"Mel Odom - Forgotten Realms - Threat from the Sea Trilogy 01 - Rising Tide" - читать интересную книгу автора (Odom Mel)

Rising Tide
Mel Odom
Forgotten Realms - The Threat from the Sea Trilogy - Book One
1999

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Ebook version 1.0
Release Date: December, 10, 2003
Prologue
Veemeeros Sea (The Shining Sea)
26 Eleasias, the Year of the Bow (1354 DR)

"You have followed a lie all these months, Priestess Laaqueel, or a figment dreamed up by your deformed malenti
mind. We have had enough. We go no further."
The harsh words challenged Laaqueel's self-control as she stood in the mud covering the ocean floor. Malenti,
uttered like a curse, still cut through her. Her heritage was all sahuagin despite her appearance. As fierce and hard
inside as any of her people, her body and face came from the unfathomable tie between the sahuagin race and the sea
elves Only her unique mutation had further deformed her Instead of the greenish-silver or blue skin of the aquatic
elves, her skin took on the pinkish hue of surface dwellers, setting her even more apart and making her a target among
her own people.
Little light from the surface world penetrated the murky depths around her and all that it touched held a bluish
cast deepening toward indigo. Reds seldom penetrated the gloom at that depth. She stared at the abyssal hills
surrounding the party, created from the line of volcanoes that still racked the savage land of Chult a hundred miles and
more to the west.
Crustaceans roamed those hills, moving slowly under the great pressure of the depths. Every now and again one
disappeared, seized and dragged into burrows dug into the mud by hidden predators. Manta rays and eels glided
through the water, staying well away from the sahuagin party.
Somewhere out there, Laaqueel felt certain, lay the prize she'd come so far to claim. She took a deep breath
through her mouth, flushing fresh saltwater into her system and the excess through her gills, and turned to the three
sahuagin priestesses assigned to her quest.
"I am senior among you, Thuur," Laaqueel announced. "As long as I remain such, no one may speak to me the
way you have."
At a few inches under six feet in height, the malenti was the shortest of the group. She wore her long dark hair
tied back in a single braid. Besides her breasts, the long hair was the biggest difference between herself and her tribal
sisters. She was cursed with the ugly body of a sea elf as well; all rounded and soft looking, wrapped in that pale
complexion. If she spent too long under the sea without spending time in the sun, that color paled to the color of a
frog's stomach. On this journey she'd chosen to wear only the traditional sahuagin harness to carry her gear. The
decision further flaunted the differences between her and her kin, but she had learned over her long life that those
differences couldn't be hidden. She had used them to make herself stronger in her faith and her convictions.
"Senior you may be," Thuur replied, "but you are no longer fit to command us."
Laaqueel felt the sahuagin priestess move through the water behind her. Even though she resembled a sea elf,
much of her senses remained those of her own people. The lateral lines that ran from her neck to her hips picked up the
motion, and she was already gliding into a defensive position.
"Beware what you say," Laaqueel warned harshly as she turned to face the other priestess. She tightened her
grip on the metal trident she carried. "You've already said enough that your words might be construed as a blood
challenge between us."
Thuur stood tallest among them. Her anterior fins lay back against her head, and her huge mouth was partially
open to reveal her ferocious fangs. Her black eyes gleamed with cruel light. She wore the true colors of the sahuagin
race, the nearly black green on her back that turned a truer green on her flat stomach. The fins on her shoulders, arms,
and legs were black. Her tail was deep yellow, telling any sahuagin male that she was past the age for mating. As a