"Now then," he said softly. "Shall we begin?"
CHAPTER
Seventy
A s Tristan soared along in the litter, he still couldn't let go of his dread. The enemy fleet had been defeated, but he couldn't escape the feeling that Wulfgar and Krassus had not been with it, as there had been no atmospheric disturbances that would have accompanied their deaths.
It was entirely possible that Wulfgar and Krassus had been aboard one of the ships that had been farther out to sea when they sank, but in his heart the prince didn't think so. And he didn't think the lead wizard believed it, either.
Looking across the litter, the prince saw Wigg staring out of the window, lost in thought. Shailiha and Abbey gave Tristan comforting, supportive smiles, but he knew what they were all thinking.
This wasn't over.
Suddenly Traax appeared, flying beside Tristan's window. The warrior had a very concerned look on his face.
"Permission to enter?" Traax shouted out. The prince nodded.
With a single, sure motion, Traax grabbed the roof of the litter, snapped his wings closed, and hoisted himself in. Landing abruptly on the seat next to Shailiha, he looked over at Tristan. Wigg took his thoughtful gaze from the Sea of Whispers and turned his attention to the Minion second in command.
"There is news," Traax said simply. "Our scouts have sighted vessels near the mouth of the delta. They say they are demonslaver warships."
Tristan froze.
"How many?" he asked.
"Fourteen, my lord. But there are a dozen or so other ships fighting them. They carry the image of the Paragon on their sails and fly your battle standards atop their masts. That means they belong to the woman privateer, does it not?"
Tristan's breath caught in his lungs. "Take us there immediately!" he barked. "I want the warriors to fly as they have never flown before! Those who arrive first are to join the battle immediately! When the litter arrives, search out the Reprisal and take us down! Then I will issue further orders!"
With a nod of his dark head, Traax dived headfirst from the speeding litter.
Tristan stared over at Wigg, his eyes searching the ancient wizard's face for some reassurance that they might get there in time. Wigg looked down at the floor of the litter for a moment, then back up at the Jin'Sai and sadly shook his head.
H ad Scars not been watching his captain's back, Tyranny would have died immediately. As a screaming demonslaver raised his trident, Scars came up behind him and hoisted the white-skinned monster into his massive arms. With one arm wrapped around the slaver's throat and the other pushing sideways against its hairless skull, Scars viciously forced the monster's head over to one side until he heard the neck bones grate, then give way and crack apart altogether. As the light went out of its eyes, Scars hoisted the dead slaver over the nearby gunwale and tossed it into the sea.
But instead of the body sinking beneath the waves, another fate awaited it.
Wulfgar's dark red sea slitherers combed the waters around the struggling vessels, their long, smooth, scaly bodies slipping over and under each other as they sought out their next mouthfuls of warm flesh. Scars didn't know what these creatures were, or how they had come to be here. Nor did he care. All that concerned him was the survival of his captain and her crew. But the battle was not going their way, and unless the tide turned soon, he knew that they would all perish.
He grabbed another screaming slaver, viciously broke its back against the gunwale, and dropped it into the sea.
The screams and the muffled, snarling grunts of the gorging sea slitherers seemed to go on forever.
A s the moments passed torturously by, Tristan's knuckles turned white around the hilt of his dreggan. It had been more than half an hour since the Minion forces and the litter had turned toward the delta, and still there was nothing to see other than waves. But a report had come back through the Minion lines that some of the fastest warriors had finally reached the fighting and were starting down. For that much, at least, Tristan was thankful. He knew Tyranny needed them.
As the cold wind lashed his face, he searched the waves for a sign that Tyranny and her little fleet of privateers might still be in one piece.
And then, finally, there they were.
Her twelve ships were lying adrift amidst the slaver ships, their decks bloodied. The Reprisal's spars, sails, and rigging had been damaged in the fight, but she seemed to be in no danger of sinking.
As the litter went down, Tristan could see that the fighting seemed to be over. Hundreds of Tyranny's crew, Wulfgar's demonslavers, and Minion warriors all lay dead. He could not tell what the outcome had been. Body parts from both sides could be seen everywhere. A strange sense of quiet prevailed, despite the horrific nature of the scene. As the litter finally hit the deck, Tristan jumped out, his dreggan held high.
"You're late!" he heard Tyranny's voice call out from somewhere behind him. Then he heard her laugh. "I told you I'd still be in your hair for a while!"
Tristan spun around to see her standing there, the hilt of her sheathed sword still dripping blood. In one hand she held a bottle of red wine, and in the other was one of her small cigars. After swallowing a healthy swig of wine, she took a draught of smoke, inhaling it deeply. With a satisfied sigh she raised her lovely jaw and blew the smoke toward the sky. Then her expression softened a bit, and she smiled at him.
"You didn't think for one moment that I was about to let you have all the fun, did you?" she asked coyly.
Tristan immediately went over and embraced her. Her face was smudged and bloodied, and her short hair was even more tousled than usual. Looking over her shoulder, he saw that Scars was still alive, helping to direct the tossing of slaver corpses into the sea. Those that had survived the battle were on their knees, waiting to have their throats cut. There seemed to be no shortage of crewmen volunteering for the task.
By this time Wigg, Abbey, Traax, and Shailiha were all standing beside them, and the bulk of the Minion forces were landing on the decks of the other vessels, dreggans drawn. A few surviving slavers tried to fight them off, but were quickly dealt with.
"What happened?" Tristan asked anxiously.
"We were returning to the delta when these slaver ships suddenly appeared out of nowhere," Tyranny answered. "Thank the Afterlife there weren't more of them than this! They had completely surrounded us, and we had no alternative but to stand and fight. For some reason it seemed imperative to them that they not allow us any closer to the mouth of the Sippora, and they fought like they were insane. Had your warriors not arrived when they did, we probably wouldn't be standing here talking to each other." She took another drink from the bottle, then smiled again.
Something she had said to Tristan struck a nerve. But before the prince could answer her, Wigg's voice cut him off, separating him from his thoughts.
"Tristan!" the lead wizard called out. "Come here and look at this!"
The prince turned to see Wigg standing beside Scars at the starboard gunwale, staring down into the surrounding sea. Tristan and the rest of them walked over to join him and looked down as well.
Scars and a handful of Tyranny's crewmen were tossing demonslaver corpses and body parts into the sea. For the first time Tristan saw the horrific, serpentine sea slitherers as they hissed viciously at each other, competing for the next mouthful of warm flesh.
"What in the name of the Afterlife are those things?" Shailiha breathed, her voice little more than a whisper.
"They are certainly a product of the Vagaries," Wigg mused, "although in all my three-hundred-plus years I have never seen their kind before. I suspect they were meant to follow Wulfgar's fleet as an additional form of protection. Much like the screechlings. Very clever, when you think about it. One beast to serve him in the sea, and another to serve him in the sky."