Titans of Chaos

The spray coming off the bow of the ship suddenly turned black, and had streamers of flame andsmoke rippling through it. The Argent Nautilus started bucking and pitching.

The tube of water down which we flew dissolved like smoke, growing rapidly larger and swoopingaway from us. Suddenly and impossibly, we were in the middle of a large lake, then in midocean.

But it was a boiling ocean of blood-splattered India ink, not water. Icebergs topped with flamebuckled and broke against ice-coated piles of lava, red stones with black crusts. Open pits of airand smoke gaped here and there in the surface of the waters like holes in Swiss cheese.

There were storm clouds above us, but the lightning was red, and the hailstones showering downon us were mingled with falling mud, snow, freezing rain, and drops of something acidic thatstung and burned.

The dream-smooth flight of the Argent Nautilus ended when the ship, boards groaning, pitched upas if struck from beneath.

Our silver sails were streaked with long stains from the acid hail, browned with mud streaks, andVanity was cowering under the bench, stung by burns in several places, tears in her eyes,determined not to cry. She had the glowing green stone in her hand and was trying to find someset of laws of nature that would allow us to survive the attack.

Quentin was clinging to the rail as the ship jumped and rolled.

Victor's body, not lashed down, was sliding across the deck. I ran and threw myself atop it, so thatwe were now both sliding toward the fragile silver railing...

Crash. The railing held, though it bent out alarmingly. Victor's stone-hard body was between meand the rail, but I had burned my hand on some patch of his skin... his hull... which was stillsmoldering.

I shouted in pain. Okay, well maybe it was a scream. But that damn stuff hurt Being pelted byacid-stinking hailstones did not help either.

What the hell was this stuff? An attack?

Over the noise of the storm-wrack, Quentin spoke to Vanity. His voice was very quiet, but somemagic made each word clear, distinct, and legible. I do not think I was hearing it through my ears.

"Keep moving. Can you find a door out of this acid storm?"

Vanity shouted back, her voice dim and interrupted beneath the mindless roar of sky-rage:

"Leader! We're becalmed! The ship cannot find any boundaries. There are no doors because thereis no here and no there anywhere..."