by Mel Odom
“They want me,” the young sailor said.
“How do you know?” Tarnar demanded.
“They just told me.”
The captain looked at him as if he’d gone mad.
“You can’t hear them?” Jherek asked, amazed that the man could not.
“No.”
Jherek, there is not much time remaining. You must accompany us.
Fear and wonderment touched the young sailor’s heart. Even days ago when he’d felt the pull and heard the whale song and the voice, he hadn’t been as moved. Gazing out at the scavenging birds, he felt the world close in around him.
“Why do they want you?” Tarnar asked.
“I don’t know,” the young sailor answered.
The sapphire whale swam alongside the caravel, bumping gently up against it. Steadfast bobbed in response.
Come, Jherek Whalefriend. Come and learn.
The young sailor peered down into the whale’s eye, seeing the intelligence there.
“What are you going to do?” Tarnar asked.
Jherek clung to the railing, squinting against the wind in his face. “We have no choice. I don’t think they’ll let the ship proceed unless I find out what they want.”
Tarnar was quiet for a moment. “If you go into that water, you’re taking your life in your own hands.”
“Aye.” Jherek nodded.
“We’re carrying Cormyrean dried pepper seasoning as part of our cargo,” Tarnar said. “I can have the men ready the ship and dump a few pepper barrels into the water. It’ll burn those whales—chase them away and give us a chance to run. The wind favors us.”
“No.” Jherek bent and pulled his boots off. “We’ve come all this way following the whale song. To try to leave without finding out where it led would be a waste of our time.”
“Then I’ll come with you.”
“And leave Steadfast without her captain?” Jherek gazed at the man. “What kind of decision would that be?”
Tarnar looked out to sea. “You’re talking to a failed priest, Jherek,” he said. “If these creatures aren’t here for your life, then this has got to be some kind of … divine experience. I wouldn’t want to miss out on that.”
Alone, the voice whispered into Jherek’s mind. He repeated the request to the captain.
Tarnar clearly wasn’t happy with the stipulation. His face hardened. “Go then, but I’m not going to leave you out here on your own.”
“Weigh the risk if it comes to that,” Jherek said softly. “One man isn’t worth your ship and crew.”
“Mystra keep you in her graces.” Tarnar offered his arm.
Jherek took the captain’s hand and shook it. Barefoot now, his dagger sheathed to one leg and the cutlass through the sash at his waist, he stepped over the railing and dropped into the sea. He hit feet first and slid through the blue-green water. From under the surface, where the largest portion of the whale’s mass was, the creature looked even bigger.
No fear, the whale urged him, bumping up against him with her rough body. You are the one to be known as Whalefriend.
Why?
We will explain what we may. Please, climb on my back and I will save you the swim. The whale sunk lower in the water and came close enough to Jherek that they touched.
Hesitantly, the young sailor hooked his fingers over the sapphire whale’s dorsal fin and pulled himself aboard. Jherek didn’t look back, concentrating on the birds before him.
The whale swam swiftly, skimming along the ocean’s surface while the other whales and dolphins opened the path. As they neared the mass in the sea, the cries of the feathered scavengers reached a crescendo, a vibrant clamoring of hunger and rage. The young sailor recognized the mutilated remains of the largest whale he’d ever seen.
The dead whale floated just below the surface, buoyed up in death. The sea rarely hid her dead unless they went down in ships or the scavengers got to them too quickly. Crabs scuttled across the corpse, hiding in pockets of pink-white flesh as they ate their fill and avoided the larger birds that would have eaten them as well. Fish of all sizes and colors darted about at the waterline, and Jherek knew there would be even more working the dead whale’s underbelly.
An overwhelming sense of loss filled the young sailor as he surveyed the carnage. Fresh in death, the whale would float for a few days before the sea dragged it back down. Even then, it would be a long time before it was stripped down to its bones.
The sapphire whale closed on the corpse, nudging up against it tenderly. Crabs, fish, and birds fled from that small area.
