39

  Aboard a hurtling, out of control airship:

  Kaazin took another step forward, sword gripped tightly in hand. He stood knee-deep in swirling green ectoplasm, out of which skull-headed stalks erupted to hiss grim obscenities. Cloud itself was still out of the fight, Tess at the vessel’s helm, but Kaazin was far from alone or afraid.

  “Twelve-thousand gold says that you’re going back to Karellon alive or in chunks, Vixen… and corpses are easy to transport,” he snarled, striding nearer.

  The previous emperor’s killers had been dropped on deck by a cyborg he wasn’t sorry to lose. In fact, Kaazin viciously hoped that whatever the gods had in store for that rattling construct, it very much hurt. In the meantime, he had a serious fight on his hands.

  Comprising a lovely fox-demon, a smoldering half-djinn, a towering shark man, and a dragon-blood sword dancer, the assassins were edging around between tank and rail. They meant to encircle Kaazin, as if that would help.

  The ghosts had already pulled down a screeching young tiefling, were taking turns draining him hollow. Then everything seemed to slow down and happen at once, in the way of furious conflicts. That part-djinni battle mage used spells to rip out five of Cloud’s spars, some plating, and a bit of the keel. Next he created a simulacrum of the airship; smaller, but true to the last shroud and rivet.

  “Like to like! Crew, man your stations,” roared the half-djinn, rising into the air on a column of roiling smoke. He tossed the mockup overboard then, drawing Cloud’s phantoms out of the pirate ship like bile from a poisoned wound. Over the rail and away they streamed; Splinters, Scarface, Twist, Roughhouse, even Skelly… all of them, gone. Drek.

  Next, that hulking shark man and the dragon-kin attacked from two sides. The big grey fish wielded razor-sharp teeth, rough scales and a riptide tail, while the warrior danced up a storm of whirling blades. She pirouetted gracefully in their midst, singing commands that affected everything metal (including his sword and the rivets).

  Kaazin shielded himself reflexively, using Winter to stab through the shark man’s gill slits, and a spell to ward off that hissing cyclone of steel and loose brass. Blood spattered. Dozens of magical swords and half of Cloud’s railing went slashing off to bury themselves in the hull, tanks and deck.

  He could hear Tess shouting curses. Possibly, the first mate was under attack or else on her way, for the Cloud dipped sharply all at once, turning away from the wind.

  Kaazin had no time to react, for the assassins’ battle mage hurled a blazing and crackling firebolt that the drow deflected onto their sword dancer, melting the other half of her conjured blades. She screamed aloud and then drew a dagger, using it to slash Kaazin’s face to the bone.

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  Sharky twisted and leapt, meanwhile, bringing his black-tipped tail around to sweep the drow off his feet. Tried to, anyhow. Kaazin leapt over Sharky’s thundering strike, losing part of an ear to Dancer.

  He pivoted, blasting her over the side with a bolt of shrieking black ice. The half-djinn cursed, interrupting a fiery spell to go after her. That was two down, but then…

  “Illusion is a much more powerful force than most believe, Sweetling,” purred the beautiful demoness, gliding forward with all nine tails spread out like a fan. “Enjoy, as I use my illusions to rob you of sight and hearing and balance. Only your sense of pain I leave to you, so that you don’t become bored while you’re dying.”

  Kaazin tried to block her, but he was unprepared for infernal curse-magic. All at once, the drow was plunged into absolute darkness, silence and dizzying vertigo. The vibrating deck seemed to vanish from under his feet, and the juddering wind died completely.

  He might have cried out in shock. Felt a sharp blow to his shoulder and head, as though he’d fallen. Could not sense the hilt of his sword in his hand, but trusted that he hadn’t dropped it, and that a spinning slice would chop through somebody’s feet at the ankles.

  He twisted wildly, lashing out with whatever it was that prevented his left hand from closing. Met sudden resistance. Then…

  Flicker

  For just a moment, Kaazin heard and felt the Cloud’s presence inside of his mind, providing a flash of sight. Sharky was down, thrashing with right leg and half of that powerful tail sliced away. The nine-tailed demon was working another spell, while the half-djinn soared aloft with Dancer.

  Flicker

  All was darkness and silence again. Something cracked his ribs like a hammer wielded by rampaging dwarves. Hurt like all seven crispy-fried hells on a platter, but that blow had to come from no more than four feet away by its angle and force, on the injury side.

  Kaazin loosed a volley of ice-bolts, firing blind. Must have made somebody’s day, because all at once he was seized and jerked upright; burnt, half-crushed, spitting laughter and curses, binding his own fate to theirs with a terribly powerful last-magic curse.

  Flicker

  The deck was covered in blood. His, and everyone else’s. The ship listed badly to port. One-legged Sharky had him by the throat, roaring and shaking the drow till his teeth rattled. The ghosts came flooding back as Tess vaulted out of a storage locker in her glassy pirate form. She spotted him and raced forward, but…

  Flicker

  Darkness. Silence. Terrible, gut-wrenching pain and then nothing at all.

  XXXXXXXXXXXX

  In distant Ilirian, shortly thereafter:

  Zara meant to be good. Honest! She promised mamma, and everything! But then it was nap-time, and who wanted to sleep? Not her.

  But she didn’t much crawl out of bed and then sneak down the hall to peek and see if Miss Ava wasn’t paying attention.

  Hardly any, at all. Mostly all the way good. Just wicked enough to see Miss Ava watching a spell-globe with people kissing in it!!! Ewwww!

  Zara was glad to get past that room and Miss Ava’s gross kissy spell-globe. The sweets jar was up on a shelf that she knew how to reach… the garden and playhouse were right nearby… and most of all, she could go find her mama and come right back before Miss Ava knew she was gone. Easy peasy.

  Then a big, funny, pink doll waved at her from a shiny new door, putting a finger to its stitched lips and beckoning: this way.

  The doll was new, too. That made her a guest, and you had to be friendly to guests. Right?