Call of the Herald (33 page)

She did not want to destroy the Zjhon or
their nation, but she could not allow them to continue their siege
on the Godfist, and it was clear they would take over her homeland
even if she escaped. No words would deter them; they would persist
until forced to leave. She wanted to end the siege without the
slaughter of men she realized were only doing their duty. That
thought struck Catrin like a hammer blow: these men were not evil
or her enemy; they were acting on orders. Archmaster Belegra was
not evil either. He truly believed that what he did was good and
right and protected his nation. Even if he was wrong, he was simply
as fallible and flawed as any other person. The actions of the
Zjhon were precipitated by prophecies and religious beliefs that
spanned thousands of years. It was as if what they did was
foreordained and inescapable.

The Zjhon believed the Herald of Istra would
descend on them and attempt to destroy them. When she tried to look
at things from their perspective, Catrin realized they perceived
her as the embodiment of some ancient evil, as the reincarnation of
a legendary adversary, and that it was their duty to protect their
families and their nation from imminent destruction.

She figured most of the Zjhon would seek high
ground once they secured their ships. Rage burned in her belly when
she imagined soldiers waiting out the storm at her family's farm.
She felt an intense sense of personal violation but pushed it
aside. Such self-indulgence would have to wait.

In a universe filled with possibilities, she
knew some solution must exist. Battle with the Zjhon seemed
inevitable, but she could see no way to defeat such a superior
force even with all the people of the Godfist. The Zjhon ships
provided them food and mobility, and those things would allow them
to starve out those trapped in the cold caves and the Masterhouse.
The ships were the key; without them, the Zjhon would be stranded
and lucky to survive the winter.

Food was limited on the Godfist, the land
barely supporting the current population, and the fields were
untended due to the siege. The Masterhouse and the cold caves each
had large stores of food and water, and though their food supplies
were limited, they had proportionally more than the Zjhon would if
deprived of their ships.

Destroying a fleet was not something Catrin
would have ever thought herself capable of, but she had to consider
the events that led to this moment: She thought of the explosion
that saved her from Peten's staff and the storm that ravaged the
greatoaks. She remembered her actions on the plateau and the
staggering effects of her power. Her abilities were undeniable. The
striking of the artesian well proved her ability to accomplish
previously unthinkable things when she used Istra's power.

The storm, bearing down on the harbor, drove
enormous swells toward land, and ships strained against their
anchors. Catrin considered the storm, which was the biggest threat
and possibly her greatest source of power. Whenever she reached for
the comet, the energy seemed to form a spinning vortex, and she had
the same sense of spiraling energy from the massive storm.

Stepping back, she tried to look at her world
objectively and to shed her preconceptions. The comet and other
heavenly bodies gave evidence of unimaginable size and distance.
The shapes in the sky had one common factor: they were all
spherical. The Godsland was a sphere, Catrin realized, and it, too,
was spinning. She reveled in her intuitive realizations as if
shedding overly tight skin.

The sphere, she realized, was the primal
shape of the universe. As she extended her senses toward the storm,
she felt the atmosphere spinning. It was a vertical column of air,
sheared by the rotation of the planet itself, just as her tendrils
of energy had been sheared. Insight and understanding, albeit
limited, gave Catrin an added measure of confidence. She realized
the mechanics of this universe could be used to her advantage.

Waves continued to batter the
Slippery
Eel,
the winds making it difficult for the crew to work. The
motion of the ship became increasingly violent, threatening to send
Catrin over the railing. Nearly everyone else had gone belowdecks,
and they were taking turns cranking the bilge pumps. Massive swells
forced the bow under water, and the ship took on water as fast as
the crew could pump it out.

Catrin had to stay on deck to carry out her
plan, and she would need to remain standing. Grabbing a coil of
rope from near the helm, she looped it around herself and the
mainmast, creating a crude harness that she hoped would keep her in
place.

