Four of the rows convulsed. A ripple of movement pushed four creatures from their perch on the hole's edge.
They dropped, tentacles flailing, like stones into a well, into the orrery chamber.
"Those four-did you see their color?" Yeva said, loudly enough to be heard over the vocalizations. "Green, black, and two blue-red. Like the globes just born below. It means something. The symbols, the colors… I think these beasts are conferring on themselves the power of flight!"
Before Anusha could comment, something moved to her right.
Ari aboleth hovered just ten feet from her and Yeva. It was the mottled quartz one with five eyes they'd seen below, rasping a newborn orb with its toothed tongue. Four of its eyes roved around, searching. But one was focused directly upon Anusha.
The creature loosed a questioning tone like the chirp of a curious crow. Simultaneously, a voice devoid of personality echoed in Anusha's head, Is it of the body? Is it of Xxiphu? Is it benign? Is it a parasite? What is it?
CHAPTER ELEVEN
The Year of the Secret (1396 DR) Green Siren on the Sea of Fallen Stars
Thoster stood at the wheel watching his crew take Green Siren out to sea. His hands were clasped behind his back, and his stance was one of stern attention. The crew dallied less when the captain's eyes were on them.
But his mind was on Seren. The wizard had always been trouble. He'd just never realized how much. A price on her head, set by Thay itself. He wondered what the amount had grown to.
Not that he was tempted to collect on it himself. Anyone foolish enough to claim a fee from Szass Tam deserved whatever he got. No, he worried about the attention Seren's presence drew to his ship. Attention a whole lot more dangerous than he'd have knowingly risked.
"Course, the damage is already done," he muttered. Morgenthel knew Seren was on GreenSiren, knew Thoster's name, and knew the wizard had protectors. He wondered how closely Morgenthel and Thay were actually entwined. Hopefully, the man was merely a bounty hunter who talked big. Such things were possible.
Were he in Morgenthel's shoes, Thoster would claim more familiarity with Thay's rulers than was strictly true.
Seren was back on deck, checking the integrity of her chalk-scribed circle. The woman seemed intent on continuing her employment with the half-elf. He'd always assumed the woman's desire for gold was purely mercenary. Apparently, she hoped to purchase back her life.
He wondered what it would take to purchase back his own.
"Mtuo'san!" Thoster called to the first mate. A woman with a long silver braid looked up from berating a crew member. "I'm going below. Keep on eye on things."
"Aye, Cap'n!" she said.
Mharsan had stepped into the role of Green Siren's first mate after the previous one met a bloody end below Gethshemeth's isle. She was competent, though just as taken with rum as her predecessor.
Thoster walked down the aftcastle stair and saw Raidon. The monk sat propped against the mainmast, his legs crossed and his eyes blank as glass marbles. He didn't seem actively worried about Seren's revelation. 'Course, who could tell with the half-elf? The captain suspected the spellscarred man wasn't right in the head.
It seemed everyone aboard was damaged in some way. Perhaps Thoster most of all.
He made his way to where their prize slept. The captain's dog lay outside the cabin. Blackie let no one approach other than himself, Raidon, and Seren.
He patted the dog on the head in return for a lick, then entered Anusha's cabin. It was the very room Japheth had hid the woman in during their first sea crossing. He chuckled to recall how the warlock hinted at gorgon hearts within to dissuade visitors. Thoster played along with the warlock's game because it was amusing to do so. At the time, he hadn't realized what was at stake.
The captain looked down on the woman. She was gaunt and possibly ill. Some sort of enchantment kept her fed and limber, or she'd have died long before. But it was obviously no replacement for the real thing. Even Thoster could see that if she didn't wake and resume eating and moving soon, she'd die.
"Your mind's trapped in the relic, eh?" Thoster said, his voice quiet.
The relic. He shook his head. Most days, he tried not to think about it. It was too confusing, and it made his stomach sour. The Dreamheart had more than one claim on him, and until he had it in his own two hands, he'd decided not to choose which he'd satisfy.
That wasn't something he'd advertised to Raidon.
Thoster lowered himself onto the cot next to Anusha's open travel chest. She didn't move, save for her continual shallow breathing. The perfect listener.
"The time to decide is nearly upon me, ain't it?" he asked her. "Maybe what I'll do about the relic does bear thinking on, just a bit, since I have your ear."
The captain produced a pipe and a miniature coal urn from a pocket of his coat. He filled the bowl with a sweetsmelling pinch of tobacco and lit it with an ember. He thought better with a little smoke in the air.
"So, here's where I stand, ghost. First,"-he ticked up one finger-"I told Behroun I'd retrieve the trinket for him. 'Course, that was before I knew what it was. Still, Behroun paid me a good sum, and apart from occasional piracy against merchantmen out of Amn, I count myself an honorable sort. Helps the reputation too." He chuckled.
"Second,"-another finger joined the first-"I told Raidon I was done with Behroun and would help find the relic so we could smash it to flinders. I didn't say those words lightly. Well, not too lightly. I don't want to see monsters raised out of the Sea of Fallen Stars. What sane privateer would?
"Lastly, and most importantly." A third finger. "What of my own need? For all my yarns about my misbegotten sire, I'm beginning to worry. If I claim the relic for myself, I might be able learn the truth about my… condition.
Every year the changes grow worse."
The captain pulled back one coat sleeve to reveal his left forearm. Half the skin had sloughed away, revealing glossy green scales no different from a fish's. It sickened him to look at it, yet he could hardly pull his gaze away. And this was not the largest patch afflicting him. All his self-deprecating jokes paled before the underlying truth.
He'd long delighted in his ability to swim better than others and hold his breath for heart — stopping spans of time.
That ability had saved him more than once.
Things were different since he'd returned from the cursed isle where the great kraken laired. There, he'd been wet longer than dry. He'd been surrounded by those damned fishy kuo-toa, fighting them, killing them, being bled on by them… and that walking statue! When he saw it, something inside his head trembled, as if on the verge of making some kind of sense!
Thoster blearily recalled falling to his knees in front of the rogue eidolon they'd fought, begging his allies to leave "her" alone. Madness! Why'd he done that?
He couldn't remember. No, that wasn't entirely true. Something had been familiar about that damned shrine. He didn't want to think on it.
The change in his flesh was accelerating. He worried that achieving full understanding might make the change come all the quicker.
"Look at it, will you?" he exclaimed, waving his scaled arm. "When will it stop? Am I becoming a fish-man… a kuo-toa mayhap? Or something with even less of a mind when all's said and done?"
Anusha had no answers. Even were she awake, she couldn't know how he'd come to suffer his curse. It was something he'd not shown anyone else, though he suspected Nogah might have known somehow. He'd never asked her, and now she was dead, taking Thoster's secret with her.
He allowed his coat sleeve to ride back down to his wrist, covering the unsightly blemish. He drew another breath from his pipe. The glow from its bowl glinted in his eyes.