Sage of the Depths gestured to the nearest seat. "Go on. We may as well discuss what you're doing." He took a seat beside the command chair himself. For the first time, Fred noticed the immense trident that rested on the throne next to him. "You're not the first."
"You've had other apprentices try to free the Traitorspawn." The Sage nodded gravely. "And you've killed them all."
"Hardly. Three of those I sent this way perished, true. The other two reached this point and saw what I am about to explain to you. I bore them no ill will. The fourth corpse, whom you no doubt saw, was apprenticed to Swims-in-Shadow, who may in fact have killed him; I'm afraid I don't know his story."
Fred decided to take the seat she'd been offered. "Why? Were you lying about hating the Traitorspawn?"
"Not the first time. Five hundred years ago, the first of the apprentices to come this way confronted me with what he saw as my hypocrisy, and eventually convinced me that he was correct. I told him that if he could find a way to free the captives I would not hinder him. He came here, just as you did. Since then I have used this as my testing for any apprentice who thinks as you do-not only the problem-solving, but the strength of will it requires to defy me, and by extension Leviathan."
"But they're still slaves." Fred looked around the room, searching for more traps.
"No one has passed the final hurdle. To take command of Luthe's major systems, one must sit in the command chair, and Leviathan placed Islebreaker there to prevent that from happening." A wave of his arm at the trident. "None save Leviathan, or the reincarnation of his Solar mentor, Kendik Arkadi, can hope to move it from where it rests. And before you ask, no, it will not suffice to take on a tiny form and mount the chair to sit next to Islebreaker; the consciousness uplink requires your head to occupy a portion of the space currently taken by the weapon. Nor can any heavy equipment that reasonably can be moved to or assembled in this space shift it. In principle, a truly mighty warrior could heave Islebreaker aside by pure strength, but it would take a Primordial behemoth or some such to succeed at a task like that. If you wish to solve this last problem, I will not hinder you, but even I have thought of no method that could lead to success." He leaned forward, favoring her with a sad expression. "Do you see?"
"I see you gave up." She pulled her knees up into the chair and wrapped her arms around them.
"Not gave up, no. But I have seen no one I think can defeat the last puzzle in all this time. And, with respect, my clever student, that includes you." He laid a hand on her shoulder. "I can declare your trials complete at this point, if you like. You may stay here and learn my lore, or go out into the world and declare your own protectorate wherever you like. I will remain in touch in any case. You are not my best student ever, but you are exceptional."
"What if I said I'm not leaving till the job is done?" Fred found that she was fidgeting with her hair and forced herself to stop.
"That, too, is your right. I have told you the central point of the Silver Way, have I not?"
Fred gave him her best solemn nod. It felt absurd, the action of a little girl putting on her parents' clothes. "Defend what is yours."
"If you would protect those known as Traitorspawn, if you would declare them yours, then you may challenge even great Leviathan himself." Sage of the Depths bent down to look into her eyes; he was taller than she had realized at first. "I certainly would not advise such a course of action, but you must do what is right in your own heart. That is also part of being a Lunar."
"Leviathan says Luthe is his territory, but you told me he hasn't come inside in a millennium." The Sage raised a bare brow at the fire in her words, but waited patiently for her to finish. "He says these people are his to protect, but he leaves the 'Traitorspawn' to be slaves. They're not his, and they're not part of Luthe, not really. If he wants the rest, he can have them. I don't care if he's a thousand years old, or a thousand to the thousandth. I'll beat him or die trying."
The Sage of the Depths heaved a great sigh. "You know it will almost certainly be the latter. I would regret that, my student."
"I know."
Nothing On Earth Is His Equal
Gavrane Tomazri looked up from clearing trash to find a shark-man standing over him. "Traitorspawn," the creature said harshly. "Come with me."
If he started the fight here, others would die in the brawl. He could wait a little longer, till they reached the prison. He would fail, as all the others had failed before him. One day their deliverer would arise. With sorrow, Tomazri accepted that it would not be him.
They led him down winding side streets and into a well-maintained chamber, a room of shining silver metal. Only one space in it was not pristine-the floor where he would be executed. That space was kept ritually dirty, so that none could ever doubt the bloodguilt of Traitorspawn. Guards waited there for him, one to either side, and an executioner. No captive escaped this place.
"Look at me," a voice said. He did not move until a tentacle pad fastened on his head and pulled it back. "I said look. Gavrane Tomazri, you stand accused of heresy and treason, like all your kind. Clemency has been shown in allowing you to live to adulthood, but that mercy has run out." Strange. Usually this part was carried out by sharkfolk.
"We will be vindicated," he proclaimed, "one day."
"Yes," said the squidwoman. "Today." And in a flurry of motion she slammed the guards to the floor. "Come with me if you want to live." She turned her back on him and ran for the door.
