Norah Sinclair struggled to shovel out the stall. Laughing, she turned to William Nickerson and said, “I can’t do this, it’s too hard.” Her ravaged face lit up with joy. Shaking his head in mock seriousness, the quartermaster said, “You shouldn’t make bets if you’re not willing to pay the price. We need to build some muscles on those scrawny arms. Get some calluses on those hands.”

Glancing over at the pair, Sinclair Foran shook his head and entered the tent that was set up to treat the wounded who were brought to them.

Captain Baxtor, along with a number of local leaders, looked at a table with charts that Frank Ward was updating as information came to them. “You figure this is where the raiders will be moving to?” asked the Captain. The Second Captain nodded. “We should be able to dispatch some more guerilla groups based on this,” one of the local leaders observed. The others nodded.

“More Zith ships keep arriving to join the frenzy. Second Captain Ward’s best guess is that the ships that have left seem to be raiding other Salrich ports. They’re coming and going throughout your waters,” said Captain Baxtor, explaining the charts in front of them. “You figure that the Phoenix is still in local waters?” the captain asked the second captain.

“As far as I can tell,” said Frank Ward.

* * *

Looking around at the assembled men, Frank Ward explained the Zith movements to them. “As near as I can tell, they seem to be converging on us here. On one hand, that’s a good sign that we’ve been a thorn in their side. On the other hand, it’s an indication that we might be dealing with more pressure than we’ve felt so far,” said the Second Captain.

One of the local leaders said, “Do you have any idea why Alsos’ aura has vanished? And what this new aura we’re feeling is?”

Radiance cut in, “You all remain faithful to Alsos, so he can’t be killed.”

“But what happened to his aura then?” asked the leader. “Another god could kill him, even while the faithful remain.”

“Perhaps he’s been taken prisoner and is being killed by non-gods repeatedly. Maybe he’s been captured and taken back to Zith territory as a prisoner,” speculated Radiance, not noticing the horrified looks on the locals’ faces.

“We’ll repel the Zith and assist Alsos, whatever has happened to him,” said Joseph Baxtor, trying to reassure the locals.

Radiance continued, “The new aura is Zith’s god Nalvol. It’s created by worshipping him and reinforced by sacrifices. They’re trying to seize your territory. We’re all feeling constantly on edge. Part of that is just the stressful situation we’re in. It’s also Nalvol’s aura. It will get stronger as they perform more sacrifices here and have more debauchery. Eventually, it will drive any of us that remain insane, and we’ll join the Zith. It’ll also create an echo of Nalvol here.”

“Can’t we have Radiance create a portal to contact other resistance groups?” asked Albert Reeves. “And what’s an echo?”

“Zith elementalists would quickly disrupt any such attempt, and they might trace it back to our location and the location we were communicating with,” warned Radiance. “I haven’t been conjuring elementals or contacting the elemental planes out in the open, in case it gives us away. An echo is a weaker, local copy of a god. They form on worlds that worship a god from another world.”

“We’ll do our best to cause as much trouble for these new arrivals as we’ve been doing up until now,” said Captain Baxtor. Frank Ward began suggesting deployments for their guerillas.

* * *

Moving through the forest, Albert Reeves and his three marines watched the tall man with sky-blue skin directing the raiders who were ransacking the farm.

“Who’s that?” asked one of the marines.

“I don’t know,” admitted the Third Captain. “Standard approach men, we’ll set ourselves up near the road back to the port and take them when they’re leaving.”

“Third Captain,” hissed one of the marines. The blue-skinned man was looking in their direction. After looking for a few seconds, he returned his attention to the farm.

In a whisper, a marine asked, “How could he have heard us?” Reeves shook his head and put a finger to his lips.

* * *

Sinclair Foran was washing up before bed in the room in the farmhouse that had been assigned to him out of gratitude for the work he’d been doing with injured Salrich.

“I’m so sorry you’re caught in the middle of this sweetheart,” he said to his daughter, who was already in their shared bed. “I knew there were risks bringing you on the Phoenix, but I never expected anything like this.”

