The great whale's tail drooped, no longer moving. Only then did Laaqueel notice that the other whales were in full retreat. Their song had stopped.
The huge corpse turned slowly, like a ship combating an unfavorable wind. Incredibly, the small jaw hinged to the bottom of the huge blunt head opened. Blood spewed out in a violent rush, revealing the massive damage that had been dealt to the creature's insides.
When the currents washed the blood away, Iakhovas stood revealed, levering the jaw open by pushing against the whale's upper jaw. Still holding the Great Whale Bard's jaw open, he screamed defiantly, 'I am Iakhovas! I am your king!'
The sahuagin warriors screamed with him, defiant and exhilarated.
'Meat is meat!' Iakhovas yelled. 'Come eat of the feast I have laid before you!'
The sahuagin surged forward, filling the water as they streamed through the broken section of the Sharksbane Wall. They descended on the Great Whale Bard's corpse like carrion crabs.
Laaqueel stayed on Tarjana's deck. She knew her absence among their ranks wouldn't go unnoticed, but she had no heart to join them. All she felt inside was a curious emptiness.
'All hail King Iakhovas the Deliverer!' one of the sahuagin warriors shouted as the feeding frenzy filled the ocean with blood. The other warriors took up the shout, and the sound filled the currents. They slapped their hands and feet against the whale's corpse, finding the savage rhythm again.
Laaqueel wrapped her hand around the white shark symbol that lay between her breasts and prayed. She found no comfort in an act that used to come so naturally to her.
'Aye, an' there's trouble afoot, friend Pacys.'
Drawn from his work on the saceddar, the old bard glanced up at the dwarf. Khlinat's face was grim and hard. The last sweet notes from the saceddar died away.
'What is it?' the bard asked.
Khlinat pointed forward with his bearded chin and said, 'It appears we've run afoul of a war party of mermen. They're refusing to let us pass through.'
'Why?'
Pacys uncoiled from the flat rock on the sea bottom where he'd been working while the caravan took a brief respite. They'd crossed the outer edges of the Hmur Plateau a couple days back. At present, they were only a few miles east of the Pirate Isles.
'I'm figurin' the merfolk don't exactly take to what looks like a military group paradin' through their land. At least, that's the gist of what I heard afore I decided to come back for ye.'
'What does Reefglamor say?' Pacys asked, securing the saceddar to his back.
'A whole lot,' the dwarf replied, 'but ain't none of it doing him any good. Him and that merman baron are both puffing up like toads. Me, I'm keeping a ready hand for me axe.'
The old bard launched himself into the water, and Khlinat followed him. Pacys swam easily, making his way along the caravan line to the front. Undersea mountains around the Pirate Isles made their journey hard even for swimmers. Bands of raiding seawolves and scrags had attacked them during the nights, costing them nearly a dozen warriors before they were turned back. The mountains created too many potential ambush points, but the deeper water toward the center of the Hmur Plateau offered dangers as well. The depths also shortened even the sea elves' undersea vision to but a few feet.
The sea elf rangers among the caravan saw to the care of the narwhals and sea turtles that pulled the flat supply sleds. The warriors formed protective units around the steep hills, stationed in positions that allowed them to see in all directions.
Even with the bright sunlight streaming through the shallows, Pacys didn't see Reefglamor and the mermen until he was a hundred feet away. Twenty warriors floated behind the merman baron with their tridents in their fists.
Reefglamor stood on a small rise in front of the baron, 'You must let us pass,' he said.
'No.' The merman baron studied Pacys as the bard approached. His tone turned derisive. 'You even brought humans with you.'
'This is not an ordinary human,' Reefglamor argued. 'This is the Taleweaver. Your people have legends of the Taker…'
'Yes.'
The baron didn't appear convinced. He was broad and muscled. His long brown hair floated over his shoulders, following the path of the currents that swept over the area. Tattoos covered his arms and chest, and a spiral representing Eadro decorated his right cheek.
'Then you've heard of the Taleweaver, Baron Tallos,' Reefglamor persisted.
The baron narrowed his eyes. 'Those tales have been twice-told hundreds of times over,' he argued. 'I choose not to believe in them as much as some of my people do.'
'Then your arrogance lends itself to ignorance,' Reef-glamor accused.
Tallos flicked his tail in irritation and shot a hand out to adjust his momentum. 'Swim carefully in these waters, old fins,' he warned.
The old sea elf drew himself up to his full height. 'I am Taranath Reefglamor, Senior High Mage of Sylkiir.'
'I was told who you are,' the baron snapped. 'Yet you still stand before me on two legs, sea elf, and I tell you that no one not blessed by Eadro with fins and a tail is a true creature of Seros. Your people migrated here out of their own fear and prejudice. We have always been here.'
Rage darkened the High Mage's features. At his side, Pharom Ildacer moved forward. Even as the merman warriors reacted by dropping their tridents toward the sea elves, Reefglamor placed a hand on his friend's chest. Ildacer stopped reluctantly.
'We only want to travel to Myth Nantar,' Reefglamor said. 'We must see to it that the Taleweaver arrives there safely.'
'Not across my lands.' Tallos glared at the old bard. 'I'll not have a sea elf army moving through my city, or anywhere near it.'
'We travel for the good of Seros,' Reefglamor protested. 'If we don't stand against the Taker, all of our world may fall.'
'The good of Seros,' Tallos echoed. 'As I recall, the Alu'Tel'Quessir have long held that as a reason for their attempts to take over all of Seros. How many have died as your people have tried to force their will on others? The Eleventh Seros War was fought over the same beliefs. Well, we don't hold forth those beliefs. We don't even presume to know what's best for Seros. We take care of our own, and life in these waters would be far better if others took care to do the same.'
Reefglamor had no reply, visibly stung by the merman's hard tone and words.
'Myth Nantar was another vessel of sea elven conspiracy,' Tallos continued. 'Better it should remain buried behind the mythal that binds it than to return to this world.'
'Prophecy has declared that the City of Destinies is the place where the Taker might be destroyed,' Reefglamor said.
'So say you, elf.'
'Your people have those prophecies as well.'
'Mayhap you'd be surprised how few of my people are willing to trust the Alu'Tel'Quessir these days.'
Reefglamor shook his head. 'Unrest and strife stir the waters and echo on the currents,' he said. 'The sahuagin are once more free to roam all of Seros. Surely you've noticed this.'
'I've heard,' Tallos answered coldly. 'I've also heard that it was the sea elves themselves who shattered the Sharks-bane Wall.'
'Why in all the seas would we have done that?'
'Because to get to you, the sahuagin must first run through the Hmur Plateau-where the mermen live,' the merman accused.
'Your King Vhaemas can't believe that.'
