be considered her equal. So she didn't drop her eyes and defer to him as was custom among the sahuagin so no insult might be implied. She returned his full gaze hotly. What surprised her most was how her body reacted to his touch. Warm vibrations thrilled through her, and a bitter ache dawned at the core of her. She didn't know how his touch had incited such a reaction unless it could be blamed on her cursed heritage.
He traced her jawline with his forefinger, then brought it back to rest at her chin just below her bottom lip. He was a few inches taller than she was and suddenly seemed to envelop her.
'People who threaten me,' he said, still in that soft voice, 'die-in the most horrible ways I can think of. I assure you, I'm quite practiced at it.'
Laaqueel tried to keep her thoughts centered on Sekolah, remembering that the Great Shark wouldn't put anything before her that she couldn't handle. If she failed Sekolah's tests, she would only prove her unworthiness. That was totally unacceptable. She only wished that Falkane's touch didn't have the affect on her that it did.
She shifted her attention to the deck over his shoulder. His men moved through the halyards with grim efficiency, some of them sporting bandages from wounds they'd received in the attack. Still, it didn't keep her mind from his touch.
'I've watched you,' Falkane said, 'these few times that we've shared company since first meeting in Skaug, and I've puzzled over your relationship with Black Alaric.'
Black Alaric was the name Iakhovas had chosen to wear among the Nelanther Isles. The first pirate to wear the name of Black Alaric had appeared fourteen hundred years ago, then reappeared time and time again during periods of unrest.
Since learning of Iakhovas's chosen identity, the malenti priestess had researched the legend in her books of surface history. She'd first studied those to become adept as a spy among the sea elves and surface dwellers. The last Black Alaric had been active a hundred years ago. Iakhovas had claimed to take over the present identity five years ago, and had been plotting his strategies since that time.
'There is nothing to puzzle over,' she told Falkane.
The pirate looked at her and grinned. 'Until that day I met you, I'd never seen you in Skaug before.'
Until that time, Laaqueel had never been in the capital city of the pirates before.
'I know I didn't because I would have remembered you if I had,' Falkane said. 'Someone so beautiful as you.'
'You mock me.' Laaqueel let some of the anger she felt drip venom into her words before she could stop herself. It was bad enough she had to so resemble a surface dweller and the hated sea elves, but her disfigurement also included dealing with some of the emotions that plagued them.
'No,' he assured her. 'I don't. I think you're a most enchanting creature.' His eyes blazed as he deliberately looked at her from head to toe. 'You're a beautiful woman. Don't you know that?'
'No,' she replied. Even though she was fully clothed, she felt naked for the first time in her life. It was an unsettling experience.
'You have no man sequestered away somewhere?' he asked. 'No lover?'
'No.' In the sahuagin culture, possessions were to be admired and fought over, not mates. The reproductive cycle was a necessary thing. They didn't even raise their own children, turning the eggs over to the creches responsible for rearing them.
'Where were you raised to be so uninformed about the power you have to turn a man's head?' he asked.
Laaqueel looked at him, thinking that she'd like to turn his head till it spun off his shoulders. She wished she knew where Iakhovas was. They'd taken passage on Falkane's ship when they'd fled the sewers under Baldur's Gate, Iakhovas had immediately demanded a cabin and went off to examine whatever treasure he'd captured from the lime pit.
'I've heard that Black Alaric is a satyr in bed,' Falkane said. 'I've paid women who've spied on him. They couldn't tell me much more because he's very secretive.'
Laaqueel looked at the pirate captain in shock. Since she'd been with Iakhovas, she'd never seen that side of him. Among the sahuagin, he'd been uninvolved with the opposite sex, and among others he'd always been in control.
'You didn't know that?' Falkane taunted.
'No. He has a habit of keeping his business as his own.'
'And what are your feelings about him?'
Laaqueel shook her head. 'I have none. I follow him because I believe that's what I'm supposed to do.'
'Don't you ever think for yourself?'
'Of course,' she snapped.
Falkane tapped her chin with his forefinger, stroking her flesh. 'Then what do you think about me?'
'Nothing,' Laaqueel stated flatly, but she knew that was no longer true. His interest in her, even if it was for reasons of his own, could provide an advantage for her that she'd never had since entering Iakhovas's thrall.
'Then I'll make that my mission,' he told her. 'Starting at this very moment, I promise you that you'll have cause to never forget me.'
'You'd only be wasting your time. Ill forget about you the second you walk away.'
Before she could move, he slid his hand behind her neck with a quickness she hadn't expected. He cupped the back of her head and pulled her to him, crushing his lips to hers in a deep kiss.
IX
5 Kythorn, the Year of the Gauntlet
The streets of Baldur's Gate remained busy as wagons went to and fro. Crews gathered the dead and piled them in community graves so sickness wouldn't spread from the corpses. Other groups concentrated on clearing the debris. The forlorn cries of women and children, and even some men, filled the streets. Clerics walked at the head of the death wagons, speaking prayers and waving censers filled with strong-smelling herbs.
Jherek couldn't keep his thoughts from the carved pearl disk in his fist. Everything it represented hung in his mind. Madame litaar and Malorrie had both felt his future had lain in Baldur's Gate, but he'd been offered no clue as to what it might be. He didn't even know where to go from here.
How was destiny found, or even pursued?
He had no clue, but holding the disk made him feel like achieving that was possible. He passed a group of men standing around a rose-red torch at a corner where the street he followed wound back toward the Wide. They talked quickly among themselves, voices high with emotion.
Earlier, he'd noticed the groups around the rose-red torches gathered for what seemed to be casual conversation. Cobble parties, Frauk had called them in a voice that gave no doubt how he felt about them. The caravan master wasn't a man to waste time.
The men had no light bantering of conversation between them now. Their voices reeked of angry frustration and pain. Jherek clung to the pearl disk a little more tightly, silently willing it to give up its secrets. Even though he knew he wasn't the one it was intended for, and that impression was very strong in him, he wanted to experience part of what it must feel like to be given something so important.
Instead, he remembered how Bunyip had looked out in the harbor. The lines remained as he'd remembered them, clean and tight except for the missing mast, and she'd looked defiant as ever.
Jherek wondered if his father would even recognize him now without seeing the tattoo on the inside of his left bicep. He became angry and frustrated with himself for even considering such a thing. His father had never cared about him, only about his own dark desires.
Black depression settled over Jherek, robbing him of even the small comfort the pearl disk had lent him. How could he dare to think even for a moment that such a thing might be intended for him, knowing where he'd come from?
No, what tonight had proven was that even the gods liked their cruel jokes. They'd placed the pearl disk before him, given him a hint of the legacy that lay ahead of someone more deserving, only to taunt him and make him recognize again the low station he'd been given in his life.
