The other magister was a woman, Magister Annora Willhelm. She was much more pleasant to be around, possessing a bubbly, cheerful personality that contrasted heavily with the other serious men. She was dressed the same as Magister Lias, but her uniform had no left sleeve, showing off her bare arm, which was covered in magistry runes and detailed Deific symbols. I could only guess as to what they were, or what they meant.
Talthis shook both their hands and introduced himself. “Commander Talthis, at your service.”
Magister Lias nodded deferentially. “Magister Ross has informed us that we’re to follow your orders as if they were her own.”
“I appreciate that,” Talthis said.
Lias motioned to Annora. “This will be my protégé’s first mission as a fully commissioned magister. Fear not, she’s quite capable, but it will do her good to see seasoned warriors in action.”
“Do you have any advice for me?” she asked Talthis, her eyes very wide.
Talthis nudged toward me. “Watch the featherweight,” he said gruffly. “Don’t let him wander off or get killed.”
“That’s not really advice…” Annora said.
“You want advice?” Talthis said. “Drop the smile, and find yourself a sword. Or do they not teach that at the Magisterium?”
This was the first moment I realized that she was the only other one of the group, besides myself, without a weapon.
Magister Annora’s smile dropped. “I can fight with a sword just fine, thank you, but I much prefer using my hands.”
“Are your hands gonna stop a blade from going through that pretty little skull of yours, lass?” one of the warders said. He was Lieutenant Slint, a thick-necked bearded man with a cigar clutched between his teeth.
“As a matter of fact, they will,” Annora said cheerfully, her bright smile returning.
Lias cleared his throat to interrupt their exchange. “My colleague may not need a sword, but the good professor will.” When he said this, all eyes fell on me.
“A-A sword?” I said, stammering. “Oh, no, I’m not one for fighting. I couldn’t possibly—”
Before I could finish, Commander Talthis had already pushed a sheathed longsword into my hands.
“We’re not bringing an unarmed man into a potential combat situation,” he said simply.
“But I don’t know how to use a sword,” I said, pulling the blade out of the sheath a few inches. It glimmered even in the dim red lights of the ship.
“Just point the sharp end at whatever you want dead,” Talthis said. “You’ll figure out the rest.”
I backed away from the group, unsheathed the sword the entire way, and gave it a few clumsy practice swings. Meanwhile, Magister Annora went to the watercraft we were taking ashore. It was large enough for fourteen men, and was loaded with emergency supplies. Annora fished through one of the crates, and pulled out a hand-sized metal disk with a foggy glass end.
“Swords are well and good,” she began, “but I’ve taken the liberty of bringing along a few other things to help us search the Trinitus.” She handed one of the disks to Talthis, who looked it over dispassionately.
“And this is…?”
“Hold it on the edges,” Lias said.
When Talthis did so, the disk illuminated with a soft blue glow.
“Some kind of a magistry lantern?” Talthis said, taking his fingers off the edge.
Annora nodded. “I brought enough for all of us.”
Talthis nodded. “Well received, my lady. Thank you.”
“And one more thing,” Annora said. She held up several small metallic cylinders, about the width and length of a finger. One end was open, and they had magistry runes along the sides. She passed one out to each of us, along with one of the light disks.
“What are these?” Lieutenant Slint said, pointing one directly at his face and looking down the barrel.
Annora put her hand on his wrist, and lowered his arm away from his face. “Please don’t do that. I wouldn’t want to mess up that… eh… beautiful face.” She cleared her throat. “Simply put, these will help us locate one another should we get separated. To activate it, simply hold it over your head and press the indent at the bottom; this will fire a flare into the sky.”
Slint nodded appreciably. “Damn, I wish we’d had these back during that skirmish in Dorwick. Gods below, why doesn’t the Magisterium share their hardware more often?”
“We’d prefer some items not make it into the hands of our enemies,” Lias said dryly.
There was a stretch of silence as the warders and magisters gathered their things, and began to load into the watercraft. I hadn’t brought any bags at all, instead I just clutched the sword that Talthis had given me. I have to admit, holding it made me feel considerably more at ease. There was a reassuring weight to the metal, though I wasn’t sure how much good it would do me.
When we were all aboard the craft, the cargo bay doors opened. A brilliant gust of air rushed inside. Humid, but still less stale than what I’d been breathing the last several days.
Outside, moonlight glinted over the still river water, punctuated by ripples as we moved silently toward the Trinitus.
Chapter Twenty-two
The Quick and the Dead
The Trinitus looked much larger up close. Of course, it was nowhere near the size of the Concordance, but as Celosan ships went, it was massive. A smooth, wooden hull, colored with lines of blue and red, and an entire wall of heavy iron cannons on both sides. As I’ve said, it had run aground, and its sails were tangled in the nearby trees.
We landed about twenty yards from the main portion of the hull. Commander Talthis sent four of his men to scout and create a perimeter in the thick foliage. I stuck close to Magister Annora, clutching at my sword and tapping my fingers nervously.
We came around the side of the ship, and I noticed that there were some patches of light coming from inside the ship. Flickers of nearly dead fires, perhaps, but with very little smoke. Unfortunately, the portion of the hull that was opened to the elements was out of our reach.
