The ship began to rise with another wave. It wasn't tall enough to swamp a ship, but it was more than enough to drown Agata.

If I didn't get ahold of her this time, she'd be swept away.

The wave began lifting the bow, pulling Agata away.

I swam to reach her and got my arm around her chest, pulling her close to keep her head above water. Another wave came, but instead of pulling us under, it carried us further from the ship. I was a strong swimmer, but between the waves and our soaked clothes, it was all I could do to keep us from going under.

Agata had been underwater for less than a minute, but she was unconscious. Conscious, she would have held her breath. Unconscious, and with the water churning, her lungs could have filled with water.

The backside of the wave pushed us both under, tugging at me, pulling me.

Not under, but toward the ship.

Jash, Talon, and Kesyn were reeling us in.

They hauled us over the side, where we landed in a sodden heap.

I coughed and sputtered.

Agata rolled over and threw up the seawater she'd swallowed.

On Kesyn's boots.

I continued to suck air into my lungs as I managed to raise my head.

Anything that could've broken loose had. Lines, rigging, and sails covered the deck as Phaelan shouted orders and the crew scrambled to comply. Amazingly, the masts were still intact. What sails hadn't been lowered before the magic-spawned storm hit had been torn, many hanging in tatters.

Agata weakly raised her head and tried to speak.

"Breathe now," I told her. "Talk later."

Agata and Talon had successfully counteracted who or whatever had activated the Heart of Nidaar.

We all were definitely going to have a talk about that.

Chapter 40.

"I don't know," Talon said for the third time. "I know I'm not a weather wizard, and I don't know why or how the storm went away at the same time the earthquake stopped. I know I've done some unexplainable things in the past, but this time I was only there for the assist. You'll have to ask sleeping beauty over there when she wakes up."

And I fully intended to. Not that I had any problem with what Agata had done. If it hadn't been for her, with Talon's backup, none of us would be alive right now. It appeared to me that Agata Azul had turned aside the power of the Heart of Nidaar. What I had witnessed wasn't a simple deflection, not that magic of that magnitude could ever be called simple. Agata had recognized precisely what was being done, and had used her skill and power along with Talon's strength to make it stop.

Was the attack on us the Cha'Nidaar defending their land from potential invaders, or was the Heart of Nidaar once again in the hands of Khrynsani dark mages? We didn't know. Yet. We would be going inland, finding the city and the stone, and determining the situation we had on our hands. If Agata Azul could somehow manipulate or counteract the effects of the Heart of Nidaar, I needed to know how she had done it-and could she do it again if our team came under attack.

My head was still throbbing, and that Talon was as much at a loss as I was as to how he and Agata had stopped an earthquake and a deadly storm wasn't making it any better.

I massaged my temples. It hurt, so I stopped.

Miraculously, the Kraken hadn't sunk. I wondered if Agata and Talon had had a hand in that as well. I squeezed my eyes shut at another stab of pain. One new unexplained and inexplicable talent at a time.

We'd brought Agata into the captain's cabin. Our cabin had windows, hers did not. She and Talon both needed fresh air. A second cot had been brought in for Talon. Both he and Agata were propped up on pillows and bundled in blankets.

The ship's doctor had checked Talon and Agata out and deemed them alive and very likely to remain that way. There was still the concern of pneumonia from all the seawater Agata had taken into her lungs, but we were doing what we could about that-keep her warm and dry, and watch her closely for the next day or two.

The other two ships had sustained only slightly less damage than the Kraken. We were all afloat, but none of us would be leaving Aquas anytime soon. We were moored in the harbor and repairs-to both crew and ships-were underway.

Phaelan had been leading the way into the harbor, and the Kraken had borne the brunt of the storm's fury. The Raven and Sea Wolf had been caught on the periphery, and they had witnessed what had happened to the Kraken. They had seen us go under and the waves calm as quickly as they'd arisen.

Kesyn came in and closed the cabin door quietly behind him. "How is she?"

"Same as before," I said.

Kesyn brought a chair next to Agata's cot and sat down. "Don't let that she hasn't woken up yet worry you. Aggie did some heavy lifting; she'll need to sleep it off. And when she does, you'll get the answers to your questions."

"Am I that obvious?"

"You're about to pace a rut in the deck."

A sigh came from beneath Agata's blankets. "And what questions would those be?"

Kesyn smiled. "Hey, Aggie girl. How do you feel?"

"How do I look?" she asked flatly.

"You've looked better."

"Then I feel worse." She struggled to sit up.

"Aggie, you shouldn't-"

She silenced Kesyn with a glare and fluffed her pillows at her back, though it was more of a punch than a fluff.

I held back a smile. The doctor was right. Agata Azul was going to be just fine.

"What's happened since I've been out?" she asked us.

We told her.

When we'd finished, Agata turned to Talon with a crooked grin. "We do good work."

Talon met her grin and raised his mug of hot tea in salute. "We're a fine team."

She turned to me. "Thank you all-and Jash-for saving my life."

