Before Vhaemas the Bastard could shove his trident tines through his opponent's head, Iakhovas grabbed it with superhuman speed and shoved the weapon to one side. He rammed the broken haft of his own trident through the bastard king's torso. Iakhovas continued to push until his talons reached Vhaemas's abdomen. He ripped out the merman's entrails and strung them through the water. Vhaemas the Bastard struggled only briefly before going limp.

Still in motion, Iakhovas pursued Jian, who turned to confront him. The mermaid warrior lashed out with her sword, scoring a slash across Iakhovas's chest. Iakhovas kept going, driving himself at the mermaid and receiving another wound to his arm.

Vhaemas redoubled his efforts against Laaqueel, driving her back so that he could disengage. He swam through the water, stopping only long enough to pick up the end of Iakhovas's broken trident. Still in motion, the merman king slammed the mystic trident into Iakhovas's back, burying the points deeply.

Roaring in pain and rage, Iakhovas batted Jian's sword aside and seized her head in an impossibly huge hand covered in sharp edges. Holding her head, he raked the long fin from his other arm across her midsection, ripping her into halves-one belonging to a beautiful girl and the other to a fish.

King Vhaemas tugged at the trident tines imbedded in Iakhovas's back, trying to free them. Iakhovas whirled, closing his massive fist and hammering the merman king on the head. Partially senseless, Vhaemas tried to retreat but couldn't move away fast enough. Iakhovas made a fist and brought it down on top of the king's crown.

Before the dazed merman king could move or defend himself, Iakhovas dived at him, grabbing him around the throat. Blood and sand misted the water around the two combatants, obscuring the view as the battle raged around them.

Laaqueel kicked out, flicking her toe claws out and gutting the merman warrior who swam at her. She whirled and brought up the barbed net hanging at her side, whipping it out to drape over another merman warrior she narrowly avoided. She gloried in the battle, embracing the thought of death because then there could be no more doubts. A smile twisted the corners of her mouth, and she felt more alive than she had in days.

Little malenti, you've come back into your own.

The malenti priestess didn't bother to reply. The exhilaration she felt was only temporary, and she knew it. As the merman warrior fought the net, the barbs buried themselves in his flesh. She choked up on the trident hail and raked the tine across another merman's face, taking out his eyes.

NO!

The female voice echoed in Laaqueel's head, driving her to her knees in the loose sand. The malenti priestess put her hands to her temples, willing away the pain and the vertigo.

This is not your path, Laaqueel Not anymore.

"Stop!" the malenti priestess pleaded, gazing out at the battle before her. This is what I was born and bred for. This is Sekolah's purpose for me."

Little malenti, are you hurt?

Laaqueel looked at Iakhovas. "I am all right."

"Then get up. There's a battle to be won here before we lose the war."

Iakhovas held the unconscious merman king by the throat. King Vhaemas's head bled profusely, bits of gold and bone glinting amid savaged flesh. Iakhovas's blow had driven the crown into the merman king's head.

Staving off the vertigo and uncertainty, Laaqueel picked up her trident, taking the fight to the merman warriors.

I will not allow you to take the lives of these people, the feminine voice stated.

"I am sahuagin." Laaqueel engaged the nearest merman, thrusting her trident at his face.

No.

Laaqueel's trident thrust stopped short. The merman warrior moved to take advantage of his luck. As he thrust, though, a wild current sprang up from below him and pulled him away.

Nor will I allow you to be harmed. Not unless you make me.

"Then strike me down if you can." Laaqueel gazed around the depths. "Come out of hiding. I will fight you. My life has not been my own, and I'll spend it gladly."

I come to give you your life, Laaqueel.

"How?" As the malenti priestess looked around, she noticed that none of the merman warriors even seemed to know she was there, as if she'd suddenly become invisible.

There is another path you must take that is better suited to your nature.

"I am sahuagin."

You do not hove to be.

It is all I have ever wanted to be."

Then you should raise your standards, Laaqueel.

"Sekolah gave me life and gave me the strength to kill in his name. It is enough."

And Sekolah let you be placed, in the power of the Taker.

Laaqueel had no reply.

Yes, you know him for who he is, and you know the kind of destruction he's brought to this world. If he should return to the Sword Coast, it will only be the same. And Iakhovas no longer needs you. You know that.

The Great Shark gives me power to serve his will."

Sekolah gives you power to kill in his name.

"Yes."

You could have more.

"I only want to be sahuagin."

You're not. You have never fit in with your people, Laaqueel, and you know you never will.

"lean."

No. You live a lie now, and you know it. As long as you remain in Iakhovas's grace you will be protected, but should you fall, you will be killed and rent. Meat is meat. I can give you more than that.

"Why should you?" Laaqueel shouted. "What am I to you?"

You are strong, Laaqueel. The times coming after the Twelfth Seros War will not be easy. I have use for that strength.

"So I could serve you instead of Iakhovas?" Laaqueel shook her head. "No."

When the time comes, you will live or die as you choose, but if you kill any of those under my protection, you will know my wrath as you have known my benevolence.

"And should they attack me?"

They won't. You are under my protection, and they will know it. Iakhovas remains your only true enemy, but one is coming who has the power to deal with him.

"The boy in the cave?" Laaqueel couldn't believe it. Though the human had put up a good fight against the koalinth in the cave, he couldn't challenge the savage deathbringer that was Iakhovas.

Yes.

"He's too weak."

Not once Taleweaver brings him into his belief. Wait, Laaqueel, wait and see if I don't have more to offer than you've ever known.

Emotion ripped through Laaqueel as she felt the voice fade from her mind. Uncertainty and doubt plagued her, and her faith wasn't there to shore her up. She prayed to Sekolah, but she felt the words were only empty effort.

"I am Iakhovas!"

Turning, Laaqueel watched as Iakhovas swam into the midst of the battlefield. He looked every inch a proud sahuagin warrior-king. His voice boomed, gaining the attention of the warrior around him.

"You king has fallen," Iakhovas roared in triumph, "and I have killed the children."

He threw the merman king down to the torn bodies if Princess Jian and Vhaemas the Bastard.

"I am death- unstopable and merciless. Oppose me and die!"

As Laaqueel looked across the war-torn sea floor, she saw the wave of defeat sweep over the surviving warriors of Eadraal. The Thuridru mermen screamed in triumph. The malenti priestess felt the arrival of the thundering presence hammering against her lateral lines. She looked to the east, in the direction from which shifting currents came.

Whales materialized out of deep blue-green depths. Half a dozen four-hundred-foot-long humpbacked whales swam in the lead, trailed by dozen of smaller ones. They stampeded over battlefield, scattering both armies.

Iakhovas hung in the sea, staring at them.

An auburn-haired mermaid swam with them, flashing between the two lead humpbacks.