The Sea Devils Eye (44 page)

“Why have you come to me?”

During your association with the Taker, Laaqueel, you have changed and grown. I see much promise in you. Like you, Seros will have to change and grow. There are noble malenti in Seros who have no ties with the sahuagin. I would introduce you to them.

Laaqueel adjusted her air bladder and floated effortlessly, torn between what she hoped for and what she knew to be true. Home could never be home again unless Iakhovas was there to enforce her privileges. She would give up more than she would gain.

Little malenti, Iakhovas called, to me. There is a ship I want, and we’ll need a crew to get it to Skaug where we may begin planning anew.

Skaug was the pirate capital of the Nelanther Isles, a place Iakhovas had taken Laaqueel before. She hesitated.

Little malenti!

The quill next to Laaqueel’s heart twitched in warning. She started up to the surface, tracking the bond between her and Iakhovas.

*****

Placing a hand on the sea wyrm’s back, Jherek vaulted to Azure Daggers tilted deck. Azla ran up the stern castle steps toward Iakhovas, her scimitar in her fist. The Taker grinned cruelly at her and a ruby beam leaped out from his golden eye.

The beam touched Azla and blasted her in a shower of sparks. She flew back over the railing to the main deck, her blouse afire and the stench of ozone in the air.

Jherek broke stride, thinking to go to Azla’s side.

“Go, young warrior,” Glawinn thundered.

The paladin lurched across the broken deck, dragging his right leg heavily at his side. His left arm was curled up tightly by his chest, blood streaming from a wound marked by a wooden shard protruding from it.

Jherek ran up the stern castle stairs, watching as Iakhovas swung on him with the mystic eye. The young paladin leaped, taking advantage of the tilted deck, arching his body in mid-air and flipping to land on the stern castle only a few feet from Iakhovas.

Though he hadn’t fought a mage before, he knew from stories that their power relied on being able to cast spells, and spells took time. He intended to give Iakhovas none. He willed Iridea’s Tear into a two-foot shield and advanced on the Taker.

“You’re the boy from the cave,” Iakhovas said. He grinned and took a step back as he drew the sword at his side.

“I am Jherek, a paladin in the service of Lathander, the Morninglord. If you would surrender, I would allow it.” The young paladin didn’t expect the man would, but the opportunity had to be offered.

Cruel lights glinted in Iakhovas’s real eye as well as the golden one that sat in the scarred socket. His runic tattoos made his face seem even darker. He laughed loudly.

“And you would kill me otherwise, boy?”

“Aye, and praise Lathander for giving me the strength.”

The words still sounded strange to Jherek’s ears, but in his heart they felt right and true.

Iakhovas drew himself up to his full height of nearly eight feet and drew the sword at his hip.

“I invented swordplay, boy. Edged steel … sharp as a shark’s tooth … shaped like a fin. Who else but me could create that?”

The great sword came around much quicker than Jherek anticipated. The young paladin stepped back and ducked, letting the blade go harmlessly by. Even as he started to set himself, Iakhovas brought the blade back at Jherek’s knees faster than any human could have done.

Leaping over the blade, Jherek flipped and came down on his feet. He lifted the shield just in time to keep the blade from cleaving his skull. He parried with his cutlass, scoring a deep cut on his opponent’s arm.

Iakhovas scowled and took a step back. A violet ray shot at Jherek from the Taker’s golden eye.

Reacting instantly, the young paladin raised his shield, which absorbed the ray and threw it back into Iakhovas’s face, staggering him. The young paladin immediately went on the offensive again, driving Iakhovas back. He thrust and parried, then lunged and slashed, moving steadily into the bigger man. Blood from Iakhovas’s wound dripped on the ship’s deck and left burned stigmata.

“You cannot kill me, boy,” Iakhovas shouted. “I will not allow myself to die. Even Umberlee tried to kill me and failed. Who are you to challenge me who would be a god?”

“I am a strong right arm of Lathander,” Jherek replied, burying the cutlass in the railing then ripping it free and diving back. He blocked Iakhovas’s return blow with his shield this time and slashed his opponent across the chest. “I am a beginning, chosen by the Morninglord.”

“Chosen to die,” Iakhovas taunted.

“No,’ Jherek said, “chosen to live.”

Jherek thrust and swung and parried. His blade moved even faster, picking up the pace in spite of all the battles he’d been in this day.

