The Perilous Sea

by Thomas,Sherry

  “How does the Bane know that for certain?” asked Kashkari. “My uncle was killed before the Bane could get to him. The girl who brought down the lightning is still eluding his grasp, as far as anyone knows. Before them, there hadn’t been any great elemental mages in centuries.”

  “There was one within the Bane’s lifetime—there must have been, and in Atlantis itself, no less,” Iolanthe said. “I recently came across an old travelogue. Some travelers en route to Atlantis, back when anyone could visit the realm, had described the great maelstrom of Atlantis, which had just come into being not long before. That is stupendous elemental magic, to create a whirlpool that still exists almost two centuries later. But I have never heard of such a mage. Anyone wants to bet that perhaps this poor elemental mage would have been the first the Bane sacrificed?”

  “And perhaps when he had done so, he needed no more sacrifices for a long time, because it had been such a powerful sacrifice,” said Kashkari. “And then, when the effect finally began to wane . . .”

  Titus nodded. “In any case, the Bane is here because he desperately needs the next great elemental mage—there are only so many body parts he can give up before there is nothing left of him. It is our task to make sure that he never nabs that elemental mage.”

  “But we don’t even know where the lightning girl is.”

  “Not the lightning girl,” said Titus. “Wintervale.”

  “What?” cried Kashkari and Mrs. Hancock in unison.

  Titus briefly described his mother’s vision, and then the fulfillment of that vision at Sutherland’s uncle’s house.

  An almost beatific light came over Kashkari’s face. “Finally! I have been wondering for years the exact purpose for which I am protecting Wintervale. We should take Wintervale and go. Right now.”

  “You can do it,” said Titus, “but I cannot, unfortunately. I must give an account of my whereabouts every twenty-four hours. If I am missing for seventy-two hours then another warm body must be put on the throne. So I cannot leave until absolutely the last minute.”

  “Neither can I,” said Mrs. Hancock, “without my overseers immediately knowing something is wrong.”

  “But I have been telling boys that I am leaving for America,” said Iolanthe. “No one would be that surprised by my departure. So if you need me to, I can take Wintervale to a safe house.”

  “I have a spare carpet you can use, if you don’t want to travel by nonmage means,” offered Kashkari. “It can carry four hundred pounds, cruise at one hundred twenty miles an hour, and go five hundred miles without touching ground.”

  “Wait a minute,” said Mrs. Hancock. “Why is Wintervale not involved in any of our discussions?”

  Kashkari glanced at Titus. “I’m not sure what the prince’s reason is, but I’ll tell you mine. Three weeks after we met, Wintervale showed me a trick. He cupped his palms together and when he opened them, there was a tiny flame suspended in midair. I wasn’t the only one he showed the trick to—I’m sure half of the boys on this floor have seen it, at least everyone who plays cricket, that is.

  “I had a bit of a crisis after that. I came eight thousand miles, leaving my family behind, to keep this boy safe? This boy who couldn’t stop showing off to nonmages, because he needed approval and admiration that badly.

  “Don’t mistake me. I like Wintervale a great deal, but I don’t think he has changed that much in all the years I’ve known him and I don’t dare trust him with secrets that ought to remain secrets.”

  “So you plan to just grab Wintervale at the last possible second, without telling him anything ahead of time?” asked Mrs. Hancock, looking doubtful.

  “His mother is here, but she doesn’t want him to know that she is here,” said Titus. “We should all exercise similar caution.”

  And his was the last word on the subject.

  After Mrs. Hancock and Kashkari left, Titus took Iolanthe in his arms.

  She held him tightly. “Scared?”

  “Petrified.”

  “Me, too,” she admitted.

  The revelations of the evening were a mad swirl in her head. She wanted to go to bed and forget for a while, but she was afraid that if she were to actually fall asleep, then she would be caught flatfooted if something were to suddenly happen in the middle of the night.

  “And to think that Mrs. Hancock is the one responsible for your being educated outside the Domain, at this nonmage school,” she went on. “It’s true what they say, the threads of Fortune weave mysteriously.”

