As the island was fading from view, so, too, was it time to put it from his thoughts, as he'd put so many comparable episodes behind him. But as yet, he hadn't managed to close the door on the memories.

Tu'ala'keth sat in the bow. "You are troubled," she said, "even though we have now accomplished the first portion of our task. Do you regret killing Shandri Clayhill?"

He didn't feel like talking about it. But by confiding in Tu'ala'keth, he would inspire her trust in turn, and that was what he wanted. So, as was so often the case, his honest inclinations didn't matter. "I shouldn't. She was an enemy of my homeland, and anyway, you gave her a chance to save herself. But I do."

"You and I should not have attachments. Not now. Nothing should distract us while we are blades in Umberlee's hands."

His lips quirked upward in a bitter smile. "That's the way I always live: Only the task matters."

"It is the best way to live. You should rejoice in possessing such a spirit. But I see you do not. Not tonight."

Off to starboard, something splashed. He wondered if it was one of the seahorses keeping pace with them. "No, not tonight."

"I do not blame you. We must strive to emulate Umberlee, but we cannot be as fierce and dauntless as a goddess, no matter how we try. I, too, have my weaknesses and doubts."

"You hide them well."

"Nevertheless. I misjudged Vurgrom twice. I never dreamed he'd assault me, no matter how I teased him, and I imagined the threat of humiliation would deter him from sending his underlings to kill us."

He shrugged. "It's understandable you made mistakes. Humans are strange to you."

She hesitated. "But I also lied to you, Umberlee's champion, my comrade in a sacred venture, and for that I am truly sorry."

He squinted at her, but even though she wasn't wearing her goggles, he couldn't read her narrow, fine-boned face in the dark. "What are you talking about?"

"I said that when we shalarins reestablished contact with our kindred in the Sea of Corynactis, the vast majority of us forsook Umberlee for the gods of our ancestors, and that much is true. That was the impetus. But this is what I did not tell you: The others did not abandon all the deities of Faerun. Though they pay homage to the old powers, they also still gather at the altars of Trishina, Persana, and Eldath. It is only the Queen of the Depths whom they have scorned."

He shook his head. "I don't understand why you bothered to lie about that. For our purposes, what's the difference?"

"None. But it reflects poorly on me, does it not? Were I as able a priestess as the clerics of Trishina and the other deities, I too could convey the glory of my patron and inspire her worshipers. Or so it seems to me when I grow discouraged. I misrepresented the situation to hide my shame."

"You're too hard on yourself. You talk about the beauty and grandeur manifest in Umberlee's cruelty, but surely you understand that no matter how eloquently you describe it, most people will never understand." The Grandmaster knew, he didn't. "They'll keep praying to her solely out of fear, and look for excuses to turn away."

"Hmm. It may be so."

"Anyway, don't fret over what you told me. It was just one tiny, insignificant deception in a whole life of lies, hearing and telling them both." He sighed.

"Plainly, I do not understand humans. I hoped conversation would brighten your mood, but thus far, I have failed at that as well. Does it help to reflect that you only knew Shandri Clayhill briefly and that she never really knew you at all?"

"No, because that's true every time I take a lover. I'm always playing a part, and I always slip away when my job in that port is finished. But I'll tell you what does cheer and frighten me at the same time: I may be done with it now. Out of the game."

"Spying, you mean?"

He nodded. "I know two ways to go about it. The first is to be as inconspicuous as a mouse-or rat-and sniff around the edges of secrets. It's safer, and because nobody really notices you, you can come back and spy on the same rogues another day.

"So that's the way I've always preferred, but it won't always yield the information you need in time to do anybody any good. When it won't serve, you have to hobnob with the chief scoundrels. You have to establish yourself as a friend, an important accomplice… or a lover."

"But then," said Tu'ala'keth, "it is more likely your foes will recognize you for what you truly are and remember you thereafter."

"Yes, and that's what's happened to me. I can't spy on pirates and smugglers anymore, not with Teldar and Vurgrom themselves knowing my identity. Of course, Turmish has other enemies. My masters could reassign me somewhere removed from the sea. But I don't know if I want that. Maybe this turn of events is a sign it's time to try something else."

"My friend," said Tu'ala'keth, her cool contralto voice unusually gentle, "you must remember: Your life is not your own to use as you wish. You belong to Umberlee. Someday, if we are victorious, she may release you from her service. But for now, perhaps it is unwise to anticipate, lest it make you discontent."

