Paul Thompson - Dargonesti

Across the square, Captain Telletinor saw his commander fall. “Close ranks!” he cried shrilly. “At the double, charge!”

A tide of blue-skinned fury blasted across the market to crush the remaining chilkit. Afterward, sorting through the carnage, Telletinor and his brother officers found Coryphene, bruised but undefeated. The chilkit’s last act before expiring had been to fall on top of him, and he had been pinned there, the monster’s corpse too heavy for him to lift.

Tired and dehydrated warriors were lining up at the water spouts to douse their gills. Coryphene walked among them, shouting, “Back in ranks! Back, I say! You’ll be wet soon enough!”

He led the guards to the quay and marched them out into the sea.

Behind him, the fisherfolk emerged from their houses to survey the scene of battle. A dozen Dargonesti lay dead in the square. They were tenderly taken up so the proper rites could be performed. Seawater was poured on the pavements to wash away the blood.

Axes appeared, and the fisherfolk set to lopping the limbs off the dead chilkit. The creatures were crustaceans, after all, just like crabs or lobsters. The sea elves always ate dead chilkit, just as the chilkit would have done to them.

A small spark lit the darkness that shrouded Vixa Ambrodel.

Tiny points of light, like the stars she gazed at from her window in the Speaker’s house, twinkled above her. She floated under a canopy of cold stars. A red disk appeared on the horizon, a great staring eye-no, it was the red moon, Lunitari.

She tried to move. Pain lanced through her chest. Vixa inhaled sharply, found cool air, and coughed seawater. She was on the surface of the ocean! How had she gotten here? The last thing she remembered was escaping from the flooded Nissia Grotto-and drowning! She had drowned!

“Be still. Breathe.”

Stiffly, Vixa turned her head. The face of Naxos hovered close by. His arms held her up, keeping her head above the sea swell.

“Naxos.” Her voice was a raspy croak.

“Be still,” he repeated softly. “You were nearly dead when I found you.”

She swallowed painfully. “Ar-Armantaro,” she hissed. “Where are my companions?”

He shook his head. “I do not know. You were the first one I saw. I used the magic of my necklace to bring you to the surface safely.”

It was strange to feel wind on her face again. The pain in her chest and head gradually faded, but she was so weary she let Naxos continue to support her. He was treading water effortlessly, his long legs scissoring in slow, powerful strokes.

“How goes the battle?” she asked.

“The battle is over, for now. The chilkit have breached the wall. Many hundreds of them occupy the plain around the city. Coryphene was able to keep them out of Urione proper, but he lacks the power to defeat them.”

“A siege.”

“Yes. You and I have our own problems, however.”

You and I . “What problems?”

“Coryphene sent the sea brothers to the coast of Silvanesti to search for a route for Uriona’s invasion. I was called back and arrived in time to see the chilkit on the plain, and all the land-dwellers fleeing the grotto. No wonder, with the chilkit on the loose and a volcano erupting.”

“Volcano? What volcano?”

“In the grotto. There was fire coming from the mouth of the grotto.”

Vixa blinked at him, uncomprehending. Then she remembered. “The gnomefire! Of course, it burns underwater! I’ll wager you’ve never seen fire like that before.”

“You would be right. By its light, I saw you lying on the bottom. Your soul had nearly left your body, so the only thing to do was take you to the surface.”

He was looking at her with an expression Vixa couldn’t read in the dim red moonlight. It disconcerted her. “You said we had problems.”

“Urione is too far away for you to reach without an airshell, and my necklace’s magic is depleted.”

“Couldn’t you change into a dolphin and tow me to land?”

“It’s two hundred leagues at least, but even if I could, would you leave your friends behind?”

He knew her that well at least. She couldn’t leave Armantaro and the rest. She had to know if they were all right.

“Then what can I do?” she asked, anguished.

The unreadable expression returned to his face. “There is a way you can return to Urione,” he said. The usual brash tone was gone from his voice. “It will require you to make a difficult choice, a choice you cannot go back on.”

Cool wind raised goosebumps on Vixa’s exposed skin. “What choice?” she finally asked.

“With my help, you could become a brother of the sea.” His insolent grin flashed for an instant. “Or I should say, a sister.”

“You mean, become a shapeshifter-with gills?”

“A shapeshifter, yes. But you would remain Qualinesti otherwise.”

Strange as the idea was, Vixa also found it surprisingly inviting. She pondered silently as they bobbed in the waves.

“The ability is permanent?” she asked.

“Once I make the spell, it will be with you always.”

“How do I control the transformation?”

“To assume dolphin shape you must be in the sea. Simply form in your mind the image of the dolphin. By concentrating on that image, you will change.”

“And how do I regain my elven body?”

“Call up a vision of yourself on two legs. Whether you are dry or wet, the change will reverse.”

It sounded simple enough, and what choice had she? Unable to return to Urione, unable to leave her friends. What else was there to do?

“I’ll do it.”

Naxos’s golden eyes bored into her brown ones. “Be certain! This is not like the choosing of a gown. This will change you forever.”

She bristled. “I’m a soldier and no stranger to hard decisions. I’ve made up my mind.”

“As you wish.”

From a pouch tied around his waist, Naxos took a small object. By the red moonlight, Vixa saw that it was the tiny image of a dolphin, carved from some lustrous white stone. Naxos told her to lie on her back in the water. She stretched out her legs as he supported her with his left hand under her back. Whispering words in the sea tongue, Naxos touched Vixa’s nose with the beak of the tiny carving. Reaching across her, he touched the side flipper to her right hand, and the other fin to her left. A shiver ran through her.

She stared up at the stars, pushing her fear aside. The tiny points of fire seemed to brighten. Water lapping in her ears carried sounds new and peculiar to her-grunts and wheezes she’d never heard before. Naxos’s voice dropped to a murmur as he continued to touch the ritual carving to Vixa’s body.

Her trembling ceased. Heat flowed through her blood, radiating outward from her heart. Vixa closed her eyes. Her muscles tensed. Her arms were pulled tight to her sides. She felt a moment of panic as she realized she couldn’t move them any longer, but Naxos continued to drone on and on. She grew dizzy, feeling as though she were falling, or perhaps sinking.

Vixa wanted to tell Naxos to steady her, to pull her upright, but instead of words, all that came out of her mouth was a raucous squeak.

Holy Astra! Vixa’s eyes flew open. The world had changed. The stars and moonlight were so bright-it was like daylight! Naxos was no longer treading water beside her. She rolled over, burying her face in the sea. A lean gray shape lolled in the ocean at her side. Naxos.

“Welcome to the sea,” he said. His mouth didn’t move at all, for he spoke in the clicks and whistles of the water-tongue. She understood him as though he were speaking Elvish.

“Naxos? Am I-am I changed?” Intuitively, she also spoke the strange language.

“Of course, silly dryfoot.”