"If we make it there," said Balthor. "Ye'd better come up with a way to beat the Order right now me boy, because that foot patrol was just a diversion. Look up there."
Balthor pointed to a flock of what looked like large birds coming toward them from the northeast. "Aven warriors," said Kamahl. "Cut back to the west to give us more time."
The warriors turned their horses and spurred them on again, trying to outdistance the winged mages, but the aven were faster than the wagon, and each minute brought the two warriors closer to a deadly confrontation. Balthor snuck a look over his shoulder and saw the trailing aven in the formation casting spells on the leaders.
"They're getting ready to attack, Kamahl," yelled Balthor. "Now would be a good time for that new plan."
"Cabal mages often summon beasts they've tagged during their Krosan ritual to distract opponents in pit battles," said Kamahl, "like Jeska used her falcons against me."
"That's bloody interesting, Kamahl, but how does that help us?"
"Like this," said Kamahl, as he swung his legs around on the horse. Facing backward and still guiding his mount with his knees, Kamahl raised his hands above his head and began to concentrate.
A moment later, a swirling vortex of emerald and crimson formed between the large man's hands. Pulling his arms apart, Kamahl enlarged the vortex until it was big enough for a giant, silver-feathered eagle to fly out of it and soar up into the air.
"Nice trick, Kamahl," snorted Balthor. "But how will a single eagle slow down five aven mages?"
The brassy skin of Kamahl's cheeks glistened with sweat and darkened into a deep reddish-brown. Another eagle appeared, followed by another and another. The giant birds, with wings that spanned six feet, kept flying out of the vortex until the sky behind the two Pardic warriors was darkened by the huge flock.
Kamahl fell backward onto the neck of his horse and just barely held on while he rolled over to face forward again.
"Let's go," he said. "That should cover our escape and slow down the aven for quite a while."
Balthor snapped his reins again, but stared at his friend in wonderment. "I've never seen you summon birds before, and so many of them at once. How did you do that?"
"I'm not sure," said Kamahl. "It seemed to happen naturally once I got it started."
"You do realize that battle won't be bloodless," said Balthor, glancing over his shoulder. "In fact, those eagles may actually take down one or two aven mages before they're all destroyed."
"The aven could always turn and flee," said Kamahl. "Either way, it will be their choice, not mine."
"Are ye feeling all right boy," asked Balthor, staring at his friend with an eyebrow arched.
"I feel better than 1 have in a very long time," said Kamahl. "I am at peace with myself, finally." Looking back at his sister, wrapped in furs and strapped to the bed of the wagon, he added, "I only hope I get the chance to make peace with Jeska."
*****
"Make this quick, Talbot," said Laquatas from die edge of a stream. He and Burke had moved away from the rest of the Order forces, so the mer could talk to his ambassador. While Burke stood guard, no Order warrior would approach, not even Eesha.
"Eesha has us on a forced march to catch up to the barbarian, and we've only stopped long enough to eat and refill our water skins. To think this morning I was lounging in a tent, and now I'll have to sleep on a horse. So report. Where are Braids's raiders?"
"My sources say that Mistress Braids and her raiders are headed for the forest as well sire," said Talbot. "The First knows that Kamahl and the Mirari are headed for Krosan."
"Interesting," said Laquatas. "The First's information gathering has always impressed me, but this is quite incredible… Almost too incredible." The mer lord stared hard at his ambassador.
"B-believe me, sire," stammered Talbot. "I did not divulge the information to the First."
"Not directly, no," said Laquatas, softening his voice and his gaze on Talbot. "I trust you, Talbot, but I do not trust the First. He may have gotten the information out of you without your knowledge. That is my fault. I should be more careful in the future."
"Shall I attempt to derail their pursuit, my lord?" asked Talbot. "I could feed them misinformation and send them to the wrong side of the forest."
"No," said Laquatas. "The First would see through such an obvious lie. No. Leave the matter alone. The First knows just enough about our little game to be dangerous, but Braids will find more than Order forces between her and the Mirari when she gets to Krosan. Havelock and his men are in position and waiting for my order to ambush Kamahl. Besides, I may be able to use her raiders to distract Eesha once we reach the edge of the forest. Stay away from the First until this is finished, so he cannot pick your brain again."
"Yes, sire," said Talbot. "Anything else, my lord?"
"Yes," said Laquatas. "I am troubled by the lack of action against us by the empress. Surely she is not blind to what is happening on the land. She's far smarter than that oaf of an emperor she replaced when dealing with the air breathers. Can you reliably tell me that Llawan has no intention of directly interfering with our plans?"
"No, sire. I cannot," said Talbot. "I believe only Llawan herself knows what Llawan is thinking. You know how inscrutable she is, my lord. But my sources tell me that she is still embroiled in that border conflict, and I do not believe she can divert her forces from that in time to stop us."
"Do me a favor, Talbot," sneered Laquatas. "Check other sources. Go to her court and dissect the bitch's brain if you have to. The next few days will be critical, and I need reliable information, not hearsay."
"Yes, my lord."
*****
"Do you think it was wise to antagonize him like that?" asked Veza when Talbot returned to their bed. "You know how volatile he is."
