They followed him. ‘I had to dig up the spell to make this thing, but once I remembered how to do it’ - he waved his hands, and the sphere lifted off the ground - ‘it’s easy.’
Gathis waved good-bye as the four friends flew high above the roof of the estate, and the sphere turned on a long, curving flight toward Krondor. ‘It’s easier if I follow landmarks I know, like the King’s Highway.’
‘How long to get to Darkmoor?’ asked Calis.
‘We’ll arrive a little after dawn,’ said Pug.
They sped across the sea, a hundred feet above the tops of the whitecaps. As the last of Midkemia’s three moons sank into the west, the pre-dawn sky to the east lightened. A breeze blew, but they were comfortable inside the sphere. They stood in a circle, each with just enough room to move slightly.
Miranda said, ‘It would be nice if we could sit.’
Pug said, ‘After this is done, I’ll happily loan you the volume from which I got this spell, and if you can modify it to put seats in it, feel free.’
Nakor laughed.
‘How fast are we going?’ asked Tomas.
‘As fast as the fastest bird,’ said Pug. ‘We should be over Krondor in an hour.’
The time passed, and they watched as the sky turned from jet black to dark grey. As morning approached, they could see the spindrift on the tops of the waves below, grey upon grey as the sea churned beneath them. ‘Are you sure that demon is dead?’ asked Nakor.
Pug said, ‘He’s dead. Water is anathema to his kind. He was powerful enough to withstand it for a while, but not from that depth with the wounds Tomas gave him.’
‘Look,’ said Miranda. ‘Krondor.’
Pug had them coming in a direct line from Sorcerer’s Isle, so they approached the Prince’s City from almost directly west.
‘Oh, gods!’ said Miranda.
Across the horizon, where once a large city had teemed with life, only a lifeless black spot on the horizon loomed. Even at this hour of the morning, the city should have been alive with lights, as workers made their way along the streets in the pre-dawn gloom. Boats should have been leaving from the fishing village outside the northern wall, and ships departing for distant ports should have been setting sail.
‘There’s nothing left,’ said Nakor.
Calis said, ‘Something’s moving.’ He pointed up the coast, and in the murky light they could see a large company of horsemen moving along the sea road.
‘It looks like some of the Queen’s army has deserted,’ said Sho Pi.
‘Now that they’re free of the demon’s control, that should become more commonplace,’ said Pug.
As they sped over the outer breakwater of Krondor harbor, the masts of burned ships stuck up above the bay, like a forest of blackened bones reaching for the sky. Beyond the water, everything was burned beyond recognition. The docks were gone, as were most of the buildings. Here and there a portion of a wall stuck up, but mostly it was rubble. The Prince’s palace was recognizable from its position atop the southern point of the harbor, high atop the hill that originally gave the first Prince of Krondor command of the harbor.
‘It’ll be a long time before anyone uses that harbor again,’ said Calis.
Tomas put his hand on his son’s shoulder. He knew the destruction of the city he had sworn to protect burned deeply. He also knew that Calis, better than anyone, understood what had been achieved by the destruction of the Lifestone, yet he recognized the pain Calis felt over the dear price paid by so many.
Pug willed the sphere along the King’s Highway. For mile after mile they witnessed wholesale destruction.
Every farm and house was burned, and so many bodies lined the way the buzzards and crows couldn’t fly for their gorging. Dominic said, ‘We must get as many clerics as we can to come here, for plague will certainly follow such carnage.’
Nakor said, ‘All of the Order of Arch-Indar will help.’
Miranda said, ‘All two of you?’
Even in the midst of such destruction. Pug found it almost impossible not to laugh.
Tomas said, ‘Many of the priests will have perished during the destruction of the city.’
Calis said, ‘Not really. We passed word to the various temples months ago, and slowly they’ve been getting their clerics to safety. Duke James knew we would need as much help after, if we survived.’
Miranda said, ‘And it helps to stay on the good side of the temples.’
Pug said, ‘In all my concern over the threat from the Emerald Queen and the demon, and our fears over the Lifestone, I lost sight of the simple fact that the Kingdom has been invaded by a very large army.’
Calis said, ‘I didn’t.’ He pointed ahead. ‘Look.’