"I think you're right."
Tahngarth pivoted his gun forward, drawing a bead on the black dragon. His hands sweat on the fire controls.
"You're the captain, Sisay. You've always been the captain. You have to decide. What do we do?"
Fire roared in a red-hot column from the mouth of Rhammidarigaaz.
"Hang on!" Sisay shouted.
She swung the wheel hard to port and yanked back on it. Weatherlight stood on end.
"Full power!" she called.
Weatherlight's engines hurled their own fire. On pillars of flame, the ship rocketed away. The Gaea figurehead tore through clouds. Her metal wings spawned cyclones in her wake.
Through swirls of mist, the five dragons ascended. They gained on the shrieking engine. As red as ruby, green as emerald, white as lightning, blue as sky, and black as death-the beasts spat killing blasts. They arced up toward Weatherlight.
Tahngarth yanked his gun about but couldn't draw a bead past the gleaming wings.
Next moment, those wings were mantled in fire. They would have melted except that the Thran metal was fortified by Karn. Even as flames fell back, voracious spores engulfed the stern. They rooted themselves and grew rampantly. Any other ship would have splintered beneath the parasitic plants, but Weatherlight's magnigoth wood was strengthened by Multani. A white shaft of light blazed out above Weatherlight’s. It dropped to cleave the ship in two. There would be no defense against it-except an expert helmsman.
Sisay rammed the helm forward. The ship plunged. Her wings tucked. She slipped from beneath the killing beam. Engines drove her down toward Urborg.
The hurtling dragons overshot her. They turned in the sky above and folded their wings. Snarling and snapping, they dived.
"Tahngarth, get to stern," Sisay called. "We won't need forward guns while we're running."
Tahngarth nodded his approval and unlaced his gunnery traces. "Let's just hope I can fill Squee's shoes."
How glorious it was to cross Dominaria in the Golden Argosy. No hunger, no thirst, no weariness, no wounds- but these were only the beginning of the marvel. The ship sailed with impossible speed. She cut through water as though it were air, and through air as though it were nothing at all.
From the moment that Warlord Astor had debarked, the ship's sails had filled with an otherworldly gale. She had coursed like a comet across the world. Her path was straight and incorruptible. Where islands loomed up before her, she only breasted through them. Her prow clove into sandy beaches, soil, and solid rock. She cut through mountains as though they were but shadows and sailed out the other side.
Never did her company fear. Eladamri and Liin Sivi, the Steel Leaf and Skyshroud elves, and ten thousand Keldon warriors- none of them feared the ship would wreck. They were well aware of the world beyond her rails but knew their role in that world lay far ahead, at Urborg.
Days and nights scrolled away until at last the black island chain opened before them.
Eladamri stood at the prow, clasping Liin Sivi's hand. "The heroes of Keld will fight the final battle of Twilight on that island. There we will turn back the darkness."
Liin Sivi nodded. Her eyes were bright and stern, focused on the island. "That central volcano hides the source of all this evil."
"The Stronghold," Eladamri said, completing the thought. The two had lived all their lives in the shadow of that horrid fortress. They had fought against it, had even invaded it. Now, two worlds away, they rushed toward it again. "We will capture the land and plumb the fiery depths and destroy the Stronghold once and for all."
The Golden Argosy surged toward Urborgan shores. She crossed reefs that would have wrecked any normal vessel. She plunged through shallows that should have forbidden her massive draft. The beach swept up. Sand parted before her hull. The Golden Argosy clove through palms and swamps. Nothing could halt her.
"What will we do when at last the ship stops?" Liin Sivi wondered aloud.
"We will leap from her and fight," replied Eladamri.
Liin Sivi glimpsed a Metathran guard high in a cypress. He stared down incredulously. "Will we remember this- the ship, the journey, any of it?"
Eladamri gazed at the drowned forest through which they plunged. "No. We will not remember, or remember only as sleepers remember the waking world." He clutched her hand tighter. "But some things even sleepers do not forget."
Without slowing, the Golden Argosy suddenly stopped. Volcanic foothills rose ahead of her.
Eladamri peered up the mountainside. "Here is our battleground. Here we must depart immortal realms for mortal ones."
Drawing her toten-vec, Liin Sivi said, "I am ready."
"No," replied Eladamri, reaching across to her. He took her jaw in his hand, leaned slowly in, and kissed her. The heat of mortal desire passed through that kiss. They parted, and Eladamri stared into her eyes. "Now, we're both ready." He drew his own sword, set his foot on the rail, and leaped from the Golden Argosy.
One moment, Eladamri had lain half-submerged in an icy sea. The next, he landed on a gnarl of cooled lava. It was black and rough and hot beneath his hands. He couldn't quite catch himself. He tucked his head and rolled around his sword. Rock rasped his neck and elbows. He came up on his feet, his knuckles bleeding.
Liin Sivi rose beside him. Her toten-vec swept before her. "Where are we? What's happened?"
"I don't know," Eladamri responded, edging toward her.
There was sudden motion behind them. They whirled.
From the shrouded forest at the base of the volcano poured elves and Keldons. They weren't wet or bedraggled. All seemed to appear in midair, as if leaping from the trees. Their armor was polished, their skin clean and healthy. Steel Leaf and Skyshroud elves appeared beside Keldon warriors. They stumbled and rose in wary confusion.
"I dreamed of a golden ship…" Liin Sivi ventured uncertainly. "I dreamed we were to fight the final battle of Twilight here…"
"Yes," Eladamri said, taking Liin Sivi's hand. He nodded up the volcano behind them. "This mountain is familiar. Do you remember it?"
A bitter smile lit her face. "This is a Rathi mountain. This is the mountain that holds the Stronghold." She shook her head. "There is no battle I'd rather fight."
Brandishing his sword, Eladamri shouted, "Forward!" With Liin Sivi beside him, he climbed the volcano. Elves and Keldons in their thousands followed.