Cold Steel and Secrets Part 2

1478 DR

The young Nashers Yelled at each other as Rucas Sarfael rolled across the floor of the armory, grappling with the hellhound left to guard its treasures. Dhafiyand, the spymaster of Neverwinter, had assured him that there was no great protection for the weapons, and the armory had seemed like the perfect place to let Elyne’s students practice some burglary for the good of their cause and ingratiate himself with their rebel teacher. At the moment, Sarfael strove to keep his ruse from turning him into a roasted corpse.

Two of Elyne’s students came to his aid. Parnadiz ran forward to stab the hound with his outdrawn sword as Charinyn whipped off her cloak, flapping it in one hand, seeking to distract the creature by flourishing it. The others closed in, swords out, thrusting eagerly to kill the fiendish dog.

“The eyes,” Sarfael called out as he thrashed on the floor. “Blind it!”

They stabbed as he commanded, and Charinyn managed to nick the corner of the hound’s eye with her sharp rapier.

With a horrendous howl, the hound rolled off Sarfael. Snarling, it backed away from the group.

Its eyes glowed like hot coals and its huge mouth opened. Deep in its gullet, flames began to burn.

The young wizard Montimort gave a shout and a wave of ice flew off his hands, engulfing the creature and knocking it into the weapons chamber. The hound’s giant paws scrabbled for purchase on the icy floor. It slid into a pile of breastplates that fell with a clatter on its head.

Sarfael whipped out Mavreen’s sword. With a great leap, he cleared the hound, landing behind it. He slashed down and across, neatly cutting its throat.

With a gurgling bark that erupted in a small flame, the hound collapsed. The guard dog died at Sarfael’s feet.

There was a moment of stunned silence, then Parnadiz ran forward. “Well struck,” he said.

Sarfael looked up from the dead hound at the stunned Montimort.

“Well done, indeed,” he said to the young wizard. “Quick thinking to use ice against it.”

Charinyn and the others began to pluck weapons from the walls, quickly bundling their loot into the blankets and bags they had brought.

“We need to hurry,” she said. “Before the patrols return.”

Sarfael nodded.

The weapons secured, they moved briskly through the streets. As previously arranged, a hooded-and-cloaked Elyne met them near the foot of the ruined Dolphin Bridge. With her was another group, also well muffled against the night fog and prying eyes. With whispered instructions, the weapons were transferred and the recipients melted away into the dark streets.

“Where are they going?” Sarfael asked as casually as he could.

“To caches throughout the city,” she replied.

Another man joined them. “So this is your newest recruit?” he said to Elyne. “Your students say he saved them tonight.”

“Montimort’s wizardry accounted for our victory,” said Sarfael.

“Ah, yes, Elyne’s Luskar pet,” he said.

“The boy has proved his loyalty more than once, Arlon Bladeshaper,” she snapped back at him.

“But he is not and never will be a child of Neverwinter,” rejoined the other to Sarfael’s intense interest. Dhafiyand loved hearing about arguments and divisions among the rebel factions. The belligerent Arlon looked like he could be useful for starting a small schism among the Sons.

The man turned to Sarfael. “We welcome the return of exiles like yourself. Elyne, bring him to our next meeting.”

“And Montimort?” she asked.

“Leave the boy behind,” Arlon said.

“This prejudice of yours serves no one,” Elyne argued. “Least of all the city we both love.”

Sarfael silently applauded the lady’s forthright criticism of the Nasher before her, but he held his tongue. After all, Dhafiyand had sent him to make friends, not enemies. And the man had said he would welcome Sarfael to the Nashers’ next meeting.

Arlon shrugged at Elyne’s protests. “I will expect you there,” he said. “There are new rumors that the treasure we seek might have been found by that mad cousin of yours.”

Sarfael pricked up his ears at the talk of “treasure.” Dhafiyand would want to hear that.

“Karion is far more dangerous than Montimort,” Elyne said to Arlon, but the big man just shook his head at her and walked away. She stood staring after him, one slim foot tapping angrily against the pavement.

“We would not have escaped serious harm without Montimort’s aid,” Sarfael said to the still simmering redhead as they walked back to the warehouse. Her students ran a little ahead of them, full of whispering laughter about the success of the night’s raid.

“I know,” Elyne said. “We have far too few with any magical skills. The boy is a gift, and one that they should treasure. But they see only that he comes from Luskan.” “You disagree?”

She nodded. “He is as committed to the rebellion as any born here.”

“And you are as loyal to him?” Sarfael hazarded a personal question a little sooner than Dhafiyand would consider wise, but he wanted to know. She intrigued him, this rebel daughter of Neverwinter.

“He reminds me of family I have lost,” she admitted.

Sarfael told the truth without intending to. “I know what you mean.” The quick, light step of Elyne beside him reminded him of

Mavreen and all he had lost to the Red Wizards.

As always, Dhafiyand’s room was very warm, with a good fire crackling in the grate. Sarfael watched the flames flicker with a sour expression.

