"My father?" Maq posed.
"If you concentrate, you can see moments-or years-into the past. It will be as if you were there, reliving whatever you choose to." Tailonna waved her hand over the bucket, and the water shimmered and formed glittering ripples.
Maquesta stared at the ripples and Watched as they smoothed out, revealing Melas's face. Concentrating, The surface of the water rippled again, then smoothed to show the elder Kar-Thon lying in a bed, with a minotaur sage tending him. Out the window of the room, Maq saw herself, Tailonna, Koraf, and Ilyatha leaving the grounds of Attat's palace. The time must have been right after she agreed to Attat's foul mission and shortly after her father had been poisoned. Relieved that her father was receiving the care the minotaur lord had promised, Maq concentrated on a different time period.
Again ripples spread outward from the center of the bucket, and Maquesta saw herself as a young girl with long hair that was braided on the sides of her face. No more than seven or eight, she was scampering along the deck of the Perechon, running precariously close to the edge of the ship. It was a dangerous game she played when no one was looking, but this day it was especially dangerous because the sea was rough and water constantly sprayed up on the deck. Giggling, she ran faster, then she heard herself scream in surprise as one of her feet slipped and shot over the side of the boat. For an instant she felt herself falling, but then the sensation changed, and she was being lifted high into the air. Melas's strong arms rescued her, and he held her close, gently scolding her. The next time the Perechon sailed into a port, Melas had spent every coin he owned to have a railing built around the edge of the deck. It was the same railing that graced the ship today.
Again the scene changed; Maquesta was older, twelve she guessed by the way she was wearing her hair. It was short now, cut like many of the other sailors wore theirs, and her ears showed. But they were no longer pointed, so it didn't matter. Maq was visiting with her father at the wheel. Grinning broadly, he hefted a crate. Setting it behind the wheel with much flourish, he hoisted Maq onto it and put her right hand on the king's spoke.
"Steer the ship!" he commanded her in his rich, booming voice. "Take us toward the bay!"
It was her first solo behind the wheel. Melas nodded to her and strode toward the bow. He was trusting the ship to her, a mere child. He wasn't even watching her. What confidence he must have had. Maquesta felt her heart swell with pride as she relived that glorious moment. But it was so long ago, and the vision was fading now.
Concentrating harder, the ripples appeared to move faster, and the years melted away. This time Maquesta was little more than a baby, and she was being comforted in her mother's arms. Her mother, dressed in voluminous dark clothes to hide her elven nature, was singing a soft tune, trying to get Maq to fall asleep. It was an elvish song about forests, one that Maq had forgotten. But now the melody was playing over and over in her head as she looked up into her mother's eyes and stared at the beautiful, fair face. If elves hadn't been hunted, hadn't been forced to hide from humans in certain parts of the world, Maq's mother wouldn't have had to conceal her true nature.
Maquesta watched herself grow. She saw herself learning to walk, a difficult task for a child on the pitching deck of a ship, and she laughed as she tried to put everything remotely edible in her mouth, including her father's maps. Then she saw herself alone on the deck of the Perechon late one night. She couldn't have been older than four. Why would she be out here alone so late? No, Maquesta noticed, peering into the shadows by the capstan. She wasn't alone. Her mother was there. Her mother had carried her here, near the rope ladder that reached over the side of the ship.
"I cannot play this game any longer, sweet Maquesta," she heard her mother say. "I can no longer hide who I am, what I am. I cannot deny my heritage. I love your father, and I love you. But I also care for myself, and I must go to be with my own people-where I will have nothing to hide. You will not see me after this night, my child. But know always that you will ever be in my heart."
Maquesta watched her mother climb over the rope railing. There was a small boat, with two elves in it, waiting for her. One of the elves blew a glittery powder into the air, and Maq coughed as the cloud of it engulfed her. Then she saw the darkness swallow her mother, and she forgot everything that transpired that night. The next morning she saw her father crying, realizing his wife was gone. Melas thought she might have slipped overboard and drowned. Then he worried that someone had come for her during the night and stolen her from him. It was that morning Melas and Lendle cut the tips off Maq's ears, fearing that if someone discovered the little girl was a half-elf she would be spirited away, too.
Maquesta vowed to tell her father what really happened when he was back on the Perechon. He deserved the truth.
"Maquesta?" the sea elf broke Maq's concentration. The ripples faded. The magic was gone. "Are you all right?"
"Yes," Maq said. 'Thank you for the vision. I saw my father. He was being cared for when we pulled out of the Lacynos harbor."
Tailonna took the bucket and threw the water over the side of the ship. "I could let you have another water vision tomorrow if you wish."
Maquesta declined. "I think I'll concentrate on the present."
The sea elf smiled. "I'll go back to watch over Fritzen and Lendle now. Fritzen is feeling much better, and I think he needs someone to talk to."
Maquesta was unaccustomed to Tailonna's new politeness, and disturbed that she would be spending more time with Fritz. She shook her head to get the jealous notion out of it. Fritzen is half sea-ogre and would be better off with someone closer tied to the water, she ruefully decided. Trying to focus on something else, she waved to Koraf.
The minotaur was near the capstan, talking with Hvel. He nodded to her and moved quickly across the deck.
"I've been calling you 'Kof'," Maq said. "Perhaps I've been too familiar with you in doing so. I should have asked if you minded. It would have been more polite."
"Mine is an uncommonly difficult name for human tongues," he said, slightly amused. "And I do not object to the familiarity. It makes me feel… accepted."
Maquesta watched as the minotaur clomped back to Hvel. It seemed Kof had found a good friend among the crew. As the two chatted, Maq started humming a soft tune, an elvish one about forests.
Shortly after sunset Maquesta, Ilyatha, Tailonna, and Hvel gathered in the armory. Fritzen was sitting in a chair. Only a thin bandage on his shoulder hinted that he had been wounded. Maq was explaining her plan for trying to bypass the kuo-toa community to reach the nearby morkoth lair. Tailonna drew a map, showing where she thought the colony was, and a likely location for the lair.
"My people suspect the beast lives in this rocky ridge, where it could have constructed tunnels. We cannot be sure, though," she said. "I will make several vials of a potion that lets you breathe water. It will serve you in case it takes a while to find the beast's home."
Ilyatha looked at the sea elf's diagram. "I can use my telepathic abilities to reach out and attempt to locate the morkoth, while at the same time keeping us away from the kuo-toa."
Maquesta stood and nodded to each of her companions. "Then we are decided." They nodded in return. "I, Tailonna, Ilyatha, Kof, and Hvel shall go. Tailonna has volunteered to use her magical nets to capture the kuo-toa."
"MetoometooMaquestaKar-Thon," Lendle was sitting in his cot, excited at the prospect of breathing water and exploring a new realm.
"Not this time, my friend," Maq said sternly.
"What about me?" Fritzen stood and moved his shoulder. "I don't want to miss out on this. And I'm feeling fine."