The battle with Thorne had attracted more attention than Zade had planned. Her intention was to sneak into the mansion and relieve Brinks of the Heart of Verraque... but as soon as she left the stone garden, dozens of guards descended on the area. Some looked like professional fighters. Some looked like kids with swords. Either way, Zade wasn't in the mood for a fight of this magnitude. Not now. She hid herself and waited for an opportunity to make a break... either for the wall or for the main building. It was a long wait... the guards were everywhere. She spotted several men in dark-blue robes entering the courtyard.

Mages.

Magic complicated things; it was time to leave.

The sudden hail of arrows from the towers helped solidify her decision. The towers may have been unoccupied before, but they certainly weren't now. Archers were firing randomly into the massive bank of shrubs where she'd hidden herself. They didn't know where she was... but that would change in a few minutes when the sun came up. Perhaps Zade could survive a crossbow bolt through the heart... but then again, perhaps not. She wasn't going to find out today. She leapt from the bushes and ran for the main wall... zig-zagging across the courtyard as arrows flew past her head. A running leap, even one powered by muscles that were more than human, wasn't enough to take her over the wall. She hit it less than halfway up, then slid down a few feet before her fingers found purchase in the cracks between the bricks. She climbed. Fast. All around her, the 'CLICK' and 'CLACK' of arrows striking the stone spurred her onward. She hauled herself over the top, cutting her fingers on the shards of razor-sharp metal that had been set into the top of the wall.

... nice one, Brinks... she thought as she dropped to the ground other side. Her sliced fingers had stopped bleeding by the time she started running. She darted down the incredibly steep hillside and literally threw herself into the woods that surrounded the mansion. The guards should be following... she kept up her inhuman pace, putting so much distance between the mansion and her back that the guards didn't stand a chance of catching her. Not that they didn't already know who she was or where she was going... but December was going to be angry enough WITHOUT her leading a team of assassins to his doorstep.

Zade reached the city and lost herself in the pre-dawn crowd. Storekeepers were on their way to work... rogues, thieves and streetwalkers were on their way home. The result was an interesting mixture of predator and prey... both too sleepy to do anything but glance warily at one another as they passed each other on the street. She was in one of the city's over-rated shopping districts. She recognized the scents and the layout... she'd been here before. Yesterday, in fact. She briefly wondered if the weapons-shop was still open. There was still no sign of pursuit, and by now there probably wasn't going to be any. She'd made a clean getaway. Unfortunately, her mission was a failure. A failure in more ways than one; not only did Brinks still have the Heart, but Thorne was still back there. As hard a she tried, Zade couldn't force herself to picture him as the hulking armor-clad menace she'd first met... all she saw was the child inside the armor. Sick and weak. Begging to come with her.

She left him behind, where all he could look forward to was more of the same abuse. She swore that she could still hear him calling after her. Still smell his fear. Zade still had the sinking, empty, heavy feeling in her chest... the feeling that meant she'd done something horribly, horribly wrong. Was leaving him behind worse than what his own father had done to him? Was she responsible for everything that happened to the boy now? What if Brinks killed him... was the boy's blood on her hands? Yes. No matter how she tried to rationalize it, she knew that it was true. But what else could she have done? Blaymore would have wisked the boy away in the blink of an eye. But she wasn't Blaymore.

Maybe it wasn't too late. She could go back and get the boy. Not now... but tonight. Brinks wouldn't be expecting a repeat performance of her intrusion. Or better yet-

"Hmm?" Zade hummed as the sound reached her. It was a hissing sound.... very distant. No one on the street had heard it yet, but Zade knew it was there. The hiss became a distant roar, not like the roar of a beast... but almost like a.... waterfall?

And it was getting very loud, very quickly.

Now people were starting to hear it. Men and women shaded their eyes against the dawn and looked toward the river... or toward the mountains. The sound seemed be becoming from both places.

"What's going on?" Zade asked a passing merchant.

"I have no idea," the man replied. "Whatever it is-"

Suddenly the ground... actually the gigantic wooden platform that served as the city's 'ground'... heaved upward as if hit from below by a giant fist. Jets of water sprayed upward through the spaces between the planks as the river surged. Parts of the platform gave way, throwing pieces of wood high into the air atop the fountains the surging water.

"Brinks' mages... they must have found me!" Zade hissed. The platform heaved again, this time with enough force to overcome even Zade's sense of balance. She fell, expecting to hit the platform... instead, she landed in two feet of water. In the instant that it took for her to get to her feet, the water had risen even higher.

The roar was no longer distant. It was close... and loud... and frightening. The most sinister sound that Zade had ever heard.

"LOOK!" someone shouted.

There was a river rushing down the street... a five foot surge of water that was heading right for them. And yet it was only the trailing edge... somewhere behind it was the source of the roar... the roar that sounded like doom.

People scrambled for the buildings on either side of the street. They raced up the stairs to the elevated structures, and Zade was right behind them. A crowd of men and women streaked across the road to the highest building in the area... the Ark. The sailing-ship turned restaurant sat high above even the other elevated buildings. Zade joined the crowd in its mad dash for the steps. The first few reached the steps before the water hit. Those that followed had to force their way through a perpendicular current that doubled in strength with every step that they took. A lot of them didn't make it. Preliminary surge swept them away, men and women screamed as the water snatched the legs from under them and their screams died suddenly as their heads went underwater. Zade forced herself forward... water that was at her knees when she took one step was at her thighs when she took another. She made a few powerful leaps, lost her footing, scrambled to regain it, and then shoved her way to the steps through sheer force of muscle. She reached it even as the water carried off two more people behind her. The water swept a third person right into Zade's path. She grabbed the man's arm and hauled him up the steps, out of the reach of the rising water.

