The Perilous Sea (The Elemental Trilogy #2)

He threw up a shield over her, barely in time for a combined torrent of fire from the wyverns. She held out a hand toward the wyverns, redirecting their fire toward one another, forcing them to break formation and disperse.

But with this disruption in her concentration, the air current she had been using to hold back the sand wyvern became less intense. The sand wyvern, still beating its wings mightily, shot past them.

He called for another shield, the strongest one he knew. “If you burrow, the sand wyvern will burrow faster than you. And even if you hold all the wyverns at bay, it would only give time for more reinforcements to arrive.”

And should the riders manage to delineate a temporary no-vaulting zone—one with a ten-foot diameter, doable in fifteen minutes, which would imprison both of them—then even he would not be able to leave.

The only choice left was for him to vault her, a potentially fatal decision that he did not wish to make for her. He took her hand. “Do you want to come with me?”

Her fingertips trembled against his. “What are my chances of survival?”

“Ten percent. At best.”

“I don’t want to die,” she murmured. “Or be taken. Are there no other choices?”

His voice shook. “Summon a cyclone. Blow them all away.”

“If only I could.” She sucked in a breath. “Wait a minute, what had my admirer said? The day we met, lightning struck. Do you suppose he could have meant it literally?”

That was not possible. “Listen, Fairfax—”

Almost casually, she lifted her free hand toward the zenith of the cloudless sky. Her hand clenched into a fist. And down the lightning came.

He opened his mouth, to gasp or scream he could not tell. But no sounds emerged. He only stared, his eyes watering, as the brilliant comet of electricity hurtled earthward.

As it neared ground, the lightning split into half a dozen offshoots. Each offshoot lashed onto a wyvern. Each wyvern twitched and fell, hitting the desert with thuds that rattled Titus’s skeleton.

Blinking, he turned toward her. She looked as flabbergasted as he felt.

“Fortune shield me,” she murmured. “Is this why Atlantis wants me?”

The mention of Atlantis snapped him out of his daze: the lightning would act as a beacon to any and all nearby pursuers. He broke into a run, pulling her with him. “Hurry. Armored chariots will be here any minute.”

The sand wyvern was the only one with a double saddle. He unstrapped and shoved aside the unconscious but still breathing riders, while she searched for tracers—Atlantean steeds usually wore several as part of their tack.

When she had discarded a handful of small disks, he helped her up into the saddle in front of him. Already in the distance he could make out a trio of armored chariots approaching.

She pointed her wand at the sand wyvern. “Revivisce omnino.”

The beast jerked and wobbled to its feet. Titus flicked the reins. The sand wyvern spread its wings and lurched into a rather drunken flight. A wyvern in peak condition might hold its own with armored chariots for a short sprint, but this one was not in peak condition and they had a long way to go.

He turned the sand wyvern east. “You wanted to head east, if I remember correctly.”

“As far from Atlantis as possible.” She looked north, at the sight of approaching armored chariots. “Should I assume those are built to withstand lightning strikes?”

“Yes, you should.”

She sighed. “Does no one ever think about making things easier for me?” She pointed to the ground below. “Have the wyvern fly between the dunes.”

He steered the sand wyvern lower. The pursuing armored chariots followed them into the valley, closing in all the while.

“Even closer to the ground,” she said.

He was beginning to have an idea what she planned to do. He looked over his shoulder. The armored chariots were a quarter mile behind and gaining; they too flew close to the ground.

“Come,” murmured Fairfax, peering around him. “Come a little nearer.”

“You might be the scariest girl I have ever met,” he told her.

“Let’s not be dramatic,” she said drily. “I’m the only girl you can remember ever meeting.”

Then she bared her teeth and pointed her wand. The dunes rose, like two huge waves cresting, and came crashing down onto the armored chariots, burying them beneath a literal mountain of sand.

He urged the wyvern to fly higher, banking once more toward the east. “If there is a scary girl competition, I would put my last coin on you.”

She only laughed softly and laid her head against his shoulder, asleep again within minutes.





CHAPTER 20


England

January 2, YD 1010



It is murky—dusk or dawn I cannot tell. From the back, I see two men—or nearly grown boys—walking, one supporting the other. They move stealthily, constantly looking in all directions.