“I love it here, daddy,” she said, looking over at him and smiling. “I’m not stuck in the cabin, I don’t have to hide from anyone. It’s wonderful.”

“Captain Baxtor made it quite clear that you were part of the package with the rest of us. I’m glad that the Salrich got over their fear of infection as quickly as they did,” said the healer. Kissing his daughter on the forehead, he collapsed into bed.

“How are Henry and Adam doing?” asked Norah.

“I don’t know that we’ve heard from them recently,” said her father. “Henry has been doing some work on securing areas we might have to retreat to if the Zith attack us here. He had some ideas about fortifying an area that would be easier to defend. Adam was going with him to provide assistance.”

“I know, daddy. Mr. Nickerson told me all about it,” said Norah. “I’m going to marry them, you know.”

“Both of them?” asked the healer. “Isn’t marriage usually a one-man, one-woman type deal?”

“They’ll duel to the death over me, and I’ll settle their dispute by agreeing to marry both of them,” she said.

“Ah, that’s nice,” said Sinclair as he began drifting off to sleep.

* * *

Albert Reeves and his marines watched the cart move towards them, with the family from the farm trussed up in the back, along with their easily transported valuables and supplies. The blue-skinned, tall man and the Zith raiders walked next to the cart, surrounding it.

The third captain gave a shrill whistle when the cart drew abreast of the ambushers and charged out of the forest. Leveling his gold hand cannon at the blue skin man, he fired and was shocked as his target moved his body inhumanly fast and avoided the shot.

His three marines each took down one of the raiders, but they remained outnumbered by the Zith by more than two to one. With drawn rapiers, Reeve’s men lunged at the surprised Zith men, killing two more.

Reeves lunged at the blue-skinned man, only to see him dodge the rapier in a similar way that he’d dodged the shot. Seeing an opening, Reeves attacked again and this time the man managed to grab his rapier’s blade and snapped it in two.

Looking in awe at the man, Albert Reeves gasped, “What are you?”

“Your deliverance to Nalvol,” he said, approaching the third captain. Reeves raised his gold cannon and pointed it in his face. Laughing, the man said, “Your cannon is spent, fool.” Reeves fired it and the blue skin man fell to the ground, dead with half his head removed. Purple blood seeped into the ground.

The raiders had recovered and counter-attacked Reeve’s marines. Each side had lost another member. Reeves and his two remaining men faced seven Zith. “Retreat!” ordered the third captain, as he turned to run from the raiders.

* * *

Sinclair Foran was hard at work performing another amputation in the makeshift infirmary. Covered in blood, he put all his strength into sawing through the bone cleanly, while two assistants held down the struggling man. From the entrance, he heard Norah call out, “Daddy, do you and your friends want a cup of tea?”

“Not now dear,” he called back, sweat dripping down his brow. “We’ll be out in a little while.” The patient on the table passed out from the pain and the healer continued his work.

“How many more are waiting?” he asked his assistants.

“Thirteen more,” said the closer one.

“Maybe three cups of tea would be good,” the healer called out to his daughter. “Lots of sugar and cream.”

* * *

Adam Hudson and Henry Cook regarded the stone wall in front of them.

“We can cut right through here if that’s what you want,” said Adam to Henry.

“Ultimately we want to have it exit over by the cliff we surveyed earlier. That will be a hidden escape route, so if it looks like this position is going to be overrun, we can exit through there and hopefully slip off down the side of the cliff and leave unnoticed,” replied the engineer.

Three earth sprites appeared and began digging into the rock. “You’d like it to be ten feet tall and ten feet wide again, I assume,” the apprentice elementalist asked.

“That should be good, thanks,” said Henry. “Without any ships sailing, there should be some elementalists available if you’d like assistance. Will the Zith be able to detect the work you’re doing?”

“I’m fine, but the work will go faster with more of us,” said Adam Hudson. “They shouldn’t be able to detect us, since these sprites are working underground. They have air sprites patrolling, on the lookout for sprites in the air, or moving around the island. They might catch us though, so we should be ready to depart if they come after us here.”