“You did not tell me that General Sabine guards her weapons with hell hounds.”

The spymaster glanced up from his correspondence at that. “Does she really? I wonder if that is the gift from Mordai Vell she mentioned at dinner the other night.”

“Vell?”

“An admirer of our general, apparently. At least to judge by the number of invitations that he issues to her and her staff, as well as the small presents of esteem that he sends her. All for the good of the new Neverwinter, at least according to him.”

“But?”

“He is a tiefling, and worse, a subtle, rich tiefling who uses gold to stifle the whiff of brimstone that hangs around him.” Dhafiyand leaned back in his chair and folded his long, lean hands upon his chest. “But he is not your concern. I gather that you meet with others tonight.”

“A meeting of some of the younger leaders, including one quarrelsome soul named Arlon.”

Dhafiyand nodded in satisfaction. “We’ve heard stories about that one.”

“Well, he’s calling this meeting, and let’s hope I hear something more than his spouting on true bloodlines and the best of Neverwinter.” Sarfael remembered the rebel leader’s quick dismissal of Montimort’s skills, simply because the boy was Luskan bred, and the distress that caused Elyne. Truly, bullheaded Arlon was an annoying soul.

“One would hope so,” said the spymaster. “Or I have wasted your considerable talents upon this group.”

“There are greater dangers to Neverwinter,” Sarfael began.

“Not Red Wizards again.” Dhafiyand sighed. “There is no threat there. No, bring me the plans and plots of these Nashers. And continue to listen for talk of a crown.”

“Again, a crown?” Dhafiyand had harped upon that earlier. But it was myth. There was no king and no royal heir in Neverwinter. “Why is a crown so important with no one to wear it?”

“A crown can lead to a throne, an empty throne. If such a thing exists, Lord Neverember must take it for himself. There’s something of a story in the city, that a crown can call forth a true ruler of Neverwinter.”

“If such a thing exists.” Sarfael rather doubted it, but there was no denying Dhafiyand’s sudden gleam of interest, which had been quickly masked by the man’s attention to the paperwork spread across his worktable, when he had told him earlier about Arlon’s comments of a treasure found.

“Still, better we have it than some group of children playing at rebellion,” concluded Sarfael.

“Precisely,” said the spymaster.

Rucas Sarfael followed the directions he was given to the Kraken Society building near the graveyard. From the outside, it appeared to be another of Neverwinter’s dilapidated structures. Inside, the meeting had already begun. Voices were raised. Arlon Bladeshaper pounded on the table to quiet the others.

“Let Virchez finish reading his letter,” the young leader shouted over the din.

A plump man waved a paper at the others. “My cousin writes that we can no longer count on our friends in Waterdeep for funds.”

“Cowards!” shouted one tall and heavyset blonde woman. She looked enough like Elyne’s student, Charinyn, for Sarfael to guess her a relative, a mother or aunt. “They bow to Lord Neverember and forget their families here.”

Elyne saw him from across the room and waved for him to come closer to her. He began to weave through the crowd.

“It’s worse than that, Torialaine. My cousin says that a man in Waterdeep, an agent of Neverember, wrecked his business,” went on the letter reader. “A notable rogue, who seduced my cousin’s maids into stealing important documents for him.”

Sarfael stopped where he was. That all sounded unfortunately familiar.

“What happened to the man?” asked Arlon.

“He has disappeared, and my cousin warns us to watch for him in Neverwinter.”

“Does he send a description?”

“Yes, yes,” said the little man. “That’s what I was trying to read you. He says the fellow is no youth, but still very strong and nimble. He goes always armed with a black-hilted sword.”

Sarfael shrugged his cloak so it covered the dark hilt of Mavreen’s sword and slid it half out of its sheath. He measured the distance to the door. There were nearly a dozen Nashers between him and the only exit. Across the room, Elyne arched an eyebrow at his delay. He half-turned away from her, hoping the quick-witted swordmistress hadn’t paid attention to Virchez’s last statement. After all, she’d handled Mavreen’s sword, borrowing it from him to examine it more closely.

A thunderous knocking on the door caused Virchez to drop the letter from his Waterdeep cousin. Sarfael kept a look of friendly interest on his face as he slapped backs, shifted closer to Virchez, and counted the number of probable attackers between him and the door.

As Virchez fished under the table for his letter, the Nashers nearest the door dragged a new man inside. Arlon Bladeshaper motioned to them to bring the latecomer forward. Some Nashers grumbled about the interruption, others yelled at Arlon to tell them what was going on, and Arlon shouted back at them to shut up and listen.

These rebels, thought Sarfael, are not quiet folk.

“I saw him tonight!” cried the tall pimply youth when he reached Arlon’s side. “Karion’s gone back to his old house in the Blacklake District.”

