by Dragon Lance
Vixa clamped a hand on his arm and shook her head. Her anguished expression told him more than he wanted to know.
The sight of the chilkit had spurred some of the prisoners into taking a desperate gamble. They drew in great breaths of air and then went under, heading for the open sea outside. They could only hope that the Dargonesti would find them before they drowned. Vixa remained where she was, treading water valiantly. She couldn’t wager her life on so slim a hope. Not yet, anyway.
The four chilkit, reinforced by three newcomers, were advancing cautiously down the tunnel toward them. More and more men vanished below the water, fleeing the grotto. A chittering cry echoed through the cave. One of the chilkit had bumped a pot of gnomefire. It tilted, dumping its cargo into the water. Flames enveloped the creature, and its six cohorts promptly fled.
Rising water and burning gnomefire were using up the precious air. “It’s getting harder to breathe,” Vixa gasped.
“My lady,” Armantaro wheezed, “it has been a privilege serving —”
“Save your breath, Colonel!”
The chilkit regrouped, this time advancing with timbers clutched in their claws. They gently pushed aside all floating containers. Their comrade had succumbed to the fire. Its charred body spiraled slowly down to the pool, trailing noxious smoke. The stench was overpowering.
Vixa was nearly blind. Smoke was making her eyes stream. “I think drowning is preferable to this!” she said, gagging.
Gundabyr, miserable over the loss of his twin, said nothing. Armantaro agreed with her. “We’ll have to risk it,” he said. “On three – one, two, three!”
Taking a deep breath of the fetid air, Vixa ducked under the dark water. Kicking and sweeping out with her hands, she soon cleared the grotto’s mouth, the last drylander out. The sea was full of people – swimming, fighting, drowning. What looked like the whole Dargonesti army was massed on the plain in front of Urione. Vixa looked toward the wall across the Mortas Trench. What she saw stunned her.
The entire center section of the wall had fallen, and the area was filled with red-shelled chilkit. Hundreds and hundreds of them.
She bumped into something. Turning in the water, she saw the lifeless form of one of her fellow prisoners. The man’s long dark hair drifted across his face like a shroud, waving in the ocean currents.
Pressure built in Vixa’s chest. She had no breath left. She searched frantically for Armantaro, Harmanutis, or Gundabyr, but couldn’t make out any individuals in the dimness of the depths. Her limbs burned. Movement became harder and harder. Vixa began to sink.
Soft mud cradled her fall, covering her like a blanket. It was warm, so very warm and comfortable. She opened her mouth and let cold seawater fill her lungs.
Chapter 11
TRANSFORMATION
“How could this have happened?” Coryphene raged. His watch captain, Telletinor, stood rigidly at attention. The warrior had several minor wounds, but he held his stance proudly, eyes fixed ahead.
“Well?” demanded Coryphene. “How did the enemy bring down my wall?”
“They mined under the foundation, Excellence. The first we knew of it was when the center span collapsed.”
“How many were lost?”
“Most of the Silverside regiment. The Sea Horse regiment and the Queen’s Killer Whales were far enough from the wall that they weren’t affected.”
“And no one saw them coming – because I sent Naxos and the sea brothers to some far-off coastline!” Coryphene grabbed his heavy helmet and pulled it on. “Muster all troops! I will lead the guard out myself. I —”
A lightly clad Dargonesti youth, green blood streaming from a gash on his forehead, stumbled up to Coryphene and his assembled officers.
“Excellence … the enemy … at Four Squids Quay!” he panted.
“Zura take them! They’re in the city!” fumed the Protector. He turned to another of his officers. “Kantren, muster the army in the kelp gardens. You are in command. I will take the guard and repel the enemy at Four Squids Quay.” The officer saluted and raced away.
Urione rang with conch shell alarms and the tramp of many feet. Coryphene assembled his iron-armed troops in the fish market square. Ordinary folk had vanished from sight, blocking their windows and doors. Just as five hundred of Coryphene’s personal guard gathered in place, a scream tore the air.
