"Aye," a black sailor interrupted. "I heard Arnagus the Shipwright even lost a vessel that he was building in dry dock when the water lifted it out to the harbor. I've been told the waves were twenty and thirty feet tall."

"The sahuagin don't have anything to do with sorcery," Sabyna pointed out.

"Well, they did this night," Narik told her. "In addition to the thousands of sahuagin and the storm, there were all manner of sea creatures who fought side by side with the sea devils."

"How was that possible?" Jherek asked.

"That's what the mages in Waterdeep are asking right now," the sailor answered. "The city's properly defended and warded, but that attack, even with the extra manpower in port, was disastrous."

"Does Waterdeep still stand?" Sabyna asked.

"Aye," Narik replied. "By the grace of the gods and the strength of Lord Piergeiron's arm, and Maskar Wands's and Khelben Arunsun's magic. Many lives were lost, but the sahuagin were turned. In the meantime, shipping's all but stopped coming out of Waterdeep. Merchants are sitting in the ruins of the Dock Ward offering princely sums for any ship that would take their goods out. The only news we've got out of there has been from caravans traveling overland."

"In part, most cargo captains fear the return of the sahuagin," a skinny sailor with a wandering eye said, "and they have been responsible for bringing a few ships down. They sail those cursed mantas and attack any ship alone at sea."

Jherek remembered the sahuagin attack on Butterfly, feeling a chill rattle through him now that he knew that assault had been part of a larger agenda.

"Most cargo ships don't carry a crew big enough to repel a manta complement of sahuagin," the sailor with the wandering eye went on. "I've heard they've taken twenty ships over the last five days, and mayhap more than that since these stories were given only by survivors of attacks."

"The sahuagin haven't ever meant to leave survivors,"

Narik said, "not unless they were planning on torturing them later."

Jherek couldn't believe the numbers of ships the sailors were talking about, or the fact that the sahuagin were acting together so well. For the moment, he forgot his own problems, forgot even that Sabyna had not taken her hand from his arm. His mind wandered, wrestling with the problem of how the attack had taken place and what it must have been like to be there. He wished Malorrie was there to talk to. Though Madame litaar was familiar with history and battles and even politics, Malorrie relished in such discussions. He silently wished he'd been there, able to lend his blade to Waterdeep's defense.

"What the sea devils haven't claimed," Narik went on, "the pirates have. They seem to have gathered in the Nelanther and decided that Waterdeep's ill luck was their good fortune. They've taken a dozen and more ships that we know of that's been bound in either direction in the Sea of Swords."

"That's why there are so many fighting men gathered in Athkatla today," the black sailor said. "The festhalls and taverns are filled with mercenaries and sellswords waiting to be picked up by captains who're courageous enough to brave the waters north of here."

"Lady," Narik said, "if you're bound to Baldur's Gate, talk to your captain if he hasn't already heard. Those are dangerous waters these times. There are some tongues wagging that during Fleetswake in Waterdeep that someone tried to rob Umberlee's Cache and all of this is part of a curse the Bitch Queen has put on Waterdeep."

"They blame the actions of the sahuagin as well on her?" Sabyna asked.

Narik shrugged and said, "Lady, who else could summon up storms and cause the sea creatures that were seen in the invasion of Waterdeep to align themselves with the sea devils? Many sailors have seen Umberlee's hand in this. There's no other explanation."

Sabyna thanked them for the news, then headed out of the marketplace, threading through the large crowds.

"We've got to find Tynnel," she said to Jherek. "I'm sure he already knows, but if he doesn't, he needs to know now, and we need to make plans for the trip to Baldur's Gate. If we're going to make it at all."

"Aye," Jherek replied.

An eagerness moved through him, though, along with the fear. Memory of the pirate-stricken vessel they'd found the boy in filled his mind. He wasn't afraid for himself, but for the pretty ship's mage.

"You try the festhalls and taverns," she went on as they exited the marketplace and walked out onto the street beyond, "while I try the mercantile houses where we normally do business. We'll meet back on Breezerunner."

"As you wish," he told her.

She turned and gave him a fleeting smile, but it didn't quite touch the worry he saw in her eyes. "Be safe," she said, "until I see you again." She gave his arm a final squeeze, letting him know she'd been aware of the prolonged contact as well, then hurried across the busy street.

Jherek stood and watched her, admiring the smooth roll of muscle shown by her breeches and the easy way that she moved, not showing much of a sailor's rolling gait when on land. Apprehension flared through him, though, when she disappeared from sight down an alley leading deeper into the Amman city. It was like a small, cold voice had whispered that he'd never see her again.

He almost went after her then, but he stopped himself. He'd given his word he'd try to find the captain. He turned and went down the street toward the docks where the festhalls and taverns thrived.

"We need to make another attack."

Huaanton regarded Iakhovas silently after the statement. The sahuagin king's stance made it clear to Laaqueel that wasn't something he wanted to hear.

The malenti waited tensely, knowing Iakhovas should have reacted to the king's unspoken displeasure. For the last twelve years he'd lived among them as one of their own and the wizard knew enough to recognize the body language. By rights, he should have avoided eye contact at any cost and perhaps even swum up over Huaanton's head, baring his midriff to possible attack as a rebuke and a show of his loyalty.

Iakhovas merely stood there, his back to one of the four thick crystal windows that peered out over the sahuagin city in the chasm. In fact, he not only appeared unrepentant but mutinous, and Laaqueel was certain that attitude ran over into the illusion he wore for the king.

Huaanton's throne room and audience chamber was huge. Thousands of years had gone into the planning and construction of it. Made of limestone blocks each over an arm span wide and more than that tall, the sahuagin castle looked like another bump on the canyon wall from the outside. It was seven stories tall inside, the lower three sunk into the ledge of outthrust rock spurring from the chasm side, and the other four looking like a natural rock projection.

The throne room was on the second floor down, below Huaanton's personal quarters and treasury. A massive throne carved from whale bone in the shape of a shark leaping from the water with its jaws distended occupied one end of the room. The open mouth contained the seat, large enough even for Huaanton's massive girth.

Images of sharks and sahuagin were cut in bas-relief on the limestone blocks of the walls. The largest stones depicted battles from sahuagin history, myth interwoven with truth until it was all memory. The largest piece, on the opposite end of the room from the throne, showed the meeting of the sahuagin and Sekolah, whom they chose as their god.

The carving of Sekolah, the Great Shark, held a shell in his teeth, shaking it. Tiny sahuagin finned away from him in all directions, coming from the shell. According to history, Sekolah had been victorious in chosen battle against a behemoth of the deep. The Great Shark had gone forth, singing his song of joy and been pleasantly surprised to hear other voices singing back to him. The shell containing the sahuagin had floated up to him on a spray of bubbles, drawn by the joy coming from Sekolah. Once the Great Shark had spread them across the sea, the sahuagin had prospered and multiplied even further.