Sarfael paused in his careful stalking of Virchez and his missive. That name sounded familiar. Arlon and Elyne had quarreled earlier about Karion and his tales of treasure. Keeping his ears occupied with Arlon’s questioning of the late arrival, and his eyes peeled for Virchez’s letter, Sarfael could only manage a slightly distracted nod at Elyne. Luckily, another man came up to her and began whispering in her ear. The redhead scowled at him and moved farther down the room.

“Are you sure?” Arlon asked the youth before him.

“I saw Karion very clearly.”

“Did he see you?”

“No, no, I did as you said. I kept out of sight until he went into the house and then ran straight here.”

“Good!” Arlon banged his fist upon the table again. “My friends, we have an opportunity here. Let the Nashers be bold where the other Sons of Alagondar have been timid. The Graycloaks-we should call them Graybeards for their constant refusal to act-have repeatedly ignored Karion’s claims, but we must not be so foolish.”

The shouted talk turned to “What about Karion?” and “What is Arlon babbling about?”

The news from Waterdeep, and the accusation of a spy nosing into Nasher business, seemed forgotten for the moment. Rucas Sarfael slid his half-drawn sword back into its sheath with a relieved sigh. He sidled next to Virchez and clapped the little man on the shoulder while setting his boot squarely on the dropped letter with the damning description of himself as the man who bankrupted his cousin and spoiled that source of funding for the rebellion.

“So, Virchez,” he said with all the warmth of an old friend. “Who is this Karion they are all yelling about?”

“Oh, he’s that batty old seer, the one constantly predicting some disaster or other,” said Virchez, obviously a bit miffed to have been interrupted and eager to impress the friendly chap at his side with his knowledge. “He’s been roaming around the city recently, claiming the crown will return to Neverwinter. That the heir will be found. That the dead will come out of the river to attack us. All the usual nonsense.”

Across the room, Elyne pitched her voice to be heard over the dozen excitedly talking about Karion’s predictions. “Karion has always said he knows secrets. He’s spent years tunneling into the castle and searching among the ruins. There’s nothing in his house but a remarkable pile of garbage.”

“You sound very certain of that,” Arlon said to her.

“He’s a cousin, thrice removed, of my mother,” she said. “I’ve listened to his tales all my life. Karion rarely knows the past from the present. He savages the city for treasures, but drags home every piece of trash that he finds. I very much doubt there is any truth to this story that he’s found the crown.”

“But we must learn more,” said Arlon. “It seems we can expect no aid from Waterdeep. We counted on that gold to rally the populace to our cause. Finding the crown may be our best hope for dislodging Lord Neverember’s grip on the city.”

So Dhafiyand was right, Sarfael thought. There would be crown hunting in Neverwinter this spring.

Arlon continued to harp upon Elyne’s connection with Karion. She continued to assert that the old man was a cracked pot well beyond repair, although the terms she used were more elegant than that.

“Do you know her?” Virchez asked Sarfael, who had been distracted momentarily by the argument between Elyne and Arlon.

“I have attended a few sessions in the lady’s school for elegant fighting,” said Sarfael. “She trains her students well.”

“They are lucky to have her as a teacher,” Virchez said with a sigh of admiration.

“Lucky?” Sarfael reached down as if he were scratching his ankle and snatched up the discarded letter lying on the floor. He stuffed it into the inner pocket of his cloak and turned his attention to Virchez.

“Everyone admires her. After her parents disappeared and that sister of hers ran away, she never wavered. Just formed the school for fighting, helping train our young recruits for the days of glory to come…”

Virchez nattered on about how the city would regain its place on the Sword Coast if only its own people could control it. Paying little heed to the rehash of the usual rebel rhetoric, Sarfael watched Elyne as she flung one hand up to acknowledge some point or other of Arlon’s persistent argument.

“Very well,” she said. “I will go. If only to end this rumor.”

“Take some others with you. I’ve heard Karion can play vicious tricks on those he dislikes. That’s why I told the boy to stay away from him and come to us here.”

Elyne glanced around the room. “I’ll take him,” she said with a nod at Sarfael. “He keeps a cool head in a fight. And, also, Montimort.”

“Your Luskar prodigy?” Arlon scowled.

“Montimort is a good lad,” Elyne said.

“But he is not and never will be a child of Neverwinter,” rejoined Arlon. “And a Luskar ally is no ally at all.”

“Stop quoting dead men. It is you who counsel making new alliances with the Dead Rats,” she said, “a dangerous idea, I think.”

“We must use what tools we can for victory,” he said. “But our safety lies with those of the true bloodlines, the children of the city who know and understand its glorious past. Let us look to the sons and daughters of Alagondar to lead us!”

The Nashers nearest Arlon banged their fists upon the table in agreement.

“To go off with the beautiful Elyne,” said the plump Virchez with a sigh.

Sarfael watched the tall redhead deftly weave her way through the crowd. He would have to tell Dhafiyand there had been talk of a crown, but already a series of lies began weaving through his head-he didn’t want the old man moving too quickly. He needed time to investigate the rumors properly.

