“OVER HERE!” MILLEN hurried them out onto the deck, where they found the twilight air shimmering with the strange ringing sounds. It could have been many bells or great wind chimes ringing mournfully over the top of each other, some small and tinkling, others large and ponderous. That, at least, is how the ringing sounded to the human ears of Aragunk and Millen.
But to the elven ears of Lumpolas, they didn’t sound like bells or chimes at all, but more like: “Singing! Someone is singing—I’m sure of it now! But the words are very old. I don’t quite recognize them.” He turned to Gandalf with wonder in his eyes and was surprised to see the wizard’s bushy eyebrows knotted together. “What is it, sir? Can you understand them?” Gandalf didn’t answer, but led them over to the starboard side where Millen was urgently pointing down to the water. What they beheld could not have been further from what they expected.
They noticed the lights first. Dozens of lights—pale blue, green and pink lights—swarming in the dark water around the lifeless hulk of Gulde the Great. But these lights were alive, like brightly glowing jellyfish, carried by people swimming around the dead dragon. But they had never seen any people like these.
“Who are they?” asked Millen. The bodies of these sea-people resembled a normal man’s body with smooth and shiny skin. But instead of legs, they sported long, flippered tails like a dolphin’s. Their pointed ears resembled an elf’s, and they had webbed fingers. Their long blue and green hair hung plaited with shells and sea-vines.
“They are a people I had hoped never to encounter again,” said Gandalf, whose face grew dark. “They are the Oarni, children of the foam faes, and the lords of these seas. I’m afraid we are in great peril.”
A lump rose in Lumpolas’s throat. “What are they singing?”
“A funeral lament for the sea-dragon. A song of great mourning. A song of sorrow as deep as the ocean itself: ‘Who is like unto Gulde the mighty, the renowned? Who will protect them now that their protector is gone and they are left orphans in the deep?’”
One of them, swimming apart from the others, bellowed to his companions with a sound that reminded Lumpolas of a drowning horse. This one pointed his long, golden trident at the crew of the Freedom Hawk in sharp displeasure. The rest of the Oarni ceased their song and gathered around him. They started berating them from the waves in their strange guttural language.
“They ask why we have killed their friend and protector,” said Gandalf. “Why have we treacherously orphaned them without a cause?”
“But we didn’t do it!” cried Aragunk. “The Dagor commander killed the dragon! Tell them what happened, Gandalf!”
Gandalf shot him a withering look. “Thank you, son of Gondor, for telling me what I already know. I’ll pass that along to them when the proper time comes.”
The fierce-throated shouts from the Oarni grew louder and more menacing, sending chills down even Aragunk’s spine. “Well, so what if they think we did it?” he said, almost sounding brave. “We’re up here and they’re down there in the water. What can they do to us?”
The Oarni chieftain howled in a voice that threatened to split the waves. At once, the Freedom Hawk shook and rattled hard, sending them all stumbling. Gandalf turned to Aragunk. “If we were on solid land, I might agree with you, young man. But we are in their realm, stranded in the middle of their ocean. We are, I’m afraid, at their mercy.”
Millen spoke up. “What do they want from us, Master Gandalf?”
The wizard scowled and stroked his long white beard. “To capture us or to kill us, I’m sorry to say.”
Aragunk slammed his hands on the gunwale. “Then we have to fight them! We can’t let them stop us. Beonna is counting on us!” But more Oarni heads began popping up from beneath the waves before his words had died on his lips. Faster and faster they arrived until a small army of Oarni surrounded the ship.
Gandalf gave a mirthless chuckle. “By all means, young man, lead the attack if you think you can break their ranks. Swim out there and do battle if you are foolish enough to believe you can beat them in their own element.”
“Well, what do we do then?” asked Aragunk in frustration. “Just let them have their way with us?”
Gandalf nodded. “Yes, Aragunk, I believe that is the most intelligent thing I’ve heard from your lips all day. That is exactly what we will do.”
Aragunk’s jaw dropped. “You mean we’re giving up? We’re just going to let them win?”
“No, young man, we are going to survive in the only way open to us. It will take more courage to surrender than to fight a hopeless battle for no good purpose. We may have a chance if we can—”
Another violent lurch of the ship cut the wizard short. The shouts of the trident-bearing Oarni chieftain punished their ears from the water. He screamed and waved at the boat for a full minute. When he had finished, Gandalf explained. “He says we are to leave our pathetic drifting wreck and come with them or they will sink it themselves and let the sea have its way with us.”
Lumpolas gulped. “Wha- what do they mean come with them? Don’t they know we can’t swim underwater like they can?” But as he spoke, the surface of the sea in front of them swelled and bubbled and then finally burst open. A giant fish with an enormous flat face emerged from the waves. It floated below the ship, staring at them with its immense mouth opening and closing. The Oarni chieftain pointed his trident towards the companions and then at the giant fish. When they didn’t respond the way he had hoped, he howled in fury and repeated more fiercely, jabbing at them and then the fish with his trident.
