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"They died," Huaanton agreed, "and by that proved they were inadequate to survive, but another strike against the surface dwellers right now might not be the wisest thing we could do."

"Would you have them think they've broken the sahuagin spirit?" Iakhovas asked.

Laaqueel respected the wizard's ability to choose his words well. They were borderline on accusing Huaanton of cowardice, but they were presented so that the perception was on the part of the surface dwellers, not Iakhovas.

"We still take their ships," the sahuagin king pointed out.

"Only because they foolishly continue to believe they maintain control over the seas," Iakhovas replied. "In this we need to be thankful for their own egotistical designs. We do not have to take the fight to them; they bring it into our home territory with every ship they sail. Still, they must be broken of this inflated view of themselves."

"But the ships appear in less numbers than before."

"In what they call the Sea of Swords," Iakhovas said, "your summation is true. However, even that is too much. All that is needed is for a few ships, or perhaps only one, to brave the sea successfully and they will forget the message that has been delivered to them. A human's memory isn't as long or as gifted as that of a sahuagin's. A human will forget and believe again that they can venture out onto the sea. We need to raid their shores, raze their communities, and see them run broken and splintered before us." He paused. "Sekolah demands no less of his children if they are truly to be his children."

"You claim the ear of Sekolah," Huaanton said, "when none of my priestesses claim any such contact."

"Not his ear," Iakhovas responded, "his voice. He speaks to me through my priestess. I seek only to obey, as should any true sahuagin."

The sahuagin king turned slowly toward Laaqueel, his tail flipping through the water in annoyance. That slight gesture was enough to emphasize the difference between him and her.

Huaanton spoke slowly, giving his words weight. "Why speak through such a… flawed vessel?"

Laaqueel instantly dropped her eyes as was the sahuagin custom. She let her arms drift away from her body at her sides, leaving herself defenseless. "I don't know, Exalted One," she replied, and that was partially the truth. As Iakhovas had pointed out, how could she have found him without Sekolah's intervention? Why hadn't another found the story of One Who Swims With Sekolah? What had made him choose her over the two true sahuagin priestesses who had been with her?

"Have you heard the Great Shark?" Huaanton demanded.

"No," Laaqueel answered, "though I have been given visions."

Those visions of combat and strife, of the sahuagin killing surface dwellers at the sides of massive beasts, had been constant for the last year. It could have been nightmares, brought on by listening to Iakhovas's plans for the sahuagin, but they could have been visions as well.

"Do you believe in these visions?"