Sumi looked down in horror.  Curled around her sai, Tagtug squirmed on the deck of the raft.  She had stabbed him in the stomach just as Lokasenna had done the day before.  His whimpering was drowned out by the sound of the pursuing marroks whose growls, hisses and howls rose to a crescendo when they realised they had been denied their prey.

 

 

The sun had set.  With the night came the rain and it came down hard.  The river was flowing firmly around them, but every bend revealed another stretch of water and not the coastline they so desperately sought.  Sumi tried to keep the raft out of the brambles that lined the river’s banks, but her exhaustion was getting the better of her.  In the centre of the raft sat Lara, her head bowed down and her cloak wrapped around her body.  Her tail was coiled around Tagtug, who lay cradled securely in the Moraen’s embrace.  His breathing was shallow and laboured.  Although Lara had sealed his wound, he did not show any sign of recovery.

         ‘Here Tagtug,’ she said gently as she forced the last veganistone into his mouth.  ‘Swallow this.’

         Sumi knelt down beside Tagtug and held him down, anticipating the fury that would follow the medication.  He bit down on the veganistone and after some effort managed to swallow its sweet meat.  He then rolled over on his side and went to sleep.

         ‘What’s he doing?’ Sumi said, agitated by his behaviour.  ‘Did the stone not work?’

         ‘I’m afraid not,’ Lara said sadly.  ‘I have seen this once before.  His injuries are too extensive.  The stone has no effect upon him.’

          Sumi put her hands up to her burnt face and groaned.  ‘This is my fault Lara!’

          Lara rounded on her with surprising passion.  ‘Don’t be ridiculous Sumi!  It was an accident.’

          ‘I won’t be able to live with myself should he die.’

          ‘Enough!  You will learn to live with yourself because I can’t do this on my own.  I won’t make it to the Sessymir breach without you.’

          Sumi gazed despondently at her.  ‘You gave him your last veganistone.  You were keeping it for your daughter.  Just in case –’

          ‘Then you must make sure she doesn’t need it.  Get me into the Endless before any harm comes to her.’

          Sumi stared out into the sheets of rain slapping hard across the skin of the river.  Somewhere out there, beyond the rain, lay a doorway into the Endless.  Somehow, she had to make sure that Lara and her daughter were reunited.  The fight against Caliban had lost all its significance as a war.  It was not a war.  It was much more personal than that.  It was more like a game of Siege, the outcome of which would not be decided by who had the superior might, but who had the more determined will, and there was none more determined than she.

 

 

‘We’re going to make it,’ Sumi said to herself as she steered the raft down the river.  The darkness had dissolved and landscape around them had become a wet blur.  Somewhere beyond the thick, obese clouds, the Myr’s moons had descended to their beds beyond the horizon.  ‘The morning has come.’

          Lara breathed a sigh of relief.  ‘Good.  At least we won’t have to worry about Ghul for a while.’

          ‘You’re awake.’

          ‘I rarely sleep.’

          ‘Is that a Pryderi thing?’

          ‘No, it’s a being-really-scared thing.’

          Sumi looked at Tagtug in the midst of Lara’s coils.  He had hardly moved the entire night.  ‘If we don’t find help for him soon, he’ll die.’

          ‘He’s shivering.’

          ‘We need to get him dry.’

          Lara’s mind floated away to the day she had left Bregon bound for Grisandole.

 

---

 

It was an overcast day but Lara had torn a hole in the clouds with an incantation Arinna had taught her years before.  It was a simple spell and considered a waste of magick by some in the coven, but as the sunlight streamed through the gap in the grey blanket above, Lara couldn’t think of a better use for her abilities.

 

---

 

‘Maybe there’s something I can do,’ Lara said with more joy in her voice than could be hoped for in their bleak situation.  She fell into a meditative trance and her mouth started shaping strange words.  Sumi could just hear her above the splashing of the river.

          Above, the clouds thundered as if angered by the witch’s incantation.  Her voice grew louder and the cloud roared back.

          And then to Sumi’s surprise the clouds above parted and the morning light streamed through.  All around the low-lying clouds reverberated aggrieved by the slice of daylight in their presence.

          As the trio swept down the river, the hole in the clouds followed them.  Sumi sat back amazed at what her Pryderi companion had achieved.  Small, watery explosions detonated all across the river as the rain teemed down, but not a drop fell on the raft.  Through the rift in the clouds above, Sumi saw a flock of crimson larida flying northward, and she was struck with an overwhelming sense of hope.

 

 

The raft swung around a bend in the river and a magnificent seascape was revealed.  The pounding waves of a heavy, black ocean exploded upon an empty beach.  Out beyond the surf, twelve dark shatterstone stacks stood silently guarding the small hamlet.  These rocky sentinels rose up from the crashing waves in a wide semi-circle around the beach.  The formations were at least fifty yards high resembling the teeth of some hideous monster of the deep.  To the right of the shatterstone stacks, a manmade breakwater curled around one side of the shallow bay.  Where the breakwater met the shoreline a cluttered collection of buildings hugged the beach.

          The Wort had broadened out to a dark estuary.  On the eastern side of the swirling waters a landing came into view.  Three small boats were tethered to the dock but there was room for the raft on the far side.

 

 

Sumi stepped out onto the landing.  ‘Do you know where we are Lara?’

          ‘Yes.  The bay is called the Wyrm’s Jaw, for obvious reasons.’  She pointed at the shatterstone obelisks in case the reasons weren’t so obvious to Sumi.

          ‘This looks like a Sessymirian outpost.  Look at the design of the dwellings.’

Lara nodded.  ‘We’re in Providence.’

          The squat, utilitarian buildings assembled out of sheets of black steel and beams of iron were distinctly Sessymirian.  The structures huddled together facing the cold wasteland of the sea.  There was no sign of life in the small settlement.

          Sumi inspected the boats beside them.  ‘I thought all the Sessymirians left Morae many years ago. These boats are in perfectly good condition.  They haven’t been abandoned.’

          ‘Most Sessymirians departed when they had hunted the leviatha within an inch away from extinction, but some remained.  Believe it or not, there are some Sessymirians who are quite content with a quiet life, away from the Cold mines, the pelt trade and the slaughter of leviatha.

          Lara’s sunlight spell faded and the trio were immediately spattered by thick drops of rain.  ‘Just our luck!’ Lara groaned as she held Tagtug to her breast, trying to shield him from the cold wind and even colder rain.   

          At one end of the landing was an iron track that disappeared under a barred grate set into an opening in the steep bank running down the east bank of the river. Sumi tried to lift the grate but it would not budge.

          ‘This probably connects to a tavern or general store,’ Lara observed.  ‘It probably locks from the inside.’

          ‘We need to get indoors,’ Sumi said looking across at Tagtug who was squirming in Lara’s arms as the rain flattened her cloak to his fur.

          Sumi picked up the few supplies they had left and made her way up to the metal buildings above.  Lara followed slowly behind.  Although Providence was only a small settlement, she found it disconcerting to find it completely devoid of any signs of life.  In a land overrun by Ghul, it was not comforting development.

 

 

The hanging signboard of a tavern flapped in the breeze. Scrawled across this rusting piece of metal in dark brown paint was the name of the establishment – The Huk’s Vile Breath.   ‘Hardly a welcoming name for a pub,’ Sumi mused. ‘Very Sessymirian.’

          She swung open the heavy steel door and entered the building.  The tavern’s lanterns had burnt out but a few shatterbugs nestled in a corner threw their subdued light upon the room.  The tavern had few decorations other than the stuffed heads of local wildlife mounted on the walls.  Metal table and chairs did little to make the place seem more welcoming.  A number of tankards lay on their sides in the middle of puddles of ale on the bar.

          ‘Nobody’s home,’ said Lara as she slithered through the door with Tagtug in her arms.

          ‘What’s that smell?’ Sumi said, twisting up the undamaged side of her face as a potent, stale odour made itself known.

          Tagtug squirmed about also disturbed by the stench.  It came from the far side of the tavern where a long, beer-stained bar stretched from wall to wall.  Sumi made her way across the room as Lara carefully shut the door behind them.  Something about the place made her uneasy.  She slithered across to join her companion but the deeper she went into the room the more substantial her sense of dread became.  She tenderly placed Tagtug on the bar and rolled her cloak up into a pillow for his furry head.

          Behind the bar Sumi found a trap door to the cellar.  She threw the supplies she had been carrying on the floor and took hold of the thick, iron ring that served as the cellar door’s handle.  Pulling with all her might, she lifted the door and the tavern was assaulted by the smell of decomposing bodies.

          ‘By the gods!’ she exclaimed as she knelt on the floor looking down through the opening in the floor.  ‘I think I’ve found where the Sessymirians went.’

          Holding her hand over her face, Lara slithered over to the entry to the cellar and looked down.  It was dim but not so dark that she was unable to see the horrors that lay below.  The wan light of day drifted into the cellar through the grate they had noticed by the landing earlier.  Though this grate lay at the far end of an adjoining passageway, the light was enough to illuminate a mass of corpses that lay in grotesque poses on the floor below.  Most of the bodies were punctuated by savage wounds.  Some even had been decapitated.  Despite the blood that covered the bodies like a crimson layer of dew, Lara recognised them as Sessymirians.  There would have been at least thirty bodies down there.

          She rolled onto her side and vomited.

          Sumi dashed away from the bar.  She stopped at the window and looked out at the shapes she had seen gathering on the grey sands outside the tavern.  ‘What are Pryderi doing here?’

          Lara shot upright.  ‘What?’

          Sumi gestured to the beach.  ‘And they’re not alone.’

          Lara quickly slithered back across the tavern to where her companion was crouched under the sill of a small window.  Beyond the filthy glass, on the beach outside, she could see the serpentine shapes of the Pryderi, flanked by the cadaverous figures of the Ghul.

          ‘How can this be?’ growled Sumi.  ‘I thought the Ghul could not tolerate the light of day.’

          ‘Maybe the dark clouds are enough to shelter the Ghul from the sun.’

          ‘Do you know any of these witches?’ Sumi whispered.

          ‘No, I don’t think so.  It’s hard to tell from here.  Wait!’  One of the Pryderi stepped forward scanning the buildings before her. She had dark hair that shone lustrously despite the clouded sky above her.  Lara leaned closer to the window and her face dropped. ‘It can’t be!’

          Sumi recognised her too. ‘Arinna Brine.’

          She was talking to a tall, thin Ghul female, an officer with long white hair who wore a coiled whip at her side.  Lara gasped.  It was Chabriel, the one who had stolen her daughter away.

