That's all anyone can ask.'
'And more than many offer,' Ghaji added.
The Turnabout surged forward, the sudden increase in speed almost knocking the companions off their feet. A moment later Onu and Hinto returned.
'We convinced the pilots to continue running the elementals full out,' the changeling said. 'They'll deactivate them just before we hit the dock. We've ordered all hands to prepare for impact and, uh…' Onu paused, and then looked to Hinto, like an actor who'd forgotten his lines.
'Make ready for combat,' the halfling provided.
Onu nodded. 'Yes, yes. Just so. After all, we can't have our crew stand idly by while those beastly were- creatures run rampant through the streets of Regalport, can we?' Onu looked at Leontis, an expression of sudden embarrassment on his face. 'Sorry, my friend. I meant no offense.'
Leontis waved the changeling's apology away.
Diran looked toward shore. Regalport loomed large now, and the priest knew it would be only a matter of moments before the ship reached the central dock.
'I suggest we split into two teams,' Ghaji said. 'Yvka and I go into the city to warn the watch-assuming they aren't already aware of what's happening-or perhaps alert the Sea Dragons.'
'I have a better idea,' Yvka said. 'House Thuranni has an enclave near the docks. If we can reach it, I can inform the Hierarchs about the attack. They will be able to reach Prince Ryger and the Sea Dragons faster than we could.'
Ghaji nodded. 'Sounds good. Diran?'
Diran couldn't argue with the logic of Yvka and Ghaji's plan, though he couldn't help worrying that they would be going on what was essentially a suicide mission. 'The streets of Regalport will be deadly tonight, my friends. Go swiftly and go with caution.'
Ghaji grinned. 'Caution? Who do you think you're talking to?'
Diran couldn't help grinning back.
'Besides, who needs caution when Tresslar managed to repair my elemental axe?' The half-orc warrior drew his weapon and held it up to emphasize his point.
'No more talk,' Leontis said. 'Brace yourselves!'
The companions turned and saw the galleon was only seconds away from colliding with the dock.
'Do you know a prayer for situations like this?' Ghaji asked Diran.
'Hold tight, grit your teeth, and close your eyes!' the priest shouted. Diran took his own advice and then the world became a riot of splintering wood, splashing water, and grinding rock.
He opened his eyes, half expecting to find himself looking into the luminescent glory of the Silver Flame. Instead he saw Regalport's central dock-a good two dozen yards from where the Turnabout had run aground. Yvka had been right; the water was too shallow here for a craft as large as their galleon.
The Turnabout listed to the right, and the ship now had a huge gaping hole in her prow. The middle of the vessel's three masts had broken and fallen forward, her sails becoming entangled with those of the first mast. An almost deafening quiet filled the air, and Diran realized he could no longer hear the roaring of the rushing winds created by the ship's elementals. The pilots had deactivated them just before the Turnabout had crashed, just as Onu had said they would.
The companions were shaken but unharmed. Evidently Solus had succeeded in shielding them from the worst of the impact. Diran looked to the dock, hoping that the wave created by the galleon's approach had inundated Nathifa and the others, knocking them into the water and halting the sorceress's spellcasting. But though the lich, Haaken, and the statue of Nerthatch were sopping wet, they remained where they'd been, and the sorceress continued her chanting uninterrupted. Diran saw no sign of Makala.
'Good to see you again, lover!'
Diran looked up and saw a large black bat coming toward him, its eyes burning with crimson fire, its face half human. The creature's form blurred and shifted, and Makala was now falling toward Diran, clawed hands outstretched, fangs bared in a cruel, mocking grin. Diran had seen that grin before, not on Makala's face but on Aldarik Cathmore's. The priest knew the grin came not from the woman he had once loved above all else, but rather from the dark spirit she had unwittingly inherited when she'd attempted to drain the master assassin's blood within Mount Luster.
