Shadows of Doom

22

One instant saw a high-ceilinged hall empty of all but glowing moss and tumbled stone. In the next breath, a young man in robes stood in its midst, crouching as if facing a foe-but his hand held a wand, not a sword. He darted hurriedly four steps to one side and looked all around. No sign of anyone. Where was he?

Silence hung heavy in Spellgard. Avaerl of Sembresh peered around in the weird, dim light of the glowing mosses and muttered a quick spell.

Abruptly he disappeared. Invisibility cloaked him as he stepped carefully to another spot and murmured his next spell.

Unseen, he rose slowly and silently to the uppermost balcony, glancing into archways and along passages as he passed them. In some, cold radiances pulsed and flickered, but Avaerl had seen the mushrooms called glow-caps before and knew them for what they were.

He'd learned of Elminster's woman companion from his informant in the High Castle, but of those two or the route they had taken, he saw no sign. Avaerl breathed out a soundless sigh, then shrugged and set foot on the stones of the highest balcony. Let the hunt begin.

"Itharr," said a voice from the darkness at the foot of the bed, "I hate to do this, really I do, but we've got a problem."

"The Zhentarim have sent an army? Well, defeat them, and tell me about it in the morning," Itharr said sleepily.

"Not as simple as that," Belkram said kindly. "Get up, and bring your sword. Elminster's gone."

"Oh, dung," Itharr said, coming all the way awake, little chilly feet of foreboding racing down his spine. "When?" As he asked the useless question, he gently slipped a warm but very heavy head from his shoulder. Its owner murmured something, slid a caressing hand along his thigh, settled into a new position, and began to snore.

"Mine did that, too," Belkram said in amused tones, handing Itharr his scabbarded sword. The buckle hit the younger Harper in the face.

Itharr spat it away and snarled, "Clothes first, you dolt. I don't consider them optional."

"Here. Hurry."

Itharr hurried, grumbling all the while in low, muttered whispers. "He's probably just gone to relieve himself, or look at the stars, or find a wench who'll have him."

Belkram tried to hand him his sword again. This time, Itharr was ready.

"Remember what Storm told us," Belkram said. "Even if he is just out on the nearest battlement, his safety is too important to risk. Besides, Sharantyr's gone too, and their clothes and weapons."

"Tymora aid us," Itharr groaned, leaping up. Together they ran to the door. Itharr winced as a lonely and bewildered voice called his name softly and sleepily from the bed behind him, but he did not answer or slow down.

Belkram clapped him on the shoulder as they hurried down the passage. "Gedaern woke me up, and he did it by running into the room bellowing at the top of his lungs. He smashed straight into the bed and fell on top of us. I thought you'd appreciate a gentler awakening."

"My thanks," Itharr said dryly. "Has he left it just to us, or have we a band of willing idiots to help us scour the dale in the dark?"

"We have such a band, and now they have two willing idiots to lead them," Belkram replied brightly.

Itharr grunted something that his companion didn't quite catch.

Zalarth Bloodbrow smiled grimly at the startled shout and the splash. A fitting reward for disobedience, he thought, watching the thief thrashing and spluttering in the cesspool. There were only two others left. The rest of his men had walked exactly as he'd directed, and the gate had taken them elsewhere already. He motioned those two forward as if to aid the one in the pool. The moment they were in front of him, he moved his fingers in the quick movements of a spell.

The limbs of the thrashing man abruptly froze, and he stared at the wizard in wide-eyed, openmouthed, silent horror as he sank slowly into the thick brown ooze. The soundless mouth slid from view, then the unmoving, staring eyes. The hair coiled momentarily amid bubbles… and then there was nothing.

The two Brotherhood thieves turned to look at Zalarth, their throwing knives leaping into their hands as if they commanded their own magic.

The cruel-faced Zhentarim shook his head and sighed. "His heart? A seizure, perhaps? Better it happened here, I suppose, than in the midst of whatever we'll find through there." He nodded at the empty air where the gate must be.

"Mind you step off the edge there, between the two bumps, and not try to jump in from one side as Lesker did." He shook his head again, frowning, thin-lipped. "He didn't have seizures, did he? Or anything of the sort?"

The two men shook their heads silently. The knives did not leave their hands.

