Under Fallen Stars (9 page)

“By the precious left hand of Tyr Grimjaws, I don’t know how come you to be with all these deep devils, elf, but you’re gonna regret it.”

The warrior swung the lantern over his head, then brought it crashing down on the deck. The oil ran in a pool, and the flame from the burning wick chased it, starting a blaze that stood a foot high. Startled by the flame, already aware of the way it was quickly drying her skin, Laaqueel backed away. The other sahuagin did too, leaving enough room for seven other warriors to clamber onto the deck.

The big warrior took his hammer in both hands and said, “I’m Fyidler Tross, a sergeant of the Flaming Fist, and I’m gonna send you back into Umberlee’s cold embrace myself!”

He came at her, the hammer raised high over his head.

Even as the water closed over his head and the darkness sucked him down, Jherek tried to get a grip on the sahuagin’s arm. The creature’s strength was incredible, but Malorrie’s training had included ways to make joints work against their owners, and made the young sailor aware of the weaknesses of a hold.

The moonlight pooled silver against the harbor water overhead, allowing him to see the sahuagin’s hand as the sea devil flicked out its claws. Clicking and whistling sounded in Jherek’s ears, warring with the thumping of his own heart.

Two other shapes slid through the water, closing in.

The young sailor thrust his sword up, blocking the fierce sweep of claws at his face. The blade bit into the sea devil’s forearm. Jherek brought the edge down, ripping into the flesh. Blood burst into the water.

The sahuagin whistled shrilly and clicked madly, giving voice to the agony that gripped it. Taking advantage of the moment, Jherek ran his empty hand down his side, then thrust up in the hollow inside the sea devil’s restraining arm. The hold broke, allowing Jherek to go free.

The two approaching shapes glided into view, becoming trident-bearing sahuagin. They streaked for the dockside as they bore down on Jherek. One of them flipped in the water, making a full circle then coming down from above.

Jherek met the blow with his sword, angling it in between the trident’s tines. He was aware of the second unwounded sahuagin streaking in for his stomach, intending to meet him if he avoided the attack of the first.

Holding the sword firmly, Jherek locked the blade against the trident and let the first sahuagin drive him down. The second sahuagin angled by overhead, moving quickly in his headlong rush. The trident missed Jherek by scarce inches.

At home in the water, twisting his body like a dolphin, the young sailor reached above and caught the passing sahuagin’s harness. His fingers knotted in the woven seaweed strands. He kicked out as the sea devil’s momentum carried him along, adding to his speed, disengaging his sword from the trident.

Before the sahuagin he’d caught hold of could turn, Jherek pulled on the harness and swam around behind the sea devil. He couldn’t strike the sahuagin in the back, though. He couldn’t bring himself to be so callous and so unfair. He waited for an opportunity.

His opponent clawed the water frantically, flipping over and stopping almost immediately. That turned out to be an even greater mistake. It allowed Jherek to plunge the sword into its stomach and rip upward. Still, as death claimed it, the sea devil managed to catch Jherek in the face with one foot.

The ebony claws raked fire along Jherek’s face, narrowly missing his right eye. He recoiled, momentarily disoriented as blood swirled up and clouded his vision. The moon was nearly obscured by the dark water as it was, and the blood made it even harder to see.

The blood didn’t blind the sahuagin, Jherek knew. They had the ability to sense movement. He kicked against the dead sea devil, pushing himself toward the surface. His lungs ached for air.

Past the blood cloud, Jherek spotted the wounded sahuagin trying fitfully to stop the flow of blood from its stump. The sea devil’s shrieking whistles pealed through the water. The young sailor kicked out again, nearing the surface, glancing around to try to find the third sahuagin.

Only moonlight kissing the crystalline facets of the sea devil’s chipped-coral trident saved Jherek’s life. He spotted his attacker closing in from the right, shoving the trident forward. Knowing that grabbing the weapon would only lacerate his hand, the young sailor twisted violently in the water, knowing in his heart it was too late and he was about to feel the trident buried in his stomach.

