The Sea Devil's Eye - Mel Odom [56]
In the next instant, Jherek got a glimpse of the creature's speed. Dipping its head into the ocean, the sea wyrm flipped its tail and pulled the ear fins in tight against its head. It cut through the water cleanly, gliding twenty feet in the blink of an eye.
The sea wyrm raised its great head from the ocean, water dripping from the edges of its open mouth. It rose from the sea until it could stare into Jherek's eyes with one of its own. The sea dappled it like diamonds.
Hypnotized by the fear that filled him as well as awe, Jherek held the creature's gaze. It was close enough to reach out and touch.
"You have a chance," Meelat stated. "Strike quick, if you can, and put that knife through that thing's eye."
Shifting subtly, Jherek reversed the blade, putting the point down. He stared into the orange eye, wider across than a pie plate. At the distance, he knew he wouldn't miss.
Whether the blade was long enough to reach the serpent's brain was another matter.
The finned head moved closer, tentatively. Brine-flavored breath rushed over Jherek.
"Strike now!" Meelat urged. "That thing's going to have the head from your shoulders like a grape from the vine."
"No," Jherek said.
The forked tongue flicked out at the young sailor, missing him by inches. From the periphery of his vision, he saw the ship's crew armed with bows.
Afraid the pirates would fire at the creature, Jherek slowly sheathed the big knife.
"What are you doing?" Meelat demanded.
"I'm giving us the only chance we have. It's curious- nothing more." Standing steady, Jherek faced the sea wyrm.
The forked tongue flicked again, whispering through the air beside his ear, making light popping noises. The young sailor flinched, then steadied himself again. The forked tongue brushed against his face the next time, feeling wet, tough, and leathery.
The sea wyrm drew back out of reach. Its ear fins popped forward, and its large mouth yawned open. The orange eyes glinted. It hissed, yowling as if in anger.
Arrows sped from the pirate archers. Most of them dropped into the water around the sea wyrm, but three of them bounced from the golden scales.
"Stop!" Jherek commanded.
The sea wyrm turned its attention from the young sailor to the slave ship and back again. Sunlight gleamed from its sharp teeth. It hissed at Jherek again, then dived beneath the water, swimming deep and disappearing almost immediately.
"How did you know it wouldn't attack?" Meelat asked.
Jherek shrugged and said, "I didn't."
"Sails! Sails off the stern!"
Still shaking inside, Jherek turned and gazed back behind the slave ship at the cry from the lookout in the crow's nest. There, against the curve of the ocean's northern horizon, square cut white sails interrupted the Line between smooth blue sky and green water. Judging the set of the sails, the young sailor knew the ship was headed for them.
* * * * *
"Where are we?"
On the other side of the gate they'd used to pass from Tarjanas belly, Laaqueel spread her webbed hands and feet, stopping her descent toward the distant ocean floor. From the deep blue color of the sea around them, the malenti priestess judged they were in Seros's gloom strata, the level of the sea between one hundred fifty and three hundred feet.
"Thuridru," Iakhovas answered without looking at her. He held a gem in his hand that glowed suddenly.
According to her studies of Seros, Thuridru was a mer-folk city along the Turmish coast. Located north of the Xedran Reefs where the ixitxachitl theocracy claimed the Six Holy Cities, Thuridru held a precarious position. Trapped near the ixitxachitl nation, Thuridru was also the sworn enemy of Voalidru, the capital city of the merfolk of Eadraal.
The city of rogue merfolk," Laaqueel said.
"What do you know of Thuridru?"
"Little," the malenti admitted.
"Nearly four hundred years ago, there was a territorial skirmish between the mermen and the ixitxachitl nations over kelp beds