Zalarth frowned down at the now-placid surface of the cesspool. "Unless," he said slowly, "there's something alive in there, feeding on Lesker now."

He looked up and said briskly, "We'd best be gone from here before it sends up tentacles or the like."

He'd scared them sufficiently. Without further demur the thieves stepped forward into the gate-and were gone. Zalarth hastily advanced to position himself between the two stone knobs before the torch went with them.

In the sudden darkness, he conjured up an invisible protective shield of force around himself, just in case one of his men had second thoughts and decided to greet him with a thrown knife.

Then Zalarth of the Zhentarim stepped forward in the darkness and went to war.

"I think I know where he might be, or might have gone, at least," Itharr said suddenly as they stared wildly around at empty battlements.

"Well?" one of the dalemen demanded. "Speak!"

"Where we caught up to him earlier," Itharr said, turning to Belkram, "and he called us nursemaids. Remember?"

Belkram nodded. "You think he's down there? At the cesspool?"

Itharr shrugged. "He was after something there, amid the stink, and we interrupted him. He'll have gone back to it when he thought everyone was too drunk or to asleep to see him."

"Treasure?" Belkram asked, raising a puzzled eyebrow.

"No," Itharr said very quietly. "Another gate, if I'm not mistaken."

Belkram stared at him and swallowed. Then they were both sprinting through dark, empty passages, seeking stairs that led down and taking turns cursing and panting for breath.

The men of the dale thundered after them. "The only folk crazier than these Harpers," one grunted, rounding a stair post at breakneck speed in the darkness, "is wizards."

"Thank the gods for that," said the man behind him. "If they weren't, we'd still be kissing Longspear's feet-and another part of that Stormcloak's body, too."

They'd bounded down another flight of stairs before the first daleman replied dryly, "I'd wondered what you were about, those long evenings."

He was answered in turn by a ruder suggestion. Then they were nearing the cellars, and Gedaern hissed them to silence.

Xanther waited and waited, but there came no further sound. He'd heard the wizard-one of Manshoon's killers, if his memory held right-muttering, and then the faint scrape of a boot on stone. Then, only silence.

Xanther carefully emptied one scroll tube into his lap and felt about until his fingers closed on the cold hardness of the gem. He knew what it must be, given the three words written on the inside of the scroll tube's cap that he'd read earlier, and closed his eyes as he spoke the first of those words.

The prism-shaped gem gave forth a cone of pale light. Good; he'd chosen the right word. By its light, he saw that the cesspool and its surroundings were empty of all people.

Hmm. "Between the two bumps," the wizard had said, and intimated that passage between them was critical to avoid falling into the cesspool. Xanther put away the tube's contents again, except for the handy gem, and got up. Two bumps, on the edge of the cesspool…

There was a sudden sound behind him. A muffled thud-no, a flurry of such sounds. The thudding of booted feet coming quickly down stone steps and along the echoing passage. Dalefolk!

Xanther hurried toward the stinking pool, eyes searching frantically. Ah-there! Two bumps!

He eyed the reeking pool and sighed. He'd have preferred time to make sure of the route before stepping out over that.

The sounds grew louder, and he heard the unmistakable voice of one of the men in leathers who'd fought Stormcloak in the great hall.

Xanther sighed again, and stepped out from the edge. The light in the cavern abruptly went out.

"A light!"

"Where?"

"Gone now, sir, but there was light here a moment ago, I tell thee!"

Throw your torch forward," Belkram ordered. "Those with bows to the fore, but no one advances until I give word."

He and Itharr looked each other over quickly. "Got a dagger or two, besides your blade?"

Itharr nodded. "As usual." He grinned as he added, "I think it's your turn to go first."

"My thanks," Belkram told him in dry tones and darted forward, keeping low. He crouched near the guttering torch, peering around intently, then beckoned them with a wave.

What could be seen of the dark, foul-smelling cavern was empty. In the center of the cracked, uneven stone floor was the cesspool, its surface still. Itharr waved the men with torches toward the far reaches of the place, to light up every niche and corner.

He and Belkram exchanged glances and nodded. "A gate, without doubt. We have to enter it in exactly the right way, or we'll never find it."

"That could take days," Belkram sighed.

"It could," came a voice from behind them. "But if you'll allow me to show you the way, it can take you but a moment."