This was Song Who Brings Bright Rains.
Jherek recognized the name. “What happened?”
The Taker slew him.
“Why?”
Because the whales joined together in song in an attempt to block the sahuagin from entering Serôs.
Jherek remained silent for a long moment, hardly able to think in the cacophony of sounds that filled the air. Fish bumped up against his feet and ankles in the water.
“Why have I been brought here?”
Because your coming was foretold in our legends. Song Who Brings Bright Rains had a gift he was meant to give you.
“Why?” Jherek tried desperately to understand, but he couldn’t find a foundation.
You are the Whalefriend, the sapphire whale replied as if that answered everything.
“I don’t understand.”
We are here to help you understand, but you must claim the gift Song Who Brings Bright Rains had for you.
“Where?”
It is on the body. The Taker never suspected it was there. The magic that guards it is very strong.
“All my life,” Jherek said numbly, “I have heard a voice in my head at times. Was it one of your people?”
No, Whalefriend, that was another.
“Who?”
That is not for us to say. We only have our part. If you live, you will one day know all. That is all we know. Go. Get the gift that has been held for you. You have far to travel, and there is much danger for you to face.
The whale’s muscles rippled along its back. Taking the hint, Jherek lifted himself from the water and stood on the animal’s back. Even walking barefoot was tricky. The whale’s hide was slick. His stomach cringed as he stepped onto the great whale’s carcass.
The corpse’s buoyancy caused it to bob under his feet. Water rushed in and swirled over his ankles, mixing with the bright red blood. Birds took wing before him, revealing even more of the ravaged flesh. The young sailor steeled his mind and made himself go forward when everything in him wanted to turn back to Steadfast.
“What is my destiny?” Jherek asked.
You are to be the Whalefriend.
Jherek kept going, feeling the greasy flesh twist and turn beneath his feet.
“What am I supposed to do?”
You will be a friend to our people. In times of need, you will champion us.
Jherek tried to imagine anything the whales would need him to champion for and couldn’t. Anything that could kill the creature he now walked on would be far too powerful for him to combat.
You have only just begun your revelations, Jherek Whalefriend. You do not yet know what you will be.
“Then tell me.”
I cannot.
For a moment, the young sailor faltered. Was this going to be another false trail? Another game played by the voice that had haunted him? Or had he been lured to his death this time?
Look to your heart for strength and you will find it, Jherek Whalefriend. You have always been much stronger than you have thought. This is one of the things Song Who Brings Bright Rains has always told us of you.
“How did he know?”
With quiet determination, Jherek resumed his search. The sheer savagery that had torn the great whale continued unabated, and the young sailor knew the sahuagin had eaten their fill of the whale when the Taker had slain it.
He has always known. The whale bard that trained him told
him, and the story came from the whale bard before him.
“They knew about me?” Jherek couldn’t believe it.
They knew someone would come, the sapphire whale replied, and they knew you would be recognized when the time came.
Jherek struggled with what he was being told even as he skidded and slipped across the great whale’s corpse.
“How could they know?”
The whale bards of Serôs have always been powerful in the ways of knowing. We choose to remain apart from most of those who live below and above because most ignore us. In times past, we have been ostracized for being harbingers, and even the surface folk hunted us for the ambergris. You are a sailor, Jherek Whalefriend, and you have ties to the sea. You can feel in your heart the twists and turns of wind and sea. How can you know these things?
Some of the larger birds challenged Jherek as he advanced. The young sailor drew his cutlass and used the flat of the blade to knock the more aggressive ones aside. He didn’t want to kill them. The birds served a purpose in disposing of the body.
“Where is this thing I am supposed to find?”
You are looking for it. You will never find it that way. Close your eyes and feel for it as you felt for the whale song.
