"What? Leave on a raft?" Joanna stared at Du Wei. "That's your brilliant idea? Cross the sea on a pile of logs and carry us all the way to the mainland? You must be insane!"

Du Wei smiled and laid out his reasoning.

"You and Vivian are both powerful mages. Normally, either of you could fly a great distance without a tool or mount. Correct? If you still had your magic, you'd have left this cursed island on a wind-based flight spell already."

"Of course," Joanna said coldly. "If I could still fly, I would be long gone."

"That's the point." Du Wei smiled. "You lost your magic, but I don't think the problem lies within either of you. Something on this island is suppressing it—a barrier, a magic-nullifying field, or something similar. It is probably connected to that monster you saw.

"So how large can this field be? Does it cover only the island, or the island and some of the surrounding sea? Whatever its exact range, I doubt it extends very far."

Understanding dawned on Joanna. "So the raft isn't meant to carry us all the way to the mainland. We only need to row beyond the magic-nullifying field. Once Vivian and I recover our power, we can fly back. Correct?"

"Exactly." Du Wei nodded.

"And if you're wrong?" Joanna frowned. "Vivian and I may have been struck by a spell. Leaving the island might not restore our magic, or recovery could take days—even months. Then what? We'd drift into the open sea on a raft and die there."

"That merely changes how we die." Du Wei raised an eyebrow. "Let me be clear: if we stay, we'll starve in two or three days. The island has plenty of trees but very few edible plants. I've searched enough to know that, and I can't promise I'll find anything tomorrow."

"We can fish!"

"Ha!" Du Wei laughed. "Fish? You're welcome to try. Yesterday, that monster's water magic raised enormous waves and shook the island. Any fish that once lived nearby will have fled by now."

The plan was risky, but after thinking it through, Joanna had to concede the point.

Stay and starve, or take their chances at sea.

Then came the practical problem: building the raft.

They had no tools whatsoever.

Felling trees called for an ax. A knife would barely suffice.

They possessed neither.

Joanna was a warrior as well as a mage, but her weapon was a long flute.

They could hardly fell trees barehanded. Even a sixth-level swordswoman like Joanna could not chop through a trunk with her palm.

Du Wei first considered sacrificing Joanna's armor. A fragment of metal could be ground into a crude blade.

He was soon disappointed.

Joanna was willing, but the magically enhanced armor was all openwork patterns. Not one intact piece of metal was as large as a palm.

After much thought, Du Wei found his answer.

Dragon scales.

For all her love of Blazing Sun, Vivian reluctantly allowed Du Wei to remove a few scales.

Dragon scales were extraordinarily hard. Legendary heroes had once fashioned them into shields.

Vivian spent a sliver of her remaining magic soothing Blazing Sun while Du Wei pried off two scales.

He spent the rest of the day finding a suitable rock and grinding crude edges onto the palm-sized scales.

The three of them worked for another two days.

Du Wei and Joanna felled several trees while Vivian lashed the trunks together with vines. Du Wei carved paddles and gathered more hollow gourds, both to carry fresh water and to add buoyancy to the raft.

Finally, Joanna surrendered her white cape for a sail.

Only when the work was nearly complete did Vivian remember one crucial problem.

"Wh-what about my dragon?"

The raft could not carry a dragon.

Du Wei and Joanna had considered the problem long ago. Neither had found the courage to tell her.

With her magic intact, Vivian could seal her dragon with a spell, carry him with her, and summon him when needed.

Now she could neither seal nor transport him.

Du Wei and Joanna exchanged looks. Faced with Vivian's pitiful question, neither wanted to answer.

Understanding struck at once. She burst into tears. "No! N-no! I won't leave my Blazing Sun! My Blazing Sun!"

She ran to the sleeping dragon and wrapped herself around one claw, refusing to let go.

Du Wei sighed. The sight of the innocent girl filled him with guilt.

But what else could they do?

They could not take such an enormous dragon with them.

Deep down, Du Wei did not share this world's reverence for dragons as mighty, exalted beings.

To him, people mattered. Dragons and snakes alike were still animals.

Human life came first. Sacrificing people for an animal was incomprehensible folly.

If not for Vivian, he might even have slaughtered the enormous "animal" and dried its meat for provisions.

Vivian would probably cry herself to death if he did.

In the end, Du Wei and Joanna had to drag her away from her precious dragon and force her onto the raft.

To Du Wei's surprise, the vicious Joanna treated her sister with rare tenderness.

"Don't look so surprised." Joanna had grown familiar enough with Du Wei to read his expression. "I just lost my own dragon. I know how the little one feels."

Du Wei saw deep sorrow in Joanna's gaze.

The girls climbed aboard while Du Wei shoved the raft into the sea. Then he hauled himself up, Joanna took the sail, and he bent to the paddles.

Poor Vivian sat where the others had placed her, silently weeping as the island receded. Blazing Sun remained behind.

Fortunately, the waves were gentle.

Yet both Du Wei and Joanna looked tense.

Both were praying they would not meet the monster.

A creature that could ambush a dragon from beneath the sea would overturn their tiny raft without effort.

Du Wei hoped only to slip beyond the island's reach and let the two mages take over.

"Almighty God, protect us," Joanna murmured.

Rowing taxed Du Wei's frail body mercilessly. Survival drove him on even as his arms softened to lead and every stroke began to burn.

By his estimate, they had put at least seven hundred feet between themselves and shore.

"How do you feel?" Du Wei called to Joanna.

"Nothing. It still won't work." Joanna tried to summon wind into the sail, but the spell failed.

"Keep trying," Du Wei said through clenched teeth.

Apparently, the god of this world had no intention of protecting a heretic like Du Wei.

The raft covered another three hundred feet before the sea erupted.

That heart-stopping roar sounded again.

Before their horrified eyes, a wave nearly fifteen feet high reared from the calm water and thundered toward them.

It struck with a thunderous crash. The vines snapped, the raft burst apart, and all three plunged into the sea.

The instant Du Wei went under, an unseen force bound his body.

He could not move. Seawater flooded his mouth, darkness closed across his vision, and a whirlpool seized him and dragged him down.

He sank...

Sinking without end...