as ice. It isn’t him, she thought. It isn’t Pellaz coming for us.
Lightning threaded its spiky way through the clouds, illuminating a dense pulsing core to the bubbling clouds. They resembled the fruit of dry rot, which Lileem had discovered in certain parts of the white house: a sticky spherical gauze of livid yellow and sickly white that looked as if it would explode in a smoke of a million poisonous spores if you poked it. When the Gelaming came, would she and her friends have to fight them? They had come so far. They couldn’t just surrender themselves now surely. ‘Will you hide us again?’ she said to Tel-an-Kaa.
‘I will do what I can,’ she replied, ‘although the sea is not my natural element. If I can hide just one, it will be you.’
This did not sound encouraging.
It was almost as if the Gelaming were teasing them, because for over an hour, the impending portal merely hung above them in the sky, emitting weird pulses of light and occasionally grumbling with thunder. The Roselane shamans uttered mournful cries to the winds and to the creatures of the sea, but it did not appear they were heard.
They are trying to break our spirits, Lileem thought. It is so strange. Why are we that important to them?
Then, the clouds opened. The sky filled with a heavenly white light, a radiance so brilliant that everything – the sea, the ship, its passenger and crew – were bleached of colour. Everything appeared spectral, as if made of light itself.
Tel-an-Kaa began to mutter beneath her breath, but she didn’t suggest that any of them join her in her magic. She put a hand upon Lileem’s shoulder and the centre of her palm radiated an energy that was neither hot nor cold, but something of both. Lileem squirmed away and the Zigane looked at her sharply. In the strange light, her eyes were pinky red, like an albino’s. I won’t let you just protect me, Lileem thought clearly, trusting the Zigane would pick it up. We are all in this together.
‘Where are the horses?’ Mima asked, squinting up at the sky. ‘Is anything coming out of there?’
‘Not yet,’ Tel-an-Kaa said. Her gaze was still on Lileem.
The shamans of the ship had gathered on the main deck in a circle, and now uttered bizarre cries that shattered around them. Shards of sound caught in Lileem’s hair. She could taste the words. It wouldn’t work. Nothing they could produce would combat this power.
Ghostly shapes began to spiral out of the sky, circling the ship. They could have been horses, but it was difficult to tell. They brought with them a strong wind that smelled of flowers, of trampled greenery with a strange metallic undertaste. The ship began to roll upon the newly agitated waters. Its timbers groaned as if in pain.
Lileem was thrown against the side of the ship and Flick pulled her back. ‘What can we do?’ she said to him. ‘What?’
‘Nothing. We can do nothing.’
The ship was surrounded by what looked like a white twister. It had no form, and was sensed rather than seen with the physical eyes, but Lileem caught the impression of flying manes, of sharp hooves slicing the air. There were no riders though.
The Roselane shamans were now shrieking out their invocations, to no avail. The ship began to turn, slowly at first, but with increasing speed. The waters around it were becoming a whirlpool.
‘They mean to take us!’ Tel-an-Kaa cried. ‘They will carry the entire ship up to the portal.’
‘Can we jump overboard?’ Ulaume demanded, and his voice now sounded thin and distant. Space had become distorted.
‘Into that?’ Flick said, indicating the turbulent waters. ‘There is a vortex around us. How can we escape that?’
‘We must do something!’ Mima snapped. ‘We can’t just stand here and wait for them to take us.’
‘This is your brother’s doing,’ Tel-an-Kaa said to her coldly. ‘You might as well prepare yourself for a reunion, though I doubt it will be happy.’
Lileem was having trouble with thinking clearly. Her mind felt muzzy, as congested as the clouds had been. Her fingers curled around the carving in her pocket. It was still cold. Maybe the Tigron had sent hara out in pursuit of them again, and was sitting at home on his throne in Immanion, fully aware of what was happening. But maybe he wasn’t responsible at all. If he’d wanted to capture them, he could have done so at Atagatisel. Hadn’t the Zigane mentioned at