Seven Sorcerers(59)

Four others waited with blank faces, hands clasped at their waists. Ondhi, Verrim, Tholduu, and Chariniha–Sungui knew their names but they were inconsequential. They were not among Those Who Listen. They had never come to Sungui’s covert gatherings to remember their true greatness. They were completely lost in the Great Dream of Zyung. Diminished forever.

The Wolf and Panther were not here. That was good. Perhaps they had already slipped beneath Zyung’s notice. He enjoyed their counsel as far as the Land of the Five Cities and its elements of possible resistance, but had not taken them fully into his trust. Ianthe claimed that she and Gammir remained Undiminished as they served Zyung. Her claim had to be true, or Sungui might not be here at this moment. The Almighty would know that she had plotted with–and lain with–both of them. Surely if he knew he would send her to salt, or imprison her at the very least.

Sungui noticed Lavanyia’s eyes upon her, felt the feather touch of her mind searching for secrets. The First Among Seraphim did not fully trust her, but that was nothing new. If Ianthe’s power could hide her ambitions from Zyung, it could certainly hide them from Lavanyia. Sungui kept her mind closed to Lavanyia, who eventually withdrew her mental caress. Yet her eyes lingered on Sungui until the sound of the Almighty’s footsteps resounded behind the tapestries.

Zyung strode forth and took his place in the chair of curling Ethus wood. The branches sighed as they took the weight of his great frame. Tawny leaves sprouted about the chair in places, rustling against Zyung’s silvery mantle.

“Eshad,” spoke the Almighty. “Speak to me first of our losses.” Sungui’s skin prickled at the deepness of his voice, and her pulse quickened as it always did in Zyung’s presence. So did the pulses of all those around her. Their eyes were transfixed by Zyung’s glorious beauty, which was far more than a physical trait. His very aura commanded love, fealty, and a longing to please.

Eshad might have been Zyung’s own son, so similar was he in bearing and appearance. Yet he was only a small reflection of the High Lord Celestial’s greatness. Eshad spoke in a voice strong and firm with confidence. “Six dreadnoughts were lost to the power of the Feathered Serpent,” he said. “From those six we managed to save seven hundred Manslayers and two hundred oarsmen. The Lesser Seraphim who guided these ships are wounded but they will recover. However, our greatest casualty is the noble Damodar, who flew too close to the Serpent’s fury. His physical body was annihilated, yet I am certain he will return to us when his presence has fully manifested.”

Sungui recalled the blazing singularity that Khama had become, his eruption of solar devastation. That was after he had physically broken two ships in half. She had never seen a single dreadnought brought down before this battle, not in the five centuries they had roamed the skies of the Living Empire enforcing its unity with light and word. The men in the pitiful fleets below had foolishly tried to set the sky-ships aflame with arrow and catapult, yet these weapons only scorched the hulls or marred a wing here or there. Even the lowest of the Lesser Seraphim could quench such terrestrial fires in moments.

The canvas wings were easily replaced. The Feathered Serpent and his power had been the only true threat in the Battle of Ongthaia. The sea vessels burned like matchsticks, and the men died like wingless sparrows cast into the sea. She remembered Khama from the ancient ages. He had always stood tall among the Old Breed, yet had never been part of Zyung’s vision. Iardu and Khama had crafted their own dream of how the world should be. In this, they were guilty of the same artifice as Zyung.

Khama might have destroyed more ships–and more Seraphim–if Zyung himself had not intervened. His great, dark hand had snuffed the raging star that was Khama’s quintessence. The one danger to the armada had dropped into the sea as nothing more than a scorched mote. Like Damodar, Khama would return when his spirit found some distant sanctum and reformed its physical shell. None could say where or when that might be. Damodar would manifest somewhere back in the Celestial Prov ince, most likely within the Holy Mountain itself. Yet she doubted he would travel across the world on his own power to rejoin the armada. Unless Zyung were to specifically summon him, which was a possibility.

Zyung’s eyes, brighter than the sun even at their most dim, shifted to Sungui. “These losses are of little consequence. Our victory here was assured and the resistance we faced was an act of foolish bravado. Yet we can expect more fools to rise up and challenge our advent upon the mainland. Khama has survived his humbling. He will join those who prepare to stand against us.”