In the back of his head, Mavreen snorted as she always did when he tried deceiving her or himself. “You simply want more time with the pretty Elyne,” she whispered in his mind.

“Jealous, my darling?” he asked.

Mavreen’s rippling laugh came back to him, that joyous beginning to so many of their adventures. “Go on,” she whispered. “Forget about your ghosts and look to the living.”

At least, that is what he believed that she would have said to him.

Sarfael slipped away from Virchez and intercepted Elyne by the door.

“Why did you want me with you?” he asked her as they stepped into the night.

“I want Montimort. His skills might be useful with Karion, and, more importantly, it gives him a chance to win Arlon’s approval,” she confessed. “And that means taking you.”

“Because?”

“Besides myself, you are the only one who treats Montimort as an equal. Who I can trust to protect him as I would. And where we are going, he may need that.”

“So there is talk of a crown?” Dhafiyand wiped the tip of the pen upon a flannel and set it deliberately upon his enameled brass penholder. It was nearly midnight, but the old man seemed as alert and awake as ever.

“There was talk of a man who claims to know of a crown,” Sarfael reported. His own head ached from all of Arlon’s shouting, and he looked forward to snatching a few hours of sleep before traipsing across the Blacklake District. “All rather vague. But we are being sent to investigate tomorrow.”

“But this Arlon Bladeshaper is definitely seeking a crown?”

“He needs supporters. They love to hear themselves talk, these Nashers, but I think they are reluctant to do more than chatter. Arlon says this crown will help turn the mob against Neverember. I think he believes it will move the Nashers to greater feats.” He wondered if Dhafiyand would notice how he kept Elyne’s name out of the conversation. Probably, but with luck, all the talk of a crown would distract him.

The spymaster leaned forward and steepled his ink-stained fingers beneath his chin. The man might run the largest network of spies in Neverwinter, but he kept his books himself like any clerk. “He may well be right. A crown can be a potent symbol and these are a people desperate for signs and portents.”

“Oh, I heard plenty of talk of that during the night.” To shake the fog from his head, Sarfael circled the room, stopping at the display of trinkets upon Dhafiyand’s mantel. The charming miniature of the moon elf caught his attention again. In the flickering light of the candles, the lady looked older than she had before and seemed to stare at him with displeasure.

Behind him, Dhafiyand went on, “Watch, listen, bring back any news that you hear about the crown or its location. If such a thing exists, we must make certain that it falls into Lord Neverember’s hands first.”

“So he can crown himself king of Neverwinter?”

Dhafiyand shook his head. “It might not be so simple. He might be well served by its disappearance.”

“Then perhaps it would be best if I simply make sure that it is not found,” Sarfael suggested.

Dhafiyand considered for a long moment. “No,” he said finally, “better to gain the crown and silence the tongues of any who have seen it.”

“I am no murderer,” Sarfael reminded him, as he had more than once in the past.

And, as he had in the past, Dhafiyand gave him cold comfort in his reply. “It does not matter. There are others without your scruples.”

“It was you who said that Lord Neverember had some ties to certain of these young nobles, however rebellious their nature, and he would not necessarily want them punished.” Sarfael edged around the topic, still playing the game with a spy’s caution and not mentioning Elyne by name.

“True,” admitted Dhafiyand. “Especially the pretty redhead.”

Sarfael kept his face blank. Better not to let the wily old man know that remark hit home.

“Still,” Dhafiyand continued, “of all the remnants of nobility left in Neverwinter, one could say that she has even more right to a crown than any other, even Lord Neverember.”

“But I do not know any in this room who would say or even think such a thing,” Sarfael said bluntly. “For we are both loyal servants of Lord Neverember.”

“Quite so,” Dhafiyand said, returning to his papers. “Send me word as soon as you learn more.”

As he left the room, Sarfael began to consider ways that he could deliver the crown to Dhafiyand and smuggle Elyne out of Neverwinter. For it seemed the pretty rebel’s connections to Lord Neverember might not be enough to protect her.

They went to the Blacklake District at noon. The northwest part of the city held a quiet air of menace even in broad daylight. Sarfael noticed that Elyne looked carefully from side to side as they wove through the streets. She also shrugged back her cloak, despite the cold spring wind, clearly showing that she was armed with sword and dagger.

Montimort’s gaze darted to every dark doorway and shadowed alley. His arms were wrapped around a large covered basket.

“We’re being followed,” Sarfael quietly observed to his companions. Three ruffians, all hooded-two lean men armed with swords and one orc-looking brute with a cudgel-made the same turns and twists they did.

“I know,” Elyne said. “I was hoping they wouldn’t spot us. Or that they would be reluctant to attack with so few.”

“Do you know who they are?” Sarfael asked. “I always prefer to know the names of the men trying to cut my throat.”

“Dead Rats,” mumbled Montimort.

“Ah,” said Sarfael. Luskan’s infamous gang was growing in Neverwinter. He had heard the spymaster Dhafiyand complain more than once about the number of newly dead found floating in the river after one of the Dead Rats’ territory expansions.