"Right." He realized he had more to say to her, and even though he knew it would be futile and counterproductive, the sudden urge was too strong to resist. "Tu'ala'keth, our errand… I warned you before, the Cult of the Dragon will never help you kill wyrms. It's contrary to everything they believe."

"They pay homage to the dark powers. They will bow to the will of Umberlee."

"No, they won't. They may have priests among them, but even so, their truest gods are dragons and their own delusions. You need an impressive achievement to convince the other shalarins to return to your faith, I understand that, but helping me fight the cult will do it. I explained they're a threat to your world as much as mine."

"Even if that is true," said Tu'ala'keth, "no one in Seros knows of the menace, so no one would notice its elimination. What people do perceive is the dragon flight, slaughtering everything in its path. That is the doom we must avert."

"All right, I'll concede that. But after the Turmian navy takes the cult enclave, you and I can pore over the papers, spellbooks, and what have you. Maybe the answer's in there."

"What if they destroy the records when they see their cause is lost? What if the only man who could help us dies in the assault? What if it takes so long to summon your fleet that Seros perishes in the meantime? No. We will do it my way."

"Let's at least approach the cultists like spies as opposed to rapping on their front gate like peddlers."

"Impossible. They are members of a secret fellowship ensconced in a remote and hidden stronghold. How could we, or any strangers, pass among them without attracting notice? Oh, we could scout their fortress from a distance, perhaps even sneak in and out in the middle of the night, but that will not further our purpose."

"It might. Somehow."

She smiled, her teeth a gleam of white in the gloom. "I realize you think I am reckless, foolish-" "Suicidal."

"But you must have faith. Never forget you are Umberlee's knight, now graced with her sacred sword, a mark of greater favor even than the blade she permitted you to take from her altar."

Enough of this, he thought. I tried, but you wouldn't listen. What happens next is your own fault.

They talked a little more then fell into a weary, companionable silence. Sail distended, propelled by the wind Tu'ala'keth had conjured, the boat rose and fell as it cut through the swell. The motion was soothing, and he hoped it might soon rock her to sleep.

Then, unexpectedly, her pride in him gave way to a twinge of apprehension then to full-blown dread. Her emotions changed for no reason she could comprehend- until the filthy street transformed into Captain Teldar's sailboat, with the mast rising above her recumbent form like a finger pointing at the stars.

The slumber of her people differed somewhat from that of mermen, or, she assumed, humans, because of the membrane that veiled a shalarin's eyes. Unlike those flaps of opaque flesh called eyelids, it was translucent enough to allow unconscious recognition of prominent shapes, which often then figured in the sleeper's dreams.

Thus, she'd registered Anton's proximity. The spy had risen from the bow, drawn the greatsword, and crept to within reach of her. Now he was poising the blade for a death stroke. The mast and triangular sail were in the way, hampering the sort of cut for which the weapon was designed, but he'd evidently decided a thrust would do.

She tried to spring to her feet, but her wounded leg throbbed and made the action slow and awkward. She realized she had no chance of avoiding the blade.

In desperation, she silently called to the wind. She'd conjured it sometime ago, long enough that it might no longer heed her, but it seemed her only chance.

The wind howled, gusting from a different quadrant than before, and the boat bucked violently. Anton lurched off balance and flailed, fighting to avoid toppling overboard. In such a condition, he couldn't complete the attack, and Tu'ala'keth dived over the side.

As always, she felt a thrill of relief as the sea embraced her. She belonged in the water, and no silverweave or goggles, no matter how artfully crafted, could make it seem otherwise. But she didn't pause to savor the familiar sensations of her natural environment, the caress of the currents and the perpetual background drone. She was too angry.

After all they'd endured together, she'd believed Anton accepted his role in Umberlee's plan. She'd certainly done everything in her power to teach, inspire, and reassure him. Yet evidently her efforts had gone for naught. The human had betrayed her-and, far more important, the goddess-as soon as he discovered an opportunity.

He could have known glory as Umberlee's faithful champion. Now, by his own choosing, he was only a tool for Tu'ala'keth to use, of no more intrinsic worth or significance than Vurgrom or Shandri Clayhill.

He was a tool, moreover, that had evidently outlived its function when they escaped from Dragon Isle. Now the intelligent course of action was to kill him, just to ensure he never found another chance to hinder her schemes.

She sneered to think how easy it would be. She was safe below the waves where he couldn't reach or even see her, and he was afloat on a vast expanse of water that would answer to her whims. Her battles in Immurk's Hold had depleted both her magic and her stamina, but she had enough of both remaining to obliterate a single apostate air-breather.

