Titans of Chaos

Even Victor seemed in good spirits. He stood on the stem, hands clasped behind him, watching themoonlit pursuit with a tiny smile on his lips. "Leader, I suggest not. We must assume that Mavorsthe god of war is somewhere among them, and we have no experience to tell us how to overcomehis powers."

Quentin was leaning on his white staff, his dark cloak flapping and folding around him in thesea-wind like the wings of a bird of shadow. He spoke without raising his head, "Leader, ourdefeat is inevitable. I have seen the signs. When I was in the air, in the storm cloud, one of thethunder-children turned and spoke to me. Lord Mavors can control fate. There will be ships aheadof us, no matter which way we turn."

As if his words had summoned them, tall black triangles appeared on the horizon ahead, themountain-shaped barges of the war-god. Dimly, in the moonlight, I thought I saw rippling trails ofwhite foam issuing from ports along their bases, the slim black ships of the Laestrygonians cuttinglike torpedoes through the waves.

I sat down on the bench at the stern of the ship with my elbows on my knees and my fingers slowlymassaging my temples.

Think, Amelia, think. It is like a game, like a puzzle. There are certain moves you can make, andcertain moves your opponent, Mavors, can make. Unfortunately, one of the moves he could makewas something like bribe the judges of the contest to fix the outcome no matter what you do.

I said, "Idea number one: If Mavors is controlling fate by means of something, a little 'bad luck elfnamed Murphy or something, then Murphy has to see or sense us to do his dirty work, right?

Maybe a combination of Vanity's powers and the ring of Gyges can deflect whatever senseimpression Murphy is using to zero in on us."

Quentin said, half to himself, "I suspect Murphy's real name is Clotho, Atropos, or Lachesis."

"Idea number two: You all grab hold of me and I step into the fourth dimension."

Colin said, "Dark Mistress, idea number one is much better than idea number two. When you stepinto your 'fourth dimension,' you are only creating an illusion, and you haven't really goneanywhere. If he has got anyone like me among his staff, he can just penetrate the illusion."

I said, "Grendel's dead."