The Sea Devils Eye (30 page)

“We should wait,” Sabyna said. “Vurgrom is moving a lot of supplies. He isn’t planning on living off the land. I think hell be easy enough to find.”

“Then we wait till after dark and pick up his trail?” Azla asked.

“Yes,” Glawinn said. “He won’t get so far ahead of us that we can’t catch him soon enough. If he’s stocking supplies, what he is going to do isn’t going to happen too soon.”

“Ill see to our own supplies,” Azla stated. “We’re going in stripped down. I want to be able to move quickly if the need arises.”

“Agreed,” Glawinn said.

Sabyna listened to the half-elfs footsteps recede from the railing.

“Lady?” the paladin asked.

“Aye.”

“You’re quiet.”

“I’m thinking.”

“About the young warrior?”

Sabyna hesitated. Upon occasion she and the paladin had talked of Jherek, but those talks had never brought much in the way of satisfaction. She couldn’t help thinking that he might be dead and she’d never know, but the feeling Glawinn had told her would come if that were so never did.

“Do you still feel him close to you?” Glawinn asked.

“Not now, but earlier this morning. I could have sworn I heard him say my name on the wind again. It was foolishness, brought on by too much anxiety and too little sleep.”

“And, mayhap, love?”

She hesitated. I don’t know anymore, Glawinn. The way I feel has changed.”

““Don’t you still miss him?”

“Aye, but not like I did.‘7

That’s a good thing, though, lady. There’s only so much pain a heart can bear.”

“I don’t know. Not missing him so much scares me.”

“Why?”

She smiled at herself, then realized Glawinn couldn’t see the expression. “When I was younger, just coming into my teens, I fell in love with one of the sailors on a ship my father worked on. He was seven or eight years older than I was, and he was so beautiful. I wanted him so badly to love me-to just notice me-but I was Ship’s Mage Truesail’s daughter, and the crew knew to leave me alone. My father was very protective then.”

“So this love went unrequited?”

“Not entirely. I followed him around like a guppy staying with its school. He couldn’t ignore me, but he didn’t say anything. My mother noticed. She talked to my father. My mother is the only one who has the ability to convince my father to change his mind. She persuaded him to let me eat eveningfeast with the sailor.”

“Did the sailor live up to your expectations, lady?”

Sabyna laughed at the memory, but there was a bit of sadness in the effort as well. ‘“No. It was horrible. We sat there at that little table across from each other and had absolutely nothing to talk about.” She laughed again. “Well, I had nothing to talk about. All he did was talk about the things he’d done, the women he’d seen, and how he’d be captain of a Waterdhavian Watch warship someday.

“That was an infatuation, Glawinn. How am I to know this isn’t?”

“I know love when I see it, lady.”

She suddenly wished she could see the warrior’s face. “How do you know it’s love?” she asked.

“Close your eyes, lady, and imagine his face in your mind.”

Sabyna pictured Jherek in her mind, as she’d first seen him aboard Breezerunner, then again as he’d fought for her when Vurgrom kidnapped them in Baldur’s Gate. All the memories she had of him, of the way his chest had felt beneath her fingers, the way his lips had felt and tasted against hers, tumbled through her mind.

She seemed to see him again. His light brown hair twisted in the wind and a green-blue sea spread out behind him. White sailcloth fluttered overhead. There was a cut on his face, running vertically over his right cheekbone, half-healed and slightly red from inflammation.

Jherek?

Aye, lady. His lips moved, as though he spoke, but she couldn’t understand any of his words.

Sabyna’s heart swelled within her breast and ached so fiercely she thought she’d die. Then the connection blurred for a moment.

Come to me! she called.

He spoke again, smiling through the sadness in his pale gray eyes. She couldn’t hear him this time either, but she read his lips. As you wish.

Opening her eyes, Sabyna remained somewhat confused. She couldn’t see her own hands in front of her body due to the invisibility spell.

“Lady?” Glawinn asked.

“I’m all right.”

“I called for you but you didn’t answer.”

“It was like I could talk to him, Glawinn,” Sabyna said. “He felt closer than he’d been those times before.”

“Maybe he is.”

“I don’t know whether to wish that was so or not.”

“Why?”

“I hate not knowing if he’s all right,” Sabyna answered honestly, “and I don’t like missing him-but we’re so uncomfortable around each other.”

“I know.”