Elyne looked right and left, then led them in a succession of quick turns into a long, narrow street overshadowed by boarded-up buildings. No one else was out on the pavement.

The three Dead Rats hung back.

Sarfael glanced over his shoulder at them. “They don’t seem too eager for a fight,” he said.

“They know me,” said Elyne quietly. She was obviously not boasting but making a simple statement of fact when she added, “It is not wise to challenge me. But there are a great many Dead Rats in this district, and they probably hope to encounter others soon.”

Montimort bit his lip and threw many glances over his shoulder, but he kept pace with them and said nothing, although Sarfael could see that the boy was practically bursting with the effort of holding his tongue.

“I’m sorry,” Elyne finally said to Montimort. “I shouldn’t have exposed you here. But I wanted to show Arlon how much I trust you.”

“No, it is all my fault,” the boy started in a rush. “You should go on. I can hold them off.”

“Nonsense,” began Elyne.

Sarfael cut off what was obviously about to become an argument between the pair. The boy’s eagerness to sacrifice himself for Elyne was indeed noble, as was Elyne’s refusal to accept such a sacrifice. However, nobility lacked practicality in such situations.

“Where can we turn and fight?” he asked Elyne.

“Next alley,” she said with admirable quickness. He did admire a woman who understood the practical at such times, another reminder of what he had lost when Mavreen was killed. “It’s broad enough for two abreast, but difficult for three. Montimort, move behind us when the blades come out.”

“I can defend myself,” the young wizard retorted.

“I expect you to do so,” she answered calmly. “But from a distance. They want you. If it’s a grab-and-run they have in mind, let us make it as difficult as possible.”

“Might I ask why they want him?” Sarfael inquired. “Not that you aren’t lovable, my friend, but still…”

“They have as few wizards as the Nashers,” Elyne answered. “They could use him.”

“I won’t go back, they know I won’t,” Montimort said as they entered the narrow alley. Elyne and Sarfael whirled as one to face the entrance, and Montimort slid with obvious reluctance behind them.

“No heroics,” Elyne said.

“I’m rarely heroic,” Sarfael said.

“I wasn’t talking to you.” She glanced over her shoulder at Montimort. “Stay back, let us handle them. Don’t lose that basket!”

The three Dead Rats rounded the corner slowly, chatting to each other, but when they saw the drawn blades facing them, they gave up all pretense of other business. With a shout, the half-orc charged them, swinging his cudgel in a sweeping blow meant to bowl them over.

Elyne waited until the last possible second then drove her sword precisely under his flailing arm and down into his knee. She wrenched the point free as the brute swayed back with a howl of pain.

At the same time, Sarfael struck a calculated blow at the second man, so his opponent overbalanced in his attempt to block the thrust. Sarfael flowed back and then forward, using the edge and the point of his sword to deliver a flurry of rapid jabs that left his opponent bloodied and bewildered.

With another quick strike, Elyne killed the half-orc and drew back slightly, forcing the third and final Dead Rat to lunge over the body of his comrade to reach her.

Sarfael finished off his man, meaning to come to her aid, but Elyne’s sword darted out, parrying the thrust of her attacker and driving straight through his padded vest to his heart. The man was dead before he hit the ground.

“Very neat,” he said with one raised eyebrow. “You must teach me that trick.”

Elyne stepped back from the corpses. “They were fools and died fools’ deaths.” She wiped her sword clean and sheathed it.

“Should we do something about the bodies?” he asked her.

Elyne glanced up and down the empty alley. All the windows overlooking it had remained tightly shuttered throughout the fight. The clash of steel, Sarfael noted, had brought no one running, arguing that the citizens of Blacklake were remarkably uncurious or perhaps more cautious than most.

“Safe enough to leave them here,” Elyne decided. “The Rats will find them this evening. That’s why I wanted to come so early. These streets become much more crowded after twilight. I want to get Montimort out of this district before nightfall.”

Beside her, Montimort flushed. “You shouldn’t have to protect me,” he muttered. “I should be strong enough to keep them away.”

“If your magic was greater,” said Elyne, “they would send even more after you. For now, be glad that they misjudged us.”

The boy still looked sulky, so Sarfael gave him a friendly rap on the head as he passed him. “Keep those brains between your ears, and not decorating the pavement, and your powers will grow every year. A fighter’s strength is eaten away by time, but a wizard’s only increases.”

Montimort sighed and ran his fingers through his hair. “I know. But it is not fast enough. I owe so much to Elyne. I would take this city for her, if I had the spells to do it.”

Elyne smiled at him. “Stay safe, that is all I ask. I’m not sure what I’d do with Neverwinter if you gave it to me.”

“An odd sentiment for a rebel,” said Sarfael.

“I’m a terrible Nasher,” Elyne admitted. “But my father believed so passionately in the cause, and I cannot betray him.”