She gripped the drowned man's hand, reviewed the deadliest spells she had left for the casting, chose one… and hesitated.

She'd leaped to the conclusion that Anton had nothing more to contribute. Such was her disgust that she was eager to believe it. But perhaps she was being too hasty, for after all, Umberlee had taken care to place this particular instrument in her hands. The signs had been unmistakable.

Tu'ala'keth thought for a moment then smiled anew. She understood what role the traitor had yet to play, and in all likelihood, it would involve a more painful demise than a quick death at sea.

Her objective, then, was to subdue rather than slay. It would require more finesse, but still should prove easy enough.

One of the seahorses came flitting inquisitively around her. She shoo'd it away and swam to the surface. Anton crouched in the boat gazing out over the swells. He'd exchanged the greatsword for the crossbow they'd found packed away with the other supplies, but it didn't matter. He didn't notice the top of her head sticking up into the air.

Well, if he didn't see her now, he'd missed his chance. She whispered an incantation, and fog came steaming up from the water, hiding the boat in billowing masses of vapor.

Or at least, the fog hid it from anyone above the waves. She could make out the tapered shape of the hull perfectly well when she dived back under the surface, and thus had no difficulty aiming her next spell.

The water immediately beneath the boat heaved itself up into a towering crest. The vessel hung at the top for a moment then plummeted down into the trough beside it. She allowed a heartbeat or two for the sea to come smashing over the sides then lifted the boat and dropped it again.

Though she kept it up until the spell expended all its power, Anton never did tumble into the sea. He must have been hanging on tight. Still he was surely soaked and battered, half drowned, and blind in the mist as well.

She reached out with her mind, meshed her thoughts with the simpler, nonverbal ones of the seahorses, and visualized what she wanted them to do. Obedient as ever, they swam astern of the sailboat, ascended to the surface, and splashed about, raising a commotion to hold Anton's attention.

Tu'ala'keth glided to the bow and pulled herself up. Her wounded leg gave her a twinge, but she still managed to clamber quietly aboard.

The fog veiled everything. The mast and sail were blurred and ghostly. Anton appeared as the vaguest shadow at the far end of the boat. But she'd pinpointed his location, and that was enough.

She stooped and picked up her trident, still lying where she'd left it in her haste to escape. She reversed it to use the heavy stone shaft as a cudgel then crept toward the stern. She picked her way around the sail and continued.

She aimed the butt of the trident at his head, and at the last possible moment, he sensed her presence. He jerked around, lifted a fold of his cape to guard himself, and discharged his crossbow, one-handed, in a single flurry of motion.

Her thrust glanced off the enchanted garment as if it were a sturdy turtle-shell shield. Fortunately, haste, or the soaking his weapon had received, spoiled his attack as well. The bolt flew wild.

He raised the crossbow to use it as a bludgeon, but she was quicker. She smashed the blunt end of the trident into his solar plexus, where, at this moment, the cape didn't cover. That froze him in place, and she bashed him over the head. He collapsed. She kept beating him until he stopped moving.

Like the rest of the Pirate Isles, Tan was in its essence a huge rock sticking up out of the sea, with some greenery on the lower slopes but little on the heights. But unlike Dragon Isle, it was volcanic, its flanks sculpted by ancient lava flows.

As Vurgrom had warned, Tu'ala'keth could see no sign of habitation beyond a few abandoned-looking cottages and shanties, and the beached, decaying husks of a couple of fishing boats. Yet the cove where the empty village rotted appeared to be the only safe or convenient place to land. Should she put in there?

No, she decided, definitely not. If the cult-ists were as jealous of their privacy as their reputation indicated, they might well have set a trap. It would be awkward if she had to fight her way clear, perhaps hurting or killing someone, before she even had a chance to explain her purpose.

She rummaged through her sea bag, found the pellet that would enable Anton to breathe underwater, and crouched down beside him. His face bruised, cut, and bloody from the thrashing she'd given him, he lay bound and gagged-and thus unable to conjure-in the bottom of the boat.

She pulled the cloth from his mouth and showed him the spherule. "Eat this," she said.

"No," he said. "Tu'ala'keth, don't do this."

"Refuse if you wish," she said, "but you are going beneath the waves either way. I may still have a use for you, but I no longer need you, and it would please me to watch you drown."

Glaring, he opened his mouth, and she gave him the pellet. After he chewed and swallowed, she replaced the gag.

