No one was there and the dragon hadn't stirred.

Mina swam around to the front of the sand castle and found the entrance-a door, about three feet in height, made of thousands of pearls that shimmered with a pinkish-purple luster. A single rune carved out of a large emerald was embedded in the center. Mina brushed the tips of her fingers across the emerald.

The rune flashed a blinding green. The pearl door flew open with explosive force. Too late, Mina understood the trap. The building was air tight, sealed against the water. When the door opened, the seal broke. The water rushed inside, carrying Mina with it. The rush of the water ceased. The door shut and sealed, leaving the castle once again airtight.

Leaving Mina, once again, a prisoner.

Small wonder the dragon had looked amused.

The force of the water had swept Mina off her feet and tumbled her about. She lay on her stomach in water that was up to her chin. The water level was sinking fast, however. There must be a drain in the floor. She could hear the water gurgle as it swirled away.

Mina could not see a thing in the pitch darkness. She raised herself up slowly off the floor, fearful of hitting her head against the low ceiling. She felt nothing. She reached up her hand, still felt nothing. She tried straightening to her full height.

She did not hit her head. She stood perfectly still, afraid to move when she could not see. Gradually, her eyes became accustomed to the gloom. The room was not as dark as she'd first thought. There were no lights, but some objects around the room gave off a soft glow, so she was able to make out her surroundings.

Mina looked about her. She looked up, and she looked down. Her breath caught in her throat. Tears burned her eyes, causing the lights to blur together.

She was in an immense chamber. One hundred paces would not have carried her halfway across it. The ceiling on which she was afraid she might hit her head was so far above her that she could barely see it.

And, all around her, were the gods.

Each god had an alcove carved out of the wall, and in each alcove was an altar. Artifacts, sacred to each god, stood on the altar or on the floor before the altar.

Some of the artifacts shone with a radiant light. Some flickered, some glimmered. Some of the artifacts were dark, and some seemed to suck the light from the others.

Mina fell, trembling, to her knees.

The holy power of the gods seemed to crush her.

"Gods forgive me!" she whispered. "What have I done? What have I done?"

Chapter 12.

Nuitari arrived back at his Tower to find it under siege. His sister, Zeboim, goddess of the Deep, was apparently intent upon shaking it to bits.

Although they were siblings, born to Takhisis and her consort, the god of Vengeance, Sargonnas, Nuitari and Zeboim were as different as foaming waves and black moonlight. Zeboim had inherited her mother's volatile nature and fierce ambition but lacked her mother's discipline. Nuitari, by contrast, was born with his mother's cold and calculating cunning, tempered by his passion for magic. Zeboim was close to their father, Sargonnas, and often worked with him to further the cause of his beloved minotaurs, who were among the sea goddess's chief worshippers. Nuitari despised their father and made no secret of it. He didn't think much of minotaurs either, one reason there were few minotaur mages.

Nuitari had known his sister was going to be upset over the fact he'd raised up the old Tower of High Sorcery in her sea without first seeking her permission. Knowing her, he knew she was capable of refusing him out of sheer caprice. Also fearing this would put ideas into her head, Nuitari had felt it was wiser to build his Tower first and ask his sister's pardon later.

He was attempting to do just that, but Zeboim refused to listen.

"I swear to you, Brother," Zeboim fumed, "not one of your Black Robes will dare set foot on water or face my wrath! If a wizard should try to take a hot bath, I will push him under! Any ship that transports a wizard will capsize. Rafts carrying wizards across rivers will sink. If a wizard puts his toe in a stream, I will swell it to a raging river. A wizard who so much as drinks a glass of water will choke on it-"

She continued like this, ranting and raging and stamping her feet. With every stamp, the ocean floor trembled. Her fury rocked the Tower on its foundations. Nuitari could only guess at the havoc the tremors were wreaking inside. He'd lost contact with his two wizards, and that worried him.

"I am sorry, dear sister, if I have upset you," he said contritely. "Truly, it was unintentional."

"Raising up this Tower without my knowledge was unintentional?" Zeboim howled.

"I thought you knew!" Nuitari protested, all innocence. "I thought you knew everything that went on in your ocean! If you didn't, if this comes as such a surprise to you, is it my fault?"

Seething, Zeboim glared at him. She flopped and floundered but could see no way out of the net that had so neatly trapped her. If she claimed she had known he was building the Tower, then why hadn't she stopped him if it so offended her? To admit she hadn't known was to admit she didn't know what was happening in her own realm.

"I have been preoccupied with other, more important matters," she said loftily. "But now that I know, you must make reparations."

