victims and those rescuers who were too close. Laaqueel dodged the falling bodies and the flaming web ropes.
'Now, little malenti!'
Iakhovas leaped up from the mosaic. Laaqueel followed, wanting to be free of all the enemies surrounding her. When she'd first entered Myth Nan tar, even with an army twice the number of the defenders, she'd felt little chance of emerging from the battle alive. Now that Iakhovas possessed his prize, the slim hope that she might yet live entered her thoughts. Even so, she had no idea what she would do next.
She watched as a keg dropped on top of a nearby coral-encrusted building. A vaporous sediment billowed out from holes cut in the keg's sides, and the purplish hue looked immediately familiar. The sediment spread quickly, enveloping a group of sahuagin battling a clutch of tritons. Within seconds all of them were dying, gripped in the paroxysms of the sahuagin poison.
More kegs drifted down around the city with the same effect. The poison spread quickly so it didn't last long, and its killing radius extended no more than twenty feet. Glancing up, straining her eyes, Laaqueel saw huge nets manned by mermen and locathah already burdened with dozens more kegs. Their effort spared Myth Nantar a lot of damage.
Laaqueel halted for a moment, still stunned even after everything she'd seen that Iakhovas would so willingly sacrifice the sahuagin. She knew if the kegs were present that Vurgrom's pirates must be on the surface. She doubted that would prove an effective escape route, but she had no idea of any other he had in mind.
'Live or die, little malenti,' Iakhovas called as he swam toward the surface.
She hesitated, not knowing which would be better.
Live, the feminine voice called out. Live, that you may serve.
Reluctantly, fearfully, Laaqueel swam.
Pacys stood atop the Colossus of Dukar. His fingers effortlessly found the saceddar's gemstones, and the notes rang out as pure as dwarven steel.
At ninety feet tall, the statue was the tallest structure in Myth Nantar. The old bard stood on its head and sang, pouring his heart into the ballad he'd written for the defenders of the City of Destinies. Carved from lucent coral, the statue glowed brightly, providing nearly a third of the light filling the city. The statue held a tapal high in its right hand and stood straddling the entrance to a most revered tomb.
From his vantage point, Pacys could view the battle clearly. Qos, the High Mages of Sylkiir, and the Dukars led by Tu'uua'col stood in a circle around the Great Gate west of the Dukars' Academy.
The mosaic plaza that held the Great Gate was almost two hundred feet across. The mages around the perimeter all glowed lambent blue-green from the ancient, eldritch forces they controlled. They continued their spell even though their defenders were swiftly falling to sahuagin tridents.
Drawn by the powers that connected him to the story that he told, blessed by Oghma, the old bard was able to see the main players in the battle as if he stood next to them. When he focused on them, he even heard their words.
His attention was drawn to Iakhovas as the Taker swam for the surface. Jherek remained low in the city, battling from building to building as the sahuagin and drowned ones continued pressing toward the center. Khlinat and a handful of sea elf guards stood watch over the old bard.
Pacys sang, giving voice to the words and the music that filled him. Never before had he felt the strength and confidence of a performance the way he did now. He knew his music affected the valiant men who battled below, adding strength to their flagging bodies and courage to their hearts in the face of a superior enemy.
' 'Ware now, friend Pacys!' Khlinat roared.
The bard ducked as the dwarf sailed overhead astride a sahuagin nearly three times his size. One hand axe was buried in the sea devil's neck and Khlinat held the other back, ready to strike. The sahuagin flailed with a handful of claws, narrowly missing the dwarfs face. Khlinat put the hand-axe blade through the sea devil's skull.
A burst of magic that suddenly flooded from the mythal staggered Pacys. With his senses fully open and receptive, he was overly attentive to such things. He turned back to the Great Gate plaza and watched as the sahuagin struck within the ranks of the High Mages and Dukars, driving their defenders back before them. The claws of the sea devils pierced the bodies of the magic-users.
