Maquesta Kar-Thon Read online

  "And you should not be out on deck. You should be in the infirmary," she retorted.

  "Aswillyoube," the gnome answered.

  Maq thought to argue with him. The Perechon was her ship and, as captain, she gave the orders. But wisdom prevailed, and she decided to back down. "I know, Lendle. I'm going to need some of your tender care and one of Tailonna's potions. But while you're seeing to me, I want Fritz, Kof, Ilyatha, and Tailonna to go after the morkoth. Tailonna's webnets and magic will be necessary to catch the beast."

  Fritzen motioned to the minotaur, who was just regaining consciousness. "Right away, Maq?"

  "No. In the morning. The sea's so dark at night it will look as though you're swimming in ink. You won't even be able to see a hand in front of your face." She shook her head and pointed toward the water. "Besides, those other kuo-toa are out there. And I want His Majesty to order them away."

  "I see them, too," Tailonna offered. 'Twenty or more I'd guess. I'll take care of it." With that, the sea elf started talking to the king.

  "Kof!" Maq quipped as the minotaur walked to her side. "It's about time you got up and joined the fun. I want you to make sure all of our guests are secure in the cargo hold tonight. And throw his majesty in the brig. When that's done, have our dead wrapped in sailcloth. We'll bury them at sea tomorrow."

  Then Maq was swept up in strong arms and found herself being carried toward the infirmary. Exhaustion claimed her as she was placed on a cot. The last words she heard before drifting off were Lendle and Tailonna's rapid instructions to Fritzen to start mixing herbs.

  Morning found Fritzen hovering over Maquesta, wiping a cool cloth across her forehead as Lendle busied himself with another concoction. Her leg was wrapped in several layers of bandages and was propped up on a pillow, and she was regaining feeling in her arm.

  "Your turn in the infirmary," Fritzen said. "There was venom on the kuo-toa's weapons, but Lendle and Tailonna mixed up something that is drawing out the poison. Tailonna is in the crew quarters, giving some to the others who were injured. She assures me her mixture is magical, and everyone—including you—will be back to normal in a few hours."

  Maq smiled and tried to rise, but the half-ogre laid a firm hand on her shoulder. "You're the captain, and you can order me to let you up and I'll oblige. But I'd rather follow a healthy captain—one who's going to be around for quite some time. Rest, Maq. Kof will lead us after the morkoth, and by the time we get back, you'll be feeling much better."

  Maquesta pursed her lips, but nodded. Though she wanted to be up on the deck to see them off, she knew that Fritzen was making sense. She hated feeling weak and not fully in control of the situation, and she was angry that all of her crew seemed to be taking turns in the infirmary. But she closed her eyes, tried to relax, and concentrated on listening to the gnome reciting ingredients to himself. A pungent odor filled the room, and Maq knew she was going to stink before this was all over.

  "Take care of yourself," Fritzen whispered as he made a motion to rise. Then he stopped and stared at her. "Last night you saw more kuo-toa in the water. What gift do you have, Maquesta, to allow such sight?"

  "No need to tell him," Lendle offered, obviously overhearing their conversation. The gnome went back to babbling ingredients and stirring.

  "It's all right. I trust him," Maq replied, opening her eyes and staring at the ceiling. "I'm not wholly human" she began. "My mother was an elf. She left my father a long time ago. I don't know if she's even alive. She left when warbands of humans were hunting elves and their kin. I suspect she disappeared to keep attention away from the Perechon. My father, frightened for my safety, had Lendle cut off the tips of my ears when I was just a small child. He didn't want anyone to know I was a half-elf. He was afraid I would be lost to him, too. So I have the elven gift of sight. I can see things better than humans can, though not quite as well as most elves."

  "So now you know Maquesta's secret," Lendle said sternly. "It is one shared by only those people in this room—and by her father leagues away. And it had better not go any farther." The gnome's beady eyes were trained on the half-ogre's. "Understand?"

  On deck, Ilyatha, Tailonna, and Bas-Ohn Koraf were waiting, all armed with kuo-toan spears. The minotaur carried the end of a thick rope in his hand. Several crewmembers gathered around out of curiosity, and when Fritzen found his way between them, Ilyatha tossed him a large net and told him that it would hold the morkoth when they found and captured it. Tailonna reached into a pouch at her waist and pulled out six vials containing the magical elixir that would allow them to breathe water as if it were air. She gave two vials to each of them.

