In the Claws of the Tiger: War-Torn, Book 3 by Wyatt James

Author:Wyatt, James [Wyatt, James]
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Publisher: Wizards of the Coast Publishing
Published: 2010-03-24T16:00:00+00:00

They sailed through the night, the sailors continuing with repairs to ensure Silverknife stayed afloat. Breddan dismissed his passengers from further work, urging them to sleep, but Janik and Dania both stayed up, pitching in where they could. Despite his insistence that elves don’t sleep, Mathas was exhausted from the day’s work and retired to his cabin shortly after they set sail. Auftane said he wanted to help but needed his sleep so his magic could be fresh for the next day.

Their course took them east for at least a week, then north around the tip of the Skyfall Peninsula—the northernmost stretch of the vast continent of Xen’drik, the area most familiar to explorers and adventurers. As the sun rose over the sea ahead, Janik stood at the bow, watching the sky brighten and then the light dancing on the sea like gold leaf. He went below to his bunk just as Auftane was getting up.

The days flew by. Janik enjoyed the night shift at first, when the ship was quiet and the sailors spoke little. He often found himself working beside the mute half-orc, sharing each other’s silence. But he woke up earlier in the afternoon each day, talked with his friends at the evening meal, and by the end of the second week was back to a normal schedule of work and sleep. Silverknife was just beginning to bend her course southward—she was approaching the Phoenix Basin.

Janik found a new reason to like the daylight hours. Sailors had long told stories of the Phoenix Basin, and the lack of exploration in its waters suggested truth in the tales. Legends said that when the civilization of the giants fell, the entire continent of Xen’drik was torn asunder by the powerful magic the giants had wielded against invading nightmare demons, the quori. Both Shargon’s Teeth and the Phoenix Basin were said to have been solid land that sank beneath the waves in that cataclysm. Indeed, as the ship glided over the still waters of the Basin, Janik occasionally caught glimpses of towering structures deep beneath the surface. The water was not deep and some of the ruins might have gouged holes in Silverknife’s hull, but the water was so clear that the crew easily steered clear of these hazards.

Janik spent as much time as Breddan would allow—for the hobgoblin remained a driving taskmaster as the journey continued—standing on the prow and gazing down into the deeps.

“It’s good to be doing this again,” he said one day to Mathas, when the elf joined him at the prow.

“To be out of the city and back at work?” Mathas asked.

“Yes. I’ve been so … inactive these past few years. I mean, I kept busy and told myself I was doing important work. But writing scholarly articles isn’t who I am, you know?”

“I know.”

“It took a lot to even consider going back to Mel-Aqat. But I’m starting to think about doing more once we’re done with this. Sea of Fire, what would it be like to explore these ruins here?”

“Wet,” Mathas observed.

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