adamant about staying apart.'
They won't,' Qos said, 'once Voalidru falls.'
I've overheard the sea elf warriors talking about that. The locathah keep information coming to us. The warriors believe the Taker has stretched his alliances too thin and that he doesn't have the power to challenge Eadraal at this point.'
'The Taker is mustering his next army even as we speak.'
A cold chill raced through the old bard. 'How?''
Qos held up his right hand. Green coral suddenly emerged from his palm and flattened, covering his huge hand.
'The Taker has surrounded the Whamite Isles,' Qos told him, 'with an evil and ancient kelpie that sings its listeners to their deaths. He wracks the islands with massive earthquakes that will drive the people to the shore so they can hear the kelpie songs. Few, if any, will survive. When enough have died, the Taker will call the victims back as drowned ones in his service.'
Horror filled Pacys, stilling his fingers. He gazed at Qos's palm where images formed. Pie saw the pallid figures hanging from kelpie beds in the black water, their arms and legs limp, their dead eyes red and blank, mouths hanging open. A few of them were drowning even as he watched, thrashing slightly as their lives left them.
'No,' the old bard cried hoarsely. 'We can't let this happen.'
'It already has,' Qos stated. 'It must happen to make way for the only chance Seros has at peace.'
Unable to look away. Pacys watched as more people dropped into the black water, immediately tended to by the kelpie beds. No matter how great his skill nor the fact that Oghma himself had set his present course before him, he would never be able to capture the abomination being played out before his eyes.
Blasted by the lightning bolt that should have killed him, Jherek hit the ground hard, so hard that the breath was driven from his lungs and he almost blacked out. He clung to his senses, though, thinking of Sabyna, Glawinn, and Azla trapped like rats in the cave. Rolling over on his side, he felt blood trickle down the side of his face.
The journey that had taken only days before had extended to two restless months. A sahuagin attack had cost them their rudder. Replacing the rudder had taken ten-days after Steadfast had finally made a friendly port. Despite the time, the pull in his chest had brought him to Sabyna without fail, never once wavering.
As he got to his feet, the young sailor noticed the lightning bolt fading in the high sheen of the bracer on his left arm. The bracer had somehow protected him from the magical assault.
Black spots whirled in his vision as he gazed around the main cavern. Two of Tarnar's sailors-the two he'd been thrown into-were down, alive but unconscious. Jherek looked for his cutlass but didn't see it. The sounds of battle and the screams of dying men continued above.
He started to take one of the sailors' cutlasses, but impulse drew his eyes to the chasm in the center of the cavern. Looking down over the edge, he spotted a man-made entrance cut in the left side six feet below him. Before he knew quite what he was doing, feeling pulled to get back to Sabyna's side, he hung over the ledge, staring down into a pit that looked fathoms deep. Thankfully, the chasm walls provided finger and toeholds.
When he looked into the opening, he saw the sword hanging on the wall at the other end of what looked like a man-sized pink pearl box. Glancing at the other side of the chasm, he noticed what appeared to be the other side to the pink pearl room. The sword's steel glistened with a lambent pink light.
Ignoring the reluctance that filled him, Jherek clambered into the room. It stood to reason that if a sword had been hidden as cleverly as this one, it had to be a powerful weapon. The question of whether the sword was good or evil only touched his mind fleetingly. As powerful as the mage in the other room was, Jherek needed a powerful weapon.
Wrapping his hand around the sword hilt, Jherek felt a small tingle run through his arm. He almost released they sword, but the tingle was gone before he did. He thrust his blade through his sash and climbed the chasm wall again, then he jumped up the ledge and ran back to the second cave.
Tarnar looked at him with a surprised smile and said, 'I thought you were dead.'
Iridea's Tear saved me.' Jherek drew the sword from his waist, surprised that the blade was a curved cutlass and not the long sword he'd thought it was. The blade still held the pink glow.
Two of Steadfast's crew lay dead inside the second cavern.
Peering into the shadows, Jherek saw Sabyna and Glawinn battling koalinths rising from the pool. Vurgrom's men took advantage of the situation and rushed forward.
Azla stepped from behind a column, batted aside the pirate's clumsy attack, then slid her scimitar across the man's stomach, spilling his guts. Still on the move, the pirate queen engaged her next attacker. Steel gleamed as it moved, then she sank the dirk in her left hand between the man's ribs, stiffening him up at once.
Lifting his arm, Jherek willed the bracer into a shield, then stepped into the cavern. One of the pirates rushed at him. The young sailor stepped sideways at the last moment, letting the pirate's overhead swing go past him, then he slammed the shield into his attacker with all his weight behind it.
The pirate hit the wall and sagged, dazed by the impact. Before he recovered, Jherek knocked the man's blade from his hand.
Tarnar stepped up and grabbed the pirate by the shirt, yanking him into a stumbling run and passing him back to one of his men.
'I've got him,' the captain growled.
'Don't kill him if you don't have to,' Jherek said.
'In that, my friend,' Tarnar said, 'we are in agreement.'
Vurgrom bellowed orders from hiding but didn't make a move to engage Jherek as the young sailor moved forward.
Iakhovas stood his ground, glancing at Jherek with real curiosity. 'Who are you, boy?'
Jherek shook his head, peering over the shield and hoping it would hold against any further magic. 'I'm no one,' he said.
'What are you doing here?'
Jherek thought he detected suspicion in the dark male's tattooed face and mismatched eyes. 'Let my friends go,' Jherek demanded.
'I don't know you, do I?' Iakhovas asked.
'I'm only going to ask you once.'
The man's eyes narrowed and he said, 'Boy, I've eaten creatures bigger than you.'
Without warning, Jherek stepped forward. It bothered him that the mage didn't draw the sword at his side, but if he didn't have to kill the man he wouldn't. He swung the sword, surprised at how balanced it felt, like it was a weightless extension of his body.
Incredibly, Iakhovas grabbed the sword with his hand, stopping the swing, but from the pained expression on the mage's face, it was a surprise for both of them. He lifted his hand, gazing with ill-concealed astonishment at the blood that spilled from around his closed hand.
'Who are you?' the mage demanded.
Before Jherek had time to answer, Vurgrom bellowed and rushed from hiding. He barreled across the short distance and slammed into the young sailor with his considerable bulk.
Already sore from his earlier fall, Jherek couldn't keep his feet, but he did keep his grip on the cutlass. It felt as if his arm was being torn from its socket before the blade slid free of the mage's hand.
'Going to kill you now, boy!' Vurgrom roared as he came down on top of Jherek. 'I remember you from Baldur's Gate. I should have killed you then.'
Willing Iridea's Tear from shield to dagger, a handle forming in his hand, Jherek shoved it toward Vurgrom's face. The fat pirate captain's eyes rounded as he stared at the multi-colored blade. Taking advantage of the man's shifting weight, the young sailor levered his forearm under his opponent's jaw hard enough to make his teeth clack, then rolled out from under him.
Jherek willed the bracer into a hook, the handle fitting easily between his fingers. Vurgrom got to his feet at the same time as the young sailor, taking up his battle-axe in both hands. Iakhovas was still visible over the pirate captain's shoulder, his attention torn between his bleeding hand and Jherek.
Reversing the battle-axe so the hammer end of it was forward. Vurgrora swung at the young sailor. Jherek dodged, barely escaping the speeding weapon. The blunt head smashed against the wall, cracking rock loose and
