sheathing his own sword. 'Did Hectate finally wake up?'
'So it would appear,' Vallus said solemnly. 'I am sorry to have to tell you this, but you must know. The first mate was found in the hold, beaten almost beyond recognition and left for dead. Under Deelia's care, he revived enough to describe his attacker.'
Teldin's blue eyes narrowed. 'I don't like where this is leading.'
'Gaston claims that the being who attacked him was covered with plate armor, like an insect. There is only one person aboard who could fit that description.'
'And that person is unconscious in my cabin,' Teldin returned heatedly.
Vallus shook his head. 'According to Deelia, the bionoid's injuries are not sufficient to explain his condition. Isn't it possible that he is feigning sleep to keep us off guard?'
'Let's say you're right. How did Hectate leave the cabin undetected?' the captain asked. 'Someone has been with him at all times. If not Deelia or me, then Rozloom.'
In response, Vallus merely turned and led the way to Teldin's cabin. When the elf eased open the door, they were greeted by a sonorous snore. Puzzled, Teldin peered in. Hectate still was unconscious. His breathing still was weak and shallow, and his unruly red hair was a shock of color above his pallid face.
Rozloom also slept. He lay on the floor, his booted feet propped up on Teldin's writing table and his vast belly rising and falling with each raucous blast of sound. An empty bottle from Teldin's sagecoarse hoard lay on the floor beside the snoring gypsy.
'Rozloom could have been asleep for hours,' Vallus said as he shut the door.
'Days,' Teldin corrected without humor. Experience had taught him that sagecoarse was potent stuff, and despite Rozloom's immense capacity for spirits, Teldin was surprised that anyone could put away an entire bottle and live to snore.
But even if Hectate could and did leave the cabin, Teldin did not believe that the bionoid was responsible for the first mate's injuries. As much as he hated to admit it, Pearl was a more likely suspect. The attack on Gaston was too much like her violent response to Rozloom's overeager courting. With her shape-shifting talent, she certainly could have taken on the armored form that Vallus had described. It had to be Pearl, unless…
'Paladine's blood,' Teldin swore, raking both hands through his sandy hair. He turned back to the elven wizard. 'You've searched the ship?' he asked sharply.
Vallus blinked. 'For what?'
'An insectare,' Teldin said. 'I have no idea how it got on the ship, but I think we've got an insectare aboard.'
'You want us to search the ship for an
Before Teldin could explain, the sound of fighting drifted up from the cargo deck.
'Don't bother,' Teldin shouted as he sprinted down the stairs to the lower deck. 'I think someone already found it.'
Chapter Nineteen
Teldin and Vallus raced down the steps to the cargo hold, their swords drawn. They found several other members of the crew clustered at the base of the stairs, gaping at the peculiar battle.
Chirp and Trivit stood a dozen yards apart, using their enormous tails to bat a flailing, brown-robed creature back and forth between them. Despite the playful appearance of the scene, both dracons' faces were grim and tears ran in rivulets down Trivit's green cheeks.
Still in her moon elf form, Pearl came running down the stairs and pushed her way through the group. 'I've got him, Captain,' she announced. Drawing herself up, she inhaled slowly and deeply. Fearing the dragon intended to breathe a magic missile, Teldin clapped a hand over her mouth. Her gold and silver eyes widened in shock.
'Don't,' Teldin said simply. He released her, then he drew her broadsword from her scabbard and handed her the ancient weapon. 'If you have to fight, use this. Not as effective, but it won't blast another hole in the hull.'
'Damned nuisance, being an elf,' she muttered, looking with distaste at the sword in her hands.
Teldin turned away and cupped his hands to his mouth. 'Trivit! Chirp! That's enough. Stop the insectare, now.'
Chirp obediently stopped the tumbling creature with one foot, then quickly planted that foot on its prone body, moves that appeared to have been learned on a kickball field. Teldin hurried to the dracon's side. Although the insectare looked battered and dazed, it glared up at him with malevolent black eyes.
Teldin reached down and jerked back the creature's cowl. Knowing what he would find did not make the sight any less strange. The face was elven in form, but the peculiar color of green apples. Long black antennae rose from a thick thatch of wavy, flaxen hair to curl above its pointed ears like fiddlehead ferns. Remembering that Vallus had said those antennae could be used as lethal whips, Teldin seized the tip of one and thrust it into Chirp's hand.
'Hold this. Trivit, you come grab the other. Keep them taut.' He prodded the insectare with his foot. 'You, on your feet.'
The dracons quickly got the idea and soon they had the furious insectare standing immobilized between them. Teldin was not insensitive to the humiliation he'd inflicted on the creature, but he didn't want it using its antennae on the crew.
'Search it,' Vallus directed, and two of the elves moved to obey. In the pockets of the insectare's robe they found a small lump of dried clay and an oddly shaped key. Vallus examined these items closely, and his jaw tightened.
The elven wizard walked up to the insectare. 'Who are you, and what use have you for the ship's log?'
'You may know my name,' the creature said in a dry, brittle voice. 'I am called K'tide. My purposes, however, are my own.'
'Sir,' Trivit addressed Vallus in a tremulous voice, 'if you would be amenable to such, Chirp and I would be most happy to encourage the creature to talk.'
The insectare's eyes darted between his dracon tormentors and the elven wizard. Obviously determined to get in the first strike, the insectare began to chant a spell in a strange, clicking language. His long green fingers gestured, and his eyes glittered with hatred.
'Pearl!' Teldin shouted. 'Silence it!'
The elf-shaped dragon responded with a quick smile and a countering spell of her own. A sphere of silence enshrouded the insectare, neatly cutting off his spellcasting.
'Now there's a philosophical question for you, wizard,' Pearl casually said to Vallus, an edge of contempt in her voice. 'If a spell is spoken but not heard, was a spell cast? Fits right in with the if-a-tree-falis-in-a-forest-and- no-one-hears-it nonsense your sort likes to ponder.'
The insectare threw back his head and howled a soundless oath. Frustration and rage twisted his green visage as he drew a long, gleaming sword from the folds of his robe. All the crew members in the hold took a reflexive step back, in their surprise forgetting that the dracons had the creature immobilized.
No one expected K'tide to free himself by slashing off his own antennae. In two lightning-fast moves the insectare cut himself free and pushed Vallus Leafbower aside. Ichor flowed down the insectare's face and dripped off his chin as he rushed at Teldin. The creature's ghastly snarl was as rigid as a skull's as he charged forward, sword held overhead with both hands.
The startled captain groped for his sword. Time slowed down as the cloak's magic took over, and Teldin managed to raise his short sword overhead in time to meet the descending blow. The swords met with a bone- jarring clash, uncannily silent. The dragon's sphere of silence encompassed them both, absorbing all sounds of battle.
The insectare fought with a desperate, despairing madness, flailing wildly with its sword. Try as he might, Teldin could not get inside the creature's reach to land a blow. Even with his altered perception, it was all he could do hold off the frenzied insectare. From the corner of his eye Teldin saw several elves circle the battle, swords drawn. Elyen blades struck silently and ineffectually against the insectare's armor, and more than one of Teldin's would-be rescuers reeled back under the force of the insectare's wild swings. Then a backhand slice caught Teldin's sword arm and opened a gash from wrist to elbow. An explosion of pain penetrated Teldin's cushion of slow, dreamlike magic. Time shattered and began to careen dizzily around Teldin as the short sword dropped from his bloodied hand.
Acting on instinct, Teldin raised his other hand and pointed it at the insectare. Magic missiles shot from the