Was she mad? He raced after her. He could strike her down from behind. "Why would you help me?"
"Because you need it," she said, bluntly. "I'm Winifred Burkle, and I've been where you are. I've been made to serve inhuman masters, until finally one day someone came and set my people free. I'm just payin' it forward."
"But you're Scionborn," Tomazri protested.
"Nope. I'm from Texas, actually. Long story, no time to tell it now. I can't get you to the command deck right now. Too many traps to bypass, and they'll be looking for you soon anyway." She hesitated at a door. "I need you outside."
"Outside? But I'll-" He feigned horror.
"Don't play dumb," Burkle said sternly. "I want to help you. I know you can live underwater. If you run low on time, get in the airlock and signal me, but hopefully it won't be too long."
"I can breathe underwater for a day at a time," he found himself explaining. "Longer, if I expend more essence on it."
"Good," she said. "We'll take as few days as we can." Burkle pinned something to his collar. "Comm unit. Press the button to talk to me. I need to know what you can do, and there's no more time in here."
"I don't understand what you're planning," the Sage said.
Fred nodded. "I don't think you'll betray me, but I can't take the risk. Leviathan will be hard enough to take on by himself. You said he can breathe water, not just hold his breath like a whale?"
"Yes, for a time. It costs him energy, but not in any large amounts. If you mean to attack him directly, I'm not sure you understand how powerful he is-"
"He won't be breathing it when he drops by, then?" Where was she going with this?
"No. More than likely he will not. But he will surely begin using that power as soon as he feels he needs it. You must realize that he is a Full Moon. He is at the peak of his strength, and you-"
"I'm a Full Moon too, for another couple of days. Then I'm a Changing Moon. I'll pick the right moment to attack, wait if I think I should. He's not the greatest of intellects, then?" She scribbled down another note on the wall.
"He has a powerful strategic mind. No, he is no savant, but what use is that to you?"
"I am a savant, Sage, just like you. We can't outfight him face to face, but i suspect the two of us together can take him out. You've told me a lot about what he can do. If it's not everything, tell me the rest. Intellectually first."
"Hmm. Perhaps you have a point. Leviathan has certain limited mental powers, but between the two of us we may well be more than his equal. You lack my experience and my advanced magics, but you do have the knowledge of another age or world." Fred began to take more notes. On the walls. Sage of the Depths sighed and continued. "He is no creative genius, though he does have the capacity to expand his intellect beyond human limits. By far his strengths lie in his physical prowess-vastly enhanced by his magics, to be sure, but blunt and straightforward..."
As he went on, Fred began to smile. It was not the kind of smile he expected from an effete city-dweller; it held their kind of intelligence, but mixed with a feral cunning. It was a No-Moon's smile, and he had seen it many times. And yet to see it on this skinny little city girl...Sage of the Depths felt a tiny flicker of fear.
It made him proud.
In all the oceans of the world there was none like him. Leviathan his name, the great whale, bulk vaster than any ship that now plied the waters. Many primordial behemoths could not match his strength. Third-Circle demons were not so hard to kill.
His hide was unbreakable steel. His muscles were engines of destruction. He shot forward like lightning through the water. His Essential core churned like a thousand fusion reactors.
Leviathan sailed past Luthe with one thrash of his massive tail, his infallible wake churning the water as he passed. He sensed nothing amiss. Nothing there offered him the slightest threat any longer. His vengeance, his duty, proceeded apace, but none who could challenge him would ever arise there. One day his people might rise from the seas and help wash away the treacherous Usurpers and their Realm, but that day was not yet.
There was none like him, and if any began to rise to challenge him, his allies, Swims-in-Shadow and the Sage of the Deeps, would ensure that there remained none like him. Though in truth, he needed them not. If one day someone rose so high, he would meet them proudly, forehead to forehead, and he would crush them into the abyssal mud.
He was Leviathan, Admiral of the Western Sea. He was the unconquerable avatar of that sea, which would roll on for thousands of unnumbered years. He was unbreakable, invincible, a fitting nemesis for Primordials. There was none like him. None like him. Not one.
"It's about time," Fred said at last, and Sage of the Depths shook his head.
"If you are planning to engage Leviathan directly with what we have, I must warn you that this is not enough. You will have to rewire the Essence cannons and lightning ballistae you repaired so that you can fire them at will. Only a percentage of the automated defenses will fire without authorization, perhaps none given that it is Leviathan who we will be fighting. And much of the ship's armament is still buried. I would suggest you remove and transfer some of the weapons that are pointing in inconvenient directions, and rewire them so that you can fire them personally."
"He'll notice that," Fred pointed out. "He'll attack while we're busy."