They all turned. In the passage behind them, the fat weaver, Jatham, stood in his night robe, holding a hand lamp and regarding them calmly.

Gedaern's eyes narrowed. "You-"

"Serve Thay? Aye. I thought Elminster might tell you." The weaver watched the frowning daleman come toward him and added, "I'd like to make a deal with you, Gedaern."

"Oh, aye? And what sort of deal could you and I come to?"

"You let me live, to leave the dale peacefully with my possessions on the morrow. In return, I tell you all I know of the other councillors' loyalties and doings, and show these two Harpers the gate they seek."

"Just let you go, after all you've done? Why-"

"Or you could thank me. Most of what I've done, this last year or so, is work against the spells and schemes of the Zhentarim as much as I could. My efforts have kept many in the dale alive, even some here in this cellar now."

"How could you save lives and trick wizards? Aye? Tell me that!"

Jatham spread his hands. In the gesture, his left hand let go of the oil lamp, and it hung motionless in the air in front of him, its flame flickering slightly. "With my own magic, of course," he said mildly. "It's not much, but it's enough to make any thoughts of slaying me or driving me out of the dale very, very foolish indeed."

Gedaern eyed the weaver suspiciously. He darted a glance to the two Harpers. They looked back at him expressionlessly and spread their hands to signal their indecision.

Gedaern frowned. "What's to keep you from blasting us all with your magic the moment we go to bed, then?"

"I am," said another voice from behind the weaver.

Jatham turned quickly. "You should not have come down, love. This is not safe."

"It was necessary," Ulraea told him crisply. Her eyes were lined with sleep, and her unbound hair hung in wild tangles about her, but she drew herself up in her tattered nightdress proudly and regarded Gedaern with what seemed almost like a challenge in her eyes. "Jatham is mine, Ged. I know him as no other in this dale, and I tell you he has not worked against us of the dale while Longspear lorded it over us, and will not do so this night. If you must, set a guard in our room tonight."

Gedaern stared at her, openmouthed. It was several long breaths later that he visibly remembered to swallow. "Ulla?" he said at last, voice cracking. "Y-you… love him? You'll go with him?"

Ulraea nodded, eyes on his. "If you'll let me." She looked around at them all. "If you're so fearful of what my Jath will do with his magic, guard me-and take my life if he works ill."

Jatham reached for her involuntarily. "No!" he cried, in an anguished voice.

"No," Gedaern's voice overrode his, loud and flat. "It won't be necessary. Go back to your beds, both of you, after you show us this gate and tell us where it leads. If you'll do that, we have a deal."

He sheathed the notched, scarred sword he bore and walked slowly to where the weaver stood. He raised his hand, palm out, standing nose to nose with the Thayan agent.

Jatham did the same, and slowly they both brought their hands down to touch each other's chest in the old dale custom. A bargain was made. Both men nodded solemnly.

Then Jatham said briskly, "The gate can only be entered by stepping out over the cesspool from a certain place, the spot between the two little humps of stone, on this side-see, here? It will take you across half Faerun to the far edge of Anauroch, the Great Desert. Those who go through reach a central hall in an old, ruined castle, a place they call Spellgard today. It's a one-way journey, and the castle has a fell reputation. I recommend that those who love the High Dale not take the gate. The way between there and here is long, and not safe."

"That's our road, then," Itharr said quietly.

Belkram nodded and said, "Our thanks, Jatham… and Gedaern, and all of you, for risking your necks again this night. May the High Dale know peace for a good long time now. We must leave you in haste, for we're charged to follow Elminster and keep him safe."

Jatham raised an eyebrow. "May I ask why?"

The two Harpers exchanged a look. Belkram shrugged. "The one who set us this duty told us it was the most important task in the Realms. Elminster of Shadowdale must live-or, I fear, even gods will fall."

In the shocked silence that followed, the two young men saluted their fellows-in-arms with raised blades, nodded a special farewell to Gedaern, and without hesitation marched out over the cesspool.

In midstep above the mire, with all eyes on them, they vanished. Itharr and Belkram were tired, hurt, and walking into unknown danger. But they strode ahead without pause, for they were Harpers.

