"No," Jherek said, tracking the jerky, fluttering movement visible within the mass now. "Those are birds. Scavengers." Even as he realized it, his stomach lurched and filled with cold acid.
Bringing his spyglass up to his eye, Tarnar swept the sky ahead. "You're right, but I've never seen so many."
Jherek hadn't either. Thousands of seagulls, pelicans, fisherhawks, and smaller birds skirled through the limited air space above the sea, eagerly seeking an opening. During a voyage on Butterfly last year, Finaren had spied a derelict at sea. Upwind of her, Jherek hadn't smelled the carrion stench of the ship until they'd thrown grappling hooks over the railing and prepared to tie on.
Birds had exploded from the decks and broken windows, frightened from the grisly repast they'd helped themselves to. The young sailor had never learned the reason why the crew had killed each other, but there was no doubt that they had. Finaren had guessed that some mage-inspired madness or a curse had overtaken them. No one had lived. For tendays afterward, Jherek remembered the bloated and beak-stripped faces in his nightmares.
"It means there's death waiting up there," the young sailor said hoarsely.
Tarnar didn't bother to disagree.
"Cap'n," the sailor in the crow's nest bellowed. "Got something off the starboard side."
Jherek stepped to the railing, the cutlass still tight in his fist. A sapphire whale, named for the blue flukes it bore, surfaced in the water only a few yards from Steadfast. Twenty feet long and easily eight feet in diameter at its thickest part, the sapphire whale could have been a formidable opponent for the caravel. It glided easily just above the water, making no move toward the ship.
"Lady look over us," the sailor in the crow's nest called out, "there are more of 'em out there, Cap'n."
As though appearing from nowhere, the whales rose to the ocean's surface, quickly flanking Steadfast's port and starboard sides.
"They want us to stop," Jherek said.
"They've given us no choice," Tarnar growled. He turned and shouted orders to the first mate to drop their canvas. "The good thing is, if they wanted to, they could have already reduced Steadfast to so much kindling. I'm taking this as a good sign."
The caravel drifted to a stop, resting easily against the whales' broad backs. Tarnar gave the order to drop anchor. Crewmen spun the anchor chain on the drum, paying out the length.
Jherek peered across the hundred yards that separated the ship from the cloud of scavengers working at the water-line. They looked as though they were settling on a small island barely jutting up from the sea.
Tarnar put his spyglass in the sash at his waist and walked cautiously to the railing to peer down at the whales. Porpoises raced through the water around the whales, occasionally leaping up and disappearing beneath the waves again.
"What do they want?" the captain asked.
Jherek shook his head, then a ghostly whisper trickled through his mind. Jherek, you must come with us. The voice wasn't the same as the one that had contacted him days ago.
"They want me," the young sailor said.
"How do you know?" Tarnar demanded.
"They just told me."
The captain looked at him as if he'd gone mad.
"You can't hear them?" Jherek asked, amazed that the man could not.
"No."
Jherek, there is not much time remaining. You must accompany us.
Fear and wonderment touched the young sailor's heart. Even days ago when he'd felt the pull and heard the whale song and the voice, he hadn't been as moved. Gazing out at the scavenging birds, he felt the world close in around him.
"Why do they want you?" Tarnar asked.
"I don't know," the young sailor answered.
The sapphire whale swam alongside the caravel, bumping gently up against it. Steadfast bobbed in response.
Come, Jherek Whalefriend. Come and learn.
The young sailor peered down into the whale's eye, seeing the intelligence there.
"What are you going to do?" Tarnar asked.
Jherek clung to the railing, squinting against the wind in his face. "We have no choice. I don't think they'll let the ship proceed unless I find out what they want."
Tarnar was quiet for a moment. "If you go into that water, you're taking your life in your own hands."
"Aye." Jherek nodded.
"We're carrying Cormyrean dried pepper seasoning as part of our cargo," Tarnar said. "I can have the men ready the ship and dump a few pepper barrels into the water. It'll burn those whales-chase them away and give us a chance to run. The wind favors us."
"No." Jherek bent and pulled his boots off. "We've come all this way following the whale song. To try to leave without finding out where it led would be a waste of our time."
"Then I'll come with you."
"And leave Steadfast without her captain?" Jherek gazed at the man. "What kind of decision would that be?"
Tarnar looked out to sea. "You're talking to a failed priest, Jherek," he said. "If these creatures aren't here for your life, then this has got to be some kind of… divine experience. I wouldn't want to miss out on that."
Alone, the voice whispered into Jherek's mind. He repeated the request to the captain.
Tarnar clearly wasn't happy with the stipulation. His face hardened. "Go then, but I'm not going to leave you out here on your own."
"Weigh the risk if it comes to that," Jherek said softly. "One man isn't worth your ship and crew."
"Mystra keep you in her graces." Tarnar offered his arm.
Jherek took the captain's hand and shook it. Barefoot now, his dagger sheathed to one leg and the cutlass through the sash at his waist, he stepped over the railing and dropped into the sea. He hit feet first and slid through the blue-green water. From under the surface, where the largest portion of the whale's mass was, the creature looked even bigger.
No fear, the whale urged him, bumping up against him with her rough body. You are the one to be known as Whale-friend.
Why?
We will explain what we may. Please, climb on my back and I will save you the swim. The whale sunk lower in the water and came close enough to Jherek that they touched.
Hesitantly, the young sailor hooked his fingers over the sapphire whale's dorsal fin and pulled himself aboard. Jherek didn't look back, concentrating on the birds before him.
The whale swam swiftly, skimming along the ocean's surface while the other whales and dolphins opened the path. As they neared the mass in the sea, the cries of the feathered scavengers reached a crescendo, a vibrant clamoring of hunger and rage. The young sailor recognized the mutilated remains of the largest whale he'd ever seen.
The dead whale floated just below the surface, buoyed up in death. The sea rarely hid her dead unless they went down in ships or the scavengers got to them too quickly. Crabs scuttled across the corpse, hiding in pockets of pink-white flesh as they ate their fill and avoided the larger birds that would have eaten them as well. Fish of all sizes and colors darted about at the waterline, and Jherek knew there would be even more working the dead whale's underbelly.
An overwhelming sense of loss filled the young sailor as he surveyed the carnage. Fresh in death, the whale would float for a few days before the sea dragged it back down. Even then, it would be a long time before it was stripped down to its bones.
The sapphire whale closed on the corpse, nudging up against it tenderly. Crabs, fish, and birds fled from that small area.
This was Song Who Brings Bright Rains.
Jherek recognized the name. "What happened?"
The Taker slew him.
"Why?"
Because the whales joined together in song in an attempt to block the sahuagin from entering Seros.