          ‘Let’s go,’ whispered Sumi said placing a hand on Lara’s forearm and pulling her away from the window.

          ‘Wait!  I need to see what’s happening out there.’  She broke away from her companion and turned her attention back to the unthinkable scene before her.  She could not be sure she saw correctly, but it seemed to Lara that Arinna was giving Chabriel instructions.  She pointed at the building next door to the tavern and within moments a cadre of Ghul were dispatched to investigate it.

 

 

Lara’s mind was in chaos.  Her best friend now sided with the Ghul.  Thoughts of abandonment and betrayal filled her head.  With all the uncontrolled mental images that were painted across her brain, she should not have been surprised by what happened next.  Arinna Brine, the witch who could hear the thoughts of others, was looking straight at the tavern window.

Lara and Sumi ducked as one.

          ‘Do you think she saw us?’ Lara panted.

          ‘We’ll soon find out. Come on – we’ve got to hide.’

          ‘Perhaps I could talk to her.’

          ‘Are you mad?’

          Lara lifted her head slowly and peered through the dirty window.  Out on the sands, Arinna was hunched over, her head hovering just a little above hands.  She seemed to be chanting a spell.  Her tail twitched back and forth as the incantation grew in intensity.   Suddenly, an explosive force shot out of her hands shattering the glass of the window Lara had been looking through.

          ‘You don’t want to talk to her!’ Sumi scolded as she took Lara’s hand and ran back across the tavern.  ‘Follow me. I have an idea.’

          Sumi ducked behind the bar and picking up Tagtug, quickly made her way to the cellar door.  Tagtug twisted his head back and forth disturbed by the stench that was wrapping itself around his head.  Ignoring his mute protestations, Sumi dropped into the room below.

          Lara went to follow but found she could not descend the small ladder that led down to the bloody sculpture of rotting flesh that lay beneath her.  Her face had turned pale.  ‘Sumi, I can’t go down there.’

          ‘If you don’t hurry, you’ll be joining them forever!’ Sumi chastised her.  ‘Now shut the trap door!’

          As soon as she did it, they could hear the sound of footsteps on the boards above.  The Ghul had entered the tavern.

          ‘Quick!  Under the bodies!’ Sumi commanded.

          The press of dead flesh against her body made Lara nauseous.  The effluvium of the Sessymirians’ decaying bodies filled her nose and the small breeze that blew in from the passageway leading to the grate by the river did nothing to dispel the stench.

          With her arms tightly wrapped around Tagtug, Sumi lay under the body of a huge man who would have smelt dreadful even if he were not dead.  Lara lay next to them with the body of a similarly large Sessymirian woman draped across her.  She twisted herself around and peered out through the knotted blonde locks of the bloody corpse that hugged her in a gruesome embrace.

          Footsteps thumped across the floor above, coming closer and closer to the bar above their heads.

          Lara could feel Tagtug shifting about next to her.  She could tell he was agitated.  He kept swallowing and grunting; Lara realised he trying to clear his throat quietly.  Suddenly he coughed and blood from days of internal bleeding sprayed out his mouth accompanied by a grotesque hacking cough.

          The footsteps stopped directly overhead.  The trapdoor opened.  Moments later, Chabriel’s pallid face appeared and stared at the mound of bodies below her.  She could see no sign of Sumi, Tagtug or Lara but she was no fool. ‘There in here!’ she called to others who promptly stomped across to her side.  ‘Kill the Mabbit and the Susanese woman.  The Moraen must be taken alive.  Caliban wants the witch.’

          Lara froze.  The hunt had become a lot more specific.  ‘Wants me?’ she whispered to Sumi.  ‘Why would he want me?’

          Sumi wasn’t listening. She was rifling through a leather pouch hanging off the belt of the dead Sessymirian next to her.  ‘Now these could be useful!’ she said to herself.

          ‘What are you talking about?’ asked Lara who could not see her companion’s hands rummaging across the body of the dead man beside her.

          ‘Wait!’ came a familiar voice.  It was Arinna.  Lara had heard that voice a thousand times before and yet now it seemed unfamiliar.  Something had changed.  She tried to quell the rising terror in her stomach.

          ‘Hold off your soldiers Chabriel.  We can try diplomacy first,’ Arinna said confidently.  Lara was shocked by the authoritative tone she took with the Ghul.  Her friend was clearly in charge.  That should have filled Lara with hope but it only made her feel even sicker. ‘Tell your squad to move back lest they burn. We need a little light here.’

          ‘En Ilumina!’

          The cellar was filled with an intense light that revealed the massacre of Providence in gruesome detail.  Lara gasped loudly, impressed with the ease with which Arinna had invoked the incantation.  ‘I struggle with that spell!  She’s very good.’

          Arinna’s voice floated down through the trapdoor.  ‘Little One, you have no idea how good I’ve become.  Have you forgotten I can hear every word you’re thinking, not to mention everything you whisper to your new friend there?  Please come out before this gets messy.’

          ‘We can’t stay here!’ Sumi whispered to Lara, despite the claim Arinna had made about hearing their very thoughts. ‘We can get out via the service tunnel.’  Suddenly her voice brightened as she lifted her head slightly so she could see around her.  ‘Look Lara!  The sun is out!  If we make it outside, we’ll be safe!’

          ‘Stay put, Little One,’ came Arinna’s voice.  ‘I don’t want to hurt you.’

          Sumi pushed the heavy Sessymirian to one side so she could see Lara.  Her face was fixed in a stern expression.  ‘Don’t trust her Lara!’

          ‘She’s my friend.’

          ‘I think a few things have changed since you saw her last.’

 

 

Suddenly the entire floor above them was ripped apart.  Thick timbers became splinters.  Metal bolts crumpled and the stone wall of the cellar shook.  Standing at the edge of the vast pit she’d created in the middle of the tavern, Arinna Brine glowered as she scanned the bodies below for Lara and her companions.

          There was nothing in Arinna’s eyes that Lara recognised.  Her gaze was fierce, her expression hard.  Several Pryderi stood behind Arinna.  Their faces lacked Arinna’s malevolent intensity and Lara could sense that they were reluctant accomplices rather than any angry mob.  It was not hard to imagine why they were there – for the sake of their children.  It seemed ridiculous to consider a witch killing a fellow Myrran, but the bond between mother and daughter among the Pryderi was more acute than other races could imagine and if it came down to a choice, they would not hesitate to kill Sumi and Tagtug.

          The Pryderi were flanked by numerous Ghul who edged as close to the gaping hole as Arinna’s brilliant light would allow.  Realising that they were temporarily protected by this light, Sumi grabbed Lara’s arm and shouted, ‘Run for it!’

          She thrust herself out of the mound of bodies and quickly pulled Tagtug free.  With an agility beyond anything Lara had ever seen before, Sumi jumped over the corpses and landed at the mouth of the service tunnel that ran fifty yards down to the outlet by the river.

          ‘No you don’t!’ Arinna snarled and immediately the white light that filled the cellar vanished.  As if on cue, a number of Ghul leapt down from the floor above, drawing their bone swords as they fell.  As soon as they landed on the fleshy floor of the cellar, they scrambled over to stop their enemies from escaping.

          It was all the encouragement Lara needed to slither out of there.  She had no time for an incantation.  Her only hope was reaching the sunlight outside.

          Lara moved quickly down the service tunnel.  Sumi was already at the far end, fighting with the heavy iron latch that fixed the grate in its iron frame.  ‘It’s stuck!’ she exclaimed furiously.  They were so close to safety Sumi could stick her arm out and see the sunlight fall on her skin.  But if they could not open the grate, all the sunlight in the heavens would not grant them salvation.

          Lara looked back up the service tunnel.  ‘Duck!’ she screamed, pushing Sumi to the floor as a blazing fireball shot overhead.  It continued out through the grate and tore through the air above the river until it slammed into the bank on the far side in a blazing explosion of rock, fire and water.  Lara looked at the bars of the grate.  The metal glowed as if it were on the verge of melting.  The biting smell of molten metal was preferable to that of decaying flesh, but it was hardly reassuring.  The fiery incantation highlighted just how far Arinna was willing to go to stop them from leaving.

          ‘She cast En Pyrrha!’ Lara exclaimed.  ‘In mere seconds…’

          ‘I can take her down,’ Sumi said looking back towards the cellar.  She could see the figure of Arinna hunched over, her hands trembling in the throes of a second spell.

          ‘No, you can’t!’ cried Lara, her heart torn between her desire to live and her love for the one trying to kill her.

          ‘She’s no longer your friend, Lara!’

          Another ball of fire shot by overhead. The air sizzled as the flaming orb splashed through the grate and out across the river.  In the wake of the fireball’s passing the metal bars were aglow.  Lara’s decision to flee from the cellar was enough to change Arinna’s mind about only killing Tagtug and Sumi.  All lives were forfeit now.  But even that knowledge wasn’t enough to convince Lara to agree to Sumi’s desire to strike back.  ‘Sumi, I can’t allow you to –’

          ‘I’m sorry Lara, but I don’t require your permission.’  Sumi’s hand flew forward hurtling her sai down the tunnel straight at Arinna’s heart.  

          With a small gesture Arinna quickly invoked a spell to deflect the sai, then continued on with the more complex incantation she had begun.

          ‘In the middle of one spell she cast another!’ exclaimed Lara.  ‘That’s impossible!’

          Above their heads, a beam which ran the length of the tunnel started shaking.  Arinna’s companions dropped into the cellar and joined in her incantation.  The beam began to buckle and splinter.  Dirt and shards of rock started to fall from the ceiling of the passage.

          ‘Now I don’t even know what that spell is called,’ Lara said in awe.

          ‘We’re going to be buried alive if we don’t get this grate open,’ Sumi yelled.  She took a look at the glowing metal bars and muttered, ‘I’ll probably regret this.’  She shot her hands out and grabbed the grate.  The smell of her flesh being seared against the metal filled her nose, but her inability to feel heat protected her from the intense pain that should have resulted.  She tugged hard at the grate but it would not budge.

          ‘Sumi, no!’ Lara screamed.  ‘You’ll burn your hands.’

          ‘It doesn’t matter if I can’t feel it,’ Sumi replied.  ‘Pick up Tagtug.  We’re getting out of here!’  She pulled again as the beam above their heads shattered.  A second later the tunnel was no more.  

