Come Endless Darkness

has others to spend their lives on behalf of its cause. You and I are much alike, and we both give due homage to the middle way. Be my champion and dwell here in Kharistylla's domain for a time.'

Her voice was sweet and laden with promise. Gord's own voice was filled with regret as he replied. 'If that were my rede, gracious lady, I would gladly tarry here with you for as long as it pleased you. It has ever been my fate, though, to be driven by storm and tempest to some strand that is not of my own choosing. Soon I must leave this element, somehow, to return to the world of air and earth. The ones who call me cannot be denied, but when I am done perhaps we can…'

The undine flashed him her strange smile and pressed a pearl of pale green into his hand, the same hand whose palm she had studied so carefully. 'I think not, Gord-Dark-Destiny. Although I cannot discern your past nor see your future, my feelings tell me that this will be our only meeting. But who can say? I am not the arbiter of things. I am one who, as you, meets what comes.'

The danger passes,' growled Leoceanius. 'Sooner than I would have thought, but good for us. While the hag is distracted, we must make haste.'

'All well and good,' said Kharistylla. 'Swim away if you feel you must, but leave the human safe with me and protect yourselves by doing so. The hag will certainly ignore you if you go alone.'

'Yes.' countered the sea lion. 'But we cannot preserve the Balance by abandoning our charge.'

'Trust me.' the undine said sweetly but firmly. 'When the peril is entirely past, the one we both cherish will be free to go. And he does have a means of leaving without your aid — this I know.'

That statement puzzled Gord, but he was in no position to argue. Better, he thought, to take his chances with the undine's claim than to endure another underwater ride on the back of Leoceanius.

The sea lion seemed to take Kharistylla's words for granted. Instead of contending with her further, the creature swam to his fellows and softly growled some instructions. Then he came back to Gord. 'Fare thee well, prince,' the sea lion grumbled warmly.

'Nay, my friend,' Gord responded. 'I am no prince. It was you who made the royal gesture, else I and my comrades should have been in the deep darkness by now. Fortune be with you and yours. Leoceanius.'

The sea lion let out a rumble in reply, dipped his head in salute to Kharistylla, and then was gone.

'Do not concern yourself, Gord-My-Guest.' the undine said reassuringly. 'They will miss the hag. And now we have a brief time of safekeeping, so let us make what we can of it!'

Gord could not pass beyond the confines of the undine's grotto. Her enchantments kept them secure within it and enabled him to breathe its salty waters as easily as the sea lions had done. Now, thanks to the pearl given to him by Kharistylla, he was able to move, see, and feel just as the undine did within the grotto. It was a far more magnificent place than Gord had perceived. Its enchanted spaces went on for great distances in all directions, with chambers and secret gardens that even natives of the sea could not discern. Water sprites and saltwyrds were there in numbers to serve their mistress, and all forms of poisonous sea creatures — snakes, fish, and worse — were always hovering at the fringes of the place to guard against intrusion; possibly to prevent unwanted egress as well. Gord didn't care; he wouldn't go where he was not allowed and had no intention of forcing his way out of the place, either.

'It is your inner force which draws me,' the beautiful sea spirit said. 'You have such strength within you, such a raw energy and purpose. I do not have that, you know. Otherwise, I too would be opposing the hag and all of her ilk.'

'I will share my energy with you, Kharistylla,' the young adventurer volunteered with sincerity. His ingenuousness made the undine laugh in her rich, sensuous voice.

'Don't look hurt, dear lad. I meant no injury but am touched by so fine an offer. If only it were that easy. You are one of many forces, I a being of but one elemental power. My own energy is very great — far greater than yours, Gord, in certain, limited ways. Yet beyond this small place which is mine I weaken and become far less. No infusion can change that, else no undine would I be. Enough of this! Come, now, and let us enjoy all of the wonder of this grotto.'

