Laquatus threw out his senses, desperate to find the emperor before some catastrophe overwhelmed them all. Instead his view expanded exponentially, and information flooded in. He soared up from the ocean floor. Below him lay the palace. Then the capital. Finally he saw the continental shelf and the mainland.
The ambassador's awareness swept the coastline, and he understood the purpose of the spell. Huge waves swept toward the helpless shore. He admired Aboshan's vision as he saw walls of water smashing into small villages. The impact tumbled boats far from the shore. The emperor poured more power to fuel the continuing destruction. But Laquatus could also see the power tearing at the capital's fabric. The surges of mystic energy disrupted the delicate web of spells the living constructions relied on to function.
To his horror, he saw the palace lying in the eye of the storm of magic. Many dwellings were beginning to discor-porate, as spells they relied on flared and died.
His spirit collapsed back to the palace, the chaotic waves of power playing havoc with the enhancement spell this close to the origin of the destruction. He grasped the organization of the vaults in a burst of vision-twelve caverns interconnected by a single passage and most of them packed tight with mud. People said the vaults were in the bowels of the palace, and bowels were not full of treasure. But there was one piece of perfection, the orb. He saw that the emperor was only one level below him.
"Aboshan, you fool," the ambassador cried, headed for the pit leading down. Turg uncurled and followed slowly, still favoring his side. Water began to cascade down the stairs as the temporary hatch locking out the imperial guards began to fail under repeated blows from the other side.
Laquatus flew down the steps, racing for the chamber's corner. There the emperor knelt entranced, his hands holding the sphere. Waves crawled over the miniature globe's surface as the monarch sent another burst of power through the orb, only to have it magnified a thousand-fold. The ruler was lost in his personal visions of a landless world.
"I should have killed you months ago, you deluded idiot," the ambassador said as a tremor shook the room, sending artifacts crashing to the floor. Turg moved forward, savoring his first taste of regicide. Aboshan started awake, self-preservation overriding his blindness at the display of treachery and insolence.
"Guards!" cried the emperor. Perhaps the palace was dying, but it struggled to obey its master's voice. The hatch above broke and water roared into the upper chamber, forming a cataract down the stairs.
The long whips of the giant squid curled around the shelves below as it pulled itself down the stairs. It rushed to protect its emperor. Wooden planks bucked off their frames as the body slammed into the piled treasures. The hole leading down to the next room plugged up, and the water level began to rise. A few mermen slid down the stairs on their bellies, thrashing around in the water. However, unlike Laquatus and Aboshan, they were unable to form legs. They ducked their heads into the water, trying to breathe. The soldiers sent arc after arc of lightning flying toward the ambassador.
The noble retreated, an image of charred flesh left behind in his place. However, the palace guard knew his reputation, and spears of power smashed through the illusion, searching for him. Seeing their bloodthirstiness and indiscriminate attacks, Laquatus sent his image racing among the guards. It ran as if insanely desperate to flee. Spears and gouts of power from the guards devoured their own ranks as the elite tried to kill the traitor.
Where is my champion? the ambassador wondered as he sent a snake of lightening writhing among the prone guards.
Turg fled before the giant squid. The long whips pulled down shelves as the cephalopod pulled itself after the frog. His camouflage failed him. The slab of skin pulled off by the guard's tentacle showed clearly, despite the amphibian's attempts to hide. The jack tried to cast a spell of blindness, but Laquatus was too involved to send much power through the link. Timber and a variety of maces fell on the amphibian as the squid pulled a rack of treasures down on him.
In desperation, Laquatus tried to feed on the palace's remaining magic. The spell gained him little power. Turg, in turn, siphoned most of it through the pair's link. He needed every scrap as he fought to survive in his battle against the deadly guard. The ambassador felt spells failing as he sent a weak blast against the guards. The water was waist deep, and he thought of returning to his swimming form. A converging series of blasts sent him scrambling up a set of shelves, his hands bleeding as he gripped the tangled metal of a recovered artifact. A ground shock shook many of the items to the water below, some of the frames splashing as they collapsed as well.
"You are destroying your kingdom!" Laquatus shouted to Aboshan. The ruler rocked in glee as he continued to call for the land's destruction. The mer warriors attacked the apparent source of the ambassador's voice. The two guards electrocuted each other, as the noble tricked them yet again.
"Nothing is beyond our grasp," the emperor called, and another surge of magical force assailed the mainland. The ruler appeared oblivious to the ongoing destruction around him, lost in his vision of what his attacks accomplished.
"Your are destroying your palace!" Laquatus bellowed, then staggered. A psychic wound cut through his mind and mastery of magic.
Turg was caught in the squid's tentacles. His frame shud' dered as the monster's beak bit into his flesh. The cephalo-pod's short arms writhed, working at the prey in its grasp. The amphibian's flesh tore, and the ambassador fell, his teeth clenched. He felt through the link the champion's muscles and tendons tearing. The frog writhed in agony, energy flaring as the beak tore at its waist. Laquatus reeled as the legs separated, and the blood vacuumed from the frog's brain.
A final surge leaped through the link. With only one hand showing beyond the tentacles, a long lash of power whipped from the jack and burrowed into the huge eye. Fluid spurted as the organ collapsed, the body shivering briefly as the charge raced up the optic nerve. It destroyed the brain and took Turg's killer with him into death. Laquatus collapsed, and only the remaining guard's fear of yet another trap prevented them from killing him.
Aboshan wailed, and the ambassador wondered dumbly if his pain somehow carried to his sovereign. The guards closed around the ruler, trying to intercept the attack that made him cry out.
"My palace! My city!" the monarch bellowed, his eyes wide as the side effects of his spell finally became known to him. Another ground shock hit, this one finally tearing free the blockage to the levels below. With a stuttering roar a whirlpool formed, dragging debris into the lower rooms. Turg and his killer slowly slid from sight as Laquatus gripped the shelving he fetched up against. The guards' flukes beat as they held the emperor against the current.
"This is your fault," Aboshan cried out, searching for someone to blame. "None of this would have happened without your treachery."
Laquatus ignored the lie, staying still as he tried to marshal his strength. Perhaps he could still escape. His body ached to transform to its tailed state, but any magic or movement might bring the guards down on him. The warriors stayed clustered around the sovereign. Another pulse of power fed into the emperor's spell despite Aboshan's efforts to stop it. Laquatus remembered Kirtar and doubted the ruler would survive his ambassador by more than a few minutes. A fresh wave of guards flowed down the staircase, the cephalids holding tridents. The aristocrat readied himself to meet his death but was unexpectedly reprieved.
The guards retreated from the upper room in defeat. A giant newt moved to the head of the stairs. It was the size of a crocodile, but it showed no teeth. Its dark red flesh was covered with weeping sores. Its skin extruded a thick gel, especially on its hindquarters. The animal turned and whipped its tail, launching gobs of the muck at the retreating soldiers. They tried to dive beneath the water, but its level had fallen. A merman was hit on the back, and his skin blackened. It began to slough off. The creature leaped into the air and landed on another warrior. The others rushed away and threw darts that thudded into the animal's flesh with little effect. The corruption dissolved into the water, and despite the superiority of gills, the ambassador vowed to breathe air for as long as possible.