They were warriors, pale-skinned men in strange garments, staring back at the approaching vessel. And seated in the middle of the mid-sized sailing boat was a blonde-haired woman wearing a crimson chiton. A soldier sat on either side of her, and her eyes were wide with terror. Isobel!

The sleek galley was rapidly gaining on its quarry, but the sailing boat’s speed was surprising. It changed course, and Chloe frowned as the movement of the sail revealed another woman, standing in the middle of the vessel. Chloe could only see her back, but she was raven-haired and slender, and wore a supple, figure-hugging garment the color of the deep blue sea.

Like Chloe, she was clutching a staff . . . A staff with a metal twist of silver on its top.

Chloe remembered what the magus at Athos had told her about Nisos and the magic he’d brought to Aleuthea.

The people who had taken Isobel used magic.

The distance between the two vessels closed to a hundred paces. The woman slowly turned, facing Chloe. Her cold eyes narrowed. The sorceress was beautiful, with high cheekbones and straight hair as dark as deepest night. But her face was like stone; there was no compassion in it at all.

The conical spiral on top of the woman’s staff suddenly glowed fiercely and the sorceress’s lips moved.

It happened in an instant. A wave rose up, growing larger and larger with every passing moment. Forming between the two vessels, charging like a raging beast directly toward the pursuing galley, it sucked up the ocean around it as the sorceress’s magical wind gathered force. The wave grew to the height of the galley’s mast, so immense that the oarsmen turned in their benches and cried out with fear.

Chloe had thought her abilities had been tested on the journey. She now realized that her true test was at hand.

Pushing past the transfixed crew, she raced to the front of the boat. Facing the looming wall of water, she lifted her staff high and cried out, drawing on more of the silver fire than she ever had before. She concentrated on the knowledge that in the open sea there was nothing to stop the wind for leagues; it was all around her, ready to be gathered and unleashed. Her skin prickled and her vision blurred as she unleashed the greatest force she’d ever controlled.

A second, challenging wave now formed in front of the Xanthian galley and grew in an instant, becoming so big that it matched the wave heading for the ship.

The two waves sped directly toward each other. If the sorceress’s was victorious, the galley was doomed.