"It's going to crush us!" a minotaur roared.
But as the head — a head resembling that of an enormous turtle — cleared the water, the leviathan paused. It might have been some huge stone colossus carved by the ancients of Istar, so still was it.
Stel shouted triumphantly. He was facing the monster, the pendant of Chemosh held tight in one hand.
Stel's ancient pendant might not have summoned up the legions of undead that the cleric had sought, but it had summoned up something far more impressive. The draconians left the rail, dragging Vandor back to the altar.
"Surely this is no longer necessary!" he protested. "Master Stel has no time for this now! We should not bother such a busy man!"
In response, the draconians threw Vandor over the blood-spattered bowl and waited for orders.
"See what I have done!" Stel cried. "I have the power to raise monsters from the depths!"
"Dead ones, yes…" muttered Vandor.
"Yet, this is not what I expected," Stel quieted, then gazed down at his prize. "I meant to summon the dead of Istar, not this… this beast. This is not how the spell is supposed to work. Time has wreaked havoc with the pendant. I shall have to do something about that."
Stel removed his gloves and began probing at the crystal. There was a SNAP and a tiny burst of light. Stel cried out in pain. The crystal fell from the ivory casing.
With a wordless cry, Stel tried to catch the magical gem in midair, but he missed. Vandor shut his eyes — prayed that the explosion of sorcery unleashed by the shattering crystal would make his end swift.
The ebony gem struck the deck with a disappointing clatter. It rolled a moment, then slid toward Vandor Grizt.
He reacted without thinking, seeing only a valuable jewel heading toward the sea. Vandor put his foot out, caught the crystal between the sole of his boot and the deck. Grizt, the draconians, and Prefect Stel exhaled in relief. Only then did Stel realize what Vandor was doing.
"Stop him, you fools!"
Vandor Grizt stomped his foot down as hard as he could, trying desperately to crush the damnable artifact. Something gave way and at first Vandor believed he had succeeded. But try as he might, he could not reduce the thing to powder.
One of the draconians hit Vandor, dragging him back, away from the pendant.
Quickly Stel bent over and snatched up his prize. He inspected it for damage, then, satisfied, tried to replace it in the clasp. The crystal would not stay. Stel studied the clasp closer and cursed.
"Broken!"
Vandor smiled ruefully, though he could not help but sigh over the precious loss. The pendant had survived the sinking of Istar and centuries of burial in the depths of the Blood Sea, only to come to such an ignominious end.
Stel shook his fist at Vandor.
"You did this! You could not crush the jewel, but you cracked the framework around it." He thrust the gem close, so that Vandor could see the tiny, intricate workings that wrapped around the ebony jewel, like skeletal fingers clutching a prized possession. One of them had clearly broken off.
Whatever his fate now — and it certainly could get no worse — Vandor Grizt could die in peace, knowing the monstrous pendant was destroyed.
"I see your look!" Stel hissed. "But I will build the pendant anew, thief! The framework is nothing! It can readily be replaced! As long as I have the jewel I will… I will…"
He stared at it. The jewel — Grizt realized — had ceased to glow.
The two draconians exchanged worried glances. "Prefect," asked the sivak, "is there something amiss?"
Stel did not answer. The dark cleric shook the gem, muttered some words under his breath, and touched the crystal with his index finger.
Grizt dared a fleeting, hopeful smile.
One of the draconians, glancing at him, snarled, "What do YOU find so funny, human?"
He did not get the opportunity to reply.
"It's… it's dead…" Stel gasped. He shook the jewel again for good measure. "I do not understand! It worked perfectly until it fell out of the clasp, but the lack of a frame should only make the power a little less focused, unless… of course!" He fumbled with the casing. "This is bone ivory! Part of the spell's matrix! The pendant must be whole to function or it loses all power!"
Stel tried pressing the gem back into the casing, but it would not hold.
A massive wave shook the Tauron. Stel almost lost his footing. Captain Kruug shouted a warning, but his words were overwhelmed by the violent surging of the Blood Sea and a crash of thunder.
"NOW what?" Stel snapped.
"Prefect! The monster!" shouted the draconians.
Stel turned around and stared at the leviathan the pendant had helped him summon.
It was moving… and the Tauron lay directly in its path.
"Sargonnas take you, priest!" Kruug roared. "Listen to me! Send that thing away or it will kill us all!"
"Preposterous! It will do no such thing! I am the one who summoned it!"
The minotaur snorted.
Vandor Grizt, who was measuring the direction and speed of the undead leviathan, turned to his draconian guards. "Listen to him! The captain is right! Do something!"
"Be silent or I'll tear you in half!" the sivak hissed.
Undaunted, Vandor screamed at them. "Just look! Your master no longer controls it! It comes for us!"
Tentacles as thick as a man's body rose above the water, reaching for the ship as the creature neared.
"First rank! Axes!" Kruug roared. Several massive minotaurs abandoned what they were doing and rushed toward the steps leading into the vessel's interior.
Through all of this, Stel had remained standing still staring at the oncoming behemoth. He shook his head. "With the pendant, I could easily regain total control… but the pendant… is broken and I don't…" He eyed Vandor, who now regretted his attempts to pulverize the jewel. Death appeared to be his fate no matter what happened. "But I might be able to use it to enhance my OWN power… if I have a sufficient blood sacrifice to Chemosh to feed the spell."
Shinare! Why does everything involve my blood? "But I am promised to the Sea Queen!" Grizt protested. "If you use me for this, she might grow angry… angrier!"
"There will be enough blood to keep you alive… barely. She will understand."
Stel, it seemed, believed in very understanding gods. Vandor Grizt thought that if he were either Chemosh or the Sea Queen, he would be insulted by all of these shabby half-measures and broken vows.
The Tauron had begun to list. The minotaurs had apparently lost control of the ship. Of all those on board, only Vandor's ancestors — still in thrall to Stel — remained unaffected by the terror. They stared blindly in the direction of Stel and, it seemed, at their descendant who would soon be joining them in death.
Dagger in one hand and gem in the other, the cleric of Chemosh faced the undead leviathan surging toward them. Stel appeared to have confidence in himself, if no one else did. Raising the gem high, the black-robed cleric began to shout words of power. The hand with the dagger rose over the chest of Vandor Grizt.
It was then that the world turned about. Vandor Grizt was not certain of the order of events, but suddenly the storm burst into full fury, sending the ship keeling over in the opposite direction. At least one minotaur was washed overboard by a massive wave. A bolt of lightning struck one of the masts, cracking it in two. The burning wreckage crashed down on the hapless crew.
More than a dozen tentacles wrapped around the Tauron and began to drag it under.
Stel stood frozen, disbelief registered in every bone of his body. He dropped the dagger, much to the captive's relief, and clawed at the tiny skull pendant. As he pulled it free, it crumbled.
The TAURON was beginning to break up, as the tentacles threatened to crunch it. Captain Kruug and several minotaurs rushed forward, attacking the creature with heavy axes. The rotting skin of the behemoth gave way. It took the minotaurs only a few blows to sever the one tentacle and only a couple more to cut a second in two.