The Sea Devil's Eye - Mel Odom [96]
"That was a long time ago."
"Currents change," the Senior High Mage replied. "Things are not as they once were."
"Aye," Khlinat put in. "Dwarves are known for their warrin' ways. Don't know if ye get much stories about us down here, but I can tell ye that nothing sets a dwarf afire with passion the way a good battle can. Different communities battled ores and goblins for caves where gems were mined and a dwarf could live if he had a mind to. They also fought one another for the same things. Now ye take a dwarf down to a tavern and him blowing the suds off a fresh mug and a human or elf get physical with him, why any other dwarf in the place would be the first to stand up for him if he got into more than he could handle."
"But if it was an elf or a half-ore in trouble, these dwarven feelings you praise so highly wouldn't be quite so ready, would they?" Ildacer asked sarcastically.
"Now there's a funny thought," Khlinat said without taking offense. "I seen mates on a ship, crew that had been together through some stormy weather and buckle to buckle against pirates what had tried to reeve them of their cargo-and they was a mixed bag, the lot of 'em. Aboard ship, they had their problems, but the cap'n set 'em straight. Mayhap on occasion they'd take an unkind hand with each other once they reached shore, but when it come to taverns and local roustabouts laving hands on 'em, why ye'd have thought they was long-lost brothers the way the›* took up for one another."
Everyone looked at the dwarf, who appeared suddenly as though he'd rather be elsewhere.
Finally Reefglamor broke the silence. "I've never heard you speak so much."
"I have me moments." Khlinat replied gruffly.
"Thank Deep Sashelas that you do, Khlinat. Your words ring true and I shall have to think upon them."
"I'm just saying there ain't no grand and perfect solution to how folks are to get along with one another," the dwarf said. "Neighbors ought to pay attention to who's in the neighborhood before they start picking fights with one another.*
"The mermen will never listen." Ildacer argued. "You know how proud and haughty they are."
Reefglamor glanced at his second-in-command. "How very like the Alu'Tel'Quessir they are, you mean?"7
"No, that's not what I meant to…"
Reefglamor sighed and looked out over Mount Halaath standing tall to the northwest. After circling under the Whamite Isles, the caravan had fixed on it and marched straight toward it. The City of Destinies lay between them and Mount Halaath.
"Senior, what I am saying is that we might be swayed by Khlinat's words while sitting here so far from our own homes, feeling perhaps a little lost and friendless, but King Vhaemas and his people are not going to feel the same. This place is the source of their strength. Even with the morkoth and koalinth adding to the ranks of the sahuagin, the Taker can't possibly hope to overrun all of Eadraal."
"From what I have pieced together," Pacys said. "The Taker only wants his eye."
"Have you found out what that is?" Jhanra asked.
Pacys strummed the saceddar. "Not yet. All that I am sure of at the moment is that it is some device the Taker had in his possession when Umberlee struck him down."
"Even so, to get the eye from Myth Nantar, the Taker will have to march through Eadraal," Reefglamor said. "As much as King Yhaemas hates the City of Destinies and all that it stands for, he won't see the Taker free to ravage it."
"Again," Ildacer said, "the Taker will have to raise up an army the like of which has never before been seen."
"And you have assurances," Reefglamor asked quietly, "that the Taker cannot accomplish this?"
"No, Senior."
"Good," Reefglamor responded. "So far the Taker has succeeded at everything he's attempted to do. We have no proof that we've set him back in any way at all."
"Except for the Great Whale Bard," Tidark commented in his whispering rasp. The High Mage was much older even than Reefglamor and usually given to his studies, not spending much time in the company of others.
Pacys knew it was true, but