“Is he dead then?” Sarfael remembered Virchez’s idle chatter at the meeting.

“Lost, along with my mother. They left the city two winters ago and did not return. Like the others, they sought allies to aid us and were last seen entering the Neverwinter Wood.”

“A dangerous place, if all the stories are to be believed.”

“But one with a rich history. My father thought that a truce might be made with the powers there, or treasures bought with promises of future alliances with the new Neverwinter. But the eladrin who roam that forest guard their secrets and do not look kindly on outsiders. My mother, like myself, had considerable talent with the sword and went to protect him.”

“And no word of their fate?”

Elyne shook her head. “My sister started hunting for them last year.”

“I heard she ran off.”

“Virchez?” At Sarfael’s nod, she snorted. “That man can never get anything right. Much like that foolish cousin of his in Waterdeep. No, my sister is an adept in the magical arts. When a child, she trained with an eladrin friend and can walk safely in many places where I would be challenged.”

“Such as?”

“Oh, it is not as it was in my grandmother’s stories, when the fey folk and others were friendly in their dealings and travel was easy along the Sword Coast. Still, you cannot change the past. We decided that I would stay, for all our wealth is here and someone must manage our household and protect our servants, and she would go. So I remain, the last of our little family in Neverwinter.”

“Did you form your school after your sister left?” His guess was rewarded with a nod from Elyne.

“I teach our old playmates how to protect themselves,” she said.

So the lady taught sword play to help her friends? Where was the dangerous rebel Dhafiyand feared? Perhaps Lord Neverember’s assessment of her had less to do with her looks and more with her character.

“Arlon Bladeshaper grows more violent in his plans every day,” Elyne spoke in low tones and continued to scan the alleyways and walls with sharp eyes as they hurried away from the truly dead Rats and their ambush.

“I noticed your argument with Arlon at the meeting last night,” Sarfael said. He walked as quickly but kept watch with less obvious turns of the head. She was good with the blade, but he could show her a few tricks of spycraft, such as how to saunter through dangerous streets.

“We often disagree. He thinks too much of bloodlines, and those who trace their lineage back to Alagondar and the Neverwinter Nine. At the same time, Arlon makes alliances left and right with any who he thinks can bring us an advantage. He justifies it by saying that he can keep them at a distance and not give them a place at the table when we meet.”

“A tricky path to power, and dangerous to follow.”

Elyne nodded. “If he takes complete control, and there are many who see him as their leader already, I fear that the Nashers soon will be openly attacking Lord Neverember’s mercenaries. It would be bloody war in the streets.”

“When that day comes,” Montimort injected, “we will prevail. I just need to find the right master, someone powerful who can teach me more quickly.”

Sarfael looked at them and thought that Dhafiyand had been wrong when he named Elyne a pretty ruffian. She was indeed a noble lady, and Montimort, for all his pirate past, a chivalrous boy.

Karion’s dark house was squeezed between two larger and heavily damaged buildings. Only wide enough to present a door and a single, boarded-up window on the ground floor, it rose four stories, each upper floor showing only two narrow windows, also shuttered against the sun.

It reminded Sarfael in shape and color of certain types of fungus that grew up through cracks in stones.

Elyne stared with distaste at the black door with its rusty iron knocker.

“Are you sure there is anything living in there?” Sarfael asked.

“A good question,” she replied. “I never liked coming here as a child. But it looks as it always did, and Bottleburn seemed certain he’d seen Karion enter.”

She reached forward and, not touching the knocker, banged the flat of her hand against the door three times.

“Karion, Karion,” she shouted, “it’s Elyne.”

Silence responded. Elyne hammered on the door again, shouting her name.

The third time, they heard a muffled cry from inside: “Wait, wait.”

Bolts screeched and chains rattled. The door swung back with a squeak of rusty hinges.

A tall old man peered blinking into the afternoon sunshine. Dressed in tattered velvets and silks of faded scarlet, cut in the style of forty years ago, he swayed in the doorway. “Iriardne?” he said.

“I am Iriardne’s daughter, Elyne.” She stepped closer and, to Sarfael’s delight, neatly placed one booted foot across the threshold, keeping the skinny old man from slamming the door in their faces. Behind her back, she flapped her hand at them, motioning them forward.

“We’ve brought you supplies,” she said. “Food for the month.”

Montimort staggered forward with the wicker basket and Karion’s eyes gleamed.

“Cheese?” Karion asked.

Elyne nodded. “Bread, wine, meat, and fruit as well.”

Karion stepped back from the door, motioning them inside. “Don’t dawdle, boy,” he said to Montimort. “They’ll sniff it out and come running. You can’t keep a good cheese in this district, not for minute, without the rats trying to steal it.”

Once inside, Karion slammed the door shut, bolting and chaining it. “Can’t keep a good cheese safe,” he muttered. A single, guttering candle stood in a sconce by the door. Karion lifted it up and led them down the dark and narrow hallway.