Most of the crowd stopped halfway up. 50 feet above them was the lowest dining platform. 100 feet above IT was the Ark itself, with a second dining platform halfway between them. There were people on all levels... refugees from the water peered down at the flooded street as the roaring sound got louder and louder and louder. Suddenly, everyone on the elevated sections looked off toward the mountains-

"RUN!" someone on the second platform yelled. "IT'S COMING! GET HIGHER! HIIIGHERRRR!!!!"

Then Zade saw it. It wasn't a river surge.. or a mere flood... it was a giant WALL of water over 60 feet high. The thing roared through the city like a hungry beast, swallowing whatever it encountered. It sucked the smaller buildings down whole... one instant they were there, and the next there was nothing but water. It smashed some of the taller buildings into disjointed piles of debris... snapping their stilts like toothpicks before sucking them down into its watery mouth. Only the tallest, sturdiest buildings could withstand its onslaught... and even those offered safety only to those quick enough to get inside.

Zade turned and ran up the steps as fast as she could. The roar of the water was so great that she couldn't even hear the screams of those who weren't as fast as she.... those who saw the water... saw how fast it was coming... and KNEW that they weren't fast enough to beat it to safety. They were gone in the blink of an eye... snatched away as if by magic. Zade reached the first platform and dashed across it to the next stairway leading further up. Behind her, the man she'd rescued from the river surge yelped as the water slammed into him. A yelp was all he could manage... then he was gone.

The entire building shook when the wall of water reached it. The water hit like a hammer... one incredible, divinely-powerful blow snapped one of the thick supporting stilts and nearly cracked another. The floor and walls convulsed like living things...

Already running faster than she thought possible, Zade grabbed a decorative bannister and swung around... flinging herself onto the stairs. She landed on her feet and kept going. Her legs pumped like pistons. Below her, the water destroyed the lower dining platform where she'd been less than a second ago. Expensive furnishings and decorations simply disappeared. Then the platform itself cracked and broke away.

Zade pulled herself up onto the second platform and collapsed onto the floor.. The roar of the flood was all she could hear for several seconds... the roar and the cracking of the Arks wooden support beams.

CRACK!

The floor twisted and heaved.

"OH NO!" came a woman's cry.

Zade lifted her head. She hadn't realized that there other survivors besides her. A little over 50 people had gathered in the center of the platform. Some were cooks and waiters from the Ark, but most were waterlogged refugees who'd managed to make it to safety with seconds to spare.

Zade got to her feet... just as there was another CRACK. The platform began to tilt to one side.

"It's breaking loose!" Zade yelled. "MOVE HIGHER!"

---

"Inside!" December grunted. Leaning heavily on Zade's metal staff, December tried to drag Theesa along with him toward the closest building. Theesa ended up doing most of the dragging. Water streamed down the street in a two-foot deep flood that rapidly grew to frightening proportions. A surge of water that was almost as tall as a man rampaged the streets of New Venyce, carrying away anything that wasn't nailed down... and several things that WERE. Elevated buildings swayed like flowers in a breeze as the water pummeled their support beams. December and Theesa reached the steps leading up to Azarius Park's loft and started up.

They stepped out of the flood's reach and paused to look down at the water and debris that rushed passed. Bits and pieces of buildings, wooden planks, clothing, garbage, large and small animals... it all shot past them with such speed that no one piece could be separated from another. Even the bodies... men, women and children caught by the wave... were just amorphous blurs in the water. December could barely pick them out; the heat of their dead and dying bodies shone like a beacon to his eyes. He was thankful that Theesa couldn't see them at all.

But the roaring sound grew steadily louder. It drowning out all but the loudest screams of people caught in the initial surge.

"This is but the beginning," said December. "We must seek shelter." He moved up the stairs and didn't stop until he reached the door. It was locked. December placed the palm of his hand against the sturdy wood. As easily as a normal man would take a breath, December drained the heat from the door, turning it into a rigid, frozen approximation of what it once was. He shoved, wincing at the pain that the effort caused him. The door snapped away from its frozen hinges and fell inward, shattering against the floor. He continued inside as if the door hadn't been there at all.

"Hurry," he said. He grabbed Theesa's shoulder and tried not to lean on it too heavily as he pulled her inside.

"The door... how will we keep the water out!"

"The lack of a door will not matter in a flood of his magnitude. We will be fortunate if the building remains intact at all. Up the stairs..."

They started up the stairs to Park's study. They were only halfway up when the noise from outside grew deafening. The walls began to shake.

"Brace yourself!" December thrust Theesa against the wall and shielded her with his own body. Then he whispered to her. "Close your eyes."

"What are you-"

The whole world seemed to fly apart in the middle of Theesa's sentence.

The roaring water reached a terrifying crescendo. Then there was a loud:

BOOM!

as it struck the building. For the next few seconds there was nothing but the rushing of water and the cracking of wood. The building seemed to spin around them, flinging parts of itself in all directions as it self-destructed. Water poured through the door and windows... and the huge cracks in the walls that weren't there before. Part of the roof caved in. It sank right through the upper floor, missing December and Theesa by only a few feet. Park's enormous bookshelf slid through the hole in the floor, and it took most of the furniture with it. Books and shattered furnishings bounced off of December's back. He held Theesa close to protect her from the falling debris.

It only took five seconds for water to flood the bottom floor. Then it started up the stairs.

"We move now!" said December.

They reached the upper floor just three steps ahead of the water.

"The roof!"

A portion of the collapsed roof had left them an unsteady ramp from which they could escape the rising water. Theesa went first, but the shattered wooden beams rocked and swayed so much that she couldn't keep her balance. December grabbed the lower end and steadied it for her.

"Climb now!"