"Hmm." There was some merit in that. Leviathan would surely notice unusual activity around the weapons. But what other choice did they have? That was yet another reason to persuade her to give up. He put a bony hand on the auxiliary weapons controls. "Perhaps we can arrange a distraction."
Fred fiddled with her hair. She'd resisted his suggestion to cut it off. "Maybe. That's the communications console, right? Can he pick that up?"
"He can. He has specialized powers that enable him to speak to the ship using it."
Fred strolled over to it casually and flicked it on. "Huh. What kind of a distraction you think we might need?" He opened his mouth to make a suggestion, and Fred keyed the microphone. "Hey! Leviathan! We're in your command center freein' your slaves!"
What? No! The girl had gone mad! The Sage lunged at her, slamming her away from the controls. She was no match for him; how could she think to go up against an admiral of the Old Realm? He had warned her of this, the same malady that caused even experienced Lunars to lose their minds. "Fred, what have you done?"
"What I had to do to win." A great booming voice filled the command center, a force of utter calm and absolute fury. "Who are you? Who dares suggest I hold slaves? Who dares?"
Fred squirmed free of the Sage's grip. He could have tried to hold her by changing form, but she likely could have slipped away all the same. "Winifred Burkle," she said into the microphone. "Physicist, survivor type, and newbie Lunar extraordinaire. How's that combo sound? Better go get your friends if you mean to come after me, because otherwise I'm kicking ass and taking names."
Leviathan's laughter shook the hull. "You think to manipulate me, girl? I know you are Sage of the Depths' student. He will deal with you, upstart. You do not have the power to truly challenge me. Come back and face me when you have a few centuries under your belt."
"He's right here," Fred shouted. The Sage started to lunge at her, then hesitated. [i]Did[/i] she have some insight he wasn't seeing? "He's on my side. Betraying you and your apartheid regime."
"Sage. You stand with this little fool?" There was no use denying it now, not without stopping her at once. He could do that. He could stop her easily. And betray everything he had told her. "This is treason, Sage. This is no mere challenge. I will destroy both of you. I need no aid in handling the likes of you. I will boast of this to Swims-In-Shadow when I have finished. Die now."
"I grin at thee, thou grinning whale," Fred snarled, and dropped the microphone.
"Fred," the Sage begged as the comm shut down. "What have you done to me? Can you not see what folly this is?"
On the viewscreen, the great lazy bulk of Leviathan came around, an orca the size of a blue whale. A leviathan indeed, an immense predator capable of swallowing sharks whole. Mottled black and white and silver that shone in Luthe's ancient running lights, he flicked his tail and accelerated toward them. He would close the distance in moments only.
Fred offered him no answers, only sat down in one of the restraint-guarded chairs near the unusuable throne of the captain, still occupied by Islebreaker as it had been these thousand years. None could shift it so much as a hair. "Brace for impact," she said.
Why? Why expect to live through the first minute of this? What could this child have seen that he had failed to recognize? For that reason, and that reason only, he settled himself into a chair. Perhaps he would live long enough to see.
Leviathan's great head bore down on the viewscreen, filling it. And then he turned upward. Not a reprieve. His immense flukes swung around, vast contrails of silver Essence boiling in their wake. The Sage dared to look at the actual windows and saw only darkness as the tail blocked out the lights beyond.
Impact. The orichalcum armor of the hull held, though it groaned like a dying behemoth, though the seams between plates crumpled slightly and split open in places. Sparks flew from consoles despite a dozen safety breakers as water sprayed through a crack to port and the immense shockwave struck them in a blinding flash of Essence. The unstoppable force of Leviathan's crushing blow shattered panels and knocked them from their seats in spite of the restraints. Fred's notebooks sailed lazily through the air, but pens and tools and the components of a half-repaired console flew with such force that they embedded themselves into the bulkheads. Everything they had in progress, maybe all that they had done, was destroyed as Leviathan did no more than flick his tail at them.
And the weapon that only Leviathan could move was hurled across the room.
Gavrane Tomazri was shocked to realize how shocked he was.
He had always hated the Great Whale God of the stories. He had always hated Luthe. Luthe was a prison camp. Luthe was the trap he would die in. Luthe was the place of his parents' and his siblings' and all his people's suffering. Now he saw it under attack, and expected to be overjoyed.
But as much as he hated it, it was also home.
Everyone he knew was there. Leviathan's attack had been directed at the command center, but the command center was the city's core and apex. And his family's prison was only a few levels down from it. In striking there, Leviathan had hurt his entire people-had conceivably killed everyone he knew.
Only a heartbeat had passed. Tomazri darted out from his place of concealment, anima raging, a great black cloud of swirling fury, water beneath the water, that was also an imperceptible speck as the vast bulk of the Great Whale God passed him by. He drew back a fist that was but the size of a pebble and lashed out with it, his strike emblazoned with all the Essence he could draw, and no more than a pinprick at that. He could not be sure Leviathan even felt the blow.
