The salty ocean breeze wafted into the room, washing out the stench of incense that had made it hard for Laaqueel to breathe. She hadn't been able to lift the window herself and guessed that he'd used his magic to ward them closed. Wherever they were, the increased power of his illusion and the security he was maintaining told her he didn't entirely feel safe there.
Nearly a tenday had passed since the confrontation with Huaanton. Iakhovas had not spoken of the sahua-gin king any more, but he'd been absent from her much, not telling her where he'd traveled, and acting even more driven than she'd ever seen him. Every day he'd been gone had been agony for Laaqueel, not knowing what he was doing but knowing how tightly her fate was woven with his. The time when he was supposed to deliver the 'miracle' to the sahuagin king was only five days away.
Laaqueel had seen no miracles on the horizon.
Then, this morning, he'd stepped back through one of the dimensional doors he kept in his sahuagin palace and commanded her to come with him. He'd given no explanation of where he'd been or what he'd been doing. Having no choice, Laaqueel had stepped through the dimensional door and ended up in this city only an hour ago.
'We're in Skaug,' he replied.
The malenti knew of the city from her travels above the sea, but she couldn't imagine what would bring them there. 'The pirate capital of the Nelanther Isles?' she asked.
The mainlanders along the Sword Coast feared the place, and merchant ships lived in dread of the pirates who found a home port in Skaug. Only the most vicious and fearsome claimed the city as home, and the Skaug Corsairs protected the shores viciously from even those who pursued the pirates for crimes committed at sea and in their own countries. The Skaug Corsairs turned them all back, charging fees to those who stayed there.
'Yes,' Iakhovas said, turned, and grinned. 'Little malenti, you've never known a time when you kept pace with any and all of my plans and machinations, but you're going to learn more now. I'm feeling generous.' He grinned again broadly, full of self-confidence and purpose. 'You're not to know everything, but more than you have been allowed to know in the past.'
She refused to react to his statement because it was true. Of late, she'd been constantly reminded of how true that was. A newborn hatchling still trapped in its nursery with its voracious siblings had more control over its future.
'What are we doing here?' she asked.
'I, little malenti,' he rebuked her in a voice that sounded as gentle as steel encased in silk. 'What am I doing here?'
She bowed her head, breaking eye contact in true sahuagin fashion. 'Of course,' she said. 'Forgive me.'
'Now you may ask me your question more properly.'
Anger flooded through the malenti priestess, but it wasn't enough to quench her fear, or to make her forget that she'd have nothing without him. 'What are you doing here, most honored one?'
'Marshaling the forces of yet another army I direct,' he told her expansively. 'The sahuagin aren't the only ones who follow me, nor only the creatures of the seas. There are dark cults spread around this world, among the surface dwellers, that know aspects of me. I've spoken with them of late, given notice to those as well to help me recover all that was taken from me. My war is escalating, my little malenti, and I shall break and shatter the surface dwellers.'
Laaqueel recognized it as the truth even as he spoke the words. She knew he'd had dealings with the druids of the Vilhon Reach, gathering more information in his dark quest and striking bargains. He also had an agent of sorts in the Sea of Fallen Stars, a pirate called Vurgrom. She had seen Iakhovas talking to the blustering pirate a handful of times through a crystal ball kept at the sahuagin palace. Most of the conversations had revolved around another pirate captain, a half-elf woman called Azla, who seemed determined to work at cross purposes to Vurgrom. Laaqueel had never been part of those conversations, though. Vurgrom had also delivered some of the items Iakhovas searched for by way of dimensional doors.
Iakhovas had a number of maps of the Sea of Fallen Stars in his private quarters. The few times she'd been allowed to view them only briefly, she'd seen notations scattered across the charts.
'Time to go,' the wizard announced. 'They're waiting for us and these are not men to be kept waiting.' He gestured to the door.
Laaqueel went, but she kept the gifts bestowed upon her by Sekolah close to hand, fearing she would have to use them. Iakhovas followed closely behind her.
A carriage awaited them at the front of the inn. The inlaid wood and the draped windows advertised the presence of wealth. The driver was clad in sky blue and crimson finery and wore a cap. His eyes never met Iakhovas's or Laaqueel's. Two crossbowmen stood at the back of the carriage, their weapons naked and ready.
Laaqueel hesitated when the driver opened the door. Riding in the carriage would mark them instantly as wealthy targets in the pirate city. She didn't like the idea of being trapped in Skaug's streets in terrain that she was so unused to.
'My lady,' the driver said, offering his hand like a proper gentleman.
'Get into the carriage,' Iakhovas commanded. 'No one who lives on this island will dare attack it.'
Reluctantly, Laaqueel allowed the driver to help her into the carriage. She sat back on one of the plush seats and gazed out the window. Taverns, festhalls and boarding houses lined the street, rubbing shoulder to shoulder with trade shops and mercantiles that offered services and goods. The promontory the inn was on provided a good view of the docks, showing the general portage offered to the pirate vessels as well as the private docks for the corsairs. Many of the sailors and passersby gave the carriage a lot of attention, but none seemed willing to draw attention themselves. The malenti closed her hand around the haft of her long sword.
Iakhovas sat across from her, arms spreading across the backrest of the bench. He appeared relaxed and totally content.
The carriage tilted slightly on its springs as the driver pulled himself up into the seat. A moment more and the carriage rocked forward. The horses' hooves rang against the rocky street.
'Who are we going to see?' Laaqueel asked.
'A man named Burlor Maliceprow,' Iakhovas answered. 'He's called the Portmaster of Skaug, and even though this island empire knows no official ruler, Maliceprow's word bonds everyone who lives here. He's assembled the men we're to meet.'
'Who are these men?' Laaqueel asked.
'Pirates,' he answered. 'The fiercest bunch of men I've been able to rally to my standard. Maliceprow has relationships with all of them.'
'When did you arrange this?'
'Years ago.' Iakhovas smiled at her with that disconcerting, two-eyed gaze. 'I've been known, little malenti, by a number of names throughout my life. Some of the undersea races know me as 'the Taker.' You know me as Iakhovas, or One Who Swims with Sekolah. The sahuagin know me as a prince. Here I have adopted the identity of Black Alaric.'
Laaqueel shook her head, struggling to believe everything he told her, yet knowing it was true.
'I must tell you, Black Alaric has had almost as many lives as I.' Iakhovas looked out through the window. 'The first Black Alaric died in the Year of Giant's Rage, over fourteen hundred years ago. He was the pirate king and captain who brought the pirates to the Nelanther after they were turned away from the Velen Peninsula, then there was the Black Alaric that brought down House Ithal in the Year of Scarlet Scourges. Other Black Alarics followed, each purporting to be the original and the legend continued to grow until it was believed he's a man who cannot die. He has united the pirates in seven major wars along the Sword Coast in the last fourteen centuries.'
'You propose to become this Black Alaric?' Laaqueel asked.
Iakhovas took a black crepe bandanna from his pocket and tied it over his lower face. He pulled his cowl over his hair and the top of his face, cinching it tight so that only his eyes were revealed. 'Little malenti, I am Black Alaric.'
Laaqueel remained silent, thinking, realizing that his masquerade had them both at risk here in the pirate stronghold.
'It had been nearly a hundred years since the last Black Alaric was heard from,' Iakhovas said. 'Five years ago, after I'd decided what I was going to do about the Sword Coast and knew that the item I got from Serpentil
