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"How small is this island of Caerwich?" Catti-brie asked Deuder had slipped past, this one uneventfully Another week of eh the schooner was fully crewed and there were few places where soht of everyone else That was the thing about the open ocean, you were never physically alone, yet all the world seeether, just standing and watching, each lost, drifting on the rolls of the azure blanket, together and yet so alone

"A few square h the response was an automatic reflex

"And ye’re thinkin’ to find it?" An un a lazy stare from Drizzt, as well as from Deudermont

"We found the Gull Rocks," Drizzt reh he, too, was getting that une of irritation to his voice "They are not er"

"Bah, they’re known to all," Catti-brie retorted "A straight run west"

"We knohere we are, and where we o," Deudermont insisted "There is theblindly"

Catti-brie glanced over her shoulder and cast a scowl at Dunkin, the provider of thethe poop deck The woman’s sour expression alone answered Deudermont’s claiht be

"And the wizards have new eyes that see far," Deuderh she wondered how reliable the "eyes" in question ht be Harkle and Robillard had taken some birds from the Gull Rocks, and claih use of their ulls would help, the tizards declared, and each day, they set the thes Catti-brie hadn’t thought much about the wizards and in truth, all but two of the ten birds they had taken had not returned to the Sea Sprite Catti-brie figured the birds had more likely flown all the way back to the Gull Rocks, probably laughing at the bu wizards all the way

"The map is all we have had since we left Mintarn," Drizzt said softly, trying to erase the young woer that was plain upon her fair, sunburned features He syative thoughts They had all known the odds, and thus far, the journey had not been so bad-certainly not as bad as it ht have been They had been out for several weeks, most of that tile crewh low, remained sufficient Thank Guenhwyvar and Harkle for that, Drizzt thought with a smile, for the panther and the wizard had cleared the ship of the bulk of her pesky rats soon after they had departed froate

But still, despite the logical understanding that the journey was on course and going well, Drizzt could not help the swells of anger that rose up in hi about the ocean, he realized, the boredo, loved running the waves, but too long in the open ocean, too long in looking at erated on his nerves

Catti-brie walked away,Drizzt looked to Deudermont, and the experienced captain’s sood measure of his worry

"I have seen it before," Deuderht Mintarn, or as soon as we make the decision to turn back to the east"

"You would do that?" Drizzt asked "You would forsake the words of the doppleganger?"

Deuder and hard on that one "I have come here because I believe it to be er that is now pursuing me, I wish to meet it head-on and with my eyes wide open But I’ll not risk my crew more than is necessary If our food stores become too diminished to safely continue, ill turn back"

"And what of the doppleganger?" Drizzt asked

"My enemies found me once," Deudermont replied casually, and truly thesolid to hold onto in a sea of e," Drizzt assured him

As it turned out, the wait, for Caerwich at least, was not a long one Less than an hour after the conversation, Harkle Harpell bounded out of Deuder his hands excitedly

Deudermont was the first to him, followed closely by a dozen anxious crewmen Drizzt, at his custo bridge to survey the gathering He realized as going on ilanced upward, to Catti-brie, as peering down intently froie is!" Harkle beaie?" Deuderweld, so fine a wizard! He bred a frog with a horse-no easy feat that! Puddlejumper, he called her Or was it Riverjumper? Or ing the wizard fro confusion

"Oh, of course," babbled Harkle "Yes, yes, where was I? Oh, yes, I was telling you about Regweld What a fine ht valiantly in Keeper’s Dale, so say the tales There was one time "

"Harkle!" Now there was no subtle coercion in Deudermont’s tone, just open hostility

"What?" the wizard asked innocently

"The darowled "What have you found?"

"Oh, yes!" Harkle replied, clapping his hands "The bird, the bird Reggie Yes, yes, fine bird Fastest flyer of the lot"

"Harkle!" a score of voices roared in unison

"We have found an island," came a reply from behind the flustered Harpell Robillard stepped onto the deck and appeared so about an island Ahead and to port, and not so far away"

"How large?" Deudered and chuckled "All islands are large when seen through the eyes of a seagull," he answered "It could be a rock, or it could be a continent"

"Or even a whale," Harkle piped in

It didn’t matter If the bird had indeed spotted an island out here, out where the map indicated that Caerwich should be, then Caerwich, it must be!

