Sea Devil's Eye

by Mel Odom

  The ships turned sideways and tumbled down into the waterspout. The vessels that went prow or stern first stayed level even though they followed the circular motion of the whirlpool, but the ships that went down sideways rolled over and shattered, filling the whirlpool with deadly debris that slammed into the other ships.

  “Blessed Oghma,” the old bard whispered, stunned.

  From everything Qos, the Dukars, and the High Mages had talked about, he was certain no one expected this. The Great Gate had never been opened before, it was intended as a desperate, final effort against invaders.

  The sahuagin, drowned ones, and koalinth barred from the city by the mythal were drawn into the whirlpool as well. The ships, whole and broken, smashed into them, killing dozens in a sweep. The mythal was all that prevented the city itself from being pulled into the whirlpool.

  Pacys caught sight of Azure Dagger as the caravel was yanked into the whirlpool as well. No one thought to give the two ships any defense against the whirlpool. No one believed it would reach so far. Miraculously, Azure Dagger went into the whirlpool prow first, followed by Steadfast. Three Cormyrean Freesails followed next.

  Though filled with horror and hurt, Pacys’s pain was nowhere near that of another’s.

  “No!” Jherek screamed in disbelief.

  Azure Dagger seemed to sail straight into the whirlpool’s jaws.

  Within seconds, the first of the ships and the sahuagin reached the eye of the whirlpool at the Great Gate and disappeared, thrown half a world away—for all anyone knew. The only thing the High Mages and Qos agreed on was that the Great Gate took all in it far from Serôs.

  Something shoved the young paladin from behind. Angry, he turned, only to find the golden sea wyrm floating there. It coiled and flexed, struggling against the whirlpool’s pull. For the first time, he understood the creature’s attraction to him; why it mysteriously followed him to Aglarond and back, and why it helped him rescue Sabyna from the drowned ones.

  Azure Dagger plummeted toward the whirlpool’s eye as Jherek reached for the sea wyrm and pulled himself up onto the creature’s back. He slapped it on the neck gratefully and urged it forward. The sea wyrm darted forward like an arrow. Jherek ripped the necklace with the whirlpool gem from his neck and threw it away, feeling the pull of the gate at once.

  “Jherek!”

  Knowing the voice, the young paladin glanced ahead, spotting the bard atop the statue.

  “I must know the end of the story,” Pacys shouted.

  Jherek hesitated for an instant as the sea wyrm closed the distance to the old bard. Doing what he planned was without question dangerous, but he knew Pacys was as driven by his part in the events as he was. He willed the bracer back into its resting form and reached for Pacys’s hand.

  Though the force of the contact must have almost ripped the bard’s arm from his shoulder, Pacys didn’t say a word. The old bard twisted himself expertly in the water until he sat behind Jherek.

  The sea wyrm jerked suddenly.

  Glancing back, Jherek saw that Khlinat had managed to grab the creature’s tail. The dwarf held on fiercely.

  “Leave him,” the young paladin told the sea wyrm.

  In response, the dragon-kin curled the dwarf protectively in its tail.

  Jherek watched Azure Dagger plunge toward the whirlpool’s eye. Two masts hung in broken shards, wrapped in sailcloth. The sea wyrm reached the outer edge of the whirlpool and they were sucked inside.

  Sabyna gazed up in disbelief at the swirling wall of green-blue water that surrounded her. Azure Dagger stabbed straight down into the maelstrom. The roaring water made conversation impossible. The ship’s mage thought she might be screaming, but she’d have never known.

  She lost her footing on the deck as the caravel tilted forward even more. As she fell toward the prow, aware of the tangled rigging and the broken mast ahead, Sabyna angled her body and managed to seize the rigging with one hand. She swung under it and prayed that her fingers wouldn’t be pulled off.

  She was hit from behind, and when she spun to see what had happened, she found herself face to face with a pirate who’d been hanged in the rigging. The bloated face and protruding tongue let her know it was too late to cut him away.