  “You were right about me—that my life was never going to be anything but thoroughly enmeshed with the Bane’s.” He exhaled. “But what if we fail?”

  “We most likely will. You know this. As do I—and all the other mages who have ever taken up their wands against Atlantis.” She kissed him on his cheek. “So let’s concentrate on what we need to do now.”

  He nodded slowly. “You are right—again.”

  She put a kettle in the grate. They were not going to sleep much this night, so they might as well have some tea. “Last time Atlantis put a no-vaulting zone on the school. They could very well do the same thing again—and this time we wouldn’t have Wintervale’s wardrobe for a portal.”

  “But we do have a number of carpets—Kashkari has two and I have one, which together should be sufficient to ferry all of us. I have the Crucible, which can act as a portal in emergencies. Not to mention you have a quasi-vaulter.”

  “Give the vertices of the quasi-vaulter to Wintervale.” They would need three days on his person before they could work on him. “He will be the most difficult to move for all of us—much better if he can use the quasi-vaulter.”

  He opened her cabinet and took out her tin of tea leaves. “I will do that. I am sure I can think of something to tell him without giving away everything.”

  Again this lack of confidence in Wintervale. “Is it possible your judgment is clouded by having known Wintervale for so long? I feel he has been far more sober and far less indiscreet after the maelstrom.”

  “It is quite possible that I am prejudiced against the old Wintervale and not the new one. But remember, no one is looking for Wintervale, but every agent of Atlantis is still seeking you.”

  He had said that to her several times, and she had always accepted it without questions. But now she wasn’t so certain. “Are you sure that no one is looking for Wintervale? He sank an Atlantean vessel. Even if no one on board managed to send a distress signal, or survived to tell the tale, would Atlantis not investigate a whoesale disappearance of a ship?”

  “Dalbert has an eye on the situation. He has heard nothing about the Sea Wolf.”

  Her conversation with Cooper earlier in the evening came to mind. Cooper had miscopied a word; what if Iolanthe had misread the name of the ship? After all, Greek had always given her fits.

  “Maybe I was wrong about the name of the ship. Can you ask Dalbert if there is any news for a ship named Ferocious?”

  Written in capital letters, ΛABPAΞ—sea wolf—and ΛABPOΣ—ferocious—would have been similar enough to cause confusion.

  “I will do that tonight itself,” he said.

  “Have some tea before you go.”

  She added more fire to the grate, so the water would boil faster. Titus wrapped his arms around her from behind. She leaned back against him.

  “Why do I have the sensation that the situation is about to spin out of control?”

  “Probably because it is.” He kissed her at the temple. “Part of me would like for you to be far away, beyond the danger and the madness. But the rest of me could not be more grateful that you will still be here, with me, when all hell breaks loose.”

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  CHAPTER ♦31

  The Sahara Desert

  AN ESCARPMENT ROSE SHARPLY FROM the desert floor. It looked as if Titus and Iolan
the were headed directly at the cliff, when the carpet before them disappeared. Iolanthe clutched tight at the front of the carpet as it hurtled into a narrow vertical fissure. The fissure twisted and turned—or at least she guessed that to be the case, for it was pitch dark, yet the carpet zigzagged at a breakneck pace.

  “How are you steering? Can you see anything?”

  “I am not steering,” answered Titus. “The carpet knows the lay of the land.”

  All at once the fissure widened into a cavernous space, lit with a warm, bright light. Along the interior walls of this chamber, hundreds smaller caves and niches had been carved into the rock, but Iolanthe could see no ladders or stairs to access them—until she remembered that, of course, everyone who lived in the rebel base probably had a carpet.

  Half of the floor of the cavern was taken up with horticulture: green towers, placed so that they received maximum light and did not cast shadows on each other, rose to nearly the height of the celing. The other half was given over to the making and maintenance of flying carpets. And despite the lateness of the hour, at least a hundred mages were at work, harvesting fruits and vegetables, operating the looms that made new carpets, or repairing frayed-looking older carpets.

