As awareness returned, he could feel the deck jolting beneath his feet as the Boundless plummeted toward the world below. He grabbed at the mizzenmast to retain his balance. His connection with the ship – his cloak-mediated control – had vanished as consciousness had fled. Now he struggled to regain it. Rosy pink light flared around him. He gasped, almost doubling over with the pain, as his awareness once more encompassed the whole of the stricken squid ship. A huge hole had been smashed in the hull just starboard of the keel – directly amidships, in the middle of the cargo hold. Flames licked around the jagged edges of the hull breach and across the overhead. The large hatch cover had been blown loose and lay smoldering on the main deck. “Fire in the hold!” he gasped, and heard Djan echo the cry. He felt and saw crewmen with buckets of sand jump to deal with the threat. Again, the squid ship was plunging toward the ground. But this time the Cloakmaster knew he had more time to react.