  The caravel hit the bottom of the whirlpool and the world went away.

  Laying low along the sea wyrm’s neck, the old bard’s arms wrapped tight around his waist and with Khlinat in tow, Jherek guided his mount through the swirling wall of water into the center of the whirlpool. For a moment they hung motionless in the raging roar of the ocean, then they fell toward the bottom of the whirlpool. The sea wyrm convulsed, then poked its head down.

  Jherek locked his legs around his mount and leaned back, forcing himself to stay on its back through sheer willpower. They hit the bottom of the whirlpool, followed immediately by a moment of blackness, then crashed through a tumbling seascape.

  Pirate ships lay scattered along the ocean floor, smashed, broken, and driven into the mud and sand. Ships crashed into the reef, became buried in broken coral strands, and hopelessly tangled in each others’ rigging.

  The sea wyrm flared its fins and angled its head, bringing them up from the steep dive only a few feet short of the ocean floor. It turned its head and twisted its body, rolling neatly around the coral reef, then it angled toward the surface.

  Away from Myth Nantar’s mythal, Jherek suddenly found he couldn’t breathe without drowning. Though Pacys wore some kind of bracelet that allowed him to move underwater with ease, Khlinat was in the same shape as Jherek. Somehow the dragon-kin knew that.

  Ahead, Azure Dagger and four other ships that survived the wild ride rose toward the surface, buoyed by the air in their cargo holds.

  Jherek knew the ships probably wouldn’t last even if they reached the surface. Though there was still some air in their holds, the structures were weakened beyond repair and would be taking on water rapidly. Quick crews might man the bilge pumps and keep themselves afloat for a time, but that assumed any crew was left.

  “There is the Taker,” Pacys said, still able to talk thanks to the bracelet he wore.

  Jherek spotted the big sahuagin ahead. Only the Taker didn’t resemble a sahuagin any more. He looked human as he fumbled with an object in his hands. A pale female elf holding a trident swam close behind him.

  In the next instant, the sea wyrm broke the surface and Jherek drew in a long breath. Glancing over his shoulder, he saw that the sea wyrm had raised Khlinat to the surface as well, holding the dwarf in its curled tail.

  Turning, Jherek watched Azure Dagger’s stern clear the surface first, revealing the broken stern mast. Then the crow’s nest bucked up, wavering with the sea’s motion.

  The young paladin headed for the caravel by tugging on the sea wyrm’s forward fin. The creature raced across the ocean surface.

  Frantically, Jherek searched Azure Dagger’s deck.

  “Jherek, here!”

  Drawn by her voice, the young paladin spotted Sabyna crawling down from the twisted remnants of the foremast rigging where a corpse hung. He guided the sea wyrm to the caravel.

  Azla stood up, coughing and gagging in the stern, then took a deep breath and started bellowing orders to her crew. Azure Dagger listed heavily in the sea, nearly half of her below the waterline.

  “Look,” Pacys said softly. “The Taker.”

  Jherek turned in time to see Iakhovas pull up from the sea, grabbing hold of Azure Dagger’s stern. The helmsman turned on the man, swinging a cutlass.

  Iakhovas blocked the blade with his bare arm and the steel broke with a sharp ping. The Taker shoved his arm against the man, thrusting a sharp-edged fin through the helmsman’s chest in a spray of blood.

  Striding to the railing, Iakhovas roared, “Get off my ship or die!”

  Laaqueel tasted the salt in the water around her and knew she was home. She gazed through the deep blue-green sea and tried to sense in what direction the sahuagin kingdom of Alkyraan in the Cla
arteeros Sea lay.

  And should you go back there, the female voice asked, what do you think will be waiting for you?

  “Leave me alone,” Laaqueel demanded.

  A hero’s homecoming? A grateful return for the Most Sacred One? And what happens when some of the sahuagin in these waters return there as well with stories of the way Iakhovas has betrayed them? What if Iakhovas himself returns there intending to control the kingdom he won while he plots war with the rest of Toril?

