wielded.
'Here is your proof,' Iakhovas went on. 'Proof that you demanded of our god.'
'You stand there and claim the appearance of this beast is a sign from Sekolah,' Huaanton thundered with deep clicks and thumps.
'Dare you claim it is not?' Iakhovas stretched his left hand upward The kraken stretched one of its longest tentacles down at the same time, tenderly wrapping the huge, leaf-shaped pod around Iakhovas's arm. 'Have you ever seen anything like this?'
Laaqueel knew the display left a distinct impression on the sahuagin community. Except for the guards who'd first seen Iakhovas with the kraken, no one else had ever seen anything like it either. The malenti priestess knew Iakhovas was treading a fine line between accreditation and accusation. Huaanton pushed it over the line.
'Magic,' the sahuagin king stated. The charge echoed over the crowd, eliciting small clicks and whistles of quiet conversation.
Laaqueel's heart beat frantically in her chest. She took in fresh seawater through her mouth and flushed it out her gills. She held onto her belief in Sekolah with all her might.
Before the crowd had time to reach a decision on its own, Iakhovas raised his voice. 'You try to denounce me? After all that you've demanded of Sekolah while giving so little of yourself?'
Huaanton shifted uneasily, knowing he was on dangerous ground himself. Laaqueel knew Iakhovas had led him there, carefully measuring each step.
'We've taken war to the surface dwellers for the first time in generations,' Iakhovas said. 'We've fought them and we've broken them. We challenged them in their greatest city and seen it burn, taken their ships and seen them flee from the seas. Now you seek to undo all that?'
'We've done enough,' Huaanton replied.
'According to your will,' Iakhovas agreed, 'perhaps we have, but I've seen a vision of We Who Eat one day marching through the streets of Waterdeep and other coastal cities. The surface dwellers ran cowering before us, no longer able to claim any part of the seas.' He paused, letting his words hang in the water. 'That is when we've done enough.'
'You seek to lead us to our deaths, Iakhovas,' Huaanton said. 'I know not why, but this I truly see. You were born less than fifteen years ago, yet you now hold the office of prince when most take three centuries to reach that position.'
Laaqueel stood in silent panic, knowing if Iakhovas came undone, she came undone with him. Her prayers continued without cease, but as always in Sekolah's service, there was no true answer. Only the currents knew how things would sort out.
'Most of those positions,' Iakhovas pointed out, 'came from you.'
'You fed off my own successes like a parasitic worm,' Huaanton said. 'I didn't see it then, but I see it now.'
Iakhovas drew himself to his full height. Even in his human form as Laaqueel saw him, he was impressive. The Royal Black Tridents nearest him involuntarily drew back. The albino kraken hung over the group with its tentacles waving in the currents.
'Truly,' Iakhovas said, 'Sekolah does lay his hand upon our mission.' Still only three steps down from the sahuagin king he turned to address the crowd. 'I thought only one sign was going to be presented here today. Now, I see that I was wrong. In his generosity, the Great Shark has given his chosen people two.' He gestured to the kraken. 'We know that our war with the surface dwellers isn't over.' He pointed at Huaanton. 'And now we know that we have a king who is king of We Who Eat only in name and no true leader at all.' He stepped toward Huaanton.
Instantly, the king's bodyguards moved to intercept Iakhovas. With a flicker of motion that ripped through the water, the kraken reached out and snatched up five of the guards in its tentacles, removing them from Iakhovas's path. Before the other guards could react, Iakhovas stood in front of the sahuagin king.
'Huaanton, false king of We Who Eat of the Claarteeros Sea,' Iakhovas said in a loud voice, 'I charge you with weakness, finding you unwilling to lead your people in this cause, and with impropriety for failing to carry out Sekolah's war against the surface dwellers.'
The Royal Black Tridents closed in with their weapons raised, ready to chop Iakhovas down.
