“First we fight, then we run,” Kier said, loud enough to be heard over the impossible roar.
“Both wise courses, I’ve been told.” I grinned.
The winds snatched my hair, blew it into and out of my eyes. Hiding and seeking, chasing and found.
We stepped apart, braced our feet.
“Thrum and Call,” barked Fahr from the mizzen. “Both crews, if you please.”
Seamages took their positions, and Kier raised his hands, holding them out in the direction of the breach, fingers dancing with pattern and light. His eyes locked on mine, and my heart hammered in my chest. My entire body was alive with rune, wild with purpose and duty and calling.
All because I’d been pulled from the sea by the Ship of Spells and loved by a man with the heart of a hawk.
“Are you ready to change the world, Aro’el?” he bellowed.
“Aye, Captain,” I cried.
I would never forget his smile that day. It was as glorious as two suns.
“Thryh’siahr tryo’visseth!”
He flung the pattern at me, and I caught it, my knees nearly buckling from the force. Suns, he was powerful. But I wouldn’t fail him. I was as stubborn as he believed. I closed my eyes, now, as the runes seared my palms and burned my bones. It set my muscles aflame and devoured my thoughts in wonder and strength. In wave after wave, I sent chimeric into the weave, augmenting his spell until it was a huge, spiralling, spinning web of magik, sizzling within my runescarred hands.
“Now!” he cried.
With a scream, I spun around and swung my arms, hurling the spell into the Dreadwall that raged on our starboard side.
Like a match to a fuse, the Dreadwall caught fire.
Mures cadara merae, Circulus formidablant, Lluna Lyrik e Lore,
Al soli, Weilith cywilimmor, cylithovin, Al soli, lyeud, limmor.
Rise up, rise up, Dread Wall of the Sea, of Luna, Lyrik, and Lore,
Gift of the Suns, be still, be strong. For good or for ill, be strong.
I could hear it in my bones as I augmented and cast. Somehow, I understood it. It was a song of creation, sung in the tongues of both helms, and to its tune, the Cloudgate made music that day. Patterns danced and swayed with magik. The waters pulsed with life and power. And the chimeric responded, swirling through the currents, billowing up to roll its way to the moons above.
I saw the strings of the Worldrune, plucked in archaic rhythm. I saw the oceans like lines in the sand, drawn, erased, and redrawn by the tides. The erthe was calling and the sea called back, and the Dreadwall began to heal.
They were doing it. I knew it like I knew my own body. From the little roaming spit of land calledLindurithain, I knew the iromages cast, ebbing and flowing to the wylde, archaic spells they wove.
And we were doing it, too. This inner wall of Dread shimmered like a winter night, when stars and snowflakes would dance across the skies. TheMarelethanmaintained a steady course south, following the curve of the Dreadwall as it surrounded the Cloudgate, and we peppered her runepoints with chimeric. We would brace this inner ring. We had to. It had to obey when the ironmages cast the call to close the gap, causing the Dreadwall to pull itself around the island like a curtain and effectively cutting off all access forever. It was a bold, grand, audacious plan.
And Forge, I prayed it would work.
TheTemplemorewas on our stern, along with her man-of-war fleet. She hadn’t fired or loosed her guns, and I think Bracebridge knew he was out of his depth, with Dreadmages, ironmages, and runechasers in the fray. Or maybe he could sense we were trying to repair the Dreadwall and usher in a boon for his career. Regardless, I was grateful that he didn’t move to engage as we sailed the rough waters along the rim. The last thing we needed was cannon fire at our tail. I remembered that terror the last time we were escaping a gap.
I’d lost track of time as we rocked past the southern Channel, but Kier’s spells grew more intense, and my arms trembled as I caught them one by one. Each sizzled along tendon and bone, and I struggled to focus on anything beyond the blinding pain of the catch, the exhaustion that was left in its wake. Over and over. Catch. Augment. Throw.
We practically flew past the southern gap, as broad as it was in the north, and I paled to see sevenRhi’Ahrcruisers bearing down on us. We had to close it before they got through, else they’d be trapped within the safe waters of the Cloudgate. With us.
I couldn’t think of anything worse.
“Close it, spinners!” I heard Dev cry, and my knees almost buckled as Kier sent another spell my way. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the jambs smash inward and the waters burst up, and I lost sight of the ships in the fury and the spray. I clenched my lids tight, desperate for breath, willing my body not to give out.
“Aro’el?” I heard Kier shout.