 

 

Sumi, Lara and Tagtug rolled out into daylight moments before the tunnel’s collapse.  The cloud of dirt and dust followed the trio out onto the landing, but it was quickly blown away by a brisk breeze coming in from the ocean.

         Lara quickly lay Tagtug on the landing and took hold of Sumi’s wrists.  She took one look at the burnt skin and groaned piteously.

          Sumi ripped her hands away.  ‘There’s no time to worry about me right now,’ she said brusquely.  She gazed about looking for any sign of danger.  ‘We’re safe for the moment.  The Ghul won’t follow us out into the sun, and it will take some time for the Pryderi to get out of the cellar.’

          ‘But your hands –’ Lara said sadly.

          ‘My hands now match my face,’ Sumi said sardonically.  ‘We’ll take a skiff.  Take Tagtug and get in that one.’

          ‘Where are you going?’

          ‘I’m going to make sure we’re not followed.’  Sumi jumped onto the raft they had taken from Coldbrook and picked up the pole she had used to steer the craft down the river.  Then one by one, she hopped into the other boats and rammed the pole through the deck of each.  ‘Let’s hope your friends know how to swim,’ she said with a wry smile on her face.

          ‘They don’t,’ answered Lara.  No Pryderi did.  This was a significant point as she clambered into the small boat the Sumi planned to pilot across the Myr’s most formidable ocean, but she decided not to dwell on it.

          Sumi jumped into the bow seat of the skiff.  In a fluid movement, she pulled at the tiller with one hand and unfastened the sheet connected to the mainsail with the other.  Moments later the sail scooted up the mast where the stiff northerly wind quickly filled it with cold air.  Lara cast off from the bollard and within seconds the wind ripped them out into the middle of the Wort.  ‘Do you know how to drive this thing?’ she called to Sumi, slightly unnerved by the speed at which the small boat sliced through the languid waters of the river.

          ‘Yes. I was raised in Kumoku. I’ve been sailing skiffs since I was a child.’

          ‘Of course you have,’ muttered Lara, who was slowly getting accustomed to the fact that Sumi was accomplished in just about every area of Myrran endeavour.  ‘What was I thinking?’

          Sumi looked out into the pounding surf before her.  ‘Getting out through the breakers will be hard. The wind is hitting us almost front on so we’ll have to tack.’

 

 

Fortunately the tide was high so they had no trouble in getting over the sandbank that lay where the river met the sea.  As they pulled out into the brutally cold waters of the Oshalla Ocean, Lara looked back towards the beach.  Arinna and her fellow Pryderi had exited the tavern and were making their way out to the breakwater that hugged the eastern side of the bay.

          Sumi saw them too.  ‘We’re safe from her aren’t we?’

          Arinna slithered out to the end of the breakwater.  The coven took up positions behind her.  Closing their eyes, they began an incantation that could not be heard over the waves that pounded on the sharp black rocks of the breakwater.

          ‘I think I know what she’ll do next,’ said Lara.

          ‘What do you mean?’

          ‘She cannot hope to hit us with En Pyrrha from the shore. And the Pryderi aren’t sailors. Her only hope is to get the Ghul to fire upon us from the shore.’

          ‘How can she do that?  The sun has risen and the clouds have broken up.  The Ghul dare not follow the witches outside.’

          ‘They can bring back the darkness.  Centuries ago the Pryderi could cast a spell called En Cumula.  It’s a rain spell of sorts.  Of all the elemental incantations, it is the most difficult. But something’s changed. These witches are a lot more powerful than they should be.  They know spells that have long since faded from our knowledge.’

          They both realised it at the same time.  ‘They have the Incanto!’ Sumi exclaimed.  She looked above and was given confirmation of Lara’s suspicions.  The sky was darkening.  Clouds were thickening as was the light around them.  ‘How long will this spell take?’

          ‘I’m not sure.  A hole in the clouds is easy enough, but to summon clouds from thin air is another matter altogether.  I’d guess that even this coven will need a few minutes to cast it and will require all of them.’

          ‘Once the clouds cover the sun, the Ghul will step out of the shadows and pursue us.’

          Tethered to white poles inside the breakwater were numerous craft, most of which were more than a match for the skiff Sumi had selected for their escape.  Should the Ghul take to the boats, they would catch up to the skiff within an hour.  

          ‘Then we must get out of here quickly,’ Lara said.

          ‘No. We must rid ourselves of our pursuers. We must finish off these Ghul here and now.’

          ‘But how?’

          ‘Just trust me.  Lara I want you to talk to your friend.’

          ‘But the longer we stay here, the less chance we have for escape.’

          ‘No.  I have to make sure that the Ghul won’t be able to pursue us.  There is a way.’

          ‘I can’t talk to her.  Not now.’

          ‘You have to.  I’m going to take us close to the breakwater.  Close enough for Arinna to hit us.  You have to distract her.  Keep her occupied.  Should she pick up a stray thought, she’ll know what I intend and then we’ll be undone.  You have to trust me.’

          The thick surf slammed into the thin hull of the skiff as Sumi tacked back around so the boat was running parallel to the beach, heading east towards the breakwater.  Tagtug lay on the bottom of the skiff curled up in a tight ball.  

          Lara looked at the proud figure of Arinna at the head of the breakwater.  The wind blew her beautiful robes and hair out into the air, giving her ophidian form an heroic aspect.  ‘What makes you think that she will want to talk with me?

          ‘It’s in her interest to delay us.  She will not want to go back to Caliban empty-handed.’

          Lara stood up on the deck, the coil of her tails wrapped around the base of the mast.  She could see Arinna’s cold stare turn to disguised delight as Sumi tacked towards the breakwater.

          Lara stuck her head around the sail and asked Sumi, ‘What do I say to her?’

          ‘I don’t know – the first thing that comes into your head.’

          Lara looked up at the figure on the breakwater and screamed: ‘Filthy traitor!’

          Lara expected a mocking reply but Arinna’s tone was quite diffident. ‘I am sorry you see it that way, Little One,’ she called out across the waves.  ‘From your perspective, that may be true. From mine, it is not so.  I have finally chosen a side.  It simply is different to yours.’

          ‘It happens to be a different side to the one you were supporting in the Cloud Chamber,’ Lara retorted.

          ‘Things have changed.  They changed that day.  Whilst you sat listening to what the delegates were saying, I was listening to their thoughts.  I discovered what had been done to Caliban, what had been done to his daughter.  I discovered that not all present at the Assembly were on the same side.’

          ‘You’re talking about Lokasenna.’

          Arinna shook her head.  ‘Oh not just Lokasenna. One would expect Caliban’s daughter to support her father.’

          It was a revelation.  Arinna was suggesting there were others in that assembly who were fighting for Caliban rather than against him.  Lara paused before saying anything more.  Images of that day flickered across her mind.  The voices of the Pryderi on the breakwater grew in volume and the rhythm of the incantation accelerated, matching the beating of Lara’s heart.  The skiff moved closer to the rocky ramparts.  ‘Who else?’ she cried.

          ‘I think you can guess.’

          ‘Maeldune Canna.’

          ‘And?’

          'Yes.'

          ‘Now I’m not sure Caliban would appreciate me giving away his secrets. I’ll tell you this Little One, there is no Myrran unity. I’m not talking about one or two individuals here.  I’m talking about nations.’

          ‘Arinna, this is… hard to understand.  Even in light of what you uncovered in the Cloud Chamber, how could you so easily abandon –’

          ‘Oh come on Lara!’ Arinna snapped, dropping her genteel facade.  ‘We were abandoned long ago by the Myrrans.  We owe them nothing.  Have you forgotten it was the Morgai who took away the Incanto and crippled us for centuries.  It was the people of the Myr who have treated us like pariahs, not the Ghul.’

          ‘That’s right,’ sneered Lara.  ‘The Ghul just stole our children.’

          ‘A means to an end Lara. What I have done is safeguard the welfare – and future – of the Pryderi.’

          ‘You have gone mad.’

          Arinna’s face reddened.  Anger flared up in her eyes.  ‘If I have, is it any wonder?  With so many thoughts flying around in here?’  She tapped at her skull with her long fingers.  The gesture scared Lara.  Arinna’s manner had changed since they had said goodbye to each other on the stairs of Cessair Tower.  Behind Arinna’s imperious demeanour, Lara could detect despair.  It was in her eyes.  ‘I crave silence,’ she cried, ‘but only get deceit. At least with the Ghul their speech and thoughts are not at odds with one another.’

          ‘You have lost your mind.’

          ‘No. Not lost it. It is right where it has always been.  I have changed my mind.  Expanded it.’

          ‘That sounds like brainwashing,’ Lara scoffed.  

          ‘Brainwashing?’ Arinna bellowed across the surf that crashed upon the breakwater.  ‘No, Little One.  Quite the opposite.  I have met Caliban and I know his mind.  Don’t be mistaken, I see things more clearly than you.’

          ‘I doubt that Arinna,’ Lara screamed.  Overhead, thunder rolled as the clouds merged into a blanket of dark grey.

          ‘Lara.  You have a choice. Caliban will let you have your child back if you just –’

          ‘No Arinna.  I want her back on my terms.  Above the ground.  Free.’

          ‘I see what is before you should you continue down this tragic road you have taken.’

          ‘We will survive,’ Lara said proudly.  ‘We’ve got this far.’

          It was Arinna’s turn to scoff.  ‘This far?’ she sneered.  ‘You have such a long way to go, naïve girl.  The Oshalla Ocean is no lake you can paddle across on a lazy afternoon – it is a maelstrom.  If by miracle you actually make the coast of Sessymir, you’ll have roaming packs of marroks and huks to evade.  And then there’s the Sessymirians who have never responded well to uninvited guests.  What hope do you have?  Even if you make it all the way across the frozen wastes to the breach below Nilfheim, you’ll find a battalion of Ghul waiting for you.’

          Lara was outraged.  ‘You told Caliban of our mission?’

          ‘Mission?  The plot to kill him?  Of course he knows, but I did not tell him.  He has known about your mission longer than you have.  Why do you think the great Bannick Landen was killed?’

          The skiff was drawing past the edge of the breakwater.  At the bow of the skiff, Sumi ran a hand over her pockets feeling for what she had taken from the dead body in the cellar.  Reassured by the objects she had secreted there, she quickly drove all thought of them from her mind before Arinna could catch a glimpse of her plan.

