The Rose of Sarifal (forgotten realms:moonshae isles)

by Paulina Claiborne

  And it was possible they knew the risk as well as he, and this was the way they had chosen to confront it, this light, inconsequential talk about gold and travel. In which case it would be impolite to smother that with weighty and depressing subjects death, say, or dismemberment. Surely they could guess why he had packed the skiff, which now bobbed in their wake, with food and weapons in the hidden, watertight containers below the bulwarks. Only rumors, Kip had said, talking about Moray. The elf hadn t demanded what they were.

  To distract them, Lukas asked a question to which he d guessed the answer: Why do you think Lady Ordalf wants her sister dead?

  The Savage shrugged, answered immediately: She is in danger, for all her power. Because we didn t find Captain Rurik, it doesn t mean he doesn t exist. The human population of the island hates her that doesn t matter, perhaps. But now the fey hate her too, the elves and the eladrin. I have heard that Karador is empty, and many of the eladrin have moved to the vale of Synnoria, where they are free from her. They will not protect her if the Ffolk rise up.

  She has lived too long, Lukas added. Most of the fey were born under her reign.

  How is that possible? asked Kip. Isn t she one of them?

  Yes and no, said Lukas. She s a leShay. The eladrin live three hundred years; she lives forever, almost. There s just one leShay family in Sarifal, and they grow sicker and more paranoid in every generation. Imagine if you had to live in your father s house for a thousand years, live with your brothers and sisters for a thousand years or longer. They cling to each other, and they hate each other, too. Amaranth is by far the youngest, and her mother married out of the family. Polluted the pure blood. Broke the code. Ordalf is her half sister, remember. He put the tiller over and turned west.

  Up at the bowsprit, the genasi watched the headland fall away. Above him the sail luffed, and then spread wide. With the wind behind them, it was as if the sea grew still.

  Motionless, he watched the crew scurry along the decks, and the sails rose around him and the ship shuddered forward. Then he looked down into the water once again. These human tasks were not for him, a creature of the chaos. He took no pleasure from hard work. He shared none of Lukas s joy in making things or changing the direction of events. Those were the consolations of a mediocre spirit, which did not share, as he did, a pure connection to the elements and the water of the world. Now already he could feel the ship find the deeper water of the straits, the deep blue current that flowed from pole to pole, and manifested itself in him, now, here. A cloud of spray rose up around him shining blue and green where it touched his body. Through it, as the droplets fell into the sea again, he could perceive in some instinctive part of his mind, the contours of the rocky channel as the ship plowed the deep, opening up a furrow that led into the sunken sun.

  In time the sky grew dark and then shone black and moonless, pricked with stars. Gaspar-shen lay on his back, staring upward. They d passed the midpoint of the channel, and now he felt the Moray shelf under the ship s keel, as gentle and benign as Gwynneth had been rocky and abrupt. Then something else, a groaning in the deep.

  He flopped over onto his stomach, surprised to see they d come so far. The rest of the crew had retreated to the cockpit, where they crouched over the binnacle under the lantern. They had no need for sounding with him in the bow, feeling the water s depth, the soft sand bottom. But still he was surprised to see the coast of Moray, a black smudge against a paler black, and a fire burning on the hill.

  He imagined the others saw it too, and imagined also the thrill it gave them, the anticipation of some powerful enemy. But under the water there was something greater, a force that issued from the serene inlet perhaps two miles in front of them, the stream that drained the swamp.

  Aft, Lukas stood, his hand on the tiller. Gwynneth was behind them now. Turning to look back, he saw a lighted beacon on the bluffs above the strait, a bright blue fire marking the way they d come, someone signaling to someone, which surprised him and troubled him. But it was too late now to worry soon they d have to take in sail. He pictured in his mind the map of Moray he d once seen, complete with soundings, a mariner s chart almost two hundred years old, prepared when there were still Northlander settlements along this coast.

