The six travelers, the Captain and his first mate stood and watched the amazing transformation that had come over the tiny islanders in astonishment. The Captain's sabre had claimed one of the shologs, and Matthew and the three wizards had made their presence felt as well, but now it was obvious that their part in the battle was over. This was the nomes' fight, and they would be the ones to end it.

     Thomas stared at the nomes in awe and a little fear. Most people, seeing the tiny, silverbearded folk, dressed as often as not in the bright, colourful clothes they loved so much, saw them as a comical, slightly ridiculous folk. There were humans who pushed them around and treated them with contempt, but they wouldn't have dared do so if they'd seen what Thomas was seeing now; the bloody, gory proof that nomes could only be pushed so far. Now, Thomas could see how it was that they'd fought off the goblin hordes when the evil, green skinned creatures had invaded their homelands fifty years before, and it suddenly dawned on him what a terrible, costly war it must have been. Not some minor skirmish, as most humans who'd heard of it imagined, as Thomas himself had imagined when Jerry had described it to him, but a conflict fully the equal of any war fought by human armies as the normally cheerful, peace loving folk fought for their very survival, and as the wizard watched the shologs being butchered in front of him he knew that he'd never see nomes the same way again.

     The entire battle only lasted for five or ten minutes, and the last to fall was the sholog chieftain himself. He stood atop a pile of at least a dozen dead nomes, over which a horde of others were climbing to get at him. His scimitar dripped and ran with nome blood as it swung back and forth, claiming a new victim with every swing, and his own blood ran from a dozen wounds, most of them caused by arrows sticking out from gaps in his armour. He was weakening, though, and more and more of his small enemies were getting under his guard, jabbing and stabbing him. A couple of them held captured sholog scimitars, heavy and clumsy in their tiny hands but well made and razor sharp, and one of them suddenly rushed forward and chopped the hamstrings behind his left knee. The sholog gave a cry of pain, fell down, and was immediately buried beneath a mass of nomes, chopping, slashing and stabbing. The humans heard a final cry of "Skorvos! Take me!" and then it was all over.

     The nomes carried on mutilating the sholog's bodies for some time, as if unable to believe that they'd won. Finally, however, it began to dawn on them that the battle was over and a ragged high pitched cheering broke out over the battlefield, mingled with cries of pain and the sobbing of those grieving over fallen loved ones. As Diana wandered the battlefield, praying over the dead and healing as many of the injured as she could, the others took a body count. By far the majority of the casualties were among the nomes, who had lost around a quarter of their number and of whom scarcely a single individual was without injury. The humans, on the other hand, had lost only three men and suffered only a dozen injuries. Considering the nature of their enemy, they had come off lightly.

     Kerrinott limped his way over to them, tucking a bloody sholog scimitar in his belt so he could tie a bandage around his head where a nasty cut was dripping blood across half his face. He wore an expression of mingled joy and sadness. He started to say how grateful he was for their help, how much his people owed them and how they would always be remembered for as long as his people lived, but a bearded, one eyed sailor with black teeth interrupted him. "Never mind all that," he said. "Where's the treasure?"

     The tiny nome looked shocked and hurt, but pointed to the village. "It's in there somewhere," he said. "I'm sure you can find it for yourselves."

     The sailors rushed in to pillage and loot, leaving Kerrinott wondering just how much better they were than the shologs they had just defeated.

☆☆☆

     Kerrinott's claims regarding the size of the sholog's treasure hoard turned out to be exaggerated, just as Shaun had expected, but there was enough loot taken during the sholog's days as pirates to satisfy the sailors and each man came away with a trinket or two.

     Diana, meanwhile, was close to exhaustion, having channeled so much of the Goddess's power that she was close to total collapse and Caroli, anxious that no harm came to her worshipper, had stopped responding to her prayers until she'd had a chance to recover. Diana understood that, being young and inexperienced, her body could channel only so much of Her divine power without burning up like an oil soaked cloth. There were so many injured nomes left, though, so many who might still die before the dawn of the next day, that she continued to pray over them, her tears falling onto her tightly clasped hands, until her brothers dragged her away by brute force and made her lie down, whereupon the Goddess came upon her and put her to sleep for her own good. The next morning, though, she was back among the wounded, praying over them and applying some basic first aid when exhaustion overcame her again. By now, though, she'd succeeded in healing all the critical cases. Most of the injuries that were left were clean sword cuts that would heal nicely on their own, leaving only a narrow scar.