          ‘Bannick Landen was a good man,’ growled Lara.  ‘So was Will Stoops.  And as for Edgar Worseley… I felt his heart.  It is as pure as his armour is clean.  Those were your words, Arinna!  And now he lies dead in the wilderness!  Dead at the hands of these monsters you now call allies.’  Lara’s voice rose, shrill and thin, as her emotions took over.  ‘And what of this poor Mabbit?  What has he done to deserve this?  What reason could you possibly have for the persecution of such an innocent –’

          ‘Persecution?  No-one knows what persecution feels like more than Caliban Grayson.’

          ‘You speak like an apostle.  Damn you Arinna – we are not his persecutors!’

          ‘You seek to assassinate him.’

          Sumi looked back towards the shore.  The beach was now much darker.  Nothing highlighted this more than the squad of Ghul soldiers that tentatively emerged from the tavern by the river.  The sky was not completely covered with a protective layer of clouds, but it would not be long.  Sumi knew her moment was approaching.  She turned to the intimidating figure on the breakwater.  ‘We seek to protect the innocent,’ she shouted.

          Arinna slithered forward to the very edge of the rocks.  ‘Sumi Kimura, you are not in this to protect anyone.  Your motivation not so altruistic, no matter how noble you pretend to be.’

          ‘What do you know of my motivation, witch?’

          ‘You seek revenge for the death of your dear husband Trojanu, killed when the Cabal were searching for Caliban’s brother – before he was found.’

          Sumi said nothing, allowing her anger to flood her mind, hiding the thoughts that lay there, waiting to be transformed into action.

          ‘Remiel Grayson was been found?’ Lara exclaimed.

          'Yes. Caliban is preparing for his arrival.’

          ‘His arrival.’  Sumi digested this.  Remiel Grayson was on his way to Caliban.  Just as she was.  Her mind was cast back to that day in the Cloud Chamber.  She thought of the people who were gathered there that day.  Some she had known, but others…  And then she realised.  ‘The priest, Father Gideon – it’s him isn’t it?’

          ‘Clever princess!  You are correct.  Caliban’s brother sat there in silence as you all deliberated over what to do.  He stayed mute whilst you all endorsed this fool’s errand.  If you want to lay blame for the deaths of your companions, put it at the feet of the priest who sat amongst you and said nothing.’

          ‘Said nothing?’ screamed Lara.  Her face was taut with rage.  ‘Who are you to talk of saying nothing?  Why did you not tell me this before?  Why did you not tell me this that night we said goodbye?’

          ‘I told you that night that I needed time to sort out all the chaos in my head.  My mind had been flooded with so many conflicting thoughts.  I needed to find peace and the only way to do that was to see Caliban.  The Ghul made that possible.’

          Lara’s mind drifted back to a conversation she and Arinna had whilst hanging from a sunlight bough back in Bregon Grove.  It was the day Lara had left for Grisandole on her ill-fated mission to recover the Incanto:

          ‘This is a bad situation Lara and I am not so proud that I will not make alliances with those I despise to ensure the safety of my child.’

          ‘I should have seen this coming,’ Lara muttered to herself.

          ‘It’s about reunification, Little One,’ Arinna said in response to the stray thought.  ‘As you may have noticed, I now have power to rival the Morgai.  Caliban has reunited the Pryderi with our ancient magick.  He has given us the Incanto.  And I have been reunited with my baby Pippa.  Caliban will be reunited with his brother.  Everything that has happened has worked towards that end.  Caliban’s end.’

          ‘This man you serve is a monster,’ Sumi growled.  ‘He unleashed the Cabal!’  Although her tone was savage, underneath her anger, she was pleased.  She had managed to keep the skiff close to the breakwater.  The Ghul had been drawn outside and the Pryderi were within range …

          ‘The Cabal’s return to the Myr was enough to drive Remiel Grayson out of hiding.  The outcome has justified their release,’ Arinna said dismissively.

          ‘Caliban has found his brother,’ Sumi contended, ‘but the Cabal remain, free to slaughter at will.’

          ‘Caliban knows the people of the Myr will never stand by him, just as they will never stand by us, Lara.  So they must be deemed against him.’

          ‘Listen to yourself,’ Lara snapped.  ‘You have sided with a man who abducted your own child.’  Tears of frustration formed in her eyes.  ‘We are no threat to you.  I just want to protect my baby.’

          ‘Caliban has also has been separated from his child.  And he has suffered worse.  Much worse.  If you had felt the pain he has endured, you would not be so quick to judge him.’

          ‘I don’t care what he has suffered, Arinna.  Nothing justifies what he has done to us. What he has done to you. What he has done to the Myr.

          ‘You should not care about the rest of the Myr. Do you think your Susanese friend there cares about you?  They hate us Lara.  All of them.  They always have.’

 

 

The Pryderi had almost completed their spell.  The Ghul had made their way over to the breakwater dodging the patches of sunlight that still fell on the beach.  Others had waded out into the waves and taken command of some of the boats moored inside the breakwater.  They did not bother with rigging the sails.  Instead they concentrated on rowing at a furious pace across the undulating waters.

          Lara pointed at the approaching Ghul.  ‘Look at what you have become, Arinna.  Helping these foul creatures to hunt down your own kind.’

          ‘Look at you!  Look at you, Lara. Hiding under dead bodies.  Fleeing one danger and heading into another.  You said it yourself – it is time for the Pryderi to come down out of the trees. Well, I’ve come down.’

          ‘To kill me,’ Lara said bluntly.

 

 

The Ghul took formation behind the Pryderi as Chabriel barked orders at them.  In response to these orders, each soldier produced a long, thin spike from a quiver slung across their backs.  

          Arinna rose up high on her tail.  ‘We have not come to Providence for you, Little One.  We have come for those.’  She pointed to the shatterstone stacks of the Wyrm’s Jaw and smiled enigmatically.

          ‘But why?’ Lara asked, shouting to be heard over the din of the witches’ chanting.  The last ray of sunshine faded as the spell reached its crescendo.  Sumi knew her time had come to act.  The thought blazed to the front of her mind and Arinna heard it.

          ‘Enough speech!’ the witch screeched.  ‘Chabriel – fire upon them!’

          ‘Take the sail!’ Sumi yelled as she shot up from the bench she been sitting on.  She jumped up onto the thin wedge of timber at the prow of the skiff, standing securely despite the irregularity of the roiling waves. She reached into her pockets and pulled out a collection of fishing hooks and lures that she had found in the pouch of the dead Sessymirian in the cellar.  With a deftness that defied belief, she slung these hooks through the air in rapid succession.  Despite the rolling waves and the distance between Sumi and her targets, she managed to achieve the impossible.    Moments later five of the Pryderi on the breakwater fell to the rocks clutching at the hooks that had been embedded in their throats.  Another volley from Sumi dropped another five witches.  It wasn’t enough to kill them, but it was enough to stop the incantation.

 

 

The Ghul didn’t get the chance to attack.  So transfixed was she by Sumi’s incredible skill, Chabriel had not given the order to fire.  She had watched dumbstruck as Sumi’s tiny projectiles sliced under the soft scales of the Pryderi.  She had said nothing as she watched the witches fall down in a writhing heap.  And there was nothing she could say as the sunlight rained down on the beach.  Without the incantation that created them, the clouds quickly fading into nothingness, allowing the glory of a cold, blue sky day to be revealed.

         Most of the Ghul were immolated instantly.  There were no screams or cries of pain.  Just fire.  Fire on the breakwater.  Fire on the beach.  Fire in the boats.  The sails of each skiff also caught alight.  It was a perversely beautiful thing to see the burning boats on the dark Oshalla waters.

          Lara turned her head to the breakwater and caught sight of a Ghul female darting for the shadowy safety of the tavern.  She had picked up one of the cloaks of the fallen witches and held it above her head.  It was thin but it was enough.  Chabriel had survived.

 

 

Once the coven had been felled, Sumi continued to fire volley after volley at Arinna.  The witch deflected the tiny missiles with a blocking spell, but Sumi didn’t care – she relished the opportunity to display her hatred for the traitorous woman.  

          This done, she quickly jumped back down into the skiff and swung the boat around so that it shot away from the breakwater before Arinna had a chance to unleash any offensive spells.

          Lara turned her head around to see the small settlement of Providence quickly receding over the mountainous waves of the Oshalla Ocean.  She could see the tiny figure of Arinna Brine at the edge of the breakwater, staring out across the dark waters.  Despite all that happened, she couldn’t help but feel sorry for her, and she wondered whether Arinna could hear her thoughts.  Deep in her heart she knew that the distance between them was now so great that it was unlikely Arinna could hear anything.

          Tagtug convulsed again – it was clear he was not going to make it.  On the edge of his mouth the froth of his saliva had dried into small flakes of white.  His eyes had closed and he shook uncontrollably.  Lara stroked his head but he had sunk into a deep delirium and was not even aware of her presence.

          Lara looked over at Sumi, one hand on the tiller, the other on the sheet controlling the sail. Her eyes were flicking across the night sky and then across the water. This pattern of behaviour repeated itself again and again.

          ‘What’s on your mind Sumi?’

          ‘Our direction.  The clouds now cover the sky so I have no bearing.  All I need is a star or three and I can find the way north.  But I have nothing.  For all I know we are now facing south.  If you could cut a hole in the clouds with your magick, I could set us in the right direction.’

          Lara closed her eyes in concentration.  Long seconds drifted past but to Sumi’s surprise nothing changed – the cloud cover remained impenetrable.

          ‘I’m sorry Sumi,’ Lara panted.  ‘It’s too thick.  I can’t break through.’

          ‘That’s alright Lara,’ Sumi responded, trying hard not to sound disappointed.  ‘We’ll find another way.’

          Lara looked out across the black swell surrounding them. It seemed hopeless.

          ‘We all have a part to play.  Of that I’m sure.’

          Although it was painful to think of Edgar, what he said was true.  Each of them did have a role to perform, a contribution to make.  She looked down at Tagtug.  He had played his part.  He had defended Sumi when Lokasenna had attacked her and he had saved them from the marroks at Coldbrook.  He looked so frail at the bottom of the boat, huddled around the small hempen bag he had carried all the way from his home in the Briar Patch.  Lara had stopped his bleeding and eased his pain but there was no avoiding the fact – he was dying.

          A cold wind buffeted the boat and Tagtug’s fur blew flat against his body revealing something golden against his chest.

          Lara gasped.

          ‘What is it?’ Sumi inquired, hearing the witch’s intake of breath.

          Lara held up the compass the Spriggan Mulupo had given Tagtug many months ago.

Sumi’s face beamed.  ‘His compass!  I had forgotten all about it.’