"You and Dunkin," Deudermont said to Robillard, and he ie," Harkle added happily, pointing to the seagull, which had perched on the very tip of the ht above Catti-brie’s head

Drizzt saw a potential probleiven the bird’s position, the woman’s sour mood and the fact that she had her boith her Fortunately, though, the bird flew off at Harkle’s bidding without leaving any presents behind

Had it not been for that bird, the Sea Sprite would have sailed right past Caerwich, within a halfit The island was circular, rese a low cone, and was just a few hundred yards in diameter It was perpetually shrouded in a bluish mist that looked like just another swell in the sea from only a short distance away

As the schooner approached thatquietly at half

sail, the wind turned colder and the sun seemed somehow less substantial Deudermont did a complete circle of the island, but found no particularly re

Back in their original spot, Deudermont took the wheel froht toward Caerwich, slowly slipping her into thein the sudden chill "She’s a haunted place, I tell you" The s that he had gotten off the schooner at Wyngate Dunkin’s other ear got tugged as well, but not by his own hand He turned about to look eye to eye with Drizzt Do’Urden They were about the sah Drizzt’s muscles were much more finely honed But at that moment, Drizzt see

"Ghost wi-" Dunkin started to say, but Drizzt put a finger to his lips to silence him

Dunkin leaned heavily on the rail and went silent

Deuderht the schooner to a creeping drift Theabout the way the ship was handling, so about the flow of the water beneath them, told the captain to be wary He called up to Catti-brie, but she had no answers for hi mist than he

Deudermont nodded to Drizzt, who rushed off to the forward bea their way The drow spotted so aout of the water, barely fifty yards ahead of thenized it for what it was: the top of a ship’s mast

"Stop us!" he yelled

Robillard was into his spellcasting before Deudery out directly in front of the Sea Sprite, brought up a ridgelike swell of water that halted the ship’s drifting momentum Down came the Sea Sprite’s sails, and down dropped the anchor with a splash that seemed to echo ominously about the decks for many seconds

"How deep?" Deuder the anchor The chain was e the depth when they put the anchor down

"A hundred feet," one of them called back a moment later

Drizzt rejoined the captain at the wheel "A reef, byhis call for a stop "There is a hulk in the water barely two ship-lengths ahead of us She’s fully under, except for the tip of her ht her down in a hurry"

"Got her bottoure us to be a few hundred yards fro hard into the mist He looked to the stern The Sea Sprite carried two s on either side of the poop deck

"We could circle again," Robillard re "Perhaps ill find a spot with a good draw"

"I’ll not riskthe rowboat," he decided He looked to a group of nearby crewmen "Drop one," he instructed

Twenty minutes later, Deudermont, Drizzt, Catti-brie, the tizards, Waillan Micanty and a very reluctant and very frightened Dunkin glided away fro their row-boat so completely that its rim was barely a hand above the dark water Deuder on the Sea Sprite The creas to put back out of the mist a thousand yards and wait for their return If they had not returned by nightfall, the Sea Sprite was toone final run at Caerwich at noon the next day

After that, if the rowboat had not been spotted, she was to sail home

The seven moved away from the Sea Sprite, Dunkin and Waillan on the oars and Catti-brie peering over the prow, expecting to find a reef at any moment Farther back, Drizzt knelt beside Deudermont, ready to point out the mast he had spotted

Drizzt couldn’t find it

"No reef," Catti-brie said frouess" She looked back to Drizzt and especially to Deuderht up to the damned beach," she said

Deuder the one to He was about to restate what he had seen when the rowboat lurched suddenly, her bottoround to a halt Theyup there, but a spell froht both wizards, Deuder planks of the boat, while Drizzt, Dunkin and Waillan cautiously brought the lightened boat over

"All the way in?" Drizzt re woman insisted Catti-brie had been a lookout for more than five years, and was said to have the best eyes on the Sword Coast So how, she wondered, had shefor exactly that?

A few ave a startled cry and the others turned to see the ht beside the seated wizard

Now the others, especially Drizzt, were having the same doubts as Catti-brie They had practically run over that ed furiously at his ear

"A trick of the fog," Deuder us around that uard Dunkin shook his head, but Waillan slapped him on the shoulder

"Hard on the oar," Waillan ordered "You heard the captain"

Catti-brie hung low over the side of the rowboat, curious to learn more about the wreck, but the ray veil whose secrets she could not penetrate Finally, Deuder any information out here, and coht in for the island

At first, Dunkin nodded eagerly, happy to get off the water Then, as he considered their destination, he alternated pulls on the oar with pulls on his ear

The surf was not strong, but the undertoas and it pulled back against the rowboat’s ht, but it seerasp, for many h he knew that they were doing exactly that, were as anxious as he to get

this over with Finally, the captain looked plaintively to Robillard, and the wizard, after a resigned sigh, stuck his hand into his deep pockets, seeking the components for a helpful spell

Still up front, Catti-brie peered hard through the n of inhabitants It was no good; the island was too far away, given the thick fog The young woman looked down instead, into the dark water

She saw candles

Catti-brie’s face twisted in confusion She looked up and rubbed her eyes, then looked back to the water

Candles There could be no mistake about it Candlesunder the water

Curious, the wo out a for "The dead," she said, though she couldn’t get more than a whisper out of her ht the attention of the others, and then she hopped right to her feet, as a bloated and blackened hand grabbed the ri only at Catti-brie, screaot to his feet and scraet by the two oarshost’s head come clear of the water A horrid, skeletal face rose to the side of the boat

Khazid’hea cae of the boat and driving right through the planking until it was at water level

"What are you doing?" Dunkin cried Drizzt, at Catti-brie’s side, wondered the sahost, there was just Catti-brie’s sedged deeply into the planking of the rowboat

"Get us in!" Catti-brie yelled back "Get us in!"

