by Mel Odom
Holding on tightly to the grip inside the shield, Jherek narrowly avoided the black, cavernous mouth ringed by serrated teeth and smashed the shield into the huge predator's snout. The impact hurled him dozens of feet from the sea wyrm and almost knocked him out, bet the shield absorbed the brunt of the blow. Iakhovas, incredibly, seemed staggered.
"You'll die for that boy," he said as he turned in the water.
The sea wyrm swam to Jherek's side in a flash of golden light. Fighting the disorientation that gripped him, the young paladin tried to mount again.
Iakhovas's snout was bloodied. His golden eye gleamed.
Jherek tried to pull up onto the sea wyrm but missed. He concentrated, keeping his grip as the dragon-kin pulled him backward. The great predator bore down on him.
Laaqueel swam toward the young warrior trying to pull up onto the sea wyrm. When she reached him, she pushed him up onto his mount and turned to face Iakhovas.
Little malenti, what do you think you're doing?
Laaqueel made no reply. There was none to make. In the next few heartbeats, she'd live or die. She summoned her powers, intending to crush Iakhovas if she could.
Where she'd once felt all the gifts Sekolah had given her, there was only emptiness.
Your belief in the Shark God is gone, Eldath said. As goes the belief, so goes the power. There is no other way.
Helplessly, Laaqueel watched as Iakhovas rushed toward her.
Die, traitorous bitch!
Laaqueel felt the quill stir next to her heart, then it, too, was gone. Before she could move, though, Iakhovas was on her.
Transfixed with horror, Jherek watched as the huge shark overtook the elf woman and swallowed her in a single gulp. Jherek urged the sea wyrm up, feeling the need for air burn his lungs. They surfaced and Jherek grabbed a couple deep breaths before they plunged back beneath the waves. He heeled the sea wyrm around, going directly at Iakhovas again.
"I won't miss this time, boy."
Jherek tightened his grip on his shield as they sped toward their opponent. This time he directed the sea wyrm down, at the same time striking up with the shield. He held the shield edge on, slicing deeply into Iakhovas's side, feeling the hard muscle and rough skin slide along his forearm. The cut, nearly a foot deep and almost the length of the body, bled profusely.
Iakhovas screamed in pain.
Kneeing the sea wyrm, Jherek turned back around, intending to pursue Iakhovas if he fled. Instead, the Taker came at him again, the great slash along his body flaring wide. Behind Iakhovas came dozens of sharks, drawn by the blood spoor Iakhovas trailed.
The young paladin willed the bracer into a hook. The sea wyrm went high this time, turning at the last moment and going over the predator's head. Jherek leaned down and buried the hook in the muscle above the Takers good eye. He held on and let himself be dragged from his mount. He straddled the great shark's head as best he could, then reversed his sword as Iakhovas dived deep.
"I'll take you down, landling," the Taker said. "So far down you'll never make the surface again before your lungs burst."
Fiercely, despite the fear that rattled inside him, certain he was doing Lathander's will and saving the life of the woman he loved, Jherek hung on. He knew if he turned loose and the sea wyrm couldn't get back to him in time, Iakhovas would eat him as well. He couldn't outswim the Taker.
Jherek leaned forward, using the hook to brace himself, and drove the sword into Iakhovas's good eye, plunging it deep.
Iakhovas screamed in pain, and the shrill squeal echoed through the sea. Blood streamed from the ruined eye, but the Taker still did not give up.
Noticing how the golden eye glowed more brightly and remembering how his sword seemed to surprise his foe when it cut him, Jherek pulled the sword free. He steadied himself, pushing the need to breathe from his mind. He rammed the sword down into Iakhovas's eye.
The resulting explosion blew Jherek from the huge predator's back. Dazed, he struck out at a shark that got too near him, turning the animal away from him. He looked down, seeing that the destruction of the magical eye had blown the Takers head almost completely away. In Jherek's hand, though, the sword was miraculously still whole and unmarked.
Remembering the elf woman, Jherek dived after the sinking carcass, spots whirling madly in his vision as his lungs ached for air. The sea wyrm came up to him just as he reached Iakhovas's ruined head.
Jherek peered into the cavern of torn flesh and spotted the elf woman. He climbed into the Takers ruined maw and cradled the woman in his arms, taking her up from the blood and gore that filled what was left of the creature, covered in it himself from his passage. For a moment, the young paladin believed the elf was dead. The great teeth had torn her body in several places.
The gills on the side of her neck feathered, and she opened her eyes and looked up at him.
Jherek's whole body ached. If they hadn't been in the water, he didn't think he'd have the strength to lift her. He turned and started toward the grievous wound where the Taker's head had been, but his legs failed him. His lungs were on the verge of bursting.
The sea wyrm batted furiously at the sharks that came for the fallen giant, keeping them free of the wound. Still, it wouldn't be long before the sharks overpowered even it.
Out of breath, spots swimming before his eyes, refusing to believe that he could fail now, Jherek sagged, struggling to keep his mouth closed, struggling to keep from taking a breath.
The woman in his arms took his face in her hands and pulled his mouth to hers. At first, he resisted, but even her weak strength was greater than what waned within him. She held her mouth on his and opened her lips. The gills on the side of her neck flexed and she blew air against his closed mouth. Bubbles raced for the surface.
Understanding, Jherek opened his mouth and received the breath of life she pushed into his lungs. He drank deeply from what she had to give, then stood again and pushed them out into the ocean.
He caught hold of the sea wyrm and pulled them onto it, holding the woman in his arms as she held onto his face.