“I don’t think I like where this is going,” said Lumpolas, stepping back from the railing. “I don’t like this one teaspoon’s worth.”
Aragunk turned to Gandalf in confusion. “Is he giving us his pet fish?”
Gandalf gave a grim chuckle. “No, Aragunk. He is offering us a ride.”
“A ride? To where? To the black ships? To Beonna?”
“Alas, not to anywhere so useful to our purposes.”
“But what about Captain Yorlov?” asked Lumpolas. “He’s still back in the stateroom.”
“And my friend Ansel’s body,” said Millen with tears in his eyes. “We haven’t buried him yet. We can’t leave him out on the deck!”
The Freedom Hawk jolted and shuddered again, sending them sprawling. Gandalf steadied himself with his staff and turned to Lumpolas. “Quickly, bring the captain! We’ll have to take him with us. Millen, we will give your friend a proper burial, I promise. Aragunk, you help Millen prepare Boatswain Boritt’s body. Bind him in sail cloth and move him to the port side. I’ll buy you the time and then I’ll be with you shortly.”
Aragunk started to protest, but a fire behind Gandalf’s eyes silenced him. He grumbled off with Millen to take care of Boritt’s body.
Hurrying below, Lumpolas found the captain moaning and grasping at the air above him. He rushed to his bedside. “Captain Yorlov! Can you hear me?” The captain’s eyes were shut tight. He shook his sweat-drenched head and moaned, as if trying to speak. “Captain, it’s Lumpolas. Are you trying to say something?” He leaned in closer, but he couldn’t understand. “Captain Yorlov, I know you won’t like this, but we have to go. We’re surrounded by enemies and we have to move you now.” The captain shook his head, but he was too feeble to resist. Lumpolas lifted him from the pillow and raised the stout man to a sitting position.
“Come on, Captain. I won’t leave you here.”
Something in the man must have understood, because he didn’t fight when Lumpolas hoisted him to his feet. Soon they came staggering through the cabin door with Lumpolas all but carrying the swaying captain.
As they struggled across the deck, the tumult of Gandalf and the Oarni chieftain barking back and forth assaulted their ears. Another violent shudder shook the ship and Lumpolas nearly dropped the captain while he steadied himself.
Gandalf waved Lumpolas over. “Quickly! Bring him here! They are ready to destroy the ship unless we surrender ourselves immediately!” Lumpolas was afraid to ask what exactly that meant. But he obeyed and brought the muddled captain to the gunwale. Gandalf presented them to the Oarni chieftain. “My boy, you will have to be the first to go overboard. I’m sorry, but I assure you that everything will be just fine.”
Lumpolas’s heart skipped a beat. “Me? But, but I’m not—” His halting protests drowned beneath the Oarni’s howls of displeasure at the delay. He looked out, still confused what “going with them” could mean. Then he saw that the great flat-faced fish below had now produced a giant glistening bubble out of its mouth, large enough to fit a dozen men snugly inside. Gandalf followed his eyes and nodded. “Yes, I’m afraid that bubble will be our carriage. Now, you go first, and I’ll lower the captain to you once you’re in the water.”
By this time, the Oarni had towed the carcass of Gulde away from the Freedom Hawk, chanting and swimming around it in their strange funereal rites. Lumpolas gulped and climbed onto the railing. The scowling, angry faces of the Oarni warriors gazed up at him from the darkened sea. “Master Gandalf, there must be another way to—” But as his objection left his lips, the ship rocked again, sending Lumpolas slipping and sprawling over the gunwale.
He flopped belly first into the water with a hard smack. Rough hands grabbed him before he could get his head above water. They towed him to the bubble swelling from the fish’s mouth and squeezed him face-first up against its shiny surface. Harder and harder they pressed, smashing poor Lumpolas against it over his howls of protest as if they meant to squeeze the life out of him. Then, when he thought that either he or the bubble was near to popping, he squirted through at last and went tumbling and sliding inside it. He was all wet and slimy now and the fishy smell inside the bubble was so overpowering that he had to pinch his sensitive nose shut. Quiet filled the stinking air except for an ominous gurgle bubbling up from the fish’s gaping mouth.
He had barely stood up when the half-conscious Captain Yorlov came plunging through the bubble wall and slid to his feet. Lumpolas pulled him up to a sitting position. “There you are, safe and sound, Captain, though you’re wetter than a slimy old…” He almost said fish, but beholding the wide mouth of the fish made him fear making it angry. The captain kept mumbling incoherently with his eyes closed. But other than being clammy and sopping wet, he seemed unharmed.
