Jherek nodded. "I know."

"I love you."

Her hand trailed gently across his face, briefly touching the water-softened scab that covered the slash on his cheek.

"As I love you." Jherek touched her face with the back of his hand, wiping away the tears he found there. "I could not love you so much did I not love honor, lady. It is all I know to be, and I would die before I betrayed that honor or my love for you."

"I know," she said hoarsely, holding his head between her hands. "I know. One does not come without the price of the other. For either of us."

She pulled him closer and wrapped her arms around his waist. Jherek put his arms over her shoulders and held her tightly.

"Die, huu-mannn!"

Jherek lifted the cutlass and blocked the sea devil's trident thrust. He willed Iridea's Tear into a hook, reaching out quickly and tearing the throat from his opponent. He pushed the dying sahuagin away, almost bowled over by the next sea devil pushing up from behind.

The young paladin stood with other defenders of Myth Xantar at Chamal Gate. The Taker's final attack came after the triton offensive of the fifth of Uktar-only a couple days before-had split his forces. According to the tritons who'd reported to Qos, fully half his remaining army of sahuagin had turned and swam back to the Alamber Sea.

The sound of steel against coral filled the area, ringing more stridently than Jherek was used to. Over it all he heard Pacys singing. The bard's song rang true within him, making him feel stronger and more confident. Iakhovas's army still outnumbered the Myth Nantarn defenders nearly two to one, even after the tritons' victory.

Fighting undersea wasn't like fighting on a ship's deck, Jherek discovered. Underwater, the sahuagin could come at him from above as well as ahead and behind-and they didn't have any sense of honor. Nor did they abide by the Laws of Battle he'd heard so many of the Serosians lived and died by.

"Fall back and regroup!" Morgan Ildacer shouted, waving his troops back. The High Mages had named the sea elf captain to head up one of the defensive units.

The young paladin fell back with the rest of his group. He swam with the others, finding it easier to battle in the mythal that covered the city than he expected. His moves in the water came more naturally since he didn't have to hold his breath. Somehow his sense of balance seemed more sure as well.

A sahuagin thrust a spear at him from the right while another yanked its weapon from a mortally wounded sea elf.

Jherek swung the enchanted sword and chopped the trident head off, leaving the sahuagin with only the shaft in its hands. Once under water he'd found the sword swung as easily as if he stood on dry land, the blade not slowed at all.

The sahuagin seemed startled, then angrily threw the useless shaft away and spread the claws of both its hands. The second sahuagin approached in a flash, its fins pushing at the water.

Jherek willed the bracer into a two-foot shield and set himself as well as he could. He pulled the shield in against his body at the last minute. Like the sword, the bracer-in any shape he willed it into-had no water drag at all.

The trident slammed against the shield then deflected harmlessly over Jherek's shoulder. The sahuagin shoved a hand out with its finger webs spread to slow and turn. Jherek uncoiled his arm and lashed out with the shield. The razor-sharp edge, thinner and more solid than the finest steel, sliced through the sea devil's stomach, disemboweling it at once.

Still moving, Jherek swept the shield in, catching the water now because he willed it to, and lifted himself from the first sahuagin's path. He brought the sword down and nearly severed his opponent's neck.

Before he could recover, one of the few koalinth survivors caught him with a spear thrust in the chest. The silverweave mail shirt he wore prevented the blade from slicing through his chest, but the impact knocked him backward, slamming the breath from his lungs.

The young paladin went with the motion, flipping backward and reaching out to the water element of the mythal, letting it buoy him up. He'd discovered within the mythal that he could treat the city as if it were two-dimensional, like a city on dry land, or three-dimensional as if he were underwater.

Jherek kicked his feet and twisted as he willed the bracer into a hook. When the koalinth shot over him, the young paladin flicked the hook and caught the marine hobgoblin in the leg. He used the creature's momentum to pull him faster, angling his body so he came up behind the koalinth.

The young paladin reversed his sword as he swung toward the koalinth. Though the creature's back was toward him, he couldn't strike. He switched the bracer to a dagger and readied himself as the koalinth turned toward him, lashing out with its spear. Jherek blocked the spear with the dagger, then drove his sword through his opponent's heart.

Even as the koalinth died, Jherek changed the bracer back to a shield as a dozen sahuagin leveled their crossbows and fired. The short, heavy quarrels flashed across the distance and thudded against the shield. One of the sea elves a few feet away didn't fare so well and took a quarrel through the throat.

In the next moment a Dukar stepped forward and formed a fireball in one hand. He threw the swirling

Harnes at the mass of sahuagin. They had only a moment to attempt escape before the fireball detonated with a thunderous crack that left only burned and torn bodies behind.

Blood filled the water around Jherek and created a salty taste to the water he breathed. It was like nothing he'd ever experienced.

The sea elves kept falling back, having no choice as their numbers dwindled. Jherek caught sight of the House of the Waves on his left, then it was lost to the sahuagin forces as well. He lifted his sword and kept fighting, knowing the battle was continuing on a number of fronts.

"Pull those damned sails!" Azla roared as she ran across the decks, keeping her quarry always in sight. "Bring her about!"

Sabyna stood beside Arthoris on Azure Dagger's forecastle. Skeins floated at her side, riding the wind. Sabyna's attention was torn between helping Arthoris with his spells and with worrying about Jherek. She wished she could have stayed with him in the City of Destinies, but with the attack coming from the surface, they both knew she would be of more use there.

Twenty pirate vessels sailed the sea above Myth Xantar. The crews worked to dispose of Vurgrom's poisoned kegs. The pirate had told them about the kegs after being taken prisoner. He bargained for his own freedom by telling. Jherek, in turn, informed the Myth Nantarn defenders.

Mermen and locathah swam under the water with nets, trying to catch as many of the barrels as they could.

Azure Dagger and Steadfast harried the pirate ships. In the beginning they'd thought there would have been a chance to prevent some of the sabotage, but with twenty ships against them, it was only a matter of time until they were captured or sunk.

After Captain Tarnar of Steadfast found out about the poisoned kegs, he'd sent a patchwork crew under his first officer south to Ilighon in the hopes of reaching Corymrean Froesails that might be using the port city as a staging point. So far none of the hoped-for reinforcements had arrived.

As Arthoris prepared his next spell, a pirate ship closed on Azure Dagger, running broadside to her. Ballista crews worked to crank their deadly devices around and take aim.

Sabyna invoked one of the new spells Arthoris had taught her, knowing that the ship's mage was vulnerable on the forecastle. She inscribed the mystic symbol in the air, and it glowed briefly before disappearing.