Sarfael noted the portraits of men and women lining the wall from the floor to the shadowed ceiling. The painted eyes of the multitude seemed to track them as they passed.

They went down a narrow staircase, also lined with pictures, although some of them seemed to be landscapes and paintings of the city before the cataclysm. Karion led them into a kitchen lit by a fire sputtering in a cavernous fireplace.

Montimort fell back with a startled cry. An enormous striped cat crouched on the table facing the door, its lips drawn back in a snarl to reveal needle-sharp fangs.

“Not afraid of kitty, are you?” Karion smacked the immobile cat with one hand and a cloud of dust rose into the air. “Kitty has been dead for twenty years or more. I keep him here to scare off intruders, especially certain rodents.”

Karion circled the room, pulling down various crockery pots and lidded boxes, muttering as he went. “No, no, still got a bit of bacon in that,” he said as he peered into one. Another was hastily capped and replaced with “not sure what that is.” Finally he found an empty pot to his satisfaction and brought it back to the table, shoving the stuffed cat aside with one impatient hand.

“Give me the basket,” he said to Montimort.

Karion rooted through the basket that they had brought, unearthing a large slab of cheese with a delighted cry. He carefully packed the cheese away in the stoneware crock, fastening the lid tightly over it. Hugging the pot close to his chest, he left the kitchen.

“Are you certain he is sane?” Sarfael asked Elyne.

“Not at all,” she replied. “We were terrified of him as children. He would have fits and began to spout threats entangled with prophecies. But he does have some true talent. He once told me that I would stand alone in the city with only my sword for my companion.”

A pair of dirty windows overlooked a tiny courtyard. Sarfael glanced outside. All types of rubbish, broken statues, old furniture, boxes, and crates filled the space. Another staircase, forged from iron, twisted up the far wall, apparently leading to the street above.

“That’s quite a collection out there,” Sarfael remarked.

“ For as long as I remember, he’s scoured the city for the items he sees in his visions,” Elyne remarked. “Since that day of cataclysm, he’s grown much worse.”

Karion returned empty-handed. “What do you want?” he asked. “You must want something. Everyone wants something in Neverwinter. Everyone wants to be something in Neverwinter. Conquerors, looters, counterfeit kings.”

“We’ve come about the crown, Cousin,” said Elyne.

“Stashed away,” Karion flitted around his kitchen, unloading the basket and storing the rest of the food both high and low on the shelves. “Keep it safe from goblin kin, rats, and undead things.”

“Is he talking about the crown or his cheese?” Montimort asked.

Sarfael shook his head. Something skittered across the end of the room, lost in the gloom. If it was a rat, it was uncommonly large and very pale.

Elyne stopped Karion in his restless wanderings. “There are only friends and family here.”

“Who knows who hears?” Karion whispered to her. He stopped by his stuffed cat, his restless hands stroking the dead fur and fondling the creature’s pointed ears. He stared at Montimort. “Arklem Greeth’s lover listens at keyholes, watches in mirrors, speaks through painted mouths.”

“Arklem Greeth!” exclaimed Montimort. “That is a dark name out of Luskan’s past. But the villain has been dead a century or more!”

“So should his beloved be, but the grave won’t hold Valindra and she’s pushing into the city, poking into the shadows, sending her spies to snatch my treasures,” Karion crooned to no one in particular. “Pretty little moon elf, grasping with her cold dead hands. But she can’t take it from me! My pets will protect me.”

Whatever crawled along the edge of the room had acquired a companion. The crooked shadows cast up the wall looked like no creature that Sarfael knew.

“Cousin, we have come about the crown,” Elyne said.

Karion’s eyes narrowed and the faintest smile curled his thin lips. He beckoned to them all to come closer. Standing next to him, Sarfael became aware of a certain dank odor of decay, a grave-mold smell that evoked past adventures with Mavreen. A whiff of the necromancer hung around the old man.

“I don’t have the crown,” whispered Karion with exaggerated care. “I have the box.”

“A box!” exclaimed Montimort. “What good is a box?”

Karion grinned with a distasteful display of yellowed teeth. “It hides a crown that is not there.”

“What?” Elyne looked bewildered.

“Come, come,” Karion’s expression turned gleeful. Suddenly seeming delighted to have them in his home, the aged seer ushered them back upstairs, passing through the dark hallway with its dozens of painted portraits, all staring down with suspicious eyes.

Behind them, Sarfael heard a skittering sound. He glanced back more than once, but could not see what followed. Yet he was convinced that it was not rats.

Clutter filled the room upon the first floor. All the detritus of the city’s past seemed to have washed into Karion’s chamber: bits of old clockwork, elaborate sconces obviously ripped from some mansion’s wall, ornate chairs missing their seats, and more.

“It looks like the Driftwood Tavern,” exclaimed Montimort.

Sarfael raised an eyebrow at him, and Montimort explained that the remnants of Neverwinter’s past decorated the inner rooms of the tavern for the patrons’ delight.

