by Vance Moore
"Take it," the ambassador ordered Turg and moved against the rooted guard. The stubborn whelk directed a sudden current at the ambassador, threatening to batter the merman against the walls. Laquatus swam into the flow, showing off his body's power as he rarely did. He stilled the torrent and circled the guard, wondering how long it would take the poison on his rings to kill his opponent.
In the background he could see the Cabal workers panicking-under the ocean with only a thin bubble preventing them from drowning.
The ambassador focused on his one fight. Who would think an immobile opponent would offer a challenge? He called for a shark to feast on the stationary target. But the fighter was tied directly into the palace, and his counter-spell disrupted the magical call. Laquatus tried to conjure other monsters. In spite of his vigorous attempts, the guard's magic was a stone bastion upon which he wasted all his strength.
In the bubble, the Cabal workers struck at their amphibian watchers with magical attacks. The blind tre-sias's limbs withered, the muscle melting away under the workers' hands. The fighters shrank to miniscule proportions, their bones cracking and spearing through their skins. If only the aristocrat enjoyed some of that dark magic, but his spells were of the sea and his opponent opposed every summoning. At least the amphibians would not interfere with the ambassador's fight.
Another wave of power welled up from below, and the ambassador lost focus as some effort from the emperor assaulted his sense. But Laquatus's sessile opponent suffered more. The surges of energy pulsed through the walls, and the guard was anchored to them. The warrior appeared confused and discharged magical blasts in all directions as the ambassador tried to close with him.
"Turg," the noble called, hoping that together they might uproot the enemy, but the frog could not come.
The giant squid jetted through the water faster than a bird. Only the amphibian's creative use of the air bubble on the floor allowed him to escape time after time. The jack threw himself through the crowded space, bowling whimpering Cabal technicians over as he vanished from view. The squid fished for his enemy, its two long tentacles slamming into the workers and snatching them into the other eight where it tore them apart.
Fulla became involved as her safety was threatened. The Cabal workers reanimated their drowned brethren and set them swimming for squid. The deep-sea monster threaded by them with ease, their clumsy motions no match for its speed and agility.
The rooted warrior directed more currents to sweep the chamber. The palace walls began to relax as the warrior countered the ambassador's command. If any of the elite survived beyond the door they would soon be attacking Laquatus.
The static guard's power pushed to reopen the palace passages, and Laquatus tried to steal victory from the jaws of the defeat. He redoubled the guard's call as he dived through the top of the air bubble. The command forced open the passage over the vault entry as well as doors throughout the palace. He transformed into a humanoid even as he rolled down the steps with bone-jarring force. Turg followed, one of the squid's tentacles snatching away a layer of skin as the ambassador shut the living curtain. This time he directed a bolt of lightning and killed the door to prevent the rooted guard from opening it for reinforcements.
There was no sign of the emperor. The ruler's spell still pulsed out, but the force was so great it obscured the exact position it flowed from. The vaults took up twelve large chambers in the living rock. The palace walls spread over every surface, but it was thin in comparison to the upper rooms of the structure. Laquatus looked to Turg for aid, but the frog was curled up, his skin pouring out a restorative slime over his wounds.
Laquatus composed himself, sinking into a chair before a cluster of tables. The furniture must have been imported at great expense, but it was an ugly reminder of dry land to the ambassador. Intricate mechanisms rested on the table in the stages of restoration. A card on one matrix of crystal, copper, and gold identified it as an aid in clairvoyance-the art of distant sight.
Laquatus threw out his senses, desperate to find the emperor before some catastrophe overwhelmed them all. Instead his view expanded exponentially, and information flooded in. He soared up from the ocean floor. Below him lay the palace. Then the capital. Finally he saw the continental shelf and the mainland.
