The Sea Devil's Eye - Mel Odom [28]
Jherek felt like a giant hand reached inside of him and tried to yank his heart from his chest. He sat up straighter, knocking the cutlass from his knees, his chest suddenly too tight to breathe.
The feeling of being yanked out of his own body passed as suddenly as it came, dropping Jherek back to the floor. He gasped, then his breath came back to him in a rush. Awareness returned to him, making him feel as though a part of him was gone, but he couldn't name which part.
"Your promise," the diviner stated in a strained voice, "is accepted."
"Lathander help you, young warrior," Glawinn said gravely, "as I will if I am able."
Jherek sat, stunned, unable to explain what had passed between the woman and him. He had no doubt that it would have consequences.
Dehnee took her hands from his and lifted the astrolabe from her lap. She spoke over the device, calling out in a language Jherek couldn't understand. A purple flame filled the yellowed crystal and threw a lambent glow over the room. A moment later and the light shrank back inside the astrolabe.
"It's finished," the diviner said, and offered the instrument to Jherek.
The young sailor reached for the astrolabe, his limbs feeling like lead. When he touched the polished surface, an icy chill filled him.
"All the readings you take from that astrolabe will give you the position of Vurgrom's ship and not your own," Dehnee said.
"You took a reading from the disk for Vurgrom," Azla said.
The diviner didn't try to deny it. "Yes."
"What did you learn?"
The diviner shook her head. "Not much," she said. The disk is protected from the small skills I have."
From what he'd been through in the last few minutes, Jherek doubted the diviner's skills were in any way small. He wondered what brought her to the Dragonisle, and why to that place's most desolate harbor. Had it been through choice, or need? How would that affect the promise he'd made her?
"But you learned something," Azla said.
"The disk is designed to lead its possessor to a weapon," Dehnee said.
"What weapon?"
"I couldn't see that much, but I know it lies somewhere off the coast of Turmish. In the vision, I was able to see that coastline and the druids that care for the place. In the past, I've been there."
"You're certain of this?" Glawinn asked.
"Yes."
The paladin faced Jherek and asked, "Did the talisman ever try to guide you?"
The young sailor thought back. He had possessed Lathander's disk for only minutes. "No."
"Maybe the disk isn't guiding Vurgrom either," Sabyna offered.
"It is," Jherek told her.
"How do you know this?" asked Azla.
"Because," the young sailor said, "I felt it come alive in my grasp."
VII
10 Flamerule, the Year of the Gauntlet
"You're keeping to yourself a lot these days."
Jherek looked down from his position in the rigging and spotted Sabyna. "Good evening, lady," he said, and immediately felt uncomfortable.
There had been much to do in the four days since they'd taken their leave of the Dragonisle. Jherek had taken care to stay involved in shipboard duties that the pretty ship's mage hadn't been assigned to oversee.
"I've gotten the impression you don't care much for present company," Sabyna said as she hauled herself up in the rigging and looked out over the curved horizon of the sea.
They were well away from land now, sailing by the mystic astrolabe. The canvas cracked and snapped as it held the wind.
"Not true," replied Jherek. He marked his place in the romance Glawinn had loaned him.
"I thought maybe I was the cause."
"Of course not," Jherek assured her. "Why would you think such a thing?"
"Because the last time we spoke I was so… forward."
"You merely said what was on your mind."
"Is that what you think?" she asked softly.
Despite the quietness of her words, barely heard over the crash of the waves below and the snap of canvas sails around them, Jherek suddenly felt as though he'd stepped into the jaws