Yvka looked as if she'd gladly cut Tresslar's throat right then, but she fell silent. Ghaji knew that as an operative of the Shadow Network, it galled her to be tricked into anything, let alone being tricked into taking a magically-binding oath as broad in scope as this one. Secrets were the Network's stock in trade, but what good were secrets to an operative if she couldn't use them?
Ghaji was about to say something to Yvka, but before he could, the three containment rings flared to life as the pilots seated within the towers activated the spells that woke the air elementals. Gusts of wind blasted forth from the rings to fill the Turnabout's sails, and the galleon leaped forward, the sudden acceleration almost knocking the companions off their feet.
They were on their way to Trebaz Sinara at last.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
It shouldn't be long now."
Nathifa stood at the prow of the Zephyr, her bloodless white hands gripping the ice-covered railing. She looked eastward into the darkness, toward Trebaz Sinara. Skarm sat in the pilot's seat behind the glowing containment ring, keeping the air elemental active. The barghest, while possessing more stamina than a mortal creature, was on the brink of exhaustion. The magic that controlled the elemental was contained within the pilot's chair itself, but wielding that magic still required the contribution of the pilot's will. Someone trained in using the seat's magic could do so with minimum effort, but Skarm had no such training. Thus the energy drain on the barghest was significant. Not that Nathifa cared what happened to Skarm. All that concerned her was reaching Trebaz Sinara and obtaining the last object she needed to realize her dark dreams-and those of her mistress, of course.
The lich sorceress sensed more than heard Makala approach her from behind. A moment later, the vampire joined Nathifa at the railing.
"Haaken is still sleeping. And before you ask, I didn't take any of his blood… much as I might have wanted to."
"I would've known if you'd tried. And I would've punished you."
Makala smiled, as if to show that Nathifa's threat didn't impress her. The vampire was becoming far too bold, and the lich was beginning to regret accepting her as a servant. She reminded herself that Vol sent Makala to her, and that meant the vampire had an important role to play in fulfilling the queen's plan. But Nathifa vowed to continue keeping close watch on the woman, for she had no doubt that Makala was going to attempt some manner of treachery, and sooner rather than later.
"Why does the man sleep so much?" Makala asked. "He's no longer human, but he still seems to possess a human's weaknesses."
"He's no longer only human," Nathifa corrected. "He still requires rest, though less than a mortal needs. While you slumbered during the day, Haaken spent several hours practicing his new skills. He's unused to transforming back and forth between his various forms, and he's unaccustomed to the physical exertion of swimming so much."
Letting Haaken swim meant deactivating the air elemental so that he could keep up with the Zephyr. Nathifa didn't like slowing down and adding hours to their journey, but Haaken would be useless to her as a servant if he didn't possess at least a minimal mastery of his lycanthropic skills. Nathifa forced herself to view the delay as an investment, though it wasn't easy. She'd bided her time for a hundred years, but now that the culmination of everything she had worked for was finally at hand, she found herself becoming increasingly impatient, almost as if she were a mortal woman again.
She gazed up at the night sky. The cloud cover was light, and the Ring of Siberys was visible off to the south, a luminescent band of golden dragonshards that encircled the world high above the equator. A number of Eberron's twelve moons could be seen as well, four of them full and bright.
Nathifa frowned. Something tickled at the edges of her memory… something about full moons and sailing on the Lhazaar. It was a memory from her living days, when she and her two brothers had raided throughout the Principalities. But she couldn't quite-
The moons dimmed and winked out, followed closely by the Ring of Siberys. Nathifa was a lich, and thus couldn't know fear, but she felt something distantly akin to that emotion as she looked up at the black sky.
"The sky's gone dark," Makala said. "Is a storm coming?" The vampire didn't sound afraid, merely curious.
Nathifa struggled to call on more memories from her life as a mortal woman. "It doesn't feel like a storm. You can smell a storm coming, even when it's still miles away." Not that she could-her sense of smell had died with her mortal body a century ago. But the vampire's senses were sharp, and Makala should be able to detect a change in the wind's scent.
The wind began to kick up then, almost as if purposefully contradicting Nathifa's words. It gathered strength quickly, and was soon blowing with gale force, the air so cold that even Nathifa's undead flesh could feel it, and for the first time since she'd died, Nathifa shivered.
"It certainly feels like a storm to me!" Makala had to shout to be heard over the roaring of the wind.
"It's worse than that!" Haaken shouted. "It's a Ragestorm!"
The two undead creatures turned to see Haaken approaching. Though the newly reborn lycanthrope wore only the black trunks Nathifa had given him, he appeared unaffected by the wind's icy blast. Nevertheless, the fear he felt was evident in the panicked expression on his face as he gazed up at the blackened sky.
It had been many years since Nathifa had sailed the Lhazaar as a living woman, but she was confident she'd never heard of anything called a Ragestorm. She was about to demand Haaken tell them what he knew, but the lycanthrope spun and headed aft.
"We have to deactivate the elemental!" he shouted over his shoulder as he made his way across the ice-covered deck toward the pilot's seat. Skarm still sat, hand pressed palm down on the control arm of the chair, keeping the air elemental active.
Nathifa felt a surge of anger. Haaken was her servant, and she should be giving orders to him, not the other way around. But the man's sailing experience was far more recent than hers, and she decided to trust that he knew what he was doing. She once again looked skyward to see what she might be able to discern about this Ragestorm.
Despite the absence of moon and starlight, Nathifa's undead eyes could see well enough to make out an amorphous, shifting cloud hovering over the Zephyr. Some portions of swirling vapor seemed to form suggestions of eyes and mouths-dozens of them. The gale buffeting the sloop blasted down from the cloud, and Nathifa thought the creature-for she was certain the thing, whatever it was, was alive-resembled an air elemental. Or, more accurately, a number of air elementals that had joined together. She sensed malevolence in the cloud, a deep, fierce anger.
"Perhaps we should consider taking shelter in the cabin!" Makala shouted, her voice edged with terror. "Or better yet, the hold!" The vampire, despite her great strength, was having trouble withstanding the force of the Ragestorm. She held onto the handrail for support, gripping it so tight that her fingernails sank into the wood. No doubt she was terrified of being hurled overboard by the gale-force winds, since vampires were weakened by running water. A fast-flowing river was dangerous enough, but the Lhazaar Sea was another degree of peril entirely.
Still, Nathifa ignored Makala's suggestion. The lich hadn't been one to run away from a fight when she was alive, and death hadn't changed that aspect of her personality.
Haaken came stumbling back toward the Zephyr's prow, a terrified Skarm in tow.
"We deactivated the elemental, but I fear we were too late!" Haakan shouted. "The Ragestorm has our scent now, and it won't let go of us until it gets what it wants!"