Sometimes I find myself wishing someone else would do what we're doing. I mean, why us? Then there are days when it's abundantly clear why—no one else can....

    Needless to say, we made best use of Lord Fimbulwinter's, ah, gracious gift of a head start, cutting directly toward the coast and a small island where our allies awaited us, dodging the frost giant's patrols most of the way. We reached the shelter of its protective enchantment just in time, as the white dragon that had been tailing us finally gave up. Privateer's ship, The Future, was anchored in the cove.
    Lisa greeted us as we reached the island. As I am frequently reminded, that bit about politics and bedfellows does hold true....
    "How are you?" the ghoul inquired solicitously.
    "Oh, we're fine," I breezed.
    "That was a little close, there," she glanced at the sky.
    "We could have taken it," Phoenix Talon promised.
    "Your allies are here already, we've been resupplying your ship. The captain has been letting his crew off in shifts of five men to make sure that they don't despoil the area too much."
    "That's probably for the best. We got the map, we can go."
    "Map? I'm afraid I don't know nearly as much about what's going on as you do, but that's probably for the best. Come in, we have some food ready for you. I have nothing I can offer you save hospitality," she added regretfully to Scott.
    "That's quite fine, thank you."
    We went on into the spooky-looking house, which was nowhere near as close to falling down as it looked like from the outside and was in fact designed to hold off an army should there be any need of it. Thunderbolt was there.
    "What ho, good fellows," he greeted us. "Verily, 'tis good to see thee again."
    The rest of us exchanged looks.
    "Just kidding," he grinned. His familiar, the cat Stephanie, perched on his shoulder as usual and regarded us critically.
    "So," I said. "Cross-breeding daemons and dragons and wolves, and things."
    "Oh my," Talon added.
    "This is a plan, really," Scott noted.
    "Well it is a plan," I shrugged.
    "We have disrupted the connection between Fimbulwinter and Gretchen," Talon told him.
    I nodded. "He's not very happy with her anymore."
    "That's good. We did manage to destroy the cross-breeding facility, but unfortunately the first generation of red dragons is loose," Thunderbolt informed us somberly.
    "How many?" I almost didn't want to know.
    "Three."
    "Could be worse."
    "What do we know of their capabilities?" Talon, always the tactician.
    "Um, they're a white dragon crossed with a daemon. They're pretty powerful. So they're fire-breathing...."
    "Could be worse," I repeated. "Not sure how, but it could be worse—"
    "This is how," Privateer sauntered in.
    "Oh, you."
    "Unfortunately the three red dragons that are on the loose are wreaking havoc with the southern troops. Which could—"
    "Disrupt any simultaneous attack," Thunderbolt picked up, "because they are busy at this point. They have no way to organize and defeat the dragons. Which means of course it's up to us."
    "But our first priority must be to find the Eye of Da'an," Talon said firmly.
    "You're absolutely right, Phoenix Talon," Thunderbolt agreed. "The Eye of Da'an is our first priority, but..."
    "As soon as we've got it, we'll hopefully be able to deal with these problems at the source," I said. "Going to be a hell of a mop-up job."
    "I believe The Future should be stocked if we're ready to depart," Privateer offered.
    "Yes. Come, let us go," Talon stated.
    "No time like the present," I sighed.
    We encountered some of Privateer's returning men, exchanging high-spirited "Arrghs!" with one another, and boarded The Future. It's a small ship, sturdy and well-crewed after years of successful piracy before throwing their lot in with the resistance. The first mate is a towering black-skinned dryad woman, whose tree went into the building of the ship.
    We had the map. It was difficult to read, and mostly measured in days of travel, which is a little difficult to judge under sail; Privateer huddled with the dryad and a stack of obscure instruments, occasionally calling on Scott to help with translating the runes.
    "According to this map, there is an island so far beyond the other islands that most birds can't fly from one to the other," the mate said eventually. "There's no way of getting there, back and forth." It was considerably further than The Future's crew—or anyone else, as far as we knew—had ever ventured, and the map had the usual warnings—here there be dragons, and so forth—but they were a doughty lot, and willing to follow his lead.
    One inscription was of particular interest, as it seemed to speak of our ultimate destination:
    On an island within an island
    Beyond a door that is not a door
    Shielded by the grin of the hated sun
    Lies the Eye of Da'an
    Stolen long ago by the three gods.
    "Son of a bitch," Talon commented grimly.
    "Look, it was a long time ago, Phoenix Talon, get over it," I suggested.
    "Actually, I was thinking of the pain it's going to be to do this."
    "Oh." I thought about the story of Da'an's eye, wondering who the three gods mentioned were. Da'an had seen his wife Lorae the moon goddess in flagrante with Caspen, the god of poetry and music—you really have to watch out for those guys—and torn out the eye that beheld the sight in horror. Fifty years ago, of course, a wolf ate the moon, so we know of it only through legends such as this one.
    We knew that it was going to take some time to get to the hidden island; our supplies would run low as we approached. I know a spell that controls the wind, but it would blow with enough force to endanger the ship, so I settled for summoning food and water for us. It's a little bland, but it does the job.
    For the first few days of travel, we stopped at small, uninhabited islands to enjoy the land, do some hunting, and obtain fresh water. After five days, we had reached the boundaries of the seas this crew knew, and shortly after that there were no more islands. The crew's spirits lowered in the featureless sea; Scott sang and told stories to hearten them. Phoenix Talon spent most of the journey in spiritual contemplation, readying himself for the task to come. I did a lot of pacing in between summoning spells. Thunderbolt communed with Stephanie. I thought about summoning Newton for some company, but figured the crew might get upset about several tons of black panther materializing on board.
    We were a week past the final island, Scott was running out of material, and people were getting tense—partly because we'd come all this way and not been threatened yet. That was, of course, about to change.
    Thunderbolt spotted something moving in the distance to starboard, things leaping from the water.
    "We have company!"
    "What is it? What's out there?"
    "Pod of killer whales," he identified. They were swimming closer, very fast. Then one of them leaped out of the water, and it stayed there, because there was a tentacle wrapped around it.
    "We can probably outrun it," the first mate opined.
    "Let's try," I voted. Battles with sea monsters aren't high on my "to do" list.
    "If you cast Create Wind would that help?" Talon asked.
    "It might rip the ship apart." On the other hand, the wind was calm, giving us some leeway.... The kraken lifted its head and bit the whale in half. And we were forced to take note of the fact that the thing's eyes were strangely insectile.
    "Let's risk it," Talon suggested in a slightly higher register.
    No one argued; I cast the spell. The sky darkened, the wind rose, whipping the hair around my face in a black cloud as lightning arced above us. The ship leaped forward, mast creaking, and one of the crewmen nearly fell overboard, but they were equal to the challenge. The carnage behind us fell farther astern, the kraken with whales thrashing helplessly in three of its tentacles as it sank back under the waves.
    "Man was not meant to know what it feels like to be eaten by a kraken," Scott judged.
    "Neither was elf." I was pleased that we hadn't had to battle the thing, although a bit sorry about the poor whales.
    After that everyone was at a higher state of alert; the crew made the few minor repairs necessary. At dawn the man in the crows-nest called out, "Ahoy! Above!"

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