"But the water!" Theesa pointed to the water streaming into the room behind them. It wasn't rising nearly as fast as it had below, but it was still coming.

"CLIMB, WOMAN!"

Theesa went up. She heard December grunting from the effort... she reached the roof and looked down. December was knee-deep in ice; the rising water had frozen solid when it reached him.

"Come on!" she shouted. She got down on her knees and reached down for him, as if she could somehow pull his massive bulk up with her.

December tried to move, but he couldn't. The ice was up to his thighs.

"December-"

"My injuries are too severe... I cannot regulate my temperature. Not above freezing."

"But you'll be TRAPPED!"

"Correction," said December. He looked down at the solid block of ice that encased him from the stomach down. "I AM trapped."

"No! I TOLD you not to leave me behind once, don't MAKE me tell you again!"

Theesa stood. There was a sudden movement... a flash... a fiery glow... and then orange flames erupted from Faction's enchanted staff. The fire shot down and engulfed December. It never touched the crimelord, or the ice that was next to his skin... but the ice further out became steam in less than a second. The water around him boiled and melted even MORE ice. And then-

CRACK!

December broke free. The layer of ice on his body fell away in sheets as he grabbed Zade's staff and started up to the roof. The wooden beams shifted suddenly, threatening to dump December back into the water. December made a desperate leap... and grabbed the edge of the roof with one hand. The makeshift ramp fell away beneath him. He tossed Zade's staff up onto the roof then used both hands to pull himself up.

"A very timely rescue," December said between gasps of breath.

"That makes two," said Theesa. "Not that I'm counting or anything."

December surveyed their predicament. It wasn't good.

The water was still rising. Very slowly now, but the roof would be underwater in a few minutes.

Almost everything around them was underwater... the only structure still unsubmerged was the Golden Eagle Inn. It was a bit taller than Park's loft, but it was currently on fire. Whether the fire or the water would finally claim it was still in dispute. Either way, it offered no safer haven that the roof of Park's loft. There was nothing else around them except floating debris. And water.

"What are we going to do?" said Theesa. She was trying not to sound worried, but she wasn't doing a very good job.

"I will do as I have always done," December replied. "I will survive." He looked out at the water and judged the currents. He watched the hunks of debris, both large and small, as they floated past. And, most importantly, he thought.

Finally he sat down on the roof and folded his legs in front of him. He placed his hands together... palms apart, fingers curved so that the tips were touching lightly. He lowered his head and closed his eyes.

"December?" said Theesa. She stood next to him, oblivious to the intense cold that radiated from his body. "December?"

December inhaled slowly... deeply... then exhaled in a long slow, breath. He slowed his mind, casting out the stray thoughts and images while concentrating his incredible will...

"December... what are you doing?"

"I am saving our lives," he replied. His voice was a low, deep whisper. "Please remain silent while I do so."

He took another deep breath, but this time he did not exhale. He held it. He concentrated... reaching into the depths of the power that he'd been cursed with. He summoned it, forced it to the surface. Were his eyes open, they would have been glowing bright blue as the power built up within him

Theesa gasped when she saw it. It began as a glow... a tiny speck of light nestled between December's hands. Then it grew. Brighter and larger... so bright that it almost hurt to look at it, yet Theesa couldn't take her eyes away. It was the size of a small pebble now... a small, glowing light without shape or substance. But that changed. The glowing thing took shape before her eyes. It grew outward, forming smooth faceted surfaces. The intense glow began to fade as more of its energy went into the creation of the solid form that took shape in December's hands. It swelled like a living thing... the facets merged, the glow dimmed even further... and then it was gone completely. There was no glow of magic between December's palms... but there was a gleaming blue jewel. Beautiful. Delicate. Flawless.

December opened his eyes and beheld his handiwork.

"W-what is it?" said Theesa.

"One of the few useful things that N'Doki has taught me over the years." He stood and carried the ice-gem with him to the hole in the roof. Azarius Park's study was almost completely flooded by now. "Hold on to me," he said.

Theesa grabbed onto December left arm and held on tight. December threw the gem down into the flooded study. It struck a wall and shattered.

Suddenly they were standing in the middle of a blizzard. Incredible wind buffeted them from several directions while intense cold... a cold that neither of them could feel... sucked the heat out of everything nearby. The water for several yards in all directions froze solid in the blink of an eye. The expanding ice demolished the study's walls, which were already made brittle by the sub-Arctic cold. The result was akin to an explosion... Azarius Park's study burst at the seams and flew apart. Even as the wind died, The roof completed its collapse, taking December and Theesa along with it.
Theesa screamed for dear life, but it wasn't water that met them at the end of the fall... it was ice.

An enormous chunk of ice floated freely where Park's study once sat. The current caught it and began to carry the platform of ice along like a raft. The crude, unbalanced raft twisted and tilted in the water, but it did not capsize.

"You... you..."

"Be this flood the work of man, or nature, or the gods... it cannot alter the immutable fact that ice floats."

"Will we be safe?"

"No. The current could carry us to safety... but I feel we may be threatened again long before we reach it. Dr. Park said that there were TWO flood-basins in the mountains. So far, there has been only one flood. We must prepare for the other... and a simple raft will not suffice to protect us."

December sat down again and assumed his meditative position.

"What then?" said Theesa.

"Something larger."

---

"GONE!" Gabrial Brinks howled. He looked out through his window and saw the roiling sea that used to be New Venyce. "The city... MY city... is GONE!"

"Think about how the people down there must feel," said Dravian. The mage joined Brinks at the window. "My mages... apprentices...they would have been too weak to teleport to safety. They're all dead."

"EVERYONE is dead! And its all because of THIS thing!" Brinks snatched the Heart of Verraque from its pedestal and shook it. "MAKE IT STOP!" he shouted at the gem. "TAKE IT BACK! TAKE IT ALL AWAY!"

