it in the clasp. The crystal would not stay. Stel studied the clasp closer and cursed.
'Broken!'
Vandor smiled ruefully, though he could not help but sigh over the precious loss. The pendant had survived the sinking of Istar and centuries of burial in the depths of the Blood Sea, only to come to such an ignominious end.
Stel shook his fist at Vandor.
'You did this! You could not crush the jewel, but you cracked the framework around it.' He thrust the gem close, so that Vandor could see the tiny, intricate workings that wrapped around the ebony jewel, like skeletal fingers clutching a prized possession. One of them had clearly broken off.
Whatever his fate now — and it certainly could get no worse — Vandor Grizt could die in peace, knowing the monstrous pendant was destroyed.
'I see your look!' Stel hissed. 'But I will build the pendant anew, thief! The framework is nothing! It can readily be replaced! As long as I have the jewel I will… I will…'
He stared at it. The jewel — Grizt realized — had ceased to glow.
The two draconians exchanged worried glances. 'Prefect,' asked the sivak, 'is there something amiss?'
Stel did not answer. The dark cleric shook the gem, muttered some words under his breath, and touched the crystal with his index finger.
Grizt dared a fleeting, hopeful smile.
One of the draconians, glancing at him, snarled, 'What do YOU find so funny, human?'
He did not get the opportunity to reply.
'It's… it's dead…' Stel gasped. He shook the jewel again for good measure. 'I do not understand! It worked perfectly until it fell out of the clasp, but the lack of a frame should only make the power a little less focused, unless… of course!' He fumbled with the casing. 'This is bone ivory! Part of the spell's matrix! The pendant must be whole to function or it loses all power!'
Stel tried pressing the gem back into the casing, but it would not hold.
A massive wave shook the Tauron. Stel almost lost his footing. Captain Kruug shouted a warning, but his words were overwhelmed by the violent surging of the Blood Sea and a crash of thunder.
'NOW what?' Stel snapped.
'Prefect! The monster!' shouted the draconians.
Stel turned around and stared at the leviathan the pendant had helped him summon.
It was moving… and the Tauron lay directly in its path.
'Sargonnas take you, priest!' Kruug roared. 'Listen to me! Send that thing away or it will kill us all!'
'Preposterous! It will do no such thing! I am the one who summoned it!'
The minotaur snorted.
Vandor Grizt, who was measuring the direction and speed of the undead leviathan, turned to his draconian guards. 'Listen to him! The captain is right! Do something!'
'Be silent or I'll tear you in half!' the sivak hissed.
Undaunted, Vandor screamed at them. 'Just look! Your master no longer controls it! It comes for us!'
Tentacles as thick as a man's body rose above the water, reaching for the ship as the creature neared.
'First rank! Axes!' Kruug roared. Several massive minotaurs abandoned what they were doing and rushed toward the steps leading into the vessel's interior.
Through all of this, Stel had remained standing still staring at the oncoming behemoth. He shook his head. 'With the pendant, I could easily regain total control… but the pendant… is broken and I don't…' He eyed Vandor, who now regretted his attempts to pulverize the jewel. Death appeared to be his fate no matter what happened. 'But I might be able to use it to enhance my OWN power… if I have a sufficient blood sacrifice to Chemosh to feed the spell.'
Shinare! Why does everything involve my blood? 'But I am promised to the Sea Queen!' Grizt protested. 'If you use me for this, she might grow angry… angrier!'
'There will be enough blood to keep you alive… barely. She will understand.'
Stel, it seemed, believed in very understanding gods. Vandor Grizt thought that if he were either Chemosh or the Sea Queen, he would be insulted by all of these shabby half-measures and broken vows.
The Tauron had begun to list. The minotaurs had apparently lost control of the ship. Of all those on board, only Vandor's ancestors — still in thrall to Stel — remained unaffected by the terror. They stared blindly in the direction of Stel and, it seemed, at their descendant who would soon be joining them in death.
Dagger in one hand and gem in the other, the cleric of Chemosh faced the undead leviathan surging toward them. Stel appeared to have confidence in himself, if no one else did. Raising the gem high, the black-robed cleric began to shout words of power. The hand with the dagger rose over the chest of Vandor Grizt.
It was then that the world turned about. Vandor Grizt was not certain of the order of events, but suddenly the storm burst into full fury, sending the ship keeling over in the opposite direction. At least one minotaur was washed overboard by a massive wave. A bolt of lightning struck one of the masts, cracking it in two. The burning wreckage crashed down on the hapless crew.
More than a dozen tentacles wrapped around the Tauron and began to drag it under.
Stel stood frozen, disbelief registered in every bone of his body. He dropped the dagger, much to the captive's relief, and clawed at the tiny skull pendant. As he pulled it free, it crumbled.
The TAURON was beginning to break up, as the tentacles threatened to crunch it. Captain Kruug and several minotaurs rushed forward, attacking the creature with heavy axes. The rotting skin of the behemoth gave way. It took the minotaurs only a few blows to sever the one tentacle and only a couple more to cut a second in two.
Unfortunately, as Kruug and his men finished the second, a dozen more ensnared their ship.
'All hands to battle!' roared the captain. Minotaurs all over the TAURON abandoned their stations and joined the fight against the beast.
Another wave washed over the front of the ship. Vandor's left arm was nearly torn from its socket and something like an army of blades tore at his flesh. He was being flayed. In desperation, he lifted one foot and kicked. His boot struck something solid. He kicked again.
The blades pulled free of his flesh. Only when the first shock subsided did he realize that the sivak draconian — the cursed shapechanger — was no longer holding him. He looked around but saw no sign of the foul reptile. The draconian had been washed overboard. At least he had succeeded in avenging himself on the creature that had killed his friend and captured him.
A brief satisfaction was all he was allowed. Then, it was a matter of struggling for his own life. Another wave washed over the ship. The other draconian released Vandor and fled, slipping and sliding, for the TAURON'S interior, choosing self-survival over the orders of the cleric.
Stel had moved to one side and was holding onto the rail, eyes wild. He was shouting something at the leviathan but his words were having no effect. Desperate, the gaunt priest whirled on the silent figures of the merchant's ancestors and made a sign.
The undead shuffled forward, forming a half-circle around the cleric.
Struggling to maintain his own hold on the rail, Vandor Grizt sought some sort of escape. To stay aboard the ship was folly in his opinion, but the Blood Sea offered the only other option.
'Shinare,' he whispered, 'is there anything I can offer you?'
Kruug, axe covered in a brown, thick muck, was trying to get his crew's attention.
'Prepare to abandon ship!' Kruug glanced around and spotted Vandor. Grimacing, the minotaur called, 'I'll not leave even you to this, manling! Get over to the — '
A tentacle struck the captain. Kruug flew over the other side of the ship and, as Vandor watched helplessly, the beastman dropped into the water and vanished beneath.
The Tauron began to shudder and crack.
His undead ancestors had formed a tighter ring around the cleric. No longer were they the blindly obedient slaves that Stel had summoned. They had the prefect pinned against the rail and were closing the circle around him.