Diran didn't hesitate. He pulled out his silver arrowhead and brandished it at Makala. Silver light poured forth from the holy object, and Makala hissed in pain, throwing her hands over her face to shield her eyes. An instant before she would have collided with Diran, her body collapsed into mist, and the ethereal tendrils streaked upward and away from the Turnabout's deck.
The arrowhead's light dimmed and Diran lowered it to his side. He did not return the holy symbol to its pocket, though. He would soon have further use of it. Instead, he turned to Ghaji and Yvka.
'Get to the House Thuranni enclave as fast as you can!'
Ghaji nodded. 'May fortune favor you, my friend.' The half-orc wrapped his free hand around Yvka's waist and turned to Solus. 'You heard the man. Can you give us a lift?'
Solus glanced toward shore. 'I believe I can get both of you to the far end of the dock. I do not know how comfortable a landing you'll experience, however.'
'Don't worry,' Ghaji said. 'I'm used to uncomfortable landings. Just do it.'
Solus's psionic crystals glowed bright, and Ghaji and Yvka shot upward into the air as if they'd been launched from a catapult. Yvka whooped in delight as they soared over Nathifa, Haaken, and the procession of weresharks lumbering down the dock toward the city. Diran imagined the curses that were likely pouring past Ghaji's lips right now, and he couldn't help smiling. Diran wanted to watch to see if the two made it safely to the other end of the dock, but he knew they couldn't afford to waste even the few seconds it would take. He turned to Solus.
'Can you levitate the rest of us over to Nathifa and Haaken?'
But before the psiforged could reply, a gray-skinned, black-clawed hand dripping with seawater clasped the ship's railing. Another followed, and a wereshark pulled itself up. At first Diran thought it was Haaken, but this beast possessed a flat, horizontal head. Diran was looking at a hammerhead shark that seem half-formed into a man's face.
The remaining companions backed away as the monster heaved itself over the rail and onto the deck. But before either they or it could attack, two more weresharks climbed over the railing-one a lean creature with bluish hide and a narrow snout, the other a large creature easily twice the size of the others, with a gray back, white belly, and sickle-shaped fin. Diran understood at once what was happening. Nathifa was sending some of the weresharks she'd summoned to prevent the priest and his companions from stopping her.
Diran drew a silver dagger with his free hand and prepared to battle the lycanthropes, but he hesitated when he heard an animalistic snarl erupt from Leontis. He turned to look at his fellow priest and saw that, just as in the crypt on Trebaz Sinara, being in the presence of other were-creatures had triggered Leontis's own transformation. Fur burst out in great tufts to cover Leontis's skin, and his face elongated into a wolfish snout. But then something different happened. His head and face broadened, and a series of slits opened up on the side of his fur-covered neck. His mouth grew larger, his teeth even more pronounced, and the cloth on the back of his tunic ripped as a triangular fin jutted forth.
Diran couldn't believe what he was seeing, had never read about such a thing happening, hadn't believed it was even possible. But there was no denying the evidence of his eyes. During Leontis's battle with Haaken on Trebaz Sinara, the priest must have been bitten by the wereshark, and the infection contained in Haaken's body had been passed onto Leontis. The twin infections now raging within the priest had merged somehow, making him into a creature that was half werewolf, half wereshark.
Leontis let out a cry that was part howl, part roar, and raced toward the weresharks. The three lycanthropes didn't react at first, seeming almost as startled by Leontis's strange new form as Diran was. But then the weresharks roared and ran forward to meet the wolfshark's attack.
Diran, Tresslar, Hinto, and Onu moved well away from where the four lycanthropes fought. Diran then tossed his silver dagger to Hinto, drew another, and handed it to Onu. 'Use these if Leontis can't keep the weresharks busy. If more of the creatures swarm onto the ship than you can handle, make sure you and the crew take shelter below. Hopefully, once Tresslar, Solus, and I attack Nathifa, the weresharks will lose interest in the Turnabout and you'll be safe.'
