She had been angry for months now, frustrated with her inability to pierce the Veil protecting the Dragon Isles. She had destroyed dozens of ships in her fury, uncaring of their cargo or true destination. That some of them may have been headed to the isles had been enough reason to vent her fury.
The ships’ contents satiated the hunger of Tempest’s servants-sharks, razorfish, numerous and various-sized Turbidus leeches, and a small contingent of dragonspawn such as Mog. As the oldest, cleverest, and strongest of the spawn, Mog always got the juiciest shares of the prey. Even the sharks could not compete with him.
In that sense, the last months had been one long smorgasbord of carnage. The trail of destruction and chaos had been pleasurable. Those past pleasures, though, were balanced out by the fire of the sea dragon’s rage now coursing through Mog’s brain.
He could feel her prowling the deep at the furthest range of the Veil’s magic She had not been able to come close-but her servants had.
Trailing the shipwreck survivors was not easy; the magic of the isles confused the senses. Keeping the victims in close sight was a difficult task, since Tempest’s spies had to remain hidden. Some Turbidus leeches were small, though, and communicated telepathically with their mistress. And the sharks and others she enslaved numbered many-enough, laid end to end, to stretch for leagues. Her servants formed a vast chain with Mog commanding them, following the battered mariners and their captors from the wreck of Kingfisher to Reeftown.
How could these fleshy, humanoid creatures penetrate the Veil when Tempest could not? It was Mog’s duty to find out.
Scavengers swam near Mog’s hiding place. They were only two-a Dargonesti man and woman-and they towed a largish seaweed sack of plunder between them. The size and the weight of the bag slowed them considerably.
Mog flashed from his hiding place and took the woman by surprise.
Before she even knew what had hit her, the dragonspawn snapped her neck, and her body sank to the sand below.
The man turned, a cry of warning on his lips, a spear in his hand. Mog clamped his jaws over the man’s head, stifling the cry. The dragonspawn’s rear talons opened up the man’s belly, spilling the elf s guts into the dark ocean.
Mog drank the blood that leaked from the man’s mouth until his victim stopped quivering, and the elf s blue limbs hung limply in the water.
Quickly, the dragonspawn dragged the corpses back into the weeds to feast.
Chapter Fourteen
Mik smiled at the blue-skinned Dargonesti. “It’s good to see you, Ula,” he said.
“And you, captain,” she replied. Her skin looked slightly burnt, once more-a souvenir of her encounter with Tempest’s steaming breath.
“Me too,” Trip said.
Ula nodded indulgently, then the figure in the doorway caught her attention and her lithe body stiffened.
“Shimanloreth,” she said, her voice almost a whisper. “I didn’t expect to see you here.”
“Nor I, you, Ula Drakenvaal,” he replied, his voice cold and strangely formal.
“We thought you were dead,” Trip continued, oblivious to the tension between the knight and the elf.
Ula took a long, deep breath. “I thought you were dead as well, minnow,” she said. “Though I held out some hope, when I saw my cellmate.”
“What cellmate?” Mik and Trip asked simultaneously. They looked around the room and spotted a figure standing in the shadows near a round window looking out over the city.
“Karista!” Mik said. “I can’t believe you’re alive!”
The aristocrat turned to face them, anger burning in her steely eyes. “I have a hard time believing it, too,” she hissed, glaring at the kender.
“I hope you’re not angry about the seaweed,” Trip said, “I just borrowed it, and-”
“The seaweed!” Karista shrieked. “The ship is lost and all the crew killed, save the four of us! Everything is a disaster!”
Trip lowered his eyes and dug his toe into the coral floor of the room. “It’s not like it’s all my fault or anything.”
Karista continued, her voice low and deadly. “I hadn’t connected it before, but the trouble began after we picked up that ill-omened sea elf. What happened to the last ship you were on, Ula? Pamak and the other sailors said you were cursed!”
“Hah!” Ula said. “So I caused your ship to sink? It’s that same kind of superstitious nonsense that got me tied to a raft and left to die in the first place. I caused no ships to sink. People-both human and elf-make their own luck.”
“That’s certainly true in your case,” Shimmer added, speaking through clenched teeth.
Ula shot him an angry glance, then turned back to Karista. “Look to yourself, milady Meinor, if you don’t like the way things turned out. What happened had nothing to do with me. I was just an innocent on your ruinous journey. What would I have to gain by wrecking your fine ship?” She ran one slender finger over her newly burnt skin. “A nice scalding from a dragon? A bludgeoning from Lakuda’s scavengers? Being thrown in a cell owned by a woman who’d just as soon see my head on a pike?”
“How do we know you’re not in league with these people?” Karista replied. “You seem to know them well enough.”
“Yes,” Mik said quietly. “You do seem to know them.”
Ula turned back to Shimanloreth. “Let me out of here, Shim,” she said angrily.
“You know I can’t,” the knight replied.
“I know you can do whatever you want to do,” Ula said.
Shimanloreth shook his armored head. “No,” he said. “Whatever we had together ended when you left Reeftown.”
“Not by my choice alone,” she replied. “Let me out. Unless, you’d like to see me dead by Lakuda’s hand. Or,” she added, nodding to her cellmates, “by one of my fellow prisoners.”
“You have made your own fate,” he said defiantly, “not I.” Then he turned and walked out of the room.
“Lakuda will kill me!” Ula called after him. “You know that.” She sat down on a chair made out of carved coral and cursed.
Karista Meinor crossed her arms over her chest and smiled in satisfaction. “You have a talent for making enemies, it seems, my ill-omened friend” she said.
“Don’t flatter yourself that you’re in the same league as Lakuda,” Ula shot back.
“All right, you two,” Mik said. “We’re all in this together, and we need to work together if we’re to have any chance of getting out.”
“Why should I want to get out?” Karista asked. “My ransom will surely be paid. Escaping seems like a foolish risk.”
“Hah! Let’s hope there is no haggling over the price. Otherwise, Lakuda will cut your wrists and leave you for the sharks,” Ula replied. “My likely end as well.”
“Our mutual fate, I fear,” Mik said soberly.
“Certainly not as interesting as being eaten by a dragon,” Trip added forlornly.
“Were there any other survivors?” Mik asked the two women.
Both Ula and Karista shook their heads. “I doubt it,” the aristocrat replied. “I didn’t see any on the surface before… before the ship dragged me under. If Lakuda’s people hadn’t found me, I would have drowned.” She glared at Trip again, who shrugged.
Mik sighed. “Little chance we’ll be rescued or ransomed,” he said. “So we’ll just have to get out of this fix on our own.”