“Let’s hurry,” Dexter said. “While they’re busy, over the side and fix what we can.”
Rosh nodded and let Dexter slide down a rope first. When he landed beside the Captain, Dexter was surprised to see Willa clinging to his back with one arm wrapped around his neck.
“What’s this?” Dexter asked. “Not safe for you down here, especially if you can’t get back up quick-like.”
“Cap, we can use her,” Rosh interrupted. “You should see some of the things she done. Er, well, she told me how to do ‘em, but still, you ought to see them.”
Dexter frowned, then nodded towards one of the struts that had been damaged in the landing. It broke off by the rock wall that surrounded the ruins, causing the Voidhawk to list. Chance favored them; a pile of rubble that had once been a fountain served to hold up the battered strut.
Willa moved to it, seeming to ignore everything else. She ran her hand over the wood and frowned, as though something about it caused her to be uncomfortable. “It doesn’t work,” she muttered. “It’s broken.”
Dexter looked to Rosh and rolled his eyes dramatically. He kept glancing around to the ruins as well, expecting the worst at any moment. They could hear the fighting, but it had moved a little further away. That, or the number of combatants had been reduced significantly.
“It needs a lot of work to fix it,” Willa said, turning to look at Rosh and then Dexter. “Something else needs to hold the ship up.”
“We got no dry dock to set up in,” Dexter pointed out. “And we can’t land on flat ground like this. I’m thinking that we just fasten some extra boards to make a temporary strut for when we get back to the army. From there were we can spend the time to fix it proper.”
“It won’t hold,” Willa said, shaking her head and looking at it. She glanced at Dexter and blushed. “Sorry, Sir, but I just know it won’t.”
“Cap, believe her, she’s got a way with this,” Rosh encouraged.
Dexter glanced up at the ship wondering what sort of a spectacle they were making. He saw Logan and Kragor staring down at them, with the priest oblivious to the ghostly dwarf that stood beside him. Kragor stared past Dexter at the strut and shook his head, then turned and walked away.
“Alright, how do we fix it?” Dexter asked, still thinking he was crazy to put his faith in the vision of his dead friend.
“Captain!”
Dexter looked up, alarmed by Bekka’s harsh cry. It had only been a few hours since she had been injured in the crash, he wondered what could have roused her from her private misery.
“There’s something wrong here!” She said urgently. “I can feel it… something… evil.”
Xander appeared next at the edge of the ship. Dexter looked from her, seeing the concern on her face overpowering the migraine of a headache she surely had. “Wizard?” Dexter asked, his voice curt.
Xander gaped for a moment then closed his eyes and breathed deeply. He incanted a spell and opened his eyes to show only the whites of them. He blinked again a moment later, restoring them to normal.
“There’s a powerful magic rising in the ruins. It is ancient, but whether it is good or evil I do not know,” he said. He nodded to himself. “Yes…yes, it is elemental. Nothing foul about the magic itself.”
“I do know,” Bekka said, her face pale. “It is wicked and fey, Captain. We must hurry!”
“How long?” Dexter asked, thinking of the air spirits above them that had nearly ended their lives. Perhaps they were not evil, but as far as he was concerned, they were about as vile as vile could be.
“Not long…I think. Less than an hour.”
Dexter cursed and looked back to Rosh and Willa.
Willa shook her head. “It will take time and some fix this, Sir. Hours, at least.”
“We could fix it up there, Dex,” Rosh said, gesturing up towards the sky. “I’m meaning way up.”
Dexter nodded, he had thought of that. It had dangers of its own, of course: hull repairs in the void. Lose your grip on the hull and there would be some time spent floating through the void thinking about what you should have done instead of what you had done. That, and the trip back down would take a day or more, what with the world’s spin and the trouble with reentry.
“Anything you can do to protect us?” Dexter asked the wizard and the sorceress.
“It’s pure elemental magic-“ Xander began, spouting his disagreement.
“No,” Bekka stopped him. “I mean yes, perhaps, but look beyond it. The magic you speak of guards this place. What I speak of is deeper, hidden inside. It is what they seek and it is anxious to be released.”
“Xander?”
The wizard looked again, closing his eyes as he let his wizard’s eye study the lines of magic. He opened them after a long moment. “There is…something. I have trouble making it out, but yes, there’s something beyond the lines and wards.”
“You’ve got fifteen minutes,” Dexter said, turning to Rosh and Willa. “We leave then, whether you’re on the ship or not!”
Rosh looked to Willa, who turned to him as well, and then they both focused their attention back to the strut and stared at it for several long seconds. Then Willa started talking and Rosh listened intently. He turned and ran to the side of the Voidhawk, leaping and grabbing a rope to scale up it arm over arm. On the deck he slapped Logan in the shoulder. “Come on,” he demanded, leading the surprised priest below deck.
Dexter kept a wary eye and ear on the ruins. The sounds of battle had all but ended when he heard a great rumbling that translated even to the dirt and rocks around them. He heard Bekka, distantly, mumble, “earth.”
He glanced at her and saw she was staring distantly again. Before Rosh and Logan returned he heard a roaring sound that he had trouble properly identifying. “Fire,” Bekka whispered from above.
“Here!” Rosh cried out, gasping for breath. He tossed several boards over the side, dropping the planks and even an old remnant from a broken mast replacement. Logan carried, and tossed overboard, several coils of thick rope.
Rosh slid down the rope, grimacing as it burned his hand. He let go and dropped the final few feet to the ground, then ran over to join Willa, who was already trying to drag the supplies over one handed. Dexter helped them, but kept glancing towards the ruined temple.
“Water,” he heard Bekka say softly over the din of their scrambling repairs.
He glanced up, wondering what was happening. He wondered if any of them could survive the magical defenses. And worse, he was afraid of what might happen if they did survive them.
He heard a gasp then. Looking up he saw Xander stumble away from the railing. A moment later he returned, his face pale. “The wards are broken,” he said. “She’s right… there’s something ancient and evil. It waits, seeking to be freed from its imprisonment.”
“Rosh,” Dexter snapped.
“Ten minutes, Cap!” Rosh said, not bothering to look up. He was looping the rope around the wood, which he had arranged around the rocks and the remaining strut. Logan returned from another run, tossing a hammer and several iron nails to the ground near them. Willa rushed over and grabbed them a handful at a time and put them at Rosh’s feet.
Dexter scowled, ten minutes was fifteen minutes too many. “Prepare to sail!” He snapped, yelling to those aboard the ‘Hawk.
“Captain, I have an idea,” Xander called down to him. A scream so powerful it was nearly inhuman overpowered the mage’s voice though, coming from deep within the ruins.
Dexter stared at it, a cold sweat forming on his skin. “Rosh,” he said anxiously.
“I’m working on it!” Snapped the big man.
“Captain!” Xander called again. Dexter ignored him and hopped up on top of a pile of rocks to get a better view deeper into the ruins.
“It’s free!” Bekka gasped.
“I can protect us!” Xander screamed, his frustration at how he was repeatedly cut off or ignored overwhelming him. “Stand near the ship!”