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.She said, "Well met, Captain Thoster.Welcome to my abode, again."The captain barked orders.The anchor was let out.The ship's launch was prepared for a landing party, and then carefully lowered over the side.Those going ashore would include the captain, Seren, Japheth, and several nervous crew members.Japheth just stared, absorbing all the frenzied activity but apart from it.Whorls and swirls of dazzling color intruded upon his vision, and just as reality seemed to waver in favor of a winding road of ruby, Thoster called him over to the side of the ship where they'd lowered the launch.Japheth forced his mind back from the imaginary trip it yearned to take.Instead, he climbed down a knotted rope ladder into the rocking launch.Anusha's roiling, uncertain outline wavered at the prow.She gazed at the tower, though all aboard the ship but he failed to see her.The crew pulled on the launch's oars, not bothering with putting sail to the single, short mast.Quickly enough, the craft crossed the distance between the anchored Green Siren and the squalid shore.Japheth disembarked.Seawater slopped over the top of his boots and soaked his feet.The odor of decaying fish burned his nostrils.Once the boat was pulled up onto the beach, the landing party made for the base of the tower, Thoster and Seren in the lead, followed by four pirates with their weapons drawn.Japheth brought up the rear.The girl, whose sleeping body still lay in the Green Siren, kept him company.A gaping hole in the tower's base opened onto narrow basalt stairs that circled upward in shallow loops, tracing the tower's circular exterior.When they reached the first landing, the weapon-wielding pirates preceded Thoster and the others into the chamber where their host waited.The room was moist, and the ceiling was so low the captain's hat threatened to scrape it.As before, Japheth's drug-heightened sensitivity revealed a translucent, greenish sparkle to the captain's skin in a regular, repeating pattern.The warlock realized the pattern he saw below the captain's skin resembled the fishy scales of the creature standing before them, she who Thoster called Nogah.Emboldened by his altered state, Japheth broke the mutual silence."You are no sea elf, that's certain."Nogah fixed the warlock with her dinner-plate eyes and blinked.Captain Thoster laughed, and then said, "Nay, sea elves ain't been seen much in the Fallen Stars since the Spellplague.Except for Myth Nantar, their cities mostly shook to rubble, and they're keeping beneath the waves-who knows when they'll be back, or if.Nogah here is kuo-toa.She's a 'whip,' which means something like a queen-in-waiting, maybe.Her folks have been gathering in the waters hereabouts ever since they seized Olleth-""Captain Thoster," lisped the kuo-toa whip, "your swift arrival is much appreciated.But who are these two?" The creature gestured with her staff toward Seren and Japheth.She didn't react to Anusha, who stood at the kuo-toa's elbow in immaterial guise."Nogah, these are the ones I promised who can help," said the captain."Seren is a wizard, and Japheth says he's a warlock.""They can access arcane magic?" she inquired, her eyes blinking rapidly."Yeah, quick studies, they are.I seen 'em both hurl spells, which is better than most the old mages can claim, except for all the liars.""Good," she crooned.Seren stepped forward."Yes, I am here to help; I don't know about him." The wizard waved toward Japheth."Thing is, I don't know with what.The good captain wouldn't tell me.He just kept repeating that meeting you would be worth my while."The kuo-toa gazed a few more heartbeats at Seren, then swiveled to stare at the warlock.Japheth's buzzing thoughts finally lined up enough for him to say "I have the proxy of the shipping magnate, Behroun Marhana of New Sarshel.While I have many talents of my own, I can also call upon my patron's material and financial resources, if I judge what I hear today to be in Marhana's interests."Nogah rasped something in a tongue Japheth didn't know, and then added, "Listen, then, and see."The kuo-toa gestured toward the balcony opening."What do you see?" she asked.Beyond the balcony's stone railing rolled the wide sea.The Green Siren rode the swells, and the numberless marine creatures along the shore continued to fulfill ancient drives to eat and propagate.Japheth also saw the other kuo-toa below the surface, much closer now than they had been before.They must be moving closer in case their mistress needed help in dealing with her visitors.Captain Thoster said, "A whole lot of nothing.So?""I see a world ready to be plucked," replied Nogah.Japheth tried to ignore her squishy, lisping inflection to Common, like she was trying to suck the marrow out of a bloody bone with each word.His state of mind made it difficult to concentrate.She continued, "I see a world crying out for new direction.A world where those who align themselves properly will be rewarded with riches beyond their wildest dreams.What do you say to that?""I see that every time I pull alongside a merchant ship and demand the contents of their hold," boasted Thoster."Baubles compared to what I offer." Nogah sniffed."What exactly do you offer?" asked Seren."I offer you a measure of protection and even control when I summon up old lords and old races.When I call upon antique powers that dwarf any our world has heretofore known, everything changes.I'm offering you the chance to survive that change, and what's more, profit from it.Perhaps even exercise some measure of control over the events that fate might otherwise dictate."Neither Thoster nor Seren had an immediate reply.They seemed a little taken aback.Japheth said, "A very kind offer, to be sure.Especially since most of us have just met [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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