Alarmed shouts from the crew interrupted her
thoughts, those remaining on deck pointing wildly out to sea.
Catrin saw only a wall of water at first, but when they crested the
next wave, she saw two Zjhon ships headed straight for them. She
guessed they were among the ships that had been pursuing them, and
they seemed intent on finishing the job they had started. The two
ships were dangerously close to one another, and Catrin was shocked
to realize they were actually chained together.

Men leaped from one ship to the other; some
made the jump, but many fell to their deaths. Other men scrambled
across the massive chain that hung between the ships, but the chain
would suddenly go slack then, just as suddenly, snap taut again as
the ships moved closer together and farther apart on the waves.
Catrin watched in horror as men were thrown into the air.

Their actions made no sense to her at first,
but then she came to a harsh realization: they were evacuating one
ship because it was on a suicide mission. She guessed they would
leave a few men onboard to control it to make sure it rammed the
Eel.
A direct hit at their current speed could very well
sink both ships, but the Zjhon had ships to spare.

Activity on the deck of the
Eel
became
intense as men scrambled to mobilize the ship. They might not be
able to evade the approaching ship, but they wanted to get the
anchors raised so the other ship might only push them out of the
way.

No more men attempted to abandon the suicide
ship, and the chain was released during a brief slackening. The
mostly unmanned ship continued to bear down on the
Slippery
Eel
while the other turned aside sharply.

As the
Eel
's crew hastily secured the
anchors and ran for cover, Catrin braced herself and reconsidered
the wisdom of tying herself to the mast, but there was no time left
to escape. The Zjhon ship rode atop a huge wave, towering above the
Slippery Eel,
and it appeared to Catrin as if the ship
suddenly dropped from the sky. The initial impact rocked the
Eel,
and Catrin's head smacked against the mast, leaving her
stunned.

Seemingly unstoppable, the Zjhon ship slammed
into the aft side of the deckhouse, easily pushing it out of the
way. The supple wood flexed and groaned, barely withstanding the
incredible force. The
Slippery Eel
rolled under the massive
weight, and Catrin heard wood snapping just before she struck the
frigid water.

Struggling against the ropes she herself had
tied, she grew frantic, having been under water for what seemed a
very long time. The ship rose suddenly and righted itself, tossed
by another wave. Catrin hung limply against the ropes and tried to
get her breath. Above the sounds of the storm, she could clearly
hear Vertook praying as he worked the bilge pump like a man
possessed.

Shrieking winds left no doubt that the
massive storm had arrived and was engulfing the harbor. Catrin knew
she had missed her chance to act before the full force of the storm
struck, even as she knew she was drawing energy from it. Tied to
the mast, she had to endure the high winds and brutal, stinging
rain.

The crewmen were all focused on their tasks
of trying to drop the anchors again, but they were hampered by the
buffeting wind and waves. They looked as though they had suffered
injuries--probably from the violent motions of the ship--and they
moved slowly and deliberately. Some were bleeding heavily and
appeared to be in pain but persisted in trying to do their
jobs.

The ship rose high into the wind, which
pushed a huge swell toward shore. The massive wall of water rushed
on, inexorably, with an awful roaring sound accompanied by
deafening cracks and snaps. Many of the Zjhon ships were torn from
their moorings, and as Catrin watched, they began to float
aimlessly, some crushed against the rocks, others smashed to bits
against other ships.

The anchors of the
Slippery Eel
dug
into the harbor floor once again, and the ship groaned as it faced
the storm. The swells grew so massive that the ship was nearly
pulled under by the weight of her own anchors as she crested the
tallest waves. A huge piece of sail and rigging hit Catrin, and she
couldn't tell which ship it had come from. She was uninjured,
except for a gash across her forehead. Blood began to run into her
eyes, clouding her vision, and she used the tail of her shirt to
wipe the blood away.