Gazing at the Taker's corpse, watching it settle slowly into the black depths of the sea, the young paladin saw the sharks feeding at the raw meat and knew in hours it would be gone.
Epilogue
The Sea of Swords,
7 Uktar, the Year of the Gauntlet
"Jherek!"
The young paladin glanced up, hearing the sound distorted by the water.
Pacys swam down for him, protected by the magic bracelet. He stopped when he saw Jherek was on his way up, then swam alongside.
When they reached the surface, Jherek breathed deeply and shook the water from his eyes. He was facing east, toward the green lands he saw along the coast. Morning had only lately come, filling the sky with pinks, oranges, yellows, and reds.
"I saw the end," Pacys said excitedly. "I witnessed your battle with the Taker and your triumph. Blessed Oghma, I will have my song and my name will be known throughout Faerun. There will not be a shore you ever touch, Jherek, that will not know your story."
"Aye," Jherek said, embarrassed, "but make sure you don't make my part too big, old bard. I played such a small part in everything, and I have never been a hero."
The woman in the young paladin's arms hacked and shifted weakly.
For the first time, Jherek noticed the shark's tooth embedded between her breasts near her heart. He sluiced water over her, washing away the clotted hunks of meat from the Taker's corpse.
The woman smiled weakly as she peered down at the tooth. "Even in death," she rasped, "he has managed to kill me."
"Her name is Laaqueel," Pacys said quietly. The mermen learned of her at the Battle of Voalidru. She served the Taker."
"Not in the end," Jherek replied, washing the blood from his hands and slipping the cutlass through his sash. "In the end she stood for what was good and right."
"It's better this way," she whispered. "I am finished."
Her eyes glazed
slightly.
"No," Jherek promised, drawing on the powers Lathander had seen fit to give him.
He prayed to his newfound god who watched over him for so many years, waiting until it was time to reap the harvest, and he asked for the Morninglord's blessing.
The young paladin put his hands on the woman's breast, cupping the embedded shark's tooth. As he continued to pray, golden light gleamed from his palms. The tooth shattered and fell away. Blood gushed from the wound, but he placed a hand over it and continued praying. When the golden gleam dimmed, he scooped water over her chest, washing the blood away, and revealed only whole, unblemished skin.
"No," Jherek repeated. "You'll not die this day, lady." He helped her sit, seeing the amazement on her features. "Lathander is a god of beginnings, not endings."
Laaqueel slipped from his grasp and slid into the water. She broke eye contact.
"Gratitude is not something I was brought up to believe in. My people have always taken what they wanted, and it was a weaker being's ill luck to have it taken from them." She glanced back at Jherek and added, "But I thank you for my life. There are new currents in it that I would follow."
"I wish you well in them," Jherek said, "and I thank you for saving my life."
Without another word, Laaqueel dropped under the ocean and out of sight.
"Jherek!"
Twisting, the young paladin spotted Sabyna standing on a ship's forecastle beside Glawinn. Jherek urged the sea wyrm forward and it cut across the ocean through the shattered remains of other ships, the longboats filled with pirate survivors, corpses, and the sharks that fed on them.
Khlinat threw a cargo net over the side and called, "Pipe aboard, swabbie. We done found us a ship that a gaggle of pirates didn't have the guts to keep once we decided we liked the look of her. The dwarf was splattered in blood, but not much of it looked like his. He offered a hand as Jherek climbed aboard. "Ye done for that bad 'un, yeah?"
Jherek nodded and glanced at the ship. The stern mast was broken, the rigging was in tangles, and most of the canvas was gone.
"Aye," Khlinat bellowed, "she ain't no pretty 'un, swabbie, I'll grant ye that, but she's tight as a duck's arse and she's got some promise."
"There's also a pretty impressive cargo below," Azla said. She stepped up from the hold, limping only a little. "No matter where we're at, we're not going to be broke. Well find a port and get this ship fixed up."
"Then where, Captain?'' Jherek asked. "Back to the Sea of Fallen Stars?"
Azla hesitated, then smiled a little. "I don't know," she said. "I'm beginning to think I've been around you and Glawinn too long. The life of a pirate doesn't hold quite the allure it once did."
"And maybe you've taken a better look at yourself," Glawinn said, cradling his injured arm as he approached. "Maybe you aren't as uncaring or disbelieving as you think you are."
"Back off, Sir Knight," Azla said with only a trace of humor. "I'm quite capable of finding my own way. Without your help."
Glawinn turned his gaze on Jherek and asked, "What about you, young warrior? Where are you bound?"
Jherek looked at Sabyna, then took her into his arms, enjoying the warm feel of her.
"Home," he said, looking into her eyes. "I want to see
Madame Iitaar and Malorrie again, and make sure old Finaren and Butterfly are still hale and whole."
Glawinn softened his voice. "Not all of your troubles are over, young warrior. Your father and his crew still roam the waters along the Sword Coast."
Sabyna gazed into Jherek's eyes with her copper-colored ones. "Whatever his troubles may be," she promised, "great or small, he'll never have to face them alone."
"Lady," Jherek began, "you don't know the kind of trouble-"
The ship's mage placed her hand over his mouth. "No," she bade him, "no arguments. There's been enough of those. I mean what I say, Jherek, and I ask only that you love me in turn. Without restraint, without remorse. With all of your heart." Tears glittered in her eyes, but she was smiling.
Jherek held her to him tightly, smelling the lilacs in spite of the brine that clung to her. He grinned at the dawning sun in the eastern sky and said, "As you wish, lady."
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