Lumpolas stood to look for his friends through the blurry bubble wall, but he couldn’t make out anything for certain. He glanced again at the fish’s enormous mouth and wondered uneasily what would keep it from sucking the bubble, and them, into its stomach.
A dark shape slapped up against the side of the bubble and in a moment Aragunk came slurping through. “I’ll make those fish-faces pay for this when I get out of here!” He rose, wiping the slime from his eyes. “Ughh! What is that smell?”
Relief flooded through Lumpolas to have someone to share this miserable situation with, even if it meant their collective doom. “Don’t say that too loud! They might hear and feed us to the sharks!”
“Who’s going to tell—this big ugly fish? They’re just lucky they caught us out in the sea. If we were on land, I’d give them a fight they’d never forget!” Before Lumpolas could roll his eyes at Aragunk’s bravado, Millen came squeezing through the bubble wall, landing with a plop at their feet. “Up you go, lad,” said Aragunk, pulling him up and wiping the slime off his face. Gandalf came through after him with staff in hand. Lumpolas, despite his terror, had to fight hard not to laugh at Gandalf’s bedraggled appearance, accustomed as he was to the white wizard’s usual stately mien.
Gandalf didn’t stand, and refused any help to get to his feet, but leaned back against the bubble wall. “You may as well get comfortable. We’re about to go on a long journey.” At once, the giant fish dove beneath the surface and swam down into the deep—to where, they could not imagine.
Underwater now, they found they could see out through the bubble clearly. An Oarni escort flanked them on every side. The fish’s dank breath filled the bubble as they descended deep into the darkening sea.
Millen crouched and wrapped his arms around his knees and started to cry. Lumpolas knelt next to him. “Did you see your friend Boritt off then, Millen?”
Millen looked up with tears on his cheeks and nodded. “I can’t believe he’s gone. Just like that.”
Aragunk crouched and put one of his big hands on the boy’s shoulder. “Don’t worry about Boritt, Millen. He died trying to save you—you and all of us. He will rest in honor with his fathers.”
Millen wiped his cheeks again. “I know, but it feels like my fault. If I hadn’t gotten bit by that black bog-bat, then he might still be—”
Gandalf interrupted before he could go on. “No! Enough of that talk, lad. The fault lies with the evil one, not you, Millen. Remember that always! Morgoth and his servants are the ones who caused Ansel’s death. Not you! If your friend thought his death would save us—save you—I’m sure he would do it a thousand times over. He was a hero.” Millen’s tears burst out afresh and he threw himself at Gandalf, who received him in a comforting embrace until Millen had wept his fill.
Meanwhile, Lumpolas tended to the unconscious form of the captain. He still pitched and mumbled in his feverish dreams.
“I don’t like the looks of him,” said Aragunk, peering over his shoulder. “What do you think is wrong with him?”
“I don’t know,” answered Lumpolas, “but whatever it is, he’s fighting to wake up from it.”
Millen turned his face to the captain. “Is my uncle going to be alright, Gandalf?”
He released Millen and slid over to the captain’s side. “He should be recovering by now—awake, at least. We must keep a close watch over him.” The wizard’s worried face did little to reassure Millen.
Down, down, down they dove deeper into the darkness. Silvery schools of fish darted out of their way and sometimes much larger creatures swam in and out of their view. But soon they couldn’t see anything as they plunged deeper and deeper and all the light from the surface died away. Gandalf murmured and caused a warm light to shine from the end of his staff.
“What are they going to do with us?” Aragunk asked after a long silence.
“I don’t expect that they will throw us a party,” said Gandalf. “More likely they will put us on trial.”
“On trial!” cried Aragunk. “On trial for what?”
“For the destruction of their great protector, Gulde the departed.”
“But we didn’t kill that smelly sea-monster!” Aragunk protested. “That was the Dagors!”
“I did tell them that,” Gandalf said with some heat. “But the Oarni saw me struggling with the dragon in the deep. And when they arrived at our ship, they found us standing over Gulde’s dead body with no Dagorim in sight.”
Aragunk wanted to ask him more, but Lumpolas pointed outside the bubble with a cry. “Look there! Do you see the lights?” Far away beneath them, little luminous pinpoints grew clearer out of the darkness. Even Lumpolas could not make out what they might be, but as they drew closer, he saw where they were headed. “A city!” said Lumpolas. “An underwater city!” And indeed, as the fish descended into it, they could descry towering spires, shining like lamps, rising from the sea floor.
Gandalf stood and surveyed the scene. “Welcome, my friends, to the imperial city of Oune, the Oarni capital, one of the most ancient cities in all the world. It is here where our fate will be decided.” Beneath the towering lamps, Oune swam with the same strange jelly lights that the Oarni had carried up on the surface. But these were much larger and brighter and more numerous. Everywhere they looked, multitudes of the sea-dwellers darted about on their business through the vast city. Others rode side-saddle on giant eels the way we might ride on horses.
