THE PROVERBIAL STRAW

Deudermont, Robillard, Drizzt, Regis, and the others gathered in the governor's war room shared a profound sense of dread from the look on Waillan Micanty's face as he entered the room.

"Waterdhavian flotilla came in," the man said.

"And...?" Deudermont prompted.

"One boat," Micanty replied.

"One?" Robillard growled.

"Battered, and with her crew half dead," Micanty reported. "All that's left of the flotilla. Some turned back, most are floating empty or have been sent to the bottom."

He paused, but no one in the room had the strength to ask a question or offer a response, or even, it seemed, to draw breath.

"Was lacedons, they said," Micanty went on. "Sea ghouls. Scores of 'em. And something bigger and stronger, burning ships with fire that came up from the deep."

"Those ships were supposed to be guarded!" Robillard fumed.

"Aye, and so they were," Waillan Micanty replied, "but not from below. Hundreds of men dead and most all of the supplies lost to the waves."

Deudermont slipped into his chair, and it seemed to Drizzt that if he had not, he might have just fallen over.

"The folk of Luskan won't like this," Regis remarked.

"The supplies were our bartering card," Deudermont agreed.

"Perhaps we can use the sea ghouls as a new, common enemy," Regis offered. "Tell the high captains that we have to join together to win back the shipping lanes."

Robillard scoffed loudly.

"It's something!" the halfling protested.

"It's everything, perhaps," Deudermont agreed, to Regis's surprise most of all.

"We have to stop this warring," the governor went on, addressing Robillard most of all. "Declare a truce and sail side-by-side against these monstrosities. We can sail all the way to Waterdeep and fill our holds with - "

"You've lost your mind," Robillard interrupted. "You think the four high captains will join an expedition that will only secure your power?"

"For their own good as well," the governor argued. "To save Luskan."

"Luskan is already dead," said Robillard.

Drizzt wanted to argue with the wizard, but found no words to suffice.

"Send word to the high captains for parlay," Deudermont ordered. "They will see the wisdom in this."

"They will not!" Robillard insisted.

"We have to try!" Deudermont shouted back and the wizard scoffed again and turned away.

Regis sent a concerned look Drizzt's way, but the drow had little comfort to offer him. They both had spent the previous day battling in the streets around Suljack's palace, and both knew that Luskan teetered on the brink of disaster, if indeed she wasn't already there. The only mitigating factor seemed to be the wealth of supplies streaming up from Waterdeep, and if most of those were not to arrive....

"We have to try," Deudermont said again, his tone and timbre more quiet, even, and controlled.

But there was no mistaking the desperation and fear embedded in that voice.

Baram and Taerl wouldn't come to him personally, but sent a single emissary to deliver their message. Kurth and Kensidan didn't even answer his request for a parlay.

Deudermont tried to put a good face on the rejection, but whenever he thought that Robillard or Drizzt weren't looking his way, he sighed.

"Twenty-seven?" Robillard asked in a mocking tone. "A whole day of fighting, a dozen men dead or near it on our side, and all we've got to show for our work are twenty-seven prisoners, and not a one of them pledging to our cause?"

"But all agreeing that they're out of the fight, so if we win..." Drizzt started to reply.

Robillard cut him off with a smirk and said, "If?"

Drizzt cleared his throat and glanced at Deudermont, then went on, "When we win, these men will join with us. Luskan need not be burned to the ground. Of that much, I'm sure."

"That isn't much, Drizzt," Robillard said, and the drow could only shrug, having little evidence to prove the wizard wrong. They had held Suljack's palace that first day, but the enemy seemed all around them, and several of the adjoining streets were fully under the control of Baram and Taerl. They had indeed lost at least twelve fighters, and who knew how many more had been killed out in the streets near the palace?

Deudermont couldn't win a war of attrition. He didn't have thousands behind him, unlike when he'd gone against Arklem Greeth. The supplies might have renewed that faith in him, but the main source had been destroyed at sea and nothing else had arrived.

Regis entered the war room then to announce the arrival of Baram and Taerl's ambassador. Deudermont sprang out of his seat and rushed past the other two, urging Regis along to the audience chamber.

The man, a scruffy-looking sea dog with a hairline that had receded to the back of his scalp, wild gray strands hanging all about him, waited for them, picking his nose as Deudermont entered the room.

"Don't waste me time," he said, flicking something off to the floor and staring at Deudermont the way a big dog might look upon a cornered rodent - hardly the usual look Captain Deudermont of Sea Sprite was used to seeing from such a bilge rat.

"Baram and Taerl should have come and saved you the trouble then," Deudermont replied, taking a seat before the man. "They had my word that no harm would befall them."

The man snickered. "Same word ye gived to Suljack, not a doubt."

"You believe I was involved in the death of Suljack?" Deudermont asked.