“We might have to climb it,” Talthis said, cupping his hands over his eyes and glancing up the side of the ship.
“No need,” Magister Annora said. She tapped her knuckle on the barnacle-covered hull, and listened for something. Next, she removed a small pen-like device from her cloak and began to carve a series of magistry runes directly into the wood. All told, this took about two minutes. When she was done, she touched her finger to the writing, and it illuminated in a quick pulse of white light.
There was a fizzle and crack, and the wood split in a perfect rectangle, exactly in the places where she’d drawn her runes. She seemed slightly fatigued by this, but exceedingly amused by our stunned expressions.
I’d never seen real magic—sorry, magistry—up close, and had circumstances been different, I would’ve had a great many questions.
When the cut portion of the hull crumbled away, a mixture of bilge water and slime oozed out of the open passage. It reeked like death, but Talthis and the others didn’t flinch, and climbed inside. I followed closely behind, if for no other reason that I just didn’t want to be left alone.
It was pitch-black inside, so we took out our magistry lights to guide our way, fanning them in as wide an area as we could to see where we were, exactly. It appeared to be crew quarters of some kind, as there were overturned cots and hammocks. It was difficult to keep my balance, as the entire ship was leaning.
“Crew quarters,” Talthis said, mirroring my own observation.
“But no bodies,” Annora said.
“Nobody was down here. They were at battle stations,” Talthis said. He pointed to Lias. “Go above deck, and check out the captain’s cabin. Slint and I will go to the cargo bay. Annora, you and Rycroft check out the weapons stations, near the cannons.”
There were silent affirmations, and I followed Annora through the crooked, creaking ship in silence. Not being familiar with the layout of the Trinitus
, it felt like a bit of a maze, and it took us several minutes to find the cannons.
It was a grim sight, indeed. Because of the angle, all of the cannons had rolled and slammed into the back wall. The ports where the cannons fired from were open to the starry night sky, and starlight illuminated piles of mangled bodies, many of whom had been severely burned or crushed by the enormous cannons when the ship ran aground.
I first noticed the bodies far away, but when my attention fell to the area immediately in front of me, I recoiled in horror when I saw a dead body at my feet. It was of a young man, no more than nineteen, his limbs bent in a horrific way, his face broken and mangled, and the one eye he had was staring at me with a look of abject fear.
Despite Annora trying to console me, I backed away, almost running until, about three yards away, I knelt down and vomited.
Annora was at my side quickly, patting me on the back. I felt my whole body trembling, and was suddenly very cold.
“I-I’m sorry,” I said. “I’ve never seen a…”
“It’s okay,” she said. “Take a deep breath, and relax. You can stay right here if you want.”
“No,” I said, panting and sweating. “I… I just needed a second. I’m fine.” I wobbled to my feet, supported by Annora’s hand.
The moment I stood, the most horrible thing I could’ve imagined happened. To me, it was more horrible than the ship sinking, more horrible than the dead bodies littering the ship. It was the faintest thing at first, so faint that I wasn’t quite sure if I was imagining it.
It was a voice calling, “Help.”
It was frail, and weak, but when I saw Annora’s eyes widen, I knew she’d heard it too.
We returned to the cannoneers’ room, and listened. Moments passed, and again we heard the soft cry for help.
We found the poor man near the back of the room. He was pinned to the wall by a cannon that covered his entire right arm, and a good portion of his shoulder. One of the support beams had created a gap large enough to prevent the weapon from completely crushing his limb, but it was much too close to wiggle free, and seemed to have broken his arm.
I could not fathom how he’d survived after losing so much blood, or the horror it must’ve been to be the lone survivor on a ship full of the dead.
His eyes focused on us. “Please… help…” he rasped.
“Gods below,” I said. Both of us ran to his side, and Annora put her hand to his pulse, and then to his eyelids. She looked into his eyes, as if looking for something.
“How long have you been here?” she said as she unlatched her water skin and gave the man a drink.
He took slow, pained gulps.
“Three days,” he said after finishing.
Three days without water, just on the edge of human tolerance. It was truly a miracle he was alive.
“Are… are you from Celosa?” he asked, taking another drink.
“I’m from the Magisterium,” Annora said.
“Endrans?” he said.
I didn’t bother correcting him. Instead, I leaned down to get a better look at where the cannon was pressing against his arm. Aside from the metal, there were splinters of wood jutting out from the wheeled frame where the cannon had been mounted. A large fragment of this wood had torn right through the skin just above his elbow. The wound there was visibly infected, festering and pus-filled, with a strange purple hue.
“You must be in a lot of pain,” Annora said.
“I don’t feel anything… except cold,” the man said wearily.
“Not feeling pain is a very bad sign,” Annora said, cupping her hand over her mouth momentarily. “We need to get this thing off you.”
“It has to weigh a thousand pounds,” I said.
“Probably more than that,” Annora said.
“Let’s go find Talthis and the others, they’ll be able to help,” I said.
Annora shook her head. “No need. I can lift it.”
I eyed the thin, waifish magister. “What?”