          ‘We’re going to get through this Sumi,’ Lara said determinedly as she handed the instrument over to Sumi.  

          ‘The compass doesn’t point north.  It points towards the Briar Patch, Tagtug’s home, but I can use that to work out our current heading.’  She concentrated for a moment and then released the sheet and yanked the tiller to her left.  The sail flipped to starboard.  ‘We were heading in the wrong direction.  We have come too far east.’

          ‘Tagtug saved us yet again,’ Lara noted.

          ‘Let’s hope we can return the favour,’ Sumi replied.

 

 

For two days, the small skiff drove on through squalls and waves taller than most trees.  Sumi said little, devoting all her concentration to piloting the boat across the treacherous waters.

          It was cold and it was wet but the thing that played most on Lara’s mind was the monotony of the seascape around them.  Everything was grey.  Each time they slipped over the summit of a wave, she caught a glimpse of the ocean around them.  It seemed endless.  The horizon was the same in all directions, except for the few islands that dotted the sea to the west.  

 

 

On the third day of the crossing, the wind had shifted around to the south and Sumi ran the boat under full sail.  Each time the skiff shot over the top of a wave, Lara felt her stomach lurch as the craft became airborne, flying through the cold air for what seemed like an eternity before slapping down on the dark water on the other side.  Sumi pushed on like an obsessed keeler.  

          ‘Do we have to go so fast?’ Lara called above the slicing winds.  

          Sumi pointed directly ahead where a mass of dark purple clouds churned above the grey horizon.  It was a storm as broad and violent as could be imagined.  ‘I want to avoid that!’

Lara looked quizzically at her companion.  ‘You want to avoid it by rushing headlong into it?’

          ‘I hope to get to shelter before it hits.’

          Lara felt ridiculous as she cast her eyes around the tumultuous waves that rose and fell around her.  ‘Shelter?  Where exactly would that be Sumi?’

          Sumi’s eyes drifted across the shifting surface of the Oshalla Ocean, searching for something but said nothing to Lara to explain her behaviour.  To the north, lightning flared and lit up the horizon.  Lara could see the sheets of rain that were draped across the sky like ragged grey curtains.

          Suddenly Sumi stood up in the boat and shouted with glee.  ‘There!  There it is!  There.’  She pointed down into the water off their starboard bow.

          At first Lara thought she had lost her senses.  After the sleepless nights and draining days, it seemed logical to assume that Sumi had succumbed to madness, but as the next wave pushed away and the skiff sailed down its smooth back, Lara could see there was something in the ocean.  It was the last thing she expected to see – a light.  It was about a league to the north of their vessel.  The waters there glowed bright orange as if they had swallowed the sun.  

          ‘What is it?’ Lara said captivated by the ethereal light.

          ‘It’s a good sign,’ Sumi said, with a mischievous grin on her face.  ‘We’re exactly where I hoped we would be.’  She straightened the tiller so that the skiff was headed directly towards the strange, orange light.

          ‘No, wait Sumi!  My mother once told me of creatures called the Binshanee.  They use beautiful lights to ensnare unwary sailors.  They lure them onto rocks.’

          ‘It’s not the Binshanee,’ Sumi said unequivocally.  ‘We are not close enough to the islands to fall under their influence.’

          They sailed over the next watery hill and what lay beyond was even more startling than the lights Lara had just seen.  In the middle of the turbulent seas lay a vast round patch of still water.  It was perfectly flat and upon it sat a small collection of ships.  Sumi piloted the skiff down the wave they had just climbed and slid out onto the great, glassy pond in the middle of the ocean.

          ‘How can this be?’ cried Lara as she looked up at the vessels that dwarfed their tiny skiff.  She tried to make sense of her surroundings but couldn’t.  ‘Where did these boats come from?’

          ‘Some have come from Susano,’ Sumi said proudly as she steered the skiff through the moored vessels.  ‘That beautiful white caravel there is called The Discovery.  It’s a Kompiran science vessel captained by the great Masuru Ochi.’

          ‘But what is this place?’ Lara said perplexed by all around her.  

          ‘It’s a science station.  Its formal name is Deep Sea Research Outpost Three but we simply call it Toshi Station after the Susanese engineer who designed it.’

          ‘Why didn’t you tell me about it?’

          ‘I didn’t want to get your hopes up.  I wasn’t sure I could find it.  It’s been many years since I last visited.’

          ‘You’ve been here before?’

          ‘Yes.  My brother works here.’

          Sumi steered the skiff around The Discovery’s white iron hull and a landing tower came into view.  It was a tall, metal tube that stuck out of the still waters like a pipe.  On one side of the tower a ladder led from the water up to a hatch halfway the shaft.  At the top of the shaft was a circular, observation deck enclosed in glass.  Sumi could see people standing at the window of this disk-shaped room and she raised a hand to signal a greeting.  An enthusiastic chorus of waving hands indicated that she was amongst friends.  The observation deck was a remarkable thing to see in the middle of the ocean, but Lara was too busy looking at something else to notice it.

          ‘Sumi, there are creatures in the water beneath us!’

          ‘Yes, but don’t be frightened.  The station is also home to a colony of Keelii.’

Lara shivered as the sleek body of one of the Keelii swam by the hull of the skiff.  It was about ten feet long and dark brown in colour.  As the Keelii passed, it playfully blew a spout of water out through a blowhole on top of its head.  Then with one sweep of its long, powerful arms, it dived under the skiff.  Its svelte body tapered away to a mass of long white tentacles that clasped together as it disappeared into the water.

          ‘Are they tame?’ Lara asked apprehensively.  In her youth, she had heard wild tales of Keelii that climbed aboard boats and mauled the crew.

          ‘Are they tame?’ Sumi laughed.  ‘I don’t think tame is a word I’d use to describe a highly sophisticated, civilised people.’

          Lara was stunned by the comment.  ‘But aren’t they just animals?’

          Suddenly the waters on the far side of the skiff were broken by two Keelii.  They rose high on their tentacles which they vibrated under the water to give them some stability above it.  The pair, a male and female, looked down at the three Myrrans in the skiff.  The male had a particularly kind face.  His bulbous black eyes peered at Lara with benign curiousity.  Under these gentle eyes his nostrils puffed open and shut as he breathed in the cold Oshalla air.  Long, grey whiskers hung from a short, rounded snout.  His wide mouth was curled up in a soft smile revealing rows of tiny sharp teeth.  His jaw was framed by a thick, grey beard that hung all the way down to his waist.  The female was lighter in colour.  Her face was not as wide nor did it have the whiskers her partner proudly groomed with his long webbed hands.  Whilst the female was bald on top of her head, she was not lacking in hair.  Long black locks flowed down the back and sides of her head, clinging to her wet body like a satin ball gown.

          Sumi stood up in the skiff and bowed to the Keelii.  They bowed back with a graceful flourish.  The female opened her mouth and spoke but it was not like any language Lara had ever heard.  To her, it sounded like the Keelii female was choking, but Sumi clearly understood it and nodded her head in response.

          The male spoke next and gestured towards Tagtug with his long webbed hand.

          ‘He has been wounded,’ Sumi said solemnly.

          The male nodded and spoke once more.  Sumi bowed again and said, ‘Thank-you Yuma.  Thank-you Dena.’  Just as quickly as they had appeared, the two Keelii disappeared into the still waters surrounding the skiff.

          ‘They’re going to help us.  They will look after Tagtug.’

          ‘How can you understand them?’ Lara asked incredulously.

          ‘I have studied their language. The clicks, whistles and grunts are part of a sophisticated lexicon that is much more complex than our own simple language.  It allows the Keelii a precision and subtlety that is absent in our speech.’

          ‘You make it sound as if they are smarter than us,’ Lara said joking.

          ‘Oh, they are,’ Sumi said unapologetically.  ‘Much smarter.  Intellectually they are like Colossi next to our tiny minds.’

          Lara looked into the deep waters and muttered to herself, ‘I always thought the Keelii were just animals.’

          ‘So they once thought of us,’ Sumi remarked as she sat back down in the skiff and steered it towards the tower at the centre of the calm body of water.  Overhead thunder roared.  ‘Let’s get inside before the storm washes us away.’  She reached down and picked up Tagtug, carefully placing him over her shoulder like a new-born baby.  With her other hand gripping the iron rails of the ladder on the side of the tower, she made her way up to a hatch that had been opened for them.

          Lara struggled getting up the ladder, but the warm light spilling out from the hatch above provided her with ample encouragement.

 

 

‘Matsuo!’ Sumi screamed as she ran across the lush rug that spanned the entire floor of the observation platform at the top of the tower.

         A young man in a long white coat ran to meet her.  He took her into his arms and held her tightly, laughing in delight as he clutched her to his chest.

          It was not difficult to see the family resemblance.  Matsuo Kimura stood the same height as his sister and had the same slight build.  His youthful face was similarly sprinkled with freckles and his eyes had the same demure quality that could be found in Sumi’s.

          He stood back and looked at her face.  He did not blench to see it so burnt and scarred, but his eyes betrayed the pain that he felt in seeing his beautiful sister disfigured in such a way.  He wanted to express his shock, wanted to ask her what had happened, but he knew there would be a time for that.  He had other things to say.  ‘I’m sorry I didn’t make it to your wedding.  And I’m sorry what happened to Trojanu.  And Mai.’

          Sumi opened her mouth to say something, but an incredible sorrow welled up inside her so she just rested her forehead on her brother’s chest as he stroked her back.  Trojanu had loved Matsuo.  They were terrific friends and Sumi knew that her brother would have taken Trojanu’s death hard.  They were cut from the same cloth.  Just having Matsuo near made Sumi painfully sensitive to the loss of her husband.  

          And then there was Mai – their sister who had never returned from the Skyfall.  She had vanished about the same time the Morrigu had appeared.  So much pain.  Sumi wondered when it would all end.

          She turned to where she had placed Tagtug on the rug.  ‘Can you save him?’

Matsuo nodded.  ‘Our surgeons will look after him.’  He tenderly put a hand to the burnt side of her face.  ‘And they can look after you too.’

          She shook her head.  ‘I will not trouble the Keelii with this.  My burns not pain me.  I will bear them like a banner for all to see.’

          ‘Sumi, you know they can fix this,’ Matsuo urged.

          ‘Matsuo, have you heard of what is going on in the world outside?’ Sumi asked.

          ‘I have heard terrible things,’ he conceded.

          ‘I seek to stop all that.  When this struggle is ended, I will come back and have the Keelii tend to my scars and injuries, but not before.  I am in no hurry.  I have no suitor to impress.’

