Tanetoa released the gunwale quickly, intentionally allowing the ship to rock back violently, then slipped beneath the waves and dived toward the bottom. It was not that he feared being harpooned; he simply wanted the emir to know he could come up beneath the fleet without exposing himself to attack. He swam deep underwater to the luminous, clifflike wall of the seaward reef, then slowly ascended toward the narrow channel that led into his lagoon.
As Tanetoa approached the surface, he was astonished to see a long stream of yellow figures gliding into the mouth of the passage. At first, he thought they might be a school of yellow-bellied snappers invading the lagoon in pursuit of a sumptuous meal, but he soon saw that could not be. The figures were far larger than most snappers, stretching to a uniform length just shy of that of a human. Moreover, they had fin-footed legs instead of tails and spindly arms instead of pectoral fins, and they were armed with a wide assortment of tridents, crossbows, and wickedly curved sea swords.
When the creatures noticed Tanetoa, a long file peeled off the main school and swirled down to meet him. Their faces were distinctly codlike, with heavy lips, deep glassy eyes, and a single pair of sensor tentacles dangling beneath their chins. They were lo-cathah, a race of nomadic fishmen who sometimes hunted along the reef in pursuit of giant groupers or schools of red jack. Never before had they come in such great numbers.
Tanetoa stopped some twenty feet from the surface and hung alongside the reef in front of a beautiful elephant-ear sponge. The locathah encircled him and began to wave their arms and hand-fins in underwater Common, a complicated language of symbols and currents that allowed creatures with differing vocal capacities to communicate while submerged.
'Greetings, Reefmaster,' the locathah said. 'Have you hunger?'
Tanetoa spread his webbed fingers and waved his response. 'I have fed,' he answered. In a world where most species were both predator and prey, the question and reply were polite ways of saying I come in peace. 'Greetings, Seawanderers. You come in great numbers. I fear the reef cannot provide for so many.'
'We do not come on the hunt,' replied the locathah. 'Eadro sends us to defend your island from the Enemy Above.'
'I have spoken with the Enemy Above,' replied Tanetoa. 'They have come to protect the island from the Enemy Below.'
The locathah's glassy eyes widened. The creature glanced in the direction of the ships and signed, 'Then you hunt for them?'
'I do not hunt at all.'
'That cannot be,' replied the locathah. 'This is war. All must hunt.'
'No,' Tanetoa signed, shaking his head. 'A great hunt would be bad for the reef. Humans have magic and the fire that burns in water.'
'Have no fear,' the locathah assured. 'We have Eadro's favor, and we are here to defend the island.'
'I do not wish you to defend the island,' Tanetoa countered. 'There is nothing here to defend, only to destroy.'
'It is Eadro's will,' the locathah answered.
'But why?' Tanetoa allowed his anger to show in the curtness of his gestures. 'What does it matter if humans land on my island?'
'They come in great numbers,' the locathah signed. 'They will poison the reef.'
'And a battle will destroy it,' said Tanetoa. 'If Eadro cares about the reef, you will leave and let me deal with the humans.'
'I did not say Eadro cares about the reef,' the locathah countered. 'I said only that the humans will poison it, as they poison everything in the water. What Eadro cares about is the Enemy Above. If they want the island, then Eadro does not want them to have it.'
'And if they go away?' asked Tanetoa.
'Then there will be no need to defend the island. Can you make the Enemy Above go away?' There was a certain buoyancy in the locathah's gestures that suggested he wanted this as badly as Tanetoa.
'I will try.'
Tanetoa ascended to the surface and took a great breath, pausing to look back at the ships. They were just over two hundred yards away, close enough that had the sun been higher in the sky, the lookouts in their crow's nests might have seen the locathah slipping into the channel. As it was, the glare on the water prevented that- which was certainly the only reason the emir had not ordered his men into their skiffs already.
A tiny figure in the bow of the emir's ship waved to Tanetoa. The gesture seemed a nervous one, and the giant dared hope it meant the humans had taken the point of his little display. He returned the wave, then kicked into the channel and followed the great school of locathah into his lagoon.
Kani was waiting on the shore, and Tanetoa swam toward her, heart pounding with fear and anger. Only a few hours remained before high tide, and he could not bear the thought of what the coming battle would do to his reef. The clumsy skiffs would crash about madly, tearing the tops off the corals, and wizards would fire lightning bolts and magic rays at the lo-cathah hiding in the thick cover deeper down. The stunning formations would shatter into luminous sprays of shrapnel or simply die of shock. The reef fish would perish from the explosive concussions and float to the surface in schools. The sponges would burst, the anemones would be blasted flat, and the destruction would not end there. The locathah would capsize the human boats, turning the lagoon into a frothing mass of thrashing blades and flailing tridents that would smash whole swaths of brittle coral. The water would turn scarlet with blood and entrails, and the sharks would come, smashing headlong through the delicate garden in a feeding frenzy that could well do more damage than the battle itself.
The reef would be destroyed, and Tanetoa could not permit that. He had to convince the humans to leave- but how?
As Tanetoa neared the shore, Kani waded out to meet him. 'You have spoken with the locathah?'
Tanetoa stood and nodded. 'They have come to defend the island.'
Kani's gaze shot at once to the warships, and she said nothing.
'The humans are determined to occupy the island for its own protection,' Tanetoa said glumly.
Kani furrowed her brow. 'They will fight for this island?' She shook her head in amazement. 'Why?'
Tanetoa shrugged. 'Because their caleph ordered it.'
Kani considered this for a moment, then said, 'There must be more to it than that. Tell me what they said.'
Tanetoa recounted the conversation, relating everything from 'declaring sides' to warning the emir against trying to land his forces without Tanetoa's consent. Kani listened carefully, asking for clarification only twice, once regarding the emir's reaction to hearing that Tanetoa could sing with the whales, and the second time regarding the man's reluctance to come ashore alone.
When Tanetoa finished, Kani considered the account for a time, then said, 'Whatever his master wants, the emir must be afraid we won't allow it. That's why he refuses to come ashore until he can bring his men.'
Tanetoa's eyes went wide. 'You think he means to attack us?'
'If we don't give him what he wants.'
'How can we?' So overcome with frustration was Tanetoa that the question rumbled from his mouth like a peal of thunder. 'He won't tell us what it is!'
Kani spread her palms in a gesture of helplessness. 'We will find out at high tide.'
Tanetoa remained silent for a moment, then shook his head. 'No, we won't. The locathah will attack while the boats are still in the lagoon.' He stared across the water at the war fleet. 'I must stop the humans from coming.'
'How?'
'I don't know. Maybe I can sink their ships.'
Kani paled. 'Tanetoa, I may not love your island, but I do love you. Attacking the humans is too dangerous.'
'I could do it from underneath,' he explained. 'If I took a sharp boulder — '
'You might sink two or three, but what of their wizards? If it were that easy to destroy an entire fleet, the
Enemy Beneath would not let the humans venture onto the water at all.'
'I could ask the locathah for help.'