“I just don’t see that changing.”

“It won’t,” Glawinn said after a short time. “Not until the young warrior himself changes. But tell me, lady, when you imagined him, how did it feel?”

Sabyna thought about her answer. There were so many things she could say. “I like thinking about him.”

“Then accept that as it is for now, lady.”

“It’s not that easy.”

“No.”

Sudden irritation at the paladin dawned in Sabyna, and her mind seized on something he’d said. “How did you know about my brother? I never mentioned it to you.”

“Jherek told me,” Glawinn said.

“Why?”

The silence drew out between them and Sabyna wished she could see the man’s face.

“I would rather the young warrior tell you that.”

“Is that part of the secret he won’t tell me?” she asked. “How could it be?”

“Lady, as I said-“

“He’s not here for me to ask him myself.”

Sabyna grew more frustrated. If not for Arthoris’s invisibility spell she could pin the paladin down with her gaze.

“The things I was told were told to me in confidence.”

“Glawinn, I will have the truth. From you or from him, I will know what you both hide. I’m too deeply involved in this not to know.” Sabyna made her voice harder. “Tell me, Glawinn. What is it about my brothers death that so concerns Jherek?”

XXI

Myth Nantar.

Even the name evoked magic and a sense of incredible history.

From the moment he saw the sea elven city in the shallows of the Lesser Hmur Plateau, Pacys was at a loss for words. Thankfully, music came to his fingers. Still a quarter mile from the City of Destinies, the bard stopped swimming and settled on the foothills of Mount Halaath.

“This a pretty thing, isn’t it?” Khlinat, who swam to the bard’s side, asked.

“Yes,” Pacys whispered.

Around them, the sea elf caravan came to a stop along the foothills. From the behavior of most of the warriors, it was the first time they’d seen the city as well.

The pale blue glow of the ancient mythal illuminated Myth Nantar against the dark black of the sea. The City of Destinies sat on a tableland that rose up from the ocean floor above the Lower Hmur Plateau, three hundred and seventy feet below the surface.

During the centuries of its isolation, coral had invaded Myth Nantar. Thick clumps of aqua-colored cryscoral grew in crystalline plate formations and clung to the exteriors of the ancient buildings. Pale blue ice coral dominated the upper reaches of the city, strung together in knobby clusters that reminded Pacys of spiderwebs draped over the upper reaches of the mythal. Bright patches of glowcoral had set up colonies throughout the city, creating shadows that twisted and turned in the currents.

“By Marthammor Duin, the Finder of Trails,” Khlinat whispered solemnly, “never had I dreamed I would ever see such a sight as this!”

Pacys drank in all the sights, letting his fingers pluck notes from the saceddar. The music he wrung from the instrument was bittersweet memories mixed with the sharp euphoria of hope and dreams yet unfulfilled. Tears came to the old bard’s eyes as the song possessed him.

Elven city, pale and cold,

Shaped by hands strong and bold,

Vessel and shaper of destiny,

Care-taker and leader of unity,

Lost Myth Nantar lay wrapped in her own shroud,

Broken but unbent, humbled yet proud.

Promise of life had not deserted her,

As proven by those who sought succor.

The words and the notes flowed around Mount Halaath, and there were none among the sea elves who weren’t touched by the emotion stirred by the old bard’s song. After a short time for reflection and prayer from the clerics among them, who asked for guiding and blessing from Deep Sashelas, Reefglamor gave the order to swim to Myth Nantar.

The warriors went first, flanking the High Mages on all sides.

Pacys gazed at the city as the caravan closed on it. He heard the haunting singing that came from somewhere among the city’s empty buildings. Some of the Alu’Tel’ Quessir’s legends had it that the city was now haunted by the ghosts of those who’d been slain during the sahuagin invasion of the Tenth Seros War.

As he got closer, the old bard was able to make out the four quarters of the city and identify them from the maps he’d seen. The Elves’ Quarter-a place of libraries and villas-lay in the northeastern corner of the city, covered over by the thick layers of aqua-colored cryscoral. What had been the Trade Quarter lay to the south of the Elves’ Quarter. The Alu’Tel’Quessir histories had it that markets and entertainment had once ruled there, powered by the merchants who traded with those above and below. Now tiger-coral reefs grew rampant, closing most of the buildings from sight. The Law Quarter-the now-deserted seat of the sea elf government-occupied the southwestern corner of Myth Nantar. Tiger-coral grew from the roofs of the tallest buildings in Myth Nantar, making them even taller.