"I think it HAS taken it all away," said Dravian. "That may have been the point."

"Oh, Shut UP, you overpaid buffoon!"

Brinks looked out the window and saw the city exactly as it had been a second ago... destroyed. Over 3/4ths of the buildings were gone... either submerged whole or shattered by the wave's impact.

"DAMN YOU!"

Brinks hurled the gem at the chamber's stone wall. It struck the brick, but steadfastly refused to shatter or crack as Brinks had intended. The gem bounced off of the wall and hit the floor... knocking stone chips loose from both surfaces.

The echo of the impacts sounded almost like faint, haunting laughter.

"What do we do now, sir?" said Dravian. "The few mages I brought with me can start assisting the survivors, but-"

"No. Let them fend for themselves... survival of the fittest, and all that."

"Very well."

"You think me cruel?" Brinks said with a smile.

"Not at all."

"Why waste resources on those who were too stupid to build taller, sturdier houses?"

"Exactly, sir." Dravian turned away from his employer. He had to... he didn't Brinks to see the sour, angry expression on his face.

"My guards, my servants, and the mages you brought with you when you came," said Brinks. "We will be safe here. The water will receded, and we will rebuild this town to my liking."

"The death-toll will be significant."

"So? Ahh... I see your point. The corpses will bring vermin and disease. We will need healers... or perhaps we should evacuate temporarily... hmmm...."

"What of December? You don't think he died in the flood, do you?"

"I don't know," said Brinks. "Hard to say..."

"Bershold is scrying the city... what remains of it... for survivors. If December lives-"

"Then we'll have to send someone out to KILL him."

"Of course."

There was a knock at the door, and then Bershold entered without being invited. He carried a crystal globe with him-

"LOOK!" Bershold gasped. He thrust the globe out, almost hitting Dravian in the head with it. "LOOK!"

Dravian and Brinks peered into smokey image. Dravian frowned, and Brinks apparently had no idea what he was looking at.

"I was scanning the mountain trails to see if anyone had made it out to the trials. The passages are all underwater... then I saw this-"

"...gods help us..." said Dravian.

"What am I looking at? All I see is water."

"It is a flood," said Dravian. "ANOTHER flood. A larger one."

"It'll be here in a few minutes," said Bershold. "Ten. Maybe Fifteen. Within the half-hour for sure."

"We'll be safe, won't we?"

"No, Gabrial," said Dravian. "This flood will raise the waters to the very edge of the mountain. If the water continues to rise after that... this place will flood and we will all die.

"But this is the highest point in the CITY!"

"Apparently whatever created this flood took that into consideration."

All three men looked at the Heart of Verraque. It lay on its side in the corner of the room.

"TELEPORT IT AWAY! DESTROY IT!"

"We lack the strength to do either," said Dravian. "Whatever enchantment powers it is too strong."

"Get ME out of here, then!" said Brinks. "My belongings... all my treasure... everything! We have to go NOW!"

"Yes-"

"I don't think that's possible," said Dravian. He and Bershold exchanged glances. Bershold started to say something, but Dravian's expression shut him up.

"We exhausted ourselves warding off the magical attack earlier," said Dravian.

"Well WHAT do you intend to DO!!!"

"We're just barely above the level of the next flood wave... we have some time before the waters rise enough to threaten us. We'll think of something."

"THINK!?! THINK of something!?! We're all going to DIE while you're thinking!!"

"All going to die?" said Dravian. "I doubt that very seriously. Now if you'll excuse me I must speak with the others."

Bershold and Dravian left the room. Brinks returned to the window and watched the water rise.

"The docks... I can get to the boats and make my escape! No... no, the wave will capsize the boat for certain. DAMN! What would December do if he were me? Hmmm..."

Brinks continued to think, so lost in desperation that he didn't notice the faint, but unmistakable sound of laughter emanating from the Heart of Verraque.

---

The giant shipwreck had been converted to a theater ages ago, but once again it served as shelter against the rising water. Everyone moved inside and ran to the windows to survey the damage. Everything below the level of the first dining platform was submerged. The second dining platform had broken away a few seconds after everyone evacuated it. Now everyone was inside the Ark itself. Between seventy and a hundred people milled around in the theater.

The wave of water was gone now. It had moved through the city like a scythe... cutting down the buildings too short or too flimsy to withstand it. It left behind over 60 feet of water.... 60 above the already elevated platform that was 'sea level' in New Venyce. There was still a stiff current. Buildings that had barely survived now found themselves being slowly eaten away as the steady current pushed the supports to the yielding point. Debris that fell from the damaged buildings was carried off with surprising speed.... as were the people who tried to swim to safety.

Every few minutes, a new scream rose up from the river. A woman and child perched on the detached rooftop of a demolished building. They yelled for help as their 'life raft' floated past. It struck the remains of a building and sank. Both occupants were lost. Seven people begged and pleaded for their lives from the upper window of a building that was almost completely submerged. The water rose; their faces vanished. Moments later a single man dragged himself out of the water and onto the roof. Minutes after that, the water overran his haven and took him away. Bodies of the dead and soon-to-be dead floated past in a constant parade of futility and desperation. The sight was sickening. Soon those with weaker-stomachs abandoned the Ark's windows. In time, even those with stronger constitutions had had their fill.

But Zade stayed by the window. It was well after dawn now, and she could see much of the city, or what was left of it. Isolated buildings struggled to remain upright against the current. Every few minutes, one of them would collapse into the water.

