Seven Sorcerers(28)

Black Wolf and Pale Panther were two important keys to the coming triumph.

Sungui removed his hand from the Ethus bark and floated downward through the leaves. He left the heart chamber through its single portal and climbed the spiral stairs to the door of his own deck. Walking the long hallway he approached two Lesser Seraphim on their way to the upper deck. They halted and bowed on either side of Sungui as he passed. Although the Lesser Ones were mortal, they were disciples of the High Seraphim, devotees of the minor sorceries allocated to their kind. Many served as dreadnought captains in the armada. These two were part of the thirty or so who served Zyung directly, thus their presence here on the Holy Flagship.

The deck’s central corridor was a broad tunnel of seamless yellow Ethus wood. At its far end Sungui opened the door to the alchemical laboratory where Gulzarr and Darisha worked amid an array of crystal decanters, glass tubes, cauldrons, and braziers. The pair were lost in their work, beautiful and serene as always, brewing potions and elixirs for the potency of slaves and vitality of the Manslayers. Sungui sat the basket of Ethus trimmings on a workbench, along with the curved sickle, and departed without words. The leaves and sap from the trees were highly effective in the endeavors of alchemy. The alchemists had even brewed a delicious mead from the sap, one only the High Seraphim and Zyung himself were permitted to drink. The couple’s work now, on the edge of the invasion, was focused on more practical concerns.

Sungui climbed another spiral stairway to emerge on the middle deck. The fierce winds grabbed his hair and tossed it about his head. Manslayers in scalloped plates of steel and spiked helms paced the deck with tall spears clutched in their gauntlets. To either side of the hatch stood a row of Trill stables; every dreadnought had facilities to house twelve of the bronze-beaked sky-lizards, though only half of these were occupied at any one time. The stables were empty now, the Trill Knights having taken their mounts into the clouds for maneuvers. The winged beasts must fly daily or they grew restless and hard to control. They also caught seabirds as fodder on these flights, requiring less of each ship’s supplies to feed them. The reek of Trill feces stung Sungui’s nostrils, but the wind quickly tore it away from him.

Captain Ajithi remained standing near the mainmast, studying a map scroll while the great sail thundered above him. Zyung had left him alone there. Sungui supposed the Almighty had returned to the privacy of his great cabin. Red Ajithi had earned his way up through the ranks of Manslayers to dreadnought captain by quelling three separate revolts in the Outer Provinces during his thirty-year service. The man was in his fifties now, and still wore his polished breastplate, shoulder guards, and skirt of silver scales. He had forsaken the beaked helmet of the Manslayer for a turban of purple silk that matched the ship’s sail. An onyx gemstone large as an egg sat in the fabric above his forehead, and his waist-length hair was completely bundled into the turban. A curved greatsword hung upon his back, its pommel set with a ruby that matched the size of his turban’s onyx.

Ajithi looked up from his map as Sungui approached.

“The pruning is complete,” Sungui told him.

Ajithi nodded. “His Holiness wishes to speak with you in his chambers,” said the captain. Sungui returned the nod and watched him march immediately to his command chair high on the quarterdeck. Like the entire ship, the captain’s chair was an extension of the Ethus Tree, a chair-shaped conglomeration of lesser branches woven specifically to accommodate a man-sized commander. Nestled into its curved comfort, pillowed by orange leaves and surrounded by the pointed tips of curling limbs, the captain communed with the tree as well as any Seraphim. During the regular pruning sessions most captains vacated the command chair to avoid sharing the pain of the tree. This was a luxury the pruning Seraphim themselves could not enjoy.

Ajithi wrapped his hands about two curling sprigs at chest level and resumed control of the vessel. A faint smile grew on his lips as his tree-bond returned. Sungui knew the warmth of that bond, and he envied the captain’s right to avoid the tree’s pain. Yet because Sungui felt that pain which no captain deigned to endure, his bond with the Ethus was the stronger one.

Sungui turned about and headed for the forecastle. The wind whipped at his silver robes and chilled his bare feet. Beyond the far railings at left and right, banks of gray clouds rose like billowing mountain ranges. A few Trills and their riders could be seen darting through those clouds. The bulk of the Trill Knights flew behind the flagship, but the lizards would pursue tasty avian prey with great speed before returning to the ranks. Knowing when to indulge a Trill’s appetites was a large part of commanding such a mount. Sungui had not the talent for it, but he admired the warriors who dedicated their lives to mastering the lizards.