'Because,' Taareen answered, 'I must take you to Faenasuor that you may learn the legends of the Taker as we know them. It has been foretold.'
Excitement flared through Pacys. If there had been any humans ever to enter the city of Faenasuor, there had been precious few.
'We can take care of your friend,' Taareen offered. 'Some of the things we trade with the surface world are potions which allow surface dwellers to breathe underwater. It would be our honor to aid you.'
'When could we go?' Pacys asked.
Khlinat shifted uneasily, obviously not happy about the thought of visiting an undersea city.
'We can continue on to Starmantle by land,'Taareen said. 'I know a man there who deals in such potions. It won't be hard to strike a deal for one. After we are in Faenasuor it won't be a problem to keep your friend well supplied.'
'Then let's break camp,' Pacys said. 'I know I won't be getting any more sleep tonight anyway, and dawn can't be more than an hour away.'
He was left with the feeling that time was running out. How much difference did days, weeks, or months make when faced with an opponent who had thousands of years to plan?
XVIII
9 Kythorn, the Year of the Gauntlet
Jherek kept his eyes on Sabyna when they hit the water. Both of them went under at once. The current wasn't overly strong and wasn't a real challenge that would keep them from the riverbank. He knew the ship's mage was a strong swimmer, but the possibility remained that Breezerunner might rip free of the sandbar and become a danger.
Despite the fatigue and dizziness that filled him, he waited underwater until she had her bearings, then followed her up. He broke the river surface little more than an arm's reach from her. 'Lady, are you all right?'
'Aye,' she replied, blinking water from her eyes. 'A little worse for the wear, but I'm holding my own.'
Treading water, Jherek glanced around, seeking out Breeze-runner's crew and the pirates. Men scrambled through the water like rats trying to escape drowning. A lot of ship's crews, the young sailor knew, had few men who could swim well, and even a good number of them that couldn't swim at all.
He spotted one man flailing nearly twenty yards away. The young sailor struck out at once, slicing through the water like a fish. He grabbed the man from behind, sliding his arm under his chin. 'Lie still,' Jherek ordered. 'I have you.'
The man choked and spat, and clung desperately to Jherek. 'Don't let Umberlee take me, lad.' He kicked frantically, spitting automatically whenever water touched his chin.
'Save your breath,' Jherek advised. Fighting the current and the man was difficult. The young sailor swam backward, pulling the man after him toward the riverbank. In a short time, he could touch bottom. He got the man on his feet, then turned to survey the river again.
'Those that made it are already here,' Captain Tynnel said as he walked up to Jherek. 'The others washed down the damned river. Maybe well get lucky and they'll make their way back to us by morning, and maybe they'll wash all the way out to the Sea of Swords.' He turned on Jherek. 'Didn't you see that damned sandbar out there? It's as big as an island.'
Jherek looked at Breezerunner tilted over nearly sideways on the huge sandbar. White-capped water rushed around her. From here, the sandbar did look impossible to miss.
'No,' he said. 'I didn't see it.' He knew it was his own ill birth at work again. He had a chance-for a moment-of being the hero, but it had been stripped from his fingers.
'Never sign onto a ship to be a pilot, boy,' Tynnel advised coldly. 'Takes too long to build a ship for them to be sunk so quickly.'
The words bit into Jherek, but he didn't argue. He deserved them.
'It wasn't his fault, Tynnel.'
Jherek turned, surprised that Sabyna had approached in his defense.
The captain gave her a dark look and shook his head. 'I should have guessed you'd be taking up for him.'
'Taking up for him?' Sabyna looked about to explode. 'He almost gave his life hanging onto that rudder. Two pirates were practically on top of him when I got there, and he hadn't turned loose of the rudder.'
'She's right, Cap'n,' Mornis, Breezerunner's first mate, said. 'I saw the lad standing there myself. Tried to get to him, but there wasn't anything I could do. If Sabyna hadn't reached him, I think he would have died holding onto that stick.'
A muscle worked in Tynnel's jaw, but arguing with both his ship's mage and first mate didn't appear profitable enough for him to continue. He said nothing further and turned away sharply.
'You didn't have to do that, lady,' Jherek said quietly after Tynnel had gone. 'What the captain said was true. I should have seen that sandbar.'
'No one could have seen that sandbar from back there,' she replied angrily. 'I didn't. Or are you going to tell me I should have seen it too?'
'No,' he said, shaking his head. 'I wouldn't do that.'
'Then don't do it to yourself.'
'She's right,' Mornis said. 'Cap'n's just not himself right now with everything that's going on. Hell be better come morning when he gets a chance to look at Breezerunner and know she's not hurt as bad as she could be. If you hadn't straightened her up like you did and we'd hit that sandbar side-on, like as not that ship would be kindling by now, and us down the drink with it.' He laid a hand on Jherek's shoulder. 'You did a fine job of it, a job to be proud of.'
Jherek listened to their words, but the voice in the back of his head that he'd fought with all his life didn't let up on him. Guilt filled him. He'd grounded Breezerunner and he'd lost the pearl disk.
When memory of the disk slid into his mind, he glanced around the riverbank. 'Where are the pirates?'
'Ran off into the forest,' Mornis rumbled. 'We got numbers on them. While you was pulling Torrigh from the drink, they took to nose-counting and realized they'd come up short in a free-for-all. They hit the brush like a covey of quail.'
'We've got to go after them,' Jherek said. Maybe Vur-grom's lead wasn't too extensive yet.
'No,' Sabyna said. 'There's nothing to be had in that.' She glanced out at the river. 'Our job now is to get Breezerunner secure before she tries to drift off that sandbar and ends up smashed somewhere farther down the river, then we need to fix any damage that's been done to her.'
Jherek scanned the dark forest, feeling the pull in him to go after Vurgrom and the stolen pearl disk. Guilt filled him to the bursting point. The disk had to be returned to Lath-ander's church in Baldur's Gate.
'It's too dark, lad,' Mornis said quietly. 'If those pirates don't set up and take you down somewhere, there are things out in that forest stalking the night that will. It'll be a lucky man who gets through that of a piece.'
Quietly, Jherek let go of any hope of finding and overtaking Vurgrom. He joined the others as they gathered around Tynnel and listened to the plans the captain had for securing Breezerunner.
'Lad, that's some rough country you've got ahead of you.'
Jherek gathered the ends of the cloth he'd been given, tucked the rations he'd been parceled out from Breeze-runner's stores, and tied them together to fashion a crude pack. 'Aye, but I've got it to do.'
Mornis looked uncomfortable. 'I feel guilty about letting you go on alone.'
'I lost something that wasn't mine to lose, my friend, and I've got to return it if I can.'
'Like as not,' Mornis warned, 'you may be spending your life foolishly.'
'Dying with honor isn't a foolish death.' Jherek told him sternly.
'No, lad, but any kind of dying is still dying. Myself, I'd rather keep both oars in the water as long as I'm able. A man going with the sea stays afloat a lot longer than a man going against it.'
'I was told,' Jherek said, 'that it always matters how you go against it.'