  He saw it in his mind s eye, examined the contours. Two minutes more and he d have to come about, turn northward once again. He felt almost disappointed. Was it possible the fire nagas of Moray were some foolish myth? No, he d met a Captain Blau in Callidyrr, who d sworn he d seen a ship burn to the waterline and then sink with all hands while an enormous serpent with a human head nosed among the wreckage, looking for survivors. Blau had been drunk when he told him; of course he d been drunk! Why bother to stay sober after such a sight, no matter how long ago?

  So it was almost with relief that he felt something grinding in the timbers underfoot. Hey, he called, and saw the genasi standing in the bow, holding onto the shroud, pointing up ahead.

  And when the sky erupted into flame, revealing a serpent with his head ten feet above the bows, Lukas had time to realize that the old stories were wrong about one powerful detail there was nothing human or humanoid about the snake s triangular, flat head. Blau had lied about that, reciting with horror how a snake with an old man s bearded face had held one sailor by the feet while another with the head of an old woman had seized hold of his neck, like a married couple fighting over a muffin, pulling it apart until the jam flowed out.

  What a pile of shit that turned out to be, Lukas thought, just as Gaspar-shen dived into the water and the foresails burst into flame. Lukas put over the tiller and hauled on the main sheet, but already the boat felt sluggish and unresponsive, and he wondered if she d been damaged below the waterline.

  Take the helm, he told Marikke, and as the boat shuddered and yawed he leaped onto the gunwale, barefoot, his longbow in his hand. The Savage stood beside him with his sword outstretched, the blade glowing with red fire. He was muttering and cursing, and Lukas could feel a prickling in the air, as the sword sucked down energy for a strike.

  Now the boat was well alight, and with his arrow nocked, and with the naga s grotesque head weaving and turning not forty feet away, he paused. Almost overwhelming in its intensity, he felt the sudden, harsh joy of losing everything, of letting go the garbage and detritus of his life. For years he had sailed the Sphinx over the Trackless Sea. She carried all he owned. Not seven months before he had finally paid her off. Fine good riddance with this one shaft he would remake himself clean and new. Below him he could hear Marikke s prayer, and he let fly. Guided by Chauntea and his own skill, the arrow pierced under the creature s chin, lodged in the thinnest part of its neck where the scales were weakest. At the same time a crooked branch of fire burst from the golden elf s sword. The air stunk of lightning.

  The Sphinx had turned into the wind, all lines loose, all sails flapping. Bring up the skiff, Lukas said. The shifter pulled it close, where it bobbed in the chop.

  Another naga lifted its head above the water. Lukas loosed another arrow and saw it bounce off the creature s eye ridge. Bad shot it was difficult to keep his balance with the boat rocking back and forth. He had locked his elbow around one of the main stays and worked his bare toes under a cleat, but even so it was hard to avoid pitching overboard. He saw the creature turn its head, saw its yellow eye brighten as it found the skiff Kip had pulled it alongside, and Marikke was climbing into it. Above Lukas s head, the topsails were on fire. Below his feet, the bow had slid into the waves.

  Another shot this one lodged in the creature s nose. It turned to look at him. Enraged, it left the skiff alone, and as its jaws opened and its forked tongue slipped out, Lukas imagined that perhaps he could see something human in its face, not in form so much in its baffled, malign expression. The ridges over its nose were like eyebrows he could see that now. The nose itself was blobby and big. He sent arrow after arrow into it. While the others climbed into the skiff, Kip stepping lightly, trying at all costs to avoid the spray. The Sav
age caught Lukas s eye, then shouted something that was lost in the flapping sails. He clambered aboard, and Marikke pushed down the daggerboard, raised the little lateen sail, and the skiff was away. It was better like this. Lukas himself would swim for it. He slid his last arrow into the creature s mouth at a range of ten yards, then threw his longbow overboard.

  Burning debris rained down on him. He could feel the heat on his cheeks, and knew the water would be cold. Nevertheless, he stripped out of his green wool jerkin, and when his head was free again he found himself looking into the face of another naga, just risen from the deep, its head hanging as if suspended a few feet above him. From this angle he could see its coarse, flat, wicked features lit with fire, and perhaps a smile. The water sluiced from its neck. One ear dripped with seaweed.

