Damien hovered above the mast of Velco’s ship, the tension in the air almost visible. He wanted to shout at them to sail away, but it wouldn’t do any good. This was what they wanted.

The Leviathan swam right below them. Damien sensed rather than saw the dragon speed toward the surface.

A second later it burst from the water, jaws agape, the whole whale as well as the skiff and sailors caught between teeth so long they resembled ships’ masts. Two men leapt clear before those jaws snapped shut. Pieces of the less fortunate men fell to the water behind them.

Black lightning shot from the three urns. The corrupt power surrounded the Leviathan. It hovered half in the air and half underwater.

Corrupt lightning sparked off emerald scales. Everywhere the blasts hit a tiny spot of darkness appeared for a second before vanishing.

A pained scream caught Damien’s attention. Dragging his gaze away from the dragon he spotted Salem on her knees in the front of Velco’s ship.

He studied the flows of dark energy. All the corruption was focused on Salem. David and her sister were sending their overflow through the connection between the urns. It was killing Salem.

The Leviathan roared. Jade soul force pulsed from its body.

The black lost its coherence, the energy fading away to nothing. On the ships all three sorcerers collapsed. Their urns rolled around the decks of their respective vessels.

Damien turned back and found himself staring into a yellow eye, the vertical, black pupil as long as the whalers’ harpoons.

Damien knew there were no gods. He’d learned the stories as a child. The two true gods had died at the dawn of the universe and given birth to the races of angels, demons, and dragons. When he stared into the eye of the Leviathan he had no trouble believing this creature to be divine in origin. It radiated power so intense it made the ice dragon Damien had fought seem like a rock lizard.

Was this how normal people felt when they encountered a sorcerer? No. Regular people couldn’t sense Damien’s power the way he did the dragon’s.

Its gaze held no malice or anger. It also held no pity or remorse. The sailors’ tales, describing the dragon as a force of nature, were absolutely correct. This magnificent creature would destroy them all or swim away as its whim decided. Nothing a being as insignificant as a human could do would influence it.

A dull thud broke the connection between dragon and human. Damien looked down to see a ballista bolt falling into the ocean. On the deck Velco and a pair of sailors worked frantically to reload the weapon. What could they possibly imagine that would accomplish?

He dove for the ship, pushing with every drop of power he had. If Velco wanted to die out here he was welcome to, but Damien wouldn’t let the captain take Salem down too.

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Damien sent twin beams of golden energy streaking toward the deck.

Above him the Leviathan plunged toward the ship. Heaven’s mercy, this was going to be close.

Damien formed a bubble around Salem and another around the urn. He pulled them both off the deck and towards him.

They had barely cleared the ship when the dragon’s head struck.

The Longshot exploded. Splinters of wood went everywhere. Damien circled around. He wouldn’t try and fight the dragon, there wasn’t any point. He couldn’t help the surviving sailors with the dragon still circling the intact ships, but he wanted to collect the other two urns. Those artifacts were too powerful to take a chance on someone else finding them.

He flew to Maishi’s ship first. Salem’s sister lay groaning on the deck, struggling to climb to her feet. Damien grabbed the urn with another energy beam and pulled it into the same bubble as the first.

“Maishi!” he shouted.

She looked up.

Behind them the Leviathan rose from the depths again, a whole ship in its massive jaws. It bit down, crushing the ship without a sorcerer to pieces. Bodies and debris fell like overripe fruit into the water.

“Your sister’s okay. We need to go.”

“David!” Maishi flew away, ignoring both him and her sister.

Damien raced after her, intent on claiming the last urn. He hadn’t flown far when the crash of the Leviathan smashing the ship they’d just left to splinters behind them filled the air. Damien grimaced and put on more speed. It wouldn’t take the dragon long to swing around and sink the final ship.

Maishi reached the last ship a second ahead of him. David was stumbling around like a drunk after the urn as it rolled around on the deck. There was no sign of the crew. Damien suspected they’d had the good sense to jump overboard. Not like that would save them if the dragon decided it wanted them dead.

Damien sent a beam after the urn. Golden hands appeared and tried to wrestle it away from him. David leaned against Maishi, a snarl of concentration twisting his face.

They didn’t have time to play around. The dragon’s power was rising fast.

Maishi must have sensed it as well. She yanked on David’s arm, trying to get him to leave. The idiot wouldn’t budge.

Damien sent a blast of energy that smashed David’s construct to bits. The urn flew towards Damien and joined the other two in his bubble. Damien flew east while the other two sorcerers flew west an instant before the Leviathan rose from the ocean and claimed the final ship.

With its work done the dragon dove deep and swam away like nothing had happened. Debris littered the surface of the ocean. David and Maishi floated above the water, staring at him. Rather David stared at him, hate burning in his eyes. Maishi was looking at her sister. Salem was sitting up in his bubble, but she still looked pretty woozy.

Damien turned her bubble into a platform. “Can you fly on your own?”

Salem tried to stand, wobbled and settled back down. “Not yet. Maishi.” She held out a hand to her sister.

Maishi started toward Salem, but David grabbed her arm and dragged her back. “Forget her. We need to reclaim the urns.”

“But my sister—”

“I said forget her! She’s too weak to be of any use. Let the boy waste his power protecting her. It’ll make our attacks that much more successful.”

The two sorcerers didn’t concern Damien. Their fight with the dragon had taken a lot out of them. If they were stupid enough to attack he’d kill them both. He really hoped they didn’t. The last thing Damien wanted was to kill Salem’s sister in front of her.

“We should go,” Maishi said. “I don’t have much power left and neither do you.”

“If we go to my master without the urns he’ll kill us.” David’s power gathered as he prepared to attack.

Damien struck first with a raw blast of power that obliterated David’s shield and sent him tumbling through the sky. Steam rose from his body when he finally got himself under control. His face twisted into an ugly snarl.

“Let’s go. I’ll see you again, boy.” David flew east toward the kingdom. With a final look at her sister, Maishi followed.

“Maishi!” Salem shouted after her fleeing sister, her voice empty and forlorn.