“It’s beautiful,” said Lumpolas.
“A beautiful place to die,” grumbled Aragunk, whose weak eyes only descried a blurry mess of colored lights flowing past.
Their Oarni escort led the great fish through the city’s labyrinthine byways, past soaring buildings and majestic sculptures. Oune resembled a carefully crafted coral reef, every structure alive and placed with care.
“When I was little,” Millen said, “I always wanted to get as far away from the land as I could, but I’ll be knickered if I ever thought I would be getting this far away.”
Aragunk smirked at him. “That’s funny. I’ve always wanted to stay as close to the land as I could. If you had told me I’d end up at the bottom of the sea, I’d never have gotten out of bed the day we came on this quest.”
“If only I’d known,” groaned Lumpolas.
Huge domes like mountainous seashells loomed before them, lit from within by an eerie greenish light. Into one of these, the Oarni led the fish-borne companions through a gaping maw that reminded Lumpolas of the mouth of a hungry whale swallowing everything in its path. The fish brought them down to the floor of the dome. Their protecting bubble stuck to the floor on its own and spread itself out across the tile into its own dome shape. With one loud sucking, slurping noise, the huge fish detached itself from the bubble. Then it left their little bubble-dome and swam away in its slow rolling manner back out to the city. “Bye,” said Millen, waving after it. Their Oarni escort stayed, however, keeping a floating guard around them.
“Now what?” Aragunk asked.
“Now we will do whatever they want us to do,” Gandalf said. “And if that means to wait here, then we will wait.” Aragunk was not pleased with this answer, but even he knew better than to argue with it.
The dark green light illuminating the hall oozed from a swarm of luminous jellyfish drifting throughout the wide room. It lent the hall a menacing pall and made it hard to see the room outside the bubble. The weird green light made their faces look less human-looking to each other. Beneath their feet spread a floor richly tiled with stones and shells of a thousand different shapes and sizes.
Lumpolas tried not to stare at the guards swimming around their dome, afraid of making them angry. “They almost resemble elves,” he said. “And their music sounded nearly elvish too. The words were almost familiar.”
Gandalf nodded. “The Oarni were once creatures very like your ancestors a long, long time ago. But they were betrayed by your distant forebears. And thus they despised the land-dwellers and disappeared under the waves about the time the elves began to sing their own songs. They are a savage, proud race, fierce in battle and quick to deal their brutal form of justice. I must urge you all to remain absolutely silent when they gather to pass sentence on us. I will do the speaking—all the speaking—understood?”
They each nodded their assent except Aragunk. “What do you mean ‘pass sentence’ on us? What about the trial?”
“I’m afraid the trial happened the instant they found Gulde’s body. We were judged long before we arrived here.”
Aragunk opened his mouth to protest, but Millen pointed outside the bubble. “Wait! Something’s happening!” The jellyfish swarm above them began swimming faster, growing excited. Their eerie light rose from sickly green to a bright pale blue.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
A heavy drumbeat rumbled up from the flooring through their feet. The Oarni guards around the bubble stopped in place and snapped to attention.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
“Look there!” Lumpolas pointed to the far end of the bright hall. A long train of Oarni came swimming in pairs through a towering arched doorway. Hundreds of them swam in, lords and ladies of the underwater realm in a grand procession. Many bore ornate spears and tridents. Others sported diadems on their brows and pearls and jewels upon their wrists and necks. These nobles peered curiously into their little bubble as they passed by, but without even a hint of friendliness.
“Come to have a gander at the newest zoo animals, I suppose,” Aragunk said.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
More and more of the Oarni nobles poured through the arch. They wound their way throughout the hall as the drum pounded, arranging themselves from floor to ceiling around the magnificent dome. They kept coming for many minutes, with the drumming growing louder and louder, until at once it stopped. From the sudden quiet, a great horn blew, deep and bone-rattling, and then everything fell still.
“What’s going on?” asked Aragunk. “What are they doing?” At once, one of the Oarni guards slapped a webbed hand on the bubble to silence him. “Alright! Sorry!”
“I remind you,” said Gandalf to Aragunk, “to let me do all the speaking.” Aragunk groaned and turned away in a huff.
Lumpolas gazed in awe at the gathered host of Oarni nobility floating above them. They appeared to be waiting for something, but for what, he couldn’t guess. Then, he spied a many-legged lobster-like creature with a spiny blue shell come skittering across the floor straight up to their little dome. It snapped its large pointed pincers and then stabbed them into the bubble’s wall.
“What’s it doing?” asked Aragunk, backing away. “Is it going to pop the bubble to drown us?”
“Shhh!”
But the bubble did not pop. The pincers pierced through and then snapped wide open inside their bubble while the rest of its body remained outside.
