The Perilous Sea (The Elemental Trilogy #2)

A shadow crossed Amara’s face. “We ask ourselves the same thing, but everything else has been normal.”


“Do you have a fast, long-range carpet that we can borrow?” said Titus. “We must leave immediately—the Bane himself is in the Sahara.”

This produced a ripple of shock in both Amara and Kashkari.

“Why didn’t you say anything to me earlier?” Kashkari demanded.

“I’ve been meaning to tell you this,” said Iolanthe. “We haven’t the slightest idea who y—”

“Durga Devi!” Ishana came careening on a flying carpet, almost knocking into Iolanthe. “Durga Devi, the maintenance crew found a tracer on Oasis III.”

“What?” Amara cried. “How is this possible? I thought you said you did not encounter anyone the entire time you were out.”

“That’s true. No one came to the oasis except His Highness and Miss Seabourne.”

Titus swore. “The sand wyvern. We did not know then it still carried tracers. It is more than possible that one fell off when the sand wyvern brushed against the date palms.”

Iolanthe gripped his arm. “Then Atlantis will believe we are here—and we are.”

“Let’s get some fresh carpets and I’ll take you to Luxor,” said Kashkari. “If we start now, we can be there before noon.”

Ishana ferried them down to where the new carpets were stowed. Iolanthe didn’t see anything that looked like a traditional carpet, thick and woolly. Instead, the carpets, hung up on steel rods, resembled picnic blankets, towels, and curtains—even capes.

Ishana stopped before a rack of carpets that had the look of bedsheets about them. “These are the best we have. They have a range of about a thousand miles and can cruise at one hundred fifty miles an hour with a cargo of up to five hundred pounds.”

“I need carpets that cannot be recalled—in case the base is overrun,” said Kashkari.

Ishana exhaled, clearly unnerved by the thought of something going so wrong. “Right. Then you better take these—eight hundred mile range, one hundred fifteen miles an hour, cargo weight two hundred pounds.”

“Can you handle a carpet on your own?” Titus asked Iolanthe.

“I control air—I’ll manage.”

The rumble of drumroll filled the air, followed by a pleasant-sounding female voice. “All battle riders report to squadron leaders. Armored chariots sighted. Wyverns sighted. Lindworms sighted.”

Lindworms were the largest flying dragons, not terribly fast, but brutal. Iolanthe had been under the impression they were impossible to domesticate, but apparently Atlantis liked to break new ground in animal husbandry.

A carpet streaked down and yanked to a stop behind them. It was Shulini, looking frantic. “Your Highness, Durga Devi asks that you come with me—and everyone else too. There is something she needs you all to see.”

They followed her up to the ceiling of the cavern and hurtled into an opening, which led into a tunnel that wound upward. The air grew colder and colder and suddenly they were under the stars.

“Look! Look!” shouted Shulini.

Iolanthe could not discern anything out of the ordinary. Briefly she wondered if she should use a far-seeing spell, and then a movement near the edge of the sky caught her eye—a distortion of the air that made the stars beyond stretch and blinker. As she followed it, she realized that the distortion was like an enormous and somewhat uneven ring, going all around—and dropping rapidly toward the ground.

“Fortune shield me,” said Titus, “a bell jar dome.”

A bell jar dome was a siege weapon, almost as antique as bewitched spears. But once in place, it would be nearly impossible for those inside to breach.

“Hurry!” cried Kashkari. “We might still get Fairfax out.”

As if it had heard him, the bell jar dome came down hard.

“Too late,” Titus said, as if through clenched teeth.

A man’s voice, golden and powerful, rang out. “The Lord High Commander of the Great Realm of New Atlantis seeks the fugitive Iolanthe Seabourne. Surrender her, and all the other lives will be spared.”

Titus immediately had Iolanthe’s hand in his. “No one will harm you.”

She squeezed his hand. “And I’m not so easy to harm.”

But all the same, she was frightened witless.

Ishana set down the carpet. They were on top of the massif that reared up from the desert floor. Standing on it, surveying the bell jar dome, was Amara.

“We seem to have a dilemma on our hands,” she said calmly.

“No, not at all,” countered Kashkari, when Iolanthe had expected Titus to be the first to object. “We will not give her to the Bane, not even if the cost is ten times the lives of everyone in this base.”

“Of course not,” said Amara. “To let the Bane have her would be ruinous. But the truth is we are few and the force of Atlantis is great. We may not be able to prevent the Bane from taking her, even if we do our best.”

Further surprising Iolanthe, Kashkari stepped before her. “No, you will not even think of it.”

“We are at war, my friend. I must think of every eventuality.”