Under Fallen Stars - Mel Odom [129]
Thank Sekolah's uncaring grace that the sea elf had wandered into the area to provide him some distraction. T'Kalah undulated through the water, gliding through the kelp. From the changes in pressure along his lateral lines, he knew exactly where the sea elf was. The sahuagin royal guard closed the distance, knowing from the lack of movement that the elf had come to a stop. Whether because he'd seen T'Kalah or just wanted to observe the city wasn't clear.
T'Kalah parted the kelp with two of his hands while holding a trident in his third. He spotted the sea elf ahead of him, hunkered down behind a ridge of rock and sparse growths of gold-and-brown striped tiger coral. He was blue all over, with only a few white patches. T'Kalah guessed that the elf was there trying for one of the shipwrecks in the area that had been left by his people.
The sea elves often tried to raid the shipwrecks in the area controlled by We Who Eat. King Kromes had even taken to seeking out magic items himself, identified by the priestesses, and hoarded them as further temptation to the sea elves and surface dwellers alike. T'Kalah knew for certain that the number of magic items stored at the palace was considerable.
Spreading his fingers and toes so the webbing would better catch the water, T'Kalah swam for the sea elf.
Something must have given away his approach because the elf tried to turn and bring up a bone knife. "Black Claws!" the elf said, calling the big warrior by the name the surface world knew him by.
T'Kalah showed the elf no mercy, placing the trident before him and shoving it into the sea elf s chest. It was a quicker death than T'Kalah had intended. He would have preferred to make the elf beg for a time, taste the salt of his tears mixed in with the ocean before he'd ever tasted his victim's blood. Still, he held the elf at the end of the trident and shook him viciously until his death was apparent.
Climbing to the top of the rocks overlooking Vahaxtyl, T'Kalah shoved the end of the trident into a crack so that it supported the elf s corpse. He sat on a rock beside the dead man, popped his claws, and cut chunks from his unexpected feast.
T'Kalah shoved the gobbets of flesh into his mouth and swallowed them nearly whole. The blood scent in the water would draw other predators soon. Though the sharks knew better than to bother him, it was the little fish with all their darting around that annoyed him most. No matter how quickly he tried to eat a meal, they were always there scrounging for whatever they could get. He ate the soft parts first, knowing the little fish would go for those first as well.
His lateral lines picked up the changes in pressure even though he didn't immediately recognize what it was. He did know it came from the direction of Vahaxtyl.
The city was built on a shelf of rock it shared with the volcano the surface dwellers called the Ship of the Gods. His people called it Cliitaan, Cursed Fire. Besides the changes in pressure, his delicate olfactory senses also picked up the stench of sulfur. Scents spread quickly in the water much as sound did. As he watched, a red glow seemed to center midway up the Ship of the Gods. It grew rapidly, turning redder.
T'Kalah watched, mesmerized, wondering if Sekolah had started a new current-one that would change his life.
* * * * *
Laaqueel lost her footing when Tarjana's prow slammed into the left side of the opening at the bottom of the Lake of Steam. Though the ship itself wasn't hurt by the collision, she was lifted from the deck and tossed into the current that hurled her toward the stern.
All around her, filling the tunnel the mudship plunged through, molten lava glowed orange-yellow. The heat crisped fish that had been unlucky enough to be sucked in after them. Her senses were moving so quickly that even while she was turning in the vicious current herself she could see the flesh peeling back from the fish while they still lived, baring the skeletons beneath.
Just as she thought she was lost forever and about to share a similar fate as the fish,