     The nomes held a commemoration ceremony the next day, to which all the visitors were invited. Prayers were said and speeches were given, and then food was brought out so that the nomes could show their gratitude to the visitors who'd risked their lives for them. Some of the sailors began to sing and dance in an uproarious manner, though, showing off the treasures they'd acquired and gambling them in contests of strength and skill; ignoring Diana and the Captain when they called on them to show consideration for those nomes who'd lost loved ones. Many of the nomes turned away to hide their disgust.

     Midway through the celebrations, however, a sailor came running up to the Captain, who was drinking something from half a coconut shell. "Skipper!" he gasped breathlessly. "We've got to get back to the ship right away. This island creature, whatever it is, has turned west and is heading out to sea."

     "By the Gods!" exclaimed the Captain. "Find the rest of the men and tell them. Straight away!"

     He crossed over to where the six travelers were sitting together with a group of young nomes, watching Jerry and Matthew playing a game of klann, a board game similar to chess played on a board with thirteen rows of ten squares. Jerry was winning, and was grinning as he moved his wizard, taking Matthew's one remaining guardsman. "Get out of that, human!" Matthew scowled and bent over the board, searching vainly for some way to get out of the mess he was in.

     "Sorry lads," said the Captain. "You'll have to finish the game later. This big fish is heading out to sea so we've got to leave right away. You'll have to make your farewells quickly before we cross the continental shelf."

     "But I thought we had a whole day or two yet," protested Jerry, who was only half a dozen moves away from winning.

     "So did I," said the Captain, "but the fish seems to have other ideas. We leave within the hour. If you're not aboard, you'll be left behind." So saying, he left with his men, saying a brief farewell to the nomes as he went and making his apologies.

     "Sorry," said Thomas to the nomes as they gathered their belongings and Matthew gleefully packed the board game up. "We have to go. It's been really nice meeting you, though."

     "We're sorry you have to go so soon," said Kerrinott, who'd just arrived. "We thank you for all you have done for us and wish you luck and the Gods' favour wherever you go. Thanks to you, this island will become a paradise again and we will build a special monument in your honour next to our temple. You will be remembered for as long as our people survive."

     He then gave each of them a gift, a beautiful ornament carved from white fishbone. It was in the shape of a fish, similar in shape to a flounder but with fins so small that they could barely be seen. Its back was contoured with lumps and bumps like the canopy of a forest seen from a great height. "These are carvings of the great fish on which we live," he said. "Think of us whenever you look at them."

     Diana and Lirenna gave him a gentle hug, crouching down to do it, and the men shook his hand solemnly in farewell. Jerry tried to think of some fitting words of farewell, feeling that the duty fell upon him as a fellow nome, but all he could think of was to thank them again for their hospitality and promise that they would never forget the good friends they'd met in this most unlikely of all locations. It sounded trite and shallow even in his own ears, but the nomes seemed pleased and followed them to the shore where they watched as the questers and the last of the sailors climbed into the lifeboat. Then, as the boat was towed back to the Analiese, the nomes untied the mooring ropes from the palm trees, freeing the ship from the island fish. They watched in silence as the ship began to fall away.

     The six travelers and some of the sailors waved back as the island shrank in the distance, heading back into the deep water that was its real home. Thomas looked down at the bone carving in his hand and watched as the largest of all the world's creatures disappeared below the horizon. Who would have believed that such a creature could exist! he thought. He would certainly have something to tell his parents when he returned home, that was for sure. They stood by the railing and watched, deep in thought, until there was nothing to see but empty, rolling sea, and then the six of them slowly walked back to their cabins, from which they hardly emerged for the rest of their journey. The city of Mala was now only a day or two away.

☆☆☆

     Jerry and Lirenna were delighted when Thomas told them that he'd cast two spells during his battle with the Sholog wizard. “Firebolt is pretty much the spell that uses the least magic force, of course,” he said. “Living bodies are fragile things, it doesn't take much to damage them, so it maybe isn't surprising that I can store enough magic in my body to cast it twice.”

     “Nonsense!” declared Lirenna, though. “You could only cast the spell once when you graduated, right?” Thomas nodded. “So it means you've grown. Your body can hold more magic now than it could then. Don't put yourself down!” She hugged him, and Thomas hugged her back, feeling a little guilty as he enjoyed the feel of her soft body.

     "A little more practice and I'll be able to as well,” she said as she released him. “I can feel it. It's the first step up the ladder to our becoming world famous arch mages. We're on the way!"

     "Ha!" cried Jerry disdainfully. "I've been able to cast two spells for ages!"

     He was grinning as he said it, though, all three of them knowing that it wasn't the same thing. He was a specialist wizard, specialising in illusionism. He wouldn't be able to claim the same breakthrough until he could cast three or four spells in the same day. Never mind, he thought with a smile. We'll see who's the first to master mid level magic. Yes, we'll see.