'As is my right,' Iakhovas said, ignoring the weapons raised against him, 'I claim blood challenge on behalf of the Great Shark.'
Angrily, Huaanton waved his guards aside, brave enough to do so even in the face of the kraken as the gigantic creature cracked the bodies of his guards above him. 'You lie,' the sahuagin king said, taking a step forward, 'and your death shall prove those lies.'
'Your death,' Iakhovas promised, 'will prove your weakness and your failing.'
Without warning, Huaanton exploded into action. He reversed the trident and thrust the cruel tines at Iakhovas.
Laaqueel watched helplessly as Iakhovas was caught off-guard. She didn't think such a thing was possible after having seen him in action against their enemies, but she remembered how she'd found him, trapped by magic and nearly dead. The scars were mute testimony that he wasn't as infallible as he acted.
The trident tines sank into Iakhovas's chest, drawing a spurting, murky cloud of blood. He screamed in enraged pain and reached for the trident's haft as Huaanton tried to shove it more deeply into him.
Watching on, Laaqueel knew it was a death blow. The tines had no doubt torn through Iakhovas's heart and only seconds remained before death claimed him. The black quill next to her heart quivered in response, signaling a cold flush of nausea that ran through the malenti. She wondered how tightly the quill tied to her Iakhovas, and whether she would die when he did.
A bloody grin warped Iakhovas's face, and touched even the dark hollow of his missing eye. He stood his ground and hooked his fingers between the trident's tines. Muscle rippled along his arms as he shoved the weapon back and pulled the barbed tines free.
Though the misting blood partially obscured her view, Laaqueel watched as the gaping wounds on Iakhovas's chest pulled back together, knitting the flesh, sinew, and bone. The ring she'd first placed on his finger when she'd discovered him glowed briefly, and she doubted that anyone but her saw it.
'Weak,' Iakhovas taunted in a ragged voice that almost belied the injuries he'd sustained. He maintained his hold on the trident even against Huaanton's great strength.
The Royal Black Tridents stood back, unable to interfere in a blood challenge. It was one of the most sacred of the sahuagin practices.
Huaanton lifted a webbed foot and lashed out with the razor-edged talons on his toes. He ripped gouges across Iakhovas's face, narrowly missing his eye.
Fearful then, obviously in high regard of his remaining vision, Iakhovas reluctantly released the trident and stepped back. Still, the confident look never left his face as he set himself for another attack.
Huaanton launched himself up into the water, rising above Iakhovas. He was well within the kraken's reach, and Laaqueel knew the sahuagin king was no coward. He kept the trident before him. 'Come, Iakhovas, come join me in our dance of death. Let the tides decide our fates.'
Iakhovas leaped after the sahuagin king without hesitation. He eeled through the water with grace and speed that was totally unexpected. He slipped long-bladed knives from his belt and held them point down from his fists. Huaanton thrust the trident at him again. Iakhovas blocked the effort with one of the knives, then lashed out at the sahuagin king's midsection with the other.
Huaanton had to move quickly, but the knife slid harmlessly by. Before Iakhovas could recover, Huaanton swung a backhand at him filled with claws. Iakhovas got his arm up in time to save his face, but the claws sank deeply into his flesh, slashing to the bone. He maintained his grip on the knife, though, and brought it down and across in a move designed to disembowel the sahuagin king. The knife blade tracked a bloody furrow across Huaanton's stomach, but it wasn't deep enough to spill his guts.
Spreading the webs between his toes, Huaanton cut through the water, streaking behind Iakhovas. The sahuagin king levered an arm under Iakhovas's chin and popped his finger claws out. Before Huaanton could drag his claws across Iakhovas's throat, Iakhovas slashed the back of the sahuagin king's forearm, cutting through the ligaments that controlled the claws and fingers. Huaanton's claws recessed and his fingers unbent.
Iakhovas broke free of his opponent's grip while Huaanton was stunned by the severity of the wound he'd