"A few days from now it won't matter," replied Talbot. "Besides, what can he do to me from out there on the plains. Is everything in place?"
"Yes, my darling," said Veza. "Everything is in place. There is nothing more for us to do." Veza patted the silken bedding beside her.
"Nothing official anyway," said Talbot as he lay down next to Veza.
CHAPTER 18
The privateer ship, Twilight, sailed toward the portal on the eastern end of the Aboshan Trench with a special passenger aboard. Her captain, a wealdly pirate by the name of Dar, prowled the deck yelling at his men.
"Stow the main-sail, men! Helmsman, hard to starboard! Sailor, climb the rigging. Watch for signs of incoming ships through the portal. Ballista, keep your weapons trained on that portal."
After making sure all his orders were being carried out, Dar strode over to the hold to check on his passenger. Flipping up the trapdoor, Dar peered down into the watery darkness of the hold.
A cephalid surfaced, and Dar said, "You know with a bow full of water, it's awfully hard to steer this boat."
"Are we in position?" said Olsham, his mouth opening and closing at odd intervals, not completely in sync with the words that came out.
Dar had found this magical effect disturbing at first, but without the spell, the sea creature could not converse with humans out of the water, and Dar wasn't about to dive down into the tank to talk to an octopus, even if he was the empress's chief wizard. Besides, Dar found he could get used to just about anything if the price was right.
"We are holding as steady as we can just outside the east portal," said Dar. "I don't know how long we can hold this position, so you'd better make this fast."
"Your services to the empress will be greatly rewarded," said Olsham.
"I know," said Dar, smiling. "Now do it."
Olsham flopped out of the hold and slithered across the deck to the railing. The shimmering portal rose high up into the air, reflecting the waves, the sky, and the ship in a fractured array of blues and greens.
Dar walked up behind the mage and stared at the portal with him. "How's this going to work?" he asked.
"I will open a hole in the
portal," said Olsham, "above the waves so as to not alert the traitorous mer trapped inside. The empress's attack force will jump through the portal and amass just on the other side. Your job is to guard this escape route and not let any of the traitors get away."
"And my payment?" asked Dar. "When do I get the rest of my payment?"
"Once the battle is finished, I will enlarge the hole in the portal, so your ship may enter. Our forces will then recover all the wealth from the bottom of the trench and deposit it on your ship. For this service, you will help Llawan keep the peace within the portal trade routes by taking your pirate fleet to a different climate."
"As long as the haul is as large as you say it is, we may all retire," said Dar as he smiled and clapped the cephalid on what he assumed was the creature's back.
"Now, let me concentrate on my spell please, Captain Dar." Dar walked back to the door to the hold and watched the odd sea creature begin moving his tentacles in an intricate pattern, weaving the appendages around and through each other. After a minute of sliding tentacles into and around each other again and again, Olsham stopped and held his position. The cephalid's tentacles all pointed in different directions, but each wove its way through at least two other tentacles before protruding out to its final destination.
Even more amazing, Olsham held this position, balancing on the tip of just one tentacle for at least two minutes as power built up at the tip of each tentacle. Then, as Dar was sure the creature couldn't hold himself up in the dry sea air for another moment, blue beams shot from his tentacles toward the portal. The beams hit the portal at eight equally spaced points, forming a huge octagon above the waves. Sparks flew off the magical barrier, and the beams bent inward, racing toward the center of the octagon until an eight-pointed star formed on the surface of the portal. As the beams collided in the center, they created a small hole in the portal that radiated out along the lines of the beams. The wedges then folded in toward the trench, shortening as they moved away from the ship until they completely disappeared, leaving a gaping eight-sided hole in the portal, just above the waves.
Olsham slumped to the deck, untangling himself as he fell, and slowly pulled himself back toward the hatch to his watery cabin. As Dar walked over to the rail to look inside the Aboshan trench for the first time, five hammerhead sharks broke the waves and dived through the hole. A moment later, two giant squid arced above the waves, trailing jets of ink behind them as they splashed on the other side of the portal, followed by a series of orcas, more sharks, and dolphins carrying octopi on their backs. It was the damnedest thing Dar had ever seen, and as he watched the invasion force enter the trench over the course of the next hour, it made him truly consider retiring after all this was over.
*****
"You truly believe that Llawan has no political agendas, no ambitions beyond ruling fairly for all?" asked Talbot as the two mer lounged half in and half out of the water on a small island in the middle of Veza's backyard pond.
"Yes," said Veza. "Don't you?"
"Let's just say I have yet to meet anyone in power who didn't spend every waking moment trying to stay in power, no matter who got hurt in the process."
"Then why did you agree to help us, if you don't trust the empress any more than you trust that conniving, so-called lord of the merfolk?" asked Veza, turning to Talbot and raising her voice.
"I never said I don't trust Llawan," said Talbot as he stroked Veza's forearm to calm her down. "In fact, it was the way you talked about her and the way I saw her talk with you and not just to you that finally convinced me I was working for the wrong side. I just don't know the empress as well as you know her, and I still have some reservations about what we're doing."