  "One vial should last many hours, between eight and twelve, I suspect. It could have different durations for each of us," she added, looking at the minotaur and half-ogre. "But if we work quickly there should be no problem."

  Kof nodded and tugged on the end of the rope he was holding. At the other end were the king's sons; the long rope was tied about their necks as if they were dogs on a leash. "Let's just get it over with," the minotaur grumbled. "While I love the sea, I don't care much for swimming, and I care even less for the company of kuo-toa."

  Fritzen nearly dropped his vials as a burst of yellow light brighter than a noon sun struck the deck. As the glow faded, Belwar appeared, his sharp hooves hovering inches above the wood. The ki-rin nodded a greeting, and the crew parted as he approached the quartet. "I will go with you," he announced. "I was away last night and returned in time to see only the end of the struggle. Though I was not able to help you then, I will lend my aid now. Morkoths are tricky and deadly."

  "Then, to our success!" Fritzen toasted as he raised the vial to the sky, then brought it to his lips and downed its contents in one gulp." The others did the same, and as one they moved to the side of the deck and jumped into the water. The ki-rin dived over, too, with the resulting splash leaving the onlooking crewmen drenched.

  Koraf gasped as he sank beneath the surface and thrashed around like a wounded fish, trying desperately to keep a grip on the rope attached to the kuo-toa. He held his breath and dropped like a stone, with Ilyatha, Fritzen, Tailonna, and the creatures following him. The ki-rin hovered just below the surface, watching.

  Relax, Ilyatha's mind coaxed. Breathe the water as if it were air. Breathe.

  The minotaur closed his eyes and inhaled a little. It was an odd sensation, water entering his nose and going down into his lungs. At first he feared that he was drowning, that the elixir was just some horrible joke concocted by Attat, who wanted to doom them all. Then he gasped in fear and took in great lungfuls of saltwater. It stung his throat, but only for a moment. The odd sensation passed, and he opened his eyes. He was breathing.

  Reaching the sandy bottom, he tugged on the rope and stared into the eyes of the king's sons. He shrugged his shoulders and pointed in different directions. Then he tugged on the rope again. At last the kuo-toa understood what the minotaur was getting at, and the largest of the two pointed southwest.

  It is being truthful, Ilyatha's voice said reassuringly inside Kof's head. The morkoth's lair lies in that direction.

  Above, the ki-rin saw what was transpiring and began swimming to the southwest. Its great legs churned the water, and it was all the rest of the group could do to keep the mythical creature in sight. They passed over a coral bed, where sea fronds that looked like delicate fans waved back and forth in the current. A school of queen angelfish passed overhead, giving the unusual travelers a wide berth, and on the sandy floor crabs skittered out of their way. Kof began to appreciate his surroundings, and his bull neck constantly pivoted back and forth to take in everything. After nearly two hours of travel he spied a rocky ridge that cut across the sandy bottom like the spine of some sleeping giant. The kuo-toa pointed toward the ridge, and the minotaur looked at Ilyatha, who nodded his approval. The ki-rin dived to the floor, and the members of the group, wary and pensive, slowed their pace as they approached the rocks.

  The ridge looke
d like what Tailonna had drawn the day before in the infirmary. If her diagram was true, what was left of the kuo-toa colony would be on the other side of the rise and slightly to the north.

  As they neared the ridge, they spied a cave, which was little more than a narrow crevice. The morkoth's home, Ilyatha thought to each of them. The kuo-toa are frightened of the beast and say it lives there. They beg not to be forced inside. Only one of them has been this close to the opening, when delivering a sacrifice several months ago."

  Kof looked at the crevice, then at the ki-rin, who would not be able to fit through it. The creature's horn glowed faintly, and he spoke through the water so everyone could hear him. "I will watch your captives, for I cannot follow you. Even my magic will not let my form fit inside. But I will aid you, nonetheless." He closed his eyes and fire danced along his golden horn, a magical blaze that ignored the presence of the saltwater. The flames leapt outward, striking the edges of the crevice and flowing deeper into the rock. "The fire is not real, at least not like a true blaze. It will not burn you. But it coats the walls of the labyrinth beyond. It will light your way, and it may serve to frighten the morkoth, who likes to dwell in darkness. I wish you well." The ki-rin took the rope binding the kuo-toa between its teeth and moved back from the crevice.

