“What’s stopping it?” Mordred asked.
“The ichthyocentaurs are essentially water elementals,” Viv said. “They’re keeping it all together, but there’s only so much they can do. A third of this ship is going to come apart, and then the rest will go down too. There’s nothing any of us can do to stop it.”
The ship listed again, and I wrapped myself in a shield of air as I was thrown across the deck into the outside wall of a medical room. The ship almost immediately listed back, and I dropped to my knees.
“How long do the ichthyocentaurs have before they can’t do any more?”
“They’re fighting the sirens and doing this,” Viv said. “You have a few minutes at most.”
“Mordred, Isis, get back to Tarron. We need to—” I was interrupted by the bow of the ship lifting high into the air.
I wrapped myself in magical air, anchoring me to the metal posts that were nearby as Isis and Mordred did the same. I dared to look back at the stern, the rear of which was now under water. The groaning increased from the pressure it applied on the fractures that had already been caused.
“We need to go,” I shouted over the noise of the ship ripping itself apart.
Viv, who had vanished into water the second the bow had lifted, reappeared next to me. “Everyone is gone. Tarron is waiting on you three.”
“Tell him to go,” Mordred shouted. “We’ll figure something out.”
“You will die here,” Viv said. “The ship will drag you underwater, and there’s no escaping that in time. Not with the cold too. You’re not elementals; you can’t breathe underwater. Even Mordred, with his power to breathe anywhere, can’t keep that up forever.”
The ship was almost completely vertical when it snapped in two, the bow dropping back to the ocean with a huge crash that I felt through my entire body. Followed quickly by enough water to drench everything, even as high up as we were.
“Run,” I shouted as the remains of the ship began to list to the side. It wouldn’t be long before we were in the ocean.
No one needed to be told twice, and I saw dozens of ichthyocentaurs in the sea, firing jets of water at the side of the ship, trying to keep it upright for long enough to let us escape.
“Get the ichthyocentaurs out of here,” I said to Viv as we reached the ballroom.
“You took long enough,” Tarron said, getting back to his feet. He’d used two daggers to drive into the wood just outside the realm gate he’d made, giving himself something to hold on to while the ship destroyed itself.
“You coming?” Isis asked Viv.
“I’ll see you all soon enough,” she said. “I’m going to help the ichthyocentaurs finish this fight.”
“Take care,” I said as we all stepped into the realm gate and appeared in the realm of Shadow Falls a moment later.
“I do not wish to do that again,” Tarron said.
“This realm gate pays for itself,” Mordred said, hugging Tarron. “Have I ever told you how awesome you are?”
“I bet you say that to all the people who save your life,” Tarron said with a small smile.
Mordred chuckled. “And you know what, my friend? It’s always true.”
The guards all around the cave that we found ourselves in looked more than a little shaken by what they’d seen. The elven realm gate was usually pretty quiet. They all bowed to Mordred, who sighed. I wasn’t sure he was ever going to get used to that part of being king.
“Anyone want to tell us where all those people went?” I asked.
One of the guards pointed down toward the exit with his spear.
“You think Viv is okay?” Isis asked.
“She’s one of the most powerful water elementals I’ve ever met,” Mordred said. “She’ll be fine.”
I left the realm gate cavern with Mordred while Tarron set about deactivating the gate. It was unlikely that anyone was going to use a realm gate that was soon going to be on the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean, but better safe than sorry.
Outside the cavern, high above the city of Solomon in Shadow Falls, Isis, Mordred, and I stood in silence as we waited for one of the lifts to arrive to take us to the bottom of the mountain range that we were on.
“Did we at least learn anything of use?” Mordred asked.
I nodded. “We need to go see your council,” I said to Mordred.
The lift arrived with Persephone and my mother, Brynhildr, on it.
“I was worried,” Brynhildr said to me as we got onto the large lift and Persephone operated it, making it slowly move back down the mountain.
“It wasn’t the most fun ever,” I admitted. “We have news, though. Poseidon was there.”
Persephone appeared shocked at the news. “Honestly, I thought he’d died centuries ago.”
“He’s dead now, if that helps,” Mordred said.
I told them both what had happened on the ship. I was probably going to have to repeat the information half a dozen times before I was done, but I had a lot of pent-up frustration and wanted to vent.
When I’d finished, Brynhildr and Persephone shared an expression of resignation.
“I don’t think the president is going to be a big problem,” my mum said.
“Why?” Isis asked.
“Twelve hours ago, we got information that Gawain was on a civilian flight into the United States,” Persephone said. “He landed in DC and went straight to the White House.”
“We had a chat,” I said. “Not sure how he got into this realm, though. Where did he fly from?”
“Egypt,” my mum said.
“How the hell did he get to Egypt?” Mordred asked.
“We’re looking into it,” Persephone said. “But two hours ago, our allies in the American government arrested those senators and congresspeople who were helping Arthur. They went to the White House to arrest everyone there, including Gawain, and were met with resistance. The White House is in lockdown, but we’ve scrambled all communications entering and leaving.”
“You can just go and arrest the president?” I asked. “Because that seems like something that takes a lot of time and effort.”
“The president, no,” Persephone said. “The people who work for him are somewhat easier. Besides, these are strange times.”
“What’s their endgame?” Mordred asked. “They said Gawain had to wait until midnight before the law could be signed. Why?”
“We need to go ask him,” I said.
“My father would have a plan for such a contingency,” Mordred said. “I would assume there’s a realm gate inside the White House, but then why would Gawain fly in? No, it can’t be that.”
“Do they have access to launch codes?” Isis asked.
My mum nodded. “Yes, but we’ve been slowly taking control of all missile launch sites for the last year. Despite what Poseidon said, we’ve made sure that the military is clean of Avalon influence.”
“Who do they answer to?” I asked.
“The vice president,” Persephone said. “As strange as this sounds, she had no involvement with Arthur. She’s been feeding us intel on her boss for the last year.”