Crystal Doors #3: Sky Realm (No. 3) (18 page)

“We must fight them if they attempt to go ashore,” Tiaret said.

But Barak did not order a full-fledged attack.

“Azric will soon return,” the king said. “You cannot stand against our combined strength.”

Gwen looked at her cousin and the other apprentices. “So the question is, why didn’t he wait? Why is Barak here
now
?”

“Tactically, his actions are unwise,” Tiaret said.

“I think he’s grandstanding,” Vic said. “He hates sitting around twiddling his fins. He knows Azric is coming and he wanted to get a head start by trying to scare us.”

“King Barak is impatient,” Sharif agreed.

Gwen could easily imagine the merlon king not being able to wait for the appointed day. Full of bluster and threats, he had rounded up sea serpents, sharks, and warriors and come here to beat his chest. She shook her head in disbelief. “Like a kid trying to open his birthday presents ahead of time.”

Vic laughed. “And you call
me
Doctor Distracto.”

Riding high on his sea serpent, Barak waved his sea-urchin scepter in the air. “When Azric arrives, all land-dwellers will perish. We merlons will reclaim our world. Prepare to meet your doom.”

Vic gagged. “I’ve read better evil-genius speeches in comic books.”

“I have dreamed of great battles,” Lyssandra said. “There are more to come, but this . . . this is not the time.”

Suddenly, a commotion occurred farther out in the water behind Barak’s massed merlons. Many more merlons surfaced in ranks, rising up in lines of heavily armed warriors that advanced toward the rear of Barak’s undersea soldiers. Slippery black whales slowly breached, curling upward and extending their thick fins above the water. Four of the black whales rolled in unison and slapped their fins down in a thunderous splash.

“Uh-oh. Reinforcements,” Gwen said. “Now we’re in deep trouble.”

“No — not reinforcements,” Sharif corrected. “Those are merlon rebels.” A black-and-white orca surfaced with a merlon on its back, holding the dorsal fin. “And that is Ulbar.”

“Not all merlons follow you, Barak,” Ulbar shouted. “You have oppressed our cities and sold the honor of Szishh to a tyrant. We will defend ourselves and Elantya against you. We have many spies in your armies, Barak. We know your every move.”

The opposing merlons eyed each other warily. Barak whirled his sea serpent and waved his urchin scepter in the air. “Traitors! You will all be crushed.”

“Rout out the spies in your midst — if you can,” Ulbar challenged. The whales thrashed, demonstrating the merlon rebels’ readiness to clash with Barak’s army.

“Why would Ulbar reveal that his own people are among Barak’s merlons?” Lyssandra wondered out loud.

Tiaret gave a knowing smile. “It is brilliant. Although Ulbar has only a few spies with Barak, he knows that the merlon king is paranoid. Now Barak will suspect each of his generals, everyone of his fighters.”

Vic and Gwen chuckled at theingenious tactic.

As the slick-skinned whales careened forward, Barak’s scaly soldiers prepared to fight them. At Ulbar’s command, the whales rose up and turned their blowholes toward the towering sea serpents and the merlon commanders riding them. With a sudden, unexpected blast, the whales shot a furious stream of spray that struck Barak squarely, knocking him off of his saddle-throne and backward into the water.

The serpentine necks of the sea monsters drew back from the continued water blasts. The whales submerged again to refill and came up to spray their adversaries again and again. Goldskin and the other merlon generals were unseated from their sea serpents as well. Barak came up, looking flustered and affronted.

“Water does not harm merlons,” Tiaret pointed out with bafflement.

“No,” Gwen said, “but Barak is obviously humiliated.”

The merlon king apparently had no stomach for a fight now that Ulbar and his rebels had arrived and the odds were against him. Barak clutched his leopard-spotted sea serpent and shouted again, “Azric is coming. We will grind your island to rubble. I will find the spies in my midst. Then we will hunt down and kill every merlon traitor.”

The whales blasted him with another fusillade from their water cannons. The sea serpents ducked under the water, and the attacking merlons submerged, following their leader’s retreat.

