mudship dived, gliding beneath the heated waters. Even as she felt the too-hot caress of the currents closing over her, Laaqueel was grateful for them, too. They soaked tissues that had gotten too dry from exposure to the heat.
With Iakhovas at the helm, Tarjana sped to the front of the sahuagin armada. The fliers rested on the bottom of the lake amid the kelp fronds. When they saw the mudship gliding forward, powered by the rowers that Iakhovas had ordered aboard, the fliers lifted from the lake floor and started after it, having no problem matching the slower craft's speed.
Laaqueel peered through the murky lake depths, uncertain how Iakhovas had known it was time to start the voyage. She stood beside him, holding onto the nearby railing, Iakhovas guided the craft to within feet of the irregular bottom with more skill than she'd known him to have. As she watched his hands upon the wheel, she noticed that some of the tattooed scars inscribed on his forearms and chest glowed, showing through his clothing.
'Relax, priestess. No one else can see what you can see. You of all people see me most clearly.'
They sped toward the base of Arnrock Island. Thinking perhaps a cave somehow existed in the thick column of rock, Laaqueel peered more closely, but only craggy rock remained in view. Even if there had been a cave, she couldn't imagine it being anything but superheated.
Still, Iakhovas maintained his course. The rowers aboard Tarjana hesitated. The malenti priestess felt the decrease in speed.
'They cannot stop,' Iakhovas commanded. 'We need the speed if we're to get through the gate in time for all the others to follow.'
'I will attend to it,' Laaqueel promised.
Staying low, she hooked her toe claws into the deck as she made her way down the railing and to the main hold opening into the rowing compartments. She went down the ladder, stepping out of the current.
One hundred and forty sahuagin manned the oars, and all of them looked up at her expectantly, only going through the motions of, rowing instead of pulling with all their strength. Laaqueel glared at the sahuagin on the timing drum sitting on a deck up above the rowers and said, 'You've slowed the beat.'
'Most Sacred One,' the sahuagin said, 'I've been told we're speeding for the volcano itself.'
'You're questioning the will of Sekolah?' Laaqueel's eyes flashed with anger. Gathering her power around her, she touched the Great Shark symbol she wore between her breasts and prayed quickly. She threw out her hand.
Bones snapped as a paroxysm seized the drum beater. Within a twenty-foot cube around him, the pressure in the water had suddenly increased to what it would be two thousand feet down. Without having a chance to acclimate, the sahuagin's air bladder exploded in his chest, followed quickly by the other soft tissue areas including the eyes and inner organs. The drum he'd been beating also caved in. Blood pooled up and spread out above the crumpled sahuagin. His corpse floated away from the deck and rose to the ceiling above the rowers.
Priestess, Iakhovas said into her mind.
'Row!' Laaqueel ordered. She struck the side of the ship with her trident's hilt, creating a bonging noise. She repeated the effort, setting the cadence for the rowers. 'Fear is not for We Who Eat! Succeed or fail! Live or die! Row!'
The sea devils bent to the oars, pulling them lustily, and Laaqueel felt the difference at once. She pointed at another of the sahuagin in the hold who'd been responsible for spelling those rowers who needed it. 'You are the new beater. By Sekolah's unkind smile, don't make me find another to replace you.'
'No, Most Sacred One. We shall row for the Great Shark, and for you. We shall not fail.' The man took up his trident and started beating it against the wall, keeping up the rapid cadence the malenti priestess had started.
Satisfied, Laaqueel climbed the steps back to the main deck.
'Now, priestess,' Iakhovas said. 'Now it begins!'
She looked forward and saw the trunk of Arnrock Island filling the view before the prow. They were too close now, going too fast to avoid cracking up on the rocks and coral. Only a small twinge of fear twisted through Laaqueel's stomach, but she quickly put her doubt away. The quest they were on was real. Even Sekolah the Uncaring would want his chosen children free as he'd first freed them so long ago.
