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"I don't know, young warrior," Glawinn said. Kneeling by the bed, he took a compress from a small water pitcher, folded it, and tenderly laid it over her head. The bite of the undead can be toxic, carrying diseases even advanced healers know little of. Her fate is in stronger hands than we have aboard this ship."

"We'll find a priest when we put into Agenais," Jherek said. "Even-thing will be all right then, won't it?"

Glawinn hesitated, then said, "Mayhap." He took the compress from her head and wet it again. "The main thing is to keep her fever down, give her body a chance to heal itself. Even then, the battle she fights is a draining one."

Jherek felt so helpless and empty inside. "It's my fault," he said hoarsely "If I had not loved her, she would not have been cursed by my ill luck."

"No." Glawinn said gruffly. "I'll have none of that kind of talk in here. The girl may not be in her right mind now, but I've seen people like this come back and know every word that was spoken around them. If you're going to stay here with her, you're going to speak positively. Do you understand me?"

Jherek met the older man's gaze and said, "Help me. Glawinn, I can't be this strong."

Glawinn put the compress back on Sabyna's head. "Yes you can, young warrior," he said. "You'll be as strong as you need to be, whether to hang on or let go. You'll see it done because that's how you are. It's the only way you can be."

Jherek clenched his hands into fists, hating the helpless feeling that filled him. "What do I need to do? Tell me and I swear it will be done."

"Believe."

"In what?"

"I can't tell you."

Jherek looked at the small, pale form on the bed and begged, "Give me something to believe in."

"I can't. You'll have to find it within yourself."

Jherek knelt there beside the bed and searched his heart. He reached out to Ilmater the Crying God, the god he'd rejected months ago. He prayed the way he used to, but there was no comfort.

Sabyna's breathing remained ragged.

* * * * *

"Everyone's dead," Azla announced, looking through the spyglass she held.

Jherek stood beside her, raking Agenais with a spyglass as well. The port city's streets remained empty. Even the ships in the harbor were untended.

"Now we know where the drowned ones came from," Tarnar said. "I have to worry about my ship."

"The kelpies seem to have attacked the civilized areas first," Azla said. "Since you weren't anchored near a port, maybe they've survived."

"If they didn't decide to come looking for me."

"By the end of the day," Azla said, "you'll know."

Resolutely, Jherek kept the spyglass trained on the shore. Azla had ordered the helmsman to keep Azure Dagger far enough away from the evil kelpie bed that the haunting melody they sang was barely audible. There was no hope in his heart, but he wasn't ready to go back to the small room where Sabyna lay just yet. He wasn't helpful there and the rasp of her strained breathing tortured him. At least here he could search for someone who could help her.

"Survivors!*" the pirate in the crow's nest shouted. "Survivors starboard!"

Reflexively, Jherek swung his gaze around and spotted the small boatload of people a quarter of a mile or more out to sea.

Azla gave orders to pick them up and the crew hung the sails. Silently, Jherek hoped one of them would be a priest or a healer. Unfortunately, priests had proven extremely susceptible to the call of the kelpie beds.

XXIV

14 Marpenotn, the Year of the Gauntlet

Laaqueel swam above the army advancing northeast to Voalidru, lost in her own thoughts and fears. The two previous merman cities had fallen after a considerable amount of bloodshed.

The sea zombies Iakhovas had raised from the shallows around the Whamite Isles had proven to be the turning point of the sweep through Eadraal's holdings. Despite their fierceness and their familiarity with the terrain, even the strong-willed merman warriors had given ground. The once-dead were harder to kill the second time