Karion overheard him and scowled. “The proprietor, Madene Rosene, is a thief and cheat,” he huffed. “Why, she’s refused many a fine treasure from me, saying that it’s not fitting for her place. But the woman uses doors for tables!”

Elyne shot a look at Sarfael and Montimort that was obviously meant to silence them both. Then she turned to Karion. “You wanted to show us a box,” she reminded him.

“They made it in the dark days when Alagondar was wounded,” Karion said. “When the Neverwinter Nine needed to send the crown from Highcliff to the castle, but they dared not risk it upon the road. The box appears empty, it is empty, and if captured by enemies, can do no harm. But with the right incantations, the crown appears within.”

Karion dived into a pile of bric-a-brac, shoving aside a rolled-up carpet and sending two brass vases rolling with a clatter across the floor. With a grunt, he emerged with a carved wooden box clutched in his grimy hands.

“Can I see it?” Elyne said, reaching out with gentle hands.

With some reluctance, and no little urging from Elyne, Karion allowed her to take the box from him to show to the others. Painted red writing was scrawled across every side of the dark wood, words sloping up and down or twisting around themselves in concentric circles. In the center of the lid, a single emerald gleamed.

“It’s Thayan,” Sarfael said, and he could not keep the revulsion completely from his voice. He had no love for the handiwork of those necromancers. Clever as their artifacts might be, they all carried a trace of human blood and terrible suffering. The memory of Mavreen’s face contorted in a final scream of dead rage still haunted him.

“It’s a spell,” said Montimort, twisting the box in his hands, “but it’s a puzzle too. You need to know where to start and stop. There must be a key to this.”

“I don’t see a keyhole,” Elyne said. The lid fit so tightly on the top that only the faintest line showed against the black wood.

Montimort shook his head. “No, a key word, the one that you begin with. Or it could be a letter or a symbol. These old puzzle boxes are highly prized and rare these days. They were made in pairs, one to go on a ship, one to stay back in Luskan. If you read out the ritual in the correct order, an item is transferred from one box to the other.”

“A way for pirates to send treasure home,” Sarfael guessed.

“Exactly. But it could only be a small prize. The boxes cost a treasure to build. Often they were the size of a ring or gem. And only one or two people would know the correct order of the spell. Usually the captain and somebody trusted on shore.”

“This one is linked to the crown.” Karion scowled at them with sour dislike, his mood having changed again. “The boy’s a Luskar,” he said to no one in particular. “A Luskar rooting among my treasures.”

“How does it work?” Sarfael asked. Karion’s intent stare at Montimort made him uneasy.

“Only box of its kind,” Karion said. “He was clever, the Red Wizard who built it, clever enough to link it to the crown so it could call it from wherever it was hidden. But it was a trick too, a trick on those who hired him. He meant to use the box to steal the crown for himself. They caught him and killed him. So he never got a crown. Still he hid the box before he died. Nobody could find it, nobody but me and my little friends. The Luskar’s right. You have to know the order of the words as much as the words themselves. Speak as you must, proper beginning to final ending, and the crown is yours.”

Sarfael listened to his tangled explanation with scant attention. The scrabbling sound had grown louder. He turned to face the doorway. In the shadowed hallway, things scurried back out of the light.

Inside the room, Karion tried to snatch the box back from Montimort and the boy danced out of his reach. Elyne stepped between the two, trying to soothe the old man. “Cousin, we will take this to those who might unlock its secrets. I promise you that it will be used for the glory of Neverwinter. Your name will be remembered forever as the man who restored the crown to the city.”

Karion shook her off and his eyes rolled back in his head. “No heir for the crown, no crown for the heir,” he screamed, spittle flying everywhere. “Liars rise, true hearts fall. Look to the Wall, for the dead swim out of the river. The dragon’s shadow falls across Neverwinter. She’s greedy, grasping, intent on choking the life out of us all, that wicked Valindra!”

“Easy, easy,” Elyne tried to maneuver Karion into the one intact chair in the room. “Montimort, run to the kitchen and fetch the wine. He’s having one of his fits.”

“Don’t!” Sarfael stopped the boy. “Don’t go out there.”

“What?” Elyne turned.

A half-dozen disembodied hands launched themselves through the doorway, springing through the air to fasten upon Montimort and drag him down. The dead claws tore at the boy’s clothing and hair as he twisted and shouted beneath them. Others tried to pull the box away from him.

“Drop it!” Sarfael commanded Montimort, but the boy clutched the box tighter and tried to roll away from his attackers.

Behind him, Elyne gave equally urgent commands to her mad relative, but the old man folded himself tight in his chair, muttering, “Boy’s a Luskar. Pirate thief. My box, mine!”

Sarfael raced to Montimort’s aid, skewering the hands and throwing them off with a flip of his sword. The crawling claws swarmed over the boy. As soon as Sarfael tossed one away, it came springing back. One managed to fasten its fingers tightly around Montimort’s throat and began to choke him.