Ulbar and his rebels swam patrol, guarding the harbor. The apprentices watched for any further surprises, but the waves grew calm. Barak and his merlons had indeed withdrawn . . . for now.

“Trust me, that was only a warm-up act,” Vic said.

“For us, too,” Sharif said, looking grim.

“We’d better get on those ships and head for the crystal door,” Gwen said. “Azric is on his way.”

23

AS THE FLEET OF war galleys approached the crystal door to Irrakesh, Gwen felt the pressure building in her. Sages Snigmythya, Abakas, Polup and a score of others were distributed on various ships throughout the fleet. Her cousin and Uncle Cap, Lyssandra and her parents, and Tiaret were on the nearby galley
Thunder Shield
with Ven Sage Rubicas. Vic had the large magic carpet with them, and Sharif had his own smaller carpet at the ready.

Gwen and Sharif waved periodically, and Gwen knew that if she needed to she could write notes to them, since she and Vic had both brought along the miniature magical notebooks that the Virs had given them. Skrits and aquits traveled from ship to ship carrying messages that did not need to be instantaneous.

Ulbar and his helpful merlons swam with the fleet, keeping watch for any enemies approaching from beneath. At the suggestion of Sage Pierce, several galleys had been fitted with transparent view ports beneath the water level. The ports were made of similar material to that used in Ven Sage Rubicas’s aquariums, but Cap and the anemonites had reinforced it to withstand greater pressure.

With Admiral Bradsinoreus and so many sages, merlons, and Pentumvirate members in the war fleet, as well as the Ring of Might, Gwen thought she should feel at least slightly safer. But there was no safety in war, and she and her friends were on the front lines.

Not only that, but phrases from the prophecies kept popping into her head — things like “Two shall seal the tyrant’s doom” and “Pledged to serve and to protect” and “Leaving evil no retreat” — reminding Gwen that she and her cousin and the rest of the Ring had a crucial role to play if Azric was to be defeated. “The Virs claim that this is the final battle — they’re going to vanquish Azric once and for all.”

Standing beside her at the rail of the
Bright Warrior,
Sharif said, “It is good that they have finally decided to act first rather than wait to be attacked.”

Suck it up, Pierce,
Gwen chided herself silently.
Billions of people in hundreds of worlds are counting on you. Right — no pressure there.
Aloud, she said to Sharif, “I suppose so. Do you feel ready?”

Giving her a wry look, he answered, “Other than the fact that I have no idea what my special power is? Yes — what choice do we have?”

He was right, of course. She blew out a quick breath and composed herself. “I guess giving in to doubt at a time like this would only be self-indulgence.”

He raised an eyebrow and gave her an approving look. “I believe my people could make a saying from those words.”

Without further discussion, the two apprentices headed toward the prow of the ship where Admiral Bradsinoreus was discussing strategy with Virs Helassa and Parsimanias. Each Vir held a basket of spell scrolls arranged in a strategic order as to when they believed they would need them.

“Do you have weapons?” Helassa asked. “The daggers I gave you?”

Gwen pulled out her dagger and flashed it at the Vir of Protection. Sharif hefted his scimitar and indicated the arrowpult clipped to the sash at his waist. Most of the civilians and apprentices carried these hand weapons now. This seemed to distress Bradsinoreus. “Let us hope it does not come to that. We have a full complement of archers aboard this ship, not to mention dozens of neosages and journeysages to assist us.”

Sharif shook his head slowly. “Everyone must be ready. Azric always has more tricks than one can anticipate. He even captured Piri.”

Gwen could tell that this warning made little impact on the admiral, who was, after all, a man of great confidence, action, and competence. He did not expect to lose.

“Sharif is right,” she said. “Every person on every ship in this fleet should be prepared to fight whatever comes through that crystal door.”

“I would rather that our civilian support personnel did not fight,” Bradsinoreus said.

“Admiral,” Helassa said, giving him a stern but not unkind look, “there are no longer any ‘civilians’ in Elantya. Anyone who did not wish to face the enemy was sent to safety through one of the crystal doors. Those who remain — they are our army.”

