The Sorcerer's Ascension (54 page)

"Tarth, Malek, use your magic on the King before he figures out how uncontrollable this situation has become!"

The air breathers and the sea elves charged as a whole towards the reviewing stand where the King spent his rage on the rampaging creatures. He lifted his trident once again and the temperature of the water instantly dropped where Morkoths and crab creatures were tearing apart his people turned into a huge block of ice, trapping the murderous creatures within its crushing embrace, along with several of his own people. The huge iceberg began to float to the surface carrying its frozen cargo along with it.

 
"Do it now!" Maude shouted to her people.

The wizard released another blast of electricity into the group centered on the King at the same time Malek conjured another geyser of steam onto the priests. The sea elves brought forth another massive growth of the constricting kelp while Maude, Borik, Zathenlanis, and several sea elves charged forward to engage the remaining guards.

Maude and Zathenlanis both closed in on the flailing king, both grabbing onto the trident at the same time while fighting erupted around them.

"Let me have the trident, Zathenlanis; we had a deal," Maude urged.

"With the trident my people will never have to live in fear again," Zathenlanis insisted.
 

"Until someone manages to take it away from you like we are doing now. What happens if someone gets hold of it and turns into a despot? Power corrupts, Zathenlanis, and this thing is too powerful to leave for anyone to abuse. You said so yourself. Let me take it far away where it can never harm you or anyone under the sea again," Maude urged the sea elf doggedly.

"You are right, forgive me. Take it, take it far away with my thanks, Maude," Zathenlanis said as she released her grip on the powerful artifact.

"NO!" King Icxzantrelix cried as his hand suddenly gripped the haft of his precious artifact.

Zathenlanis stabbed at the Pescaran king as Maude and Icxzantrelix spun around and around, each trying to gain possession of the weapon. Maude dropped her sword in order to grip the trident with both hands yet she was still no match for the enraged King's strength and was swung around and shook as if she were nothing more than a child.

Zathenlanis' spear finally bit deep into Icxzantrelix’s back, eliciting a cry of pain, but he still refused to let loose of the artifact.

A flurry of magical bolts suddenly ripped into the side of the King, the pain causing him to weaken his grip enough to allow Maude to wrest it from his grasp. She launched a vicious kick into the King's stomach with her steel-clad foot, sending the dazed Pescaran away from her.

"Let's get out of here!" Maude commanded.

Zathenlanis quickly repeated her order in a high-pitched squeal and clicking sound that pierced through the din of battle.

The freed captives launched themselves towards the surface, the surviving sea elves grabbing the slow-swimming surface dwellers to speed their escape.

"I hope your wizard's spell protects you from surfacing too fast or this is going to turn out very bad. So where is your ship anyway?" Zathenlanis asked her burdensome passenger.

"I don't know! I have no idea how far we went or in what direction we traveled after we were captured," exclaimed Maude.

Zathenlanis closed her eyes and concentrated as the escapees swam swiftly for the surface.

"I have it!" Zathenlanis exclaimed as she opened her eyes and changed course, the others following in her wake.

"I'm afraid we have company," Maude informed the sea elf as she looked back behind her.

Several score of angry Pescarans, hell-bent on revenge and led by their king, pursued the fleeing party that had caused so much destruction and stole their sacred artifact.

"Hold on, I'm going to try and slow them down," Zathenlanis instructed as she passed her passenger off to another sea elf.

She and the remaining sea elf casters broke away from the group and stood in the path of the oncoming mass of Pescarans. The sea elves chanted in unison as the water for hundreds of yards in front of them began to churn into a writhing maelstrom and hurled the horde of attackers back. Strands of kelp then appeared in a massive wall to further impede their murderous pursuit.

Maude and the rest of the fleeing people quickly lost sight of the brave sea elves that remained behind to help them escape. They broke the surface a short while later a few hundred yards from the waiting ship. Maude called out for the sailors to lower ropes and ladders once they drew close enough for them to hear.

"You had best get those sails up and underway because we have a lot of angry fish-people on our butts!" commanded the exhausted adventurer.

"Too late, grab weapons and prepare to repel boarders," Malek said as the first Pescarans broke the surface of the water and started to climb the hull of the ship using their sharp claws to gain purchase on the wet wood.

Sailors, adventurers, and the six surviving sea elves ran to the rails with whatever weapons they had. Pescarans swarmed up the sides of the ship while the crew shoved them back down with long poles, spears, and cutlasses. Several men fired their crossbows at any that surfaced, but the ship crew was badly outnumbered. The horde of Pescarans had swelled and seemed to now number in the hundreds as more and more of the creatures made their way to the deck. For every Pescaran that managed to gain the deck, a sailor or two had to stop guarding the rails in order to deal with them, which in turn created a gap for more of the creatures to clamor aboard to engage the sailors.

Maude recognized the large aquatic man that stood on the deck of the ship with his back against the mainmast lashing out with his spear with deadly effect. Several sailors were engaging, but Maude could see that they were no match for his strength and ferocity as she strode forward, sword in hand.

"You, give me back my trident and I will let you live," the King demanded.

"Not a chance, tuna-boy, you're in my world now," Maude replied as she launched into a fierce attack routine.

