Getting everyone on board quickly took everything the captain had.
He stood at the base of the gangplank of the first ship and directed the flow of people with his arms and voice, pointing, gesturing, moving individuals physically when they stopped or froze or simply stood there and looked at the ship with the expression of people who had never seen one before, or had seen one before under circumstances that made this one frightening.
His crew worked without being asked, appearing where they were needed, helping people up the gangplank, catching those who stumbled, distributing the flow between the three ships without needing to be told how.
The weaker ones took the longest.
There were people who needed to be carried and people who needed the help of one, or even two others, on either side just to walk and people who sat down on the dock or ship the moment they reached it because their legs had simply given out.
He worked through all of it, methodically, the way he worked through everything, one problem and then the next.
The captain wasn't sure how much longer he had. Two hours wasn't a long time for something like this, especially under a deadline.
He didn't know if the sorceress was counting, but he'd better not try to find out how much leeway she'd be willing to give.
He got the last ones on board after a while, got his crew back, spread them through the other ships, pulled up the gangplanks, and when he was on his own ship, he was at the wheel before he had consciously decided to be there, the familiar weight of it in his hands settling something in him that the last several hours had loosened.
"All three!" he called out. "Let's get 'er outta 'ere!"
They moved and, luckily, the wind was with them.
It was strong, far more than the captain had felt at any time during the journey, pushing them away from the island with a consistency that felt less like weather and more like intention.
He didn't question it. He just adjusted the sails and took what was given.
The island shrank behind them.
He kept the wheel and watched the horizon ahead and listened to the sounds of the ship settling into its motion.
Below deck he could hear the low murmur of a great many people.
The other two ships kept pace on either side, visible whenever he turned his head, which he did often.
If he had both eyes he could have relied on his peripheral vision, but it wasn't so.
For a while he didn't look back. Nothing could come of it.
But even he couldn't stop himself from doing so at least once.
He stood at the wheel and watched it for a moment.
It was still visible, smaller now, the shape of it sitting low against the water.
He could make out of the trees, the general mass of it, the elevated rocks on the far side.
Then he saw light.
It was small at first, like a star in the night sky; a point of brightness that didn't belong to the sunrise.
He knew what it was immediately. The sorceress.
She climbed and the light grew.
It washed the island white, its trees, the base, even the water.
It was enormous and fast.
There was a moment where it was bright as midday and the light had swallowed the entire island.
At first there was no sound, or perhaps the sound came at the same time as the light, or the light was so total that it simply canceled everything else out for the duration of it. He felt it in his chest and in his teeth and in the soles of his feet through the deck and he closed his eye.
Then it vanished, and the morning seemed dim by comparison.
The captain had to grip the well as the wind picked up and a sudden, violent gust hit all three ships simultaneously.
It drove them forward with a force that he had never experienced before.
A monstrous wave hit them a moment later.
It lifted the stern of the ship, tilting it forward, and he heard things below deck sliding and crashing and people crying out.
He could do nothing but ride it.
The other two ships rode it beside him.
Then it passed.
The water settled, not all at once but in degrees. The wind dropping back to something that was merely strong rather than extraordinary.
He turned around.
The island was gone. He stood at the wheel for a long time.
He looked at the place where the island had been until there was nothing left to look at.
Then he turned back to the horizon ahead and adjusted his heading and sailed on.
He didn't think he'd ever see the sorceress again.