An officious, stuffy-looking Oarni in a high collar swam up behind the lobster. When he spoke, his words sounded through the lobster’s pincers, translated into perfectly clear Westron. “Malefactors and barbarians from the dry world, we have found you guilty of grievous murder and crimes against the blessed realm of Oune. You criminals have been brought here to receive the gracious judgement of the mer-Empress Una, the just ruler of the three seas, lawful regent of the realms left us by our lord and father Ulmo of the inestimable Valar.”
“Guilty?” yelled Aragunk. “But we didn’t kill your bloody sea-dragon! The Dagor pirates did that!”
At once, an Oarni guard thrust his spear through the bubble and smote Aragunk with its tip, sending a spark of lightning into his wounded shoulder. He convulsed and dropped with a cry to the floor. “You will be silent or you will die, two-legger!”
Gandalf glared at Aragunk and waved a silencing hand at him. He turned back to the official and bowed. “We humbly accept the gracious judgement of the wise empress, and we anticipate the honor of paying court in her noble presence.” The Oarni official replied with a sneer, flicked his flippered tail, and swam away.
Many of the Oarni nobles started pointing to the end of the hall and whispering to one another. Out of a high door, a compact cloud of bright light of pure amber hue came spilling into the hall. It took Lumpolas a moment to realize that the growing cloud consisted of thousands upon thousands of tiny little glowing creatures. These shone like living crystals, glittering gemstones. A wave of reverence and awe rippled through the gathered crowds around them. Heads bowed low and arms spread wide in supplication. Gandalf dropped to a knee without saying a word. The others, except for the unconscious captain, followed suit.
The sparkling creatures spread further and further into the hall until a thick cloud of them had formed over a lavishly adorned dais. Then, the cloud parted, revealing a young Oarni woman. She wore a high crown above her flowing sea-blue locks. Her graceful hands bore a shining scepter of iridescent black pearl. But the young woman appeared to be asleep as she floated above the dais.
A reverent silence squeezed all sounds from the hall. No one moved or made a noise, as if fearing to wake the young mer-empress. But at last she stirred as if coming out of a dream. Her wide-set eyelids opened, revealing two eyes radiating a pale green light. She cast her glowing eyes around at the gathered hosts for a long moment, considering her subjects.
Aragunk’s mouth fell open at the sight of her. If someone would have asked him, he would have proclaimed her the most beautiful creature in the world and offered to fight anyone who disagreed.
Pain passed over the mer-empress’s delicate features when at last she spoke. “I have dreamed another dream. A terrible dream.” Her voice, sounding through the lobster’s pincers, made Lumpolas think of a melancholy sea on an overcast day. Awe filled the hall as the host waited for her next words. “My dream was a tide full of darkness and sorrow. Our great protector and friend Gulde came to me, as my brother had come betimes in another dream, with terrible pain in his eyes, pleading… confused. He sank out of my seeing on the strange current that I dreamed before, cold and dark, whence my brother departed—the deep current that carried our Omo and now our Gulde away—never to return.”
The mer-empress fell silent. Her glowing gaze drifted around the chamber, questioning, asking, imploring. Her voice, desolate and filled with profound sadness, smote the entire hall. But none more than Aragunk, whom Lumpolas spied trying to wipe a tear away before anyone else could see it.
The officious Oarni, with head bowed, swam before her. “My liege lady of the deep realms, your vision was no idle dream. A cold current has indeed entered your realm and has taken our protector from us. It is true: great Gulde is no more, stolen from us by the treachery of these land-born!” He thrust a webbed finger at the bubble and the companions imprisoned within it. “These transgressors have slain our defender! They now await your gracious judgement, O queen of the three seas.” The official bowed his head still lower and took his place beside the bubble.
Empress Una turned her glowing green eyes to the companions. She swam out to them, regarding them with pain and surprise on her face. Lumpolas’s shame burned him. To be looked upon this way by someone so graceful and so lovely! Even knowing they were innocent, he wanted to disappear through the floor tiles and hide forever.
“Why?” she asked, but without anger. “Why have you brought this evil upon us?”
Aragunk could restrain himself no longer and sprang to his feet before Gandalf could stop him. “We didn’t kill the dragon, your highness! Those Dagor dogs slew your Gulde! And now they flee like the cowards they are across the sea with our friends held prisoner! We—” Before he could finish his sentence, the guard prodded him again with his spear. And again, a spark from its tip dropped Aragunk to his knees in a grunt of pain.
The mer-empress said nothing, but looked from companion to companion with a deep, searching gaze until her luminous green eyes rested upon the prone form of Captain Yorlov lying on the floor. She gazed at him for a long moment. Then her eyes turned to the kneeling Gandalf. “You are not of their world, bearded one.”
Gandalf bowed his head. “No, my liege lady, I am not. But I am for their world, and yours. These know me as Gandalf.”