Drizzt looked at her hard, then looked all around "Candles?" he asked, noticing the strange watery lights

That simple word sparked fear in Deudermont, Robillard, Waillan and Dunkin, sailors all, who knew the tales of sea ghosts, lying in wait under the waves, their bloated bodies ht candles

"How pretty!" said an oblivious Harkle, looking overboard

"Get us to the beach!" Deudermont cried, but he needn’t have bothered, for Waillan and Dunkin were pulling with all of their strength

Robillard was deep into spellcasting He suht behind the s toward shore The jolt of the sudden wave knocked Catti-brie to the deck and nearly sent Drizzt right over

Harkle, entranced by the candles, wasn’t so fortunate As the wave crested, coht over the tide line, he tu hard onto the beach

In the surf, ten yards offshore, a drenched Harkle stood up

A dozen grotesque and bloated forms stood up around him

"Oh, hello" the friendly Harpell started, and then his eyes bulged and nearly rolled froh the undertow and toward the shore

Catti-brie was already up and in position, lifting Taul an arrow She took quick aiain as the arrow streaked right past hi thump and splash as an animated corpse hit the water, and understood that he was not the wo out the next nearest zombie Harkle, as he ca weeds and quickly outdistanced the othera few feet of lanced back to see a curtain of fire separating him from the water, and from the zombies

He ran the rest of the way up the beach to join the other six by the rowboat and expressed his thanks to Robillard, shaking the wizard so hard that he broke thefire fell away Where there had been ten zo from the water and the weeds

"Well done," Robillard said dryly

Catti-brie fired again, blasting away another zoers of one hand and a bolt of green energy erupted fro down the beach Three hit one zo it to the water Two sped past, burning into the nextit down

"Not very creative," Harkle remarked

Robillard scowled at hinantly, and so the challenge was on

Drizzt and the others stood back, weapons ready, but knowing better than to charge down at their foes in the face of wizardly ic Even Catti-brie, after a couple ofspellcasters center stage

"A Caliht me this one," Harkle proclaimed He tossed a bit of twine into the air and chanted in a cracking, high-pitched voice A line of seaweed came alive to his call, rose up like a serpent and i the thing down under the surf

Harkle smiled broadly

Robillard snorted derisively "Only one?" he asked, and he launched hi and tossing flakes of metal into the air Then he stopped and pivoted powerfully, hurling one hand out toward the shore Shards of shining, burning ained a e into the zoing to theh the weeds and the reh rotted skin and bone alike

A ruesome zombies tumbled down

"Oh, simple evocation," Harkle chided and he answered Robillard’s spell by pulling out a s it toward the water

Seconds later, a lightning bolt blasted forth Harkle ai wide in a circular pattern, engulfing ht appeared! Zoan a strange, hopping dance, turning co down under the waves

When it was over, the zo stubbornly all along the beach

Harkle sain "Simple evocation," he remarked

"Indeed,"by this point, and was sarded her companions Even Dunkin, so terrified a h aloud at the spectacle of the battling wizards In looking at the pair, Deuderht of such horrid enemies had defeated his team’s heart for this search

It was Robillard’s turn and he focused on a single zo up the beach He used no material components this time, just chanted softly and waved his arms in specific er, reaching out to the unfortunate targetit in flames, an impressive display that fully consumed the creature in but a fewdeeply, then shifted the line of fire, burning away a second monster

"The scorcher," he said when the spell was done "A reannazar was a minor trickster!" he declared, and Robillard scowled

Harkle reached into a pocket, pulling forth several co the item "Powdered rhubarb and the stomach of an adder"

"Melf!" Robillard cried happily

"Melf indeed!" echoed Harpell "Now there was a wizard!"

"I know Melf," said Robillard

Harkle stuttered and stopped his casting "How old are you?" he asked

"I know Melf’s work," Robillard clarified

"Oh," said Harkle and he went back to casting

To prove his point, Robillard reached into his own pocket and produced a handful of beads that sht the aroma, but paid it little heed as he was in the throes of the final runes of his own spell by then

The dart zipped out fro into the belly of the closest zo an ever-widening hole right through the creature The zorasped futilely at the wound, even bent low as if it h itself

Then it fell over