Leaping over the blade, Jherek flipped and came down on his feet. He lifted the shield just in time to keep the blade from cleaving his skull. He parried with his cutlass, scoring a deep cut on his opponent's arm.
Iakhovas scowled and took a step back. A violet ray shot at Jherek from the Taker's golden eye.
Reacting instantly, the young paladin raised his shield, which absorbed the ray and threw it back into Iakhovas's face, staggering him. The young paladin immediately went on the offensive again, driving Iakhovas back. He thrust and parried, then lunged and slashed, moving steadily into the bigger man. Blood from Iakhovas's wound dripped on the ship's deck and left burned stigmata.
"You cannot kill me, boy," Iakhovas shouted. "I will not allow myself to die. Even Umberlee tried to kill me and failed. Who are you to challenge me who would be a god?"
"I am a strong right arm of Lathander," Jherek replied, burying the cutlass in the railing then ripping it free and diving back. He blocked Iakhovas's return blow with his shield this time and slashed his opponent across the chest. "I am a beginning, chosen by the Morninglord."
"Chosen to die," Iakhovas taunted.
"No,' Jherek said, "chosen to live."
Jherek thrust and swung and parried. His blade moved even faster, picking up the pace in spite of all the battles he'd been in this day.
Iakhovas's scowl deepened as he was forced back. Steel rang on steel, and for the first time Jherek realized some of the surviving sahuagin were attacking Azure Dagger.
Her crew defended her, aided by the sea wyrm. Pacys fought on the deck, his staff whirling as he chopped into the sea devils that fought to board. Khlinat was at the old bard's side, his axes whirling madly.
Taking advantage of the young paladin's distraction, Iakhovas stepped forward suddenly and chanced a side-arm blow straight for Jherek's head. Jherek barely got his cutlass around to block the sword, but he was driven stumbling backward, off-balance.
Iakhovas came at him, snarling and with bloodlust in his eye. He raised the great sword two-handed and brought it down.
Jherek turned quickly, barely escaping the blow that shattered the navigator's table behind him. He rolled to his feet, willing the bracer into a hook as he ducked under Iakhovas's backhanded blow. He caught the blade in the hook, stopping it short and pulling the Taker off balance. Turning in, knowing the chance he was taking, the young paladin brought the cutlass crashing down on the trapped blade.
Harsh green light exploded on impact, and electricity filled the air. Steel shattered, falling in two pieces, leaving only an inch or two sticking out from the hilt.
Iakhovas stepped back in surprise, but a crafty smile lit his scarred and tattooed features.
"You haven't seen all there is to me, boy," Iakhovas said.
He turned and sprinted for the stern railing, leaping over it in a long, flat dive.
Jherek followed the movement, but stopped at the rail, amazed at what he saw.
By the time Iakhovas hit the water, he was no longer anything human. A manlike form went down, but a ninety-foot great white shark surfaced. Scars and tattooing showed around a golden eye. It sped out to sea and gradually went down, leaving only the triangular dorsal fin-as big as a house-sticking out of the water.
Sahuagin swarmed up the stern, and Jherek spent a few moments riposting their attacks and killing them. As he kicked the corpses back into the water, he noticed the triangular fin streaking for Azure Dagger.
"Hold on!" he roared in warning.
In the next instant, the huge shark slammed into the caravel. Timbers cracked and gave way as the predator hammered through the hull.
"Abandon ship, damn it!"
Jherek turned and saw Azla up and about. Wounds still covered her, but evidently Glawinn had healed the worst of it. She was mobile, but hurting greatly.
"Get the boats over the side and get into them!" she shouted. "We're taking on water like a sieve!"
Glancing back out to sea, Jherek watched the massive predator come around for another pass.
Laaqueel watched Iakhovas in awe as he transformed into the great shark.
Not a shark, Eldath corrected. Iakhovas is a megalodon, a prehistoric creature and perhaps the first such of his kind.
"But he once walked with gods," Laaqueel said, watching as Iakhovas sped toward the ship.
With Umberlee, yes, and possibly even with Sekolah.
"He was never one of Sekolah's chosen?"
No. He's an aberration, a thing whose time is well gone.
Iakhovas turned from attacking the ship and fixed her with his real eye. Little malenti, his voice sounded in her head, vow arc slow to come when I command.
You must make a choice, Eldath said, here and now. Will you stay as an outcast with the sahuagin and keep Iakhovas as your master, or will you take what I offer?
"Brace yourselves!" Jherek yelled as he grabbed the storm railing.
Iakhovas rammed Azure Dagger again, splitting the hull even more. As the huge predator pulled away this time, the young paladin felt the caravel listing, taking on water. He glanced over his shoulder as the vessel sank to its midsection. The crew routed the attacking sahuagin. The sea wyrm raised its golden finned head from the sea and returned Jherek's gaze.
"I need you," Jherek said.
The sea wyrm dived without hesitation and swam to the stern section. Out in the distance, Iakhovas came around for another pass. Jherek was certain this attack would leave the stricken vessel in tatters and the crew vulnerable to that great mouth filled with serrated teeth.
"Jherek!" Sabyna called from behind him.
"Lady," the young paladin said. "You need to get in one of the boats and row for shore." He pointed toward the low, green-forested hill that could be seen in the distance.
"What are you going to do?"
Jherek gave her a smile and answered, "All that I may, lady. I can do naught else."
Sabyna took her kerchief from her hair and quickly tied it around his arm. "I would not stop you from doing as Lathander has directed, but you heed my words well." Her voice cracked with emotion and a sheen was in her eyes. "You finish what you have been given to do, and you come back to me in one piece."
Jherek's heart soared, pushing aside even the fear and insecurity that thrummed inside him. He took her face in his hands and kissed her deeply.
"As you wish, lady," he said, then threw himself from the stern castle in a dive that took him straight at the approaching shark.
Curving up toward the surface, watching the huge predator bearing down on him and suddenly realizing how vulnerable he was when the shark could swallow him and the sea wyrm whole, Jherek grabbed hold of the dragon-kin's dorsal fin and pulled himself up on its back.
The bond between Jherek and the sea wyrm was strong. He guided it with his knees as he willed the bracer into a shield. He held his sword in his hand as they sped toward their foe.
Ninety feet of silent, sudden death sped at the young paladin. Jherek sat his mount, holding on tightly, gambling that the bracer's power would see him through. The sea wyrm didn't falter as it finned toward Iakhovas.
Holding on tightly to the grip inside the shield, Jherek narrowly avoided the black, cavernous mouth ringed by serrated teeth and smashed the shield into the huge predator's snout. The impact hurled him dozens of feet from the sea wyrm and almost knocked him out, bet the shield absorbed the brunt of the blow. Iakhovas, incredibly, seemed staggered.
"You'll die for that boy," he said as he turned in the water.
The sea wyrm swam to Jherek's side in a flash of golden light. Fighting the disorientation that gripped him, the young paladin tried to mount again.
Iakhovas's snout was bloodied. His golden eye gleamed.