The Undead's magic ships sailed swiftly, never stopping as they headed straight for Calimshan at the southern end of the Sword Coast. They then skirted Memnon and Calimport, both on the edge of the desert. The fact that these places bore the names of Memnon the Fire Genie and Calim the Air Genasi said enough about their importance.
After the two great genies escaped the Memnon Crystal, which had imprisoned them for nearly ten thousand years, the Calim Desert between those cities became a playground where genies reveled and fought one another. Clearly, it was also the main battlefield for Amaunator's followers advancing overland.
The Calim Desert had once been overrun by bandits from every sort of raider faction. Now, unless they hid quickly enough, those bandits could only become the genies' slaves and cannon fodder. The genies would not simply kill them. In their eyes, humans were slaves by birth—even though some of the genies had once disguised themselves as humans and lived in Calimshan for thousands of years.
After passing Calimport, the fleet sailed onto the Shining Sea. Its clear blue, crystal-pure water drew crowds of Undead to the rails. It was late at night, and the unusually bright Silver Moon cast a translucent shimmer over the water. Stars filled the sky and lay reflected on the sea, while beautiful great fish occasionally broke the surface among their reflections before slipping gently back beneath it.
The Shining Sea deserved its reputation as Faerûn's most famous stretch of scenic water. It really was beautiful. Hill understood why the Undead lingered to admire it. Had he not seen the Great Vortex where Aglaia's Supreme God Temple stood, he might have stopped to take it in himself.
But the Undead fleet did not linger on the Shining Sea. It passed every