114 Calay Harbor
Gliding together across the murky waters of the harbor, two black-and-gold sea serpents charged a battered merchant ship that was tied up to the docks. One of the monsters bit down on the ship's rail, which exploded in a spray of splinters. The second serpent rammed the hull, cracking the lapped boards of Iborian pine. The hissing sound from their blowholes was terrifying, echoed by other creatures that appeared in the harbor.
Six of the monsters now circled the waters, prowling.
Anjine shouted orders at the top of her lungs. “Evacuate the docks! Get off the ships, all of you. Head inland. Away from the water!” Bells rang, people shouted, picking up her words and passing them along.
She stared toward the narrow mouth of the harbor, a bottleneck to the Oceansea beyond. The storm must have dredged the serpents from the cold secret depths and driven them out of their territory. Lost in the shallow harbor, the beasts were confused and infuriated, attacking anything in sight. She couldn't think of any way to herd the monsters back to deep waters.
Out on the bay, one desperate man abandoned his dinghy and tried to swim away as a sea serpent rose up before him. Blinking its reptilian eyes, the monster regarded the panicked man with curiosity before it scooped him out of the water, almost gently, and gulped him down.
Carrying a torch, Vorannen ran to the end of a pier, waving the bright flame from side to side and shouting. One of the serpents glided toward the guard-marshall, hissing and hooting, more curious than frightened. Vorannen hurled the flaming brand like a spear, and the sea serpent caught it in midair, as if it were a morsel of food. As the flames singed the tender flesh in its mouth, the serpent roared and spat. It hammered its head down on the pier to smash Vorannen, but he was already racing back toward dry land.
City guardsmen ran in, drew their bows, and launched a flight of arrows. Several pierced and annoyed the creature, and in retaliation it destroyed the rest of the dock, uprooting pilings and shattering boards. The other five creatures in the bay hooted to each other as they swam to and fro.
A sea serpent hauled its sinuous body entirely over the deck of a small cargo ship that was already swamped. Coiling and squeezing, the monster smashed the rails, cracked the deck-boards, and finally broke the keel itself. The boat gurgled, sank, and the creature glided back into the harbor.
Prester-Marshall Rudio hurried down to the dock, followed by several young presters and acolytes. Panting, Rudio stopped before Anjine. “These are not simply monsters from the sea, Majesty. They are evil, and we need a kind of strength that surpasses mere weapons. I can call on that special strength.” He held up his Book of Aiden and turned to his fellow presters and acolytes. “Pray for me. I need your faith and the vigor of your hearts.”
He opened the tome and began to walk down the sloping street to the nearest pier. Though Anjine believed in the teachings of the kirk as much as anyone else, she felt a hollow dread to see the old man stride onto the dock, entirely vulnerable. She knew what he was going to do.
Rudio shouted verses at the top of his voice. “For dawn shall burn away the night, good shall crush evil, and the greatness of faith shall crush the cowardice of questions.” He lifted his other hand and called, lips drawn back, “In the name of Ondun, Aiden, and Sapier, I command thee to leave this place! Ondun Himself gave us this land, and Aiden found it. Every speck of soil in Tierra is our kirk! You are not welcome here.”
Two of the black-and-gold serpents lifted their triangular heads, and slitted eyes blinked in fascination at the prester-marshall, a single small figure at the end of the dock. Rudio raised his hand again, clenched it into a fist. “Begone, I say!” He shook the Book. “Do not awaken the anger of our God! Heed my command.”
A third sea serpent appeared and stared down at the old man… then a fourth and a fifth. All of the great beasts seemed mesmerized. Rudio continued to read verse after verse. With his voice cracking from the strain, he yelled out Sapier's Prayer.
Anjine watched, transfixed. Vorannen and his men had ceased their attack. The gathered people waited in absolute silence. The prester-marshall finally finished and made the sign of the Fishhook in the air.
One of the black serpents opened its mouth and darted down to snatch up old Rudio in a single bite, leaving only the ragged ends of the prester-marshall's boots on the dock, with his feet still in them.