The finest wines would trickle into his mouth, held in the hands of the gods. Solon would look down at the mortal world he’d left behind and bathe his radiant smile on the citizens of the great empire he had formed, who would worship him as a god. The other gods would raise him among them.

He had climbed as high as it was possible to climb in this world. He now planned to rise in the next.

Solon’s musings were distracted when the soldiers on deck suddenly cried out. They scattered, running to clear a space at the front as a huge one-eyed dragon swooped down from above to hover over the deck. The instant it landed, the creature shimmered as white smoke covered it in a cloud. When the cloud disappeared, Triton stood in its place.

Seeing Kargan cross the deck to the eldran king, Solon joined them.

‘No sign of the spy since the storm. The sea is clear. If there was a boat out here, we would have found it,’ Triton said.

‘How are your people faring?’ Solon asked as he approached.

Triton’s one good eye turned to the line of ships. The distance was too great to make them out, but there were a few silver-haired eldren on every ship, although Triton was the only one of his race to sail aboard the Nexotardis. The men always gave them a wide berth. The eldren didn’t seem to care.

‘Well enough. We are ready for the fight, if that is what you are asking, sun king. Just remember our—’

‘Serpent!’ a sailor at the bow suddenly cried. ‘Dead ahead!’

‘We will deal with it,’ Triton said. ‘It will cause you no problem.’

Without another word he ran to the rail bordering the deck and leaped over the side, plunging into the water.

Kargan turned his dark gaze on Solon. ‘A useful ally.’

‘That he is.’

‘But what is it he wants? What’s in the ark that’s so important to him?’

Solon shrugged. ‘We won’t give him a chance to find out.’

Kargan uncharacteristically reached out to grip Solon’s arm. The sun king’s eyes narrowed as he stared at his commander, but the big man wasn’t to be deterred.

‘He would be a powerful enemy,’ Kargan said. ‘Perhaps we were better off when he was safely collared and behind iron.’

‘Never fear,’ Solon said. ‘As you say, metal interferes with their abilities. They cannot even willingly touch it. If we keep whatever it is he wants confined, we will be able to control him.’

Kargan released Solon and watched as, in the distance, the leviathan that was Triton easily dispatched a smaller serpent, clouding the blue water with red.

‘I hope you’re right,’ Kargan muttered.