But the thrashing told him that Leviathan could feel his building-sized lungs fill with salt water.
Leviathan had no doubt fought great whales of every kind, siaka, giant squid. In a thousand years he would still not have had such a force as that used against him. It was in his power to render himself able to breathe water in as many ways as a human hand had fingers. And yet, in the wake of his attack on Luthe, his Essence still unrecovered from that crushing blow, he was, if only for a moment, helpless to do so.
He had time. He would not suffocate instantly. But it is the instinct of every creature that breathes to continue doing so, and coughing great gouts of seawater into the sea, Leviathan let his instinct get the better of him. His tail pumped, and Leviathan shot toward the surface.
Gavrane Tomazri dove toward home.
The bones in Fred's left leg shattered as the hammer struck her in the shin. Blood sprayed from her face, mingling with the incoming seawater and the glass of a dozen consoles. She slammed bodily into the ceiling hard enough to black her out momentarily from the concussive shock to her whole frame, coming to on the floor. ...lay your hand on him...remember the battle...
Hands in front of her. Pull. Crawl. Squirm across the deck. She let her body go fluid, shifting, her bones melting away. Should've done that before. Scrabbling towards her goal, still keeping low lest more debris fly into her. One hand...er, tentacle pad. Captain's chair. Empty. She could do this. ...from hell's heart I stab at thee...
Fred dragged herself up and into the chair that had been vacant for a thousand years. Felt something immaterial squirm and pierce its way into her already reeling brain. Blood trickled from her nose, her ears. Not good. Had to think. Had to remember the plan. Systems online, Amyana. Towers of Azure waiting your command.
...I want you to remember, Clark...in all the years to come...in your most private moments...I want you to remember...my hand...at your throat...I want...you to remember...the one man who beat you...
No...too far ahead...page back. It was there. Had to remember. Leviathan would be coming around ponderously, even with all his powers it must take time to turn through the water...Back up, Fred, no gloating yet. Time for that later.
Another presence impinging on her consciousness. No. Hundreds. Just below the limits of her perception. Submotic transmission...flickers of energy...prayers. Unreadable, and yet some tiny part of her knew what they must be saying, what anyone would have been saying. is it the end? have you come to save us? who are you? please help don't let us die here like this save us whoever you are
They are tiny and stupid and vicious...but please...listen to them...please...I am slow and dying...I need only...reach the sun.
Command recognized, Queen Amyana. Note: we are under attack. Initiating defense protocol. Initiating launch protocol. Initiating self-repair systems. Sulfate of thanatol in reserve; do not release.
Surfacing.
Spent, Gavrane Tomazri collapsed to the deck. He had known he could never fight this battle alone. And so he had retreated to the launch bay, seizing the airlock door as it ascended past him, seeking the still-undamaged fighting craft and warstriders that had waited there for a millennium.
For all that time, his people had treasured the hope of a savior arising from their people. One, they needed one Dragon-Blood to draw the right Second Breath. Only one. But the Dragon-Blooded had never been meant to fight alone. So now he was on his knees on the smooth metal floor, his Essence exhausted.
Those who had been chosen as leaders, who had received the secret training in the long nights aboard Luthe, they had fought their way here as the city-ship began to rise, an entourage of less-trained and untrained Traitorspawn surrounding them, risking death so they could live. They had found him, and without him they now dashed for every craft they could reach, praying that they knew enough about their operation to pilot them.
He would return in person to the fight, but not yet. He would find a source of Essence, somewhere on the ship. In the armory, perhaps, if he could reach it. But for now he was exhausted. He raised the commlink to his lips.
"Ordering all unit commanders. Attack pattern beta-three. Strike his flanks. Harry him. Force him upward, but keep him in range of the main city guns. Do not, I repeat, do not let him break away."
He had given them his all. He had flooded their brains with all his power, had made them masters of tactics and strategy. That was their birthright, the Dragon-Blooded: to fight together, to raise up the weak and make them strong, to be the scales of one dragon. He had never been meant to fight alone. And he did not need to.
Gavrane Tomazri rested on the floor a few more moments, just breathing. For now he needed to do no more. They were his limbs in this fight, as he had always meant for them to be. He was in command, and this was not a struggle of one man against one man.
This was war.
Someone was shaking her.
"Fred! Winifred Burkle, you must stay awake!" She forced her eyes open. Sage of the Depths. "Medical treatment is on its way. Heal yourself if you can; the Traitorspawn have not been able to preserve much knowledge of First Age medicine, but they will help to the extent of their abilities."
Queen Amyana! Please respond! The entity attacking this vessel is Admiral Leviathan. Hush, cawing birds! What shall I do?
