topside to spirit her away. Those vipers that had secretly left the battle in Tammerland to slink back into the Sippora had been ordered to travel submerged downriver. Only after they were well away from Tammerland would they again surface to meet and board the piratedIllendium. Satisfied that his vipers would soon be aboard his new flagship, Khristos turned his attention to theCavalon.
She was equally beautiful, and in a strange way he almost regretted having to destroy her. Knowing that he must hurry, he looked back at theIllendium to see one of his lead vipers signal that all his servants had boarded, and he smiled when he saw their huge numbers crowding the gunwales and slithering quickly up the masts. With no time to lose, he raised his arms and called the craft.
At once theIllendium ’s black and red dark sails tumbled free of their spars. Expertly manipulating the craft, Khristos then summoned the first of the powerful forces that would lift the great ship and send her skyward. Her hull groaning and her masts straining against the pull of the sails, she slowly left her cradle to rise into the night air. Moving his hands, he expertly guided her to a safe distance from theCavalon, then set her hovering. With theIllendium airborne, he again gathered up his power to finish off theCavalon.
Raising his silver staff, Khristos pointed it at the great ship. Because of the many enchantments used by her builders to protect her, setting her afire would not be a simple feat, but once she started burning, her ages-old timbers would become a raging inferno. Summoning all his remaining power while also causing theIllendium to hover, he loosed the first azure bolt from the tip of his staff.
AS FAEGAN AND AEOLUS NEARED THE PALACE AND SAW THEfirst of Khristos’ bolts strike theCavalon, their worst fears were confirmed. How could we have been so blind? Faegan asked himself. Cursing the heavens, he 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.
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