"That's why there are so many fighting men gathered in Athkatla today," the black sailor said. "The festhalls and taverns are filled with mercenaries and sellswords waiting to be picked up by captains who're courageous enough to brave the waters north of here."
"Lady," Narik said, "if you're bound to Baldur's Gate, talk to your captain if he hasn't already heard. Those are dangerous waters these times. There are some tongues wagging that during Fleetswake in Waterdeep that someone tried to rob Umberlee's Cache and all of this is part of a curse the Bitch Queen has put on Waterdeep."
"They blame the actions of the sahuagin as well on her?" Sabyna asked.
Narik shrugged and said, "Lady, who else could summon up storms and cause the sea creatures that were seen in the invasion of Waterdeep to align themselves with the sea devils? Many sailors have seen Umberlee's hand in this. There's no other explanation."
Sabyna thanked them for the news, then headed out of the marketplace, threading through the large crowds.
"We've got to find Tynnel," she said to Jherek. "I'm sure he already knows, but if he doesn't, he needs to know now, and we need to make plans for the trip to Baldur's Gate. If we're going to make it at all."
"Aye," Jherek replied.
An eagerness moved through him, though, along with the fear. Memory of the pirate-stricken vessel they'd found the boy in filled his mind. He wasn't afraid for himself, but for the pretty ship's mage.
"You try the festhalls and taverns," she went on as they exited the marketplace and walked out onto the street beyond, "while I try the mercantile houses where we normally do business. We'll meet back on Breezerunner."
"As you wish," he told her.
She turned and gave him a fleeting smile, but it didn't quite touch the worry he saw in her eyes. "Be safe," she said, "until I see you again." She gave his arm a final squeeze, letting him know she'd been aware of the prolonged contact as well, then hurried across the busy street.
Jherek stood and watched her, admiring the smooth roll of muscle shown by her breeches and the easy way that she moved, not showing much of a sailor's rolling gait when on land. Apprehension flared through him, though, when she disappeared from sight down an alley leading deeper into the Amman city. It was like a small, cold voice had whispered that he'd never see her again.
He almost went after her then, but he stopped himself. He'd given his word he'd try to find the captain. He turned and went down the street toward the docks where the festhalls and taverns thrived.
XXIV
"We need to make another attack."
Huaanton regarded Iakhovas silently after the statement. The sahuagin king's stance made it clear to Laaqueel that wasn't something he wanted to hear.
The malenti waited tensely, knowing Iakhovas should have reacted to the king's unspoken displeasure. For the last twelve years he'd lived among them as one of their own and the wizard knew enough to recognize the body language. By rights, he should have avoided eye contact at any cost and perhaps even swum up over Huaanton's head, baring his midriff to possible attack as a rebuke and a show of his loyalty.
Iakhovas merely stood there, his back to one of the four thick crystal windows that peered out over the sahuagin city in the chasm. In fact, he not only appeared unrepentant but mutinous, and Laaqueel was certain that attitude ran over into the illusion he wore for the king.
Huaanton's throne room and audience chamber was huge. Thousands of years had gone into the planning and construction of it. Made of limestone blocks each over an arm span wide and more than that tall, the sahuagin castle looked like another bump on the canyon wall from the outside. It was seven stories tall inside, the lower three sunk into the ledge of outthrust rock spurring from the chasm side, and the other four looking like a natural rock projection.
The throne room was on the second floor down, below Huaanton's personal quarters and treasury. A massive throne carved from whale bone in the shape of a shark leaping from the water with its jaws distended occupied one end of the room. The open mouth contained the seat, large enough even for Huaanton's massive girth.
Images of sharks and sahuagin were cut in bas-relief on the limestone blocks of the walls. The largest stones depicted battles from sahuagin history, myth interwoven with truth until it was all memory. The largest piece, on the opposite end of the room from the throne, showed the meeting of the sahuagin and Sekolah, whom they chose as their god.
The carving of Sekolah, the Great Shark, held a shell in his teeth, shaking it. Tiny sahuagin finned away from him in all directions, coming from the shell. According to history, Sekolah had been victorious in chosen battle against a behemoth of the deep. The Great Shark had gone forth, singing his song of joy and been pleasantly surprised to hear other voices singing back to him. The shell containing the sahuagin had floated up to him on a spray of bubbles, drawn by the joy coming from Sekolah. Once the Great Shark had spread them across the sea, the sahuagin had prospered and multiplied even further.
"More than two thousand sahuagin died in the attack on Waterdeep," Huaanton stated.
"Easily twice that many surface dwellers perished," Iakhovas said. "The sahuagin who died served their purpose in killing the enemy, but they were weak. The strong members of our people came back from that war, and our race will be the stronger for it. The next hatchlings will all be of true warriors' blood, a legacy wrought by the testing of our mettle in battle."
Huaanton's magnetic black gaze pinned Iakhovas, but the wizard didn't flinch from the eye contact.
Laaqueel silently prayed that Iakhovas wouldn't overstep his bounds. If he did, he'd bring swift and certain death down on them both. Twenty sahuagin guards ranged around them, their faces impassive, but the malenti knew they'd act at once if their king rightfully called them into action.
"They died," Huaanton agreed, "and by that proved they were inadequate to survive, but another strike against the surface dwellers right now might not be the wisest thing we could do."
"Would you have them think they've broken the sahuagin spirit?" Iakhovas asked.
Laaqueel respected the wizard's ability to choose his words well. They were borderline on accusing Huaanton of cowardice, but they were presented so that the perception was on the part of the surface dwellers, not Iakhovas.
"We still take their ships," the sahuagin king pointed out.
"Only because they foolishly continue to believe they maintain control over the seas," Iakhovas replied. "In this we need to be thankful for their own egotistical designs. We do not have to take the fight to them; they bring it into our home territory with every ship they sail. Still, they must be broken of this inflated view of themselves."
"But the ships appear in less numbers than before."
"In what they call the Sea of Swords," Iakhovas said, "your summation is true. However, even that is too much. All that is needed is for a few ships, or perhaps only one, to brave the sea successfully and they will forget the message that has been delivered to them. A human's memory isn't as long or as gifted as that of a sahuagin's. A human will forget and believe again that they can venture out onto the sea. We need to raid their shores, raze their communities, and see them run broken and splintered before us." He paused. "Sekolah demands no less of his children if they are truly to be his children."
"You claim the ear of Sekolah," Huaanton said, "when none of my priestesses claim any such contact."