She was not bleeding so badly as she had feared, but her head was stuffed full of cotton. ...any hope of subduing him is false...the mere sight of him is overpowering...
Amyana? Must we retreat?
No. No, not that. She had to clear her head somehow. Focus on the battle. Just the battle. She flexed the same mental muscles she had used for the repairs, forced Essence through her brain, used it to think. A power that she had used to make herself smarter than human was still enough to override the brain damage and make her a genius again, if only that. She would heal, she realized, if she lived through the battle.
...in that day the Lord with his sore and great and strong sword shall punish Leviathan... "Towers of Azure, keep the main cannons on Leviathan. He's gone mad. He'll destroy us all rather than let the descendants of the Dragon-Blooded escape." She turned her head ponderously. "Sage...do you want to live through the day?"
"What?" His beak clacked together in shock. "I don't understand what you mean."
"What about your people, Sage? The Scionborn, even the pelagothropes...they're out there fighting against the Traitorspawn. Do you want this to be just a cycle of revenge? Are you going to let them be slaughtered? Or are you going to take a stand?"
"I don't understand, Winifred. You want me to fight the Traitorspawn? After we've come this far to free them?" She must have him so off-balance. Maybe it was the fizz in her brain, making her smarter, or maybe he was just disoriented at the inevitable finally coming true.
"No, Sage. I've given my all. Tomazri has given his all. It's your turn. I need you to fight Leviathan."
Leviathan roared out his rage as he and the city breached together, spraying tons of water into the air, breathing deeply the sweet oxygen above the waves. He would not risk holding his breath again, but for now he did not need his powers to breathe.
Essence in its purest form boiled the water around him, lines of liquid fire streaking from the city's main guns. Fighter craft churned through the sea, loosing their fury. There was no one to pilot the warstriders against him, though he was sure the secret Dragon-Blood and perhaps the Lunar betrayers would take them soon. Leviathan shook off the blows of burning Essence. He could not take this pounding forever, but he could take it for as long as he would need to. He was invincible. He was the Great Whale God, and no mere mortals could defeat him with stolen weapons. Great plates of bone now armored his skin, shielding him against all but the most powerful attacks. Even the city guns struggled to pierce them.
This battle might last for days. But in the end he would be the victor. He was always the victor.
Pumping his tail, Leviathan shot from the water like a shell from a cannon, and fell upon the tiny boats, shattering them, drowning the Traitorspawn who fell from them into the swirling, unending sea.
"The source of the Essence readings is here, Dread Pirate Roberts." Thousand-Faceted Nelumbo pointed to the map. She could feel the roiling energies seething there, but she could not see how they could possibly reach the site in time, not in this primitive craft. They would spend an hour traveling even if the wind held.
"Can you get us there?" The Dread Pirate asked, curiously. "Maybe if you open the portal here and then there-"
"It doesn't work that way," she explained. "The location can be changed, but it'll take days to reprogram. We'd get there sooner just by sailing. Can't you do something?"
"Me?" The Dread Pirate's eyes widened as if she had bashed him on the head. "What do you think I can do?"
"I don't know," Nelumbo said curtly. "Are you a Solar or aren't you?"
"I'm sorry, my lady," the litte dark-haired girl whispered. "I don't know how to use these. Please don't die." Fred had deactivated the security protocols long enough for the noncombatant Traitorspawn-she needed a new name for them; they weren't Dragon-Blooded as she kept thinking-pack the bridge, then closed the gates behind them. The girl riffled through the medical packs, unable even to read the instructions.
Fred picked one up. Symbols swam before her eyes and she forced them to stay still. She wasn't dying here, not today. "I'm...not planning to...little miss. Thank you." She patted the girl on the head. "Soak the bandage in this bottle. Then wrap it around my leg." Her leg was still damaged even with no bones in it; broken bone had morphed into torn muscle.
She searched through the packs and found something like a headband with peculiar crystalline components. "For...brain...trauma..." Good. That was good. Suddenly she laughed. "Apply directly...to the forehead."
"This is beyond what I expected, Roberts," said Captain Redfang, "even from the likes of you." A great aura of golden essence had gushed forth from Xander to surround the sails. Even he wasn't sure what he was doing until the glow had begun to amplify the wind. Somehow. The ship was hurtling along at twice the speed it should have, and the battle was drawing closer.
Xander could see the city over the horizon now, a mountainous dome with a dozen spires jutting from its surface, shining a blue that was neither sea nor sky, but something in between. And at the top, a brilliant crystalline window that glimmered in silvery light that came from something plainly not the sun. High-tech watercraft shot in every direction, outracing his wooden ship. Was he even going to be able to do anything here?
"Dragon-Blooded," Redfang said. "The Realm...they must have found their way here somehow. They're attacking the city."