When the ships finally arrived at the door to Irrakesh, they arranged themselves in a defensive formation. Gwen immediately opened a window into the other world to see what Azric and his armies were doing. Although she wasn’t conscious of how exactly she controlled her skill, Gwen managed to make a window large enough for everyone in the fleet to see, hovering above the lead ship like the screen in a movie theater. The process felt as natural to her as breathing.

In the image, thousands of winged creatures, both feathered and leathery, flocked their way above an expanse of sand. “They will be here soon,” Sharif said. “The place in that image is only a few minutes’ journey from the door, if I were flying the distance on my carpet.”

Sharif uttered a curse under his breath as an aeglor flew into view carrying Vizier Jabir, bound hand and foot, bruised, and bleeding from several shallow cuts on his head — obvious signs of his torture. Azric rode a giant terodax beside the aeglor. Piri’s glowing bottle-prison was tied to his sash, and he shouted something to his winged armies.

On the
Thunder Shield
not far from the
Bright Warrior,
Lyssandra reported Azric’s speech to Ven Sage Rubicas while Vic scribbled what she said in his small notebook. From her own notebook, Gwen read the words that appeared as fast as Vic could transcribe what Lyssandra was telling him. Prepare the Key. Today another world becomes ours.

Knowing that the first stage of the plan involved her friend from Afirik, Gwen jotted the words,
LUCK TO TIARET
. From the other ship, Vic waved and then passed his cousin’s message to the warrior girl as she stepped forward.

“Only another minute or so,” Sharif said, tracking the army’s approach.

“Could we not simply keep the door closed?” Vir Parsimanias asked.

“I don’t think so,” Gwen said. “Vic can create doors and Tiaret slams them. I can see through to other worlds, and Lyssandra can hear them, but so far none of us knows how to
keep
a door shut.”

“Even if we could, my people and Piri are captives of the dark sage. I would not wish to leave them trapped with such evil,” Sharif pointed out. “I must find a way to save them.”

“The army has arrived,” Vir Parsimanias said.

Bradsinoreus signaled the other ships.

Flying in place, the aeglor holding Jabir wrapped his leg talons around the Vizier and squeezed hard. Azric shouted something to Jabir, or perhaps it was to the aeglor. The aeglor squeezed harder and small spots of blood appeared on the Vizier’s sunset-streaked robes. At last, a doorway opened, sparkling like a spray of shattered glass. Aeglors and terodax dove toward it. They were almost there, when —

Tiaret slammed the door in their faces. In Gwen’s window image, the swooping fighters fluttered in confusion as they soared aimlessly through open air where the crystal door had been just a second ago. Gwen was finding the viewing window hard to keep open so long. A flash of annoyance crossed Azric’s face and Gwen struggled to hold the connection of the window. At another shouted order from the dark sage, the door opened again, and again Tiaret slammed it before the airborne combatants could pass through.

This continued three more times until Bradsinoreus said, “Confusion has gained us all the advantage we could have hoped for. But now we must fight.”

“Let the door remain open,” Helassa agreed. “Perhaps when they get through they will let the Key go.” She waved to Tiaret to stop, and the girl from Afirik stepped back from the prow of the
Thunder Shield.

Although she must have been tired from repeatedly using her door-closing powers, Tiaret raised her teaching staff overhead and spun it a few times, signaling that she was more than prepared for the fight.

The door opened again. As if he knew that the battle was finally at hand, the Azric in the image sneered down at Piri’s purple and amber bottle. Then he smiled and barked a silent order. The massive terodax he rode dove toward the door and plunged through with countless terodax and aeglors following.

Exhausted, Gwen let her window fall shut. Helassa and Parsimanias unrolled the first of their spell scrolls while Bradsinoreus signaled orders to the other ships. Gwen held an arrowpult in one hand and her crystal dagger in the other. Beside her, Sharif raised his curved blade.

The great battle with Azric had come.

24