The Coral Kingdom - Douglas Niles [82]
More and more she had found her thoughts moving away from her family, away from any and all the people of her realm. Instead, her mind chased relentlessly after the one she could not find, the one she knew again walked the surface of the Realms.
Sooner or later, she vowed, her mirror would again locate the being she had known as Malawar, and when it did, her vengeance against him would be complete.
* * * * *
For a long, pregnant moment, the creatures in the water made no sound. Sunlight glinted from hundreds of arrowheads, a warlike and ironic contrast to the beautiful coral shallows, the mottled blue and green water reflecting the sunlight in dazzling hues.
The aquatic archers held their weapons horizontally so that both ends of their bows remained out of the water. The archers could shower the longship's hull with their lethal rain at a moment's notice.
"Be careful!" Brigit hissed. "They've been taught all their lives that humans are their mortal enemies. Don't let anyone do anything to give them cause to shoot!"
The princess studied the creatures in the water, realizing that they tended to be very fair-looking beings, with the pointed ears and narrow, shapely skulls of elves. The skin on their faces and arms, the only parts she could see above the water, varied in color from soft green to deep blue, even shifting through many hues on a single individual. The webbed hands and feet, however, couldn't help reminding the princess of a sahuagin.
"What are they?" she asked softly, realizing that Brigit stood beside her.
"The Aquis-Dulcio… sea elves," said the sister knight, her voice heavy with awe. "I've heard about them. All of us know of our cousins of the deep, but never have I seen one!"
Just then one of the sea elves rose, treading water with his feet. He opened his mouth, and a series of lyrical sounds came forth. To Alicia, it sounded like a pleasant song in which the singer made up nonsense sounds instead of words.
Brigit, however, stiffened and then listened with rapt attention. She responded once in the same language, and then the aquatic elf continued speaking. Despite the musical nature of the speech, the speaker's gestures and expressions convinced the princess he was delivering a harangue. His webbed hands clenched into fists, and he planted them firmly on his hips. Brandon, Robyn, and Keane observed the communication, gathering around the sister knight by the time the sea elf ceased speaking.
"What does he say?" asked the captain impatiently.
"They demand that we leave. They promise to kill us if we don't depart immediately."
Alicia's heart sank. "But don't they understand?" she objected.
"They understand that this is a human ship, and they insist that humans are not allowed here."
"Did you tell them why we're here?" asked Robyn.
"I told them who I am. The Sisters of Synnoria are known throughout elvendom, and being their captain gives me some status. I started to explain about the Synnorian Gate, but he cut me off and told me that it didn't matter-we had to leave." She didn't repeat the names he had called her, the filthy epithets-traitor and worse-for bringing the eternal enemies of elvendom to this sacred place.
"Does he see that we're stuck on an Abyss-cursed lump of coral?" snarled Brandon, stepping to the rail to glower at the male, who still held himself half out of the water. The northman started to raise his fist, but then apparently thought better of the gesture. With an inarticulate mutter, he turned back to the discussion.
Brigit leaned over the rail again and sang something back to the elf in the water. The sea elf scowled and came back in a minor, threatening key. The sister knight shrugged and turned back to the humans.
"I told him that we're stranded, that we can't get off of here. He… was insulting, but at least he didn't insist that we leave."
Hanrald listened intently, standing at the gunwale and flushing as he stared