The ambassador's awareness swept the coastline, and he understood the purpose of the spell. Huge waves swept toward the helpless shore. He admired Aboshan's vision as he saw walls of water smashing into small villages. The impact tumbled boats far from the shore. The emperor poured more power to fuel the continuing destruction. But Laquatus could also see the power tearing at the capital's fabric. The surges of mystic energy disrupted the delicate web of spells the living constructions relied on to function.
To his horror, he saw the palace lying in the eye of the storm of magic. Many dwellings were beginning to discor-porate, as spells they relied on flared and died.
His spirit collapsed back to the palace, the chaotic waves of power playing havoc with the enhancement spell this close to the origin of the destruction. He grasped the organization of the vaults in a burst of vision-twelve caverns interconnected by a single passage and most of them packed tight with mud. People said the vaults were in the bowels of the palace, and bowels were not full of treasure. But there was one piece of perfection, the orb. He saw that the emperor was only one level below him.
"Aboshan, you fool," the ambassador cried, headed for the pit leading down. Turg uncurled and followed slowly, still favoring his side. Water began to cascade down the stairs as the temporary hatch locking out the imperial guards began to fail under repeated blows from the other side.
Laquatus flew down the steps, racing for the chamber's corner. There the emperor knelt entranced, his hands holding the sphere. Waves crawled over the miniature globe's surface as the monarch sent another burst of power through the orb, only to have it magnified a thousand-fold. The ruler was lost in his personal visions of a landless world.
"I should have killed you months ago, you deluded idiot," the ambassador said as a tremor shook the room, sending artifacts crashing to the floor. Turg moved forward, savoring his first taste of regicide. Aboshan started awake, self-preservation overriding his blindness at the display of treachery and insolence.
"Guards!" cried the emperor. Perhaps the palace was dying, but it struggled to obey its master's voice. The hatch above broke and water roared into the upper chamber, forming a cataract down the stairs.
The long whips of the giant squid curled around the shelves below as it pulled itself down the stairs. It rushed to protect its emperor. Wooden planks bucked off their frames as the body slammed into the piled treasures. The hole leading down to the next room plugged up, and the water level began to rise. A few mermen slid down the stairs on their bellies, thrashing around in the water. However, unlike Laquatus and Aboshan, they were unable to form legs. They ducked their heads into the water, trying to breathe. The soldiers sent arc after arc of lightning flying toward the ambassador.
The noble retreated, an image of charred flesh left behind in his place. However, the palace guard knew his reputation, and spears of power smashed through the illusion, searching for him. Seeing their bloodthirstiness and indiscriminate attacks, Laquatus sent his image racing among the guards. It ran as if insanely desperate to flee. Spears and gouts of power from the guards devoured their own ranks as the elite tried to kill the traitor.
Where is my champion? the ambassador wondered as he sent a snake of lightening writhing among the prone guards.
Turg fled before the giant squid. The long whips pulled down shelves as the cephalopod pulled itself after the frog. His camouflage failed him. The slab of skin pulled off by the guard's tentacle showed clearly, despite the amphibian's attempts to hide. The jack tried to cast a spell of blindness, but Laquatus was too involved to send much power through the link. Timber and a variety of maces fell on the amphibian as the squid pulled a rack of treasures down on him.
In desperation
, Laquatus tried to feed on the palace's remaining magic. The spell gained him little power. Turg, in turn, siphoned most of it through the pair's link. He needed every scrap as he fought to survive in his battle against the deadly guard. The ambassador felt spells failing as he sent a weak blast against the guards. The water was waist deep, and he thought of returning to his swimming form. A converging series of blasts sent him scrambling up a set of shelves, his hands bleeding as he gripped the tangled metal of a recovered artifact. A ground shock shook many of the items to the water below, some of the frames splashing as they collapsed as well.
"You are destroying your kingdom!" Laquatus shouted to Aboshan. The ruler rocked in glee as he continued to call for the land's destruction. The mer warriors attacked the apparent source of the ambassador's voice. The two guards electrocuted each other, as the noble tricked them yet again.
