As soon as the word left Coyrifan, Chief Ferrifan bellowed incoherently and reached for his son's neck. He did not get to follow through with his brutal intent, for Erin's moonstone—her Howlith—came to life with overwhelming suddenness, engulfing the entire tribe in its horror. Meeoa's roar boomed like thunder from the sky as she too was overcome.

Coyrifan heard screaming as the fire of the terrible stone seared his hand to black char, the molten magic then burrowing up through the flesh of his arm.

The screaming was his own.

Somehow, he kept hold of the Medelapura in his other hand. The purple crystal strained against its chain as Ferrifan trembled, paralyzed in silent agony. His eyes, protruding from his face like unnatural yellow moons, were still locked upon his son. As the burning pain flowed into his chest and began to climb his neck like vines of a murderous plant, Coyrifan wrenched the Medelapura free, shattering its golden chain into pieces.

The offense was enough to partially free the chief from whatever unspeakable figments he was experiencing, giving him the strength to lunge at his son. It was a clumsy attack, but, consumed by the pain and constricting grasp of the vines of flame that continued to spread over his body, Coyrifan could not dodge it. The chief's thick fingers closed about his neck, each new point of pressure stoking the fire that was already burning his skin. Writhing futilely in his father's grasp, Coy screamed again, an audible shriek echoing off the stone foot of the sheltering island long after his thought-scream had faded.

The next scream belonged to Ferrifan, a bestial howl of pain prompted by none other than Zeriva. She'd latched onto his arm and sunk her teeth into the muscular flesh, clinging for all she was worth until he finally released Coyrifan. He would have seized her next, but Vasadax appeared behind him with haunted eyes, his own large bulk looking small against the chief's massive frame. He wrapped one strong arm around Ferrifan's neck and hooked the other underneath his shoulder, pinning the chief just in time for Zeriva to snatch Coyrifan's hand and pull him away, clasping the Medelapura between their palms.

"Coyrifan, why won't you swim?" she grunted as she hauled him along. "Use your tail, before the monsters catch us!"

He tried to move his tail, but all that accomplished was to relight the fiery vines that wrapped it to searing again. "It's burning up," he groaned, faint and clenching his jaw for the pain.

"Burning? Here?" She looked back at Coyrifan's limp tail. "There's nothing there," she insisted. "Nothing but your moonstone scales." She kept going, constantly looking over her shoulder.

The chief's fair son stared at his own tail, at the trails of corroded black flesh that wound about his silver skin where the purple moonstone scales had been melted away. Of course the Howler's illusions weren't real. But they were. No one could escape them, make them subside while a Howlith was awake. Not even the one who called it to awaken.

"They're catching up!" Zeriva screeched, a loud squeal of fear accompanying her thoughts as she desperately tried to swim faster, still towing Coyrifan.

He looked out into the blue behind them, expecting to see his father fast approaching. Instead, he saw the tribe's men afar off, led by an enraged Ferrifan and trailed by the hulking shadow of the heartbeast Meeoa. Thankfully, they were unable to move very quickly, still caught in the throes of the Howlith's terrible visions. "There's nothing," he said to Zeriva. "Nothing at all, just like there is nothing wrong with my tail."

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"Then why won't you swim?"

Dreading the excruciating pain that he knew would come of it, Coyrifan steeled himself a few moments, then beat the water with his tail. Zeriva froze, turning just in time to watch him swim past, gasping and snarling as he fought the fiery agony that burned every part of him that moved. After a long pause, staring back at whatever horrible creatures she believed she could see, she quickly caught up with him, just as the waters in front of Coyrifan began to swirl.

The swirling water quickly turned into a bizarre vertical vortex, spinning in such a way that it pushed them back. Laboriously, they toiled to try and swim through it, but the current was just too strong. Behind them, Ferrifan and his men were quickly looming close.

"We're trapped!" Zeriva cried, struggling against the spiral's pressure.

"No, we aren't," Coyrifan forced the words out, his thoughts screaming in constant pain. "We are swimming just as fast as before. Keep going, just a little further..."

They went on a bit longer, seemingly going nowhere at all. When Chief Ferrifan and his men appeared to be nearly upon them, Coyrifan held up the two moonstones and commanded Erin's stone to be silent.

As the Howlith's illusions began to vanish, the image of Ferrifan melted away, followed by the fading shapes of the other men. The same was true of the burnt black lines that covered Coyrifan's body, his bright, supple skin and moonstone scales returning to their former conditions in seconds. The phantom burning and aching took a bit longer to disappear, but that was a small price to pay for the sight of open ocean all around the two young merlings, not a warrior to be found in any direction.

Coyrifan and Zeriva hurried on to the wastes that ringed the Mivusa territory, their journey toward the nearest Howler in the circle a relatively brief moment of fear before they were close enough for Coy to use the stolen Medelapura to silence it. He left the evil thing asleep after they had passed through, refusing to trap his own people to slowly starve to death once the moonstone that controlled the Howliths was returned to the manlings. They would be in danger of attack by any number of opportunistic tribes or larger bands of deserters, but Coyrifan would see to it that they would be protected—if his father didn't immediately kill him upon his return, of course.

They swam until their tails could barely move and they were forced to rest. Luckily, they were nearby Coyrifan's secret lair near the Nilvar Shallows. He led the way there, trusting that no one would expect them to return to so obvious a hiding place. They did not even go through the maze of tunnels, instead making temporary hollows of two shallow pools that lay side-by-side in the entrance cavern.

After they had rested a short while, Zeriva lay in her pool, her arms folded upon the ledge and her cheek resting on them so that she could look over and into Coyrifan's pool. "We lived," she said simply.

"Thanks to you," he replied, in his favored upside-down resting position. "You saved me."

Had she not been there to bite Chief Ferrifan's arm, he would have tightened his grip around Coyrifan's neck, and...

"He tasted like an old skate." Her face wrinkled with disgust. "You'll have to bite him next time."

"I hope there won't be a next time."

He was about to say more, but she spoke over him, her sharp voice cutting cleanly through his thoughts. "Coyrifan, I'm going home."

"You can't." Coy abruptly righted himself, then bobbed above the water to put his own elbows up on the ledge between the two pools, bringing him face to face with the female merling. "Ferrifan will be certain to kill you when he arrives, or if he catches you on the way. Come with me to Nilvar."

Her blue eyes were like mirror reflections of the sky, even to his night vision in the dark of the cave. "I have to warn my father that he's coming," she said. "Our border is close enough. I can make it there in time."

This time, it was Coyrifan who took Zeriva's hand. "I'll join you as soon as I can. Be caref—"

She cut him off again with a peck on the lips, then laughed in her particularly silly way as she threw herself over the edge of the pool into the deeper waters of the flooded cavern. She was gone before the stunned Coyrifan had faculties enough to turn his head to look after her.