"Which way is the Golden Eagle?" Zade asked the crowd. At first no one seemed inclined to answer, but then one timid young waiter pointed out the Inn's location. Zade looked where he pointed, but she couldn't see it. The Golden Eagle Inn was gone. The water had claimed it just as it had claimed the majority of the city. "December..." Zade wondered... no, hoped... that December had found some way to survive. After all, SHE was alive, wasn't she? But she was alone. December would have tried to save Theesa, and Zade didn't even know if the woman could swim. Finally, Zade averted her eyes from the empty space where the Inn used to be. She'd seen no sign of it or her employer. He was gone. December was dead.

"You loose somebody there?" said the waiter. The young man had joined Zade at the window. "Golden Eagle... somebody you know stay there?"

"No," Zade replied. "No one."

"Then why are you crying?"

"I'm not crying; I'm just wet. There's a flood, in case you haven't noticed." The man backed away. Zade wiped the moisture from her cheek and flung it away. "...Just water," she lied.

"That bastard BRINKS is high and dry!" came an angry shout from the other side of the boat. A small group of men had gathered near a window. One was pointing in the direction from which Zade had been traveling when the flood hit. Zade made her way through the rows of theater seats and went to an adjacent window. The Brinks mansion sat downstream, perched atop a small mountain that was completely untouched by the flood. The bulk of the flooded city lay between the Ark and the high ground, but the mansion, its wall, and its gardens were still plainly visible. "Highest, most expensive land in the city!"

"Now you know WHY its so expensive," said someone else.

"He may not be safe for long," said Zade. "The water's still rising. No telling how high it will go."

"It'll get US before it gets HIM, though," replied the first man.

"Or maybe not," said Zade. "After all, we ARE standing in the middle of a giant boat."

"Bah... this thing..."

"It's a wreck," said the waiter. "It can't sail..."

"I didn't see any holes-"

"The repairs are just decorative. No way this boat can float."

"Are you a sailor?" said Zade.

"No, but-"

"It might float for a ways," said another voice. This was an old, well dressed man with a neatly trimmed gray beard. He too well-dressed to be a storekeeper. "She ain't sea-worthy, but she might float for a while. Then again... maybe not."

"Who are you?" said Zade.

"Yith Goodsteed... I manage this place. The owners are too high and mighty to be bothered with it, so I keep it running. KEPT it running. It just a wreck again, now."

"A wreck that can get us out of here."

"We ain't going nowhere the way she is now," said Yith. "She's lashed to the support harness. We'd have to detached her... something that was never meant to happen."

"Show me."


Yith lead Zade to the stairs which lead out of the boat and down into the water some 40 feet below them. Instead of descending, Yith pointed out across the boat's hull.

"See?"

The Ark sat nestled in a wooden frame which was in turn lashed to a narrow platform. An impressive network of thick chains and giant ropes held everything together. The smallest rope was three feet in diameter.

"Those things just weren't meant to come lose," said Yith. "Ever. As long as we're attached, this boat ain't going nowhere... seaworthy or not."

Zade eyed the water with suspicion. It was higher than it had been a minute ago. The fact that it was higher was no surprise... but FIVE FEET higher?

"The water's rising faster," said Zade. "Something's happening." Zade grabbed hold of the frame and started climbing out along the ship's hull.

"Where are you going!" said Yith.

"I'm cutting us loose!"

"You can't-"

Zade didn't listen to the rest. The water was rising, and the Ark was her only hope of getting out of here. It may float, it may not... but unless she untied the ship, the Ark and its passengers wouldn't even get a chance. The Ark was secured to the sturdy frame in six places, three on each side. She needed to undo all six, and from the way the water was rising, she'd be doing the last one underwater. She reached the first. A huge rope looped around an equally huge eye-bolt and twisted into a monstrous knot that was bigger than Zade's entire body. She knew better than to waste time untying it. The rope was tight, and possibly treated or enchanted to withstand the elements... but her titanium knife cut through it without much trouble. Unfortunately the blade simply wasn't big enough to make a clean slice... she had to hack at it from several sides, taking almost a minute to free the first rope.

In that time, the water had risen another fifteen feet.

"Dammit, this isn't going to work," said Zade as she crawled to the next point. Not only was the water rising too quickly, but she detected the faint, but unmistakable sound of rushing water. It was far away, but it sounded bigger and more ominous than the last one. She reached the next rope and hacked at it until it broke free. The third one was on the other end of the ship. By the time she reached it the water would be lapping at her feet. By the time she cut it... it may be too late. And by the time she climbed around to the other side to free the final three ropes...

"Why couldn't I have been the fast one..." Zade whispered. "But then, maybe I don't need to be." Zade stroked the design on her right bracer, and her augmented crossbow appeared in her right hand. She had two of the razor sharp, titanium bolts left. Bracing herself against the Ark's support frame, she loaded a bolt and fired it at the huge rope at the ship's stern. The crossbow jerked in her hand as it hurled the projectile down the ship's flank at incredible speed. It struck the rope... and tore right through it, ripping a huge gash through the thick fibers. Zade fired another bolt to finish the job. The rope snapped under its own strain, freeing one half of the stranded ship. The Ark leaned suddenly to one side and slammed into the support frame. Zade barely managed to get out of the way. Her feet slipped on the wet wood, and Zade ended up hanging from the frame by one hand. She heard someone screaming... and then a splash.

"What the hell?" Zade looked around and saw the waiter vanishing beneath the rushing water.

"He was trying to undo the other side!" Yith shouted from the ship's open cargo door.

"Did he make it!?"

"NO!"

"Damn..."

"We're gonna have to close this door! The water's rising too fast... it'll flood the ship before you're done."

"Close it! I've gotta cut those other ropes!"

"How will you get back inside!"

"I won't! I'll lash myself to the deck! NOW CLOSE THE DOOR, THERE'S ANOTHER WAVE COMING!"

