Crystal Doors #3: Sky Realm (No. 3) (22 page)

Vir Questas was on the
Thunder Shield
waiting to be dispatched. Sharif and Gwen offered to fly above them, help with defense, and be their lookouts. With Virs Helassa and Parsimanias both dead and Admiral Bradsinoreus severely wounded and unable to direct the battle, the remaining Virs and Elantyan sages had to do it all. The Vir of Learning’s warm eyes looked sad and troubled after all he had recently endured. “I will accept any assistance in this fight, and while I know Vir Parsimanias was skeptical, I have seen the apprentices of Ven Rubicas demonstrate enough amazing abilities that I would never underestimate you.”

“We won’t let you down,” Gwen said.

With a burst of speed and strength, the war galley raced away from the docks, its sharp prow cutting the water, heading out to where King Barak’s undersea armies were ready to launch their major attack.

On three small ships that headed out to the mouth of the harbor, Ven Sage Rubicas, Vir Etherya, and Sage Abacas read from spell scrolls and cast the invisible barricade spells, setting up shimmering blockades that covered most of the water, but they did not have the power or breadth to block the entire passage. Still, it created a bottleneck, and as the merlons and their captive sea monsters rushed forward, they crashed into the invisible blockade and were forced to swim around. This delayed them, but not for long enough.

With Vir Questas in command, Sharif and Gwen guiding them from above, and an Elantyan captain pushing the
Thunder Shield
forward, they soon got close enough to see the merlons. More dark and ugly forms rose up from the depths, plunging toward them.

“It appears that King Barak saved some surprises for this attack,” Sharif said.

Besides the three enormous armored battle krakens and the dozen huge sea serpents that raced forward, three long-necked dinosaurlike creatures also reared their sinuous heads above the waves, flashing bright red eyes in the sunlight. They opened their mouths and snapped. Gwen thought they looked like the Loch Ness monster or the prehistoric creatures called plesiosaurs; all were denizens of the darkest depths.

Amongst all of the triangular shark fins, another dorsal projection cut the water, rising upward and curving, leopard-spotted on gray skin. This behemoth shark must have been ten times the size of the largest whale shark on earth. Far from being a peaceful plankton-eating fish like the whale sharks Gwen had studied in marine biology, this creature had tooth-filled jaws wide enough to swallow a small boat.

“Do all creatures from the deep waters need such large teeth?” Sharif wondered aloud. He and Gwen took turns shouting descriptions down to Vir Questas.

The ships blasted with their cannons, throwing blazing balls of powerful Grogyptian fire at the largest targets. One blast struck the behemoth shark, which submerged quickly, possibly injured, but because of the magic in the merlon brands on its hide, it was forced to continue fighting. Sea serpents rammed the outermost war galleys, and though sages cast warding spells and Elantyan soldiers threw harpoons and shot arrows to drive back the beasts, the aquatic armies inflicted a great deal of damage. Gwen lobbed a sunshine bomb.

One of the battle krakens intentionally struck out toward a small boat holding a sage who had cast one of the shield spells. The panicked sage abandoned his ship before the tentacles could grasp him. His spell faltered and a section of the shimmering barricade faded away. On the
Thunder Shield,
Vir Questas pulled out spell scrolls. Sharif and Gwen swooped down and each took several, ready to do their part to fight.

Before they could reach the main mass of merlon soldiers and the towering sea serpent ridden by Goldskin, who carried a sharp trident spear, the water around the ship began to bubble and boil. Small fish with sharp fins that acted as wings emerged. Their large eyes saw food in every object, and sharp, needlelike teeth could tear wood and cloth and flesh. Hundreds of the creatures sprang out of the water and flung themselves like gnawing locusts onto the war galley.

“Flying piranhas!” Gwen cried.

Sharif was grim. “They almost killed us last time.”

The soldiers on deck shouted and ran for weapons. The ravenous fish began to chew and splinter the hull, the railings, the mast. The rowers could barely lift their oars. Each one had five or six flying piranhas fastened to them, snapping away the sleek, curved edges. Other flying piranhas devoured the rudder. More attacked the sails.

