I swear my heart beat to quarters.
“Ready, sir!”
“You will let me know if it is too much.”
“I will. Surely.”
And he raised his hands, holding them out in the direction of the breach, fingers dancing with pattern and light.
“Thryh’siahr tryo’visseth.”
I did the same, echoing his words even as he flung the spell at me. It was stronger than I had expected, deeper than anything Taran Vir had sent my way, and my palms sizzled with the impact. I rolled it in my hands, augmented it with chimeric, and shouted the incant in both languages. It grew with each syllable, and finally, I hurled it toward the breach, the rune crackling in circles as it went.
“Again!” he barked, and again we cast, him conjuring, me augmenting. We repeated these actions over and over, and there was a cry from the masthead. To my astonishment, the jambs of the breach had begun to move.
Seawater burst from the surface, up, up, up like a fountain that did not peak but carried on a half league into the sky. Above us, clouds gathered, blocking the suns with roiling black.
“Sail!”cried Kithriit. “Rhi’Ahrsail due south!”
I spun, breaking protocol, but I saw the wavering shapes between opposing walls of the Dread. Threewarships were entering the breach, and my heart thudded in my chest, for leading them was theEndorathil.
18. Into the Sheets
ThreeRhi’Ahrships bore down on us through the gap, led by the dreadedEndorathil, and my heart froze in my chest.
How?How could she be here now, when only weeks ago she was stormveiled in Oversea?
“Close it, Mr. Fahr!” called Thanavar.
“On the ships?” cried Fahr.
“Yes, on the ships,” he barked. “Unless you want threeRhi’Ahrcruisers chasing us in a fading gap?”
“I do not, sir! First crew, continue! Second crew, stand ready on my word!”
“Brace yourself, Aro’el!” said Thanavar. “We end this now.”
And he flung wide his arms, sending a massive pattern toward me at a rate of knots. The force of it almost pushed me from the pup.
The chimeric sizzled as I caught it, racing from the tips of my fingers to the hairs on my head. My teeth rattled, my knees trembled, and my runescars threatened to split me apart. Everything I had and was and knew settled into my chest. I closed my eyes and poured it all into theAuctorus, seeing nothing but light and pattern, stars and moons. The magik was like fire in my blood, burning through bone and sinew. My breath came in gasps, the pain hissing along my spine. My arms shook, but I would not let my crew down. I would not fail. Be damned if I had too much pride for the Ship of Spells.
So, I augmented and expanded, augmented and expanded, augmented and expanded. Thanavar shouted something, but it was as though he was underwater. I had no ears to hear, lost as I was in the pattern of theAuctorus Circulaia,caught in the tides of the Worldrune’s net. But if I was going to meet our Mother the Sea this day, I’d make sure as hels theEndorathilwould meether first.
When my arms couldn’t hold the spell a second longer, I let the wylde magik take it from me. Surrendered to the power coursing in my veins.
Runechaser!
I spun on my heel and let loose a scream as I hurled it with both hands into the oncoming ships and the breach.
With a boom of worlds, the ocean roared upward, obliterating the breach in a spray of whitewater. Up it went, cascading in a reverse waterfall, roiling into the sky like a thundercloud and taking the ships with it.
I stood like a rag doll, limp and lifeless, before I peered out from beneath my tangle of hair. The captain stared at me as if holding his breath. As if seeing me for the very first time.
“Glorious,” he murmured.
“Well done, Blue,” cried Fahr over the din. “Second crew! Get us out of here, now!”
TheTouchstoneleaped forward, sails snapping, waterspinners creating current as the eerie fog that had dogged us for the last days began to roll in at our stern. With the breach closed, the gap would crumble, and it was then that I realized that the narrow corridor we had so easily navigated, with its blue sky and stiff breeze, would close behind us. If we didn’t outrun it, we would be swallowed by the Silence, trapped in her sickly embrace. The Sheets would follow suit, bringing with it an entirely different fight.
