Rising tide - Mel Odom [106]
"No, More Honored One," the guard said. "Do not dare be insubordinate at this moment," Iakhovas commanded. "Address this female as Most Honored One and show her the respect she is due as my high priestess. Know that not only is she my high priestess, but she is One Most Favored by Sekolah. She speaks his wishes, and to stand in their way is to bare your throat to the Great Shark himself."
When Laaqueel saw the chastised look appear on Soothraak's face, pride flared through her. After all her long years of devotion, Sekolah was seeing to it that she was properly honored. Iakhovas's demands that she be so honored offered proof that the Great Shark had put the currents before her. She felt ashamed that she'd had doubts. Even the attack on Waterdeep had gone exactly as Iakhovas had promised. Shipping from that city had all but stopped.
"Meat is meat, Most Honored One," the Black Trident said. "My address from this moment on shall be more adequate."
Soothraak lifted his hand and the Royal Black Tridents broke ranks around the flier. Iakhovas sat and ordered the craft forward again. The giant clam waited, open-mouthed, then the pealing tone of a great bell echoed through the chamber. Slowly, the clam closed, revealing the tunnel mouth above it that the open shell had hidden.
The flier barely fit through the tunnel, and the way became even darker. The dim blue glow of lichens stained the walls, allowing an ease in navigation. Twice, the flier nudged up too close to a wall, and the sound of the wood scraping against the rock echoed painfully in Laaqueel's ears. She felt the increased pressure of the current that overtook them before she realized what it was.
In the current's grip, the flier twisted through the tunnel, having no real choice about what direction it traveled or how fast it was going to get there. The flier came out of the tunnel in a rush, emptying into a great basin lined with white limestone rock. The rock along the bottom had merely been dropped into place, the rocks in the walls and ceiling of the enclosed space had been affixed.
Laaqueel knew the purpose behind the rock. Purely defensive in its design, the white limestone backlit anyone who entered the chamber, stripping away shadows that invaders could normally hide in. The next line of defense was the huge net that spanned the mouth of the other tunnel leading from the basin. Metal glinted, mixed with the dulled brightness of old bone, letting her know that hundreds of barbed hooks had been woven into the net.
More members of the Royal Black Tridents stood on the rock shelf protruding from the other tunnel. Most of them carried crossbows, bone shafts tipped with fish fins lay in the grooves.
Sudden motion touched Laaqueel through her lateral lines. Whatever had moved was huge, immediately threatening. She turned, pushing herself up from the flier's seat to find the source.
A white cloud seemed to lift and separate from the limestone wall on her left. Even with her vision, she found it hard to discern what the motion belonged to.
The drifting white cloud shifted again and a red eye flared into focus, fully ten feet across. Once she had the eye, Laaqueel recognized the rest of the creature as an albino kraken.
Laaqueel stood, immediately frightened. The kraken was the largest of its kind she'd ever seen. From the tip of its triangular head to the ends of its two longest tentacles, it had to be over one hundred fifty feet in length. All eight tentacles wavered in the water around it, floating on the constant current that eddied through the chamber. Still, they moved with frightening speed, slithering around the flier.
Besides the power the gigantic creature wielded with its tentacles, Laaqueel knew from experience that it squirted a poisonous ink cloud. There were other