Odd though the raid on Phontus's palace undoubtedly was, Milius did not spare much thought towards its fate, or the fate of its inhabitants. It was certainly unnerving that Alcyeoneus had managed to track them all the way into the depths of the sea and decimate their forces, but Milius could explain away the Void Giant's desire to obliterate the sea-dwellers through the knowledge that Aleia's Catacomb, which had contained part of the key needed to break his seal, had been hidden under the water; it was not difficult to imagine that some alliance had been struck up with Phontus's ancestors and the Original Knights, and now Alcyeoneus, seeking revenge on those who had trapped him, had murdered the remainder of the line. Tragic, yes. Important, unfortunately not.

Milius, cold as he thought it seemed, simply couldn't spare the time to worry about them. For one, he had convinced the other inhabitants of the Tower to assist him in the long and tedious task of increasing the level of security upon the building. It had not taken much effort: he could tell that they were still shaken by what they had witnessed in the Orb. Not that he could blame them. They were also continuing their research on ancient seals that could be used against Alcyeoneus, as well as ways that they could track Malidreus.

If he was correct in his suspicions, and Alcyeoneus was acting upon a desire for retribution, one of the very dragons that had helped to seal him could not be low on his list. There was also the fact that he had captured Frederick, and was likely torturing him, trying to get information out of him about where his peers could be hiding.

Even with everything going on in and outside the Tower, Milius had not forgotten Aaron's earlier words. Though he was now prioritizing, stowing certain thoughts and feelings in a distant chamber of his mind to prevent himself being distracted or engulfed by despair, a small part of him went through his days anxiously awaiting that feeling that Aaron had described, a distinct sensation which he had never experienced before, but which he would know at the moment of Frederick's death, when Alcyeoneus finally lost interest in him. But it never came.

Frederick was being kept alive, whether for the Void Giant's entertainment, or in some twisted scheme to use his connection with the black dragon to find it himself, Milius couldn't tell.

Everybody else in the Tower was strangely subdued as well. Though everyone chipped in, helping with research, scouting, or anything else when asked, Milius could still make out their underlying frustration and anxiety at what was happening. Sirius, especially, looked as though he was bursting to say something these days, but seemed to be restraining himself. Milius, who knew his cousin quite as well as he knew himself, was quite certain that Sirius’s patience would wear thin soon enough.

And sure enough, the fourth day after they had received the distress signal transmitted through the Orb, Sirius burst into his room around midday, a few minutes after lunch.

"We need to talk."

"I was wondering when you'd crack." Milius was sitting cross-legged on the floor, his back to the door, polishing Palpatunde. He had no real reason to, he was simply cleaning it to have something to do: the blade never got dirty, never attracted so much as a speck of dust. Even when plunged into the chest of an enemy it remained clear of blood . . . except for that one horrible encounter in Vrydius's Catacomb, when he had attacked a manticore, and the blade had not responded. A slight frown crossed his face. He had never really understood what had happened that day, he still didn't. . . .

"I know you're curious."

"No, I'm not," Milius said flatly.

"And I could tell you that I wasn't getting impatient but we both know that'd be a lie," said Sirius.

Milius stood up and turned to face his cousin. Though still rather larger, Sirius no longer towered over him. Milius had grown a few inches over the past few months, bringing his head roughly level with his cousin's chin. He stared into Sirius’s eyes, grey on blue, both pairs burning with defiance.

"I don't need to be curious, Sir. Archimedes told me what he was like, thousands of years ago. He's a monster, he killed because he was bored. You're reading too far into this."

"And you're not reading far enough! You think he — what? Just wanted to take a splash? Decided to kill an entire palace full of people after a few laps in the water? A dive to the bottom of the sea because of a lack of entertainment, Milius? The sea?"

"Even so, what's the point? They hate us down there! I trashed their castle, stole a sacred item, and fried their king the last time I was there. And you, you sent him wherever the hell you did with that ring! You think they'll just forget about that, offer us tea and seaweed and explain what happened if we asked nicely?"

"It's not a coincidence that they showed up in Phontus's palace just hours after they tried to kill a god, Milius!" Sirius said angrily. "We could be missing something big here! And even if we aren't, this could be a chance to make peace with them. You heard Lucas, we need allies from all over. Well, now they've got beef with Alcyeoneus too."

Milius glared at him, simultaneously annoyed by his persistence and surprised by this strange turn of events — Sirius trying to convince him into helping others, using actual, sound logic. . . .

"Fine," he said at last, through gritted teeth. "We can check it out, but the first sign of danger —"

"And we're out of there, yeah, yeah," Sirius said, now grinning. "Ready to go?"

"What about Shakil, Ariana, and Cole? Lucas and Shya?"

"They're not coming. I thought we could use a little . . . us time."