The least devastated area of the City of Destinies was the Dukar Quarter. Lucent coral street lamps lined the surprisingly clear streets. Pacys easily recognized the Dukarn Academy by the arrangement of four rectangular buildings facing the octagonal Paragon’s College. Crafted of opulent pearl, the Palace of lenaron stood nestled up against Mount Halaath along Maalirn’s Walk and picked up the glow from the lucent coral climbing the mountain. The Keep of Seven Spires stood two stories tall, then branched into seven four-story towers all made of green marble.

At the center of the City of Destinies, where Maalirn’s Walk, Chamal Avenue, the Street of Ser-Ukcal, and the Promenade of Kupav all came together, the Fire Fountain shot twisting yellow and orange flames into the sea. It burned hot enough to actually warm the currents within the mythal. Pacys had read that the flames had burned more than nine hundred years. Three Gates’ Reef got its name from the arches over the three roads that exited the city. Maalirn’s Walk ended at Mount Halaath.

The city’s illumination made everything seem normal despite the crusty coral growth spread throughout the streets and buildings. The Great Barrier was invisible to the naked eye save as an occasional shimmering in the water. It looked as though Pacys could swim right into the city.

He saw the first of the advance warriors colliding with the Great Barrier. They drew back at once in stunned disbelief, then tested their tridents against the mythal’s might. The impacts rang like steel on stone.

Pacys and Khlinat joined Reefglamor as the Senior High Mage swam toward the Great Barrier. The glow from the lucent coral washed the color from Reefglamor, lending him an ethereal pallor. Together, they sank toward Myth Nan tar.

“It’s a beautiful place!” Pacys said.

“It was,” Reefglamor said, his eyes sweeping the city. “It is my fervent wish that before I die I should be able to swim these streets, to touch the things that my ancestors once touched.”

“Perhaps you shall.”

Pacys stretched his toes down, fully expecting to touch the solid surface at any moment. Instead, he was surprised to find himself sliding on through where the Great Barrier should have been.

“Pacys!” Khlinat’s startled yelp followed the metallic thunk the dwarfs peg made when it crashed against the Great Barrier. He made a quick grab for the old bard’s hand but missed. “Marthammor Duin take me for a-“

The rest of the dwarfs expletive was cut off. Looking up through the shimmering haze that separated him from the sea elves and the dwarf, Pacys realized that he was on the other side of the Great Barrier.

More of the sea elf warriors descended on the protective shielding and tried to force their way through with their weapons. Pacys never even heard their efforts through the shimmering haze. The old bard swam upward but found the way blocked. He put his hands against the Great Barrier and tried to will himself through.

Instead, the barrier remained firm.

“You can’t get out, Taleweaver,” a deep voice rumbled.

Slowly, sliding his staff free of the harness that held it across his back, Pacys twisted it, flaring the foot-long blades open at either end.

There are things you must be shown, things you must learn.”

Above Pacys, the Great Barrier darkened, shutting out the view to the outside world. At the same time an impossibly large shadow stepped from the buildings below. The old bard recognized him immediately as a storm giant. The green skin, dark green hair and beard, and glittering emerald eyes gave room for no mistake. He stood something less than thirty feet tall with huge shoulders and a broad chest. In true Serosian custom, the storm giant wore no clothes, though anklets, bracelets, and rings adorned his forearms, ankles, and fingers.

“Who are you?” Pacys asked, remaining near the top of the Great Barrier above the storm giant. Even as he looked at the huge warrior, the old bard could sense that there was a glamor around him. Skilled as he was, Pacys could almost see past it.

The giant smiled. “I am Qos, a Green Dukar. I am the Grand Savant of the Fifth Order and Paragon of the Maalirni Order. I have been waiting for you. There is much work ahead of us.”

*****

Floating well back of Iakhovas, Laaqueel watched as he reached inside his cloak and pulled something free. She felt the crackle of magic in the air as Iakhovas spoke strong words of power. The singsong cadence filled the currents ten miles north of Naulys, one of the chief cities of the merman empire below the western shores of the Whamite Isles. He spread the items he’d taken from his cloak into the water. Gold gleamed from his artificial eye. Bright purple sparkles danced from his palm when he opened his hand.