"Nothing is beyond our grasp," the emperor called, and another surge of magical force assailed the mainland. The ruler appeared oblivious to the ongoing destruction around him, lost in his vision of what his attacks accomplished.
"Your are destroying your palace!" Laquatus bellowed, then staggered. A psychic wound cut through his mind and mastery of magic.
Turg was caught in the squid's tentacles. His frame shud' dered as the monster's beak bit into his flesh. The cephalo-pod's short arms writhed, working at the prey in its grasp. The amphibian's flesh tore, and the ambassador fell, his teeth clenched. He felt through the link the champion's muscles and tendons tearing. The frog writhed in agony, energy flaring as the beak tore at its waist. Laquatus reeled as the legs separated, and the blood vacuumed from the frog's brain.
A final surge leaped through the link. With only one hand showing beyond the tentacles, a long lash of power whipped from the jack and burrowed into the huge eye. Fluid spurted as the organ collapsed, the body shivering briefly as the charge raced up the optic nerve. It destroyed the brain and took Turg's killer with him into death. Laquatus collapsed, and only the remaining guard's fear of yet another trap prevented them from killing him.
Aboshan wailed, and the ambassador wondered dumbly if his pain somehow carried to his sovereign. The guards closed around the ruler, trying to intercept the attack that made him cry out.
"My palace! My city!" the monarch bellowed, his eyes wide as the side effects of his spell finally became known to him. Another ground shock hit, this one finally tearing free the blockage to the levels below. With a stuttering roar a whirlpool formed, dragging debris into the lower rooms. Turg and his killer slowly slid from sight as Laquatus gripped the shelving he fetched up against. The guards' flukes beat as they held the emperor against the current.
"This is your fault," Aboshan cried out, searching for someone to blame. "None of this would have happened without your treachery."
Laquatus ignored the lie, staying still as he tried to marshal his strength. Perhaps he could still escape. His body ached to transform to its tailed state, but any magic or movement might bring the guards down on him. The warriors stayed clustered around the sovereign. Another pulse of power fed into the emperor's spell despite Aboshan's efforts to stop it. Laquatus remembered Kirtar and doubted the ruler would survive his ambassador by more than a few minutes. A fresh wave of guards flowed down the staircase, the cephalids holding tridents. The aristocrat readied himself to meet his death but was unexpectedly reprieved.
The guards retreated from the upper room in defeat. A giant newt moved to the head of the stairs. It was the size of a crocodile, but it showed no teeth. Its dark red flesh was covered with weeping sores. Its skin extruded a thick gel, especially on its hindquarters. The animal turned and whipped its tail, launching gobs of the muck at the retreating soldiers. They tried to dive beneath the water, but its level had fallen. A merman was hit on the back, and his skin blackened. It began to slough off. The creature leaped into the air and landed on another warrior. The others rushed away and threw darts that thudded into the animal's flesh with little effect. The corruption dissolved into the water, and despite the superiority of gills, the ambassador vowed to breathe air for as long as possible.
The supply of water running down the stairs diminished, though now air began to bubble at the hole leading down to the next floor. The ground shocks must have opened other leaks. Soon more palace soldiers would be able to enter the treasure rooms.
A figure leaped down the stairs, sending a wave of water up as she skidded into the pool. It was Fulla, and she grinned like a madwoman. Her sword swept aside a merman's trident strike, and her return cut laid a tentacle open. Laquatus could see the slash turning dark as infection deepened the wound in seconds. The soldier thrashed in the water and stopped as the toxins reached his heart. A soldier managed to summon a school of poisonous jellyfish, forcing the dementia caster to jump out of the water to high shelves. She crawled along the flame work as magic strikes darkened the wood around her. The guards closed as she neared the emperor.
Aboshan was gasping, his body slowly transforming back and forth between free-swimmer and land-walker. His eyes pleaded for help, but he lay draped over a pile of rubble, unable to move.