Coryphene spun around and saw a melee spilling into the square. A column of six chilkit were trying to force their way up the street. Blocking their path were a dozen Dargonesti warriors, some of them weaponless. An equal number of fisherfolk, armed with nets and gaffs, had taken up the defense of their homes. From windows facing the street, other Dargonesti bombarded the invaders with stones, pots, and endless torrents of oyster shells. The chilkit, ignoring the onslaught of rubbish, attacked.
“Forward!” Coryphene shouted. Out came five hundred scavenged iron and steel swords.
“Close up there!” he barked. “Bring your shields together! First rank, follow me! The rest, hold here!”
He led fifty warriors at a dead run across the square. The beleaguered defenders were fragmenting. The undisciplined civilians were suffering badly as the chilkit ran them down one at a time. Then Coryphene’s shock troop hit the scene.
The Protector of Urione did not shirk his place in the fore. He fended off a backhand blow by a chilkit claw and slashed at the monster with Vixa’s Qualinesti blade. His first strike cracked the chilkit’s armor shell. The creature gave ground, lashing at Coryphene’s face with its antennae, trying to scratch his eyes. With a quick overhand swipe, he managed to cut off the antennae. The chilkit staggered and collided with the creature on its right. It tried to wrest Coryphene’s shield away. Coryphene relinquished the shield and thrust straight at the monster’s upright torso. A crunch, and the shell gave. Roaring a war cry, Coryphene rammed the blade home and out the chilkit’s back. He put a foot to its chest and recovered his blade. The lifeless creature fell back, twitching in its death throes.
Looking over the scene, Coryphene realized that these six were the only foes in sight. A raiding party, he decided, to draw off his troops from the main attack. He had to get outside.
No sooner was his attention diverted than the chilkit mustered their resolve and resumed their furious attack. Two of them forced their way past the line of Dargonesti swords. The remaining three kept up the pressure on the front. Coryphene ordered his line to fall back.
“Excellence! Shall I summon the rest of the guard?” panted one of his lieutenants.
“For what reason? There are only five of them,” was the acid retort.
The chilkit attacked singly, first from one side, then the other. One Dargonesti was dragged out of place and harried. The other warriors, infuriated, charged on their own initiative. Two chilkit were trapped between the Dargonesti and the houses of the fisherfolk. It took three or four elves to handle one chilkit, but they separated the two monsters and hacked away at them. Coryphene cleaved one creature’s blunt head in two with his sword. Any warm-blooded foe would have dropped instantly, but the chilkit fought on, its actions violent and undirected. Two warriors were knocked down by its flailing limbs. Coryphene’s shield caught a blow that was so strong it bent the tortoise-shell double. Down went the Protector of Urione.
Across the square, Captain Telletinor saw his commander fall. “Close ranks!” he cried shrilly. “At the double, charge!”
A tide of blue-skinned fury blasted across the market to crush the remaining chilkit. Afterward, sorting through the carnage, Telletinor and his brother officers found Coryphene, bruised but undefeated. The chilkit’s last act before expiring had been to fall on top of him, and he had been pinned there, the monster’s corpse too heavy for him to lift.
Tired and dehydrated warriors were lining up at the water spouts to douse their gills. Coryphene walked among them, shouting, “Back in ranks! Back, I say! You’ll be wet soon enough!”
He led the guards to the quay and marche
d them out into the sea.
Behind him, the fisherfolk emerged from their houses to survey the scene of battle. A dozen Dargonesti lay dead in the square. They were tenderly taken up so the proper rites could be performed. Seawater was poured on the pavements to wash away the blood.
Axes appeared, and the fisherfolk set to lopping the limbs off the dead chilkit. The creatures were crustaceans, after all, just like crabs or lobsters. The sea elves always ate dead chilkit, just as the chilkit would have done to them.
*
A small spark lit the darkness that shrouded Vixa Ambrodel.
Tiny points of light, like the stars she gazed at from her window in the Speaker’s house, twinkled above her. She floated under a canopy of cold stars. A red disk appeared on the horizon, a great staring eye – no, it was the red moon, Lunitari.