Iakhovas’s scowl deepened as he was forced back. Steel rang on steel, and for the first time Jherek realized some of the surviving sahuagin were attacking Azure Dagger.

Her crew defended her, aided by the sea wyrm. Pacys fought on the deck, his staff whirling as he chopped into the sea devils that fought to board. Khlinat was at the old bard’s side, his axes whirling madly.

Taking advantage of the young paladin’s distraction, Iakhovas stepped forward suddenly and chanced a side-arm blow straight for Jherek’s head. Jherek barely got his cutlass around to block the sword, but he was driven stumbling backward, off-balance.

Iakhovas came at him, snarling and with bloodlust in his eye. He raised the great sword two-handed and brought it down.

Jherek turned quickly, barely escaping the blow that shattered the navigator’s table behind him. He rolled to his feet, willing the bracer into a hook as he ducked under Iakhovas’s backhanded blow. He caught the blade in the hook, stopping it short and pulling the Taker off balance. Turning in, knowing the chance he was taking, the young paladin brought the cutlass crashing down on the trapped blade.

Harsh green light exploded on impact, and electricity filled the air. Steel shattered, falling in two pieces, leaving only an inch or two sticking out from the hilt.

Iakhovas stepped back in surprise, but a crafty smile lit his scarred and tattooed features.

“You haven’t seen all there is to me, boy,” Iakhovas said.

He turned and sprinted for the stern railing, leaping over it in a long, flat dive.

Jherek followed the movement, but stopped at the rail, amazed at what he saw.

By the time Iakhovas hit the water, he was no longer anything human. A manlike form went down, but a ninety-foot great white shark surfaced. Scars and tattooing showed around a golden eye. It sped out to sea and gradually went down, leaving only the triangular dorsal fin-as big as a house-sticking out of the water.

Sahuagin swarmed up the stern, and Jherek spent a few moments riposting their attacks and killing them. As he kicked the corpses back into the water, he noticed the triangular fin streaking for Azure Dagger.

“Hold on!” he roared in warning.

In the next instant, the huge shark slammed into the caravel. Timbers cracked and gave way as the predator hammered through the hull.

“Abandon ship, damn it!”

Jherek turned and saw Azla up and about. Wounds still covered her, but evidently Glawinn had healed the worst of it. She was mobile, but hurting greatly.

“Get the boats over the side and get into them!” she shouted. “We’re taking on water like a sieve!”

Glancing back out to sea, Jherek watched the massive predator come around for another pass.

*****

Laaqueel watched Iakhovas in awe as he transformed into the great shark.

Not a shark, Eldath corrected. Iakhovas is a megalodon, a prehistoric creature and perhaps the first such of his kind.

“But he once walked with gods,” Laaqueel said, watching as Iakhovas sped toward the ship.

With Umberlee, yes, and possibly even with Sekolah.

“He was never one of Sekolah’s chosen?”

No. He’s an aberration, a thing whose time is well gone.

Iakhovas turned from attacking the ship and fixed her with his real eye. Little malenti, his voice sounded in her head, vow arc slow to come when I command.

You must make a choice, Eldath said, here and now. Will you stay as an outcast with the sahuagin and keep Iakhovas as your master, or will you take what I offer?

*****

“Brace yourselves!” Jherek yelled as he grabbed the storm railing.

Iakhovas rammed Azure Dagger again, splitting the hull even more. As the huge predator pulled away this time, the young paladin felt the caravel listing, taking on water. He glanced over his shoulder as the vessel sank to its midsection. The crew routed the attacking sahuagin. The sea wyrm raised its golden finned head from the sea and returned Jherek’s gaze.

“I need you,” Jherek said.

The sea wyrm dived without hesitation and swam to the stern section. Out in the distance, Iakhovas came around for another pass. Jherek was certain this attack would leave the stricken vessel in tatters and the crew vulnerable to that great mouth filled with serrated teeth.

“Jherek!” Sabyna called from behind him.

“Lady,” the young paladin said. “You need to get in one of the boats and row for shore.” He pointed toward the low, green-forested hill that could be seen in the distance.

“What are you going to do?”

Jherek gave her a smile and answered, “All that I may, lady. I can do naught else.”

