Under Fallen Stars - Mel Odom [142]
"That's it, young warrior," Glawinn said softly. "Get it out. Let it all out."
"Shut up!" Jherek said.
"Get it all out. All the frustration and fear and anger. Give it to me. Once you get rid of it, you'll fill up again. You'll see."
Glawinn fought even more fiercely, his blade moved like a live thing hammered into the steel. Jherek couldn't even see the blades any more, only the red fog of anger that clouded his vision in the darkness. He was vaguely aware of the crowd of sailors that had been attracted to the duel.
"Give me your anger," Glawinn coaxed.
Jherek swung harder, faster, and sparks shot from the blades. His legs quivered from the strain of keeping up with his arm as they moved him across the deck. He concentrated all his hate on the paladin, just wanting the man to shut up.
Then, without the least indication of what he was going to do, Glawinn dropped his sword point to the deck, leaving himself totally defenseless. Jherek checked his swing with difficulty, missing a diagonal cross-body slash that would have cut Glawinn from right shoulder to left hip if it had landed.
"What are you doing?" he shouted. "I could have killed you!"
"Proving to you that you can trust your eye and your arm," Glawinn stated calmly.
"And what if I hadn't been able to stop myself?"
"Then I'd have been wrong."
Suddenly overcome with emotion, Jherek threw the cutlass down and turned to walk away.
Glawinn sheathed his own weapon and grabbed him by the shirtfront. "Where are you going?"
"Away," Jherek answered. "Away from you and this madness." He tried to push away, but the paladin held him too tightly.
"No. You must realize what you were able to do. What skills you have."
"I could have killed you," Jherek said hoarsely, not believing the man couldn't understand him.
"But you didn't. Don't you see that?"
"No," Jherek answered. "No, I don't. You took a fool's chance with your life."
"I trusted your skill so that you could trust it too. Your eye and your arm, Jherek. I'll teach you to believe, but we'll begin there."
"I could have killed you."
The image of the knight with his chest and belly split open filled Jherek's head and made him sick. Nausea boiled up inside him and Glawinn helped him over to the railing. Later, when he was finished and there was nothing else to give up, Glawinn pulled him back. Jherek's mouth was filled with the sour taste.
"And what if you had killed me, young warrior?" the knight asked in a ragged whisper. "Would it have mattered?"
"Aye"
"If you're so empty of caring, it shouldn't have. You may think your heart's empty, but it's not." Glawinn held him at arm's length, both of them breathing hard and covered with sweat. "It's not completely empty. Trust what's within your reach and the rest will come." Tears ran down the knight's face as he held the young sailor's face between his callused hands. "I give you my promise."
Jherek wished desperately that he could believe, but he couldn't. There'd been too many lies.
XXIX
2 Flamerule, the Year of the Gauntlet
Tarjana cleaved steadily through the water, deep into the territory of Aleaxtis. Vahaxtyl, the sahuagin capital, lay in ruins less than five hundred yards away, riven by the volcano's explosion the day before.
Standing on the enchanted mudship's prow, Laaqueel stared out at the destruction scattered over the bed of the Alamber Sea. It was worse than she had expected. For a time she'd feared none of the sahuagin community had lived through the fiery blast.
Huge, jagged rocks lay strewn across the blasted terrain. Dead fish floated in the dappled turquoise water and glinted silver where the weak sun's rays touched them. Small scavengers that had finally returned to the area worried frantically at the unexpected feast, concerned that larger predators would come at any moment. More rubble covered the skeletal remains of ships that had fallen to sahuagin savagery, battles, and deadly storms.
Dozens of sahuagin bodies floated in the currents