Xander frowned, trying to work out what they were doing and why. The beams of energy they fired were vanishing under the water, but were they aiming at the city's floating foundations or something else?
The ocean boiled suddenly in front of him as something immense shot towards the surface at an unbelieveable speed. Nelumbo's lips parted in shock, and she breathed, "Lunar. It's a Lunar." A rubbery mass of black and white flesh and silvery metal erupted from beneath the surface, close enough to set Distant Obsidian Shores almost on end before it righted itself. The immensely oversized orca plunged back into the water, narrowly missing most of the fighter craft as they nimbly dodged aside, but carrying at least two into the depths in its jaws.
"Leviathan," Xander said. "They said..." Who had said it? "...Fred would be with Leviathan. Captain, get ready to attack the Dragon-Blooded vessels. I don't know how much damage we can do, but we're going to hit 'em with whatever we've got."
For the first time in centuries, the Sage of the Depths stepped out of Luthe on two feet. Far below him, the battle raged unaltered, the Traitorspawn throwing everything they had at Leviathan, who shrugged it off like insects prickling at his unbreakable hide. There was no sign of Swims-In-Shadow. Had he forsaken his master, or his master him, or were they simply lucky enough to have struck when he was away on other business? No matter.
The Sage spread his slender human hands, fingers outstretched, and began to work his will. Darkness sprang up around him, a darkness limned in silver light. Vast tentacles of shining shadow spread out, writhing across the great dome of the city.
This should only take one try.
"Ready to fire," Captain Redfang reported.
Xander began to drop his hand, to signal the attack.
"Wait," Nelumbo said, seizing him by the arm. "What's that?"
A great gaping hole of darkness appeared near the city's edge, dark tentacles reaching out of it to curl over the rooftops. There in its midst a tiny figure stood, walking across the last few feet that separated him from the water. Beside him, two phantom giants flickered into view, and they stepped forward ahead of him, plunging into the sea.
The ocean boiled even more fiercely than when Leviathan had first erupted from beneath the waves. That had been in one spot; now a narrow line extended out from the city for hundreds of yards, nowhere near Xander's lone ship. The figure hesitated, as if waiting for just the right moment. Then it spread its hands, and the waters opened like a vast mouth, cataracts falling away forever beneath the city.
Luthe rested there unharmed, the city straddling the gap easily. The Dragon-Blooded fleet avoided the crevasse without difficulty. Rapidly the maw grew wider, with the immense mass of Leviathan caught in its center as certainly as a fly in a web. He struggled, trying to turn as the water vanished from beneath his flukes.
The great whale fell into the abyss.
Xander whistled. "Remind me not to piss that guy off."
And the walls of water slammed closed.
The Sage of the Depths knew his mentor could not be so easily slain as that. He could see Leviathan shining with a banner of his own, a behemoth of a whale surmounting him even as he plummeted into the great crevasse, and he felt the essence flows shift as Leviathan wrenched himself to one side, plunging into the water long before he could strike the sea bed. It was inevitable. But every mote Leviathan spent drew him closer to defeat. If defeat could be had.
The Sage leapt into the water and began to grow.
Gavrane Tomazri drained energy from the water and felt his strength return. Vast booms and crashes from outside warned him that the battle still raged. It was time to return to the fray.
He ran for the warstrider bays. None of the more powerful ones were designed for him, which was hardly a surprise. But to one side there sat a great bulk of armor made of black jade. Laboriously he climbed into the cockpit, strapping himself in, and began to attune himself to it. Long minutes passed while he waited, helpless, but at last he felt the controls respond.
Ensconced in gargantuan armor, Gavrane Tomazri raced for the locks.
"I don't think Fred is with the whale," Xander said finally. "That must have been the Sage, and he was the one teaching her."
"Are you sure?" Nelumbo queried. "We need to join battle soon, especially if we're going to fight that...that beast." She sounded nervous, but not afraid Battle was surely something she engaged in fairly often.
"No," he said regretfully. "I don't know how to tell for sure."
He was still hesitating when the whale breached again, wrapped in eight suckered arms the size of tree trunks. Writhing, the wrestling monsters sent great fountains of spray into the air and rocked the sea with titanic waves.
Without warning a flailing tentacle swept him and Nelumbo from the deck.
Fred was tired of waiting. Outside the battle raged on, and she was lounging at her ease in the command chair. People-her people, now-were dying out there. She began to rise unsteadily to her feet.
Queen Amyana-
That's not my name, you realize that?
My apologies, Queen Winifred. I have not been maintained in some time. Queen Winifred, your subjects need you alive and in command. I do not doubt you will one day become expert at combat, but you must survive this day.
With a sigh she sank back into the chair. Queen Winifred. Was that what she wanted?