  Mesmerized by fire, even fire of their own making, the nagas would watch the boat until it sank, and they could turn away. By that time, Lukas hoped, the skiff would have found its way onto the other side of a narrow spit of land that stretched out from the coast, would have made landfall. Gaspar-shen, he hoped, would have already found it, would have guided them inshore.

  Now the skiff was a hundred yards away, almost out of sight beyond the circle of firelight and the clouds of smoke. Stupidly, Marikke had brought it around to pick him up instead of racing straight for the beach. Lukas could swim this distance, had done it before. Already they d drifted in enough for him to see the pale line of breakers as they fell on the sand spit. At the limit of his hearing, now that the sails were down, he could hear their rhythmic roar. He could see fire that way, too, torches or flares that spread out in a line as he watched. He waved the skiff off, pointing southward down the beach, and dived.

  The problem with his crew was that even in the best of times, any kind of direct order was worse than useless, even if it was disguised as a suggestion. And in this case, already, he had spoken only of possibilities: This might happen, and so you might have to. Even now, when everything was unspooling as he had predicted in his worst imaginings, still it was possible to misunderstand, or to ignore what was best. And of course none of them had spoken about the nagas.

  Underwater, in the cold dark, he turned away from the skiff and stroked inshore. He would not come up for air, he thought, until he was out of sight. Then they d have no choice but to do what he wanted.

  From underwater he could still see the glow of the burning boat, now behind him. All sound was gone. The water was colder than he d hoped. He dived down deep, then turned, disoriented was that another glow, another source of light below him, or a reflection of the fire on the surface? No matter. A long black tendril uncoiled toward him out of the inky dark and seized hold of his ankle this was bad. Already he could feel a tightness in his chest. Soon he must come up for air.

  He kicked. But the tendril had him now, twisted around his ankle. In the blue-green light that rose up from the sandy bottom, he could see it, thin and whiplike, lined with tentacles. Even in the best and most watertight plans, you had to be prepared for unseen dangers. And these particular plans were nowhere near the best set a new standard, actually, for stupidity and porousness oh, well, he thought, kicking as he fumbled for the dagger at his belt. With the hooked blade in his hand he reached back and thought, I hope I don t cut off my foot.

  It took a moment for his brain, starved for oxygen, to realize what happened next, when he found himself moving inside a nimbus of blue-green light. Gaspar-shen was there. He hadn t gone ahead to guide the skiff. Or if he had, he d come back. The patterns on his skin glowed with a cold, wet fire. Water-soul, water-breather, he swept out his own knife and ran the blade along the tentacled leg that curled up from below, then caught Lukas s arm in his slippery hand and pulled him toward the surface and toward the beach, where the rollers deposited them gently on the dark sand.

  Where are the others? gasped Lukas, when he could speak.

  The genasi shook his head. They crouched together on a spit of sand that stretched out from the coast. On the other side, across a shallow bay, a bonfire burned, inland on the wider beach. That s where we were going to meet, said Lukas.

  Who is that?

  He knew. Black figures struggled on the shore, silhouettes against the fire. The Savage was fighting there, and Lukas watched the silent flicker of his sword, the branches of red lightning. The Savage was a good swordsman.

  Behind them, flame still flickered on the wreck of the Sphinx. Lukas turned his head and watched as it slid softly underwater. To the east, over the black mountains of Gwynneth, the full moon was rising, a bright smear on the horizon. There were no nagas to be seen, and whatever foul creature had held him by the ankle, it had pulled back into its hole or cave to nurse its wound. Everything was peaceful, for the moment. Shivering on the cold sand, Lukas looked up at the sky. Malar s Eye, the red star he d used to set his course, looked down at him.

  I m hungry, said Gaspar-shen. His voice was thin and high. His breath whistled through inhuman nasal cavities. The lines on his bald head glowed dimly in the quarter light.

  You re always hungry.

  I would like some custard pastry.

  I ll keep that in mind.

  For a moment more they watched the play of the Savage s silent lightning. Then suddenly there was another flash of light in another color, a white cyclone of flame. It wasn t just the lycanthropes down there. Let s go, Lukas said. He staggered to his feet, and together they took off at a run, down toward the base of the sand spit and the bonfire there. All was silent as they ran half a mile along the packed sand toward the larger beach. Even with the east wind, Lukas could smell the swamp as they approached.

