In 1035 a pirate attack was staged at Summersea harbor and Winding Circle temple. The attack was led by Queen Pauha from the Battle Islands, who had united the lesser chiefs under her and thus mustered quite a fleet. She also had several mages, at least a dozen, helping her, including her brother Enahar, who had studied at Lightsbridge University. The mages helped the fleet considerably by hiding it from their victims with several layers of illusion spells. Although the fleet was eventually beaten it caused much damage, most of all in Summersea.
Course of events
The first hostile act of the fleet was the destruction of Pirate's Point and Bit Island watchtowers in the second week of Mead Moon in 1035 KF. This was witnessed from Winding Circle's walls by Trisana Chandler, Briar Moss, Daja Kisubo and Sandrilene fa Toren. In the days follwing the four realized that a large fleet of ships lay both before Summersea harbor and before Winding Circle's walls. Not long after the spells hiding the ships were lifted, although illusion spells to hide their exact number were still in place. Thus not even Niklaren Goldeye could give an exact count of their numbers. He pinpointed their numbers to at least six dromons and ten plain galleys.
To ensure their success Enahar had enlisted the help of Aymery Glassfire, who sabotaged the temple community from inside by destroying their scrying devices and putting a sleep potion in their food. He also tried to open the north gate for the pirates, although they used blackpowder to open the gate themselves from the outside, when he didn't manage fast enough. This attack was unsuccessful, however, as the mages of Winding Circle awakened before they could achieve their goal and unarmed their attackers.
The Winding Circle mages had produced a thick fog for protection so the pirates would be blind. The fleet got around this problem by using a bijiliknot Trader magic, probably taken from Traders they had killed before.
Although the temple community in itself wasn't very rich, they had several valuables which the pirates desired. They included centuries old spell-books teaching things as how to make rubies from blood or diamonds from coal. There are also bespelled weapons and other devices in the temple, including a mirror that lets even non-mages see things and spy on anyone. The pirates had also planned to sell the mages of Winding Circle as slaves are mages are the highest priced slaves of all and there are ways to hold a mage without making him incapabable of using his magic.
Notes and references
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Tris's Book, Cp. 5 (p. 67; Scholastic paperback)
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Tris's Book, Cp. 8 (p. 125; Scholastic paperback)
- ↑ Tris's Book, Cp. 11 (p. 194; Scholastic paperback)
- ↑ Tris's Book, Cp. 10 (p. 183/184; Scholastic paperback)