Doubt gnawed at Jherek’s thoughts. He felt as though he was in a dream, that he might wake up at any moment to find himself in a hammock aboard Steadfast. If he’d really believed what was going on, what he was taking part in, he didn’t know how he would have reacted. The numbness inside allowed him to remain focused.
The young sailor stopped and closed his eyes. It was hard to concentrate with all the angry cries of the birds around him.
Feel with your heart, Jherek Whalefriend. Your heart will always guide you if you listen to it.
Growing frantic with frustration, Jherek tried to relax. The birds distracted him, but the feel of the dead, rubbery flesh underfoot distracted him more. Still, with everything that had happened, how could he walk away?
He felt it. The small tugging pulled at the center of his chest. He concentrated on the sensation and slowly opened his eyes. Following the tug, he shoved his way through the large, ungainly birds, shooing them into the air.
Only a few feet farther on, he dropped to his knees, knowing whatever he searched for was below him. Water occupied pockets torn from the whale’s flesh, mixed with ropes of congealed blood. A few hermit crabs occupied the small pools, drawing back tightly into their borrowed shells at his approach.
“It’s inside the body,” the young sailor rasped.
Yes, the whale replied. That is where Song Who Brings Bright Rains carried it, as did the whale bards before him. You must cut it out.
Jherek surveyed the dead flesh, knowing the whale was long past any suffering. He raised the cutlass and prepared himself to drive it down into the corpse. His hands shook with the effort, then he lowered the blade.
“I can’t.”
The birds shrilled angrily all around him, fluttering through the air above. Feathers flew as the scavengers battled each other for access.
Place your hand on the spot where the gift is, the sapphire whale encouraged. Perhaps there is another way. The tie between it and you is very strong.
Hesitantly, given strength by the numbness and desire within him, Jherek placed his hand over the spot where he believed the gift to be. Vibrations tingled against his palm. For a moment he believed it was only the ocean rocking the great carcass.
Iridescent tendrils shot up from the whale flesh and encircled Jherek’s left wrist. Panicked, he tried to yank his arm back. On the third attempt, the tendrils still crawling around his forearm, a silvery mass of red, crimson, scarlet, yellow, and pink tore free of the whale’s body.
Do not fear, the sapphire whale encouraged. This is the gift—nothing more.
Unable to get away from the wriggling rainbow-colored mass shifting along his arm, Jherek stared at it. His reflection in the polished sheen stared back at him. The mass smoothed out, becoming a thick bracer that covered him from his wrist almost to his elbow. A protective cuff flared out over the back of his hand to his knuckles. The colors twisted in stripes, each leading to the other. Instead of feeling cold and heavy, the bracer felt warm and light, like another coat of skin though it was nearly an inch thick.
“What is this?” he asked.
Designs surfaced on the rainbow bracer, distinct whorls and loops that looked like nothing the young sailor had ever seen.
It is your gift, Jherek Whalefriend. A gift that makes you one of our pod, a gift that will protect you in your direst need, and it is a weapon that will serve you against the Taker. It is also the first step you must take on the path to your destiny.
Turning his attention from the shiny bracer to the sapphire whale, Jherek demanded, “What destiny?”
Again, it is not for me to say.
“I won’t accept that,” Jherek declared.
He pulled at the bracer, managing to get a finger down inside the tight fit along his arm. Even then he thought the bracer only allowed him to do that so he wouldn’t hurt himself. As he continued to dig, the bracer turned liquid under his questing finger—for just a heartbeat—and he pulled through. The bracer flowed back together almost instantly and was solid once more.
You have no choice.
“I will always have a choice,” Jherek said.
You came here. You are the one, the sapphire whale told him. You are the Taker’s Bane. Every choice you make will be right for you and for your destiny. There is no wrong way for you to go. You have only to accept the power and responsibility that will be yours.
“And if I don’t?”
That will be your choice, and it will be the right one.
Jherek looked around at the dead whale and the scavengers covering it. The birds grew bolder, hissing and crying out as they closed on him. He beat them away with the flat of his blade.
