Tangled webs - Elaine Cunningham [107]
A rueful smile came quickly in the wake of this thought. Try as he might, Xzorsh could not imagine the fiery drow in the role of tutor. But he did not abandon such thoughts altogether, for they sweetened his dreams and sped his way toward Ruathym.
The kelpie stretched, watching idly as her graceful fronds undulated in the still, cold waters. A passing fish nipped at one of the green limbs, tearing off a chunk of bloodless, leafy flesh. The kelpie grimaced but did.not, m truth, feel pain. She was well accustomed to grazmg sea creatures. If anything, the hungry fish served to remind her that it had been far too long since she herself had fed. The kelpie swirled in the water, tearing up the shallow roots she put down from time to time, and began to drift in closer to the shore. Somewhere, out beyond the waves, was some hapless male as ravenous as she. She'd possessed two such men herself, and she had dim memories of the eager meals her parent kelpie had consumed. All those victims, she remembered, had had eyes that were bright with a strange hunger. The kelpie didn't quite understand this, for they never attempted to feed upon her.
A stirring of the currents drew the kelpie's attention from the shoreline ahead. To her surprise and delight, a male swam toward her. And she had not yet attempted to charm him!
Long, supple fronds reached out to enfold him; the male batted them away; When she persisted, he drew a knife and began to hack away at her. Puzzled, the kelpie cast h.er charm. The male's flailing arm slowed, and the knife slipped from his webbed fmgers. His eyes widened as he looked upon her, then darkened with desire. She wondered, briefly, how he perceived her: as a woman, or a green horse, or perhaps a hippocampus-a sea mount that appeared to be a cross between a giant seahorse and a dolphin. But as he gazed at the illusion-enhanced kelpie, he spoke an unfamiliar word in a harsh, sibilant tongue, a name that suggested his heart's desire was something. other than.the usual choices. No matter. The kelpie smiled and waited expectantly for her latest conquest to drown.
He did not oblige her.
This confused the kelpie, and she released the strangely resilient creature. But the charmed male seized one of her longest fronds, entwined himself with it, fought passionately her every attempt to dislodge him.
The kelpie considered this odd turn of events for severallong moments, and decided it might not be such a bad thing. The male would protect her from hungry fish, perhaps even hunt for her. Surely there was other, similar prey in these waters. Let him find her another like himself, that she might eat.
Dawn had not yet silvered the water when the fisherfolk dragged their boats into the sea. It was early for such labor, but the waters around Ruathym, usually so benevolent, had become as miserly as a dwarven moneylender. Feeding the village was growing ever more difficult, and the Ruathen in their little boats ventured farther out than usual into the icy waters in hope of finding food.
The fisherfolk of two boats stretched a large, weighted net between them, rowing gently as they trolled the deeper waters in hope of ensnaring more than the few spiny and inedible fish that all too often comprised the days catch.
Suddenly the net swept back and taut; something large had found its way into the trap. But the fisherfolk's smiles of elation quickly disappeared. The net did not move. Whatever they had caught was beyond struggling.
"Not again," whispered young Erig as he regarded the