She had no further use for the sailboat, so didn't bother lowering the sail, dropping anchor, or otherwise securing it. Let the sea have it for a toy, to toss about and finally sink or shatter. She bound Anton and her other possessions to the seahorses, who disliked it but suffered it at her behest. Then they swam for shore.

As when approaching Dragon Isle, she and her unwilling companion parted company with the mounts in the shallows and waded onward. They had to clamber over a jumble of rocks, with waves crashing to spray all around them and an undertow dragging them backward, to exit the water. She'd loaded Anton with the baggage. Denied the use of his hands, he couldn't manage by himself. She grabbed his forearm and heaved him up, then waited for him to retch the water from his lungs. With the gag in place, it mostly came out his nose.

"I intend," she said, "to circle around and approach the village from higher up the slope. You will move quietly, or I will kill you."

He jerked his chin at one of the sea bags she'd tied to him then gave her a sardonic look. She understood: His bonds and burdens were scarcely conducive to stealth.

"You must do the best you can." She jerked the length of rope she'd knotted around his neck. "Onward."

Once they climbed above the settlement, it was easy enough to discern that which had been imperceptible from the water. A cog, entirely seaworthy by the look of it, though the crew had taken down the two masts to facilitate concealment, listed on one side behind a screen of brush. Voices muttered from one of the dilapidated shacks.

Brandishing her skeletal pendant, Tu'ala'keth whispered a prayer to augment her force of personality. Then, gripping her trident in one hand and Anton's leash in the other, she stepped out into the open. "Men of the Cult of the Dragon," she called, "come forth!"

But the startled creatures who emerged from the shanties weren't "men," but rather, to all appearances, hybrids of human and wyrm. They walked on two legs and carried spears but stood half again as tall as a man-or shalarin. Their hides were scaly, and batlike wings sprouted from their shoulder blades. Tails lashed behind them, and they had the faces of lizards, framed by jagged bony ruffs and manes of coarse black hair.

Before their falling out, Anton had told Tu'ala'keth of such brutes. They were called dragonkin and sometimes served the cult. She'd already been sure-well, nearly-that the wyrm worshipers had established themselves on Tan, but it was nonetheless gratifying to behold incontrovertible proof.

But the reptiles gave her scant time to savor the moment. They glowered at her and Anton for a second, and one hissed and hefted his lance for throwing.

"Stop!" she cried, and the magic locked his limbs in position. Before he could recover, or any of the others could decide to attack, she advanced on them, glaring. She wanted them to think her fearless, and to assume she had good reason to be. She wanted them to imagine her powerful enough to strike them all dead in an instant.

"Do you not see my amulet?" she demanded. "I am a waveservant, a priestess of Umberlee, who holds you all in the palm of her hand so long as you dwell in the midst of the sea. Now, who else wants to strike at me?"

None of them did, apparently.

"Good," she said. "Which of you is in charge?"

The largest of the dragonkin snapped its leathery wings and sprang forward. Its hide was ocher with brownish spots and bands, and in addition to its spear, it wore a scimitar-a symbol of rank, perhaps. Its flesh had a dry, musky smell. She sensed it was leery of her but, even so, averse to appearing meek in front of its underlings.

"How you get here?" it growled.

"We swam."

"Why?"

"I must see the master of this place. To deliver a message from the Queen of the Depths."

The dragonkin grunted. "Not supposed to take strangers up mountain. Supposed to kill."

"You cannot thwart the will of the greatest of all goddesses, but you are welcome to try. If I have to walk over your corpses to reach my destination, so be it."

"Uh, no. We go up. No fish-woman come here before. Maybe Eshcaz or wearer of purple will want to see. Or maybe Eshcaz want to eat." The creature waved its clawed hand at the trail snaking up the mountainside.

The cult enclave was larger than Anton had imagined it could be. He started to realize it during the hike up the mountain. In certain hollows, where no one out at sea could spot them, slaves toiled, tending crops, and dragonkin lashed them with whips and bastinadoes when they faltered. Perhaps some of the thralls had dwelled in the empty village on the beach before the wyrm worshipers staked their claim to Tan. Others must be captives purchased from the pirates of Mirg Isle. All were gaunt and haggard from hunger, ill treatment, and despair.