Spellgard was tall and dark and gloomy. Mushrooms and luminescent mosses grew here and there about its empty stone chambers. There was no sign of life. Even the torn, dusty cobwebs seemed to have been spun long ago by spiders now vanished. Yet there was a curious presence about the place, a silent, waiting feel as if something unseen were watching. They went on in silence.

Room after room was empty save for little heaps of collapsed wood, gilt, and stone where furniture had fallen before relentless passing years. Here and there, the archmage without magic and the lady Knight found the scars of battle: scorched, blackened areas on the walls and floor, shattered stone panels, and buckled flagstones. This strife had happened long ago. Mold, moss, dust, and rot overlaid all. Elminster shook his head from time to time as they went on through the silent, waiting castle. Silence reigned.

The Zhentarim thieves were trained, experienced men. Gloomy ruins did not begin to test their nerves. They spread out, slim black-bladed swords ready in their hands, and moved slowly forward, watching and listening intently, making no more noise than a faint breeze. Behind them, Zalarth tried not to make too much noise as he followed.

The brightest archway opening out of the high-ceilinged hall led into a smaller chamber. It was thickly grown with gray-green glowing moss, and dark stalks of mushrooms half the height of a man reared up in the corners. The men peered all around the room carefully, paying special attention to the ceiling, before they proceeded through it, avoiding all the growing things, to the archway beyond.

It led into another chamber, smaller still. A large, smooth-carved, unadorned stone table leaned in the center of this room, one leg crumbling. Beyond the table were two arches-and someone standing facing them!

Or something. It was tall and very thin, clad in dark and dusty robes. Its face was skull-like and white, its eyes dark sockets.

A lich! Or perhaps just an illusion, a trap laid by Elminster-or even by Avaerl. The men cast glances back at Zalarth. In calm silence he gestured, making the Brotherhood's hand signs for "advance" and "beware." In cautious unison they approached.

The figure moved. Something tinkled to the stone floor, falling and rolling. An unmistakable sound: coins. Another trap-lure, or just a pocket collapsing in the rotting garment of something that should be in a grave, not on its feet?

They were close enough now to see the figure was-or had been-female. Long gray-white hair framed a withered, dead face. As Zalarth watched, a chill spread icy fingers along his spine. Two points of glittering light, deep in the dark eye sockets, were expanding rapidly.

As the Zhentarim wizard tensed to lash out with a spell, the skeletal figure spoke. "Well met and welcome, adventurers. Put aside your weapons and speak with me in peace, if you would. I mean no harm. I've waited so very long for someone to find me."

More looks. Zalarth gave the "weapons out and ready" sign and asked calmly, "Who-or what-are you, and what place is this?"

"I am Saharel, and this is my home. The years have been no kinder to me than to Netheril itself, but I still abide here. Who are you?" The voice was feminine and dry, as loud as Zalarth's own, and held a trace of pride.

Once-beautiful long hair, now a mold-covered, wild mane of gray and white, clung to the shriveled, half-skeletal travesty of a face as the figure bent forward.

In answer, Zalarth began the ugly syllables of a spell to control undead.

The figure scowled and said sharply, "Now is that friendly? What do you here? Are you come merely to plunder?"

She waved a skeletal hand, and a thief more frightened than the rest hurled his knife.

The figure watched the blade whirl through the air at her, and raised a hand with sudden speed to protect her face. The knife tore through the wasted flesh to lodge between two bones in the forearm. The figure raised her arm to study it.

"So you would bring death to me, where the gods failed? Die, fools, and despoil my home no longer!"

The figure gestured. Purple and black bolts of magic spat from each bony finger, streaking unerringly across the chamber to smite the thieves.

His spell done, Zalarth watched aghast as his men shrieked, stiffened, and died. The lich-if it was a lich-was ignoring his magic, and he could feel no ties of Art to give him power over it.

"What are you, that you defy my Art?" he asked, one hand darting to the other.

The undead lights of her eyes regarded him coldly. "An archlich. Apologize, if you would live."

"I'm sorry indeed to have met with you," Zalarth said from the depths of his heart, and turned the ring he wore.

Abruptly he was elsewhere, back in the great hall he'd first entered when coming through the gate. He ran, then, ran as he had not done for years, feet pounding on the stones. Headlong down a dark passage, up a stair, through a weirdly lit, moss-choked gallery, and up another stair.

