worse daily.”
Even as she said this, Armantaro’s body shook as he smothered a cough. “It’s nothing,” he insisted.
“Stay here, Colonel. They’d never give you an airshell anyway.”
“What about you?” asked Gundabyr. “What’ll
“I have my own resources.” Vixa moved to fall in with the passing ranks of soldiers. Armantaro would have followed, but she put a hand on his chest to stop him. “I order you to remain, Colonel,” she said firmly. “As your commander and your princess.”
“But, Your Highness-”
“No, Colonel. It is my official order-and my private wish-that you stay in the city. If anything should happen to me, tell my mother …” She frowned, her voice trailing off.
He saluted. “I’ll tell her you died bravely, in battle.”
“You’ll do no such thing. Tell my family to visit the seaside every year on Midsummer’s Day. Tell them-” She smiled and departed without finishing the thought, merging into the column of tall sea elves. Armantaro quickly lost sight of her.
“What did she mean-visit the seashore?” asked Gundabyr.
“A joke, my friend.” But the colonel looked anything but amused. Suddenly, an attack of coughing seized him. He turned his back on the ranks of marching elves, leaning on the wall for support. Gundabyr saw blood flecking his lips as he gasped for air.
At the quayside, a Dargonesti officer was directing lines of warriors into the water. Vixa remained hidden among the slow-moving ranks until she drew near the officer.
“You! Drylander! What are you doing here?”
“Going out,” Vixa replied tersely.
“Are you mad? There’s going to be a battle!”
“I know.”
The lines of soldiery were walking down the ramp into the water. The rest of the pool was empty. Vixa spun, leapt, and hit the water in an arcing dive.
“Stupid drylander!” the officer yelled. “Where do you think you can go? You there-soldiers! Get her!”
Vixa swam hard for the passage leading into open water. She kicked furiously toward the archway. However, she felt hands seize her ankles. Three sea elves had caught her. She had no hope of shaking them off. The princess emptied her mind of everything but the memory of her dolphin body. The sleek black-and-white form filled her thoughts.
Heat flooded her body. The chill of the water was replaced by an expanding warmth. Vixa wanted to kick at the Dargonesti hands that held her ankles, but her legs had grown rigid. Of their own volition, her arms drew in tight against her sides. She knew an instant’s panic as she felt herself being hauled back by the Dargonesti. The world tilted crazily.
Her Dargonesti captors suddenly cried out and fell back in shock. The leg they had been holding had become a muscular dolphin’s tail. Though they were accustomed to the shapeshifters among their own people, this sudden transformation of a drylander took them completely by surprise.
Vixa fanned the water with her tail and shot out through the yawning arch. She turned up, gaining height over the sea bottom. The voices of her sea brethren were all around her.
“Hurry, hurry!” cried a dolphin voice. “The battle is joined!”
Vixa swam hard toward the sound. She sped through the water like a bird on the wing, passing schools of small fish. More dolphins gathered in the gloomy water. She fell in with a charging school of Dargonesti shapeshifters.
The ocean was filled with the sounds of battle. From below, the Dargonesti were calling every dolphin to come to their aid. Glancing back, Vixa saw hundreds streaming toward the scene of the conflict.
The chilkit were formed into a huge crescent, the horns of which threatened to close around Urione. The sea elves had sortied at four points and formed troops. The two center divisions of Dargonesti were being forced back under heavy chilkit attack. So far no gnomefire could be seen. Vixa prayed the formula would work. Everything had been prepared in such haste.
A dolphin hailed the princess. She didn’t recognize him until he told her his name. He was Kios, the shapeshifter she’d met before. Following him, Vixa angled down with a hundred other dolphins to join the fight. A square of Dargonesti, bristling with spears, had been backed into the coral gardens on this side of the city. The chilkit, fighting in close ranks, sometimes almost standing on top of each other, advanced on them. Sand churned up around the feet of a thousand fighters. Blood drifted in the water like smoky clouds.
Kios let out a high-pitched cry and rammed into the back of a chilkit. A half-second later, Vixa hit the next creature in line. The shock went through her from nose to tail, but she felt the red shell crack under the blow. Flexing her flukes, Vixa climbed out of reach of the chilkit’s claws, circled, and dove again. Another shapeshifter streaked by her and hit the same target. The chilkit met him head-on. The monster’s claws caught him on both flanks. Blood obscured them both for a moment, then Vixa saw the lifeless body of the shapeshifter sinking to the sandy bottom.
Shocked by his death and her own narrow escape, Vixa pointed her snout toward the surface. She raced upward in blind panic until her black-and-white head broke into the air in a blast of spray. Her thoughts whirled. The sun dazzled her.
Vixa rotated her body, scanning the horizon for possible landmarks. There was nothing to be seen but endless rolling waves. No hint of land marred the perfect line between sea and sky.
She knew she was somewhere in the great southern ocean called Turbidus. If she swam directly north she would find land eventually. Her dolphin form could make the trip with ease, no matter how long it took. Should she go? Didn’t she have a duty to escape, to warn the nations of Ansalon about the threat of the Dargonesti and-most especially-about Queen Uriona’s mad plan to conquer the elven nations?
What about her friends? Coryphene had sworn to free them if the battle was won. That was her first duty. She couldn’t simply leave them to their fates. Vixa took in a great breath and dove once more for the depths.
Descending toward the city, the princess circled the battle site. The underwater cries of the Dargonesti added to the cacophony. From her position, Vixa saw that the chilkit had fought through the coral garden to the base of Urione itself. The Dargonesti wings had held, so now the chilkit formation resembled a giant red horseshoe. What was Coryphene waiting for? It was time to use the gnomefire!
Throwing caution to the wind, she dove hard at the center of the Dargonesti position. Coryphene was easy to spot, in the front ranks surrounded by the remainder of his guard. His tall, decorated helmet stood up above the rest. Hurtling over his head, she shouted his name. The Protector was too busy battling a chilkit to reply. Vixa doubled back and rammed the chilkit he fought.
“You there! Sea brother!”
She cruised by him, regarding him with one bright eye. “Thank you for your aid,” he called in the water- tongue. “Do I know you?”
“Why have you not used the firelances?” she demanded.
“By the Abyss! Who are you to give me counsel?” Beneath his heavy helm, Coryphene’s brow knitted. Suddenly, the frown lifted, to be replaced by a look of astonishment. “I
She ignored the question. “You’ll be backed into your own plaza soon! Why don’t you bring up the firelances?”
Coryphene was hailed by several other sea brothers. They’d brought the same question from his flank commanders.
“You have so little faith in our queen’s genius,” he told them all darkly. “Very well,” the Protector said at last. “Bring forth the firelances! To the fore, all firelances!”
Vixa sped off to the left flank. She shouted Coryphene’s order in her dolphin voice. Her words carried far. By the time she reached the left flank, the long lances tipped with the pottery cylinders were hoisted and ready. The chilkit were obviously not impressed by the unusual weapons. They closed ranks and came on.
“Now!”
The first line of firelancers dashed their weapons into the foe. Seawater mixed with the paste as the pots shattered, and a hundred chilkit were immediately engulfed in flames. The front lines of both armies pulled back,