Sharif and Gwen rapidly read all of the protective spell scrolls they had, driving away flying piranhas by the dozens, stunning them, forcing them away from the war galley. Others lay flopping on the deck and they shot them with their arrowpults, though the hand weapons seemed woefully inadequate against so many. The flying piranhas were not King Barak’s primary attack, but they certainly preoccupied Vir Questas’s warship.

The sea serpents surged forward. Goldskin raised her trident and let out a loud battle cry. King Barak on his sea serpent shouted frantically, already declaring his ultimate victory. The aeglors and terodax had begun their full-fledged strike on Elantya. They had gone inland and were damaging the towers, the rooftops, and streets, chasing people who fought back with spears, arrows, torches, and household spells.

Gwen hoped her cousin and friends on the other flying carpet were still all right and causing great damage. Right now, though, she had her hands full as a hundred more flying piranhas rose from the sea and began to rip the sails to shreds. Some went after the flying carpet, and several of the dangerous fish had fastened themselves to her sleeves and the back of her blouse. She and Sharif used the heavy clubs they had brought to knock them off.

Having gone around the invisible barricades, many of the sea serpents and the three battle krakens plunged toward the inner harbor. Gwen knew that once they reached the docks and the shore, they would cause unimaginable damage.

Then more merlon soldiers surged forward and began scrambling up the hulls of other warships, fighting the Elantyan soldiers hand-to-hand in a clash of sharp weapons. Gwen couldn’t imagine how the island, even with all its sages, weapons, andingenuity, could possibly stand against this. Colorful sky fireworks exploded, erupting in flashes of sparks and smoke up in the air. Additional booms occurred underwater, driving some of the undersea attackers back. Sharif landed the carpet on the deck, and Gwen knocked a pair of flying piranhas away from Vir Questas as he finished reading a protective spell that made himself, Gwen, and Sharif invisible to the ravenous fish.

“Gwenya, I have something I must do, and I must go alone,” Sharif said, whacking a piranha that flopped on the deck.

Gwen shook her head. “I’ll go with you.”

“No. It is a danger I must face, and you will be safer here with Vir Questas.” Before Gwen could object again, Sharif put his carpet into a steep climb and was gone.

The battle became infinitely worse.

At the mouth of the harbor, dark shapes erupted from the surface. Long, wooden masts appeared, covered with rotted and waterlogged sails. Huge algae-covered wrecks, now studded with barnacles and shells, were crewed by gasping merlons who looked like drowned sailors on the decks of ghost ships. These twenty-five vessels had sunk and been left at the bottom of the ocean, rotting hulks of once proud sailing vessels. Now, through some unknown merlon magic, they were all brought to the surface.

Though it didn’t seem possible that they could even float, the once sunken wrecks now drove forward, the first ones ramming an Elantyan war galley. Two others turned strange coral-encrusted gun ports toward the island and, with loud explosions, blasted out glossy golden projectiles that seemed to shimmer with internal heat.

“This is water magic,” Vir Questas said.

As the projectiles struck buildings and wharves in Elantya, brilliant silvery explosions sent out shock waves of magic, igniting devastating fires that charred wood and raced up the stone walls, causing them to crumble.

“Lavaja bombs,” Gwen said in shock.

“Ah,” Vir Questas said. “We knew the merlons had thousands of them. We found all of the ones planted beneath Elantya, but the merlons must have kept stockpiles.”

The wrecked ships launched volley after volley of the lavaja missiles. The detonations were far more powerful than the blasts from Sage Polup’s improved Grogyptian fire cannons. Behind the rotting hulks of vessels that continued to plunge forward, a last sunken ship rose up. Gwen recognized it even before it had finished emerging into the air. Water streamed off its battered hull, splintered sides, and broken masts. The shape was very familiar, though. She would recognize the
Golden Walrus
anywhere.

At its prow stood a pale-skinned human form whose features looked distressingly
wrong.
The man’s skin seemed to be made of melting wax. His eyes were uneven and boiling with fury. A few patches of dark hair stuck to the scalp, though the rest of his head was one gigantic scar. Some of the fingers on his hand were fused together, but not webbed like the merlons’. No, this man was damaged but alive. He was also ruthless, powerful, and ready for revenge.