The tines grazed his sodden leather armor, ripping through it and branding his stomach with cold pain. Jherek continued to move, wrapping himself around the sea devil in a wrestling hold with his legs twined around his opponent’s. He looped his free hand under the sahuagin’s arm and locked his palm behind the creature’s head even as the sea devil locked his clawed fist around Jherek’s sword wrist.

Instinctively, wanting to take advantage of the power it held in the water, the sahuagin dived, going deeper quickly.

Jherek’s lungs burned from lack of air and everything in him cried out to let go of the sahuagin and swim for the surface. As fast a swimmer as he was, though, he was fairly certain he’d never make the distance before the sea devil overtook him. He bent to the task at hand, putting more pressure against the sahuagin’s head. The neck bent slowly, like working iron, proof of the sahuagin’s great strength.

The sahuagin’s whistles became strained. Jherek felt his vision fading, knowing he didn’t have much longer before the lack of air started draining his strength. He kept the pressure on, finally feeling the sahuagin’s neck muscles give.

The sea devil’s neck broke with a crack that echoed dully in the water.

Releasing the limp corpse, Jherek turned and swam for the surface. His vision closed in on itself, starting to blot out the patch of moonlight he aimed for. His hand broke through the water and he kicked himself after it.

Light swept toward him as soon as his face cleared the water. He had a brief impression of men standing along the dock, then a gaff pole shoved toward his head. He jerked away, letting the cruel gaff hook slice into the water near him.

“Umberlee take yer eyes, ye thickheaded mutton!” Khlinat roared.

Treading water, Jherek saw the dwarf push his way through the crowd.

A surly man with graying side whiskers shot the dwarf a nasty look and said, “I saw a sahuagin down there, I tell you.”

“Mayhap ye did,” the dwarf agreed vehemently, “but that there ain’t no slithering sea beastie.” He crouched, offering his hand to Jherek. “Come up here, swabbie, and let’s be after having ye out of the drink now.”

Jherek caught the dwarf’s hand, then found himself almost lifted from the water by Khlinaf s strength alone. He scrambled, finding his footing on the dock with his water-filled boots.

“You did see a sahuagin,” Jherek told the man. “There were three of them.”

“Three, swabbie?” Khlinat said, peering into the water and fisting his axes. “And ye did say were.”

The crowd along the dock drew back.

Jherek nodded, locking his hands behind his head to get his breath back more quickly. He glanced out in the harbor and saw the scattered fires. The pirate ships had invaded the harbor now, fanning out in a practiced move that put their onboard archers within range of other ships as well as the docks. Fire arrows blurred through the air, striking ships and occasionally breaking through building windows to land inside. Twisting clouds of smoke above several of the buildings showed that fires had started inside.

The surly man with the gaff hook shook his head and said, “That’s a pretty tale you weave, boy, but I’m not going to believe a stripling like you could kill three sahuagin-and in the water yet.”

“Only two,” Jherek replied. “I cut the hand off another.”

He took a fresh grip on his sword. Out in the harbor, a giant water spider clambered up from below and attacked a dock crew trying to cast off lines. Twelve feet across, the spider reared up on its four back legs and seized two victims with the front four. Before it had a chance to completely devour its screaming prey, ten more spiders bobbed to the surface and scurried over the docks.

A squad of sahuagin warriors rose up from the water and grabbed hold of the pilings. They pulled themselves up while others treaded water and threw javelins into the crowd. Propelled by the powerful sea devils’ muscles, the slim, chipped-bone javelins often penetrated more than one victim. Still more sahuagin leaped up from the water long enough to throw their deadly nets. Over a dozen people were pulled into the water and sank without a trace. Two of the nearby water spiders dived after them.

Pressing forward, Khlinat engaged the first sahuagin to place a webbed foot on the dock.

“Have at ye, then,” the dwarf growled.

He whirled the hand axes before him, gripping them midway up the hafts. His furious onslaught battered through the sea devil’s defenses and turned the trident aside. In another moment, he stretched up and buried one of the hand axes at the base of the sahuagin’s throat. The lights dimmed in the oily black eyes, but there were plenty more to take that sahuagin’s place.

Jherek joined Khlinat, lending his sword arm, feeling his wounds burn. Blood still flowed from the cut beside his eye, threatening to blind him. He wiped the blood from his face with his sleeve.