  They would be too late, he predicted. The storm of red lightning had blown over. In the bonfire s glare, as he stood out of breath on the long strand, Lukas could see the damage it had caused. Two dozen shapes littered the water s edge, lycanthropes caught in the act of changing, or else in their pure wolf s shape, their bellies burned and slit, their guts black and smoking on the sand around the skiff, which they d pulled up and then staved in. More corpses bobbed in the water, or else drifted inshore, all beasts and half-beasts, Lukas saw with relief. Kip s oilskin hat floated on the surface. For whatever reason, they had taken his crew alive.

  He examined some of the corpses for the rose tattoo, but found nothing. All were wolves except for one, a red boar killed in the act of changing, tusks sprouting from his mouth. Everyone had heard of the lycanthropes of Moray Island, but this creature was a surprise to him, until he remembered the shape-shifting pig he had seen in Caer Corwell, in her cell.

  They had ransacked the skiff but left much of value, or at least of use clothes, mostly. Lukas found a wool shirt and pulled it on. He found a pair of boots. Then he unfastened the hidden compartment and drew out his weapons, his long sword, his spare bow and quiver. Queen Ordalf s gold he left behind. But they dragged the ruined skiff into the dunes and flipped it over.

  Custard, repeated the genasi in his high, soft voice. With white chocolate.

  Maybe tomorrow. Lukas wondered if Gaspar-shen was joking, or half joking sometimes it was hard to tell. The genasi had lived most of his life within the Elemental Chaos where, Lukas supposed, custard was in short supply, let alone white chocolate. Right now, he would be satisfied if they could avoid death for a few hours. That would be like icing on a cake.

  Lukas was a tracker, but the trail they followed from the beach required none of his skill, even in the dark. Behind the beach, in the wet, soggy ground, he saw paw prints and cloven footprints only just filling with water the lycanthropes had scarcely ten minutes start. But even so, Lukas knew they d never catch them. They would run like wolves.

  Chapter Three — Black Blood

  Kip, the cat-shifter, came to, trussed-up in the predawn chill, damp soot in his nose. The boy s desire for a bath threatened to overwhelm him, make him move when he knew he shouldn t move.

  When light broke, it would be the third morning after the fight on the beach, where he, Marikk
e, and the Savage had been taken prisoner. Since then the lycanthropes had brought them from the coast, the first day through swamps and forests, the second day through treeless, upland meadows pastureland when men still lived here, when all of Moray was a Northlander redoubt, and where the shaggy, long-haired cattle had been famous. But now finally they were coming onto the spine of the land, the curved ridge of mountains that ran through the middle of the island from Black Giant in the south to Scourtop above them, a line of jagged peaks and glaciers.

  They had not been harmed, despite the twenty or so lycanthropes the Savage had killed when they attacked the skiff. Perhaps their own lives had no more value to them than other people s. They had left their dead unburied or else floating in the water, and they had pulled their prisoners into the fen, along a track through the cold mud.

  But Marikke couldn t run like that, all night like a wolf. Gasping for breath, she had collapsed on a dry island in the middle of the swamp, where Kip and the elf faked a weariness they didn t feel. Unspoken was the need to delay, to allow Lukas and the genasi to catch up.

  But the lycanthropes weren t having any of that. Already half their number had split away north, while the rest had alternately dragged and chased and lashed their prisoners west toward higher ground. Under the full moon they gathered under an oak tree, its bark stripped and cut with claw marks. The ones who still had human faces muttered and complained, while the rest snarled and howled. Scanning them with his bright cat s eyes, the boy could see that there were pigs among the lycanthropes, sows and boars. And there were cats, like him or partly like him. Kip wondered what emergency or cause had brought them together and made them forget their natural antipathy the leader, a wolf lord with a reddish coat, led into the slavering circle a troika of great pigs, who caught the prisoners up in their strong, peculiarly joined arms and flung them up across their backs. Then they could make time.