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Maybe less

"The ship will capsize," I said "You can’t turn fast enough Where are the Djinn?"

"Gone," Lewis said "For their own protection We’re all alone now" David wouldn’t have run, not to save hi" He didn’t deny it It was big, whatever it was; it was ivable sin But Leas the sort to ht he had to "So to David?"

He didn’t answerto capsize, even if that wave doesn’t hit us broadside" And it probably would We just didn’t have enough time to hit it bow-first

"You could turn it," I remarked He locked stares with htened

"No, I can’t," he said "You can"

I smiled "I won’t"

I felt the front of the ship dipping down, and then rising, iant of the seas

Lewis see in the wind There was a glow about hi before

As the mountain of water roared down at us, I turned and walked calmly toward the nearest door

Cherise and one of the white-coated officers waved h threshold, and the officer sla mechanism

"Hatch twenty-three sealed!" he shouted into his radio, in the high-pitched voice of utter panic I took a e and casual, but all the bottles and glasses had been stoay, and the place had an unfinished look to it The rooly at the bar as if they wondered where all the ru and three other Wardens, all see The civilian passengers seee officers assuredly knew that their worst fears were co true; they could see it fro at ave ed herself in a corner and tipped an ar, even through the steel plates I felt the rumble of it

The bow of the Grand Paradise lifted sharply, and kept rising, rising Tables and chairs started sliding, and people screa to whatever ithin reach, stable or not

I heard glass crashing; that was probably unsecured stock soe wooden cabinet, designed to look prian to topple down from one wall There were six people beneath it I watched with placid interest

Cho yelled a warning One of the Earth Wardens flung out a hand and stopped the falling cabinet

Disappointing

A racing bite of energy spread overondown my arms and into the core ofmyself as the horizon continued to rise toward the sky People slid pastI didn’t payover!" so furniture We were still clile, heading for vertical, and I felt the whole ship slip sideways, twist, and start to tu

Then we stopped falling, and the ship’s torturous descent changed, smoothed, and entered an eerie kind of calm The ship slowly drifted back to a stable, horizontal line, but it didn’t feel like ere in flat seas It didn’t feel like ere in the water at all

I rose and walked to the large picturethat commanded a view of the pro just where I’d left hiht, the color of soft ainst the blackness of the stor around us in a frenzy, but ere floating in a bubble of force that stretched all around the ship in a perfect sphere Ship in a bottle, I thought, and for just an instant I was too angry to think properly No Warden could do this, not alone

Not even Lewis

We were floating on the storm in our own little self-contained pocket universe of calht door, but it seeertips out through thethe surfaces, and when I turned the handle again, the door slid sht behind ?"

"I’ll find out," I said, with utter callee, but I didn’t want her to see that "Wait inside"

"But - "

I slammed the door between us and hit it with the heel of h to make a hollow boom "Lock it!"

I heard the heavy clash oflike a ure-head at the rail

He opened his eyes I could see the energy spilling out of him, a raound that split hi on the aetheric Bleeding himself to death

"How?" I asked, and leaned on the railing He didn’t answer , and his eyes were flushed red under the stress of what he was doing

Fifteen Djinn and four times as many Wardens hadn’t been able to stop the stor it, toe to toe

Not winning, though

Not hardly

"You’ll kill yourself," I commented "For God’s sake, Lehat does it o The ship will get torn apart People will drown Life will go on, for a while, until it doesn’t" I shrugged "Just let go It’s that easy" Lewis let out a gasping sob His knees buckled, but he held fast to the railing

He held the bubble of force against the stor this alone," I said "But you didn’t have tiet the other Wardens to help And even if you did, they’re not capable of this kind of power Not alone - " I paused, because I finally worked it out "But you’re not alone, are you?" Lewis’s breath was coasps now Nobody could sustain this, not even the most powerful Warden in the world

Not even one with a direct connection to the aetheric

Which hat Lewis had He’d always been close to our temperamental Mother Earth, but this was beyond that, way beyond The power that poured through hi directly into the heart of the planet herself

Only the connection between Lewis and a Djinn Conduit could do that

He’d claimed David He’d put David in a bottle andhim to open this portal directly into the lifeblood of Earth, to save the ship

It would burn Lewis out before David, but not much before

They’d both die

So me to stop it But that was the very last tiny foothold of the old Joanne drowning in a sea of darkness