She regarded him carefully. “And do you, Gandalf Whitebeard, claim to be an ally to our realm too?”
“I do, your highness. And as such, I am saddened to bring yet more evil tidings to her majesty’s presence. May I suggest it would be to her majesty’s benefit to hear the tale of our quest and the dangers we have endured? Your realm stands in grave peril. Ancient evil returns and no place, not even fair Oune, will be safe unless it is stopped now.”
The mer-empress floated above them, considering Gandalf’s words. “My queen!” protested their official accuser, darting before her. “I beg you, do not consent to hear the lies of these dry-born criminals! They know they stand condemned and would say anything to save themselves!”
A raised hand from Empress Una silenced him. “We will hear the words of these finless ones, Chancellor Loam,” she commanded in her bell-like voice. “Our noble realm has indeed fallen on evil times and we are in want of knowledge. First, my brother, worthy Omo, was lost to us, and now Gulde. Perhaps the strangers can show us what our understanding lacks. But if they are found to be lying and are themselves the bringer of these evil currents, they will suffer destruction.”
Lumpolas swallowed a hard lump in his throat and looked at Gandalf. Chancellor Loam bowed and grudgingly made way. Whereupon Gandalf stood and related to Empress Una the entire tale of their adventure to that point: how they endeavored to thwart Morgoth’s desire to return from the realm of everlasting night through the power of the lost Silmaril. And he told how the dragon Gulde had been controlled and finally destroyed through the sorcery of Angor, the Dagor’s commander. The whole assembly of Oarni listened in stillness. When Gandalf concluded, all turned to the mer-empress, awaiting her judgement.
“Dark tidings such as these have not been spoken in our realm for more than an age, Whitebeard. Yet your words, though dark, bring the light of understanding. Afore, my brother and co-regent, Omo, went missing for many tides. Lately we found him dead, drifting near the shores of you land-cursed. He was ever curious about your ways. And, though forbidden, my brother spent much time near your shores, watching and learning your strange ways. The signs of great suffering covered his body.”
“My liege lady,” said Gandalf, “it was the Dagorim that captured your brother near the land. And doubtless they tortured him to locate the lost Silmaril.”
“My Empress!” cried Loam, darting between the Una and the bubble. “Have you given this dry-skin further leave to speak? Were these not brought before you condemned, O my liege lady? How do we know it was not this bearded two-legger himself that cruelly slew your dear brother? They themselves must have come seeking our holy treasure for their own evil purposes! No, this arrogant one would tell any tale to save his air-breathing neck! Do not hear his lies, my queen, I beg you. Put an end to this evil! Cleanse the realm of these who purpose to do it harm!”
With another gentle wave of her webbed hand, the mer-empress compelled the chancellor to be silent. “Our Omo was strong and they could not have forced any knowledge out of him, Whitebeard. Nevertheless, among my people, it is no secret that the thing they seek was entrusted to our care ages ago. The Silmaril rests here where it has always been, safe in the temple of Ulmo, as it always will be. No land dweller could penetrate our waters. Neither could they overcome the temple priests who guard it.”
“And yet, my liege lady of the deeps,” said Gandalf, “it was only lately, soon after your brother’s death, that the Dagorim began searching this way to find the lost Silmaril. Your highness, I urge you to redouble the defenses of the temple. Their reach is longer than you suppose. Already, they have wreaked havoc in your realm. Your brother is dead and now the dragon Gulde with him. Let their evil be stopped here!”
Chancellor Loam scoffed loudly at Gandalf’s words, but he did not dare speak out of turn. Again, Empress Una’s pale green eyes drifted past Gandalf and rested on the unconscious Captain Yorlov. They glowed brighter and more piercing. “If, Whitebeard, you are, as you say, an ally of the Oarni and one who opposes evil, then why have you suffered that one to live?”
Gandalf raised his eyes in surprise. “Your highness?”
Her scepter pointed at the feverish captain. “That one lies covered and shrouded in shadow.”
An unearthly cackle erupted from the captain behind Gandalf. He started rolling back and forth on the floor like a man trying to wake from a nightmare. Lumpolas dropped to his side to calm him. But Gandalf, with staff leveled at the captain, shouted, “Lumpolas! Quickly, get behind me!”
Lumpolas shot a look of confusion at the wizard. “But he needs our help. Captain Yorlov is sick!”
“That’s not Captain Yorlov!” thundered Gandalf, taking a cautious step towards the snickering man. “Now get behind me!”
Aragunk glanced from Gandalf to the captain and back. “What do you mean that’s not the captain? We found him on the ship!”
