The finest wines would trickle into his mouth, held in the hands of the gods. Solon would look down at the mortal world he’d left behind and bathe his radiant smile on the citizens of the great empire he had formed, who would worship him as a god. The other gods would raise him among them.
He had climbed as high as it was possible to climb in this world. He now planned to rise in the next.
Solon’s musings were distracted when the soldiers on deck suddenly cried out. They scattered, running to clear a space at the front as a huge one-eyed dragon swooped down from above to hover over the deck. The instant it landed, the creature shimmered as white smoke covered it in a cloud. When the cloud disappeared, Triton stood in its place.
Seeing Kargan cross the deck to the eldran king, Solon joined them.
‘No sign of the spy since the storm. The sea is clear. If there was a boat out here, we would have found it,’ Triton said.
‘How are your people faring?’ Solon asked as he approached.
Triton’s one good eye turned to the line of ships. The distance was too great to make them out, but there were a few silver-haired eldren on every ship, although Triton was the only one of his race to sail aboard the Nexotardis. The men always gave them a wide berth. The eldren didn’t seem to care.
‘Well enough. We are ready for the fight, if that is what you are asking, sun king. Just remember our—’
‘Serpent!’ a sailor at the bow suddenly cried. ‘Dead ahead!’
‘We will deal with it,’ Triton said. ‘It will cause you no problem.’
Without another word he ran to the rail bordering the deck and leaped over the side, plunging into the water.
Kargan turned his dark gaze on Solon. ‘A useful ally.’
‘That he is.’
‘But what is it he wants? What’s in the ark that’s so important to him?’
Solon shrugged. ‘We won’t give him a chance to find out.’
Kargan uncharacteristically reached out to grip Solon’s arm. The sun king’s eyes narrowed as he stared at his commander, but the big man wasn’t to be deterred.
‘He would be a powerful enemy,’ Kargan said. ‘Perhaps we were better off when he was safely collared and behind iron.’
‘Never fear,’ Solon said. ‘As you say, metal interferes with their abilities. They cannot even willingly touch it. If we keep whatever it is he wants confined, we will be able to control him.’
Kargan released Solon and watched as, in the distance, the leviathan that was Triton easily dispatched a smaller serpent, clouding the blue water with red.
‘I hope you’re right,’ Kargan muttered.
The days blurred together as Solon struggled with his soul’s steady passage to the afterlife. They beached at hidden coves on islands whose names he neglected to discover, then set off early each morning to continue the voyage.
He husbanded his strength; he knew he would need it in the coming confrontation.
Then Kargan joined him at the rail and pointed to a rising cliff ahead. ‘Look. The island of Coros. And there.’ He indicated a passage to the left of the island. Solon saw a dozen huge, sharp rocks poking their tops above the water. ‘The Shards.’
Solon tugged on his beard. The decks bustled with activity as the crew lowered the sail and the oarsmen reduced their pace to a crawl. ‘Remind me of the plan,’ he said finally.
‘The army of Xanthos is at Phalesia. Xanthos has no navy. Our objective is to seize the city and push immediately for the pass, the Gates of Annika. With our men at the pass our enemy will be forced to confront us. That’s when we strike from the sea, with their forces divided.’
Solon watched as the looming rocks grew closer. He couldn’t help but feel a growing sense of danger. ‘And you know the way?’
‘I have the directions memorized. The fleet is falling in behind us and we travel slowly, in single file. We also have help.’
Solon saw the sinuous shape of a one-eyed serpent slinking through the water to draw ahead of the Nexotardis. Triton would see them safely though.
‘It is time,’ Kargan said grimly. He looked over his shoulder and called out.
‘Advance!’
51
Dion and Chloe lay on their stomachs just behind a rocky rise. Ahead of them, on the other side of the hill, the slope gently descended until it reached a dusty road.
‘The Phalesian Way,’ Chloe said. ‘Heading west leads to Phalesia while to the east lies Tanus. The road follows the high ground, passing above Phalesia before continuing to the Gates of Annika.’ She glanced at Dion. ‘On the other side of the pass is Xanthos.’
Dion felt he could almost reach out and touch the road. They had crossed the Maltherean Sea. They had made it out of the wasteland that was Cinder Fen.
But there was a problem.
At the point where the road came closest to the dangerous land where wildren roamed, a giant sat hunched over a recent kill.