  Bas-Ohn Koraf took a deep breath of the saltwater and stepped inside. Fritzen and Tailonna followed him. Ilyatha paused outside the crevice. The shadowperson feared bright light, and it took him several moments to realize the light from the fire would not harm or blind him. The flames raced up and down the walls like a roaring campfire, casting eerie light patterns all about. Kof had to step sideways here and there as the passageway thinned, and more than once the minotaur scraped his back against an outcropping. Deeper and deeper they went, until Kof believed they must surely come out on the other side of the ridge. Then the tunnel started winding downward, and it split in two.

  The minotaur sniffed, but found his keen sense of smell was wasted beneath the waves. Flames flickered down both passages, but they provided no clue as to the correct course. Extending his spear in front of him, Kof took a step into the left tunnel, then looked over his shoulder and motioned for Fritzen to take the right. The half-ogre nodded, and Tailonna followed him, leaving the shadowperson to follow Kof. The minotaur had not gone farther than a dozen yards when his hooves crushed something brittle. Bending, he discovered a pile of bones that had once belonged to a large fish, a barracuda perhaps, he mused. The firelight playing on their white surface made the shards glisten. Suppressing a shudder, Kof continued to pick his way deeper. He growled in his throat, releasing a stream of bubbles when he saw the passageway ahead divide again. He moved on toward the right, where he had to grip the walls to keep from falling. The floor sloped steeply, bending down in a sharp spiral. Glancing behind him, he spotted Ilyatha moving to the left tunnel. The minotaur waved his hairy arm and nearly lost his balance trying get the telepath's attention. Ilyatha looked at the minotaur quizzically.

  I'll not split our numbers again, Kof concentrated, hoping Ilyatha would pick up his thoughts.

  Very well, the shadowperson replied. I will let the others know to stay together.

  In the other corridor, Fritzen and Tailonna discovered a similar sharp turn, one with a drop-off that sent them floating down nearly fifty feet. From there the tunnel continued, spiraling down even farther. The half-ogre gripped the sides of his head, dropping the net and spear. The pressure here was beginning to get painful, and he wondered how far they had traveled and how much longer the elixir would last. He reached into the pouch on his belt to make sure the other vial was still intact. Tailonna placed a soft hand on his shoulder and pressed by him. They were in the sea elf's element, and Fritzen, gathering his belongings, allowed her to take the lead.

  Nearly an hour later, Tailonna and Fritzen stared across a chasm—on the other side of which were Kof and Ilyatha. The magical fire stopped at the edge of the pit, which descended like a funnel into unnatural darkness. The minotaur nudged the shadowperson and concentrated, his great brow furrowing as he tried to convey a message.

  I agree with Kof, Ilyatha communicated across the chasm, his words sounding stern inside Fritzen's head. I believe the morkoth lies below, and he is preventing the fire from spreading farther. With that, the shadowperson stepped off the ledge, dropping into the pitch-blackness of the crevice.

  Kof swallowed hard and joined him, quickly passing Ilyatha by as his great weight propelled him through the water faster. The darkness swallowed them completely by the time Fritzen and Tailonna joined them in the fall.

  What seemed like hours later, the quartet emerged into a large cavern thickly coated with shadows. The pressure was significant here, indicating they had come a long way below the surface of the sea. They could see only a few feet in the darkness, and Ilyatha instructed them to stay together so they would not become lost. Alone, the shadowperson suspected they would be easy marks for the morkoth. Kof swung his spear back and forth in front of him, pressing forward until he reached a rocky wall.

  Like cave explorers, the four circled the chamber until they discovered six openings, each so thin they would be a tight squeeze to travel through.

