Now a powerful serpent, she rushed for the surface. Swimming past the dying dragon, she had one final look at the motionless body of Tarik, still astride the drowning creature in the midst of its death throes.

Then Liana left them both behind.

Standing on the steps outside the Great Tower, Kyphos saw the dark-haired woman lift her staff and realized she must be the woman the king had mentioned. Then a bright light flared and suddenly it was impossible to see. Kyphos blinked as the light gradually faded. Wondering what was happening, he looked wide-eyed at the sorceress on Palemon’s other side.

‘We’re too late,’ Zara said again.

Kyphos watched in horror as the towering walls of water began to break. The waves closest to the shore of Cape Cush collapsed first, roaring with a thunder more powerful than any storm. Blue seawater became white foam, churning and roiling, surging over itself, pounding the ocean bed, making the cleared pathway vanish in an instant.

As the spell tore apart and the waves collapsed, the sorcerers below disappeared in the blink of an eye. Down in the city, the dark-haired woman with the staff and the king of Xanthos were enveloped in an instant.

‘To high ground!’ Kyphos cried. ‘The tower!’

Palemon groaned as they got him moving. Kyphos risked a quick glance over his shoulder and saw the sea rushing in their direction, flooding the city’s streets and rising quickly. Palemon saw the threat and forced his body into a run, the three of them now sprinting for the tower’s entrance. They dashed through the arch and found the second entrance that led to the vertical shaft. Immediately they started to climb the slippery steps cut into the wall.

Even as they sped up the stairway, waves pounded at the tower from the outside, shaking the structure to its foundations. Just below their footsteps, the frothing water was now rushing up as fast as they could run. Zara and the king helped each other over the rubble at the top. Soon they were at the highest point of the tower, staring out at the surging ocean. Wind was screaming, pushing and pulling in all directions.

First Kyphos, then the others looked up into the sky.

The spell still had some power in it. A wave twice the tower’s height was speeding toward them, on the verge of breaking.

‘We’re dead men,’ Palemon said.

But then, looking still higher, Zara lifted her hand and waved. Following her gaze, Kyphos saw that the dragons had already seen them and were swooping down. As the wave surged forward, the broad backs of three winged creatures reached their level. Palemon leaped off first, the rider catching him deftly before immediately flying away. Zara went next, and then it was Kyphos’s turn.

He jumped across, almost sliding off the dragon’s leathery back but grabbing hold of the man in front at the last moment.