The spectators stamped their webbed feet in appreciation and yelled out their support.

"Words," Huaanton snarled. 'You offer us only words. You carry on like some surface dweller who loves the sound of his own voice."

The smile dropped from Iakhovas's face, and deadly lights glittered in his single eye. "I offer only words of warning, Exalted One, because I was bade carry them to you as well. Sekolah has made me see the weakness in you."

Laaqueel stopped praying, knowing that Iakhovas had gone too far. Even an indirect accusation of cowardice among the sahuagin was enough to trigger a blood challenge.

"I told you of Sekolah's will," Iakhovas went on. "I told you how we are to continue raiding the world of the surface dwellers. Yet, you concern yourself with thoughts of their retribution. Sekolah says let them come, and let We Who Eat stand against them."

The spectators roared their approval.

"The tide of the Great Cleansing is upon us," Iakhovas stated, "and it shall see the weak and cowardly driven from us or dead as Sekolah wills it. The true warriors of the Shark God shall prevail against our enemies. We shall be unstoppable even though we fill the oceans with blood and drench the dry lands beyond!"

Huaanton raised his trident, instantly quieting all the noise around him. "You talk brave words, but they're only words. They ring as hollow as an abandoned hermit crab's shell, and are as fleeting as gulls feeding in shark-infested waters. I've seen no sign from Sekolah."

"How dare you," Iakhovas said bitterly, his voice cutting as surely as a spinefish's fin. "Sekolah has never owed We Who Eat anything, yet you choose to view him as one who should be at your beck and call."

Laaqueel took pride in the fact that the spectators all sat up and took notice of Iakhovas's words. It didn't matter that he'd borrowed them from her from the time they'd last met with Huaanton. They were true, and the sahuagin sitting in the stone tiers recognized them for that.

Huaanton reacted hotly. "You're putting words in my mouth."

"No," Iakhovas said, cutting him off. "Laaqueel has prayed about this matter ever since that time. And she fought you regarding this issue, telling you how out of place your demands were. You were out of line asking for a sign that we're carrying on as Sekolah would have us do. We survive, and we survive strongly and in numbers. That's all he's ever asked of us."

"Yet, if we were to follow you, all we would find is our deaths against the surface dwellers."

Iakhovas looked at him, fire dancing in his single eye. "Only the inadequate fail!" he shouted.

That was one of the core beliefs for the sahuagin, Laaqueel knew. All of them had been trained since hatchlings that it was true.

"The brave and strong shall flourish," Iakhovas went on. "The tide of the Great Cleansing is upon us!" He gestured across the amphitheater. "Should you want your sign that you so inelegantly demanded of we who choose to follow Sekolah's true way, then behold and tremble at the power of the Shark God!"

Every eye was drawn across the amphitheater. Laaqueel watched as well, noticing the huge mass that took shape out in the distance. At first it blended in with the deep blue of the sea, then it paled as it came closer. In moments, the great albino kraken hovered above the amphitheater.

The kraken's two longest tentacles drifted out at its sides while the other six coiled restlessly beneath its body. The single baleful eye on the arrow-shaped head, reminding the malenti of her master's, glared red even in the dark waters. Its tentacles were over one hundred and fifty feet long, making it the largest of its kind Laaqueel had ever seen or even heard about.

The malenti recognized the kraken as the one that had guarded the tunnels leading to the king's palace. Brought there as a young creature, the kraken had been fed by the royal guards till it was too big to get out through the tunnels it had been brought through. The guards had kept it on a regulated near-starvation diet that guaranteed it would eat anything that came within its reach.

Only it hadn't acted like that with Iakhovas when they'd encountered it a tenday ago. With Iakhovas, the kraken had acted totally docile.

"There is your sign, Exalted One!" Iakhovas shouted, pointing at the great kraken as it continued to drift closer.

Huaanton stared up at the huge kraken in enraged silence.

Every sahuagin in the amphitheater knew the creatures possessed an uncanny intelligence. A kraken wouldn't normally approach a sahuagin community, Laaqueel knew, especially one that had kept it captive. It had also gotten too large to get out of the caverns below by conventional means, leaving her no choice but to accept that Iakhovas had used his magic to arrange it. The kraken's presence was proof again of the arcane abilities Iakhovas wielded.

"Here is your proof," Iakhovas went on. "Proof that you demanded of our god."

"You stand there and claim the appearance of this beast is a sign from Sekolah," Huaanton thundered with deep clicks and thumps.

"Dare you claim it is not?" Iakhovas stretched his left hand upward The kraken stretched one of its longest tentacles down at the same time, tenderly wrapping the huge, leaf-shaped pod around Iakhovas's arm. "Have you ever seen anything like this?"

Laaqueel knew the display left a distinct impression on the sahuagin community. Except for the guards who'd first seen Iakhovas with the kraken, no one else had ever seen anything like it either. The malenti priestess knew Iakhovas was treading a fine line between accreditation and accusation. Huaanton pushed it over the line.

"Magic," the sahuagin king stated. The charge echoed over the crowd, eliciting small clicks and whistles of quiet conversation.

Laaqueel's heart beat frantically in her chest. She took in fresh seawater through her mouth and flushed it out her gills. She held onto her belief in Sekolah with all her might.

Before the crowd had time to reach a decision on its own, Iakhovas raised his voice. "You try to denounce me? After all that you've demanded of Sekolah while giving so little of yourself?"

Huaanton shifted uneasily, knowing he was on dangerous ground himself. Laaqueel knew Iakhovas had led him there, carefully measuring each step.

"We've taken war to the surface dwellers for the first time in generations," Iakhovas said. "We've fought them and we've broken them. We challenged them in their greatest city and seen it burn, taken their ships and seen them flee from the seas. Now you seek to undo all that?"

"We've done enough," Huaanton replied.

"According to your will," Iakhovas agreed, "perhaps we have, but I've seen a vision of We Who Eat one day marching through the streets of Waterdeep and other coastal cities. The surface dwellers ran cowering before us, no longer able to claim any part of the seas." He paused, letting his words hang in the water. "That is when we've done enough."

"You seek to lead us to our deaths, Iakhovas," Huaanton said. "I know not why, but this I truly see. You were born less than fifteen years ago, yet you now hold the office of prince when most take three centuries to reach that position."

Laaqueel stood in silent panic, knowing if Iakhovas came undone, she came undone with him. Her prayers continued without cease, but as always in Sekolah's service, there was no true answer. Only the currents knew how things would sort out.

"Most of those positions," Iakhovas pointed out, "came from you."

"You fed off my own successes like a parasitic worm," Huaanton said. "I didn't see it then, but I see it now."

Iakhovas drew himself to his full height. Even in his human form as Laaqueel saw him, he was impressive. The Royal Black Tridents nearest him involuntarily drew back. The albino kraken hung over the group with its tentacles waving in the currents.