Titans of Chaos

The hat, which also had wings of its own, now flapped and flew, light as a hummingbird, liftingitself from the severed wreck of the broken mast, and dropping down on the young god's flowinglocks. The shining of the rim of his headgear gave him a halo of steel where the sunlight caught it.

The man looked pleased.

The first person to react was Colin. In his Phobetor shape, Colin leaped through the air, talonsraised, horns lowered, breathing fire, his vast bat wings a hurricane of speed.

Roaring, he fell upon the slim godlike figure.

The slim godlike figure had slipped away and was hanging in the air a dozen yards to the left. Themotion was too quick to follow; just pop, and he was yards away.

He gestured with his wand: A Greek temple made of swirls of mist, air made opaque, ripples ofshivering twilight, all faded into view, hovering above the deck, with the sudden absurdity of adream. The temple was complete with Doric columns, a portico and architrave, a solemn altarsurrounded by tripods filled with starlight rather than flame.

A system of pentacles and pentagrams were inscribed in firefly light on every flagstone of thathall, diagram within diagram, all scribbled over with Latin, Greek, and Hebrew characters. TheSephiroth were smoldering on the wall behind; images from the tarot cards sparkled in littlepanels set within the frieze; the zodiac flamed along the roof.

The giant statue that rose, all gold and gleaming marble behind the altar, was of him, Hermes.

When he raised his wand, the statue of Hermes raised its wand in the same gesture.

He spoke: "Hermes Trismegistus am I, Lord of all the Hermetic and Hermeneutic Art; I commandyou and compel you, nude and unhoused spirit, die; I quench your demon heart."

Phobetor fell out of midair as if struck by an arrow. He flopped to the deck, his wide bat wingsbeating blindly at the deck planks. He quivered, but could not get up. He was not dead yet, but thefurry beast face he wore was drawn with pain; the green pinpoints of his demon eyes wereextinguished; black smoke poured from his slack mouth.