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Shessian soldier pushed through the battling crowd, long knife in hand. He crouched, facing the Prince, and Future smiled when he saw that the man recognised him. The hesitation gave Future first blood as he punctured the soldier’s left arm with his sabre. Prompted to fight, the soldier retaliated, his knife sweeping a finger-span past Future’s face, but then he was knocked aside by a Kerwyn sailor swinging a cudgel who leapt on him and beat him to death. Future stepped around the bloody struggle and headed foranother Shessian soldier pressing a wounded sailor against the railing. He stabbed the soldier in the back, wrenched out his sabre and turned to hunt another victim. The noise of battle, the cries and screams, excited him. He slashed at a soldier and ducked a sweeping pike before he retreated to safety.
    The Kerwyn sailors were winning. An explosion rocked the Shessian vessel and a ball of flame curled through its sails. Shessian soldiers close to the Prince threw down their weapons to surrender and the Kerwyn sailors cheered. ‘No prisoners!’ Leader Sharpaxe yelled. The shipmaster repeated the order in his Kerwyn language and his sailors attacked the unarmed Shessian soldiers, cutting them down or driving them back into the water separating the two ships. The thundermakers loosed a volley at those aboard the burning Shessian ship who were frantically fighting the spreading flames while their stricken ship drifted aimlessly.
    Prince Future sheathed his sabre and studied the wider scene. The Shessian fleet was in ruins. Caught downwind in the open ocean by the Kerwyn fleet that came like ghosts out of the heavy morning fog, the Shessian ships, though greater in number, couldn’t match the Kerwyn vessels with their thundermaker and thunderclap magic. One by one, the Kerwyn rallied and ran down the Shessian vessels throughout the day, until only a handful of the demoralised Shessian ships were able to turn and run with the wind for shelter in the Port of Joy bay. In every direction ships were burning, yellow flames flickering along the wide ocean, white and black smoke filling the sky. Dots with waving arms bobbed among the flotsam from the sinking vessels.
    ‘It is a pleasing sight, Your Highness.’
    Future turned to the speaker, a blue-robed Seer with sparkling green eyes. ‘Jarudha’s will is very powerful, Weaver,’ he acknowledged.
    Weaver smiled. ‘Jarudha has tolerated abominations in the kingdom for too long, Your Highness. He guides us to cleanse our people and make the foundations for His new order. This small victory is His word to us that He is our Lord and Master.’
    ‘I am blessed that He has chosen me to lead this change.’
    ‘We are all blessed by Him, Your Highness. I am pleased that you can see with your own eyes what Jarudha will do for you if you let His work be done.’
    ‘I’m surprised to see you here,’ Seer Diamond whispered to his unexpected guest whose face was hidden in the shadows of his blue cowl. ‘I thought you’d come when Future was in the city.’
    The guest smiled and bowed his head in deference to his superior Seer. ‘The Prince will be here within a handful of days, old master.’ He threw back his hood, exposing his long auburn hair. ‘I’ve just heard that the Queen’s fleet is burning.’
    ‘How?’ Diamond asked, studying the lined face of the man he’d trained as a disciple.
    The younger Seer fumbled in the folds of his robe to extract a fragment of beige parchment. ‘Weaver sent this message with a seagull.’ He handed the parchment to Diamond who opened it and read.
    ‘So the Prince will be here within five days,’ Diamond confirmed.
    The younger Seer nodded. ‘It is time to make the preparations.’
    ‘You’ve done well, Vision. Your father would be proud of you.’
    Vision’s brown eyes sparkled. ‘My father planned for this time. Had he not died at the hands of the Abomination, he would be delivering this message.’
    ‘Jarudha’s