Matsuo acquiesced with a warm smile.  He knew better than to try to change his sister’s mind.  For now.

 

 

Lara watched Sumi and Matsuo step onto a small round platform in the middle of the observation deck.  Matsuo’s face was upon the forlorn figure of Tagtug who had been wrapped upon in a blanket by some of his colleagues and given to Sumi.  Matsuo then pulled a lever on the small platform and it slowly dropped out of the floor and disappeared down the shaft.

         ‘Excuse me, Miss Brand,’ said a portly Kompiran man wearing a white uniform.  ‘My name is Mamoru Ochi.  I am the steward of this facility.  I would like to welcome you to Toshi Station.  Is there anything I can do for you?  Would you like a tour of the facility?  Or a hot meal perhaps?  You must be hungry.  Perhaps you would just like a cup of javo?  I saw the skiff you arrived in.  You are very brave.’

         He spoke in bursts.  Each of his short sentences was accompanied with a broad smile.  Although he meant well, Lara had so many things going through her head, that she could not entertain the thought of a conversation, so she politely said, ‘Just a cup of javo thank-you, Mr  Ochi.’

         ‘Very good, Miss Brand,’ he said jovially.  ‘I won’t be a moment.’

         Lara turned to look out the window.  She could feel the gaze of the other Myrrans on the observation deck, but they respectfully kept their distance.  They were unaccustomed to having unannounced guests and many of them had never seen a Moraen before, so their stares were understandable. 

          She coiled up by the window and watched the storm outside whip across the sea.  It was warm in the room and the rug was softer than anything she had felt before.  As dramatic as the windswept seascape outside was, within moments she fell into a dreamless sleep.  By the time Mamoru Ochi returned with a hot mug of javo, she was snoring.

 

 

The change in Tagtug was remarkable.  He looked as healthy as he did the day Lara had first laid eyes upon him in the Cloud Chamber back in Cessair.  He sat on the floor in front of Lara playing with the compass Mulupo had given him.  Occasionally he would look up at Lara and smile.  He was like a child.  There was no trace of the hardships he had endured.  The Keelii had done a remarkable job.  

          The sun that shone down on the icy seas outside crept across the thick red rug of the observation deck.  Tagtug wriggled his toes as the warm light caressed them.  He looked down at the strange valley in the ocean below the deck, where numerous ships rested on tranquil waters despite the furious waves that littered the turbulent seas not three hundred yards away.  

Sumi and Matsuo came over with a tray full of steaming bowls of poddoo soup and slices of hot bread.  The smell was intoxicating.  Sumi handed out a bowl to Tagtug who took it eagerly.  She then gave Lara her bowl and placed the tray on the rug and sat down to join her companions.  Matsuo also sat down and took a bowl from the tray and placed it in his lap.

          ‘Your friend seems much better,’ he observed, smiling at Lara as Tagtug slurped down his soup.

          ‘That’s for certain!’ Lara exclaimed merrily.  ‘That’s his third bowl of soup this morning.’

          Sumi laughed.  ‘I think the station will run out of poddoos if we stay here much longer.’

          Lara’s smile faded.  ‘But we can’t stay here forever,’ she said softly.

          ‘You are welcome to stay as long as you need to,’ Matsuo said gently.  ‘You cannot save your daughter on willpower alone.  You need to get your strength back.’

          Lara took a piece of bread from the tray and dipped it in her soup.  ‘Then we will be going soon Matsuo.  I feel stronger now than I did when we started this… adventure.  This place – it’s astounding.  It has rejuvenated me.’

          Matsuo beamed.  He was proud of Toshi Station.  Proud of the work they did there, proud of the way they lived and proud of the relationships they had forged with the Keelii.  ‘It is a special place indeed.’

          Lara looked out the window at the vessels below.  She could see Keelii swimming amongst them, playfully chasing one another around the ship’s hulls.  She could also see numerous sailors up in the rigging of the ships, enjoying the brief spell of sunshine.  Beyond the circle of calm water, huge waves pounded across Oshalla’s restless surface, a reminder of the turmoil beyond the sanctuary of the station.  ‘It’s astounding.  It really is, but what are you doing out here?’

          ‘Toshi Station has been here since I was a child.  Our father commissioned it.  From this place we have studied and protected the Oshalla Ocean’s leviatha for almost two decades.’

          ‘But why here?’

          ‘There is an ocean fissure not far from here where the leviatha feed.  They dine on krilla that live in the thermal currents that float up from the molten rock at the base of the fissure.’

          ‘The glow in the water!’ Lara exclaimed, pleased that she had pieced together the puzzle.    ‘That’s the fissure!  We saw it.  That’s how Sumi knew we were close!’

          ‘Well done Lara Brand!’ Matsuo cheered.  ‘You are correct.  The ocean there is illuminated by the lava flows at the base of the rift.’

          Lara sighed contentedly as she looked around the comfortable room.  The sunlight continued to stream in as the facility’s citizens strolled around the deck, sipping mugs of javo as they gazed out across the awe-inspiring ocean.  ‘It must be wonderful to feel so safe,’ she mused.

          Matsuo put down his bowl of soup and leant forward.  ‘I cannot begin to imagine the terrible things you have endured Lara Brand, but you must know that even here, in the middle of the sea, we are not safe.’

          Sumi turned to her brother with a shocked expression.  ‘What do you mean?’

          ‘I didn’t want to worry you with this until it was absolutely necessary, but if you plan to leave soon, there is something you must know?’

          ‘What must we know Matsuo?’

          He took a deep breath and began.  ‘Five days ago, a number of Keelii didn’t return from an expedition to one of the islands to the west of here.  The next day, we found what was left of their bodies floating upon the sea.  And then, three days ago – the day before you arrived – the station was attacked.’

          Tagtug continued to slurp at his soup, oblivious to the conversation around him, but Sumi and Lara stared at Matsuo with the same penetrating eyes.  ‘Attacked by whom?’ Sumi asked.

          ‘We’re not sure.  There was a subaqueous breach, just above the bedrock.’

          Lara shook her head.  ‘Matsuo, explain it to me as if I were a child please.’

          ‘I’m sorry,’ he said, chagrin covering his young face.  ‘With the exception of this observation deck, this entire facility is underwater.  It was built into the bedrock of the sea floor.  The whole structure has been built out of the materials that have been designed to withstand the worst the ocean can throw at us.  And yet, whatever attacked us the other day ripped through steel as if it were cloth.’

          Lara scrutinised Matsuo’s face.  ‘Sumi, it’s the Ryugin.’

          Matsuo watched his sister’s face drop.  The monster that had killed her husband and destroyed her life was somewhere outside.  And then the shocking realisation of it all hit her.  ‘It knows I’m here.’

          ‘Don’t be ridiculous Sumi!’ Matsuo scoffed.  ‘How could it know you are here?’

          ‘You don’t understand, Matsuo!’ she said, her voice shrill as her throat tightened.  ‘These Cabal – they’re intelligent.  They’re cruel and capricious, but they aren’t dumb brutes.  This Ryugin would not be here if it were not for me!’

          ‘How could it know you’re here?’

          Lara could guess.  Having being foiled in her attempt to kill them, Arinna had sent one of Caliban’s pets to finish the job.

          Sumi looked at her companion and said, ‘We can’t stay.’

 

 

The knock at the door startled Sumi.  Her mind was preoccupied, ablaze with countless thoughts and fears.  Memories of that terrible day aboard The Princess Orani dominated her headspace, but her panicked brain also squeezed in images of what could happen to Matsuo and the people of Toshi Station should the Ryugin attack again.

          She quickly placed some food supplies in her bag, along with some dry clothes and a comprehensive map of Sessymir she had borrowed from her brother.  She didn’t have to turn around to know who was at the door.

          ‘I can’t talk you into staying?’ Matsuo said as he stepped into her quarters.  He walked across the small room and sat on her bed.

          ‘No.’

          ‘I thought as much.’

          ‘We’ll be going as soon as Lara and Tagtug are ready.’

          ‘The Mabbit is going with you?’

          ‘The Keelii surgeons did too good a job.  When I suggested that he stay here and recuperate, he shook his head furiously and growled.  I think we can assume that means he won’t leave your side.’

          Matsuo smiled.  ‘He’s made of strong stuff.’

          ‘So am I,’ said a voice from the corridor outside.

          It was Lara standing there proudly with Tagtug sitting on her coiled tail as if it were a seat.

          ‘You are indeed, Lara Brand,’ Matsuo said sincerely as he politely stood to acknowledge the pair.

          ‘Are you ready?’ Sumi asked.  ‘We should depart as soon as possible.’

          Lara nodded and Tagtug patted his ragged hempen bag to indicate his readiness.

          ‘Then let’s head back to the skiff,’ Sumi said as she shouldered her bag and stepped out into the corridor.

          ‘Not so fast,’ Matsuo said.  ‘You’re not heading back out in that tiny boat.’

          ‘You have a better idea?’ Sumi challenged him in the tone siblings reserved for one another.

          ‘I do, in fact.  Come with me.’

 

 

They walked down Toshi Station’s long, metal corridors in silence.  Matsuo could see his sister wasn’t in a talkative mood and he understood why.  In ties of stress, Sumi had always shut herself up in the cramped confines of her busy mind.  He could feel her anxiousness and he knew better than to try to talk her through it.  There were other ways to support her.

          Sumi believed she had placed the facility in the path of danger.  He knew she was reprobating herself to seeking sanctuary at the station.  In her stubborn, proud mind, she was criticising herself for not finding another way across the Oshalla Ocean.  It was ludicrous, but he knew just how harsh a judge she was of herself.  She would not stay a moment longer in his presence than she had to.

          It had been an extraordinary few days.  Sumi had ignored Matsuo’s repeated attempts to persuade her to allow the Keelii to see to her burns.  She knew the Keelii had the surgical skill to redress much of the damage that had been done, but she would not allow them to examine her face or hands.  Whilst Lara and Tagtug were quick to indulge in the comforts of the station – hot food, warm baths and long naps – Sumi had denied herself most luxuries.  Within an hour of arriving at the station, she had acquired weapons from the armoury to replace those she had lost in the journey from Cessair.  She had spent time examining maps and charts.  She had rationed out provisions for the trek across the icy wastes of Sessymir.  She had even consulted with the Toshi Station’s resident astronomer to find out how much lunar light they would have for the journey ahead.

