Wulfgar smiled. The clearing sky revealed the three Eutracian moons, their magenta glow shining down upon the ocean. He raised his hands.
Almost at once the sky crackled with azure lighting, and the Isle of the Citadel trembled before the cascades of thunder. Concentrating with all of his might, he caused the water of the bay to burble and roil.
First a ship's crow's nest appeared, breaking through the waves. The tips of several masts soon followed. Then the massive hull and superstructures emerged, their lengths awash with seawater. After more than three centuries, the great vessel finally rose to float again upon the ocean beside its sisters. Wulfgar lowered his hands and stared at the vessel with rapt admiration.
The Black Ships-the most powerful armada that ever commanded the seas.
As the thunder and azure lightning abated, Wulfgar examined the vessel. Even though he had liberated several of them by now, each time another rose from the depths his jaw dropped in wonder.
With ten full masts and spars as thick as several tree trunks combined, the gigantic black frigate was easily quadruple the size of the largest vessels in his failed demonslaver fleet. For a time her hulk rocked dangerously to and fro, as if she were trying to again become accustomed to lying atop the waves. Finally she found her natural balance and settled down, her only motion coinciding with the normal movement of the sea.
The entire ship was an inky black. Moonlight twinkled on the seawater still running off her topsides, hull, and masts. As the Heretics had told him, eight full decks lay within her, and a massive hinged door took up nearly her entire stern. It could be opened and lowered to a safe distance just above the waves-much the way a drawbridge could be lowered from within the walls of a palace. Even the frigate's massive, furled sails were of the darkest black, as were those of the other Black Ships already anchored nearby.
Wulfgar took a moment to rest before attempting to salvage another of the menacing warships.
"Well done, my lord," Einar said from his place near his master's side. "All is nearly in place. Very soon the Jin'Sai will finally taste true defeat, and the world will be yours. I am proud to stand by your side in this greatest of endeavors."
Wulfgar only smiled. As he raised his arms, the moonlit skies began to cry out once more with the coming of the azure lightning and the deafening thunder. The surface of the bay burbled and roiled again, and another massive crow's nest poked through the surface of the waters, searching out its freedom.
CHAPTER XIV
"A little of this, and a little of that, shall make my concoction both potent and fat. When my brew is finally done, the deaths it will cause shall be second to none. Should the fixings be added too slow, or too quick, The potion won't work, nor the healthy go sick. So with patience and care I nimbly proceed, And I now cast this spell, to strengthen the deed!" upon completing the incantation, Reznik lowered his arms and placed his face near the pungent steam that rose from the small pot atop the woodstove. Inhaling the wispy aroma, he smiled.
This batch would prove his finest yet. But before it was ready, it would need another incantation. It would also need a few more ingredients before it could rise to the level of quality demanded by Satine.
Crossing to the other side of his spacious cottage, he took down an amber jar from a shelf.
The jar was filled with Eutracian derma-gnashers that he had painstakingly netted the day before. Although not dangerous, the winged, blue and gold-striped insects were a great nuisance. One bite would produce itching, swelling, and redness that lasted for days.
Back at his worktable, he placed the jar down and, using one of his collection of finely honed cutting instruments, carefully enlarged one of the holes in the perforated seal that stretched tightly across the jar's top. Into the widened hole he placed the tip of the small ladies' perfume sprayer that he had purchased secondhand at a local Eutracian fair and gave the spray bulb a quick squeeze. The poison, formulated from one of his personal recipes, worked quickly. The derma-gnashers began to die and fall to the bottom.
One by one he removed them and started to dissect them under a magnifying lens. As was his habit when he was happy with the progress of his work, he began to whistle. Eventually he had what he needed-approximately one teaspoon of runny orange-red venom. He walked the stuff over to the pot and poured it in.
Then he took down a thick volume from a bookshelf. Blowing the dust off its cover, he checked the title: Accelerants and Retardants in the Use of Potions and Poisons. Balancing the massive book in one hand, he thumbed through it with the other. After several moments of searching, he found the page he was looking for.
He went into an adjoining room and contemplated the bottle-lined shelves. There were hundreds of containers here, each one holding a different ground herb, root, or precious oil. He found the oil of encumbrance and returned to the other room.
Looking back to the book, he ran one finger down the page until he found the line he was looking for. Carefully he measured out a portion of the violet oil and added it to the pot one drop at a time.
Reznik took a deep breath. Almost done. By previous agreement with Satine, he was to have a new batch ready every ninety days. He also knew that she would be here within the next couple of hours, for one of the sentries had seen her enter the labyrinth and had sent a runner with the news. Reznik wanted the formula done by the time she arrived. Satine was never one to sit in one place very long. If, for some reason, she was forced to do just that, her mood could markedly change for the worse.
For the final ingredient, Reznik walked to the center of the cottage floor, pushed the throw rug to one side, and reached down to grasp the iron ring embedded in the floorboards. With a quick tug, he pulled open the trapdoor and then let it fall over backward onto the floor. As he walked down the steps and into the darkness, he started to whistle again. as Satine guided her gelding through the labyrinthine passageway, a shudder went through her. She did her best to remain calm. If she didn't, she could become disoriented, take a wrong turn at some point, and die in this place. This was the only way in and out of the community of rogue partial adepts, Reznik had once told her. She hated coming here-but it was a necessary evil.
No potion she had ever found rivaled the quality and effectiveness of Reznik's. Nor had any other tool of assassination ever granted her the all-important margin of safety this one did. It had been one of the mainstays of her art for several years now. Her current sanctions would most certainly call for its use, and she had little left of her last supply.
In order to supply the community with goods, the smooth, square-cut tunnel was wide enough to accommodate even the largest of wagons and teams. But this path was meant only for those partial adepts accepted into the community and able to employ magic in order to recall the safe route through the unforgiving maze. For them, it held no more danger than a walk through a flower garden. Reznik had accompanied Satine through the many twists and turns the first few times she came. After that, he coldly told her that she was on her own, no matter how many kisa she might be willing to pay him for his services. It had only been her ability to pay such large sums that had convinced him to show her the way in the first place. The other partials had been none too happy to know that he had brought her here.
But after Reznik's payment of a few well-placed bribes, even the more distrustful had grudgingly decided to ignore Satine's occasional comings and goings. Provided, of course, that she didn't visit too often, or reveal the secret to anyone else.
As usual she had seen the sentries high atop the sheer, smooth bluff. Recognizing her, one of them waved his hand and a section of the rock wall slowly darkened to reveal the passageway. Spurring her horse onward, she nervously entered the tunnel. The darkness closed in around her as the sentry sealed the entrance again.