Maartaaugh slammed the butt of his trident against the inset stones that made up the amphitheater's floor.

"I will not die," the prince said. "Aleaxtis will have one of its own as king."

"I would kill you," Iakhovas stated flatly. "I would rend your flesh from your bones and feed it to those you claim to lead."

That remains to be seen."

Maartaaugh's courage held him despite the carnage he had seen Iakhovas do.

Laaqueel felt the tension in the water, could feel Maar-taaugh's heart beating rapidly through her lateral lines. Surely Sekolah's will would be served now.

"If you wish to dispute my right to the throne," Iakhovas said in a soft, deadly voice, "then I will name the challenge."

Maartaaugh nodded.

Iakhovas swung to the crowd. "In order to prove my worth-to become your king, to take upon myself the right to lead you in your greatest battle-I will slay the Great Whale Bard who even now blocks passage through the Sharksbane Wall."

Excited conversation started up again.

"If I can't do what I say," Iakhovas went on, "then let me die as Sekolah would have me: clawing at the face of an enemy." With noble grace, he spun back around to Maartaaugh. "If you wish, I will give you the honor of trying to slay the Great Whale Bard first."

"No," Maartaaugh replied in a quiet voice.

"Then agree to my terms," Iakhovas said. "If I kill the Great Whale Bard and end the threat of the whale song that attacks this place, you will recognize me as king and serve as my grand champion, to renounce and combat any who would attack or challenge me."

Maartaaugh hesitated only a moment, and Laaqueel knew it was because the warrior tried to find a loophole in Iakhovas's offer.

"I will," the prince answered.

"Good," Iakhovas said.

"When will you attempt this?" Ruubuuiz asked.

"Now," Iakhovas said. "There is a war to be fought, and I will tolerate no waiting."

He turned and leaped away, pausing when he was twenty feet above the amphitheater floor.

Laaqueel swam up beside him, seeing him totally in the sahuagin illusion now. He was a proud warrior, his fins flared out and his chest puffed up, gripping the trident in one fist and his crown seated on his broad head. One eye held a golden gleam.

"I am Iakhovas!" he roared. "I am destined to be your king!"

The sahuagin crowd exploded into movement. They slapped their feet against the stones and whistled and clicked in full support. There were even comments from some that Iakhovas was Daganisoraan, the greatest sahuagin warrior of all, reborn.

"Iakhovas!" some of them began to chant. "Defender and king! Iakhovas!"

UI will bring you victory!" Iakhovas declared. "Meat is meat!"

"Meat is meat!" the crowd roared back.

"It looks like they're waiting for something," Sabyna said.

She kept a low profile on the hill overlooking the stretch of coastline below her.

"Something," Glawinn replied, "or someone."

The paladin lay beside her on the hard, rocky ground. He wore hunter's leather instead of his armor and carried his sword in a plain scabbard.

"They could be waiting for Vurgrom to join them," Azla added. She lay in the tall grass on the other side of the paladin, the spyglass they'd been sharing pulled tight to her eye. "Or perhaps they're putting in to harbor for a few days to join him at a later time."

Irritated at the position they'd been thrust into, Sabyna glared at the pirates. The pirate ship Brave Wager rested at anchor in the small, natural harbor. Her sails were furled around her masts, looking for all the world like she was an innocent merchanter taking advantage of a brief respite before sailing dangerous waters again.

Part of the crew maintained lean-tos on the shore under broad-leafed trees. Blackened pits showed where they'd roasted wild pigs and deer they'd brought back from the forest surrounding the harbor. Fishing and crabbing were plentiful as well.

Azla's charts called this island, which lay to the southwest of Agenais, either Zagrus or Kloccbarn, as if the cartographer was unable to chose one name or the other.

After Sabyna returned to Azure Dagger and told her story of the men she'd seen at the apothecary's, Azla continued work on the ship. When Azure Dagger was fit for sailing a few days later, her replaced masts securely in place and completely outfitted, they'd gone sailing, using the enchanted astrolabe as a guide.

Vurgrom's ship maintained a steady route in the sea way between the Whamite Isles and Turmish, gliding as restlessly as a shark. Even as they prepared to set an intercept course for Maelstrom, one of Azla's crew spotted Brave Wager in the distance.

Rather than risk getting caught between the two ships they knew of, and perhaps more, Azla decided to wait Brave Wager out and see if they couldn't gather more information on what Vurgrom was doing.

While they'd been in port at Agenais, stories continued flowing in from new arrivals. Sahuagin, koalinth, morkoth, and other sea species continued to raid the surface world nations and take ships. Their goal appeared to be to rid the Sea of Fallen Stars of anything that traveled over the water.

Some of the sea captains even brought news that uneasy alliances between the surface world nations were starting to unravel as realms in turn accused other realms of being involved in the sea-spawned threat. Assassins were rumored to ply their trade on and off the sea. There were still others who insisted the assassins were hired by the different aquatic races.

Trade routes and communication lanes broke down. The Sea of Fallen Stars became a battlefield, something it hadn't been in over four hundred years.

"I've got to get back to my ship," Azla announced. "There's still some trim and other work I want to see to while we're here." She passed the spyglass over to Glawinn, who thanked her for the loan. "Let me know if anything develops."

"I will, lady," the paladin promised.

Sabyna rolled up into a sitting position, still behind the brush and below the ledge so the pirates couldn't see her. She wrapped her arms around her legs and held them tightly. "Ill stay here as well."

Azla nodded. "I'll have two men spell you when it gets dark." She turned and walked away, making her way carefully down the hillside.

Wanting to take advantage of the waning sunlight, Sabyna took out her book of spells and spent time trying to study. Glawinn lay across the ridge, as calm and still as any animal that made its home in the forest. The ship's mage found that irritating.

"Is something wrong, lady?"

"I want to know Jherek is all right." It had been nearly two tendays since she'd last seen him.

"You can look to your own heart for that."

"So you say."

"Trust me, lady. When you feel as drawn to someone as you do to the young warrior, you'll know when something happens to him."

"How do you know?"

"Because it has happened to me."

Startled and embarrassed at her own thoughtlessness, Sabyna glanced up at the paladin. His dark eyes were filled with old pain that time failed to erase.

"I'm sorry," she said.

"As am I." Glawinn returned his attention to the spyglass and said, "Sometimes, in order to love fully and completely, you have to let the other go. When they return, you'll find the bond between you is even stronger."

"I don't know that he will be back. There seems to be so much distance between us."

"Trust," Glawinn urged. "It's all you can do."

"I prefer a much more active solution."

"Then study, lady, that you may get better at your own skills," the paladin suggested. "Wherever you go, however this may turn out between you and the young warrior, you need to be as strong as you can be."