Yith and several others began hacking at the wooden stairs that were built into the side of the ship. They had to remove them before they could close the door. Zade was already pulling herself back up. The trek to the other side of the ship was long and tortuous... often she clung to the frame for several perilous seconds as the ship twisted and settled. Finally she reached the fourth rope. She started to cut it. The rope was stretched so tight that the thick fibers snapped almost as soon as the blade touched them. She sawed through it... suddenly there was a ripping sound. The rope broke free unexpectedly... it whipped away from her, carrying her blade with it. Now free, the ship's bow shifted violently. The vessel's mighty hull struck Zade on the side of her head-

BAM!

Everything went dark for an instant... a long instant. The last thing Zade remembered was falling. Precious seconds went by in darkness. When she regained consciousness, she had no sense of up or down... dizziness and nausea assaulted her mind as well as her stomach. There was surprisingly little pain... but parts of her body were numb. She DID feel the blood on the side of her face. She heard the ever-growing roar of rushing water. She felt her soaked clothes clinging to her body. And she felt the hard wood beneath her.

Wood?

She wasn't falling. She wasn't in the river. Zade rolled to her feet and squinted... it took another few seconds for her vision to clear. She was on the ship's deck. And she was alone.

"How..."

The water's roar drowned out her own voice. She couldn't even hear the screaming of the survivors in the ship's hold below her. All she heard was water.

Zade turned to look, and all sense of hope drained out of her. She could see it. The wall of water... bigger than the last one... over seventy feet from bottom to crest. It just reaching the town... destroying everything it touched. It was destruction incarnate. And it was coming for them.

Ignoring the mystery of how she got on the boat's deck, Zade raced to the edge and peered down at the two remaining ropes. But by now there was only one... the fifth rope was gone, and standing by the final one was the answer to Zade's appearance on the deck.

"THORNE!"

Thorne's golden helmet turned rotated to look up at her. She couldn't see the boy's face, but she knew he was in there somewhere. He held the final rope in his metal-clad hands.

"You should get inside!" Thorne called. The rushing water dwarfed even his explosive voice.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE!"

Thorne pointed. There was another boat tied loosely to the frame... a single dingy that was barely large enough to hold Thorne, let alone the Ark's load of survivors.

"I did what you said!" he yelled. "I left! I was gonna follow you... but-"

"THORNE GET UP HERE! YOU'LL BE KILLED!" Zade pointed at the approaching wall of water. Thorne looked.

"I have to free you!" he shouted up at her.

Thorne squeezed the rope in his mighty hands, and pulled it apart. The huge rope was meant to withstand untold tons of force, but it snapped in Thorne's vice-like grasp like a fine hair. Thorne held the two ends for a moment, as if surprised that he'd done it.

"COME ON!" Zade reached down for him. He was well out of her reach... she was at the top of the boat and he was at the bottom. But she stretched out her arm anyway. "Come ON, boy!" Thorne looked up at her, then turned towards the approaching wave.

"It isn't going to work!" He yelled. "The water is too high!" Thorne tried to squeeze his massive body underneath the boat.

"What are you DOING!"

"You have to get higher!"

At first, Zade had no idea what Thorne was saying, or what he was trying to do. Then it came to her... the realization hit her in the chest like a fist.

"THORNE, NO!!"

"It's the only way! Tie yourself down! I thought I saw some ropes up there!"

Zade spied a long rope that was used to hoist the ship's decorative sails. She grabbed it and tied it around her waist. The other end was already secured to a bolt on the floor. Zade ran for the edge of the bow... her own footsteps lost in the roaring wave. It was almost upon them. In just a few seconds they'd probably be dead... but she couldn't let Thorne do what he was trying.

"HOLD ON... I'm coming down there and GET you!"

Thorne's only reply was the sudden lurching of the boat to one side as it lifted free of the frame. The Ark leaned to one side, and then the other as it rose. The Ark weighed tons.... hundreds of tons... but Thorne lifted it as if it were small stone. Even at an odd angle, with almost no leverage, the small boy pulled the ship toward him and settled it onto his shoulders. He braced his feet against the frame... the ship rose slowly. Zade watched in awe... in that instant she knew that Thorne's armor was divine, for only the gods could turn the smallest, sickliest child she'd ever seen into something so immensely powerful. Thorne was like a god himself, or a hero of legend... doing the impossible as a watery doom bore down on them all.

"THORNE!"

"Strength of the heart, Zade!" the boy shouted as he pushed the ship over his head. "Strength of the heart!"

"NO!"

And then the ship was airborne. The movement was so sudden that it knocked Zade off of her feet. She hit the deck and held on as the boat shot upward and forward at an angle. Thorne had thrown it the way a child would throw a ball, and now the ship literally flew through the air. Zade peered down and saw the seventy-foot wave sweep across the frame and platform where the Ark once sat. Thorne was still standing there... a gleaming, golden, heroic figure looking up at the Ark. A boy who had done what no man could ever dream.

The wave hit, and he was gone. The structure on which he stood vanished. The boat he'd used to reach them... gone beneath the deadly surge. The huge poles that supported the Ark... smashed to splinters and sucked down into the raging waters. The child and everything near him simply ceased to exist.

"NOOOOOO!!"

The deadly wave passed harmlessly underneath the airborne Ark, and then gravity reclaimed the mighty vessel and pulled it back down.

SPLASH!

The Ark hit the water. It's hull buckled and groaned under the impact.

Zade was already overboard.

"THOORRNE!" she cried. She dove into the water and fought the incredible current trying to make her way back to him. She knew where he'd been standing... he HAD to be there somewhere. The water wouldn't have hurt him... the wave wouldn't have killed him. But the boy still had to BREATHE!