Sabyna took her kerchief from her hair and quickly tied it around his arm. “I would not stop you from doing as Lathander has directed, but you heed my words well.” Her voice cracked with emotion and a sheen was in her eyes. “You finish what you have been given to do, and you come back to me in one piece.”

Jherek’s heart soared, pushing aside even the fear and insecurity that thrummed inside him. He took her face in his hands and kissed her deeply.

“As you wish, lady,” he said, then threw himself from the stern castle in a dive that took him straight at the approaching shark.

Curving up toward the surface, watching the huge predator bearing down on him and suddenly realizing how vulnerable he was when the shark could swallow him and the sea wyrm whole, Jherek grabbed hold of the dragon-kin’s dorsal fin and pulled himself up on its back.

The bond between Jherek and the sea wyrm was strong. He guided it with his knees as he willed the bracer into a shield. He held his sword in his hand as they sped toward their foe.

Ninety feet of silent, sudden death sped at the young paladin. Jherek sat his mount, holding on tightly, gambling that the bracer’s power would see him through. The sea wyrm didn’t falter as it finned toward Iakhovas.

Holding on tightly to the grip inside the shield, Jherek narrowly avoided the black, cavernous mouth ringed by serrated teeth and smashed the shield into the huge predator’s snout. The impact hurled him dozens of feet from the sea wyrm and almost knocked him out, bet the shield absorbed the brunt of the blow. Iakhovas, incredibly, seemed staggered.

“You’ll die for that boy,” he said as he turned in the water.

The sea wyrm swam to Jherek’s side in a flash of golden light. Fighting the disorientation that gripped him, the young paladin tried to mount again.

Iakhovas’s snout was bloodied. His golden eye gleamed.

Jherek tried to pull up onto the sea wyrm but missed. He concentrated, keeping his grip as the dragon-kin pulled him backward. The great predator bore down on him.

*****

Laaqueel swam toward the young warrior trying to pull up onto the sea wyrm. When she reached him, she pushed him up onto his mount and turned to face Iakhovas.

Little malenti, what do you think you’re doing?

Laaqueel made no reply. There was none to make. In the next few heartbeats, she’d live or die. She summoned her powers, intending to crush Iakhovas if she could.

Where she’d once felt all the gifts Sekolah had given her, there was only emptiness.

Your belief in the Shark God is gone, Eldath said. As goes the belief, so goes the power. There is no other way.

Helplessly, Laaqueel watched as Iakhovas rushed toward her.

Die, traitorous bitch!

Laaqueel felt the quill stir next to her heart, then it, too, was gone. Before she could move, though, Iakhovas was on her.

*****

Transfixed with horror, Jherek watched as the huge shark overtook the elf woman and swallowed her in a single gulp. Jherek urged the sea wyrm up, feeling the need for air burn his lungs. They surfaced and Jherek grabbed a couple deep breaths before they plunged back beneath the waves. He heeled the sea wyrm around, going directly at Iakhovas again.

“I won’t miss this time, boy.”

Jherek tightened his grip on his shield as they sped toward their opponent. This time he directed the sea wyrm down, at the same time striking up with the shield. He held the shield edge on, slicing deeply into Iakhovas’s side, feeling the hard muscle and rough skin slide along his forearm. The cut, nearly a foot deep and almost the length of the body, bled profusely.

Iakhovas screamed in pain.

Kneeing the sea wyrm, Jherek turned back around, intending to pursue Iakhovas if he fled. Instead, the Taker came at him again, the great slash along his body flaring wide. Behind Iakhovas came dozens of sharks, drawn by the blood spoor Iakhovas trailed.

The young paladin willed the bracer into a hook. The sea wyrm went high this time, turning at the last moment and going over the predator’s head. Jherek leaned down and buried the hook in the muscle above the Takers good eye. He held on and let himself be dragged from his mount. He straddled the great shark’s head as best he could, then reversed his sword as Iakhovas dived deep.

“I’ll take you down, landling,” the Taker said. “So far down you’ll never make the surface again before your lungs burst.”

Fiercely, despite the fear that rattled inside him, certain he was doing Lathander’s will and saving the life of the woman he loved, Jherek hung on. He knew if he turned loose and the sea wyrm couldn’t get back to him in time, Iakhovas would eat him as well. He couldn’t outswim the Taker.

Jherek leaned forward, using the hook to brace himself, and drove the sword into Iakhovas’s good eye, plunging it deep.