The actual stronghold was equally grim, and even more impressive. Anton had suspected a honeycomb of caverns inside the cone of the volcano but hadn't dreamed they'd prove so extensive, so well populated, or so a-bustle with activity. Goldsmiths labored over glittering gems and precious metals, crafting intricate medallions too large for a human to wear. Sweating alchemists squinted into fiery kilns or supervised heated liquids as they bubbled, steamed, and streamed through twisting, forking mazes of glass pipe. Black-robed priests of Velsharoon, god of liches and necromancy, chanted before a sarcophagus-or an altar carved in the shape of one-in a chapel reeking of carrion. Wizards declaimed their own spells, invoking spirits Anton could glimpse at the periphery of his vision, but which vanished when he looked at them directly. Seers tossed bones and examined the patterns or stared into churning mirrors. The discharge of so much magic in a single place made the eyes water and the stomach squirm.

A smell somewhat like the body odor of their dragonkin escort-the reek of actual wyrms, Anton assumed-lingered everywhere, and he spotted at least three of the colossal creatures, prowling restlessly through gloomy passageways or napping in unused galleries. As most dragons were powerful spellcasters, he assumed it was pride that kept them from pitching in to help with the arcane chores their worshipers had undertaken on their behalf.

He'd never seen a dragon before, not even from a distance, and the immense creatures were as frightening as he'd heard. But his predicament had already been about as dire as could be. Dragons only worsened it in a notional sort of way. Perhaps that was why he managed to cling to his composure until he and Tu'ala'keth reached what was evidently the end of their journey.

The dragonkin led them to a huge chamber near the apex of the volcano, where gaps in the walls admitted shafts of sunlight from the summer sky outside. Another breach in the rock, this one a chasm in the granite floor, quite possibly plunged all the way down to a reservoir of still-smoldering magma. Yet plenty of space remained for more slaves to pursue the prodigious, backbreaking task of chiseling a huge, complex geometric design and array of glyphs.

All this Anton observed in a moment, before movement at the far end of the cavern, atop a ledge midway up the wall, arrested his attention. He'd already noticed a shape hunkered there in the gloom, but had interpreted it as a protruding swell of rock. For surely it was too immense to be alive.

Alas, no. A gigantic wedge-shaped head, studded with horns on the beak and chin and larger ones sweeping backward from the brow, shot forward at the end of a serpentine neck. The striking motion carried it into a patch of sunlight, revealing the deep, glossy vermilion of the scales. The titan opened its jaws and roared. The echoing bellow shook the cave, brought bits of stone showering from the ceiling, and suffused the air with a stink of smoke and sulfur.

Everyone cowered, slaves and dragonkin overseers alike. Anton recoiled, somehow tangled his leg with one of the sea bags, and fell hard enough to evoke a jab of pain from his cuts and bruises. But he barely noticed the discomfort. He was too afraid.

Reds were the most terrible of all malevolent wyrms, and he hadn't realized any dragon could grow so huge. It looked ancient-and thus, powerful-as the volcano in which it made its lair.

He waited, petrified, for the red to annihilate him and everyone else, for at the moment he took it for death incarnate. Accordingly, it never occurred to him that it would do anything but kill.

But evidently the roar had served to take the edge off its ire for a little while, anyway, for it didn't follow up with a burst of sorcery or a flare of fiery breath. It simply swiveled its head to glare down at the man beside it. Compactly built, clean shaven, and white haired, clad in a dark-likely purple-robe, the cult-ist looked tiny as a beetle next to the object of his adoration.

"Why are they not finished?" the dragon snarled.

"It's exacting work," the cultist replied in a prim, well-educated baritone voice-the voice of a tutor or clerk. Some trick of the acoustics in the chamber enabled Anton to make out his softer tones even from dozens of yards away. "They have to cut the symbols precisely."

"Sammaster promised that by now, I would already be a dracolich!"

"The First-Speaker said many things then wandered off and left me to perform the actual work. I'm doing the best I can. It's partly a question of manpower. We need more slaves." He hesitated. "Your hoard is greater than the wealth of many a prince. If you could spare just a small fraction, purely to help us bring about the consummation you desire-"

"You dare," the wyrm thundered, the noise so loud it made Anton feel as if someone had slammed him in the head with a club, "ask for my treasure? You dare?"

The cultist abased himself. "I'm a donkey. I beg forgiveness."

"Know this," said the red. "Should you fail me, you won't die easily, not even if frenzy has me in its claws. I swear it by the thousand fangs of Tiamat."

Anton realized his terror had ebbed to a degree. He'd stopped shaking, and his heart was slowing.