  They landed on a large ledge twenty feet above the floor of the cavern. A breathtakingly beautiful young woman awaited on the platform, clad in a simple, fawn-colored tunic with a pair of matching trousers.

  She hugged the boy who had brought Titus and Iolanthe. “Good to see you safe. I’m afraid your brother isn’t here. But don’t worry, he is well—he took part in the party that raided the Atlantean base and they cannot return for at least another five days, in case Atlantis is on their tails.”

  The boy turned to Titus and Iolanthe. “May I present Amara, commander of the base and my future sister-in-law.”

  Iolanthe caught something strangely bleak in the tone of his voice. She looked from him to Amara.

  “Around here she is also known as Durga Devi—it’s our tradition to take on a nom de guerre for times of war,” continued the boy. “You might hear people refer to me as Rashchik, but feel free to go on calling me Kashkari.”

  So that was his name.

  Titus nodded gravely at the young woman. “Please to meet you.”

  “We are honored by your presence, Your Highness. And yours, Miss Seabourne.” Amara smiled, and Iolanthe was nearly blinded by her beauty. “Have you, Your Highness, at last brought Miss Seabourne into our safekeeping?”

  “No,” said Titus decisively. “We will intrude on your hospitality only briefly—Atlantis is too close for comfort. If you have a translocator on the premise, we would like to have use of it, especially if it would take us near or into a major nonmage city.”

  Iolanthe agreed completely. A crowded city made a much better hiding place for them. Cairo was her first choice. But even Khartoum, with its political instability, would do in a pinch.

  “We have two translocators, but unfortunately neither has been functioning for the past three days.”

  Kashkari grew alarmed. “Are you sure Atlantis hasn’t found you?”

  A shadow crossed Amara’s face. “We ask ourselves the same thing but everything else has been normal.”

  “Do you have a fast, long-range carpet that we can borrow?” said Titus. “We must leave immediately—the Bane himself is in the Sahara.”

  This produced a ripple of shock in both Amara and Kashkari.

  “Why didn’t you say anything to me earlier?” Kaskari demanded.

  “I’ve been meaning to tell you this,” said Iolanthe. “We haven’t the slightest idea who y—”

  “Durga Devi!” Ishana came careening on a flying carpet, almost knocking into Iolanthe. “Durga Devi, the maintenance crew found a tracer on Oasis III.”

  “What?” Amara cried. “How is this possible? I thought you said you did not encounter anyone the entire time you were out.”

  “That’s true. No one came to the oasis except His Highness and Miss Seabourne.”

  Titus swore. “The sand wyvern. We did not know then it still carried tracers. It is more than possible that one fell off when the sand wyvern brushed against the date palms.”

  Iolanthe gripped his arm. “Then Atlantis will believe we are here—and we are.”

  “Let’s get some fresh carpets and I’ll take you to Luxor,” said Kashkari. “If we start now, we can be there before noon.”

  Ishana ferried them down to where the new carpets were stowed. Iolanthe didn’t see anything that looked like a traditional carpet, thick and woolly. Instead, the carpets, hung up on steel rods, resembled picnic blankets, towels, and curtains—even capes.

  Ishana stopped before a rack of carpets that had the look of bedsheets about them. “These are the best we have. They have a range of about a thousand miles and can cruise at one hundred fifty miles an hour with a cargo of up to five hundred pounds.”

  “I need carpets that cannot be recalled—in case the base is overrun,” said Kashkari.

  Ishana exhaled, clearly unnerved by the thought of something going so wrong. “Right. Then you better take these—eight hundred mile range, one hundred fifteen miles an hour, cargo weight two hundred pounds.”

  “Can you handle a carpet on your own?” Titus asked Iolanthe.

  “I control air—I’ll manage.”

  The rumble of drumroll filled the air, followed by a pleasant-sounding female voice. “All battle riders report to squadron leaders. Armored chariots sighted. Wyverns sighted. Lindworms sighted.”

