However, he knew how aggressive the cephalopods were, so he slowed and gave it as wide a berth as possible. A huge eye looked him over as the ambassador continued on. It took seconds to pass the monster. The long whips stretched beyond the other tentacles. Laquatus dodged the long clubs with their oversized hooked suction cups.
The squid was one of Aboshan's proudest achievements, recruited from the queen's allies in the abyss. The emperor proved at least in his own mind that he could compete with his wife. The pair neared the entrance to the vaults.
The sessile warrior still floated on his stalk. He held a trident in his hands as he directed the guards in moving a partition. Laquatus was surprised to see Fulla and her companions penned in the bubble set over the trapdoor. The air was stretched until it resembled a loaf of bread. The spell seemed to be straining. The dementia caster poked her hand out through the water barrier, watching the boundary ripple with interest.
"Guard," the ambassador said, drawing the stationary fighter to attention. The arms on the rooted figure crossed as he drew himself upright. "I would speak with the emperor."
Laquatus wondered how he would deal with an outraged sovereign. He had no idea how obvious the Cabal's looting operation of the vaults was. Aboshan might have no idea anything untoward was happening.
The flare of powerful magic seemed to fill the room. A massive spell's presence set the magical field to vibrating. The air bubble shook violently as the palace spells interacted with the new force. With a sinking heart Laquatus realized Aboshan must have found the orb.
"I must see the emperor now," the aristocrat demanded, determined to find out what was happening. The guard twisted his stalk, the trident no longer at attention but lowered for use.
"Absolutely not," the sessile warrior said flatly, coiling on his long stalk as if to lunge forward. "His imperial majesty did not wish to be disturbed, so none shall pass. The emperor allowed for no exceptions." The soldier waved for reinforcements from the corridor.
These guards might move from where they were rooted only a few times in their lives. As a result, Laquatus believed, they were the most stubborn and unyielding guards in all existence. Rigid obedience to all orders was their trademark.
Another pulse shook the ether, but this time the concussion was also physical. The ambassador felt the water surging in sympathy to some spell perpetuated by Aboshan. Laquatus remembered the disaster that had struck the Order. Aboshan had no interest in what happened to the Citadel, and Laquatus neglected to share the information for fear of drawing the emperor's attention to the orb. Even now a spell might be encasing the vaults in impenetrable crystal. The palace wall shivered as a new wave of energy blasted through the living tissue.
"There is no time," Laquatus growled as his commands leaped from his mind to the palace walls. His authority unquestioned by any in the court, the building obeyed. The walls closed. Laquatus imagined the panic that must be filling the upper floors of the building for he did not limit his command. He wondered how many would die as the passage pinched shut, sealing the troops away from the emperor. The giant squid the ambassador had passed jetted down the corridor, it speed blinding as it tore into the vaults' antechamber, getting through the door before lattices of chitin and coral could crimp the passage shut.
"Take it," the ambassador ordered Turg and moved against the rooted guard. The stubborn whelk directed a sudden current at the ambassador, threatening to batter the merman against the walls. Laquatus swam into the flow, showing off his body's power as he rarely did. He stilled the torrent and circled the guard, wondering how long it would take the poison on his rings to kill his opponent.
In the background he could see the Cabal workers panicking-under the ocean with only a thin bubble preventing them from drowning.
The ambassador focused on his one fight. Who would think an immobile opponent would offer a challenge? He called for a shark to feast on the stationary target. But the fighter was tied directly into the palace, and his counter-spell disrupted the magical call. Laquatus tried to conjure other monsters. In spite of his vigorous attempts, the guard's magic was a stone bastion upon which he wasted all his strength.
In the bubble, the Cabal workers struck at their amphibian watchers with magical attacks. The blind tre-sias's limbs withered, the muscle melting away under the workers' hands. The fighters shrank to miniscule proportions, their bones cracking and spearing through their skins. If only the aristocrat enjoyed some of that dark magic, but his spells were of the sea and his opponent opposed every summoning. At least the amphibians would not interfere with the ambassador's fight.
Another wave of power welled up from below, and the ambassador lost focus as some effort from the emperor assaulted his sense. But Laquatus's sessile opponent suffered more. The surges of energy pulsed through the walls, and the guard was anchored to them. The warrior appeared confused and discharged magical blasts in all directions as the ambassador tried to close with him.
"Turg," the noble called, hoping that together they might uproot the enemy, but the frog could not come.
The giant squid jetted through the water faster than a bird. Only the amphibian's creative use of the air bubble on the floor allowed him to escape time after time. The jack threw himself through the crowded space, bowling whimpering Cabal technicians over as he vanished from view. The squid fished for his enemy, its two long tentacles slamming into the workers and snatching them into the other eight where it tore them apart.
Fulla became involved as her safety was threatened. The Cabal workers reanimated their drowned brethren and set them swimming for squid. The deep-sea monster threaded by them with ease, their clumsy motions no match for its speed and agility.
The rooted warrior directed more currents to sweep the chamber. The palace walls began to relax as the warrior countered the ambassador's command. If any of the elite survived beyond the door they would soon be attacking Laquatus.
The static guard's power pushed to reopen the palace passages, and Laquatus tried to steal victory from the jaws of the defeat. He redoubled the guard's call as he dived through the top of the air bubble. The command forced open the passage over the vault entry as well as doors throughout the palace. He transformed into a humanoid even as he rolled down the steps with bone-jarring force. Turg followed, one of the squid's tentacles snatching away a layer of skin as the ambassador shut the living curtain. This time he directed a bolt of lightning and killed the door to prevent the rooted guard from opening it for reinforcements.
There was no sign of the emperor. The ruler's spell still pulsed out, but the force was so great it obscured the exact position it flowed from. The vaults took up twelve large chambers in the living rock. The palace walls spread over every surface, but it was thin in comparison to the upper rooms of the structure. Laquatus looked to Turg for aid, but the frog was curled up, his skin pouring out a restorative slime over his wounds.
Laquatus composed himself, sinking into a chair before a cluster of tables. The furniture must have been imported at great expense, but it was an ugly reminder of dry land to the ambassador. Intricate mechanisms rested on the table in the stages of restoration. A card on one matrix of crystal, copper, and gold identified it as an aid in clairvoyance-the art of distant sight.