Khlinat kicked his peg leg up to the center of the dead sahuagin’s chest, then pushed his opponent off the hand axe and back into the water.

“We can’t hold this position,” Jherek told him, blocking trident thrusts with his sword.

The motions came swiftly and certainly to him as they always did. Malorrie had trained him well, giving him one of the first instances of confidence he’d ever known.

“I know it, swabbie,” the dwarf replied, “but we’ll hold it long enough mayhap for them what’s got heart to set up a skirmish line we can fall back to. Just don’t go getting yerself killed afore we’ve got a chance to make our grand escape.”

Jherek gave himself over to the battle, fighting past the homesickness and uncertainty. If the destiny he’d been given was to die here, this night, then he was going to see that it was done rightly and well. Malorrie had trained him to always sell his life dearly.

He batted a trident aside with a deft move of his wrist, setting himself up for a lightning riposte that spilled the sahuagin’s life’s blood from its throat. When the creature grabbed its throat, suddenly more interested in staying alive than in fighting, Jherek grabbed the dying sea devil and used it as a shield.

“Now, swabbie!” Khlinat yelled.

Taking a step back, getting a brief respite from the other sahuagin by hurling their dead comrade among them, Jherek glanced at the end of the dock where men had shoved cargo crates into a defensive line.

“Quick as you can!” Khlinat turned and followed his own advice, sprinting for the crates.

Jherek didn’t hesitate. He deflected a pair of thrusts from two different tridents, took a step to the side, and cut the hamstrings of both legs on a third sea devil as the creature tried to turn and face him. Wheeling, drawing his blade back, he strode forward, putting a shoulder into the sahuagin’s midriff and knocking it back into the others.

Slipping in the blood covering the dock for only a moment, Jherek got his feet under him and ran.

A dozen more sahuagin climbed over the railing behind him. Glancing down the quay, he saw the swarm of sea devils pulling up onto the docks. Weapons gleamed in the moonlight and from the fires that were spreading through the warehouses.

Praying to summon the power given her by obedience to Sekolah, Laaqueel held up her palm and thrust it toward the big surface dweller rushing at her with his upraised hammer. She felt the molten heat leave her hand. It only caused a slight visible ripple as it passed.

The spell struck Fyidler Tross with physical impact and dropped the big Flaming Fist mercenary to his knees. He screamed in pain, trying desperately to hang onto his warhammer. Huge blisters covered his flesh, bursting as they filled to capacity, then filling again the way the malenti had seen surface dwellers fry their eggs.

He called on his gods in a faltering voice, then crumpled to the deck, already dead. The other mercenaries gave his death no heed, absolutely fearless in their attack. They engaged the sahuagin with bloodthirsty enthusiasm, yelling curses and impugning their heritage.

Laaqueel set herself, regretting that the battle had to take place on the ship’s deck. She was much more at home in the water where she had the opportunity to attack from above or below instead of merely in a horizontal line. Most surface dwellers never knew how truly intricate the act of battle could be.

Holding the trident in both hands, she blocked a swordsman’s overhand sweep. The blade struck sparks from her trident haft while another man closed in from her left. He’d intended to take advantage of the diversion his comrade created. Instead, Laaqueel ducked under his sword swipe, tangled his legs with the trident haft, and pulled him from his feet unceremoniously. The first man thrust at her, putting all his weight behind his sword.

The malenti glided to the side, missing the familiar feel of the ocean around her. The sword slid through her hair. Before the man had a chance to protect himself, she spiked him with the trident, twisting viciously to tear the wounds open further.

Other mercenaries trampled over their fallen comrades in their zeal to get to her. Laaqueel retreated before them and reached into her harness pouch. She took out a straight piece of iron she kept there. She prayed over it as the men charged her, then released the energy through it. The iron dissolved, consumed by the spell.

Four of the attacking mercenaries froze in place, becoming a momentary blockade for their comrades. The four affected mercenaries fell like statues, their limbs locked around their weapons. Five mercenaries pushed over the other men, still not losing the courage they displayed.

They weren’t like other humans, Laaqueel knew. After seeing the power she wielded, most other surface dwellers would have broken off the attack.