Maybe the example of the snowy-headed cultist, who was able to stand up to the colossal wyrm to a point, anyway, had shamed him. Maybe he'd found some encouragement in the fact that the madmen had yet to create a single dracolich, for surely the impatient red was first in line. Or perhaps it was simply his manhood reasserting itself. But in any case, he resolved that whatever happened next, he'd meet it with a fortitude worthy of even a paladin of Torm.

As he struggled to his feet-no easy task with his hands tied behind him and the sea bags weighing him down-he looked over at Tu'ala'keth then sighed in grudging admiration. To all appearances, she was the one person who hadn't flinched from the red's display of temper. Her features composed behind the goggles, she still stood straight and tall.

Of course, like the cultists, she was crazy in her fashion. In certain circumstances, it was evidently an advantage.

She turned to their escort. "You will present me to the wyrm," she said.

The dragonkin stared at her. "To Eshcaz?" it asked, plainly astonished that anyone would seek to approach the red when he was in such a vile humor.

"If that is his name," she said. "It is why you brought us here, is it not?"

The hulking dragonkin shrugged, a gesture that tossed its wings and made them rustle. "Come, then."

They all tramped deeper into the chamber. Anton noticed he was starting to hyperventilate, and forced himself to breathe slowly and deeply.

Soon enough, Eshcaz twisted his head around to glare at her. The white-haired man studied her with curiosity and calculation in his narrowed eyes. She could see now that his dark robe was in fact wine-red, and reckoned he must be the "wearer of purple," human master of the enclave, but subservient to the "sacred" dragons nonetheless.

"I brought a waveservant," the dragonkin called, "and… uh… some prisoner."

"Greetings, Lord Eshcaz," said Tu'ala'keth. "I am indeed a waveservant, the keeper of Umberlee's temple in Myth Nantar, in Seros beneath the sea. I bring gifts and a message from the goddess."

The red made a rumbling sound. It might have been a chuckle. "Give me the gifts first."

"As you wish." She relieved Anton of his burdens then emptied the sea bags to make a glittering, clinking pile of coin and gems, topped with Anton's red cape. The greatsword, however, she set aside. She remained convinced it partook of Fury's essence. Thus, it belonged on Umberlee's altar, or in the hands of a warrior devoted to her service.

Eshcaz stared at the gold and jewels like a starving creature regarding food. His eyes shined brighter, and his forked tongue flickered forth as if to taste the treasure.

"This too is a gift," said Tu'ala'keth. She shoved Anton stumbling forward. "He is one of your enemies, a Turmian spy. He discovered your whereabouts and planned to muster a host to attack you. By the grace of Umberlee, I made him captive before he could report to his superiors. Accordingly, you are safe."

"I'm always 'safe,'" growled Eshcaz. "Do you think any fleet or army could challenge me?"

"Now that she's seen you in all your majesty," said the wearer of purple, "I'm sure she doesn't. Still, if things happened as she claims, she's at least spared us some inconvenience. Now, I suspect, she's going to ask for something in return."

"It is not what I ask," she said. "It is what the Queen of the Depths commands." She began to tell them of the dragon flight menacing Seros and of their role in its obliteration. The slaves' chisels clanked and scraped in the background.

It didn't take her long to realize that, despite the enchantment still in place to heighten her powers of persuasion, her declaration wasn't having the desired effect. Eshcaz, the wearer of purple, and the dragonkin officer all peered at her as if she were babbling nonsense. Anton gave her a sardonic look that said, I warned you.

Refusing to let it rattle her, she kept her tone cool and matter-of-fact as she pressed on to the end. For after all, she hadn't expected them to accede immediately. It would take some palaver back and forth.

"Waveservant," said the wearer of purple. "I regret the devastation of your home, but you must understand…" He spread his hands. "To put it bluntly, we're on the side of the dragons. All of them."

"Nonsense," she said. "You have no way of reaching out to dragon eels, dragon turtles, and their ilk. They don't figure in your plans and prophecies."

"They may," the human replied. "Even we don't know the full extent of the First-Speaker's designs. He may indeed shepherd some of the undersea wyrms to us before we're through. Indeed, I have good reason to anticipate it. But even if he doesn't, we could never conspire to harm any dragon. We venerate them."

Eshcaz snorted, suffusing the air with a sulfurous haze. "Compared to me, Diero, such fishy things are vermin, as is every lesser wyrm slithering about these caves. Your true purpose is to serve and 'venerate' me, and I suggest you keep it ever in your mind."

Diero bowed. "I do, Sacred One."