"What do you want?" Nuitari asked smoothly. "I will be only too happy to accede to your demands, dear sister. Provided they are reasonable, of course."

He assumed that she'd found out not only about the Tower but also about the Hall of Sacrilege. He figured she would ask for her holy artifacts to be returned to her in exchange for her permission to keep his Tower.

Nuitari was prepared to hand over one artifact or maybe even two, if she persisted in her threats against his wizards. Her response was completely unexpected.

"I want Mina," declared Zeboim.

"Mina?" Nuitari repeated, amazed. First Takhisis. Then Chemosh. Now Zeboim. Did every god in the universe want this girl?

"You are holding her prisoner. You will bring her to me. In return, you may keep your Tower," Zeboim offered magnanimously. "I won't make you tear it down."

"How kind of you, sister," Nuitari said in honeyed, poisonous tones. "What do you want with this human female, if you don't mind my asking?"

Zeboim looked up at the sunlit surface of the ocean.

"Just how many of your Black Robes do you think are currently sailing the high seas, Brother?" she asked. "I know of six right now."

She lifted her hands and the seawater began to bubble and boil around her. The sunlight vanished, overrun by storm clouds. Nuitari had visions of his wizards pitching off rolling decks.

"Very well! You will have her!" he said angrily. "Though I don't know why you want her. She belongs to Chemosh, body and soul."

Zeboim smiled a knowing smile, and Nuitari guessed immediately that she and Chemosh had made some sort of bargain.

"That's why the god did not come to claim his trollop," Nuitari muttered. "He has made a deal with Zeboim. I wonder what for. Not my Tower, I trust."

He eyed his sister. She eyed him back.

"I'll go fetch her," said Nuitari.

"You do that," said Zeboim. "And don't be long about it. I grow bored so easily."

She gave his Tower a little shake for good measure.

Upon entering the Blood Sea Tower, Nuitari summoned his wizards.

They did not respond.

He thought this ominous. Caele was usually always on hand, falling over himself to be the first to gush over the return of the Master, and Basalt, solid and reliable, would be waiting to launch into grievances against Caele.

Neither appeared in response to their master's summons.

Nuitari called again, his tone dire.

No answer.

Nuitari went to the laboratory, thinking they might be there. He found it an ungodly mess-the floor awash in spilled potions and broken glass, a small fire burning in a corner, several escaped imps wandering about freely. Nuitari put out the fire with an irritated breath, trapped the imps and locked them back inside their cages, then continued his search for the missing wizards. He had a feeling he knew where to look.

Arriving at Mina's chambers, he found the door standing wide open. Nuitari entered.

Two stone coffins and no sign of Mina.

Nuitari pried the stone slabs off the sarcophagi. Caele, gasping tor air, clutched at the sides of the coffin and pulled himself up. The half-elf looked half-dead. He tried to stand, but his legs were too wobbly. He sat in the coffin and shivered. Dwarves being accustomed to living in dark places, Basalt had taken his confinement in stride. He was far more worried about facing his irate god, and he kept his head down, his hood lowered, trying desperately to avoid Nuitari's baleful gaze.

"Uh, if you'll pardon me, Master, I will just go attend to the cleaning up..." Basalt tried to sidle out of the room.

"Where is Mina?" Nuitari demanded.

Basalt glanced about furtively, as if hoping he she might be hiding under the couch. Not finding her, he looked back at the Master and almost immediately looked away again.

"It was Caele's fault," Basalt said, mumbling into his beard. "He tried to kill her, but he bungled it as usual, and she took his knife- "You snake!" Caele hissed. Crawling weakly out of the coffin, he raised a feeble hand against the dwarf.

"Stop it, both of you!" Nuitari commanded. "Where is Mina?"

"Everything happened at once, Master." Caele whined. "Zeboim started shaking the Tower, and the next thing I knew Mina had my knife and was threatening to kill me-"

"That is true, Master," said Basalt. "Mina threatened to kill poor Caele if I tried to stop her, and of course, I feared for his life, and then Chemosh came and forced us inside these coffins-"

"You lie," Nuitari said calmly. "The Lord of Death may not enter my Tower. Not anymore."

"I heard his voice, Master," gasped Basalt, flinching. "His voice was everywhere. He spoke to Mina. He said the Tower was hers. Except for the guardian..."

"The guardian," repeated Nuitari, and he knew where Mina had gone-the Hall of Sacrilege. He relaxed. "Midori will deal with her, which means there won't be much left. I must come up with something to placate my sister. I will put Mina's remains in a pretty box. Zeboim can trade that to Chemosh for whatever it is he has promised her-a promise he probably doesn't mean to keep anyway."