Hours passed, but the storm continued,
unabated. Then the winds suddenly died and the sky cleared. A
surreal calm set in as the eye of the cyclone moved over the
harbor. Catrin looked up into the night sky and was astonished to
see five comets amid the stars, three of which were little more
than small dots with tails, but the other two were large and
bright.

The crewmen moved around the deck quietly,
trying to take advantage of the brief respite. They all knew the
way these storms behaved and that the other side of the storm was
yet to come and would likely be worse. Using large hunks of rope,
soaked in tar, they temporarily patched the holes in the damaged
hull.

"Catrin, please come belowdecks. You could be
killed out here," Kenward said as he passed her.

"I'll be fine here. Are there any clean
bandages?" she asked. Kenward retrieved one for her and applied it
to her wound.

"How is the crew holding up?" she asked.

He sighed. "They've taken some pretty hard
licks, but they have to keep working despite their injuries. They
are good, strong men, and they'll heal quickly. Bryn's awake and
complaining a lot, so I'd say he'll be fine as well."

"Thank you, Kenward. I have to tell you that
what I am about to try will be risky, but I must try to save us,"
she said.

"I have faith in you," he said simply.

As she turned to face the harbor, she saw men
scrambling to take advantage of the short lull to try to prevent
further damage to their ships. She drew a deep breath and opened
herself to the intense energy surrounding her.

"Armies of the Zjhon nation, behold!" she
said in her most powerful voice, which was amplified by the power
running through her. "You bear witness to the Call of the Herald,
and she calls you not to war, but to peace."

She paused then continued. "You came here to
defend yourselves against one who had no intentions of destroying
you, and by your very actions, you have brought about your own
fears. I bear no ill will toward any of you, but I cannot allow you
to lay siege to my homeland." She paused again as her words hung in
the air. "Without your ships, you will have no food. You will have
to choose between peace and death. You'll not survive a winter on
the Godfist without the help of her inhabitants.

"I declare the armies of the Zjhon disbanded.
All of you are now citizens of the Godfist, whether you wish it or
not, and I'll not wage war with you," she said, pausing again for
her final statement. "The Zjhon ships, however, are forfeited, and
I will destroy them. If you wish to see the dawn, abandon your
ships now." Her words hung in the air, echoing in the distance.

Without another word, she reached toward the
largest and brightest comet in the sky. The cyclone's eye wall was
rapidly approaching, and she had to act. Power and pleasure washed
over her as energy flowed through her tingling body. Tendrils of
energy reached toward the comet, the spinning of the planet causing
them to shear and spin. A massive vortex of energy and swirling
colors formed in the air above her.

Wind thrashed and churned the water around
the ship, and Catrin expanded her vortex to envelop the ship and
keep it within the relative calm of the center. Her senses
heightened, she could feel the immense energy pent up in the storm.
The clouds were highly charged and seemed to be searching for a
place to release their abundant energy. When she cast her senses
over the ship, she perceived a massive negative charge, and the
result was as if the clouds and the ship reached toward one
another, seeking balance. She could almost see a strand of negative
energy reaching from the mast to the sky, and she shuddered as she
realized one was also extending from her own head.

Casting about the harbor, she found a web of
negative filaments rising from the Zjhon ships as well. Targeting
the closest one, she reached out to its largest thread of negative
energy, which rose from the mainmast. Her connection to the ship
created an almost visible link between them, a thread of gossamer
stretching into the night. She fed negative energy to the Zjhon
ship, and the tendril grew more distinct and extended higher into
the sky. The clouds reached down with their positive charge,
yearning for ground.

A bolt of lightning suddenly completed the
arc with a furious discharge. Up close, it resembled a plummeting
fireball with a life of its own, and it struck the Zjhon ship with
a fury, engulfing it in flames. The lightning was not spent,
though, and it leaped along Catrin's thread of energy, racing
toward her. She broke her link with the ship, and the lightning
split apart, dissipating. Balls of fire cast waves of intense heat
over her, only to fizzle and disappear before they reached her. All
of this occurred within a fraction of an instant.