Fritzen stroked his chin in contemplation. "What if the cage has broken open, Maquesta? What if the morkoth is free?"
"Then we are undone," she said softly. "My father will die, and Ilyatha will never see his daughter again. But I'll not let another sailor die on this quest."
"Thebeastisfree?" Lendle hurried up behind them and poked his head through the aft rail. "Everyoneistalkingaboutthemorkothescaping."
"Temporarily escaping," Tailonna said, as she approached, holding up a vial. "Enough for one potion, and not a large one at that. I suspect this won't last you more than a few hours."
Maq stepped away from Fritz and took the vial in her trembling hand. "It will have to be enough, then." She downed the mixture in one gulp, made sure her short sword and dagger were firmly hooked to her belt, then vaulted over the railing and plunged into the choppy water below.
Tailonna glanced at Fritzen and Lendle. "I'm going with her," she said. Then the sea elf was gone, too.
The gnome peered over the railing to watch their forms disappear as they swam deeper.
"Ihaveabadfeelingaboutthis," Lendle jabbered.
The half-ogre tapped him on the shoulder, nearly sending the startled gnome into the sea, too.
"Winches and pulleys?"
The gnome nodded and led Fritzen into the hold.
The water became colder the deeper Maquesta swam. Her tunic was plastered against her skin, making her movements awkward, and after several yards she tugged off her sandals and let them float away. She felt the water move in and out of her nose, deep into her lungs. It was an odd sensation, but the potion was working, and Maq was amazed that she was breathing water as if it were air.
Dark shapes loomed up below her. Rock formations, a small coral reef, the wreck of an old ship. She batted her eyes and pumped her legs harder, her efforts carrying her deeper still. Another wreck came into view, and another. She gritted her teeth. The morkoth had chosen the center of the Blood Cup to make its move. These waters were rumored to be filled with all manner of aquatic life, lured by the empty husks of once-proud caravels, schooners, warships, and carracks. Divers who sought out the Cup to harvest the riches of the hulks were rarely successful. Most succumbed to attacks from bullsharks.
Sharks were the least of Maquesta's worries now. In fact, Maq didn't see any fish at all. Wait! There was one bullshark, a massive one. It lazily swam over the largest wreck, probably searching for food. That explained the lack of smaller fish, Maq decided. Bullsharks would try to eat anything smaller than themselves.
Trying to keep a good distance from the large shark, Maquesta hovered several yards above the sea floor and peered through the gloom, trying to find the morkoth's cage. All she could see was the graveyard of unfortunate ships and rocky spirals reaching upward amid them. Judging where the cage might have gone down before the Perechon could stop, she started swimming forward, skirting the ships, suspecting the cage might lie beyond them. With each stroke she prayed the cage was intact. If the morkoth was free, it could be hiding in any one of these rotting vessels-or it could be swimming as far away and as fast as its tentacles would take its ugly body.
As her half-elven eyes became more accustomed to the darkness, Maquesta began to pick out details. Most of the ships had sat on the bottom for decades. The barnacles and algae that flourished on their sides were thick and covered up the names on their hulls. Broken masts pointed in all directions, as if the sea floor were a giant pin cushion. Rotting pieces of sails fluttered from some of the masts, looking like ghosts hovering in the water.
The Golden Sailfish, Blood Sea Bounty, Felicia's Dream, and Red Roland were some of the names she could discern on the more recent wrecks. Perhaps victims of the Blood Sea imps, she mused, as her course took her around the edge of the graveyard and to a sloping coral ridge just beyond. Fortunately the morkoth had not hypnotized Hvel at night, when the imps are about, she thought.
Something brushed up against Maquesta's legs, and she drew her dagger, twirled in the water, and stopped herself from stabbing forward with the blade. Tailonna hovered there. The sea elf pointed toward the coral ridge. Maquesta followed the Dimernesti's gaze and spotted the outline of the cage, just over the edge of an embankment. Squinting, Maq could tell the morkoth was still inside. But it was getting some help to get free.
No! Maquesta's mind screamed, as she kicked her legs furiously to take her closer to the coral ridge. A squid, apparently under the control of the morkoth, was hard at work on the bars, trying to pry them apart with its tentacles. The morkoth was assisting it, using its tentacles to do the same.
Maquesta's eyes grew wide as she watched the bars start to bend. The sea elf shot past her, propelling herself at the squid, and hitting the creature's bulbous body, pushing it away from the cage and impaling it on a jagged finger of coral. Maquesta swam faster, too, her lungs aching from the exertion. She held the dagger in her teeth and dived toward the cage. As she landed on the ridge by the cage, the sharp edges of the coral bit into her feet. Ignoring the pain, Maquesta drew her short sword, moved forward, and thrust the blade through the bars to keep the morkoth back. She examined the bars that were swelled outward. Not enough space to let the morkoth slip through, she decided, though more than enough space for a tentacle to slip out.
She glanced over her shoulder to see Tailonna finish off the dying squid. Another was moving slowly toward Maquesta and the cage, and the sea elf started shooing it away, like one might chase a naughty dog.
Maquesta looked at the morkoth, then let her gaze drift upward and to the south, where she vaguely made out the image of the Perechon's hull. The bullshark was hovering under the ship now, probably curious.
You're coming back with us, she thought, as she gazed malevolently at the caged morkoth. There'll be no more of your tricks. You can try them on Lord Attat for all I care. But first, she added to herself, we've got to get you out of this cage so you can swim free. There's no reason you should be confined in this terrible cage.
Maquesta's eyes were flecked with red, mirroring the eyes of the morkoth. The creature hovered within the confines of its cage, its tentacles tracing patterns of bubbles in the dark water.
Maq watched the bubbles for several moments, then she pushed herself off the coral ridge and floated to the top of the cage. The solder on the bars was likely the weakest there, she decided, as she hooked her legs between the bars for support and started to work on the metal with her dagger. The tip of her weapon broke off, but the rest of the blade was still strong.
Faster, the morkoth urged her.
Faster, she answered inside her head.
Maquesta had just about succeeded in breaking one of the welds when she felt herself flying backward through the water, pushed by two strong arms. Tailonna thrust Maq away from the cage, propelling her down to the coral ridge, and slamming her into it, knocking the water from Maq's lungs.
You don't understand, Maq's eyes tried to tell Tailonna. My friend the morkoth must be free.
Tailonna grabbed Maquesta's head and brought her own face down to within inches of it. "Listen to me," Tailonna said. The tones sounded bubbly and distorted through the water. 'The beast has hypnotized you, just as it did Hvel. As it did to Ilyatha in its tunnel-lair. Fight it!"
Maq blinked and tried to focus on the words, on the sparkling blue-green elvish eyes before her. Tailonna roughly shook her.
"The morkoth," Maq mouthed. "The morkoth lulled me!" Maquesta pushed off the ridge, away from the Dimernesti and toward the cage, fire in her eyes replacing the red specks. She brought the pommel of her dagger down on the top of the cage to get the beast's attention, then she narrowed her eyes and glared at it.