'The king,' Tallos admitted, 'is more reluctant than some, but all are aware that there is no love lost between the sea elves and the merfolk.'
'This is bigger than the animosity that lies between our people,' Reefglamor said.
'If it were,' Tallos countered, 'wouldn't Coronal Semphyr or Cormal Ytham have sent you with more troops? Or approached our king first to request passage through our lands?'
'They, too, are blind to the dangers we face.'
Tallos regarded the old mage, then said, 'If your own people don't believe in you and your journey, why should I?'
'Because it is the truth,' Reefglamor said.
'Not my truth.'
Without another word, Reefglamor turned and motioned his warriors and fellow mages back.
'What will we do?' Jhanra Merlistar asked.
'We have no choice,' Reefglamor answered. 'We'll have to go around the plateau, along the western edge.'
'That's insane,' Ildacer stated harshly. 'Those waters are filled with koalinth tribes who would waste no time attacking us. Only fools would swim there.'
'The only other choice would be to head to the east and go through the deeper waters there,' Reefglamor offered.
'Senior,' the chief guardsman said, 'I would prefer-'
'As would I,' Reefglamor snapped irritably. 'We're in agreement that the depths are too dangerous. We will go around to the west. Have someone inform your warriors and the caravan leaders.'
Pacys thought about the proposed journey. It would add tendays, perhaps as much as a month to their time. That was just not acceptable. Yet, as he looked at the merman baron's hard face, he knew the decision would stand.
Both the sea elves and the mermen turned suddenly toward the south, their weapons falling naturally into their hands. Pacys prepared himself, wondering what it was they sensed. His eyes revealed nothing but the murky water that took away his vision. All at once the currents swirling around him became a wave that rocked him.
Behind the wave came the death cry of the Great Whale Bard. Hearing it, the old bard knew it belonged to no other. Tears welled in his eyes as he remembered the great creature and the gift it had given so freely while calmly accepting its own fate.
'Taleweaver?' Reefglamor called out, swimming toward him. 'What was that?'
'The sahuagin have slain the Great Whale Bard,' Pacys replied. 'Now there is nothing to hold back the sea devils.'
Standing in Steadfast's prow, his cutlass in his hands, Jherek stared at the huge, dark cloud that rode low over the ocean. The ship was ahead of the cloud, only a few miles southwest of Aglarond. The whale song stopped abruptly the day before, but the sense of direction that had dawned in the young sailor's breast remained constant.
He shaded his eyes with his hand. Perspiration cooled him in the sea breeze as his heart resumed a steadier beat. He'd worked himself hard the last hour, concentrating on the cutlass and hook as he went through the exercises Malorrie and Glawinn had shown him. The exertion kept his thoughts reined in, away from the memory of Sabyna and the sweet kiss they'd exchanged.
Tarnar ran up the steps, joining him. 'I thought at first it was a cloud,' the captain said, 'but I'd never seen one settle so close to the sea and be so small. Thought it might be fog, then I thought perhaps it was a sail.'
'No,' Jherek said, tracking the jerky, fluttering movement visible within the mass now. 'Those are birds. Scavengers.' Even as he realized it, his stomach lurched and filled with cold acid.
Bringing his spyglass up to his eye, Tarnar swept the sky ahead. 'You're right, but I've never seen so many.'
Jherek hadn't either. Thousands of seagulls, pelicans, fisherhawks, and smaller birds skirled through the limited air space above the sea, eagerly seeking an opening. During a voyage on Butterfly last year, Finaren had spied a derelict at sea. Upwind of her, Jherek hadn't smelled the carrion stench of the ship until they'd thrown grappling hooks over the railing and prepared to tie on.
Birds had exploded from the decks and broken windows, frightened from the grisly repast they'd helped themselves to. The young sailor had never learned the reason why the crew had killed each other, but there was no doubt that they had. Finaren had guessed that some mage-inspired madness or a curse had overtaken them. No one had lived. For tendays afterward, Jherek remembered the bloated and beak-stripped faces in his nightmares.
'It means there's death waiting up there,' the young sailor said hoarsely.
Tarnar didn't bother to disagree.
'Cap'n,' the sailor in the crow's nest bellowed. 'Got something off the starboard side.'
Jherek stepped to the railing, the cutlass still tight in his fist. A sapphire whale, named for the blue flukes it bore, surfaced in the water only a few yards from Steadfast. Twenty feet long and easily eight feet in diameter at its thickest part, the sapphire whale could have been a formidable opponent for the caravel. It glided easily just above the water, making no move toward the ship.
'Lady look over us,' the sailor in the crow's nest called out, 'there are more of 'em out there, Cap'n.'
As though appearing from nowhere, the whales rose to the ocean's surface, quickly flanking Steadfast's port and starboard sides.
'They want us to stop,' Jherek said.
'They've given us no choice,' Tarnar growled. He turned and shouted orders to the first mate to drop their canvas. 'The good thing is, if they wanted to, they could have already reduced Steadfast to so much kindling. I'm taking this as a good sign.'
The caravel drifted to a stop, resting easily against the whales' broad backs. Tarnar gave the order to drop anchor. Crewmen spun the anchor chain on the drum, paying out the length.
Jherek peered across the hundred yards that separated the ship from the cloud of scavengers working at the water-line. They looked as though they were settling on a small island barely jutting up from the sea.
Tarnar put his spyglass in the sash at his waist and walked cautiously to the railing to peer down at the whales. Porpoises raced through the water around the whales, occasionally leaping up and disappearing beneath the waves again.
'What do they want?' the captain asked.
Jherek shook his head, then a ghostly whisper trickled through his mind. Jherek, you must come with us. The voice wasn't the same as the one that had contacted him days ago.
'They want me,' the young sailor said.
'How do you know?' Tarnar demanded.
'They just told me.'
The captain looked at him as if he'd gone mad.
'You can't hear them?' Jherek asked, amazed that the man could not.
'No.'
Jherek, there is not much time remaining. You must accompany us.
Fear and wonderment touched the young sailor's heart. Even days ago when he'd felt the pull and heard the whale song and the voice, he hadn't been as moved. Gazing out at the scavenging birds, he felt the world close in around him.
'Why do they want you?' Tarnar asked.
'I don't know,' the young sailor answered.
The sapphire whale swam alongside the caravel, bumping gently up against it. Steadfast bobbed in response.
Come, Jherek Whalefriend. Come and learn.
The young sailor peered down into the whale's eye, seeing the intelligence there.
'What are you going to do?' Tarnar asked.
Jherek clung to the railing, squinting against the wind in his face. 'We have no choice. I don't think they'll let