It seemed it was what she had chosen.
New forces are trying to enter the fray, Queen Winifred, but they seem hesitant to join battle. Should I signal to them?
Fred sat up again. Show me. People were staring at her. Well, she no doubt looked silly, leaning back and sitting up again over and over. Who are they?[
Unknown, but I believe two Essence wielders have just been hurled into the water.
Fred thought that over for a moment. Can you magnify my anima?
Excellent suggestion, my queen.
She released a flood of energy, letting the vessel's systems replenish it for her, more than she ever had before. High above her it manifested, a squid coiling tentacles over the huge dome of Luthe, a squid made of silver light, slowly changing as deep blue filled it. The full moon was coming to an end.
Xander drifted in the water, struggling against a vast undertow created by the Lunars' wake. There was a way to breathe down here, he was certain, but he groped for it and it eluded him. Still, he was making headway toward the surface. Nelumbo rose faster beside him.
Words formed on the skin of the octopus he presumed to be the Sage. FOOLS. DO SOMETHING. ACT. LEVIATHAN IS WEAKENING. But was the great whale friend or enemy? How did he convey his question to the Sage of the Depths?
The great battle shifted, and suddenly he was above the Lunars as they rose up under his feet. Together they broke the surface.
Shining from the city of Luthe he saw the huge shimmering image of a squid. Fred was up there in the city. One tentacle rose above him, tracking the location of Leviathan for the combatants. Or was it the Sage she tracked? The whale rocked beneath him, thrashing. He stood on bony plates that buckled in a ring about Leviathan's eye, a great malevolent glaring thing at his feet.
FRED IS WITH ME. Out of the water, the letters seemed blurred, muted.
Praying it wasn't a lie, he drew his sidearm and fired into Leviathan's eye.
Then he was in the air again.
Nelumbo seized him beneath the arms. Xander turned, trying to face her as she rocket through the air. "The Sage says he's on Fred's side. Attack Leviathan-he's the whale, I mean. Whatever you've got."
"I will-and I'm signaling Captain Redfang. She's still waiting."
Xander sighed. "He, Nelumbo. He."
Half-blind, Leviathan rolled and bucked, raging, thrashing. He would be free. He would! Who could hinder him? Who could harm him? How dare they lift a hand against him?
He had burned so much of his power, struggling against foes who, one on one, could never have injured him. But they came at him, and came at him, and his strength was nearing its end. An Essence image of a great crystal shard arced down at his other eye, and he spun, letting it strike only a surge of water. He could not be defeated!
It rose up out of the depths at him, the form of a man in black armor, yet immense. A Dragon-Blood, a Usurper. This was the end. The final battle of the Usurpation had arrived. He was Leviathan! He could not lose this fight!
A torrent of black Essence surged from the warstrider's cannons, and he could not evade it. It hurt him the less for its nature, but he could not absorb it all.
Leviathan shrank and vanished. If that was the way of it, he would lose the battle to win the war. Imploding on himself within the water, creating a great suctioning force, he transformed, taking on the form of a simpler creature. A small sea turtle slipped from the wake, dropping through the water. He would not yield. He would bide his time. He would-
Sage of the Depths caught him between the curves of his beak. His color-changing skin flashed simple denial. "Not this time, Admiral. Under the law of the Silver Pact, I hold you accountable."
Leviathan went limp in the Sage's grip.
The Sage of the Depths was on one knee in front of Fred as she sat in the command throne of Luthe, scribing the last bit of her tattoos. "I have thought long and hard on this, Winifred. Your culture is full of things that have no correlation to mine, or that are long lost."
"Do you need some help?" She didn't want to break the ritual by suggesting anything if she wasn't supposed to. "I can come up with something if you want."
"Thank you, but no. I am your mentor, and I should know you by now. Let me see-something from your time and not ours-shall I perhaps call you 'Whiskey'?" Her expression must have been appalling, because he chuckled. She didn't think he did that very much. "That was a joke, Winifred. I name you 'Dreamer-of-Reason'."
Fred smiled. He understood her better than he let on. The Sage continued, "I do not know if you are truly a harbinger of the future, or if you come from another world something like our own. But if you are not a liar-and I do not believe you are-then the place you come from has built a society that rivals the Shogunate, and done it with little or no command of Essence. In your world, I do not doubt that you would have reached for new heights still.
"Our world is fallen, Dreamer-of-Reason, though it once towered higher than yours. Perhaps it is for that purpose that you and your friends have come to us-not to bring power, for you lacked it-but to bring new dreams, ideas, and aspirations. If you can break the cycle of violence and confrontation, we may yet see peace and wonder dawn on the world again-yet without the excesses that ended the First Age. Dreamer-of-Reason, child of the Walker at the Crossroads, know yourself clearly, and nothing will prove impossible for you." Fred stirred uneasily. She had not had time to tell the Sage nearly all about her time-the pollution, warfare, and injustice to which she had been born. But perhaps those things could be solved too.
