Both women ran to Marga and took her in their arms again. "It's all right," Xaphira said, shushing her and stroking her hair. "We'll get them back for you."
Emriana just wrapped her arms around the woman's waist and clung to her. I know how you feel, she thought. I was helpless for a while, too.
By the time they had gotten Marga comfortable and had heard her entire story, Emriana was seething mad. Shapeshifters! That day by the pond, she thought, understanding the twins' odd behavior at last.
Denrick.
Somehow, realizing the truth of the previous night made her feel worse. She shuddered, trying not to relive the ordeal again. She knew that Lobra had preyed upon her worst fears, and in a way, she was angry with herself for letting it be such an effective fear.
No! She thought, shouting at herself. Don't you accept any blame for that. They did it to you!
It was time to put a stop to it, Emriana decided. Right now. "Xaphira," she said, and something in the tone of her voice must have made her aunt realize the gravity of what she was about to say, for the woman looked at her intently. "We still have unfinished business to deal with." When Xaphira didn't say anything, Emriana continued. "It's time to pay Grozier Talricci a visit."
Several rows of teeth the size of Vambran's torso flashed toward the mercenary, white blades designed to shred him into bloody pulp. But when they snapped together, the yawning blackness of the shark wholly enveloped him, and those great daggers missed his flesh. He was swept into the blackness, fighting the churning water, thrashing against the current, but it was futile. The undersea world, the light, receded.
Trapped inside the shark's mouth, the current still propelled Vambran, and he found himself sliding deeper into its cavernous insides. Fighting the terror of what had befallen him, the lieutenant tried to reason. He still had the trident Serille had given him, though he doubted it would do much against such a massive creature. Still, he might be able to use it to slow his descent into the thing's belly. He rammed the weapon down hard, feeling it sink into the flesh. He clung to the haft, fighting the flow of water, and peered around.
Ahead, he could see the light beyond the enormous mouth as the shark swam about, allowing water to flow in. Indeed, the current that was trying to sweep him along reminded him of something. Turning to stare in the other direction, deeper into the beast's gullet, he spied the twin glimmers of light he was hoping for.
The gills.
Uprooting the trident and paddling furiously, Vambran swam toward one side of the shark, aiming at those slits, letting the flow of the water carry him. As he neared the first of the gaps in the shark's body, he jabbed the trident into it, using the weapon as a handle. The force of the water was strong, but Vambran wasn't sure he could slip out through the gill. He pushed on the flap experimentally to see how flexible it was. It did not give much, but it was the only means of escape that he could see. Bolstering his courage, the mercenary began to climb through the gill. He led with the trident and his arms. Once he got his head wedged into the gap, he began shoving himself through, using the trident like a pry bar.
The shark, perhaps sensing the man's assault on a sensitive body part, thrashed about, buffeting Vambran. He nearly lost his grip on his weapon and he was slammed about painfully, all the while still desperate to free himself. When, the shark jerked just right, the gill slit opened enough that Vambran's body slipped through. He went tumbling along the shark's flank, buffeted by its motion and scraping painfully against its rough skin.
But he was free.
And bleeding.
It was no more than a scrape, trickling only a little blood, but the great brute was making a wide turn, and Vambran feared that it could smell his wound in the water already. Terrified of another attack, of not being so lucky as to evade the teeth again, he dived downward to the sea floor and discovered a small fold in the coral and the anemones where he could wedge himself in. He plunged into the crack and fell still just as the shark glided past again, snapping its jaws where he had been only a heartbeat before. The ferocity of the bites churned the water, swirling it and buffeting Vambran severely. He cradled his head in his arms as he bounced against the rock, and when the water grew calm, he glanced up to see the skin of the beast moving past him at less than an arm length away.
Even after the creature had moved past, Vambran remained still for several long moments more, unwilling even to turn his head to see where it had gone.
Finally, when his heartbeat had slowed to an even rate, the lieutenant did rise, barely enough to peer around. He saw no sign of the immense shark.
Thank Tymora, he thought, sagging down again.
After gathering his strength, Vambran rose up from his protected hiding place. He saw no evidence of the rest of his companions. Dismayed, he considered the best course of action.
On land, he thought, if a soldier gets lost in the woods, he's instructed to stay put and let others find him. Maybe that works in the water, too. But how long do I wait for them to come back? he wondered. It's bound to get even darker down here. I can make a light, but Serille said that was a bad idea.
After weighing his options, the lieutenant decided to follow his instincts, which told him to return to the domed building he had discovered before the arrival of the shark. He rationalized that it was the place where he had first lost his companions and thus, if they followed the same methods as on the surface, they would backtrack to that spot and find him. But the truth was, he felt drawn to the location. Curiosity was driving him to find out what was inside, through that narrow space that he had imagined being a doorway.
The only problem was, how could he leave a clue for the others that he was there? Vambran needed some way to mark the spot, leave some sign behind-subtle enough not to attract the attention of unwanted species, but obvious enough to those who knew what to look for.
Vambran had no idea how long it took him to find the unusual formation again, but eventually he spotted the strange dome. With a sigh of relief, he settled down near the rocky crevice that he thought might allow ingress. The fissure was pitch black within and Vambran was reluctant to use his magic to generate light, but he would never work up the courage to descend without being able to see. He also knew that blindly entering the unknown space might bring him face-to-face with Waukeen in no time.
Vambran considered how best to mark his passage. Using the trident, he chipped off some of the coral along a flat area that was more or less vertical. The growth broke off in large chunks, exposing a lighter color beneath. The revealed surface didn't appear to be natural rock, but what Vambran believed to be worked stone. Elated, he quickly chiseled away two more identical spots. He carefully rounded all three of them, making sure that they were sizeable enough to be seen from a considerable distance. Then he retreated from his work and looked down on it. From several vantage points, three dots were clearly visible, identical in formation to the three dots he bore on his brow.
Perfect, the lieutenant thought. They'll figure that out.
Satisfied that he had left a reasonable trail, Vambran moved down toward the gap in the rock. He sat for a time, trying to build up his courage. He didn't know if his hesitation was a fear of being sucked into a great blackness for a second time that day, or if he felt some sense of trespassing on a scene of ancient death. If the place was truly a portal into the forgotten ruins of Naarkolyth, he might very well be the first human to pass through its halls in over a millennium. The thought was both sobering and exhilarating.
Sitting on a rock under the ocean wasn't helping anyone on the surface, Vambran convinced himself, and finally, he took hold of his holy coin and muttered a prayer. He worried briefly that the changes in his voice due to his gills might cause the magic to fail. With the final word of the spell, though, his coin glowed with a soft light.