Milius rolled his eyes and seized the Orb of Triton. As he stuffed it into his rucksack and stowed Palpatunde in its scabbard, a thought occurred to him, his last possible chance of getting out of this excursion.

"You're going to have to convince Demus and Calder, though," he said, smirking. "And there's no way they'll let us go, not after what happened down there."

But Sirius smiled back even more broadly and threw his arm around Milius’s shoulders. "Oh, I don't think they'll mind, given that it was their idea."

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With Ariana’s Invisibility Potion running low, they left under cover of a simple, yet not very powerful Cloaking Spell cast by Demus. The effect was more of a chameleon-like camouflage than true invisibility, but it worked well enough as they flew. They soared across the land unencumbered, and after about an hour came up to the spot they were looking for: the lake where Milius had met the naiads that had brought him down to the palace in the first place.

A flood of unpleasant memories came surging back as they laid eyes on the smooth, glittering surface of the water below, like a carpet of diamonds. Visions of himself locked in combat with Phontus's men, suffering through impossible situations, not knowing how he would make it out. Visions of the king gliding after them himself, enlarged by magic, or a gigantic squid rearing, ready to run him through with its enormous fin.

"You all right?" Sirius said gently from beside him, his blonde hair gleaming in the afternoon light as the last vestiges of Demus's spell faded away.

"Let's just get this done," Milius said quietly.

Neither Lumeus nor Verdona was at all keen on plunging below the surface, but after a couple of minutes of pleading and steady reassurance that they would not actually touch the water, they managed to persuade both steeds. Holding the glittering pearl aloft, Milius opened a passage between the overlapping waves, making it much larger than was necessary to appease the dragons, and down they went.

The area around them became colder and darker the deeper they burrowed beneath the water, but Verdona opened her snout wide and a roaring, crimson flame erupted from her mouth, filling the tunnel with heat and light. Eventually, they came up to the huge bubble in which the city Milius had spotted outside the palace was suspended. The bubble itself was perfectly intact, but the city within was a mass of sapphire rubble. As was the kingdom that stood a short distance away.

It was exactly as they had seen in the vision in the Orb, not a single fragment of stone shifted.

"Well, there you have it," Milius said. "Now let's go."

"Not yet," Sirius said maddeningly. "I want to see the interior first."

Milius sighed in exasperation but opened a water-free passage towards the palace anyway. They glided over the cobbled street, cracked in many places, and into the desolate throne room. It was still full of the slowly dessicating bodies of the large, dead sea creatures, floating pitifully in the water. The ice throne ahead was in pieces, the magical fragments still unaffected by the water, though no longer glowing.

"All right, I've seen enough," Sirius said after a while, looking disappointed. Milius made to turn around along with him, but he felt a sudden hum in the pearl, a spike of energy that told him, just as it had when he had first secured it, that he was not alone in the water.

"There's someone here," he said quietly.

"What? Who? Where?" Sirius demanded, suddenly reinvigorated.

Milius pointed directly upwards, towards a huge hole in the ceiling, where they could see several levels of the palace above.

"Can you get us up there?" Sirius said.

"Yes." Milius leapt from Lumeus's back, landing on the polished sapphire floor. "But you two will need to stay here," he added to the dragons. They broke at once into a storm of protest, screeching angrily; lightning began to crackle along Lumeus's plates and fire burst from Verdona's snout. "Shhh!" he said desperately. "Please — we're not leaving you in the water, look!" He raised the Orb again, and a moment later, two large bubbles bloomed from the water roiling on either side of them, floating into the empty space and wrapping around both dragons.

Sirius joined him on the floor and Milius dispelled the force keeping the water to the walls, letting it flood the room, parting around himself and Sirius. The bubbles kept out all trace of water. Lumeus and Verdona looked slightly mollified.

"See?" Milius said. "No water. Now wait for us here. We'll be back in a few minutes." He let the water coil around their feet, then sent them shooting up through the hole upon a long spout.

They rose steadily through the palace, passing desolate rooms filled with lifeless bodies of Phontus's men and stained with blue blood. They came to a halt moments later, landing inside what looked like Phontus's dining hall. It was a huge, sumptuous room, painted, as just about everything else was, in a brilliant blue colour. Though it retained signs of a once-grand scene, it also bore the recent marks of destruction that plagued the lower rooms. The Orb still indicated that their target was here, but he could not pinpoint the exact location. They peered carefully around the room, their eyes raking the rubble for any sign of a body.

Sirius stepped off towards a mass of shattered rocks in the corner of the room, but stopped very abruptly. The water in the room was thickening, turning a dark purple.

"That can't be good," Sirius muttered, retreating to Milius’s side and pulling Vulcatrix from its scabbard.

"Drop your weapons and stay where you are," a voice called out from the gloom.

"Wait!" Sirius said quickly. "Don't attack, we're here to help! We're Dragonknights!"

"We know," the voice replied, with a kind of savage triumph. And the water in the room exploded.