  Lindworms were the largest flying dragons, not terribly fast, but brutal. Iolanthe had been under the impression they were impossible to domesticate, but apparently Atlantis liked to break new ground in animal husbandry.

  A carpet streaked down and yanked to a stop behind them. It was Shulini, looking frantic. “Your Highness, Durga Devi asks that you come with me—and everyone else too. There is something she needs you all to see.”

  They followed her up to the ceiling of the cavern and hurtled into an opening, which led into a tunnel that wound upward. The air grew colder and colder and suddenly they were under the stars.

  “Look! Look!” shouted Shulini.

  Iolanthe could not discern anything out of the ordinary. Briefly she wondered if she should use a far-seeing spell, and then a movement near the edge of the sky caught her eye—a distortion of the air that made the stars beyond stretch and blinker. As she followed it, she realized that the distortion was like an enormous and somewhat uneven ring, going all around—and dropping rapidly toward the ground.

  “Fortune shield me,” said the Titus, “a bell jar dome.”

  A bell jar dome was a siege weapon, almost as antique as bewitched spears. But once in place, it would be nearly impossible for those inside to breach.

  “Hurry!” cried Kashkari. “We might still get Fairfax out.”

  As if it had heard him, the bell jar dome came down hard.

  “Too late,” Titus said, as if through clenched teeth.

  A man’s voice, golden and powerful, rang out. “The Lord High Commander of the Great Realm of New Atlantis seeks the fugitive Iolanthe Seabourne. Surrender her, and all the other lives will be spared.”

  Titus immediately had Iolanthe’s hand in his. “No one will harm you.”

  She squeezed his hand. “And I’m not so easy to harm.”

  But all the same, she was frightened witless.

  Ishana set down the carpet. They were on top of the massif that had reared up from the desert floor. Standing on it, surveying the bell jar dome, was Amara.

  “We seem to have a dilemma on our hands,” she said calmly.

  “No, not at all,” countered Kashkari, when Iolanthe had expected Titus to be the first to object. “We will not give her to the Bane, not even if the cost is ten times the lives of everyone in this base.”

  “Of course not,” said Amara. “To let the Bane have her would be ruinous. But the truth is we are few and the force of Atlantis is great. We
may not be able to prevent the Bane from taking her, even if we do our best.”

  Further surprising Iolanthe, Kashkari stepped before her. “No, you will not even think of it.”

  “We are in a war, my friend. I must think of every eventuality.”

  “Then think it and dismiss it.”

  It dawned on Iolanthe at last that they were speaking of a way to make it impossible for the Bane to have her: by killing her themselves. Judging by the way Titus’s hand tightened over hers, he also understood.

  “I know what happened to your uncle, Mohandas,” said Amara. “And while that was a tragedy, it prevented the Bane from becoming unimaginably strong.”

  Kashkari had his wand in hand. “And how did that help us? Unimaginably strong or not, the Bane is still in power all these years later.”

  “But if your uncle’s parents hadn’t done what they did—”

  “Then perhaps we would be living in a very different world. Help reached them soon after they killed my uncle—I see you did not know this, did you? Even my brother doesn’t. If only his parents hadn’t despaired prematurely, my uncle might have been able to grow into the fullness of his power and he might have made all the difference in the more crucial battles of ten years ago.”

  Kashkari took a deep breath. “Besides, I have already dreamed of the future: my friend will be approaching the Commander’s Palace on her own power and of her own volition—to finish the Bane, not to be the next victim in his sacrificial rituals. That means she outwits the Bane this day and manages to keep not only her life but her freedom.”

  Iolanthe’s jaw slackened. Her, nearing the Commander’s Palace voluntarily? And why did Kashkari present a mere dream as if it had any significance?

  But it certainly gave Amara pause. “You are sure that is what you dreamed?”

  “Without a doubt. And believe me, our resistance against the Bane would be of little use if we cannot strike directly inside his lair.”

  “Very well then, Mohandas.” Amara squeezed Kashkari’s shoulder. “It’s time for me to go down and muster the riders. Look after our guests for me.”