The Coral Kingdom

After seven days at sea, Alicia began to wonder if she would ever see land again. They had passed to the south of Moray near dawn on their third day out, and later that day the surf breaking against the Gullrocks had been visible to port. Since then there had been no sign of anything except water and sky.

Alicia found herself enjoying the sights and the sounds of the longship. Watching the way Brandon thrilled to the wind in his face and to the pitching of the deck beneath his feet, she began to appreciate the fundamental differences between his people and hers. All the northmen thrived thus, while many of the Ffolk spent as much time at the gunwale as in their seats, especially during the first few days of travel on the open sea.

'Imagine if we'd met foul weather,' the princess said to her mother as the longship glided easily forward, propelled by the same southerly breeze that had escorted them placidly for the entire voyage. 'I think half the bowmen would have jumped overboard!'

'They were a sick-looking lot a few days ago,' Robyn agreed. 'But we seem to be getting our sea legs now.'

'True,' replied the princess with a nod. 'If only the sea were the greatest challenge we have to face!'

'Have faith, Daughter,' said the queen, placing a gentle hand on Alicia's shoulder. The princess stared at the blue-green water swirling past the hull and nodded.

She thought of her father and of all the obstacles that still lay in their path. A now-familiar wave of despair threatened to sweep her hopes away at the sight of the implacable sea. How could they hope to enter that alien realm? And if they did, what dangers would they face? How would they find the king?

'Faith,' Robyn repeated, squeezing her hand with firm pressure.

'I'll try,' Alicia pledged.

Robyn moved on to talk to Tavish, and Alicia remained at the rail, her mind drifting as she watched the limitless expanse of waves. She was soon joined by Brigit, who had spent a good deal of time with the princess on the voyage. Though the two were centuries apart in age, Alicia had found herself developing a bond with the elfwoman that transcended such trivial concerns.

'And how are you ladies passing this lovely afternoon?' inquired Hanrald. The earl, who had grown increasingly restless during the voyage, ambled over to the rail.

'Fox hunting,' the princess deadpanned. She smiled at Hanrald, but she was surprised to see his eyes pass over hers and come to light on Brigit. Nonplussed, Alicia turned away from the earl, wondering at his odd reaction.

She stood on the port side of the Princess of Moonshae, near the stern. Feeling a vague sense of worry, she cast her eyes across the water, looking for something-anything-out of the ordinary.

Because of this musing, she was the first one to see the disturbance.

'Look!' the princess cried, observing a mass of bubbles erupt from the water's surface less than a mile away. 'What's that?'

White froth broke from the water, tossing a large, oval patch of sea into a foam-streaked torrent. Pressure bulged upward, forming a maelstrom larger than the Princess of Moonshae was long, completely obscured by the turbulence across its surface. The water rose into the air and then began to flow away, pouring off a massive shape that still lay concealed by the foaming brine.

'It came from beneath the water!' shouted the princess, as others witnessed the sudden appearance. Men cursed, shouting to their gods for aid. Bowmen nocked missiles into their strings, while Brandon's northmen stood to their oars and their weapons, waiting for the prince's command.

'What's that?' Alicia asked as numerous small objects came into view atop the huge platform. They wiggled and moved like living things.

'Barnacles?' inquired Keane, without much hope.

'Sahuagin-fishmen!' Tavish announced, squinting. Obviously the bard's eyes didn't suffer any from her age. Soon the others could make out the scaly humanoids swarming all over the thing that now began to look like an oval platform of some kind.

'You are only partly right,' added Brandon, his tone grim. 'Look more closely. You'll see that the little ones are sahuagin, but. .'

'By the goddess!' gasped Alicia. 'What are the others, then?'

'Scrags-sea trolls, by the look of them.' Several dozen hulking shapes, nearly twice as large as the human- sized sahuagin scattered across the broad deck, moved among the smaller beasts with an unmistakable air of command.

'Have you seen them-these sea trolls-before?' Unconsciously Alicia gripped the hilt of her sword, drawing it several inches from her scabbard before tensely slamming it home again.

'Never. Few have, who've lived to tell the tale,' announced the Prince of Gnarhelm, not very reassuringly. 'Full sail!' he shouted next, turning to the sailors nearest the mast. 'Starboard rudder!'

The Princess lurched as the surface of the sail was turned to catch the maximum force of the wind. The longship reeled around to the north, but none of them questioned the involuntary course change in light of the circumstances.

'They can't move that thing through the water, can they?' inquired Alicia as the changing course of the longship carried the strange apparatus around to the stern.

As if to challenge her statement, the princess soon saw numerous long-handled paddles appear in the hands of the sahuagin who were clustered on top of the great, raftlike craft. She saw several long poles running the length of the hull, each straddled by dozens of the scaly humanoids. Below each pole, a narrow gap lay open to the sea, allowing the creatures to paddle not only from the edges but also right through the raft's hull. All along the vessel's stern edge and sides, the waters churned as scrags kicked with their powerful legs and webbed feet.

'It not only moves,' observed Brandon. 'It goes damned fast!' Indeed, the ungainly-appearing object raced toward them with surprising swiftness, trailing a foaming wake. A white wave split before the thing's bow, but the flat shape seemed to ride higher and higher out of the water as it continued to pick up speed.

'Can they catch us?' asked the princess, staring at the huge craft, trying to analyze whether it closed the gap between the two ships. It didn't, as far as she could tell-but neither did it get any farther away.

'If the wind holds,' the prince announced between clenched teeth, 'then we might be able to make it. If not. .'

'What is that thing?' demanded Alicia, determined to find some means of dealing with this challenge.

'It seems to be nothing more than a flat platform, probably with a neutral buoyancy-it neither sinks nor floats on its own.' Keane had obviously been thinking about the object, for he answered without hesitation.

'Why would they use it? Why not just swim?' persisted the princess.

'Look.' The mage pointed. The broad raft skimmed across the surface of the water, bouncing through the swells in clouds of spray, breaking a broad, foaming wave to either side of the blunt prow. 'I think it lets them travel faster on the surface than they could otherwise swim. See? A number of them can rest, while the craft still makes good time.'

'Excellent time,' noted the northman captain grimly. More than two hundred sahuagin manned the great paddles, while an unseen number of scrags propelled the craft by musclepower. More than a hundred additional scaly monsters of the deep sat patiently in the midst of the wide platform, bearing weapons and ready-and rested-for battle.

'Dead ahead-another raft of the critters!' The cry from the bow, by the barrel-chested Wultha, paralyzed Alicia for one terrorized moment, but in that space of time, the Prince of Gnarhelm had leaped down the center of the longship's hull and was scrambling up the neck of the proud figurehead, the princess racing to join him.

'By the hundred curses of Tempus!' snarled Brand, and in another moment, Alicia saw the cause of his distress.

She recognized the pattern of bubbles, saw the swells of the Trackless Sea mound upward as they had when the other raft had broken the surface. But this time, the obstacle lay directly in the Princess of Moonshae's path!

'Hard port-emergency helm!' shouted the prince. Even before the order was completed, the vessel heeled violently as Knaff the Elder pulled the rudder to port. Alicia lost her footing and tumbled to the deck, falling heavily as the longship crunched into the broad raft of the sea creatures with a timber-straining collision.

'Death to the humans! Attack!' hissed Krell-Bane, fang-toothed king of the scrags. The Mantaship beneath