She tried to move. Pain lanced through her chest. Vixa inhaled sharply, found cool air, and coughed seawater. She was on the surface of the ocean! How had she gotten here? The last thing she remembered was escaping from the flooded Nissia Grotto – and drowning! She had drowned!
“Be still. Breathe.”
Stiffly, Vixa turned her head. The face of Naxos hovered close by. His arms held her up, keeping her head above the sea swell.
“Naxos.” Her voice was a raspy croak.
“Be still,” he repeated softly. “You were nearly dead when I found you.”
She swallowed painfully. “Ar-Armantaro,” she hissed. “Where are my companions?”
He shook his head. “I do not know. You were the first one I saw. I used the magic of my necklace to bring you to the surface safely.”
It was strange to feel wind on her face again. The pain in her chest and head gradually faded, but she was so weary she let Naxos continue to support her. He was treading water effortlessly, his long legs scissoring in slow, powerful strokes.
“How goes the battle?” she asked.
“The battle is over, for now. The chilkit have breached the wall. Many hundreds of them occupy the plain around the city. Coryphene was able to keep them out of Urione proper, but he lacks the power to defeat them.”
“A siege.”
“Yes. You and I have our own problems, however.”
You and I. “What problems?”
“Coryphene sent the sea brothers to the coast of Silvanesti to search for a route for Uriona’s invasion. I was called back and arrived in time to see the chilkit on the plain, and all the land-dwellers fleeing the grotto. No wonder, with the chilkit on the loose and a volcano erupting.”
“Volcano? What volcano?”
“In the grotto. There was fire coming from the mouth of the grotto.”
Vixa blinked at him, uncomprehending. Then she remembered. “The gnomefire! Of course, it burns underwater! I’ll wager you’ve never seen fire like that before.”
“You would be right. By its light, I saw you lying on the bottom. Your soul had nearly left your body, so the only thing to do was take you to the surface.”
He was looking at her with an expression Vixa couldn’t read in the dim red moonlight. It disconcerted her. “You said we had problems.”
“Urione is too far away for you to reach without an airshell, and my necklace’s magic is depleted.”
“Couldn’t you change into a dolphin and tow me to land?”
“It’s two hundred leagues at least, but even if I could, would you leave your friends behind?”
He knew her that well at least. She couldn’t leave Armantaro and the rest. She had to know if they were all right.
“Then what can I do?” she asked, anguished.
The unreadable expression returned to his face. “There is a way you can return to Urione,” he said. The usual brash tone was gone from his voice. “It will require you to make a difficult choice, a choice you cannot go back on.”
Cool wind raised goosebumps on Vixa’s exposed skin. “What choice?” she finally asked.
“With my help, you could become a brother of the sea.” His insolent grin flashed for an instant. “Or I should say, a sister.”
“You mean, become a shapeshifter – with gills?”
“A shapeshifter, yes. But you would remain Qualinesti otherwise.”
Strange as the idea was, Vixa also found it surprisingly inviting. She pondered silently as they bobbed in the waves.
“The ability is permanent?” she asked.
“Once I make the spell, it will be with you always.”
“How do I control the transformation?”
“To assume dolphin shape you must be in the sea. Simply form in your mind the image of the dolphin. By concentrating on that image, you will change.”
“And how do I regain my elven body?”
“Call up a vision of yourself on two legs. Whether you are dry or wet, the change will reverse.”
It sounded simple enough, and what choice had she? Unable to return to Urione, unable to leave her friends. What else was there to do?
“I’ll do it.”
Naxos’s golden eyes bored into her brown ones. “Be certain! This is not like the choosing of a gown. This will change you forever.”
She bristled. “I’m a soldier and no stranger to hard decisions. I’ve made up my mind.”
“As you wish.”
From a pouch tied around his waist, Naxos took a small object. By the red moonlight, Vixa saw that it was the tiny image of a dolphin, carved from some lustrous white stone. Naxos told her to lie on her back in the water. She stretched out her legs as he supported her with his left hand under her back. Whispering words in the sea tongue, Naxos touched Vixa’s nose with the beak of the tiny carving. Reaching across her, he touched the side flipper to her right hand, and the other fin to her left. A shiver ran through her.