Magister Annora rubbed her hands together, and took a deep breath. “I’m going to need your help, though, Professor.”
My gaze shifted between the enormous cannon and Annora. I decided to trust her. I knew magisters could do amazing things, and I didn’t imagine she’d claim to do something she couldn’t do.
“Anything,” I said.
“I can lift the cannon straight upward, but moving it will be a problem. Once it’s off him, you need to pull him away—fast, but careful not to exacerbate his injuries. Do you understand? You’ll have a few seconds at most.”
I nodded. “I understand.”
Magister Annora held her rune-covered arm out, and began to run the fingers of her opposite hands along the writing. As she did this, small flashes of energy left her fingertips and illuminated the magistry runes. Soon, her entire arm looked like a complicated web of glowing energy lines.
Moments later, she took a hard breath and grabbed hold of the cannon by the lip of the barrel. I watched as her fingers bent the metal, and she pulled it straight up with one arm. It didn’t raise terribly far, only an inch or so, but it was enough for me to hurry and drag the wounded man from harm.
As soon as we were clear, Annora dropped the cannon. The force of the fall was so great, it splintered the wood of the inner hull, and cracked the floorboards to the breaking point. The water-drenched, rotting wood crumbled, and the cannon tumbled into the lower level of the ship.
At first, I was concerned as to the wellbeing of the rest of our company, but the noise quickly brought Commander Talthis and the others to us. When Talthis arrived, Magister Annora was resting against a wooden beam, rubbing the fingers she’d used to lift the cannon away. She was panting and sweating, and told me she’d used a great deal of “templar”—though she didn’t elaborate on exactly what that meant, it seemed to be a key component in a magister’s power.
When I explained what had happened, Magister Lias was positively furious, and made no attempt to cover it up.
He glared down at Annora. “Are you daft? What you did was totally irresponsible.”
“I’m fine,” Annora said, standing and swatting away Talthis’ hand as he attempted to help her to her feet.
“You couldn’t have waited five minutes for us to get here? I would’ve saved you a great deal of templar,” Lias said.
“I said I’m fine!” Annora snapped. “I’m not a child. He needed help, and I wasn’t going to make him wait. I know what you would’ve said—report back to Magister Ross and bring in several men, which could’ve taken an hour or more. He might’ve died in that time.”
“He still might die,” Lias said coldly.
I held the Celosan man up, trying to keep his arm out of any bilge water or muck. I was growing quite tired of their back-and-forth, but Lias’ callous disregard for the man’s wellbeing irked me more than anything else.
“Will you shut it,” I said, very loudly, staring daggers into Lias.
“Excuse me?” Lias said, glaring back at me.
“I said shut it. There’s an injured man here, and you’d do well to talk about him with some respect.” I looked away before Lias could respond, pointedly making sure he knew I didn’t care much what his response was. Instead, I focused my attention on the injured man.
“What’s your name?” I asked.
“Tiberius,” he said.
Talthis knelt down and inspected the man’s wounds, moving away a bit of cloth. The flesh was severely rotted, and even Talthis winced upon seeing it. “Well, Tiberius, I’m not going to insult you by lying. You’re obviously a military man, so you know you’re not in good shape.”
“I know, sir,” Tiberius responded, his voice shaking. “I cheated death for too long in here. I’m going to die.”
“Maybe. But we’re going to try to make sure that doesn’t happen. We’ve got a ship nearby, and some talented field medics who’ll do their best to stitch you back together. It’s going to be a painful, long process though.”<
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“I understand… but what about the others?”
“What others?” I asked.
“The ones they took. Captain Numerius, the bridge staff. ”
“Who were ‘they’? What did they look like?” Talthis asked.
“I… I don’t know…” Tiberius said. “There were dozens of them. I think they were men, but they didn’t move like it. They moved like shadows, like wraiths in the wind. They left me for dead, and as they were hauling out prisoners, I heard their leader speak. It was no human voice, I can’t explain it any further than that. There was cold, terrifying malice behind it. He told his men to return to…” His voice sputtered, and he coughed up blood.
“To where?” Magister Lias insisted.
Just saying the word seemed to bring Tiberius discomfort, but he eventually answered: “Azror’jir.”
The Temple of Nuruthil. That meant that the people who’d attacked the Trinitus were cultists. There was a long moment of silence at this revelation, eventually broken by Commander Talthis, who ushered me to move away, and lifted the wounded Tiberius off the ground.
“We need to get him back to the Concordance immediately,” Talthis said. “I’ll take him personally. Magister Lias, you’re in charge until I get back. Keep the perimeter, if there are any problems, send up a flare.”
“Yes, Commander,” Lias said. “But… perhaps one of us should take him.”
“No,” Talthis said. “I need to speak with Magister Ross about this.”
Lias nodded. “As you wish.”
Chapter Twenty-three
The Mists of Cthos
While Commander Talthis returned to the Concordance with the injured man, Magister Annora and I continued our search through the decks of the Trinitus—to no avail. Not only were there no more survivors, there wasn’t much of anything left in terms of supplies. The entire ship had been stripped of useful equipment, from the last barrel of ale to the last coil of rope.
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