A while later Gord asked Kharistylla of events above the waters of the sea that covered them. 'The storm has passed,' she told him, 'and ancient and ugly old Udyll gnashes her broken fangs and drives her packs of sharks hither and thither seeking aught. The little ship which bears your friends lies leagues and leagues away, never fear. A southerly breeze has come to counter the foul blast from the north, and that good zephyr drives the vessel beyond the hag's reach and into the waters of that place near to where you call home.'

'Woolly Bay?'

'Ah, yes. I see from the pictures in your mind that is what you call the waters I spoke of. Without your force aboard the ship, Udyll cannot see it. She is in a terrible fury because you are nowhere. Soon I think she will give up her hunt and go to her masters to tell them you have passed beyond the ken of material and elemental spheres.'

'How do you know all this?'

'Hags are the greatest of the evil elemental powers, Gord-My-Sweet, but undines are the greatest of the rest — those of Balance, as it were. My powers and dweomers are much stronger than any sea hag's, in most ways, and always so within my own domain. I can sense all that happens here in this sea and a good bit of the events in adjoining waters as well. Poor, stupid Udyll could not even pierce the net of my concealment of you when she was within a league of that which she sought!'

'She was that close to us?'

'Closer, even… but no matter. The time you may stay grows short now. I have gifted you, and we have exchanged forces to that extent which is permissible. Now, Gord, will you leave me some token of yourself?'

'I… I…' he stammered, trying to think of something suitable. All of the fine jewels and pretty tilings he had accumulated as a sea rover were aboard the Silver Seeker. What little he had with him seemed inappropriate for gifting. Then he recalled the secret magical coffer. Inside it was, among other things, a talisman that he had kept as a souvenir. He reached into his belt, slipped the tiny coffer out, and touched it so that it would open. He had no fear of the water, for despite its everpresence, no drop of it wetted his garments or actually touched his skin.

As the container unlocked itself, it grew. The undine laughed and clapped her hands as it expanded before her eyes into a lovely vessel of inlaid wood and ivory fully large enough to hold a small fortune in treasure. 'I only wish I had placed my good mail shirt herein,' Gord said ruefully as he viewed the interior. There were only a few small items inside, a battered old box being the largest. This was a relic from his childhood. He had never been able to fathom its secrets, but he was sure it was somehow something important to him. For the moment, he passed it over in favor of one of the smaller items.

'Here, Kharistylla,' he said with feeling, 'I give this to you.' He picked up a little pouch of some exotic skin and withdrew from it an amber piece of cabo-chon form. Inside the golden oval was a spider.

That is lovely!' the undine exclaimed. 'And it is a potent talisman too. How came you by such a piece?'

That is a long tale, dear lady of the sea, and one which by your own words we have no time for. Suffice to say that I gained it and kept it at great personal peril. For a time my liege lord, Rexfelis, made use of it — I paid it over to him by his demand for a favor. Then one day he simply restored it to me without a word of explanation. No matter, for now it is yours.'

Kharistylla kissed him with her perfect, coral-red lips, then laughed. 'I shall keep it and treasure it. Perhaps you do not realize it, but such a thing as this extends my power no small amount. With it, I can move upon the sphere of earth, metal, or wood. Better still, I can walk unhindered on the material plane for as long as I choose — even to dwell in a city among men such as you will pose no problem to me with this!'

Gord was happy that he had pleased the undine with the gift. 'Perhaps we will then meet in Grey-hawk,' he suggested.

Kharistylla gave him a sorrowful smile. 'Nay, that I see not. Yet, perhaps somewhere… but there is more, dear Gord! Your Rexfelis is a deep one, he is. This he gave to you for a reason beyond mere generosity, I think. A single touch of your belt, earlier, told me that.'

'What do you mean, Kharistylla?'

'The amulet will serve to open a portal for you to your liege lord's place. He bestowed such dweomer to it in most puissant form before returning it to you, that is clear.'

'I will remember to thank him when I see him,' Gord said dryly. 'Now let us enjoy the last of the time remaining between us here.' That the undine was most happy to agree to.