The Sea Devil's Eye - Mel Odom [148]
Azla stood up, coughing and gagging in the stern, then took a deep breath and started bellowing orders to her crew. Azure Dagger listed heavily in the sea, nearly half of her below the waterline.
"Look," Pacys said softly. The Taker."
Jherek turned in time to see Iakhovas pull up from the sea, grabbing hold of Azure Daggers stern. The helmsman turned on the man, swinging a cutlass.
Iakhovas blocked the blade with his bare arm and the steel broke with a sharp ping. The Taker shoved his arm against the man, thrusting a sharp-edged fin through the helmsman's chest in a spray of blood.
Striding to the railing, Iakhovas roared, "Get off my ship or die!"
* * * * *
Laaqueel tasted the salt in the water around her and knew she was home. She gazed through the deep blue-green sea and tried to sense in what direction the sahuagin kingdom of Alkyraan in the Claarteeros Sea lay.
And should you go back there, the female voice asked, what do you think will be waiting for you?
"Leave me alone," Laaqueel demanded.
A hero's homecoming? A grateful return for the Most Sacred One-And what happens when some of the sahuagin in these waters return there as well with stories of-the way. Iakhovas has betrayed them? What if Iakhovas himself return* there intending to control the kingdom he won while he plots war with the rest of Toril?"
"No."
Those are his plans, Laaqueel. You cannot deny that.
The malenti priestess cowered in the water, wishing there was some way to be free.
You can be free.
"By giving myself to you?"
I will teach you to live free, Laaqueel. I will show you things you've longed for all your life and have never been able to name. You've changed too much now to go back to what you were.
"No."
Yes.
Laaqueel floated in the water, watching as sahuagin and pirate continued the war they'd begun in Seros. Some of the sahuagin wore the bluer colors of the Inner Sea.
"Who are you?"
I am Eldath, called the Green Goddess and the Quiet One. The Twelfth Seros War has destroyed much of the harmony my priests and priestesses have wrought over the last years. This is necessary, though, to promote the greater harmony we've striven for throughout the Inner Sea.
"Why have you come to me?"
During your association with the Taker, Laaqueel, you have changed and grown. I see much promise in you. Like you, Seros will have to change and grow. There are noble malenti in Seros who have no ties with the sahuagin. I would introduce you to them.
Laaqueel adjusted her air bladder and floated effortlessly, torn between what she hoped for and what she knew to be true. Home could never be home again unless Iakhovas was there to enforce her privileges. She would give up more than she would gain.
Little malenti, Iakhovas called, to me. There is a ship I want, and we'll need a crew to get it to Skaug where we may begin planning anew.
Skaug was the pirate capital of the Nelanther Isles, a place Iakhovas had taken Laaqueel before. She hesitated.
Little malenti!
The quill next to Laaqueel's heart twitched in warning. She started up to the surface, tracking the bond between her and Iakhovas.
* * * * *
Placing a hand on the sea wyrm's back, Jherek vaulted to Azure Daggers tilted deck. Azla ran up the stern castle steps toward Iakhovas, her scimitar in her fist. The Taker grinned cruelly at her and a ruby beam leaped out from his golden eye.
The beam touched Azla and blasted her in a shower of sparks. She flew back over the railing to the main deck, her blouse afire and the stench of ozone in the air.
Jherek broke stride, thinking to go to Azla's side.
"Go, young warrior," Glawinn thundered.
The paladin lurched across the broken deck, dragging his right leg heavily at his side. His left arm was curled up tightly by his chest, blood streaming from a wound marked by a wooden shard protruding from it.
Jherek ran up the stern castle stairs, watching as Iakhovas swung on him with the mystic eye. The young paladin leaped,