I inclined my head. "Thank you-and Talon-for saving all of us. We've determined, more or less, that the storm was Khrynsani or Sythsaurian weather magic. How did you stop it?"

"We didn't," Agata replied.

"It dissipated at the same time as the wave."

"It was no doing of mine."

"Told you so," Talon chimed in.

"Was that earthquake caused by the Heart of Nidaar?" I asked.

"It was," Agata replied.

"Do you know who activated the stone?"

"I didn't sense any malevolent intent behind the power, or intent of any kind," she said.

Kesyn leaned forward, elbows resting on his knees. "I've never heard of a stone of power acting alone."

I frowned. "They don't."

"I didn't say it had," Agata said. "I said I didn't sense anyone at the controls. They could have warded themselves against detection, or the power of the Heart could have blocked their presence." She smiled weakly. "It was a massive amount of power. Knowing who activated it would be like trying to see an ant on the ground behind an avalanche."

"It could be the Cha'Nidaar themselves," I said. "They've had goblins land on their shores before. Perhaps this time they took decisive action before we got any closer. To tell you the truth, knowing what's at stake, I almost don't blame them. When the Khrynsani used the Heart, they laid waste to hundreds of miles of coastline. This time, the Cha'Nidaar's land wasn't affected, only the sea beneath our ships."

"It stands to reason that they'd have better aim with their own stone than the Khrynsani," Talon noted.

Kesyn leaned back in his chair. "Well, whoever it was that had their hands on that rock, they didn't count on the two of you."

"Whoever summoned that storm or activated the Heart knew exactly where we were," I told them all. "We're being tracked."

Agata's hand went to the pendant with its piece of the Heart. "I need this to find Nidaar and the Heart, and to do that it can't be warded."

"I know."

Agata gave me a tired, little smile. "Well, Tam, that leaves us with no alternative but to work with the circumstances we are given."

"You called me Tam."

Agata snuggled down into her blankets. "And now I'm telling you I need some more sleep." Her voice was soft and drowsy. "We've got a long trip ahead of us."

There was a quiet knock at the door. It opened and Phaelan stuck his head around the corner. "I came to check on our dynamic duo," he whispered.

Talon sat up and flashed a grin, likewise keeping his voice down. "I'm alive, Agata's been awake and talking, and unless we get an ocean dumped on us again, we're both likely to stay that way."

The elf pirate gave Talon a double thumbs-up. "Badass work."

Talon flashed a grin. "Thank you. We were just both too pretty to die on this ship."

Phaelan snorted a laugh. "At least that's true for one of you. Convey my regards to the lady."

"You're welcome," Agata mumbled from under her blankets. "You men chatter worse than a flock of magpies. What does a woman have to do to get any sleep around here?"

We had survived.

I had no way of knowing if whoever had unleashed the power of the Heart of Nidaar on us knew this. As long as we remained in one place, they might assume we were dead or beyond any chance of continuing our search. I also didn't know if they would dispatch a search team to ensure that if we were alive, that it wouldn't be for long. For now, we had warded Agata's pendant and my ring. She needed the rest, and we didn't need that rest interrupted. We had been moored in the harbor for a day. The team would leave tonight to go inland.

Speed was critical, especially now that the element of surprise was no longer ours.

We'd be taking the three sentry dragons with us. With the probability of the Heart of Nidaar being in the hands of an enemy, whoever that might be, it was imperative that we reach Nidaar as quickly as possible. Agata was up and walking, but despite her protestations to the contrary, she wasn't up to a four-day trek through desert and rocky terrain.

The crews could protect themselves against mundane threats. If mages like those who had conjured the ghost ships and those waves struck while we were gone...

We had no choice. I had no choice.

The only way any of us would survive would be to get to Nidaar and secure the Heart at any cost. It would cost us; of that I was certain.

The plan had been for Kesyn and Talon to wait with the ships for our return from Nidaar.

The plan also had me checking in with Regor and the Isle of Mid before we left to go inland.

Both plans had been sunk as thoroughly as the Kraken nearly had been.

All three of the crystal balls used for communication had been either cracked or shattered outright as a result of the storm and the waves. All three being destroyed could either be incredibly bad luck, or they could have been specific targets taken out while we had all been distracted by trying to stay alive. Regardless, contacting anyone for help was beyond our ability, at least for now. None of the ship's telepaths had ever communicated to the other side of the world, which was exactly where we were. They were working on consolidating their powers to magnify the signal and possibly reach Regor that way.

Agata Azul had counteracted the earthquake and subsequent giant wave caused by the Heart of Nidaar with only her skill and the connection to the Heart through the pendant she wore around her neck.

Talon had summoned a vast amount of strength and had loaned it to Agata. Together they had battled and subdued a force of nature.

We might need that power again to reach Nidaar alive.

Any of us who weren't actively engaged in ship repair were on the rocky beach and out of the way.

Talon was standing next to me.

"The plan was to leave you here with the ships until we returned," I told him.

"I take it that plan has changed?"

"It has, but I need something from you first."

"My assurance that I'll behave myself and follow orders?"