Laquatus slowly moved to greater cover, the guards too busy dealing with the Cabal fighter to waste time on him.
Fulla splashed behind some fallen shelving, her sword ready, but it was her mind that attacked, calling up magic to slay her enemies. Gigantic black cranes stepped into existence. The birds' heads ducked to avoid the ceiling as they stalked from the dementia caster's mind. Their scummy plumage drifted to the water as they surrounded their mistress and waded out to the soldiers. Their long bills speared down to lift cephalids from the water avoiding the tridents with ease. The tentacles tried to pull the fighters free of the bills. Blood poured from their transfixed torsos as they struggled to escape. One bird was somewhat small and could not lift its target free of the water. Instead, the fowl stabbed multiple times, churning the water into a bloody froth.
Blood gushed from the wounds, and those able to escape the birds' vicious stabbing after only a single blow did not last long. Their eyes and noses began to leak blood as the cranes' magic destroyed their ability to heal or prevent the rupture of delicate membranes. Blinded warriors spread panic as the birds played with their victims, pricking limbs and watching the warriors quickly bleed out from minor wounds.
A merman panicked and attempted to flee. His tail beating wildly, he rushed the stairs and leaped like a salmon toward the next room. He smacked into loops of rotting vine. The plant filled the hole, choking off the last of the water flowing down to the steps. The warrior tried to pull free but could not move as more vegetation covered him. A crane Flapped its wings and jumped to the top of the stairs. There it plunged its beak into the warrior's heart.
"Fulla, I am over here!" Laquatus cried, cursing his bad luck. A crane was headed his way, and he was within seconds of being punctured. The Cabal commander dismissed her birds back from whence they came.
"Why, ambassador, did you have anything to do with this party?" Fulla asked sweetly, turning him over with the point of her sword. "I and my people were left out in the cold while you had all the fun for yourself," she gently chided him.
"I do not see Turg, my favorite playmate," she said looking at the destruction of all her work. Artifacts once more were immersed, and some of the tags identifying pieces were already dissolving the water. "I had to kill my way through the guards to find the person who called for this outing." She walked to the emperor, stepping around the dead and other remnants of the fight.
Aboshan could only blink, being too exhausted to move as the orb drained the last of his magic and his life.
"As it appears that you no longer need my services I will take my leave of you," she said in an arch tone. "While the going-away party was amusing, it was unexpectedly early. I think it only fair that I receive severance pay." She reached down and carefully swept the orb from the emperor's hand.
CHAPTER 25
Kamahl wondered if he shou
ld move down the coast. He had become a successful fighter though still not accepted by the arena staff. He was popular with the crowd, but his string of victories had become predictable. The lim-ited pool of opponents was drained of any challenge after the second week. Seeing the same faces day in and out was one of the reasons he left the mountains.
But he would stay a little longer. One possible lead might yet yield fruit. Girter, one of the young men he was friendly with, knew of secret shipments between the empire and the fighting pits. A servant of the Cabal had come to Borben to discuss the gladiatorial companies that toured the continent.
The chandler's son told Kamahl that the official had ties to the empire. He definitely dealt with the shipment of precious cargo to and from the mer. The barbarian left word at the traveler's inn that he wished to talk with the go-between. A substantial portion of his winnings over the past weeks was included to convince the man to come.
He stepped outside the hillside tavern to look down to the town. Instead of staying near the arena, the official had taken dockside accommodations. The need to conduct business down by the water belied the official explanation for the man's journey. Perhaps he might learn something to direct his quest.
The fishing fleet straggled back in, the docks beginning to bustle. Wagons hauled the catch away as a few freight wagons waited on the pier. The lighter ferrying cargo and special items to the ships was out in the bay. There were ships waiting at the anchorage that had been there for quite some time. Perhaps the goods were particularly important to the empire. He needed to get on board. Perhaps one of the fishermen's brothers could take him out.