I'm coming, boy! Zade dipped under the surface and tried to search for him... but the water was too turbulent. She couldn't see one foot in front of her. Oh, gods, PLEASE let him be alive... he's just a child, dammit! Just a CHILD!

Surrounded by darkness and caught in a current that even her muscles couldn't overcome, Zade flailed wildly against the flood. She fought until she could hold her breath no longer... then she shot struggled to the surface to catch her breath. She dove again, fighting harder and stronger. She had to find the boy. She HAD to. How long could the boy hold his breath? How much air was left in that armor? Was he near the surface, or did the monstrous wave toss him to the murky depths?

He's still alive... he's still alive... he HAS to be...PLEASE!

And then she felt it. She could see nothing, but she FELT it... something brushing past her hand. Something hard. Like metal.

Zade grabbed it and held on with all her strength. She tried to pull it back to the Ark, but it was so heavy...

UNNGH!!! Dammit, you can't FLOAT in that armor, boy! Take it OFF! She couldn't swim. She couldn't float. The boy was too heavy. Even though the current was in her favor... even they were moving the right direction, the weight was simply too much. They were sinking quickly. She summoned every scrap of strength she had, but it wasn't enough. It was all she could do just to hold on. She tried to find MORE strength from somewhere, ANYWHERE in her soul... ANYTHING to save the child.

The rope around her waist drew tight. Zade had almost forgotten about it... she'd sank as far as the rope would allow her, and now the two of them would remain there until the air ran out. Then she would die... then she would let go of Thorne, and he would die as well.

Dammit, take off the ARMOR!

Zade knew he wouldn't do it. Without it he was too weak to even stand; swimming would be all but impossible. But Zade couldn't hold her breath forever. She'd never reach the surface as long as she was holding Thorne... but if she let him go... if she let the child die, then wouldn't be worthy of taking another breath. It wasn't going to happen.

Still blind in the murky water, Zade felt around and got a grip on the rope with one hand. She pulled herself up, then bit down on the rope, using her teeth to hold herself in place while she reached up to grab a higher spot. She did it again. And again. The effort was tremendous, and she was running out of air. She had to breathe RIGHT NOW, but the desperation only made her pull harder. With one hand on Thorne and the other on the rope, she climbed. The rope twisted sharply and nearly slipped out of her grasp... Zade cursed her failing strength... then realized that the rope was MOVING. Something on the other end was pulling her up!

She held on. She held on because she HAD to... because the only two thoughts in her mind were HOLD ON and KEEP HOLDING ON. The rope pulled her steadily upward.

She reached the surface a few seconds after she thought she should have been dead.

She gasped for breath... one breath. That was all she could spare. She twisted around and saw the boat was nearby. The rope pulled her toward it, and she grabbed one of the many the hand-holds on the hull. She looked up... the survivors were all on the deck. The men, and some of the women, were pulling the rope that had brought her to the surface. They all shouted at her... they shouted and pointed and screamed and yelled... Zade didn't even try to understand what they were saying. She had to get the boy to safety. She fixed her eyes on her destination... the deck... and climbed. She pulled Thorne's incredible weight with her as she conquered the distance between them and the others.

The others still shouted and pointed. Some reached for her when she got close. Someone grabbed her arm. He pulled. Zade pulled harder... with one mighty effort she fell halfway onto the deck. She turned onto her back and braced herself... then hauled Thorne up after her.

Then she realized what the others were shouting at. Then she saw what she couldn't see in the water... what she didn't TRY to see once she'd reached the surface. The impossible weight she'd pulled to the surface... wasn't Thorne.

It was a tree.

---

The agonizingly slow minutes ticked past with nothing to show for it. December hadn't moved or said a word since he'd sat down after creating the first ice-gem. Theesa stood by him and waited. She waited for more magic... for another gem to appear... for December to open his eyes and say that he couldn't do it... for ANYTHING.

She got nothing.

Nothing except December's slow breathing, and the lap of the waves against their raft. The floating ice platform was holding up well. The edges were beginning to melt, but Theesa suspected that, even though she couldn't feel it due to the gem she wore around her neck, there was enough cold pouring off of December to keep the raft intact indefinitely.

Theesa noticed that he water was rising. The Golden Eagle Inn was too far away to see now, but the last time she DID see it, the water was almost to its roof. It was probably submerged entirely by now. They passed other buildings. Sometimes Theesa swore she could hear people shouting at them as the floated past. Or screaming. Or both. But she didn't dare interrupt December to point them out. Besides, it may well have been her imagination.

The waterlogged human corpse that floated by them wasn't her imagination. Theesa turned away from it as soon as she recognized what it was. The young man was already dead. There was nothing they could.

Not long after that, Theesa heard something in the distance. It wasn't a voice. It was the distant roar of water. Another wave. She couldn't see it yet, but it was getting very loud, very fast. Theesa's heart raced, and an uncomfortable lump rose in her throat. December had been right... another flood was coming.

And December hadn't moved or spoken in at least a half an hour.

The sound got louder.

"D-December?" she said timidly.

"Shhhh..."

"Sorry."

Theesa remained silent and watched. And listened. Her stomach churned and she grew cold... not from the temperature of the ice-raft, but from fear.

Then there was light. At first, Theesa though that something had exploded or caught on fire... but the sudden blast of light was so brilliantly pure that it couldn't possibly have been caused by something as ordinary as fire. Quite the opposite... it was December.

The man seemed to be holding a miniature sun in his hands... a sphere of light four inches in diameter rotated slowly between his outstretched fingers. December moved his hands apart slowly as the ball of light grew larger... six inches... eight...

The sound of water snatched Theesa's attention away. It was close. She could see it now... a wall of water seventy feet above the surface of the already flooded river. How could a thing so large move so fast?

