The Ultimate Helm

Chapter Thirty-Seven

They could do nothing but watch helplessly, frozen, as Cwelanas battled the neogi. They had been caught unawares as Cwelanas ran to check the hangar door. B'Laath'a, waiting in the cover of the jamberry trees, had stepped out and cast a spell at them, holding them immobile where they stood.

They watched as Cwelanas killed Coh and the mage leaped to take his place. Then B'Laath'a was destroyed with the power of her chain mail. Cwelanas fell to the ground. The spell holding the warriors was broken with B'Laath'a's death, and they jumped to help the elf.

She was barely awake, shivering as though with intense cold. CassaRoc knew a bad fever when he saw one, and this one was the worst he had ever seen. "You'll be all right. We need to get you a healer. Can you take the helm like this?"

She tried to shrug. "It doesn't matter," she said. Her voice was barely above a whisper. "I have to, don't I?"

CassaRoc pushed back a strand of hair. The wounds in her shoulder were angry and red, puckered like craters and surrounded by yellow and blue bruises. "Are you sure?"

Cwelanas smiled through her pain. She felt her body shiver with a reserve of energy, and her pain began to slowly recede. The chain mail Teldin had given her played its power through her like a healing flow of energy. "I think I will be fine. Teldin has taken care of that. We must go."

In the smalljammers control room, CassaRoc helped Cwelanas take her seat. Instantly, she felt better, at peace, as the ship warmed to her touch. Its energies flowed through her, giving her strength. "We still have to get out of the gardens," she observed.

The others looked at her, confused. They had never caught up with her to examine the hangar doors. "What do you mean?" Djan asked. I thought Teldin told us to sail away from here."

"Yes," she said, "but to cast off we must first get out of the gardens, and neither of the doors will open."

CassaRoc shook his head sadly and rubbed the bridge of his nose. "Damn," he said. "Damn."

The ship was pounded from above, and the collision reverberated like thunder above their heads. The Spelljammer shook as though it were being slammed by a giant hammer. The warriors sprawled to the cabin deck. The hammering came closer, closer, rolling heavily like a bouncing boulder, and the ship shook with its thudding impact.

The wall of the gardens exploded inward in a hail debris from the Spelljammer's thick hull. Rubble slammed against the smalljammer, then pattered like hard rain as the echo of the explosion died away.

Cwelanas looked up, coughing as she inhaled dust. The others stood around her.

"Look!" Na'Shee said, pointing.