‘We commend you, Guardsmen, on a heroic defence — though it has cost us dear. But we come bringing news. Are you by any chance in communication with the main body to the north?’
An unsure glance back from Lean. ‘We are.’
‘Then, the Invigilator Durmis is most insistent-’
‘What do they sense?’ the robed man cut in.
‘Sense?’
‘Yes, damn you! Inquire through your Brethren.’
Lean glanced back again, bloodied brows wrinkled. K'azz nodded. ‘A moment,’ she reported.
K'azz straightened, calling, ‘They report disturbances among the Warrens.’
‘And growing,’ the Invigilator added. ‘Something is coming blasting its way through the Warrens like a collapsing tower and it's headed right for here!’
Commander waved a hand deprecatingly. ‘He may be exaggerating… the Invigilator's job is to be wary of such irresponsible abuses among the men and women you name Talents — such as may threaten our Confederacy. A main reason, by the way, why we did not resort to such extreme measures to eliminate you from our path. For to do so would be to invite retaliation and escalation from your formidable Avowed mage cadre, yes? Thus costing us significantly more personnel than otherwise, yes?’ A smug smile. ‘In any case, the office's more enthusiastic members have been known from time to time-’
Invigilator Durmis kneed his mount to bump into the commander's. ‘This is real,’ he ground out.
‘Like the warning earlier this night? Of impending thaumaturgic transgression? The mere arrival of a few horsemen?’
‘Who knows who they could have been? They may have been allies of the Guard! In any case, those horsemen won the battle for the Empress.’
‘A point curiously moot to us here on this bridge!’
Lean cleared her throat. ‘Gentlemen! We are still in parley?’
Commander Pirim returned his attention to the front. He pulled on his long, cream-hued jupon to straighten it, adjusted his helmet under his arm. ‘Invigilator Durmis insisted upon this exchange of intelligence. To my mind formalities have been observed. We are done.’ He bowed.
Lean answered the bow, her hand still pressed to her head.
The commander struggled to turn his mount and, from the gathering rage and dismay on his face, found that he could not. He cut his switch viciously at the men pressed in around him. ‘Make way, damn you! Way!’
Lean turned an arched brow on Kyle and those of the line. Coots gave a mocking hoot. Invigilator Durmis, however, remained motionless on his mount. He sat slumped, hands folded before him. ‘It is here,’ he said, sounding defeated.
Kyle risked a quick glance behind. Above the cliffs the night sky of the north-west seemed to swirl, stars rippling. A pink and orange glow gathered, streaming into banners and crown-like circles that widened, fading. ‘What is it?’ he breathed.
Then a flash like an immense distant fire blossoming only to be snuffed out. Shortly afterwards a muted roll of thunder reached them. Lean looked to K'azz. ‘Something has struck the battlefield,’ he reported. ‘Cut a swath through units on the west flank. Left a trail of wreckage.’
Commander Pirim's brows rose in almost comical surprise and alarm. He looked to Lean. ‘I suggest a truce — for the time being.’
Lean bobbed her head, wincing. ‘Agreed.’
Whether the sea would swallow Ho and his mage escapee companions had become immaterial. As Yath's control over the disparate chords of his ritual participants gradually asserted itself he took steps to protect the vessel. A cocoon of power edged round its sides. Through the barrier's pulsing multicoloured walls the sea appeared to have been left behind — the Forlorn seemed to float on nothing.
Sighing her profound relief, Devaleth sat with a heavy thump next to Ho. She massaged her hands. Sweat coursed down her ashen face. Unnerving groans now sounded from the vessel as timbers creaked, popping and flexing. The masts shivered, their tops shorn off where they met the aurora of power above. The deck juddered beneath them and she and Ho shared uneasy glances.
‘Where are we?’ Treat asked of Fingers, hushed.
‘Sere,’ the mage whispered.
A scream made everyone jump. One of the ritual mages had leapt to his feet. He pointed at Yath, mouthed something unintelligible. Two of the Avowed, Dim and Reed, stepped in to calm him. He wrenched his arms from their grasp, clasped his hands to his head, all the while howling his own personal horror. The Avowed fought to subdue him but incredibly the skinny fellow pushed them aside. He gouged at his face as if he would tear it open then in two long steps reached the side and threw himself over. His shriek was cut short as he passed beyond the barrier.
‘Otataral madness,’ Devaleth said to no one in particular.
‘Perhaps…’ Su answered, her black, wrinkled eyes almost narrowed shut. Ho turned to snarl another warning about her damned airs but stopped, realizing that her gaze was fixed upon Yath, and that the man's sharp glittering eyes returned her steady stare.
‘I have identified the disturbance,’ Su announced, her gaze unwavering upon Yath.
‘Yes?’ Ho asked.
‘It is a general contagion that infects almost all of us to greater and lesser degrees. But which is concentrated mainly in two carriers…’
Yath slowly straightened from his cross-legged position. He levelled his staff across his front. A wide, hungry smile crept up his lips.
‘Yes?’ Ho asked again, vexed. ‘Who?’
‘Its two main foci are our Seven Cities friend and…’ she turned her head aside, pointed, ‘… him.’
Across the stern Blues’ brows rose. He pointed to himself. ‘What? Me?’
‘Oh yes…’
Yath pointed his staff at Reed; the Avowed looked to Blues, unsure. An aura identical to that of the shifting walls surrounding them lashed out from the staff to strike Reed who shrieked, writhing. Before their eyes the mage-fire consumed him, leaving a blackened smoking corpse.
‘… And we have made a terrible error,’ Su finished quickly.
‘Queen take him!’ Blues was up, his speed incredible to Ho. He was halfway across the deck before Yath could bring his staff to bear. Pink and violet fire arched. Blues raised his Warren in answer and the energy deflected, splashing like water. It recoiled outwards to spread in a fan that sliced into the barrier around them — which burst.
The deck fell out from beneath everyone. Ho clasped his arms around Su and Devaleth, pinning them to the side, grasping handholds. Figures flew off screaming into the infinite nothingness of all directions, though none of the ritual-bound mages shifted at all. Yath had fallen and struggled to reorient himself. An Avowed, Dim, was close. The man was belaying himself by rope toward the Seven City mage.
‘Steady us!’ Ho shouted aloud to everyone.
‘I'm on it!’ Fingers answered.
Dim closed on the Seven Cities mage, reaching out. Then Sessin was there, leaping from behind Yath to grapple the Avowed. The men swung wildly together, only Dim's grip holding them to the vessel. They fought, grappling and gouging as they flew — then gone, both spinning away in silence. The deck rose up to brutally knock the breath from Ho.
Yath lashed power again, catching Blues unready, but the stream of raw inchoate energy passed through him leaving him unharmed. Both Blues and Yath straightened, astonished. Blues stared at himself, uncomprehending.
‘Get ‘im!’ Treat urged from the tiller.
Blues lunged. Yath stood now amid the sitting ritual-bound mages, all as still as statues. He swung his staff and a wall of the rippling power cut across the deck. Blues, Treat and Sept all struck it, rebounding. The Seven Cities mage laughed behind his barrier.