The captain sat bolt upright and his eyelids shot open. But instead of the captain’s ocean-blue eyes, only empty black pits remained, radiating a cold fury that would have put fear in the stoutest of hearts. Lumpolas froze and cried out at the sight. In an instant, the captain sprang to his feet and snatched Lumpolas around the throat with two brawny hands. Then, he lunged back, dangling Lumpolas between himself and Gandalf.
Lumpolas tried to cry out as the captain’s grip tightened more and more around his throat, but his voice died on his lips, choked by the man’s fury. He heard Aragunk yell something about saving him. And he saw Millen collapse to the floor out of the corner of his blurring vision, eyes rolling back into his head.
When he felt himself tipping over the edge of unconsciousness, a burst of light flashed in his eyes. A wave of heat followed the flash, as though somebody had opened the door of a hot oven. He heard the captain shriek and the grip around his throat loosened. Before Lumpolas could recover himself, he landed splat on his face.
“Pull him over here!” Gandalf shouted. The big hands of Aragunk grabbed him by the shoulders and yanked his friend across the rough tiled floor.
Lumpolas sat up in a daze. Gandalf had the raging captain pinned by the chest up against the bubble wall with his glowing staff now. Aragunk stood poised with sword drawn between Lumpolas and the captain. Millen lay unconscious on the ground, out of harm’s way. Outside the bubble, the Oarni watched but did nothing.
“Why don’t they help us?” asked Lumpolas. “Why do they only watch us?” Gandalf didn’t answer, but kept his gaze locked onto the writhing form of Captain Yorlov.
“Destroy the evil,” the chiming voice of the mer-empress sounded through the bubble. “Kill it or we will destroy it, and you, together.”
Lumpolas shot his gaze to the wizard. “But we can’t kill him! That’s the captain! Our friend! Isn’t he?” He faced the mer-empress to plead with her. “Something has taken possession of him! Please help us free him!”
But Empress Una only looked on as the Oarni guards drifted closer to the bubble with spears and tridents outstretched, waiting for the word that would condemn them to a sudden watery grave.
A spine-chilling insect snicker chittered from the captain. “Fools!” he shrieked in a shrill voice that sounded nothing like Captain Yorlov’s.“Can you escape the Dark One returning to this world? Can you hide here in the deeps when the master comes? You are all of you lost!”
“Be silent, fiend!” thundered Gandalf, taking a half-step closer. He pressed the staff yet harder into the captain’s chest. “Be silent and come out of him!” The light emanating from his staff swelled in intensity.
But though he appeared to be in great pain, the captain laughed and began repeating over and over: “My master is coming! My master is coming! My master is coming!”
“Shall I kill him?” asked Aragunk, rocking forward and back in indecision.
Lumpolas leapt to his feet. “No! We can’t! We’ve got to help him, not kill him!”
Then, for an instant, the body of Captain Yorlov stopped its struggle and his ocean-blue eyes emerged from deep within his sockets. “Please,” he gasped, fighting to speak with all his strength. “Don’t let it take me. Kill me if you have to. Save yourselves. Save… you have to save Beonna.”
“No!” said Lumpolas. “She would never forgive us if we let you die!”
Yorlov shook his head, fighting against the pain. “No! Save… you have to…” He shuddered and cried out in anguish. His eyes sank back into his head again, and the blackness returned.
“Kill it now or you will all die!” Chancellor Loam’s voice squealed through the lobster’s pincers.
Lumpolas cast his eyes to the white wizard, whose brow furrowed in grim concentration. “Aragunk, Lumpolas, quickly! Get closer to the captain and tell me if you see anything unusual around his ears.”
“His ears?” said Aragunk, his sword wavering.
“Quickly!”
They glanced at each other before taking a reluctant step towards the captain. He gnashed his teeth and spat and would have happily killed them both if not restrained by the wizard’s staff. Lumpolas tried to peer at the captain’s ears, but his head thrashed around too violently to get a clear view. “Aragunk, hold his head so I can see!” The captain’s face twisted in a terrifying maelstrom of wrath and hate, with teeth bared and black eye-pits shooting malice at them. Aragunk sheathed his sword. After hesitating a scant second, he lunged upon the captain. He caught him underneath the jaw with one hand and slapped his other hand hard over the captain’s forehead.
“Hurry, Lump!” he grunted with the effort of pinning the captain’s head in place. “I can’t hold him for long!”
Lumpolas leaped to the captain’s right side, close enough to the snarling face to peer into his scarlet ear. “Nothing there,” he said, then ducked under Gandalf’s staff to the captain’s other side. “Nothing here either—wait…wait, what is that?” There, inside the captain’s left ear, Lumpolas’s sharp eyes found something wiggling and squirming. “There is something! It looks like a tail.”