He looked back at his two wizards, who stood cringing before him. "Start cleaning up this mess." He glanced at the coffins. "Don't get rid of those. They might come in useful in the future if you dare disobey me again."

"No, Master," Basalt mumbled.

"Yes, Master," Caele gulped.

Satisfied, Nuitari departed to retrieve Mina's corpse.

Nuitari expected to find the sea globe in an uproar-blood in the water, the dragon looking satiated, sharks fighting over the scraps.

Instead, jellyfish undulated about the globe in maddening calm and the dragon was asleep on the sandy bottom.

Apparently he'd been worried over nothing. Mina had not come here after all. Nuitari sent an urgent message to his wizards to search the Tower for her and was starting to leave to assist them when the dragon spoke.

"If you're looking for the human, she's inside your sand castle."

Nuitari stood aghast for a moment, then surged through the crystal wall to confront the dragon.

Midori watched him from deep within the black depths of her shell.

"You allowed her to enter?" Nuitari raged. "What kind of guardian are you?"

"She told me you had sent her," replied the dragon. The shell shifted slightly. "She said you wanted her to make certain the holy artifacts had not been damaged by the quakes."

"And you believed her lies?" Nuitari was aghast.

"No," said Midori, green-gold eyes glittering. "Not any more than I believe your lies."

"My lies?" Nuitari could not make sense of this. He'd never lied to the dragon, not about anything important. "What- Never mind that! Why did you let her pass?"

"Next time, do your own dirty work," Midori snarled, drawing her head back into her shell. She closed her eyes and feigned sleep.

Nuitari didn't have time to puzzle out what was bothering the dragon. He had to stop Mina from walking off with his artifacts. Unseen and unheard, the god materialized inside the Solio Febalas Solio Febalas.

There was Mina. She was not ransacking the place, as he expected. She was on her knees, her head bowed, her hands clasped.

"Gods of Darkness and Gods of Light and those Gods who love the twilight in between, forgive my desecration of this holy place," Mina was praying softly. "Forgive the ignorance of mortals, forgive the arrogance and fear that led them to commit this crime against you. Though the souls of those who stole these of those who stole these sacred sacred objects are objects are long since passed, the weakness in men remains. Few bow down before you. Few honor you. Many deny your existence or claim man has outgrown his need of you. If they could but see this blessed sight as I see it and feel your presence as I feel it, all mankind would fall to your feet and worship." long since passed, the weakness in men remains. Few bow down before you. Few honor you. Many deny your existence or claim man has outgrown his need of you. If they could but see this blessed sight as I see it and feel your presence as I feel it, all mankind would fall to your feet and worship."

Nuitari had intended to grab her by the scruff of her neck and twist her body in his bare hands until her bones cracked and her blood ran red. Like his wizards, he did not believe in using magic for frivolous purposes.

But he did not kill her. Looking around the chamber, he saw what she saw-not artifacts to be bartered like pigs on market day. He saw the sacred altars. He saw the divine light. He saw the awful power of the gods. He felt what she felt-a holy presence. Nuitari drew back his hand.

"You are the most irritating human," he said, exasperated. "I do not understand you!"

Mina lifted her head and turned to look at him. Her face was stained with tears. She reminded him of a lost child.

"I do not understand myself, Lord," she said. She bowed her head. "Take my life as punishment for my transgression into this holy place. I deserve to die."

"You do deserve to die," Nuitari told her grimly. "But today you are lucky. I have promised you to my sister who has, in turn, promised you to Chemosh."

He might have been talking of someone else. Mina remained where she was, crouched on the floor, crushed, ground down by the weight of heaven.

"Didn't you hear me? You are free to go," he said. "Though I must warn you that if you have, by some mischance, tucked a blessed ring or a vial of life-restoring potion up your sleeve, you should divest yourself of it before you depart. Otherwise, you will find your luck has run out."

"I have touched nothing, Lord," she said.

Rising to her feet, she walked toward the door. She moved slowly, as though reluctant to leave. Her eyes lingered on the holy relics of the gods.

"I don't suppose it would do me any good to ask how you managed to circumvent my magical safeguards?" Nuitari asked. "How you broke into a door that was magically sealed and trapped, and then made your way through rune-encrusted crystal walls, and how you came to breathe seawater as easily as air. I suppose Chemosh aided you in all this."

"I prayed to my lord, yes," Mina replied absently.

Nuitari waited for details, but she did not elaborate.