Staving off the vertigo and uncertainty, Laaqueel picked up her trident, taking the fight to the merman warriors.
I will not allow you to take the lives of these people, the feminine voice stated.
'I am sahuagin.' Laaqueel engaged the nearest merman, thrusting her trident at his face.
No.
Laaqueel's trident thrust stopped short. The merman warrior moved to take advantage of his luck. As he thrust, though, a wild current sprang up from below him and pulled him away.
Nor will I allow you to be harmed. Not unless you make me.
'Then strike me down if you can.' Laaqueel gazed around the depths. 'Come out of hiding. I will fight you. My life has not been my own, and I'll spend it gladly.'
I come to give you your life, Laaqueel.
'How?' As the malenti priestess looked around, she noticed that none of the merman warriors even seemed to know she was there, as if she'd suddenly become invisible.
There is another path you must take that is better suited to your nature.
'I am sahuagin.'
You do not hove to be.
It is all I have ever wanted to be.'
Then you should raise your standards, Laaqueel.
'Sekolah gave me life and gave me the strength to kill in his name. It is enough.'
And Sekolah let you be placed, in the power of the Taker.
Laaqueel had no reply.
Yes, you know him for who he is, and you know the kind of destruction he's brought to this world. If he should return to the Sword Coast, it will only be the same. And Iakhovas no longer needs you. You know that.
The Great Shark gives me power to serve his will.'
Sekolah gives you power to kill in his name.
'Yes.'
You could have more.
'I only want to be sahuagin.'
You're not. You have never fit in with your people, Laaqueel, and you know you never will.
'lean.'
No. You live a lie now, and you know it. As long as you remain in Iakhovas's grace you will be protected, but should you fall, you will be killed and rent. Meat is meat. I can give you more than that.
'Why should you?' Laaqueel shouted. 'What am I to you?'
You are strong, Laaqueel. The times coming after the Twelfth Seros War will not be easy. I have use for that strength.
'So I could serve you instead of Iakhovas?' Laaqueel shook her head. 'No.'
When the time comes, you will live or die as you choose, but if you kill any of those under my protection, you will know my wrath as you have known my benevolence.
'And should they attack me?'
They won't. You are under my protection, and they will know it. Iakhovas remains your only true enemy, but one is coming who has the power to deal with him.
'The boy in the cave?' Laaqueel couldn't believe it. Though the human had put up a good fight against the koalinth in the cave, he couldn't challenge the savage deathbringer that was Iakhovas.
Yes.
'He's too weak.'
Not once Taleweaver brings him into his belief. Wait, Laaqueel, wait and see if I don't have more to offer than you've ever known.
Emotion ripped through Laaqueel as she felt the voice fade from her mind. Uncertainty and doubt plagued her, and her faith wasn't there to shore her up. She prayed to Sekolah, but she felt the words were only empty effort.
'I am Iakhovas!'
Turning, Laaqueel watched as Iakhovas swam into the midst of the battlefield. He looked every inch a proud sahuagin warrior-king. His voice boomed, gaining the attention of the warrior around him.
'You king has fallen,' Iakhovas roared in triumph, 'and I have killed the children.'
He threw the merman king down to the torn bodies if Princess Jian and Vhaemas the Bastard.
'I am death- unstopable and merciless. Oppose me and die!'
As Laaqueel looked across the war-torn sea floor, she saw the wave of defeat sweep over the surviving warriors of Eadraal. The Thuridru mermen screamed in triumph. The malenti priestess felt the arrival of the thundering presence hammering against her lateral lines. She looked to the east, in the direction from which shifting currents came.
Whales materialized out of deep blue-green depths. Half a dozen four-hundred-foot-long humpbacked whales swam in the lead, trailed by dozen of smaller ones. They stampeded over battlefield, scattering both armies.
Iakhovas hung in the sea, staring at them.
An auburn-haired mermaid swam with them, flashing between the two lead humpbacks.
'Arina.'
Several of the mermen near Laaqueel spoke the name, and she assumed it belonged to the young woman with the whales.
The whales broke before Iakhovas, swimming under him, knocking the nearby warriors around in whirlwind currents that drew sand up from the ocean floor in massive clouds.
And after the whales passed, Laaqueel noticed that King Vhaemas's body was gone, evidently taken up by one or more of the great creatures. The morale of the mermen disappeared with the merman king, and they began disengaging where they could and falling back.
Iakhovas evidently wasn't going to give them an easy retreat. He issued orders at once to begin the pursuit. It was going to be a bitter death march back to Voalidru.
Tu'uua'col swam through the clutch of rocks and settled gently on the ocean floor behind Prince Mirol as he prayed to Eadro.
Built lean and angular, Mirol didn't look like a warrior, or the newly named heir to the throne of Eadraal. King Vhaemas had awakened only once after the whales and Princess Arina had transported him to Naulys, the merman city west of Voalidru. During that time he named Mirol as his successor, then slipped back into the coma that held him still.
Tu'uua'col hadn't accompanied King Vhaemas during the Battle of Voalidru. The prejudices the merman warriors had against him because he was shalarin ran too deep. Still, he had not allowed himself to be put on the sidelines as the Taker's army closed on Naulys. His place, for the moment, was at the prince's side. Quietly, the Green Dukar put his hand on Mirol's shoulder.
Unhurried, Mirol finished his prayer to Eadro, asking for deliverance in this time of need. He flipped his tail and turned to face his advisor.
'Our scouts have spotted the Taker's advance guard,' Tu'uua'col said. 'How soon will they be here?'
'Within minutes.'
'And their numbers?'
'As at Voalidru,' Tu'uua'col answered.
'Do you think we can hold them from Naulys?'
The Dukar hesitated. Mirol had remained very true to his calling as a priest until his father had handed him the reins of leadership. As a result, the boy didn't know much about the ways of war and warriors.
'No, my prince. Not without a miracle.'
Mirol showed him a brave smile and said, 'Exactly what I was praying for. Now let's see if Eadro can deliver.'
He took up the trident that had been his father's and swam to the front of the line.
The land around Naulys was hilly, rife with coral reefs. They'd used those reefs to set up ballistae that had
