Dark Sun: Prism Pentad 4 - Obsidian Oracle (13 page)

As the tarek reached for her next victim, Agis drew his sword and cried, “Stop! It's not
their fault!”

The noble brought the pommel of his weapon down on the back of Tithian's skull, adding
another dent to the battered circlet. There was a resounding thud, then the king's knees
buckled, and he slumped to the deck at Agis's feet.

To Agis, the shipfloater's apprentice looked only slightly more healthy than her dead
master, who had succumbed to a fever just an hour earlier. Beads of cloudy sweat rolled
down her brow in rivulets, a murky yellow film clouded the whites of her eyes, and red,
cracked skin surrounded her nostrils and mouth. Even the freckles dotting her keen-boned
cheeks had turned from pink to gray, while her breath came in labored wheezes.

Agis snapped his fingers in front of the young woman's fine-boned face. Her puffy eyelids
rose a I sliver. She turned her listless eyes on his face, but she did not speak

“Can you hold on alone, Damras?” he asked.

The apprentice nodded.

“Tithian is doing this to you,” the noble said. “I'm going down to the brig to put an end
to it.”

“Hurry,” she wheezed.

Agis climbed out of the chaperon's seat and started down toward the main deck. He had
barely set foot on the ladder before Kester laid a restraining hand on his shoulder.

“What are ye doing out of the chaperon's seat?” she demanded. In her hand, the tarek held
a king's eye, for the day was a breezy one, with a dust curtain hanging about half as high
as the
Shadow Viper's
main mast.

“Damras is dying-”

“She's just sick!” snapped Kester, cutting off Agis's explanation. Without even glancing
in the direction of the floater's dome, she added, “Damras is young. She'll be fine.”

“Denial won't keep us afloat,” said Nymos, joining them. “If Damras dies, the
Shadow Viper
is doomed.”

“I told ye, she'll be fine!” growled the tarek.

“No, she won't,” Agis said. “Tithian is killing her.”

“That's blather,” growled Kester. “If he kills the floaters, he sinks with us. Why would
he-”

A pained cry from Damras interrupted the tarek. Followed by Kester and Nymos, Agis rushed
to the side of the floater's pit. Damras's condition had deteriorated. Her chin lay
slumped on her chest, and her cloudy eyes stared into empty space. Her trembling hands had
slipped to the edges of the dome and were in danger of dropping off the glassy surface
altogether.

Agis climbed into the floater's seat, at the same time speaking over his shoulder to
Kester. “You'd better head for that island.”

The noble pointed to the ship's starboard, where a craggy, crescent-shaped island rose out
of the dust haze. Although it was several miles distant, he could see the zigzagging line
of a path traversing its precipitous slopes. The trail crested the ridge near a jumble of
blocky white shapes that could only be buildings.

Kester shook her head. “That's Mytilene, a giant stronghold,” she said. “Ye'll have to
keep Damras awake until we can make a safer island.”

Agis laid his hands on top of the floater's. Her knuckles felt as hot as sunbaked stones.
“Damras will never make it to another island,” he warned, moving the floater's hands back
toward the center of the dome.

“Neither will we, if we land on this one,” replied Kester. “Ye'd know that if ye had ever
seen how giants treat strangers.”

Damras focused her jaundiced eyes on the noble's face.
Can't last, but Kester is right about Mytilene,
she said, too weak to speak the words aloud.
Help me.

I'll go after Tithian right now,
Agis said.

The floater shook her head.

-No. The
Shadow Viper
will be under dust by then. I need you here.

Tell me how,
the noble answered, swallowing in apprehension. To Kester and Nymos, he said, “Damras is
going to teach me how to float the ship.”

Kester and Nymos both winced, then the jozhal said, “We'll see to Tithian.”

“No,” said Agis. “The king has obviously recovered from his ordeal, and he'll attack you
with the Way. Neither of you are powerful enough to resist him.”

“I have my magic,” the reptile insisted.

“And Tithian has his,” the noble replied. “You can't open that brig until I'm there to
counter his mental abilities. Otherwise, he'll take control of the crew again.”

“The brig stays closed,” said Kester. “I'll not have another mutiny on my ship.” She
stepped toward the helm, motioning for the jozhal to follow her.

