The Coral Kingdom

With that not exactly comforting thought, she settled down on the deck with the rest of the crew to await the return of Trillhalla.

'Have you failed me, worm?'

The question posed by Talos was an awkward one for the avatar Sinioth. He answered as deftly as he could.

'We have trailed the humans to their destination. They are far removed from the prisoner, and we have two thousand warriors screening the seas against their escape. Should they try to sail, we shall annihilate them!'

'Very well,' rumbled the Destructor. 'Even the mirror brings no image of them. I shall be patient-for now.'

'Thank you, most merciful master!' pledged the avatar, thrashing his squid body through the depths in an ecstasy of groveling.

'But should you fail me in the end,' continued Talos, 'it will be more than the pathetic humans who face annihilation!'

13

A Queen of Evermeet

A snarl prowled across Brandon's face as he climbed aboard the stricken Princess of Moonshae. He and Knaff had completed their inspection of the hull, scrambling about on the coral outcrop that now, at low tide, held the longship completely out of the water. The Corwellian bowmen and Keane had stood an alert guard, though they all knew that their presence was for show only. The sea around them was a vast expanse of bobbing heads and torsos. Tavish, in a quick count, concluded that more than a thousand sea elves had congregated by now.

'As I thought, she's splintered in a lot of places where she's not holed clean through.' The captain's tone was sad, almost brokenhearted, but also fiercely proud. 'No other ship would have survived!'

'Can you patch the hull?' asked Robyn.

'Maybe. Give me two weeks, plenty of tar and timber, a forge, and a bigger drydock than you could find in the Moonshaes, and I might be able to make her seaworthy again. But she'll never be the same Princess.'

The northman captain didn't try to keep the bitterness out of his voice. He looked at Alicia, his expression despairing, and the princess wanted to take him in her arms and soothe his pain. She remembered, with a tinge of resentment, that the northman would find such a reaction humiliating in the extreme.

'Look! Isn't that Trillhalla?' asked Alicia. 'I hope she's bearing good news!'

They recognized the female sea elf, the only one thus far who had offered them the slightest willingness to listen, not to mention help. She was identifiable not from her features, but by the formed escort of warriors screening her approach. No less than a full score of large males swam before her, breaking the water like dolphins so that they could continually observe the humans.

Finally the formation broke apart in the shallow water before the reef where the Princess of Moonshae sat in her coral-bound trap. The dappled face of Trillhalla broke the surface, framed by her silver curls and growing rings of water as she raised her torso into the air. Palentor rose beside her, his face fixed in its familiar scowl.

'You, Brigit Cu'Lyrran,' began the female sea elf in heavily accented Common, 'are commanded to bring two of the humans and appear before Queen Amlaruil in the Summer Palace.' Palentor turned to object, his face blanching with shock, but his reaction was halted by a sharp gesture from Trillhalla.

The female sea elf remained still, half out of the water, and it was several moments before the visitors realized that she had concluded her speech.

'I thank the queen-and yourself-for this gracious command,' replied Brigit. The sister knight turned and, without hesitation, named Robyn and Alicia as her companions.

Meanwhile, a long, graceful canoe appeared, emerging unobserved from a concealed gap in the verdant shoreline. It was already halfway to the stricken longship before any of the companions noticed it. Then it was Knaff the Elder who, in obvious chagrin at its undiscovered approach, pointed out the craft.

The canoe was half the size of a small longship, propelled swiftly by a dozen paddlers on each side. A single long outrigger extended to the craft's starboard side. It had neither mast nor sail but was decorated in multicolored, flowered patterns along the hull, with garlands of real blossoms gathered in many places along the gunwale. The thing moved very quickly. Alicia thought it the equal in speed of a longship under full sail.

The craft slid easily into a tiny inlet of the coral reef-no more than six or eight inches of water-and came to a rest just a few feet from the longship. The three visitors climbed easily over the side, took two steps across the exposed coral, and were helped into the canoe by silent, muscular elves. These were not sea elves, but Alicia saw that their skin had a bluer cast than did the Llewyrr. Also, many of these elves of Evermeet had dark hair, a virtually unknown phenomenon among the elves of the Moonshaes.

They took seats in the bow of the slender boat on plush, cushioned benches surrounded by bouquets of brilliant flowers. The canoe moved smoothly but with surprising speed as it drew away from the longship and glided toward the tree-lined shore. Trillhalla swam beside them.

'The queen was surprisingly calm about your arrival,' the sea elf announced, speaking in particular to Robyn. 'Though the rest of the palace has been thrown into quite a stir. She, too, has heard of the High King and Queen of Moonshae. Synnoria is an important place to us in Evermeet, and the reign of you and your former husband has made that valley more secure than it has been in many years.'

'Let's hope she wants it to go on for a few more,' Alicia observed wryly. By then, however, the wonders of Evermeet drove the desire for further conversation away.

The trees, they saw as they neared the shore, sprouted a leafy mixture of blue, green, and silver foliage, all three colors combining when the breeze ruffled the branches into a glittering array of beauty. Colors seemed to shift and flow along the forest, which consisted of far greater trees than Alicia had ever seen or imagined. Even the saplings were the size of Corwellian oaks! The great mature specimens rested on trunks as large around as a good-sized cottage, towering hundreds of feet into the air.

Before Alicia noticed, Trillhalla, with a flick of her webbed feet, propelled herself from the water into the canoe beside the visitors. The sea elf seemed to have no regard for her nudity as she lay on the seat and let the sun dry the seawater from her skin.

Alicia didn't see the entrance into the forest before them, but suddenly the canoe slipped into a narrow channel. Despite the overhanging canopy of verdure, sunlight reflected from the silvery leaves and the clear water, making the hidden passage a bright, airy place. Here Trillhalla sat up and removed a plain white tunic from beneath her bench. Throwing the garment over her shoulders and pushing her arms through the sleeves, she tossed her silver-curled locks free. She looked, Alicia thought with amazement, as glamorous as any lady of an elegant court.

They glided along the watery passage for perhaps half an hour, and each twist and turn of the channel brought new wonders to their eyes, Synnorian and human alike. Birds of brilliant colors-bright red, emerald green, or deep, flashing blue-fluttered from tree to tree. At one place, a great hawk, pure white except for streaks of black on its folded wings, watched them from a lofty branch, its eyes glittering with intelligence.

In some places, the channel broadened to a wide pool, and occasionally they saw young elves splashing along the shores of these, swimming with carefree glee, pausing to stare in openmouthed wonder at the flowered canoe-or more likely, realized Alicia, at the strange and alien occupants of that graceful craft.

Finally, after a sudden twist in the channel, the forest fell away on either side, and the waterway flowed into a broad, placid lake. Across its mirrored surface, glittering with a beauty and majesty that took their breath away, the Summer Palace of Evermeet rose into the skies, in an obvious attempt to rival the glories of the heavens themselves.

The palace seemed to fly at first, like a gorgeous silver cloud. Turrets and towers of diamond, silver, and