"Then why did you help us?" asked Veza, her voice softening again.
"Hope, I guess," said Talbot as he stared into the ripples radiating out from his body. "Hope that this will make a better world for us and for all the merfolk left in the sea. Laquatas wanted to bring back the old days, where the mer were the lords of the seas and all other creatures were nothing more than our minions- to live and die as we please. That's really no different than it was under Aboshan, except that we were at the bottom of the food chain then. It's time for a change, for an undersea world where our children will treat the cephalids and the cetaceans and the sharks as equals and be treated as equals in return. I have… hope… that your empress can make this happen."
"Our children?" asked Veza.
"Perhaps," said Talbot, taking her hand. "Perhaps."
"But what of the rest of the merfolk?" she asked. "How many will join us in this new world?"
"At least half, I believe," said Talbot. "I've had to be careful who I contacted within the trench, but I believe most of those who doubt Laquatas will help us when the time comes."
"And they will be accepted back into Llawan's realm with no questions asked, I assure you," said Veza.
"That is my hope," said Talbot, "as I have asked them all to turn their backs on what we once believed was our only chance to return to prominence."
"How soon do you think it will be over?"
"Soon," said Talbot. "We should hear something soon."
*****
As the invasion force descended upon the residents of the trench, the squids filled the water with ink. Cephalid mages altered the eyes of the hammerheads and the orcas, so they could see through the inky, black clouds that enveloped them. Talbot's mer within the trench had done their work well, and most of the trench guards on duty at the eastern portal were sympathetic to the empress, so the invasion force was able to hit critical areas before the alarm was sounded.
The orcas, hammerheads, and squids attacked the marine barracks first, guided there by Talbot's information, while the dolphin-backed cephalids swam on to the mage caves. Under cover of ink, the hammerheads broke through the driftwood doors into the barracks, slowing only long enough for the squids to inject their ink inside.
The hammerheads attacked from the side, catching the first few mer still in their kelp beds, biting them in half before moving on. The orcas bashed through the coral roofs and gulped down many of the marines in the middle of the barracks. Any mer wearing or bearing the pirate Dar's insignia were left alone. These were Talbot's people.
The cephalids entered the caves just as the first hammerheads bashed into the barracks behind them. As they entered, each cephalid mage touched his dolphin mount and turned it invisible, then slowed down. Turning the last comer before the mage quarters, the cephalids prepared yet another spell. They spewed forth a jet of ink at the first mer mages they saw, ink imbued with mana and crafted to immobilize an opponent.
Cut down to half their number in the first barrage, the mer mages fought back, creating steaming hot jets of water that shot out at the invading cephalids. But the invisible dolphins could move much faster than mere cephalids, and most of the mer spells failed to hit their marks. The cephalid mages then released their hold on the dolphins as they launched their immobilizing ink spells once again. Those mer who resisted the effects found themselves battered about the chest and head by invisible foes. In a few short moments, the battle of the caves was over.
Swimming back out of the caves, the cephalids saw the destruction of the marine barracks below them and the shark and whale units swimming about rounding up the non-military residents of the trench. Looking up and around them, the cephalids could see a ring of mer guards descending, several of them holding dead mer whom they dropped, letting them settle to the bottom.
"All hail Empress Llawan!" they cried in unison. The invasion of the Aboshan trench was complete.
*****
"What will happen to Laquatas now," asked Veza as she slipped out of the pond, transformed into her legged form, and walked over to her towel.
"Leave him to the dry landets to deal with," said Talbot as he pulled himself out of the water behind Veza. "The Cabal knows not to trust him. It won't be long before the Order figures it out. They can't be that blind."
"But without his power base how can he hope to stand up to that barbarian and his Mirari-enhanced sword?" asked Talbot as he snapped his fingers to magically repel the excess water from his body. "You read the reports. Kamahl is the strongest warrior on the continent, and he wields the most powerful weapon in the world. What can Laquatas do against that with no marines, no elite troops, and no allies?"
"He'll still have Burke," said Veza as she donned a silken blue skirt.
"And he'll have his lying tongue," said Talbot, "which has gotten him quite far in life. Fine, you've convinced me… again. What should we do?"
"I will go see the First and brief him on the success of the first wave of the Imperial invasion," said Veza as she finished dressing, "and make sure he upholds his end of the bargain with respect to the Cabal raiders in the field."
"And what do you command of me, Mistress?" asked Talbot with a wink.
"You wait for the report on the second wave from the elite imperial forces," said Veza. "Bring that report to me as soon you get it, and then pack. We're taking a trip north."
*****
In the tunnels beneath the northern plains of Otaria, the imperial elite marines swam in the darkness, moving swiftly and silently thanks to cephalid spells. Two hundred tiger sharks and another hundred eels escorted the fifty cephalid mages through the intricate tunnel system beneath the continent. They were now nearing their destination, the southeastern tip of the Krosan Forest.
"Our scouts report Havelock's troops are just another league ahead of us, Admiral."
"Good work, Commander. Continue silent swimming and maintain this distance. We attack immediately after Havelock's next daily report to Laquatas, assuming Talbot's information is accurate."
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