Savage Messiah

CHAPTER XXVII

"Are you sure this is going to work?" Abbey asked nervously. "I know how useful your portal can be, but tell me truly. Have you ever tried anything like this before?"

Faegan ignored her question for a moment. It was late afternoon in Eutracia and the sun was already low in the sky, the salty sea air rising to greet his senses. As busy as he had been all day and the previous night, the time had seemed to fly by.

Truth be known, he wasn't at all sure about the risk he was about to take. There was no way he could be until it was over. By then, if it had gone wrong it would be too late. But if it was successful, it could change the world.

Faegan, Adrian, Abbey, and Duvessa were in a Minion litter together, hovering in the sky near the Cavalon Delta. Ten strong warriors bore it, their wings working diligently to keep it aloft. They had been here for hours, helping to prepare the Reprise for sea.

After much discussion, Tyranny and Traax had decided that only the Reprise would make this voyage. Faegan had agreed. The rest of the fleet was to stay behind and protect the coast, should Tristan be correct about Wulfgar. This was a mission of intelligence rather than of war. They would stand a much better chance of remaining unseen if only one ship approached the Citadel.

Now the Reprise bobbed calmly at her moorings just off the coast. Faegan, uncertain of how the portal might affect the ship, had recommended that her sails be tightly furled, and her wheel tied off. Under Tyranny's critical gaze, everything else had been lashed down, closed, or otherwise secured.

In addition to Tyranny's regular crew, a Minion phalanx lined the deck. The war frigate lay low in the sea, her lower decks loaded with enough food and water to sustain the added number of people aboard.

"Am I sure about this?" Faegan finally said to Abbey. "No, absolutely not! But I believe my theory is valid." Looking back toward the warship, he sighed. "Would Wigg try to skin me alive if he knew? Yes. Do those brave souls aboard that ship down there think it worth the risk? Again, yes."

"But if this works, once they are through and on the other side how will they know where they are?" Adrian asked. "To have sailed there while continually marking their progress on a chart is one thing. But to be so suddenly deposited upon the Sea of Whispers so many leagues from home seems quite another."

Faegan nodded. "Tyranny came to me last night with that very concern. We decided that once they were through, the most reliable navigational aid would be her sextant. I made some modifications to it. To come home in the same manner they must reach the exact location to which the portal brought them, or they will never find it again." Faegan scowled. "My greatest fear is not whether the portal will do its job, or whether Tyranny can return to the same set of coordinates. Rather, I am concerned about the much greater amount of power needed to conjure a portal of such size and its possibly deleterious effects on both the ship and those aboard her. But if they can get through safely, they should be all right."

"I certainly hope so," Duvessa said.

Faegan looked down at the Reprise. "So do I," he answered softly.tyranny was nervously eyeing the decks of her ship. "I hope your wizard is as good as everyone claims," she said to Shailiha.

Taking a deep draft on her cigarillo as though it were her last, she raised her face to the darkening sky and luxuriously exhaled the smoke. Then she dropped the remains of the cigarillo to the deck and ground it out with the sole of one of her scuffed knee boots.

Scars and K'jarr stood with her awaiting orders. It had been decided that while at sea, even Shailiha would come under Tyranny's command. This would be the princess' first ocean voyage, and Tyranny fervently hoped that the short spell Faegan had cast over Shailiha the previous night would keep her from becoming seasick. If the portal worked, they would exit only one day's sail from the Citadel, putting them right into demonslaver-infested waters. There would be no time for anyone to be ill.

Tyranny looked over at Scars. Her perpetually shirtless, muscle-bound first mate smiled in response. He was more than ready to intercept however many of Wulfgar's demonslavers they could find.

"Is everything in place?" she asked.

"Yes, Captain," he answered. "All of the sails are furled and double-tied. All of the hatches are closed and locked; the ship's wheel is tied off, and the rudder secured. All of our crew members and as many of the Minion warriors as possible have gone below. We're as ready as we will ever be."

After giving Scars a nod, Tyranny turned to K'jarr. "And your warriors remaining above decks, they are lashed to the gunwales and masts?"

"Yes, Captain," he answered. "We only await your command to begin."

"Very well," Tyranny said. "It's time."

K'jarr walked over to the foremast, followed by Scars, Tyranny, and Shailiha. The women watched as Scars tied K'jarr to the mast. Then Tyranny did the same for Scars, pulling the knots as tight as she could. When she was finished, she looked up at them both.