She stared up at the stars, pushing her fear aside. The tiny points of fire seemed to brighten. Water lapping in her ears carried sounds new and peculiar to her – grunts and wheezes she’d never heard before. Naxos’s voice dropped to a murmur as he continued to touch the ritual carving to Vixa’s body.
Her trembling ceased. Heat flowed through her blood, radiating outward from her heart. Vixa closed her eyes. Her muscles tensed. Her arms were pulled tight to her sides. She felt a moment of panic as she realized she couldn’t move them any longer, but Naxos continued to drone on and on. She grew dizzy, feeling as though she were falling, or perhaps sinking.
Vixa wanted to tell Naxos to steady her, to pull her upright, but instead of words, all that came out of her mouth was a raucous squeak.
Holy Astra! Vixa’s eyes flew open. The world had changed. The stars and moonlight were so bright – it was like daylight! Naxos was no longer treading water beside her. She rolled over, burying her face in the sea. A lean gray shape lolled in the ocean at her side. Naxos.
“Welcome to the sea,” he said. His mouth didn’t move at all, for he spoke in the clicks and whistles of the water-tongue. She understood him as though he were speaking Elvish.
“Naxos? Am I – am I changed?” Intuitively, she also spoke the strange language.
“Of course, silly dryfoot.”
Vixa couldn’t take it in. The change was too enormous. “You’re as powerful a mage as Uriona!” she exclaimed.
She could have sworn that Naxos’s dolphin face frowned at her. “No,” he said harshly. “It is a gift given to me as leader of the sea brothers. It has nothing to do with Uriona or her evil spellcasting.” He rolled sideways and commanded, “Take a deep breath and hold it. Now, follow me!”
Naxos dove. He aimed his long snout almost straight down and drove himself with long sweeps of his flukes. Vixa imitated his posture, awkwardly at first, but quickly discovered that her new body was far more graceful and powerful than her old. She sped into the depths. With her eyes rolled back, she could see her own tail flexing. Her back was black, her flanks and belly snow white.
Another dolphin joined them. “Kios!” Naxos called, “are the brothers back from Silvanesti?”
“We heard of the great battle and came home. Who is this?” asked the other dolphin.
“Vixa, of the land-dwelling elves. She is one of us now.”
Kios ducked under Naxos, coming up on Vixa’s other side. Though they were speeding through the water, Kios maneuvered with ease.
“A land-dweller, become a brother of the sea? Such has not happened in ten lifetimes!” he exclaimed.
“Where are the other brothers?” Naxos asked.
“In the sargasso fields, east of the city. The chilkit have surrounded the city. None of the city-dwellers have ventured out since yestereve.”
“Go there and bid them join me. Now may be the time to compel Coryphene to make concessions to us. The sea brothers are his best hope for defeating the enemy.”
Kios departed. Vixa heard him long after his shape was lost in the dark waters. The sea was a constant symphony of sounds.
Vixa concentrated on keeping up with the larger and faster Naxos. What a sensation it was to be a dolphin! She felt the depth of the water, cleaved it like an arrow. The one giant breath she’d taken at the surface still sustained her. The awful pressure, the burning need for air hadn’t come back. Could natural dolphins hold their breath this long? She would have to remember to ask Naxos.
Before she could, the glow of Urione appeared below them. Naxos slowed. Exuberant with her newfound mobility, Vixa circled the larger dolphin excitedly.
“What are you waiting for?” she chattered.
“I am thinking,” he replied. After a minute, while Vixa continued to swim around him, Naxos said firmly, “Coryphene must not know of your transformation. We might have need of this secret. You should enter the city unseen, in your true form. I will come later and face the Protector.”
“What do you plan to do?”
“If the chilkit are defeated – when the chilkit are defeated – I will lead the sea brothers against Coryphene and Uriona.”
They parted. Vixa swam slowly above the iridescent city shell, looking down on the horde of chilkit spread out around Urione. In the distance, the mouth of Nissia Grotto still belched flame. With all the gnomefire Gundabyr had made, the prison might burn for days.