  One for each of us and two to spare, Ilyatha thought. We should select one and hurry; the elixir…

  Kof nodded, and despite Ilyatha's warning he decided each person should take a different passage, tenuously linked by the shadowperson's telepathic mind. He directed Ilyatha down the closest passage, Fritzen down the next. The minotaur passed by the following two passages, noticing the grades were too steep. Then he pointed Tailonna down one, and he took the other. Each walked into the darkness with a weapon in one hand, and the fingers of their other hand brushing along the wall to show them the way. And all of them lost their balance as the floor disappeared beneath their feet and they fell even farther, sliding down rocky passages that twisted and turned.

  Again the four found themselves emerging into a shadowy cavern, the tunnels they followed all bringing them to the same place. Kof growled, emitting a long string of bubbles, then he directed the others to stay together while he circled the chamber, discovering the features of its walls with his hands. When he returned to them, his eyes burned with anger, and Ilyatha winced when he poked inside the minotaur's head to discover what he was thinking.

  Kof says this is the same chamber we left several minutes ago. There are six ope?tings—he claims the same ones we ventured down, Ilyatha said, sending the message to everyone. I suspect we never left this chamber to begin with. I think it's an illusion and we're being manipulated. I don't know where we are, but… Before the shadowperson could continue, the cavern's darkness receded, as if light were being slowly coaxed from a lantern, revealing rocky walls encrusted with gems. High above, the edge of the cavern was lit by the ki-rin's magical fire. The flames continued to dance merrily, pointing toward a black shape descending toward the cavern floor. The dark form stopped halfway to the bottom, floating above them.

  The morkoth! Ilyatha communicated to everyone. It has been toying with us.

  From the waist up the hideous creature looked like a sea snake, though it had a spiky top fin that ran to the crest of its wide, fishlike head. Four spindly arms, like the legs of a lobster, stuck out of its scaly sides. They ended in thin pincers that opened and closed almost rhythmically, their clacking sound cutting through the water. The morkoth's eyes sat to the front of its face, as a human's would, but they were dark, round orbs with flecks of red in the centers. The creature had no ears, at least none that were visible, but it had a mouth that looked like a squid's beak. It opened the beak and snapped it repeatedly, the clicking noise somehow reverberating through the water and unnerving the quartet below. Then the morkoth extended a long pink tongue that looked like a segmented seaworm and wriggled it.

  The lower half of the creature's body resembled an octopus, with writhing tentacles sporting suction cups. The morkoth was quite a bit larger than Kof, and all over
it was as black as night, though it had faint, luminescent silvery patches of scales here and there. As it moved closer to them, descending slowly through the water, it continued to click its beak and wave its pincerarms, and its tentacles undulated almost hypnotically, drawing tiny air-bubble patterns in the water. Ilyatha and Tailonna stood unmoving, staring at the creature. The spears in their hands fell to the cavern floor as their eyes followed the bubble patterns.

  Snap out of it, Kof concentrated, praying that the shadowperson and sea elf would pick up his thoughts.Think! It's mesmerizing you. Wake up! But his thoughts went unanswered. Only he and Fritzen seemed unaffected by the morkoth's writhings. The minotaur growled and stepped in front of Ilyatha and Tailonna. Spear raised, he poked it at the morkoth, but the creature's tentacles remained just out of reach. It continued to writhe, and Kof felt himself grow light-headed. Closing his eyes and blocking out the image of the patterns, he continued to jab upward.

  Behind him, Fritzen reached the sea elf. Releasing his spear and tucking the net under his arm, he grabbed her by the shoulders and shook her roughly. To his side, the shadowperson sprang to life, and for a moment, the half-ogre's grim face showed relief. Ilyatha drew his twin daggers, then, just as it seemed he would leap at the morkoth, he turned to face Fritzen and rushed forward. The half-ogre let go of Tailonna and dropped to the floor of the cavern, gaping in surprise as Ilyatha swam forward with the daggers, slashing where he had stood just a moment before. The shadowperson pivoted and glared down at him with eyes that had red specks swirling in them.

  The morkoth! Fritzen cursed to himself. First it had taken control of the sea elf, and now the danger had doubled. He rolled to his side, bowling over Tailonna in the process, then he crouched and pushed off the bottom with his strong leg muscles. The half-ogre shot up through the water, the shadowperson following him. They passed by the morkoth, which was continuing to twist about and create more bubble-patterns. Fritzen felt a wave of dizziness wash over him as he glanced at the bubbles, but he fought it off and concentrated on the advancing Ilyatha.