'There, Laaqueel! Do you see it?' Iakhovas stood at the wheel, the tattoos all over his body lighted by lambent green fires.
A shimmering took place in front of Tarjana just as her prow reached out for the rock. A portal opened in the rock, tall enough and wide enough for the fliers that trailed after them.
'Hold on!' Iakhovas warned. 'With all your might, hold on or you'll be forever lost and even I won't be able to protect you!'
Still gaining speed, Tarjana flew into the portal.
'They've raised their sails again,' Jherek said as he watched the crews aboard Maelstrom and the other pirate vessels work their rigging with all due speed.
The sailcloth spread along the yardarms, then belled out, greedily catching the wind. Azla gave the order for her own crew to run the sails up. Rigging whined and creaked overhead as they hurried to follow her orders.
'They're doing something else, too,' she said. 'Can you make out what it is?'
Jherek strained to see through the spyglass, riding out the rise and fall of Black Champion's deck. He spotted the coarse leather tarps the crew was spreading out across the decks.
'Tarps?' Azla repeated, pushing herself to the railing and hanging onto the rigging above. 'What in the Nine Hells would they do that for?'
'Look!' Sabyna called from below. She pointed. 'Something's happening to the volcano.'
Jherek turned his attention to the smoldering tower of rock behind Maelstrom. Thicker and darker smoke, filled with fiery debris that could be seen even at the distance they were at, belched from the Ship of the Gods.
'It's going to blow,' Azla stated quietly, and Jherek didn't doubt that for a moment.
T'Kalah, royal guard of Ring Kromes who ruled Aleaxtis, the kingdom of We Who Eat beneath the Alamber Sea, stalked his quarry with a patience born of relish for the kill.
He stood just over nine feet in height and was built broad and strong, a warrior who was feared by his own people as well as the surface dwellers. His scales held a deep emerald green so dark it was almost black. Legend said that was once the color of all sahuagin before they'd been trapped in the Alamber Sea and put in such close proximity to the sea elves of Seros. Those same sea elves were reputed to have been different colors in ages past, but they had passed on their skin changes through the malenti and their proximity to the warriors of Aleaxtis.
Despite his size, T'Kalah slid quietly through the kelp lining the ledges where he'd spotted the sea elf only moments before. He'd been quietly occupying a cave in the area that overlooked Vahaxtyl, the sahuagin capital of Aleaxtis, dreaming of the day when he would be king.
Of course, that wasn't going to happen unless opportunity manifested itself. Still, it was a good ambition, and one that he'd pursued. After all, he'd waited and watched, made blood challenges as they became possible, and killed his way into a position as captain of the royal guard of King Kromes.
Success or failure had been the driving force in his life, the thing that had driven him to live in the hatcheries when so many of his brothers and sisters had been out to eat him. Yet sitting in the cave, thinking of that day, had ignited the black rage that often consumed him because he didn't think of patience as a virtue.
The amputated stub of his lower left arm served to remind him that patience was sometimes best given some degree of heed. But then, he still had three more arms. He'd been marked from birth as a four-arm to follow stronger currents than most of his people could fin. Since losing the arm, he'd worked to make the other three even stronger.
Thank Sekolah's uncaring grace that the sea elf had wandered into the area to provide him some distraction. T'Kalah undulated through the water, gliding through the kelp. From the changes in pressure along his lateral lines, he knew exactly where the sea elf was. The sahuagin royal guard closed the distance, knowing from the lack of movement that the elf had come to a stop. Whether because he'd seen T'Kalah or just wanted to observe the city wasn't clear.
T'Kalah parted the kelp with two of his hands while holding a trident in his third. He spotted the sea elf ahead of him, hunkered down behind a ridge of rock and sparse growths of gold-and-brown striped tiger coral. He was blue all over, with only a few white patches. T'Kalah guessed that the elf was there trying for one of the shipwrecks in
