Read Online Fire Sea by Margaret Weis - Free Book Online Page B

or slaves to operate it. Haplo was now captain and crew member. The dog was the ship's only passenger.
    The dog, conquering the elusive itch, trotted behind, hoping that the long and boring inspection was nearly at end. The animal adored flying. It spent most of the journey with its face pressed against the porthole, tongue lolling, tail wagging, leaving nose-prints on the glass. The dog was eager to be gone. So was its master. Haplo had discovered two fascinating realms in his journeys through Death's Gate. He had no doubt he would be equally rewarded on this trip.
    “Calm down, boy,” he said softly, patting the dog's head. “We'll leave in a moment.”
    The Patryn stood on the top deck, beneath the folds of the dragon's central sail, and looked out on the Nexus, his homeland.
    He never left this city without a pang. Disciplined, hard,and unemotional as he considered himself to be, he was forced to blink back the tears whenever he left. The Nexus was beautiful, but he'd seen many lands just as beautiful and never unmanned himself by weeping over them. Perhaps it was the nature of the beauty of the Nexus—a twilight world whose days were ever either dawn or dusk, whose nights were never dark but always softly brightened by moonlight. Nothing in the Nexus was harsh, nothing in the Nexus existed in extremes except for the people who lived there, people who had emerged from the Labyrinth—a prison world of unspeakable horror. Those who survived the Labyrinth and managed to escape came into the Nexus. Its beauty and peace enfolded them like the embracing arms of a parent comforting a child having a nightmare.
    Haplo stood on the deck of his flying ship and gazed out on the green, grassy lawn of his lord's mansion. He remembered the first time he'd risen from the bed where they'd carried him—more dead than alive after his trials in the Labyrinth. He had gone to a window and looked out on this land. He had known, for the first time in his scarred life, peace, tranquility, rest.
    Every time he looked out a window onto his homeland, he recalled that moment. Every time he recalled that moment, he blessed and honored his master, the Lord of the Nexus, who had saved him. Every time he blessed his lord, Haplo cursed the Sartan, the demigods who had locked his people into that cruel world. Every time he cursed them, he vowed revenge.
    The dog, seeing that they weren't going to leave instantly, flopped down on the deck and lay—nose on paws—patiently waiting. Haplo shook himself out of his reverie, stirred briskly to action, and nearly stepped on the animal. The dog jumped up with a startled yelp.
    “There, old boy. Sorry. Keep out from under my feet next time.” Haplo turned to descend into the hold, stopped in midstride as he and the world around him rippled.
    Ripple That was the only way to describe it. He had never experienced anything like the strange sensation. The movement started far beneath him, perhaps at the very coreof the world, and continued upward in sinuous waves that did not travel horizontally, like a tremor, but vertically, rippling up from the ground through his ship, his feet, his knees, body, head.
    Everything around him was distorted by the same effect. For a brief instant, Haplo lost all shape, form, dimension. He was flat, pasted against a flat sky, a flat ground. The ripple passed through and shook them all simultaneously. All except the dog. The dog vanished.
    The effect ended as swiftly as it had begun. Haplo fell to his hands and knees. Dizzy, disoriented, he fought off a sickening wave of nausea. He gasped for breath, the ripple effect had compressed the air from his body. When he could breathe, he searched to see if he could discover what had caused the terrifying phenomenon.
    The dog returned, standing in front of him, gazing at him reproachfully.
    “It wasn't my fault, fellow,” Haplo said, darting wary, suspicious glances in all directions.
    The Nexus glimmered in its peaceful twilight,