The Coral Kingdom

the longship through the waters at a churning pace. Far behind now but still clinging to the long white trail of the vessel's wake came the two broad rafts and their clamoring passengers.

'Terrible luck, I know, but at least-' Alicia started to speak.

'Luck? There's no luck about it!' Brandon snapped, whirling toward her and interrupting. 'They found us, somehow-here, eight hundred miles from the Moonshaes, in the middle of the Trackless Sea!'

Alicia glowered at him, but her anger was rooted in embarrassment. He was right, of course.

'There are ways a skilled sorcerer could locate us wherever we were,' pointed out Keane.

'Did you see any sign of magic in that attack?' shot back the Prince of Gnarhelm.

'No.'

'It's not like the sea creatures to use magic.' Brandon's tone modulated somewhat, as if he suddenly remembered that he was surrounded by friends, not enemies. 'And if they don't use it to attack, I can't imagine they've got wizards sitting around spying on us.'

'What do you suspect, then?' demanded Alicia.

'I don't know,' the captain admitted with a shrug. He looked around, at the casks and crates and seabags that lined the center of the longship's hull. 'It's possible they might have placed something on board, some object that draws them like a beacon. I don't know how big it would be or even what it would look like, but it's all that I can think of at the moment.'

They spent the next six hours tearing the Princess of Moonshae's contents apart while the rafts drifted farther to the rear, never quite disappearing over the horizon. Every crate, every container of any kind was opened and examined. Crew members sifted flour from barrel to barrel and drained each water cask into another through a fine screen mesh. As to the search of individual crewmen, of course, every man was left to his own possessions-all the northmen and the Ffolk accompanying the expedition had been selected with loyalty as the top consideration.

All this time Robyn stood in rapt concentration, and the wind summoned by the goddess propelled the longship forward. The druid queen resisted any attempts to support her, shrugging off the few hands that came close. Her eyes were open, staring at the sail but focused on something much farther away.

'Nothing,' Alicia concluded disgustedly after the search of the longship's bow was completed. She and Brigit had coordinated that scrutiny, and now the pair leaned on the rail, watching the gray-green water slip past a few feet below.

'I heard the captain talking,' the elfwoman noted. 'He said that if we can make it to nightfall, we should be able to slip away from them-and your mother can rest, as long as there's any breeze at all.'

'I hope so,' replied the princess, with a look at the sun. It was early evening, but the yellow orb was at least a couple of hours away from the horizon. And here, on the flat northern sea, she remembered that the daylight lasted for an hour or more after sunset. For a while, they stood in silence, unconsciously looking to the west-toward Evermeet, or least to where they imagined the elvenhome to be.

'Brigit. .' Alicia looked down, wondering about the future, wanting to plan a known course to her father's rescue, though of course this was impossible. 'I've been wondering about Evermeet. What's it like? Who rules there?'

'It is a wondrously beautiful place, dotted with clear lakes, covered with broad stretches of forest. It is also the largest, most populous nation of elves in all the Realms.' Brigit turned to Alicia to make her point. 'In fact, while elven realms in the outer lands are usually ruled by matriarchs or lords, Evermeet is ruled by a queen, the only true monarch in elvendom.'

'Does she rule alone?'

'For the most part. She has many councilors, it is said, and a council of matrons acts as her advisers. I have heard that she is not afraid, however, to ignore their advice and make a decision on her own.'

'When we get there, what will you say? Do you think the elves of Evermeet will help us?' Alicia wondered. 'Or are there too many who feel as Erashanoor, that we humans are the enemy?'

'There are others more. . open-minded,' Brigit allowed, and then she laughed. 'And there's no telling what your mother will accomplish, if she has the chance to talk to the queen.'

'How can we be sure she'll get that chance?'

Brigit smiled, her face sympathetic. 'With the determination of humans like you and Hanrald to back her up, I wouldn't be surprised to see it,' the elfwoman said.

'I wonder if we can persuade them to help us-for the elves' own interests,' Alicia questioned.

'I've been thinking about what your mother said-in the Argen-Tellirynd,' replied the sister knight, almost as if she were musing to herself. 'Doesn't it seem possible-even likely-that the same forces are at work against both of our peoples? That the dark powers commanding the scrags are the same that unleashed the Elf-Eater and closed the Synnorian Gate?'

'It does! I've wondered about that myself-but we have no proof. Can you be sure?'

'Can we be sure that isn't the case?' wondered Brigit. 'And based on that premise, perhaps the only way to open the Fey-Alamtine is to defeat the forces that hold your father prisoner.'

Alicia was forced to smile at the elfwoman's determination. 'I wish you luck!'

'I believe that I can make the case,' Brigit replied. 'But I'm not sure that I'll find anyone impartial enough to listen-if we get there at all!'

'We'll get there!' declared the princess, more vehemently than she had intended. Trying to conceal her concern from Brigit, she looked aft.

She saw her mother standing as if carved from stone, with the proud sail billowing overhead. Beyond, past the transom and far down the foam-flecked line of the longship's wake, two black smudges lay against the horizon. These were the flat-ships of the sea creatures, and they remained well back.

Then her eyes were drawn back to the ship with a shock as Robyn groaned and staggered on the afterdeck. Immediately Tavish reached her side, holding Robyn's elbows and gently lowering her to the deck. Keane knelt beside the queen in another instant as Alicia raced down the center of the hull.

'I'm all right!' Robyn insisted as her daughter got there. Robyn sat up and brushed away the hands supporting her. 'You'd think I was an old woman!'

'Are you really okay?' inquired Alicia, kneeling before her mother. For a moment, Robyn's eyes softened, and the younger woman saw a terrible exhaustion there.

'I… I just need to rest,' the queen assured her.

For the first time since her mother's collapse, Alicia looked overhead. The once proud sail hung slack, undisturbed by any breath of wind, as if the real breeze had abandoned them at the same time as did the enchanted one.

'Swing out the oars! Clear those benches!' barked Brandon, and his crewmen scrambled to obey. He turned to Alicia, her own concern mirrored in his eyes. 'We'll try to keep ahead of them until nightfall. Then we'll lose them in the dark and turn back to the west.'

'Will that work?' asked Alicia, hating the sound of the question. Her faith was wavering, but she didn't want that fact to show.

'It's all we've got,' replied Brandon with a shrug and a quizzical look at her.

Alicia rose from her knees and looked over the transom. Already, it seemed, the black dots had begun to grow.

In the darkest hours of the night, the longship Princess of Moonshae advanced across the black sea to the muffled strokes of oars, but no other sounds. For hours, the vessel slipped across the placid sea. The men labored at the oars. Even the Ffolk took turns wielding the heavy oaken poles, but they had no way of knowing whether or not the sea beasts on their great rafts were closing the distance.

Past midnight, the crew shuffled places once more. Those who had been resting took places on the rowing benches, while the exhausted sailors from the earlier shift tried to catch a little rest.

It was after this adjustment that the sailor, Luge, found himself at an oar, seated beside the gunwale of the longship. On each night of the voyage, he had performed his task faithfully, dropping one of the tiny bells over the side, plainly marking the longship's course for the pursuing hordes of the Underdeep.

Yet tonight he found himself with a problem. For the first time, the crew remained active through the hours of