The Sea Devil's Eye - Mel Odom [140]
"Yes. I'm still working on that. It is going to be the best thing I've ever written."
"Provided your young hero survives," Qos said.
* * * * *
The merfolk lead us into a trap," Laaqueel said.
She stood beside Iakhovas on Tarjanas deck, watching as the mermen battled sahuagin and the few remaining drowned ones. Only a few koalinth remained among them after the ixitxachitls' attack during the assault on Naulys.
"Of course they do," Iakhovas said. "They seek to slow us and let Myth Nantar prepare to meet us."
Laaqueel had seen that the city had been opened through the images in the crystal brain coral. Iakhovas peered through the crystal almost incessantly. She'd had no contact with the female voice that spoke with her at the Battle of Voalidru. She also hadn't had to fight for her life since then.
And since that battle, she hadn't once prayed to Sekolah.
Then we're going to go into the trap?" Laaqueel asked.
Iakhovas smiled confidently. "I wouldn't miss it, little malenti."
* * * * *
"Are you afraid?" Sabyna asked.
Jherek cracked open a crab leg and dug out the tender meat inside. He sat with Sabyna on one of the benches on Maalirn's Walk near the Fire Fountain. The flames blazed up in spite of the water, and cooks used the heat to prepare meals for the humans who weren't used to eating uncooked seafood. They'd been in Myth Nantar now for five days.
"Aye," he told her without hesitation. "By all the stories I've been told of the Taker, by all the legends that Pacys has seen fit to tell me, he's a fearsome creature. I'd be a fool not to be afraid."
"You don't have to fight him."
Jherek was silent for a moment, then said, "Aye, but I do, lady. It's as Lathander would have me do, and there are those who believe I might be the only chance there is to end his menace for all time."
"You mean Pacys and Glawinn believe that."
"Aye."
"One wants to sing about you, Jherek, and the other believes in heroes."
"Do you find me so hard to believe in, lady?"
Sabyna shook her head, the anger in her features softening. "No," she admitted, "I believe in you, Jherek, but I'm afraid for you, too."
"It only shows you have good sense."
"How can you joke about this?"
"Lady, forgive me. I'm not joking. I just don't want to burden you-or myself."
"What if I asked you not to do this?" Sabyna asked. "What if I asked you not to stand and fight with these people?"
Jherek was silent for a moment, looking into her copper-colored eyes. "Would you?" he asked finally.
She looked away from him. "Selune help a misguided fool," she said, "I should never have brought this up."
"Would you ask me?" Jherek asked quietly. "Now I need to know."
"If I was going to ask you, I already would have," she told him. "I know what your answer would be anyway. It just seems so unfair that we have this between us and we stand on the brink of losing it all."
Jherek took her hand in his, squeezing it lightly. "Lady, I prefer to think that we stand on the brink of having more than I'd ever dreamed."
Tears glittered in her eyes, and he could tell she searched for something to say. "I'm sorry I even thought about asking you this, Jherek. It's a streak of selfishness in me that I'm not proud of."
"It's good to know the things you want."
She smiled through her tears. "I know I want you."
"As I want you, lady." He lifted her fingers to his lips and kissed them softly. "Neither of us knows what the future may bring, and I've had enough of living in the past. I will take what I can get."
"I know."
"As for fighting the Taker, I won't be going into that battle alone. Glawinn will be there, as well as a host of warriors who have spent their lives in battle."
"I don't know why it has to be you."
"Nor do I, lady. I only know that I won't walk away from this. All my life I've looked for something to believe in. Lathander is teaching me to believe in myself. No one caused me to be the way I am. I walk the path I do because I chose to walk it. I stayed with the people I did because I wanted to, not because I had to. Looking back as Lathander has bade