Despite being a fish out of water, the king was still a powerful foe, and had it not been for her armor Maude would be bleeding from a half dozen serious wounds already. She pressed her attack, swinging away with her large steel sword, hammering against Icxzantrelix's defense.

Icxzantrelix stabbed like a striking snake at her face, but she managed to duck her head back and force the point of the spear away with her sword. She slashed back at the king's midsection with a riposte of nearly the same speed, but he nimbly jumped back out of her reach and received only a tiny red scratch across his stomach. Icxzantrelix leaped forward and thrust his spear low at her hip. The strike was too fast and Maude was unable to dodge or parry the attack. The point bit deep into her hip just at the top of the metal greaves where chainmail provided protection where the two pieces met to allow the joint movement.

"First blood, human," Icxzantrelix hissed a laugh showing off a mouth full of sharp teeth.

Maude ignored the pain and the king's taunting and delivered a brutal, overhand chop down towards the Pescaran's scaled head. Icxzantrelix easily brought his spear up two-handed to block the blow but in his unfamiliarity he underestimated the power of quality steel. The long steel blade sheared through spear and skull alike as the strike wrought a massive canyon into the king's head. He looked at the human that had just killed him quizzically before dropping lifelessly onto the deck of the ship.

Maude did not have time to celebrate. Her companions and several sailors were busy dealing with the score of sea creatures that had made the deck while the remaining crew tried vainly to keep more from boarding. The battle appeared hopeless until the sound of several conch shells sounding just off the port side of the ship drew her attention.

First scores then hundreds of sea elves broke the surface of the water and attacked the Pescarans still in the water. Dozens of dolphins aided the sea elves by driving their snouts into the sea elves' enemies and the sharks that were aiding them.

Dozens of the aquatic elves were suddenly on the deck of the ship, hurled up and over the railing with the aid of conjured spouts of water. The unexpected reinforcements quickly cleared the decks of enemies, and the ones in the water were rapidly overwhelmed and driven off.

One of the sea elves walked over to Maude and hailed her. Maude embraced the sea elf in an unusual show of emotion.

"Zathenlanis, I thought you were dead for certain!" Maude cried out crushing the woman against her steel chest then releasing Zathenlanis before her friends saw her uncharacteristic display.

"A few of us were able to make our escape after slowing the pursuers down for a few minutes. It wasn't much, but I prayed that it would be enough to get you and the others to safety."

"It was. Without your help, none of us would have reached the ship. Where did all these people come from?"

"I made a deep calling to my people and found that they were close by, preparing to try and free us no matter the cost. I told them that we had broken out but were pursued and bade them to come to our rescue."

"I'm glad that you were able to get away and come to our rescue. I'm sorry that you lost so many of your friends."

"We have lost many of our people over the years, but thanks to you we are safe once again. Take the trident far away and know that you have friends here if ever you need our help. Here, take this," Zathenlanis said as she offered her new friend a small polished shell threaded onto a cord. "If you are ever in the sea and need my help just speak my name into the shell and I will find you."

"Thank you, Zathenlanis, I will," Maude replied grateful for the gift.

"We must go now and return to our home. It has been a long time since we had just one place to call home and it will take a lot of building before it is done. Fare thee well, air breathers," Zathenlanis said with a smile.

"And you, shark bait," Maude returned the good-natured insult.

The sea elves jumped back into the water, several with exchanged tokens of appreciation with the sailors of the ship, and disappeared under the waves as quickly as they had came.

"Well, Captain, how about we get this thing moving and go home?" Maude asked the captain.

"Aye, aye to that. The men will have quite the story to tell when we return to land. I'll wager not a man aboard will have to pay for a drink for some time with this tale to keep the rounds coming eh!" the captain responded as he set his men to raise the sails and get underway.

"Well, we got our king's artifact. I guess we'll be released from our bond now, eh?" Borik asked hopefully.

"I wouldn't count on it, friend. Whatever shadow war our king is involved in, I doubt that our part is finished yet," Malek answered. "Now I'm going to bed. All that swimming has made me exhausted."

The trip back took a full two weeks of sailing and almost another two weeks of horseback riding. They were currently awaiting the King's audience in one of his private chambers. The wait was not long as Jarvin declared an end to court as soon as the message arrived that his peculiar band of adventurers had returned successful.

The King burst through the doors with his advisers, Bishop Caalendor and the wizard
Aeger
Illifan, close on his heels.

"My friends, what news have you brought me?" Jarvin asked eagerly with barely suppressed excitement.

"Your Majesty, I have the pleasure of presenting you with the Shark King's trident," Maude said with the added flair of the embellished name that she had made up for it.

"It is magnificent," the king gasped as he held the weapon in his hands. "What do you know of it, Lady Maude?"

Maude ignored the snickers that the term Lady elicited from the dwarf and answered her king.

"Your Majesty, I personally witnessed the trident hurl a group of fighters across an open arena and freeze several hundred cubic feet of sea water and creatures into solid ice. I have heard that it can control the seas in a large area by creating waves large enough to swamp war galleys and whirlpools to suck sailors and boats to the bottom of the sea."