Gwen was unwilling to admit what she knew in her dread-filled heart.

“The spy Orpheon,” Vir Questas said. “The former apprentice of the Ven Sage.”

“I watched him fall into the lavaja and burn,” Gwen said.

“But he is immortal, like Azric. Though the magic in the lavaja seems to have injured him, he cannot be killed by normal means. He is alive and has come to fight us.”

“As if we needed another enemy right now,” Gwen said in dismay.

From the
Walrus,
Orpheon shouted out orders. “Obliterate Elantya. Wipe out the sages. Annihilate them all!”

The
Golden Walrus
was also equipped with the new merlon coral-tube cannons. More lavaja bombs blasted out, raining down on the beautiful buildings of Elantya. Loud thunderclaps came from overhead. Striking a pair of flying piranhas, Gwen looked upward to see another terrible magical storm brewing.

29

RACING UP TOWARD IRRAKESH on his flying carpet, Sharif felt vulnerable. As the future Sultan, he could not drive back his dismay at knowing that he had let his people down. His entire city had been enslaved by the aeglors and terodax. Now that most of the winged warriors were away attacking Elantya, Sharif used the situation to his advantage. If he could get to his people and make them listen, perhaps they would fight back.

Although the force of merlons, aeglors, and terodax was formidable, the people of Irrakesh could join the battle. He clung to a grim determination that he could indeed do something unexpected that would help to defeat Azric. He would do this for his father and for Hashim and for all those who had lost something to the terrible dark sage.

He also hoped to find a chance to free Piri. He could not stand the thought that Azric had captured her and was forcing her to do his bidding.

His carpet streaked upward. Instead of fighting any enemies he encountered, he dodged and outran them. His carpet was extremely swift and he was going in the opposite direction from the terodax and aeglors. Irrakesh, full of people —
his
people — still hung halfway through the open crystal door, a gigantic living doorstop. As Sharif approached the familiar buildings, he noticed that the pennants were now frayed, awnings torn, marketplace shut down, and citizens trapped inside their homes.

Clouds had begun to grow thicker. Lightning flashed. This was no natural storm. Seeing Azric on the high balcony of the palace, watching the battle, ready to take over, Sharif guessed that Piri must be with him somewhere close. He raced forward, his hair crackling with static electricity.

Lightning bolts skittered across the sky, and when Azric glanced about uneasily, Sharif realized with a start that the dark sage’s magic was not producing the lightning.
He
had not summoned the storm. This new development was not part of Azric’s battle plan.

Lights coalesced into sparkling forms that seemed to fill the air — shimmering shapes not unlike the misty visage that Azric had projected on the clouds. Sharif’s heart swelled. He had seen such shapes before and suspected their origin. At last!

Azric drew glowing runes in the air to cast spells, calling up wind, sending loud thunderclaps out at the bright lights. The dark sage seemed distinctly uneasy. Determined, Sharif raced toward the palace balcony. The massive powerful forms took more distinct shapes in the clouds, a looming man and woman in exotic simulated garb. Their angry faces glowered down at Azric.

Many powerful figures took shape in the air, scowling at the great palace and the small-looking dark sage who opposed them. Sharif could understand now the awe and mystery that had caused the people of Irrakesh to name these powerful beings Air Spirits. Because Azric had imprisoned several of their kind in ages past and had now enslaved Piri, the djinni had come to exact revenge and rescue her.

Azric’s attention was entirely focused on the attacking Air Spirits. Hundreds of aeglors and terodax looped back around toward Irrakesh. Almost as a casual gesture, the djinnis swept their incorporeal hands sideways and blasted large numbers of the winged warrior army out of the skies, smashing wings, singeing feathers, and sending the dark sage’s allies plummeting to their deaths. The cloudy figures converged on Azric.

Sharif plunged forward like a projectile with a predetermined target. So focused was Azric on trying to drive the angry djinnis back, that he didn’t notice Sharif until the last moment. The dark sage turned, his expression filled with alarm and disbelief to see the purple carpet racing toward him. Sharif braced for impact. Azric tried to defend himself, but the carpet bowled him over and sent the dark sage sprawling on the ornately tiled balcony.