The Sea Devil's Eye - Mel Odom [90]
The love is true, Swims Truly said quietly. You feel the connection strongly. It is how our kind finds our mates.
"I can't-" Jherek started to protest.
Hush, Swims Truly instructed. Jherek Whalefriend, no matter how much you doubt, you can never be other than what you were born and guided to be. Perhaps you can delay these things, but you can never make them go away. Whether you wish it or not, whether you feel entitled to it or not, at this time you love the female and she loves you.
Abruptly, a wind came up from the east, flowing over Steadfast and rattling her rigging. Even with his eyes open now, Jherek could feel the tug urging him in Sabyna's direction. He closed his eyes again, imagining her and drinking her image in. He reached for her, calling her name.
The image sharpened and he saw her in one of the small rooms aboard Azure Dagger. She sat on a chair in front of Arthoris, the ship's mage. Her head turned and her eyes searched for him.
"Jherek," she called. A feeling of dread, of loss and confused pain, clung to her.
Startled, the young sailor lost his concentration. He dropped to his knees, suddenly weakened.
You put too much of yourself into the seeking. You must be wary of this.
Jherek gasped, gazing down at the sapphire whale. "She's in danger."
Of course, Swims Truly said. All of Seros is in danger. Your love follows the currents to the greatest danger of all.
Anxiety filled the young sailor. "I should never have left her side," he said.
There was no choice. To be what you need to be, you had to come to these waters. If you had stayed with her, she would have been lost for certain. As you would have been, and all of Seros as well. Now you are closer to being what you need to be so that most will be saved.
"Will she be saved?"
That remains to be writ, Jherek Whalefriend. We can see but a few currents from this point on, and all of those are not clear, nor without risk. Much death lies ahead for all of Seros. No one may save them all. Perhaps, you will not even save yourself. If you do not complete yourself, you may not have even that chance.
"What do I need to do?"
Accept. Begin there and the rest will follow. May Oghma, Lord of Knowledge and Bards, keep you within his sight.
Without another word, Swims Truly dived deeply into the blue-green water and disappeared.
"Should we sail?" Tarnar asked. "Or do you yet have business with the whales?"
"No," Jherek said. "It's time for us to go."
He stared west, wishing he could be with Sabyna at that moment, facing whatever danger waited for her.
"Where do we sail?"
"West," the young sailor answered. "As fast as we are able."
XIX
6 Eleint, the Year of the Gauntlet
"He hates you, my liege," Tu'uua'col said, "even though you are his father."
He swam easily at King Vhaemas's side through the palace in Voalidru. As usual, even though he'd been the king's advisor and trusted friend for years, all the other court personnel stayed away from him.
The merman king's face turned bitter, and his eyes wouldn't meet his friend's. Broadened by the sea and battle, a little more than eight feet long from head to tail, the old king's frame remained heavily muscled despite his sixty-eight years. His gold crown, inset with precious gems and rare bits of coral, held back his white hair. Scars decorated his arms and torso. Pink-ridged flesh scored the left side of his face from a koalinth attack years past.
"My blood is in him," King Vhaemas argued.
"And you denied it."
"Because I had to," the merman monarch replied.
"Yet you loved his mother."
Vhaemas put out a webbed hand and stopped his forward motion through the palace hallway. The nearest pages and court attendees scattered. Though he was one of the most favored kings in the history of the Serosian merfolk. his temper was legendary
"A nation," the