Tu'ala'keth felt a thrill of hope. "Do I understand, Lord Eshcaz, that you have no objection to helping Seros?"

"None… in principle." The red leered, and she realized he was toying with her. "But I see no advantage in it, either. My servants have more important work to do."

"I have called upon you in the name of the greatest of the powers of darkness, whom we both serve in our fashions."

"You aren't listening. I bow to no one and nothing. Others serve me or perish."

"You are proud," she said, "and given your strength, it is proper that you should be. But surely your long life has made you wise as well. Wise enough to understand that even the mightiest of dragons ought not to offend the cruelest, most implacable goddess of Fury."

"I see no goddess hereabouts."

"Then open your eyes. She stands here with me."

"I don't care if she does. She has no dominion over me. I'm a creature of air, stone, and most of all, flame. Let her appear, and I'll boil her to steam."

"As long as you live on an island, you sit in her hand. She need only close it to crush you."

"I'm bored with this," said Eshcaz. "Someone, take that trident away from her and tie her up. I've never eaten a shalarin. I believe I'll have her for supper."

Tu'ala'keth could scarcely comprehend that matters had gone so disastrously wrong. But when her escort lifted its spear to club her with the shaft, the threat jarred her into action.

"Stop!" she cried. The reptile froze in place long enough for her to drive the trident into its guts. She yanked the weapon free. The dragonkin toppled.

She pivoted, seeking the next threat, and didn't have to look far. Half a dozen other dragonkin were advancing on her, whips and batons at the ready. Braided leather struck at her. She jumped to the side, and cracking, the lash missed.

Anton ran toward the greatsword where it lay on the floor. Perhaps he had some desperate hope of using the preternaturally keen edge to cut his bonds. A dragonkin diverted its attention from Tu'ala'keth for the moment necessary to bash him over the head. Anton collapsed and lay motionless, blood flowing from his scalp.

Tu'ala'keth cast about, seeking a way out of the circle of dragonkin closing in on her, and beyond that, a way of escaping the entire situation. Thus far, she could see neither.

She brandished her trident above her head and bellowed words of power in as theatrical a manner as possible. Maybe the aura of grandeur in which she'd previously cloaked herself made the display intimidating, for the reptiles balked for a moment, giving her precious time to conjure.

Then, however, they scuttled forward once more.

Whips surged through the air, too many for her to keep to the precise, demanding measures of the spell and dodge them all as well. Lashes slammed her, staggered her, split her skin.

Ignore the pain. Articulate the prayer.

Magic rustled through the cave with a sound like a breaking wave, and darkness followed in its wake. Even she, with her sensitive deepwater eyes, couldn't see through the heightened gloom, nor, she was certain, could the dragonkin.

The difference was that, knowing the shadow was coming, she'd fixed the precise location of one of her foes in her mind. She immediately charged, and when instinct told her she was close enough, thrust with the trident. The attack crunched through the dragonkin's scaly hide and into its broad body. It grunted and fell, dragging the weapon along as it went down.

The slap of rushing footsteps and swish of a dragging tail sounded to her left. She freed the trident, pivoted, ducked, and thrust. Though she was still fighting blind, her luck held. The three-pointed lance punched into another target. The reptile floundered backward, dragging itself clear of the tines, and kept on reeling away.

By now, she could hear the wearer of purple declaiming the tongue-twisting rhymes of a counterspell. Violet phosphorescence seethed through the air, scouring the darkness away.

That at least enabled her to see the two dragonkin she'd just speared. As she'd hoped, both were hurt too badly to continue fighting, and by neutralizing them, she'd cut a gap in the noose that had been tightening around her. Beyond lay one of the tunnels, admitting shafts of sunlight.

In all probability, running out onto the mountainside would only delay the inevitable. Still she bolted in that direction.

At that point, Eshcaz reared and cocked his head back. His throat swelled, and Tu'ala'keth realized that even a few more seconds were too great a boon for a blundering fool like her to ask. The red was going to incinerate her here and now.

But the wearer of purple screamed, "No! Please! You'll burn the slaves, too, and we need them!"

Eshcaz spat a plume of dazzling flame. But it was directed at the ceiling, not the floor. Perhaps he was venting his wrath at being balked.

Tu'ala'keth sprinted onward, around cowering thralls, until another dragonkin, one she hadn't noticed hitherto, jumped in front of her. Ruddy with yellow markings and a scarred, truncated tail, this one was armed like a warrior, with shield and sword. It cut at her head, she tried to block with the trident, and it deceived the parry to slash at her flank. The stroke hurt her ribs and knocked her lurching off balance. But it didn't cleave her flesh; her silverweave had spared her any lasting harm. She thrust low; the trident crunched into the reptile's knee; and it went down. It tried to heave itself around into position to threaten her anew, and she finished it off with a stab to the torso.