  “No.”

  Those are his plans, Laaqueel. You cannot deny that.

  The malenti priestess cowered in the water, wishing there was some way to be free.

  You can be free.

  “By giving myself to you?”

  I will teach you to live free, Laaqueel. I will show you things you’ve longed for all your life and have never been able to name. You’ve changed too much now to go back to what you were.

  “No.”

  Yes.

  Laaqueel floated in the water, watching as sahuagin and pirate continued the war they’d begun in Serôs. Some of the sahuagin wore the bluer colors of the Inner Sea.

  “Who are you?”

  I am Eldath, called the Green Goddess and the Quiet One. The Twelfth Serôs War has destroyed much of the harmony my priests and priestesses have wrought over the last years. This is necessary, though, to promote the greater harmony we’ve striven for throughout the Inner Sea.

  “Why have you come to me?”

  During your association with the Taker, Laaqueel, you have changed and grown. I see much promise in you. Like you, Serôs will have to change and grow. There are noble malenti in Serôs who have no ties with the sahuagin. I would introduce you to them.

  Laaqueel adjusted her air bladder and floated effortlessly, torn between what she hoped for and what she knew to be true. Home could never be home again unless Iakhovas was there to enforce her privileges. She would give up more than she would gain.

  Little malenti, Iakhovas called, to me. There is a ship I want, and we’ll need a crew to get it to Skaug where we may begin planning anew.

  Skaug was the pirate capital of the Nelanther Isles, a place Iakhovas had taken Laaqueel before. She hesitated.

  Little malenti!

  The quill next to Laaqueel’s heart twitched in warning. She started up to the surface, tracking the bond between her and Iakhovas.

  Placing a hand on the sea wyrm’s back, Jherek vaulted to Azure Dagger’s tilted deck. Azla ran up the stern castle steps toward Iakhovas, her scimitar in her fist. The Taker grinned cruelly at her and a ruby beam leaped out from his golden eye.

  The beam touched Azla and blasted her in a shower of sparks. She flew back over the railing to the main deck, her blouse afire and the stench of ozone in the air.

  Jherek broke stride, thinking to go to Azla’s side.

  “Go, young warrior,” Glawinn thundered.

  The paladin lurched across the broken deck, dragging his right leg heavily at his side. His left arm was curled up tightly by his chest, blood streaming from a wound marked by a wooden shard protruding from it.

  Jherek ran up the stern castle stairs, watching as Iakhovas swung on him with the mystic eye. The young paladin leaped, taking advantage of the tilted deck, arching his body in mid-air and flipping to land on the stern castle only a few feet from Iakhovas.

  Though he hadn’t fought a mage before, he knew from stories that their power relied on being able to cast spells, and spells took time. He intended to give Iakhovas none. He willed Iridea’s Tear into a two-foot shield and advanced on the Taker.

  “You’re the boy from the cave,” Iakhovas said. He grinned and took a step back as he drew the sword at his side.

  “I am Jherek, a paladin in the service of Lathander, the Morninglord. If you would surrender, I would allow it.” The young paladin didn’t expect the man would, but the opportunity had to be offered.

  Cruel lights glinted in Iakhovas’s real eye as well as the golden one that sat in the scarred socket. His runic tattoos made his face seem even darker. He laughed loudly.

  “And you would kill me otherwise, boy?”

  “Aye, and praise Lathander for giving me the strength.”

  The words still sounded strange to Jherek’s ears, but in his heart they felt right and true.

  Iakhovas drew himself up to his full height of nearly eight feet and drew the sword at his hip.

  “I invented swordplay, boy. Edged steel … sharp as a shark’s tooth … shaped like a fin. Who else but me could create that?”

  The great sword came around much quicker than Jherek anticipated. The young paladin stepped back and ducked, letting the blade go harmlessly by. Even as he started to set himself, Iakhovas brought the blade back at Jherek’s knees faster than any human could have done.

  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 sidearm 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, you are 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?