refugees, some of whom were gazing longingly at the bar as if they wondered where all the rum had gone. I spotted Cho Wing and three other Wardens, all seeming tense and expectant. They knew what was coming. The civilian passengers seemed confused and a little bored.
The bridge officers assuredly knew that their worst fears were coming true; they could see it from their windows.
Cherise was chattering at me, trying to get me to take cover. I shook myself free. She gave me one last, despairing look, then wedged herself in a corner and tipped an armchair over herself.
I heard the wave coming, even through the steel plates. I felt the rumble of it.
The bow of the Grand Paradise lifted sharply, and kept rising, rising. Tables and chairs started sliding, and people screamed and clung to whatever was within reach, stable or not.
I heard glass crashing; that was probably unsecured stock somewhere under the counters.
A huge wooden cabinet, designed to look primitive and rough-hewn, began to topple down from one wall. There were six people beneath it. I watched with placid interest.
Cho yelled a warning. One of the Earth Wardens flung out a hand and stopped the falling cabinet.
Disappointing.
A racing bite of energy spread over me like a hot blanket of fire, concentrating on my back and then flowing down my arms and into the core of my body. I went down to one knee, bracing myself as the horizon continued to rise toward the sky. People slid past me, screaming, flailing. I didn't pay much attention.
"We're going over!" someone shouted amid the chaos and crashing furniture. We were still climbing. The floor passed a forty-five-degree upward angle, heading for vertical, and I felt the whole ship slip sideways, twist, and start to tumble out of control.
We were falling.
Then we stopped falling, and the ship's torturous descent changed, smoothed, and entered an eerie kind of calm. The ship slowly drifted back to a stable, horizontal line, but it didn't feel like we were in flat seas. It didn't feel like we were in the water at all.
I rose and walked to the large picture window that commanded a view of the promenade.
Lewis was standing just where I'd left him, at the railing, and his glow was Djinn-bright, the color of soft morning sunshine against the blackness of the storms. Yes, the storms were still there, whipping around us in a frenzy, but we were floating in a bubble of force that stretched all around the ship in a perfect sphere. Ship in a bottle, I thought, and for just an instant I was too angry to think properly. No Warden could do this, not alone.
Not even Lewis.
We were floating on the storm in our own little self-contained pocket universe of calm sea and air.
I tried to unlock the watertight door, but it seemed stuck. I sent a snap of Earth power from my fingertips out through the metal, realigning the surfaces, and when I turned the handle again, the door slid smoothly open.
"Jo!" Cher was right behind me. Her eyes were huge and frightened. "What's happening?"
"I'll find out," I said, with utter calm. I felt alive inside, manic with glee, but I didn't want her to see that. "Wait inside."
"But - "
I slammed the door between us and hit it with the heel of my hand, hard enough to make a hollow boom. "Lock it!"
I heard the heavy clash of metal engaging, and then I turned toward Lewis, standing like a misplaced figure-head at the rail.
He opened his eyes. I could see the energy spilling out of him, a raw wound that split him open to the core.
He was bleeding on the aetheric. Bleeding himself to death.
"How?" I asked, and leaned on the railing. He didn't answer me. Couldn't, perhaps. His nose was bleeding, and his eyes were flushed red under the stress of what he was doing.
Fifteen Djinn and four times as many Wardens hadn't been able to stop the storm, but Lewis was somehow fighting it, toe to toe.
Not winning, though.
Not hardly.
"You'll kill yourself," I commented. "For God's sake, Lewis, what does it matter? What does any of it matter? Just let go. The ship will get torn apart. People will drown. Life will go on, for a while, until it doesn't." I shrugged. "Just let go. It's that easy." Lewis let out a gasping sob. His knees buckled, but he held fast to the railing.
He held the bubble of force against the storm.
"You aren't doing this alone,"