Then the light dimmed. It still grew larger, but now it energy went into a solid form that began to take shape. A gem. A MASSIVE gem... larger than the hands that held it. Larger than December's head. It kept growing...

Theesa couldn't breathe. Fear gripped her chest so tightly that she couldn't draw a single breath. She knelt beside December and looked up at the surge of death that roared toward them.

"Help me to stand," said December. He opened his eyes. There was a weakness and fatigue in them that Theesa had never seen before. It frightened her even more. Theesa helped December to his feet, then helped him lift the ice-gem that he'd created. It was larger than his chest, but surprisingly light.

The raft began to dip and spin violently as the wave grew closer. Theesa and December held on to each other to keep their balance.

"Faction's staff," he said. "We will need it... unless you prefer being trapped inside a block of ice."

Without questioning, Theesa activated the staff. She had to hold it away from December in order to keep the flaming weapon lit.

"Hold on to me as tightly as you can. If we become separated-"

"We won't."

Theesa looked down at the gem. She wondered what would happen when he used it. They began walking toward the edge of the raft. The shift in weight caused the platform to dip further... water began rushing over it... it started to capsize...

A shadow fell over them. The sound of the wave drowned out everything. December's next words may as well have been silent whispers. Theesa couldn't hear them... she had no idea what he said, but she responded nonetheless.

"I love you, too."

Then, an instant before the giant wave hit, December stepped off of the platform. At the same time, he crushed the giant ice gem with his hands...

---

"NOO! THORNE!"

The very concept was so grotesque that it would have been funny had it not been real. Zade had latched onto an uprooted tree in the watery darkness, and had hauled it all the way up onto the deck with her thinking that it was the child. But it wasn't. It wasn't Thorne. Thorne... the boy who'd saved them all... was still down there. Zade looked at the tree... and she felt the jagged emptiness in her soul rip wide open.

With a surprising burst of strength, Zade leapt to her feet.

"Somebody grab her!" Yith shouted. Seven people converged on her and tried to hold her back. Zade plowed through them as if they weren't there. She ran for the railing... determined to jump into the water and try again... and again... and AGAIN if she had to.

"GRAB HER!"

More people surrounded her. Fifteen. Twenty. It took that many to stop her suicidal charge. Someone tripped her up and she fell.

"Don't kill yerself!" a voice shouted at her. "He's DEAD! The man is DEAD!"

"Nobody coulda survived that!"

"NO! You don't understand! He's just a BOY!"

"He's dead! He never had a chance!"

"He gave US a chance!" Zade cried. "I HAVE TO SAVE HIM!" Zade started to get up. With no less than eight people pressing their full weight down upon her, she started to rise. More people piled on to hold her down.

"Ye can't do it! He's GONE! GONE!"

"He's just a child! He's... gone... " A brutal numbness spread over Zade's soul as the truth sank in. She went limp... both body and mind yielded to the horror of what had just happened. "I... couldn't save him..."

"Ye tried, lass.... Dear gods, ye tried. I've never seen anythin like that."

"I couldn't do it. He saved us all... and I couldn't even save one child..."

"Give 'er some room, gents."

The crowd backed away.

"He's dead... I killed him."

"No ye didn't, lass. Ye tried to save him."

"I should have tried harder. I should have tried earlier... I never should have left him.... and now..."

"She'll be fine," someone said.

The others quickly got to work securing the Ark. The ship was taking on water through a crack in the hull, but the leak wasn't fast enough to be an immediate danger. In an hour or two they'd probably all drown, but for now... they were safe. And there was dry land close by.

"Somebody hoist that sail!" Yith commanded. "We gotta reach Brinks' mountain before we SINK!"

"It's just a decorative sail-"

"I don't care if it's a TABLECLOTH! HOIST the damn thing anyway!"

"The entire city's gone," someone else lamented. "Everything... everything's gone."

"It's okay... they rebuilt it once..."

"...all the people... dead."

"Half of 'em deserved it, I think."

"And the other half?"

Zade ignored the talk. She sat on the deck, her back leaning against the mast. She could have helped the others try and steer the ship, but she lacked the strength. Her body wasn't tired... but her heart felt wounded and raw. It was all she could to so simply sit there and breathe. And think. She kept seeing Thorne's face... without the armor. The boy. She heard him. She saw him lifting the ship and tossing it to safety. And she saw him vanishing beneath the wave that would have claimed them all if it weren't for him. A child. A child had done that.

The least she could have done was save his life in return. But she couldn't even manage THAT. Now he was dead. Drowned in the very armor that made him unstoppable. Unstoppable, yes... but not a hero. He was a hero even without the magic... if he hadn't been, he never would have been able to put the armor on in the first place. It was the boy's heart that lifted the ship. The boy's heart saved them. Zade had no doubt that the child had sacrificed himself. If he was smart enough to know that the wave would have taken them if he didn't toss the ship... then he was smart enough to know what that meant for HIM. He knew he wasn't going to make it. And he saved them anyway. The very concept made Zade sick with guilt and anguish. It hurt like a physical wound.

Zade lowered her face and turned away from the others. Maybe they would reach land. Maybe the boat would sink. Zade didn't care. With December gone, it was probably best if she sank beneath the waves anyway. It was more than she deserved. She remained there for the next few minutes... not even noticing as the Ark began to turn toward Brink's stronghold. She didn't see the debris as it floated past. She didn't hear the people who tried to talk to her.

Eventually they stopped trying.

What she DID hear, however, was the frantic call from someone at the bow of the ship:

"GREAT GODS ALMIGHTY! HARD TO STARBOARD! HARD TO STARBOARD! THERE'S AN ICEBERG OFF THE PORT BOW!!!"

[To Be Continued]