Tangled webs - Elaine Cunningham [147]
And perhaps ibn was not entirely mistaken. Liriel would not soon forget the image of the hideous fish-man that lurked behind the handsome facade of the sea elfSittl, or her suspicion that he might be a malenti. Xzorsh had vehemently denied the possibility that his friend might be a mutated sahuagin-had not even so much as acknowledged that such creatures existed-but still Liriel wondered. There was one who might have the answer, or who at the very least could be compelled to seek it.
The drow stopped at the very edge of the water and dug in her bag for a tightly folded square of white silk. She shook out the delicate shawl, letting its fringed length flutter over the water like a banner. According to the lore books, a captured nereid would follow its soul-shawl and plead for its return; Liriel had circumvented this nuisance by commanding the nymph to stay silent and away. But now she had need of the nereid, and her long, high call rang out over the murmur of the waves.
in moments the water nymph came to Liriel's command. The creature retained little of the radiant beauty that had so entranced Wedigar. Even her voice was wan and pale as she begged for her shawl. Pitiless, the drow wrapped the wide silken sash around her own waist and faced down the nereid.
"What do you know ofHrolfthe Unruly? A big man, yellow braids, a mustache that came nearly to his chin? Did you cast a charm upon him? Answer truly, or i'll rip these three pieces off the shawl's fringe!"
"No, i have charmed no man since the brown-bearded shapeshifter," the nereid whined. "is there one you would like me to charm and drown? This Hrolf?"
Liriel's eyes blazed as she tore the threads from the nereid's soul-shawl. The nymph let out a wail of anguish and began to sob into her hands.
"Little raven, what are you doing?"
The drow turned and shielded her eyes with one hand. Fyodor stood atop the bluff, his blue eyes filled with horror as he gazed at the scene below.
"Getting answers," she called up to him. "Listen if you want, and come down if you must, but by all means let me get on with it!"
At once she turned back to the weeping nereid. "Was it you who caused the other men to drown?"
"Some of them," the creature admitted. "Others were lured into the embraces of my sisters. A few, though, were taken in by kelpies."
"Kelpies?"
"Plant creatures. Third-rate sirens," the nereid said with professional disdain. "it was a kelpie, i am told, that captured the sea elves your fisherfolk dragged ashore." "Xzorsh did not speak of this," Liriel mused.
"As well he would not! it is hardly something to boast of."
"What do these kelpies look like?"
"in water, they appear much as any common seaweed, with long wavering fronds. From time to time they throw off sprouts- small, round things whorled like the shell of a snail. When full grown, kelpies can cast a charm that makes them appear as a woman, a horse, or a sea mountor whatever other creature the victim is most likely to desire."
Liriel tucked this information away. Most of it was new to her, but she wondered why the seagoing Ruathen did not suspect such creatures were at work. Most likely kelpies were unfamiliar to them, perhaps brought from distant shores. "From where did these kelpies come?" she demanded, hoping the nymph would name Luskan. That was the sort of evidence she needed!
A sly look entered the nereid's eyes. "From a place far beneath the sea. I will take you there," she promised eagerly. "i will show you where they are grown!"
The drow lifted one snowy brow. "Grown?"
"The sprouts are tended, then sown into the sea to grow and to kill. Oh, let us go there!"
But Liriel remembered something she had seen just a few days earlier, and vague suspicion firmed into certainty. She doubted she had to go anywhere with this nereid in order to find the immediate source of the kelpie sprouts. "You will stay here until