“Curse me for not noticing it sooner!” spat Gandalf. “Can you get hold of it?” Lumpolas tried to grip it, but the thing hid too deep to get his fingers around it. The captain’s snarling and frenzied efforts to loose his head from Aragunk’s grip didn’t make it any easier. “I can’t grab it, but… wait, I have an idea!” He snatched his rucksack and brought out a small wooden jar, and pulled its stopper out. The Oarni nearest him swam closer to the bubble to see what he had. He poured water from the never-ending cup into the jar and shook it. “Snake-spice should do it. I hope it won’t burn a hole in his ear!”
The captain thrashed his head back and forth, chanting his frenzied litany: “My master is coming! My master is coming! My master is coming!”
“I can’t hold him!” yelled Aragunk.
Lumpolas pressed his hand to the side of the captain’s head to help and poured the concoction into his ear. “That’s it. Let him go!”
They both sprang away in terror. The captain fell silent, his dark eyes fixed in place, his expression frozen in confusion.
“What’s happening to him?” asked Aragunk. The captain’s face waxed beet-red and his body shuddered.
“Oh, I hope that wasn’t too much,” fretted Lumpolas, with a glance at Gandalf. Suddenly, the air in the bubble split with a bone-rattling scream. The captain convulsed wildly, trying to free himself. But Gandalf pressed his staff still harder against his chest.
“Look there! His ear!” Lumpolas pointed. “Something is coming out!” And indeed, a long insect-like creature came backing itself out from the captain’s ear canal.
“What is that foul thing?” Aragunk said with disgust on his face. The shiny black creature fell onto the captain’s shoulder and tumbled to the floor with a clack. It went skittering on its dozen legs around their feet. Then the creature darted straight toward Millen, where he lay unconscious on the floor of the bubble.
“Quickly, kill it!” cried Gandalf, who tried to stamp on it and missed. But Aragunk’s extra large feet ended the threat. With one crunching SPLAT beneath his boot, he stomped the life out of the evil creature before it could get to the boy.
Gandalf released Yorlov’s limp body to Lumpolas’s care, who flipped him on his side and poured a steady stream of cool water from the never-ending cup into the captain’s burning ear.
Aragunk lifted his foot and scrunched his face up at the sight of the creature’s smashed body sticking to the sole of his boot. “Ughh! What was that disgusting thing?”
Gandalf regarded it with a sneer. “A skor. Rare and very dangerous. Another of the foul things of the world still under the thrall of Morgoth.”
“That’s why they left Captain Yorlov behind on the Freedom Hawk, wasn’t it?” asked Lumpolas. “To trap us.”
Gandalf nodded. “Yes, and to spy on us, no doubt. The Dagorim know everything we have said and done through that evil thing they left in our poor Captain Yorlov. If they did not know the location of the Silmaril before, then they surely do now.”
Lumpolas jumped with surprise when the harsh voice of Chancellor Loam erupted through the lobster’s pincers. In all the excitement, he had forgotten the Oarni swimming outside the bubble. “My Empress,” shrieked the chancellor, “what more evidence do we need? These land-cursed have plainly shown themselves to be spies sent to steal our secrets, to lay bare our realm to their attacks. Must I remind anyone here that the two-leggers have ever oppressed us? In all our dealings with them, they have proved false. Now, with their arrival, evil has again entered our waters! We have beheld it with our own eyes! Give the word, your highness, and we will rupture their bubble and let the waters of justice destroy them in your noble sight!”
Lumpolas’s heart fell as the gathered Oarni nobles hailed assent for their execution with many shouts. “Destroy them! Destroy them!” As their clamor grew, a grim Oarni soldier with a black helmet obscuring his face swam near the bubble. His brawny hands gripped a jagged trident. He floated near, poised to thrust it into their protective bubble to tear it and let the companions be crushed instantly and drowned in the watery deeps.
The face of the mer-empress grew stern. However hard he tried, Lumpolas could find no sign of pity or mercy there. “This is all wrong,” he said. “This is a mistake!”
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
Thundering drums shook the floor under their feet, punctuating the Oarni’s chants for their execution.
Lumpolas turned his frightened gaze to Gandalf, looking for hope, but the wizard appeared for once to be at a loss for words. His heart fell further as he glanced over at Aragunk. His brave friend could only shake his head in disbelief that his grand quest was ending this way, futile and unsung at the bottom of the sea.
The drumming and shouting of the Oarni swelled louder and louder until suddenly a high, clear horn blew from far away outside the dome. At once, their clamor stopped and face turned to face in confusion. A moment of strange quiet fell and then the distant horn sounded again. Immediately, a young Oarni soldier burst into the dome, swimming at top speed. He stopped in a bubbling rush in front of Empress Una with a bow.
“My lady!” the soldier said in disbelief. “I don’t know how… I can scarcely believe that…”
Chancellor Loam grabbed the young soldier and shook him. “Spit it out, young fool! Tell us what is happening!”
He gathered himself and nodded. “My queen! Our city, fair Oune, is under attack!”
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