The man shrugged as if it hardly mattered. "Baram and Taerl ain't no fools, like Suljack," he said. "They'd be needing more than yer word to believe the likes of Captain Deudermont."

"They project their own sense of honor upon me, it would seem. I'm a man of my word," he paused and motioned for the man to properly introduce himself.

"Me own name ain't important, and I ain't for tellin' it to the likes o' yerself."

Behind Deudermont, Robillard laughed and offered, "I can discover it for you, Cap - Governor."

"Bah, no one'd tell ye!" the ambassador said with a growl.

"Oh, you would tell me, and do not doubt it," the wizard replied. "Perhaps I would even etch it on your gravestone, if we bothered to get you a gravesto - "

"So much for yer word, eh Captain?" the sea dog said with a broken-toothed grin, just as Deudermont held up his hand to silence the troublesome Robillard.

"Baram and Taerl sent you here to hear my offer," said Deudermont. "Tell them..."

The filthy ambassador started laughing and shaking his head. "Nothing they want to hear," he interrupted. "They sent me here with theiroffer. Their only offer." He stared at Deudermont intensely. "Captain, get on yer Sea Sprite and sail away. We're givin' ye that, and it's more than ye deserve, ye fool. But be knowing that we're givin' ye it on yer word that ye'll not e'er again sink any ship what's carrying the colors o' Luskan,"

Deudermont's eyes widened then narrowed dangerously.

"That's yer deal," the sea dog said.

"I'm going to burn this city to rubble," Robillard growled under his breath, but then he shook his head and added, "Take the offer, Captain. To the Nine Hells with Luskan."

Beside Robillard, Drizzt and Regis exchanged concerned glances, and both of them were thinking the same thing, that maybe it was time for Deudermont to admit that he could not succeed in the City of Sails, as he'd hoped. They had been out on the streets the previous day, after all, and had seen the scale of the opposition.

For a long while, the room lay silent. Deudermont put his chin in his hand and seemed deep in thought. He didn't look back to his three friends, nor did he pay any heed at all to the ambassador, who stood tapping his foot impatiently.

Finally, the governor of Luskan sat up straight. "Baram and Taerl err," he said.

"Only deal ye're gettin'," said the pirate.

"Go and tell your bosses that Luskan will not go to the Nine Hells, but that they surely shall," said Deudermont. "The people of Luskan have entrusted me to lead them to a better place, and to that place we will go."

"And where might all these people be?" the pirate asked with dripping sarcasm. "Might they be shooting arrows at ye're boys even as we're talkin'?"

"Be gone to your masters," said Deudermont. "And know that if I see your ugly face again, I will surely kill you."

The threat, delivered so calmly, seemed to unsettle the man, and he staggered backward a few steps, then turned and rushed from the room.

"Secure a route from here to the wharves," Deudermont instructed his friends. "If we're forced into retreat, it will be to Sea Sprite."

"We could just walk there, openly," said Robillard, and he pointed at the door through which the ambassador had just exited.

"If we leave, it will be a temporary departure," Deudermont promised. "And woe to any ship we see flying Luskan's colors. And woe to the high captains when we return, Waterdhavian lords at our side."

"The reports from the street are unequivocal," Kensidan announced. "This is it. There will be no pause. Deudermont wins or he loses this day."

"He loses," came the voice from the shadows. "There is no relief on the way from Waterdeep."

"I don't underestimate that one, or his powerful friends," said the Crow.

"Don't underestimate his powerful enemies," the voice replied. "Kurth succeeded in defeating the flotilla, though no ships from Luskan got near to it."

That turned Kensidan away from the window, to peer at the globe of darkness.

"Kurth has an ally," the voice explained. "One Deudermont believes destroyed. One who does not draw breath, save to find his voice for powerful magical dweomers."

The Crow considered the cryptic clues for a moment then his eyes widened and he seemed as near to panic as anyone had ever seen him. "Greeth," he mumbled.

"Arklem Greeth himself," said the voice. "Seeking revenge on Deudermont."

The Crow began to stalk the room, eyes darting all around.

"Arklem Greeth will not challenge you," the voice in the darkness promised. "His days of ruling Luskan are at an end. He accepted this before Deudermont moved on the Hosttower."

"But he aligns with Kurth. Whatever your assurances regarding the archmage arcane, you cannot make the same with regard to Kurth!"

"The lich will not go against us, whatever High Captain Kurth might ask of him," the unseen speaker said with confidence.

"You cannot know that!"

A soft chuckle came from the darkness, one that ended any further debate on the subject, and one that sent a shiver coursing Kensidan's spine, a reminder of who it was he was dealing with, of who he had trusted - trusted!  -  throughout his entire ordeal.

"Move decisively," the voice prompted. "You are correct in your assessment that this day determines Luskan's future. There is nothing but the angled wall of a corner behind you now."