Once they were gone, Damras placed her hands on top of Agis's, leaving his palms in direct
contact with the obsidian. An eerie chill spread from his fingers and into his wrists as
icy tendrils of pain writhed up his arms. They spliced themselves into his bones, drawing
the strength from his muscles and the heat from his blood.

Let the dome draw on your life-force.
Damras's thought came to him distant and weak, and he felt her hands slip away.
See the ship's hull in your mind.

Gritting his teeth against the numbing pain in his arms, the noble pictured the weathered
planks of the
Shadow Viper's
hull. At the same time, he opened a pathway to his nexus, allowing the dome free access to
his spiritual energy. A warm stream of life-force rose from deep within himself, coursing
through his body and down into his arms. The tendrils in his arms grew warmer as his
energy flowed into them, then a golden glimmer flashed beneath his palms and sank into the
depths of the dome. Suddenly, it seemed to Agis that the ship had become a part of him.

You
must witness the sea as it was.

Inside Agis's mind, the dust curtain engulfing the ship suddenly lifted, replaced by a
sparkling expanse of grayish blue. He heard the lapping of waves, then felt himself
rocking back and forth to the gentle sway of the ship. The sky turned the color of
sapphires, and a briny, wind-blown spray stung his cheeks. The noble licked a few droplets
of the liquid off his lips and tasted water, salty as blood, but water nonetheless.

The sight took Agis's breath away. In all directions, stretching to every horizon, he saw
nothing but water, as endless as the sky and as featureless as the salt flats of the Ivory
Triangle. This sea was a stark contrast to the real one, alluring and majestic instead of
foreboding and bleak.

When he had finally recovered from his shock, Agis asked,
What is this!

The Sea of Silt, long before the sorcerer-kings,
Damras explained.

That can't be,
Agis replied.
The time before the sorcerer-kings was that of Rajaat. The world was green and covered
with trees, I've read descriptions
-

Your descriptions were wrong,
Damras interrupted.
But we have no time to argue. The world was covered with water. You must accept that.

Very well.

As the noble spoke the words, a primeval attraction stirred deep within his spirit. He
felt a restless longing as painful as it was powerful, and he almost did not notice as the
crack of flapping sails sounded inside his mind. An instant later, a floater's cockpit
materialized around him. Agis found himself seated in a chaperon's seat within his mind as
well as that of the
Shadow Viper.

Slowly, the rest of the ship began to appear inside Agis's mind. An unimaginable weight
settled upon his spirit, so terrible that his heart, stomach, and all his organs ached as
though they would burst. He cried out in alarm, but his pain prevented anything more than
a strangled gurgle from escaping his lips.

You are the water,
instructed Damras.
Your strength carries the
Shadow Viper.

As the floater spoke, the foul odor of rot rose from the craft inside Agis's mind, and his
stomach churned in protest. The planks of the caravel's hull turned filthy dun, and a dark
stain of adulteration began to spread outward from beneath the ship's keel, changing the
color of the sea from sparkling blue to vile brown. The stench of decay grew stronger than
ever, filling his nose with such fetor that he had to fight to keep from retching.

What's happening!
Agis asked.

The fever,
Damras replied.
It comes from the ship.

You mean from Tithian,
said Agis. He's
poisoning us through the ship's hull.

Then he's very powerful. He's fighting against the dome's natural flow,
replied Damras.
I'll help you resist as long as I can.

You should rest,
replied Agis.
You won't be any good to the ship if you die.

You aren't ready to do this alone,
she retorted.

They fell silent, and Agis concentrated on the task at hand. Although he tried to keep the
Shadow Viper
floating high in the water, the horrid stench of Tithian's attack and the dome's steady
drain on his strength were difficult to endure. Soon, he found himself feeling
light-headed and dizzy.

I
think I'm about to fall unconscious,
he reported.

That's not surprising,
Damras replied. Despite the respite Agis had given her, she still sounded sick and weak.
It takes many days of practice before you can control the flow of your life energy into
the dome. You rest and let me take over for a few minutes.

Agis felt the ship lift off his spirit as she took its weight. The dark stain of lithian's
adulteration began to fade from the sea in his mind, and though he still felt tired, he
began to feel less sick to his stomach.