At the same time, a yellow-green comet roared from the Great Gate mosaic and streaked for the surface. The comet's tail stretched from the comet's head to the mosaic, maintaining contact. The yellow-green glare washed over the City of Destinies, stripping away all other colors.
Qos roared and drew the huge two-handed sword he carried. Twice as tall as his attackers, he swept the blade through the sahuagin in a glittering arc, shearing them limb from limb. The Dukars that survived the initial attack summoned weapons from their bodies and battled desperately.
Even from as far away as he was, Pacys could see that Tanarath Reefglamor was among the fallen, a sahuagin's trident shoved through his heart. Still, the old bard's voice didn't falter, remaining steady and true.
The yellow-green comet struck the ocean's surface above and exploded into bright embers that whirled in the air. Several of them struck pirate ships, reducing them to rubble in heartbeats. The embers whirled faster, coming closer and closer together. The ocean's surface whirled in the opposite direction of the embers, creating a swirl of white-capped peaks that abruptly inverted and stabbed down deeply into the Sea of Fallen Stars.
Even though he wore one of the mystic gems that all the Myth Nantarn defenders wore to spare them from the effects of the Great Gate, Pacys felt the pull of the huge whirlpool that suddenly formed and reached from the Great Gate to the ocean's surface. The eldritch energies lighted the whirlpool from the inside, throwing out yellow- green light like it was a giant lamp. He watched as the swirling waterspout around the pirate vessels broadened to a thousand feet and more, sucking them down into the deep trough that opened.
The ships turned sideways and tumbled down into the waterspout. The vessels that went prow or stern first stayed level even though they followed the circular motion of the whirlpool, but the ships that went down sideways rolled over and shattered, filling the whirlpool with deadly debris that slammed into the other ships.
'Blessed Oghma,' the old bard whispered, stunned.
From everything Qos, the Dukars, and the High Mages had talked about, he was certain no one expected this. The Great Gate had never been opened before, it was intended as a desperate, final effort against invaders.
The sahuagin, drowned ones, and koalinth barred from the city by the mythal were drawn into the whirlpool as well. The ships, whole and broken, smashed into them, killing dozens in a sweep. The mythal was all that prevented the city itself from being pulled into the whirlpool.
Pacys caught sight of Azure Dagger as the caravel was yanked into the whirlpool as well. No one thought to give the two ships any defense against the whirlpool. No one believed it would reach so far. Miraculously, Azure Dagger went into the whirlpool prow first, followed by Steadfast. Three Cormyrean Freesails followed next.
Though filled with horror and hurt, Pacys's pain was nowhere near that of another's.
'No!' Jherek screamed in disbelief.
Azure Dagger seemed to sail straight into the whirlpool's jaws.
Within seconds, the first of the ships and the sahuagin reached the eye of the whirlpool at the Great Gate and disappeared, thrown half a world away-for all anyone knew. The only thing the High Mages and Qos agreed on was that the Great Gate took all in it far from Seros.
Something shoved the young paladin from behind. Angry, he turned, only to find the golden sea wyrm floating there. It coiled and flexed, struggling against the whirlpool's pull. For the first time, he understood the creature's attraction to him; why it mysteriously followed him to Aglarond and back, and why it helped him rescue Sabyna from the drowned ones.
Azure Dagger plummeted toward the whirlpool's eye as Jherek reached for the sea wyrm and pulled himself up onto the creature's back. He slapped it on the neck gratefully and urged it forward. The sea wyrm darted forward like an arrow. Jherek ripped the necklace with the whirlpool gem from his neck and threw it away, feeling the pull of the gate at once.
'Jherek!'
Knowing the voice, the young paladin glanced ahead, spotting the bard atop the statue.
'I must know the end of the story,' Pacys shouted.
Jherek hesitated for an instant as the sea wyrm closed the distance to the old bard. Doing what he planned