          Despite all this military focus – or perhaps because of it – she was sparing in how much information she shared with her brother.  He knew this was not because she distrusted him.  She did not want to embroil him any further in the situation than she already had.  She feared reprisals.  Matsuo’s news of the Ryugin lurking nearby only strengthened her belief that the less he knew, the safer he would be.

          Sumi could not stop her mind from examining every detail of the ill-fated expedition.

          ‘I discovered that not all present at the Assembly were on the same side.’

          She wondered how many others in the Assembly of Nations were traitors to their cause.  Maeldune was no surprise, but Arinna had hinted at there being many more.  She thought about the other squads that had ventured forth and dwelt upon their fate.  Had they been compromised as comprehensively as her own company?  Were they any closer to fulfilling the mission?

          Arinna had also raised other concerns in her mind.  What were the Ghul doing in Providence if not to capture the surviving remnants of Lokasenna’s team?  Arinna had said something about the Wyrm’s Jaw.  What interest could Caliban have in a rock formation in the middle of a lonely bay?

          The Pryderi also infiltrated her mind.  They were now a formidable force.  They had the Incanto.  From what Lara had told her, this elevated the Pryderi from being relatively inconsequential to pivotal in the events that were unfolding.  Caliban’s army now included magick-users whose power rivalled that of the Morgai.   It was bad enough the Myrrans had to combat the near-invulnerable Cabal and the virtually immortal Ghul.  Now they had to fight their own kind.  The war was getting more complicated with each passing day.

          She pondered over the Ghul.  Immortal?  No.  They were just hard to kill.  Immortal was too grandiose a term to use to describe creatures as cruel and loathsome as the Ghul.  

          And then it became clear.  She saw Caliban’s plan, or at least, a part of it.  The Wyrm’s Jaw – it was made of shatterstone, the very material that could turn a Ghul soldier into a dirty mound of ashes.  Caliban was removing from the world the things that made his forces vulnerable.  She recalled rumours she had heard about Camulos – the shatterstone sheeting that covered the great towers of the Giant’s Web had been removed and taken away.  At the time she had dismissed it as an act of looting by some opportunistic pirates or thieves, but now she knew better.  From the very start, Caliban had been preparing for war.  He knew the Ghul were vulnerable to shatterstone and sunlight and had attended to this long before anyone had even heard his name.  

          The role of the Pryderi suddenly appeared crucial.  She had witnessed a small number of Pryderi cover up the sun back in Providence.  Her mind ached with the thought of what thousands of witches could do if given proper encouragement.

 

 

‘Well – what do you think?’

          Sumi was so entrenched in thought that she had paid no notice to where Matsuo had taken them.  Instead of heading up to the surface where the boats floated peacefully upon the disk of calm water surrounding the tower, he had led the three of them deeper than Sumi had ever gone during her visits to the station.  They had walked out through tall iron doors into an enormous natural cavern.  A warm yellow glow filled the cavern, a result of its unique lighting.  Bobbing against the roof were the spherical shapes of hundreds of baybats.  Closely related to the bombats of Sessymir, the baybats also floated in the air as a result of the intense gases that built up in the round rodent’s body.  Whereas their northern cousins changed pigmentation as the gases within built up, the baybats shifted in luminosity.  By the time they hit the ceiling, the creatures were bright enough to light up a ballroom.  Their phosphorescent bodies supplied an incandescence that made Sumi feel as if she had walked into a dream.  

          She looked out across what seemed to be a dark lake.  It was difficult to comprehend: she was under the sea in a vast cavern at the base of which lay a broad, peaceful body of water.  Hundreds of Keelii playfully swam about in the lake.  Others sat on rocky shelves on the sides of the cavern wrapped up in conversations that echoed around the chamber in a discordant symphony of clicks and whistles.  Numerous Kompiran and Susanese scientists walked about on gangways suspended high above the water, occasionally stopping to speak to the Keelii below.

          ‘Where are we?’ Sumi said her mouth agape.

          ‘This is our secret cavern,’ Matsuo said with undisguised pride.

          ‘How can such a place exist?’ Lara exclaimed, also overwhelmed by the incredible chamber.   ‘Did you… carve this space out of the rock?’

          ‘No.  It’s a natural cavity that exists in one of the rocky hills that line the sea bed.  It has been a home and refuge to the Keelii for thousands of years.  It was by sheer luck that we stumbled across it when this facility was being built.’  He pointed down below.  ‘That’s sea water there.’

          Sumi gripped the railing and leaned out so she could peer into the deep dark waters.  ‘So this leads to the ocean?’ she asked as she stared in astonishment at all the Keelii diving below the surface to emerge a short time later with fish flapping about in their jaws.

          ‘Yes,’ replied Matsuo.  ‘It links to the Oshalla by a massive passage in the rock.’

          ‘It’s amazing Matsuo, but I must ask, why are we here?  I don’t want to delay our departure a moment longer.’

          He gave her a mischievous grin.  ‘Your departure, sweet Sumi, is the very reason we are here.  Follow me.’

          He led them around the gangway to a small platform near the far end of the cavern.  At one point he stopped and spoke quietly to a pair of Keelii whom Lara recognised as Dena and Yuma, the couple who had greeted them when they first arrived at the station.  Sumi could not hear what he said, but the Keelii responded in a series of excited clicks before they dived from the gangway and disappeared into the dark waters below.

 

 

Matsuo’s face was gleeful.  He stood beside his sister on the platform, humming nonchalantly but occasionally casting her excited look.  There was a time when Sumi would have been pulled into the moment, but things had changed.  She had changed.

          A deep thrumming sound reverberated in the chasm. What sounded like giggles emanated from the young Keelii in the water who quickly darted to the sides of the cavern to make room for what was coming.  The water below them bubbled and swirled.  Tagtug and Lara moved back from the edge of the platform, unsettled by the spumy change in the water below.  Far below the surface, a glowing red shape appeared and grew brighter and larger with each passing second.  Suddenly the waters were broken by a massive red orb.  It reminded Tagtug of the Spriggan balloons he would see floating out of the land of Camulos, taking the Spriggans to distant places.  The red sphere shone brilliantly in the cavern, dispelling all shadows, bathing everyone in its rich light.  Lara shielded her eyes and turned away but Sumi and Tagtug’s curiousity was greater than any fear that might have touched them.  They continued to watch as the orb rose higher and higher until it struck the roof of the cavern.  It was attached to a thick, translucent stem that bent slightly as what lay beneath continued to rise into the cavern.

          The churning swell grew, accompanied by large bubbles that blistered the skin of the water.  On the platform, no-one moved as the body of an adult leviatha breached the surface of the underwater lake, filling the massive cavern with its colossal body.

          It would have been at least two hundred yards from the light hanging from its broad head to the tip of it crescent-shaped fluke.  Its great wings were folded up against its body so it could fit in the cavern.  

          Matsuo stepped to the very edge of the platform and held out his hand so that he could pat the astounding beast on its broad face.  ‘Isn’t she wonderful?’ he said jubilantly.  Happy to be patted in such a way, the leviatha purred so loudly, it sent ripples out across the waters below.   A number of Keelii climbed up onto the leviatha’s back and slid down her sides which didn’t bother the beast at all.  She floated peaceably in the water like a large ship on a tranquil harbour.

          Lara couldn’t decide whether the leviatha was uniquely beautiful or hideously ugly.  Her skin and blubber were transparent.  It was a little disconcerting to see the leviatha’s skeletal structure underneath, but Lara was captivated by the gigantic heart that beat within.  Arinna had once told Lara about the leviatha and how they could alter the opacity and colour of their blubber to match their surroundings.  They could turn themselves white to match the ice floes they hid amongst to catch giant squigga or could change to a vibrant red when taking refuge from Sessymirian hunters in the Oshalla’s great floating forests of kelp.  But their native state was one of translucency and Lara was engrossed as she watched blood flowing though veins, organs pumping and the creature’s tiny brain twitching as it looked around the cavern.

          The leviatha had two sets of eyes, one pair at the front of its square-shaped head and the other pair at the side.   Each dark blue eye was the size of a small house.  A veranda of long, black eyelashes above each eye gave the leviatha a gentle, feminine aspect and this did much to relax Tagtug – the massive creature seemed to have taken an interest in the Mabbit and stared at him constantly whilst he skittishly shifted from padded foot to padded foot upon the platform.

          On either side of the leviatha’s body in the space between her head and her huge folded wings was a large air sac.  These transparent bubbles were so large that Lara imagined they could hold the entire group that was assembled on the platform.  She almost fainted when Matsuo told her that this was exactly the reason they had come to the chamber.

          ‘You’ll be a lot safer in the air sacs than you would be on the deck of any ship I could spare.  If what you have told me about the Ryugin is true, it will be waiting on the surface for you to leave by boat.  It certainly won’t be expecting this!’

          ‘That’s because it’s complete madness,’ Lara said.  ‘You want us to travel all the way to Sessymir in the body of a leviatha?’

          ‘Why not?’ Matsuo replied.  ‘There’s more than enough air in the sacs to make the journey.  This creature can get us to Sessymir faster than any ship could.’

          ‘Stop right there!’ said Sumi emphatically.  ‘Us?  There is no us Matsuo.  You’re not coming.’

          ‘Yes.  I am.’

          ‘No, you’re not.’

          ‘You need all the help you can get.’

          ‘Matsuo, no offence, but how much help can you be?  You’re a scientist, not a soldier.’

Matsuo looked dejectedly at the floor.  It was a blow to his ego for which his noble spirit had not been prepared.  He looked over where the Mabbit was smiling back at the leviatha.  ‘And Tagtug is?’

          Sumi shook her head.  ‘I’m sorry Matsuo, but he was chosen by Chamberlain Llyr to go on this mission.  You were not.’  She smiled and softened her voice.  ‘You have done more than enough by supplying us with transportation to Sessymir.’

          Lara sighed.  ‘You’re serious then.’  Her tail was flickering back and forward nervously.

          Matsuo was aware of the witch’s trepidation.  ‘Miss Brand – the Keelii have been using the leviatha for long distance journeys for centuries.  They can travel at great speed and they can dive to deep places where you won’t be found.  The air sacs will protect you from the pressure of the ocean.’

          ‘And how do we steer it?’ Lara asked, still trying to come to terms with the thought that they were going to travel under the water inside the air sacs of a creature whose brain was smaller than her own.

          ‘She’s not an it,’ Matsuo said, a little defensively.  ‘She has a name.  We call her Suki.’

          ‘Are you saying she can understand you?’ Sumi asked inquisitively.