"Good luck, gentlemen," she said. "The Afterlife willing, we'll see you on the other side."

Taking Shailiha by the arm, Tyranny walked her to the prow of the ship, where she tied the princess securely to several iron rings that had been screwed into the gunwale just for this purpose. Once satisfied, she did the same to herself, as best she could. She looked over at Shailiha.

"I fear we may be in for a very rough ride," she said. "Even Faegan isn't sure how long it will last. Not exactly the most genteel way to take your first sea voyage, is it?"

"True." Shailiha did her best to smile. "But I trust in Faegan. What shall be, shall be."

Tyranny nodded. She looked up into the sky near the bow of the ship and called down the warrior who had been hovering there, waiting for her command. He was by her side in an instant.

"Tell Master Faegan that all is ready," she ordered.

The warrior clicked his heels together. "I live to serve," came the reply, and he launched himself toward the litter. From their places in the bow Shailiha and Tyranny could just make out Faegan's form. They watched the wizard raise his hands.

Almost at once the Reprise's anchor rose from the seafloor, its chain clanking as the anchor wheel took up its length. Then the anchor slipped itself up and into its mooring station. The unfettered Reprise drifted freely. That was when the howling began.

Just forward of the bow, a huge azure portal formed. Its swirling vortex was as tall and as broad as the ship.

Then the howling increased. Shailiha thought her eardrums might burst, and suddenly felt terrified. She had been through one of Faegan's portals before, but it had never made noise.

As the vortex engulfed the bow of the Reprise, Shailiha began to feel the effects of the portal making her sleepy and dizzy. She tried to call out to Tyranny, but she couldn't make her mouth work, much less make herself heard above the din.

Her head slumped to her breast.

Far above, Faegan and the others watched as the shrieking, whirling azure portal swallowed up the warship and then disappeared. stunned, bratach lowered his spyglass. he stood upon the invisible frigate, his endowed blood shielded from Faegan's senses, savoring the marvelous coincidence that had seen him checking his ship and its demonslavers the same day Faegan had used his portal. Initially, his interest had been piqued by the sight of Tyranny and the Minions making preparations to get under way. Then, when Faegan had unexpectedly appeared in a litter overhead, he knew he would simply have to stay to learn what he could.

What the crafty, crippled old wizard had just accomplished was impressive. Bratach could not be sure where the Reprise was going, but he had his suspicions. Still, if the plan was to attack the Citadel, why send only one ship? The Minion force aboard her was not sufficient to seize the island. Why weren't the First Wizard and the Jin'Sai aboard? But in the end, none of that mattered. Even if that was where the Reprise was headed, Bratach had no way to warn his lord in time.

Looking back to the sky, he saw Faegan's litter depart for Tammerland. As the litter shrank against the sunset, another thought occurred to him. Faegan had been very clever-but not quite clever enough. Now Bratach knew Faegan's secret of the portal. When his master arrived, together they would turn it against their enemy.

Smiling, Bratach turned and walked down the deck, feeling his way along the invisible gunwale until he found the gangway. He walked carefully down the stairs and went to confer with his demonslavers. more than halfway across the sea, an azure radiance grew and grew until the portal's swirling vortex formed and the deafening howling began. It was night and the seas were high. The sky was cloudy and threatening. In the distance the first branches of lightning were visible, scratching their way closer across the darkness.

Like some plague-ridden ghost ship from the past suddenly returned to haunt the present, the Reprise was vomited from the portal's mouth to land harshly upon the waves. Its job done, the portal vanished.

The ocean tossed the ship back and forth mercilessly. One of her masts was cracked and her bowsprit was gone. Her sails still furled and her ship's wheel tied off, she was helpless against the sea.

Then the first of the stressed planks in her keel suddenly let loose. Seawater rushed in. The storm arrived and the rain began in earnest, bringing with it thunder and lighting. White-capped waves rose higher as the storm-tossed ship began to list from the water invading her belly. Despite the storm and the ship's violent rocking, none of those aboard had yet awoken from the passage through the portal.

Her head lying upon her chest and the gold medallion around her neck swinging back and forth in the relentless rain, Shailiha of the House of Galland slumped forward in her bonds.

Then lightning clove the mizzen mast in two. When it came crashing down upon the deck it fell upon deaf ears.