At that moment, something snapped, a sound like the crack of the whips, or the noise the sails on Shark's Bliss made when a sudden gust of wind swelled them, but vaster. The cave darkened as something cut off much of the light spilling in through the gaps in the upper walls. Slaves screamed and scrambled. Tu'ala'keth realized Eshcaz had spread his prodigious wings and was jumping off the ledge, intending to kill her with fang and claw instead of fire.

Heart hammering, she sprinted. As the dragon slammed down behind her, jolting the floor, she reached the opening, saw it was only a few more strides to the other end, and pounded onward.

She felt heat and sensed immensity at her back. She plunged out of the passage and wrenched herself to the side. Flame boomed out of the tunnel, blistering her skin even though it didn't actually touch her.

Now what? she wondered wildly. She was no safer than before. In another instant, the wyrm would lunge from the hole-But no. If it was going to do that, she'd already hear it coming. She took another look at the opening and registered what, in the course of her frenzied flight, she'd failed to realize before. This particular passage was too narrow for a creature as huge as Eshcaz to negotiate.

But of course he had other ways to go in and out. She'd only increased her lead by a matter of moments. That was how long she had to find a way to save herself.

She cast about and saw a chance.

She clambered along the steep slope. She thought she'd grown used to this strange world where people had to worry about slipping and falling but suddenly she felt slow and clumsy again. The bloody trident was merely an encumbrance now, and she dropped it to slide and bounce down the escarpment.

She resisted the temptation to glance about. It would only slow her down, and anyway, she was sure she'd still know when her pursuer burst out into the open.

At last she reached her goal, a spot beneath which the face of the island became a sheer vertical cliff. The green sea crashed to white foam against the jutting rocks far below.

Someone had once told her air-breathers had an instinctive fear of falling. She doubted sea-dwellers did, but nonetheless, the prospect daunted her. Could anything plummet such a distance without dashing itself to pulp?

Maybe it was possible, with the aid of magic, and certainly she had no option but to try. She gripped the drowned man's hand and chanted, and Eshcaz exploded from a breach farther up the mountain. He unfurled his crimson wings with their purple edges, obscuring much of the sky, and the bright sunlight shining through the membrane made them glow like stained glass.

Tu'ala'keth rattled off the final syllables and hurled herself over the edge, endeavoring, as best she could in her unpracticed way, to imitate the divers she'd observed among the pirates. She tried to fall head down, with her body straight, so she'd enter the water like a knife stabbing into flesh… if she didn't crash down on one of the rocks.

She silently spoke to the wind she'd summoned, bidding it to blast up at her from below. Afterward, she couldn't feel any difference, but perhaps it was slowing her down a little.

Gloom engulfed her. She glanced upward. Wings folded, foreclaws poised to catch and impale, Eshcaz was plunging toward her and looming larger by the instant. Because of the braking power of the wind she'd summoned or through some trick accomplished flyers mastered, he was dropping faster than his prey.

Tu'ala'keth reversed her instructions to the wind. Her only hope now was that it could blow her down even faster than she would naturally fall.

The heaving surface of the sea was dull and gray with the dragon's shadow. She smashed into it with stunning force, missing one of the fanglike rocks by less than the length of her arm, and plunged deeper. The stone swelled wider toward the base, and she had to shake off the shock of impact to stick out her hands and push off, lest she batter and scrape herself against it.

Above her, Eshcaz leveled out of his dive and hurtled along just above the waves. Had he tried to follow her into the water, he would have slammed his huge body into one or another of the rocks, but perhaps he would have turned aside regardless. As he'd said himself, he was a creature of earth and sky, not the sea.

That didn't mean he wasn't still dangerous. She stroked and kicked, swimming deeper, looking for a refuge.

Overhead, a sudden brightness bloomed. Water seethed and bubbled as the wyrm's breath boiled it. But Tu'ala'keth had already descended far enough that the worst of the heat failed to reach her.

She found a hollow space in the roots of the island and hastened inside. A blaze of jagged shadow stabbed down through the water. But it was yards away, and she realized Eshcaz had aimed the magic by guesswork. He'd lost track of her, which meant that, much to her own amazement, she was quite possibly going to survive.