          ‘Not us.  Them.  The Keelii will talk to her.’

          ‘Why would it… she help us,’ Lara said apprehensively.  Myrrans had relentlessly hunted down and butchered countless leviatha.  It seemed incredulous to her that the great beast would ever help them.

          ‘She will help us because the Keelii ask it.  They have consented because we – the staff of the station – have earned their respect.

          The Keelii known as Dena made her way up onto the gangway.  Matsuo bowed graciously to her.  ‘Thank-you for bringing our gentle friend to us,’ he said softly.

          Dena replied in a complicated series of clicks and whistles that ended in a long, low grunt which made Lara uneasy.

          ‘What did she say?’ they Moraen asked Matsuo.

          ‘The Keelii will guide you as far as the edge of the Toshi shelf, ten leagues away.  There the ocean floor falls away to a depth we cannot even guess.  Suki will dive deep there, deeper than the Keelii can swim, and by way of the Marianna Trench make her way to the southern shores of Sessymir.’

          Lara looked suspiciously at Matsuo.  ‘There was more, wasn’t there?’

          A guilty expression swept across Matsuo’s face.  ‘I didn’t want to worry you, but I can see there is no hiding anything from you, Lara Brand.  Dena also mentioned that at the mouth of the passage to this cavern there were signs that something large had passed by recently.  The sea bed has been disturbed and the water has an unfamiliar smell upon it.’

          ‘It’s the Ryugin,’ Sumi said.  ‘It has to be.’

          ‘Perhaps it would be prudent to delay your departure,’ Matsuo suggested earnestly despite the knowledge that his advice would be ignored.

          Moments later, he was helping his sister step into the transparent sac that Suki had lowered to allow them ingress onto the most unique form of transportation any of them had ever witnessed.  

Despite her reservations, Lara slithered from the platform onto the soft floor of the air sac.  Tagtug followed, hopping into the strange bubble without any show of concern.  He looked with happy curiosity as the great leviatha closed the sac around them, placing his hands upon the thin, translucent membrane like a child peering through a frosted window.

          Without any ceremony or words of farewell, Sumi, Lara and Tagtug left behind the sanctuary they had found, and like a barnacle on a sunken ship were soon surrounded by the cold, forbidding waters of the dark lake at the bottom of the sea.

 

 

It was not hot in the air sac but Sumi was sweating profusely.  She was terrified.  Only she knew what to expect of the Ryugin should they meet it and all signs pointed to such a confrontation being inevitable.  In the eerie glow of Suki’s bioluminescent lantern, she could see Lara and Tagtug were also apprehensive but at least their fear was borne of ignorance.  Had they witnessed the Ryugin in full fury, it was doubtful they would have stepped into the leviatha’s air sac.

          Or was it?  Both of them had displayed courage of a most exceptional kind.  Their valour was made all the more special by the fact that they weren’t soldiers or consuls, well-trained in matters of combat; they were normal folk – albeit one with floppy ears and fur and the other with scaly skin and a tail – who simply wouldn’t bow down to the tyranny that had entered their lives.  They were heroes, which made Sumi’s heart ache when she considered what lay before them.

          ‘What is it Sumi?’ Lara asked, sensing her companion’s disturbed state.  ‘What’s wrong?’

          From the window of Suki’s air sac, Sumi stared out at the rocky passage surrounding them.  The walls of the tunnels rushed by bathed in the red light that shone from Suki’s lantern.  The sleek forms of Dena and Yuma darted past like reconnaissance scouts accompanying a platoon of soldiers on the march.  The mouth of the tunnel came into view and Sumi’s heart rate quickened.

          ‘Sumi?’ Lara asked again.

          Sumi swallowed hard and rasped, ‘It’s nothing,’ but Lara was convinced it was something.

          ‘Tell me what’s on your mind.’

          Sumi turned to face Lara and at once the Moraen knew they were in much deeper trouble than she had first thought.  ‘The Ryugin,’ Sumi said sadly.  ‘It will be waiting for us.  At the end of the tunnel.  It will be there.  I know it.’

          Lara did not know what to say.  She was both petrified and furious.  An image of Birren passed across her mind and before she knew it, she found she had swung her hand around and slapped Sumi in the face.  ‘I am trying to save my daughter!’ she yelled.  ‘If I die now –’

          Sumi hung her head in shame.  ‘I’m sorry.  I just couldn’t allow any harm to come to my brother.  I’ve already lost a sister and a husband…’

          There was no more time for speech.  They shot out of the tunnel into the inky blackness of the Oshalla Ocean.  Suki spread open her beautiful translucent wings and flew out into the ocean currents.  The Ryugin was upon them in seconds.

 

 

The monster swept up beside them and swiped at Suki with one of its huge claws.  Suki twisted about and avoided the savage attack by inches.  The Ryugin screeched with fury as the leviatha pulled away from it and headed for a forest of coral that lay north of the entrance to the tunnel she had just left.

          The Ryugin had lost some momentum in its failed first attack so it pulled its frilled ruff against its body and clawed through the water in an attempt to catch up to its quarry.  Sumi looked back at the beast and could see its appearance had changed dramatically since they last met.  She was not surprised to see its dull left eye, the result of the sai she had thrust into it in her defence of her dear friend Kappo aboard The Princess Orani, but that was not all.  Parts of its frilled cape had been ripped away as if shredded by an even bigger monster.  And even more startling was the discovery that the Ryugin’s jaw had been completely removed, inexplicably torn off or blown away.  Rags of scaly skin dangled from what was left of its mouth and throat.  It was incredible that a creature could sustain such injuries and remain alive.

          She thought of Trojanu.  His brave and desperate final act had saved The Princess Orani, but the tragic fact was that he was dead and the Ryugin was not.  It seemed nothing could kill the beast.

          Suki’s wide wings and fluke stirred the water so vigorously that the Ryugin soon became lost in the sand and silt that was churned up at the bottom of the ocean.  She raced for the coral forest with a swiftness that the Keelii accompanying her could not match.  As she approached the phosphorescent blue structures, she altered her appearance so that her skin was flushed with a similar iridescent blue.  The red light at the end of the thick filament on top of Suki’s head faded as she glided into the vast coral forest.  She stopped swimming, folded her wings to her sides and drifted to the bottom of the ocean where she hoped that her camouflage would be enough to fool the Ryugin.  Sumi knew it wouldn’t.

          The trio in the air sac peered out into the dark seas surrounding them looking for some sign of their pursuer.  She knew the Keelii, if they were still alive, would not head into the coral.  It was likely that they had swum off in the opposite direction in the hope of leading the Ryugin away from them.  But the monster would ignore them.  They were unimportant.

          Sumi was right.  The Ryugin floated by to their right, so close that Lara was afraid to exhale should the terrible beast chance to hear it. 

 

 

Fortunately, they lay on the Ryugin’s blind side and it continued to drift past, oblivious to their presence amidst the gigantic gnarled branches of the delicately glowing coral.  

          As it slid past, Lara gasped at the sight of something she would never forget.  Caught in a frayed net that had been pinned to the creature’s neck, Lara could see the skeletal remains of a Myrran man.  The poor soul’s flesh had been ripped away by the ocean and its inhabitants.  One bony hand was caught in the net, incredibly still clutching an iron lance that was similarly caught in the hempen lattice that had been pinned to the Ryugin.  But it was not the lance that caught Lara’s attention in that fleeting moment – it was a beautiful armband that encircled the skeleton’s forearm.  Its design was familiar.  Lara turned to Sumi and glanced down at her forearm to see the same ornament.  

          Sumi’s face was ashen.  She gazed upon the remains of her husband with an uncomfortable mix of pride and dismay.  Trojanu’s heroic pose highlighted the fact that he had died as valiantly as he had lived his life.  

          The Ryugin was now a hundred yards ahead of them, partly obscured by the thick, blue branches of coral surrounding them.  Suki sighed with relief.  The low, nervous grumble floated out across the coral and up ahead Lara could see the body of the Ryugin stop.  It twisted around and scanned the forest for the source of the sound it had heard.

          Suddenly out of the darkness to the Ryugin’s right, the two Keelii accompanying them appeared and swam straight for the beast.  The Ryugin snapped at one of them forgetting that it no longer had a jaw.  It was the female Dena.  She easily managed to avoid the clumsy attack whilst Yuma swam past the Ryugin’s closed frill and ran his sharp claws down the ruff.

          It was a futile ploy for the Ryugin had laid eyes upon Suki and shot off towards her, leaving the Keelii far behind.

          Suki drove upwards, out of the coral and into the open sea.  Her great fluke waved through the water in rhythmic vertical motions as her broad wings pumped up and down.  She moved quickly for so large a creature, but the Ryugin moved faster.  One look behind revealed that it was quickly gaining on the terrified leviatha.  Sumi, Lara and Tagtug watched helplessly from their bubble, unable to influence the events that were unfolding around them.  

          The Ryugin drew abreast of them and effortlessly twisted its body around to approach them from the side.  It dropped its head and powered through the water like a rampaging staggorn.

‘It’s going to ram us!’ Sumi yelled.  She held up her hands, a futile attempt to defend herself from the colossal beast bearing down upon them.  Moments later she was hit hard, but not by the Ryugin.  A split-second before their pursuer crashed into Suki’s side, Tagtug jumped up and kicked his companions to one side of the air sac.  

          Suki rolled about in the water, stunned and disoriented by the Ryugin’s fierce attack.  It was a miracle the air sac had not burst.

          As the Ryugin circled around for another assault, Lara slithered across to the unmoving figure of Tagtug.  The Mabbit lay in a broken heap, crushed to death by the impact of the Ryugin’s attack.  Lara looked at Sumi, her eyes pools of despair.  Tagtug had saved the pair of them again, but this time he had paid for his valour in full – he was dead.  All the veganistones and Keelii surgeons in the world would not change that fact.  He was dead and they would soon follow.

 

 

Suki dived back down to the floor of the ocean.  She did well to weave her vast body around the cluttered landscape but the obsessed Ryugin was more manoeuvrable and faster.  It would be on them in seconds.

          Dena and Yuma appeared again, swiftly placing themselves between the Ryugin and its prey.  It was an astounding display of heroism but the Ryugin just buffeted its way through them, not even bothering to attack.

          It dropped its head again to ram them.  It would not miss this time.  In a gesture of defiance, Sumi stood in the air sac with her knife poised to slash the beast when it struck.  Lara was coiled on the floor of the air sac next to the body of Tagtug, resigned to the savage death that was only seconds away…