A ring of silver light, clean and pure, burst forth on her brow.
"Now your first task as a full member of the Silver Pact waits for you, Dreamer-of-Reason." He beckoned with a tentacle, and Thousand-Faceted Nelumbo and Gavrane Tomzari escorted Leviathan forward in human form and chains. She had thought his size was purely a function of his powers, but even in this state he towered over her, his black hair and bronze skin even more striking when she spotted the mottled pattern of lighter spots on his wound-covered body. "Normally we should not bring forth a member of the Silver Pact in chains, but he has committed serious offenses against your protectorate and then tried to flee." Leviathan largely maintained a stony silence, but at the mention of Fred having a protectorate she heard him snarl. "Moreover, though Leviathan broke our Way in attempting lethal force, as an elder Lunar I judge you to have successfully counted coup against him by defeating him. As you led us in the battle, it is you to whom he owes blood debt."
"She was not a full member of the Silver Pact when the battle took place," Leviathan growled. Fred jumped; to her surprise, so did the Sage. It took her a moment to realize that he had never before heard Leviathan's human voice. "If I must owe blood debt to anyone, let it be you."
"She had been tattooed," the Sage said patiently, "and I had judged her to have fulfilled her tests. She delayed at her own discretion, to finish the task she saw me as having set her. Let us see if your own tattoos will respond to her, then. Luna will decide."
Fred rose unsteadily to her feet and began the last few steps that separated her from Leviathan. Her body was recovered, for the most part; her brain...not so much. It still had issues controlling her body-or thinking in quotes. ...I will not yield to kiss the ground before young Malcolm's feet/and to be baited with the rabble's curse...
The giant man took one step forward, burst his bonds, and lunged to her right, growing larger still. ...lay on, Macduff...
There was no surrender, not to this queen of traitors. Leviathan would not acknowledge her, not when he was within reach of victory. He had not fought to the end of his strength, for one very specific reason.
Islebreaker awaited his hands. He had spared himself enough energy to reach the weapon, which still held a store of Essence, and powers that he alone could now wield. All he had to do was reach it, and he could smite down those who had betrayed him. He was Leviathan, the unstoppable, and he would not give up.
His skin smoothed and shifted color, his muscles swelled, his teeth jutted from his growing maw. The whale totem sprang instantly into being around him. He would not let her mark him; he had not been defeated. He could not be defeated. He was-
Thousand-Faceted Nelumbo stepped smoothly to one side. She had never intended to become so swiftly intermingled in any conflicts between Creation's Exalts. Something had gone badly wrong here. They had fallen so far. But how?
Her foot flew out, and Leviathan stumbled. He must be nearly out of energy indeed, however much he had conserved for this last struggle. She brought her fists around in a piledriver motion, activating her Calibrated Combat Core array.
Leviathan slipped smoothly out of the way as if he had never been there.
-invincible-
Gavrane Tomazri spun, a whirlwind of motion. His foot came up, his torso down level with the floor, and his kick struck Leviathan square in the chest with a torrential burst of swirling black energy.
The whale-man stumbled briefly and shook off the blow without so much as a cough. This time he had been ready.
-unbreakable-
Xander fired the concussion pistol point-blank into Leviathan's face.
The energy washed around him and dissipated, and Leviathan slammed Xander backwards over the arm of a chair.
-indestructible-
The Sage's anima sprouted spines like a sea urchin, and he lunged across his mentor's path. Such shame to see his elder's dishonor, but he would not yield in the face of it.
Leviathan's hide wept blood as the spines pierced him, but he wrenched his student free and hurled him across the room. He required but one more step...
-undefeated-
Fred bent over the trident and seized it at the base of the tines. She could not hope to lift it. She could only block Leviathan's path. His immense hands closed around her right arm and left leg and he raised her into the air over his head to hurl aside. The weapon came up easily with her; it was Leviathan who was lifting it.
It was no effort at all to allow the trident to drop, tines-first, and pierce through the raging whale-man's chest.
-he was Leviathan. Blood wheezed from his lungs, and he toppled to the floor, prone, dorsal fluke bent painfully under his back.
Leviathan heaved. His limbs gave way beneath him. Drained, it was all he could do to draw breath. The traitor-queen bent over him.
"Next time," she whispered, "just make it out of something denser. Neutronium would've worked. This magic spell stuff? Too exploitable." One finger touched his nose, tracing a circle where none could miss it. "Get him to sickbay. I can't let him die on me. He owes me one."
She waited until the medical team arrived so she could help him lift the trident out of his wounds.