125

Slowly, as though awakening from a dream, you return to consciousness. Through half-open eyes you stare at a darkening sky and feel the cold waves of the Kaltersee lapping at your feet. Every inch of your body aches viciously—it is as if your flesh were one vast bruise—but at once you know that your body is intact and that, miraculously, you have escaped serious injury.

You are lying in a cup-shaped piece of wreckage that was once part of the ironclad’s bow. On the horizon there is now only one ship—the ironclad that first attacked the Intrepid. It is silhouetted against the wall of oily flame that marks the place where its sister craft exploded. The tide has carried you away from the carnage, and, turning your head stiffly, you see that the shore lies less than a hundred yards away.

If you possess the Magnakai Discipline of Huntmastery and have reached the rank of Principalin or higher, turn to 296.

If you do not possess this skill or have yet to reach this level of Magnakai training, turn to 327.