The
Shadow Viper
sliced through the dust as usual, until Damras suddenly cried out in fear. A horrid death
rattle escaped from her throat, then she pitched forward, and her hands slipped off the
black dome. Before Agis could catch her, the floater slumped to the deck, her lifeless
eyes staring into the sky.

The
Shadow Viper
lurched and slowed, then began sinking like a boulder. Agis caught it, visualizing the
caravel riding upon the waves inside his mind. The ship's weight seemed even more crushing
than before, and his stomach churned in protest as Tithian's foul stain of decay spread
over the blue sea. It was all Agis could do to keep his thoughts focused on the lapping
waters of the ancient sea, instead of the agony in his chest or the terrible nausea in his
stomach.

Kester's domed muzzle appeared over the cockpit. “What's happening down there?” the tarek
demanded.

Agis did not have to answer, for Damras's lifeless body made the trouble clear.

“From the way the ship lurched, I'd say we're about to sink,” said Nymos, also appearing
at the edge of the pit. “Perhaps we should consider landing on the island.”

“If we were goin' to sink, we'd be choking on silt by now,” growled the tarek. “Agis'll
keep us afloat.”

The noble shook his head. “I'm a mindbender, not a shipfloater,” he said. “I'll be lucky
to last long enough to reach the nearest shore.”

Kester gnashed her fangs for a moment, then crumpled her heavy brow into a wrathful scowl.
“All right, we'll chance the back side of the island,” she snarled. “And when we get
ashore, I'm going to snap Tithian's neck with me own hands.”

As the tarek had her helmsman swing the ship around, the image of a kes'trekel appeared
deep within the dome. The raptor's ragged wings flapped in great sweeps, lifting it out of
the black depths and up toward the noble. At the elbows of its wings it had tiny,
three-fingered hands, one clutching a many-stranded scourge and the other a curved scythe.
On the bird's shoulders sat a human skull, a tail of long auburn hair dangling from
beneath a battered circlet of gold. The bird continued to rise until its fleshless head
filled the entire dome.

Agis! came Tithian's voice.
You can't float this ship for long, but I can. Let me take over.

I'd sooner trust a scorpion,
Agis replied.

This isn't about trust,
replied the king.
It's about practicality. By working together, we're both more likely to recover the
Dark Lens.

So you can murder me and steal it for yourself?
the noble asked.
I'd be mad to give you that opportunity.

Consider the opportunity you're giving up,
Tithian pressed.
Isn't the possibility of killing Borys worth the risk that I might recover the lens!

Not if it's a risk I don't need to take,
Agis replied.
Now leave me alone-before I slip and let us sink.

The embers in Tithian's eye sockets flashed in anger.
You can't do this alone,
he said, diving back into the dome's black depths.
Before this is over, you will let me out.

Kester appeared at the edge of the cockpit. “Look lively down there!” she barked. “We're
taking silt over both sides!”

Agis put the king out of his thoughts and focused on the sea inside his mind. The water
had grown slightly darker and more viscous. The difference was so imperceptible that the
noble might not have noticed it on his own, but it was clearly affecting the ship.

Cursing Tithian for making his task more difficult, Agis visualized the sea as the floater
had first shown it to him, sparkling and pure. He felt a brief surge in the stream of
energy flowing from his nexus, then the water faded to a lighter shade of brown. The
Shadow
Viper in his mind rose a little higher, slipping through the waves as easily as it had
when Damras had been there to help him.

“Better,” commented Kester, nodding her approval. “Are ye sure ye can't do this for a
dozen hem's or so? We'd be wise to land almost any place but Mytilene.”

Agis shook his head. “By then, I'll be as dead as Damras,” he replied in a strained voice.
“We have to land soon, so I can stop Tithian's interference and improve my control over
the dome.”

“If ye say so,” sighed Kester. “But it'll be another ten minutes before we round the
point, and who knows how long after that before we find a place to land.”

“There must be someplace on this side of the is-and,” objected Agis.

There's one-where the giants wade ashore on the way up to their village,“ allowed Kester.
”I'm
sure ye don't want to land there."