Tangled webs - Elaine Cunningham [98]
The man snorted at the teasing reference to his enforced shipboard nap, and he cast an angry look at the drow. "Bad business," he muttered as he took his pipe from his sash. "Thought we had our share of ill fortune aboard the Elfmaid. Seems like trouble followed us ashore."
"Don't be lighting that thing in here," Hrolf cautioned him, pointedly ignoring the mate's insinuations. "There's enough of that newfangled smoke powder stored hereabouts to drop all of Ruathym into the sea!"
As ibn tucked away his pipe and flint, he cast a measuring gaze around the warehouse. The building was stuffed with crates and kegs piled haphazardly together in no discernible order. "Good thing you know what all you got in here, Captain. No one else does, that's certain."
"is that why you've come, lad?" Hrolf asked mildly. "To insult my girl and tell me how to run my affairs?"
"To warn you," ibn returned, returning the pirate's cold gaze without flinching. "i was out with the fishing boats early this morning. Thought i saw a sea elf."
"Xzorsh?" the captain asked, surprised by this news. "Might'a been. They all look much the same to me. The mornings catch was none too good. Some of the nets were cut. There's mischief in the waters hereabouts, make no mistake."
"What're you saying, lad?" Hrolf demanded.
"Might be i wasn't the only one to see the elf. If people start thinking your friend's behind some of the recent troubles, might be they'll come looking to you for answers." The mate paused, and once again he turned a pointed gaze upon the drow. "Might be, Captain, that you should start thinking about what those answers could be."
"Might be, lad," Hrolf returned in a grim imitation of the first mate, "that you should haul your sorry ass out of my warehouse before i kick it up between your shoulders."
ibn shrugged. "We been sailing together a long time, Captain. Thought lowed you the warning-do with it what you want." With those words, he spun on his heel and stalked out of the warehouse.
"That one's no friend of yours, lass," Hrolf cautioned Liriel. "i've always liked ibn-as much as he'll let me, at any rate-but he does take on some strange moods from time to time. Mark me: he bears some watching."
This warning rang through Liriel's mind as she made her way to the long wooden building that housed Ruathym's stolen literary treasures. She hadn't spared a thought to ibn since making land the day before, and that realization troubled her. No drow survived long by ignoring an enemy. And the sheer number and variety of these, she mused darkly, was making it difficult for her to keep up!
By the time the late afternoon sun cast long shadows over the village, Liriel had a somewhat better idea of what she faced. She'd searched the Green Room for every scrap of information she could find about the elemental plane of water. Since one ofher unknown enemies had the ability to summon a water elemental, it made sense to learn what she could of such powers. The more the drow read, the more impressed she became with her shadowy foe and the forces he or she might command. One passage in particular seized her attention, fascinating in its implicationsand its possibilities.
"Nereids," she read aloud. "Shapeshifting beings from the elemental plane of water, they live to trick and drown unwary sailors. Often taking the form of beautiful women, they cast a charm over men and lure them to their doom. A nereid carries a soul-shawl that contains its essence. If this shawl is taken, the creature is enslaved by the possessor. A wizard can coerce an enslaved nereid to do his bidding, even force it to act as a guide to the elemental plane of water."
"Legend," observed a terse, deep voice. "A skald's tale and nothing more."
Liriellifted her eyes from the book to regard the village shaman. She was impressed. Ulf was a large man, but she hadn't heard him enter the room.
"More than legend," she said bluntly. "i think i might have seen one myself, just this morning, walking along the shore with some man. At the time i thought something about