“I don’t understand,” Jherek said. “I won’t accept anything without understanding it first.”
You have accepted the bracer, and it has accepted you.
Jherek barely restrained his angry frustration. “There was no acceptance,” he claimed. “It attached itself to me.”
If it had not been time, if you had not been right, that would not have happened. Only the One may wear Iridea’s Tear.
Jherek held up his arm and the sunlight glinted off the rainbow bracer.
“Is this thing alive?” he asked.
No, but it will serve to help keep you living. It will shield you and be a weapon. As you become accustomed to it, you will find that you can shape it to fit your needs. Now be silent, for we must finish the Binding.
The sapphire whale lifted its true voice in song, an ululating chorus that echoed over the water. The other whales joined in and the prickly sensation of an approaching storm blanketed the area.
Questions flooded Jherek’s frenzied mind, but before he could ask the first one, blinding pain flared along his left arm where the bracer touched him. Unable to stand, he dropped to his knees, certain that someone had set his arm on fire.
He howled in agony and crawled toward the edge of the whale’s carcass, scaring birds from his path. As the song continued, he reached the edge of the corpse and thrust his arm into the seawater, sure the wound he was undoubtedly suffering would kill him—or cost him his arm at the very least.
After what seemed an interminable time, the pain lessened, then went away.
Jherek drew his arm from the water expecting it to be burned clear through the flesh down to the bone. Instead, his arm seemed perfectly healthy, as if nothing had ever happened. Even the multi-colored bracer was gone.
Not gone, the sapphire whale corrected. The Binding has been completed. You and Iridea’s Tear will never be separated as long as life remains within you.
Still on his knees, the young sailor held his bare arm up for the whale to see. Water droplets clung to his skin.
Iridea’s Tear will be your badge, Jherek Wha
lefriend. In time, you will come to be known by it. But there will be times that you won’t want to be known at all. The Binding allows this to happen. Think of the bracer upon your arm.
Jherek didn’t want to, but once the thought was in his mind he couldn’t help remembering the image.
Crimson, scarlet, yellow, and pink strands erupted from his skin. The strands quickly wove themselves into the bracelet, again running from his wrist to his elbow, the iridescent surface showing no fractures or lines.
The bracer can be easily hidden again when you wish.
Jherek willed the bracer to go away, but it remained upon his arm.
There is much you have to learn, the sapphire whale said. We will take time to teach you until you are ready to become.
“Become what?” Jherek persisted.
That which you are destined to be. Nothing more, nothing less.
XVIII
8 Eleasias, the Year of the Gauntlet
“To me!”
Laaqueel heard Iakhovas’s thundering battle cry over the din of war even as she twisted from the path of an attacking ixitxachitl. The malenti priestess swept the barbed net from her hip and threw it at her attacker as it spun gracefully around in the ocean.
The weighted net flared out and enveloped the ixitxachitl, sinking barbed hooks into the creature’s flesh. It screamed in rage and pain. Even as the net tangled its wings, Laaqueel drove her trident deep into its body. The ixitxachitl shuddered through its death throes.
“Most Sacred One, let me be of assistance.”
Turning, Laaqueel found one of the sahuagin warriors from the outer seas swimming toward her, his movements already registering on her lateral lines. Bleeding from several wounds inflicted by the ixitxachitl fangs, the sahuagin warrior offered her another net. Bits of flesh clung to the coral and steel barbs woven into the strands.
“I will strip the net from this one,” the warrior offered. “King Iakhovas will have need of you. The demon rays are attempting to rally their forces.”
Laaqueel accepted the net and swam for Iakhovas. She gazed around the ocean floor, studying the buildings that comprised the ixitxachitl community of Ilkanar. Ageadren was the closest ixitxachitl city, but Ilkanar was an outpost town. The tallest structure in the community was the temple, built of coral and stones by the locathah, merrow, and koalinth slaves the ixitxachitls kept.
