“You have to go waken them so they can get off the boat,” said Gerd.

“There’s nobody on board,” said Hermia.

“You don’t know that,” said Gerd. “If this is to look like a great mage announcing herself, there shouldn’t be any deaths.”

“I get it,” said Hermia. “You expect me to go out there, into a burning ship, and wake them up?”

“Gate them to land, if that’s what it takes,” said Gerd.

“I can only do it one at a time. What if there are too many of them?”

“You said a moment ago that there’s nobody. Go now, before the ship is gone and it’s too late.”

“So I have to clean up after your clumsiness,” said Hermia.

Before Gerd could shout at her to move, Hermia grinned. “I bow to your vast wisdom, O ancient lady.” And she was gone.

A few minutes later, Hermia was back on the terrace. “Only one man, and yes, drunk as a skunk. He was actually on the verge of death from smoke inhalation, but I got him out into the water, and of course the movement immediately healed him.”

“Did it teach him how to swim?” asked Gerd.

“Don’t sailors all know how to swim?”

“A Greek should know the answer to that,” said Gerd.

“Well, now it’s required of every sailor on every ship in our fleet,” said Hermia, “but in ancient times … and yes, you’re right, he’s already completely underwater.”

Hermia disappeared, and this time when she returned she was soaking wet. “I wasn’t really in the mood for a dip tonight,” she said, shaking herself a little. “But I got him right over to a boat that’s headed for his ship, and they’re pulling him in. Of course he got undrowned in the process. It’s nice that some aspects of this take no effort.”

That farthest ship was burning to the waterline.

And the two boats that had been pulling toward it suddenly reversed direction and raced over the river, heading back toward shore.

“Well, well,” said Gerd. “I think we will have accomplished more than we hoped for.”

“What do you mean?” said Hermia. “Obviously they saw that it was hopeless and they’re heading back.”

“At that speed?” asked Gerd. “No, I think somebody has invented gunpowder or some other explosive, and that ship is full of it.”

As if in answer to her statement, the burning ship was replaced by a fireball and then the boom of an explosion, so forceful that the terrace trembled and Gerd could hear glassware and ceramics in the house breaking.

“It must be explosives used in mining, that’s all,” said Hermia.

“Mining is done with the help of Cobblefriends and Rockbrothers,” said Gerd. “This is Westil, where magery isn’t a secret and technology isn’t a solution.”

“Good point,” said Hermia.