Titans of Chaos

Across the dark sea the moon sent here and there a slanted pillar of silver light into the heavingmass of snowy waters.

The rest of the scene was as dark as the clouds above. A winged shape swept across the wavestoward us, and he could be glimpsed only when he passed through one of those curtains ofmoonlight. His eyes were visible like two sparks of green marsh gas, and when he opened hismouth to cry halloo, the tiny flame of his tongue was bright.

The deck was slightly larger in this version. Like "finding" a space-worthy shape, Vanity found anundamaged version of her ship beneath the wrecked hull. Her ship was all ships.

Quentin said, "The only reason why we let him go off alone was because of the ring. Why is hevisible?"

Vanity said, "He can't see us."

Victor, whose eyes these days operated on more than one band of the spectrum, could pick himout. Victor opened his third eye and shot out a bright golden beam, painfully bright in the uttergloom.

Phobetor landed on the stern of the heaving boat and shrank into Colin, who was dressed in adark sea-coat and sweater.

"You started drinking without me?" were his first words.

"Celebrating!" I said. The champagne had made my face hot, so I threw back my hood and let thesnow drift into my hair. I gave him a big and happy smile. "We were sure you'd succeed!"

"Well, you're right about that," Colin said. "The fate that made it so Mortimer was touched in thehead is gone. I don't know what you four did here on the boat at midnight, but just when thechurch-tower clock struck twelve, I flew up to his little barred window and did my hoodoo. Heck,once he was talking normal and stuff, I passed him my cell phone through the bars and let himcall his brother Sam the Drayman. He was all crying and laughing so much, I thought it hadn'tdone anything, and he was still cuckoo, but..." He shrugged. "It worked on a small scale. We canundo fate."

Vanity smiled, and her white teeth showed. "And at least one man knows the gods are real. Thatwon't overthrow them. But it is a start."

Victor raised a hand. "Now to save our lives. Everyone ready?"

Quentin took several sticks of colored chalk in his hand and threw them on the deck. In amoment, the snow was swept aside, and the boards were bright with circles and summoningtriangles, pentagrams and stars-of-David, all written in and around with Latin and Greek script.