It opened onto a landing that led to another ascending stair on one hand and an archway on the other-an archway that opened onto a balcony overlooking another large hall. What ruin was this? It was huge, and-He glanced over the edge of the balcony, stopped, and stood very still.

In the room below stood Elminster of Shadowdale, the ranger Knight at his side. Her sword was drawn, and he held a wand. Both were facing that young fool Avaerl.

"Die, old fool," Avaerl taunted the bearded, battered old man, a wand glowing in the young mage's hand. "Die by the order of Manshoon, Lord Most High of the Zhentarim! Die at the hand of Avaerl of Sembresh!"

Sharantyr drew and hurled a dagger in one smooth, flashing movement and charged after it, leaping over small piles of rubble. "I think he's trying to talk us to death, Old Mage!" she cried, raising her blade.

Avaerl howled and clutched at his slashed fingers, the wand falling as the dagger spun away into the gloom. Sharantyr raced toward him, hair streaming behind her.

Lightning flashed and cracked from a balcony above, outlining her in blue-white dancing death. She staggered, groaned loudly, and fell to her knees.

Zalarth stared across at the balcony whence the bolt had come, then swiftly ducked low and moved far aside from where he had been standing.

Cold laughter came from the dimness that had spawned the lightning. "Not so threatening now, are you, Sharantyr?"

The speaker moved to the low, broad stone balcony rail and stared down triumphantly. "And so it is by the hand of Xanther that the famous Elminster shall perish!"

The old man had moved forward involuntarily as the lady ranger was struck. He stopped now, amid the rubble, and sighed. "If ye knew just how many times I've heard that line down the years-and mind, mageling, Manshoon himself has said it, twice, and I'm still standing for all his empty boasting!"

Xanther snarled and aimed his wand. Elminster calmly took out his pipe and sucked on it.

Lighting flashed, but Elminster was suddenly elsewhere. He appeared out of empty air on the balcony just behind Xanther, pipe glowing in his hand, and calmly tipped the councillor forward over the rail.

Xanther had time for the raw beginnings of a scream as he plunged-just before he struck the raised edge of a shattered stone table that rose out of the rubble like the edge of a giant's shield.

It was old and gray and very, very hard. The sharp sounds of Xanther's bones shattering echoed loudly in the hall. His body bounced limply and then hung motionless atop the table. Rivers of dark blood ran swiftly down the stone.

"Shar! Shar, do ye live?" Elminster called, his voice trembling.

The lady ranger lay still in the dust, but the Zhentarim she'd not managed to reach snarled a word and pointed an angry hand at Elminster.

Magic missiles flashed through the air. The Old Mage sighed, cursed, and sat down on the balcony floor to await them. Their strike shook his body, and he grunted in pain.

Zalarth Bloodbrow smiled savagely and cast a fireball, grandly but carefully, onto that balcony.

Its flash and roar shook the hall, and Zalarth reached for the teleport ring he wore. The she-lich could hardly fail to hear that. He had to snatch some proof of Elminster's demise-whatever was left, he supposed-and hie himself back to Manshoon before she came.

Under his boots, the stones were still hot. Roiling dust and smoke curled in the air. Zalarth searched all about, coughing and waving smoke away, but look as he might, he could find no sign of Elminster.

He heard a thud below and struggled to the rail to see Elminster standing over the fallen Avaerl, pipe in one hand and a bloodied chunk of stone in the other. "That's for what ye did to the lass," the old man told the slumped mageling severely before he scurried to the fallen ranger, did something, and was gone again.

Zalarth frowned and reached for his own ring. Two could play this game.

He chose another balcony, stared at it until he'd seen it clearly, and turned the ring on his finger.

From this height, the broken body of the councillor looked like a sprawled toy. Zalarth looked around hastily. Except for some mushrooms, he was alone. Behind him, dark archways led off to unknown chambers. The wizard crouched, drawing a wand from its sheath on his thigh, and peered over the balcony rail.

There! On another balcony, below and across the hall, stood Elminster. The Old Mage of Shadowdale was puffing his pipe into life and looking down into the hall.

He'd manage no last-breath escape this time. Zalarth held the wand up and ready as he turned the ring again.

Abruptly his view of the hall changed to include Elminster, two steps away, raising sardonic eyebrows above his pipe. An instant later, the old man was gone, and Zalarth's wand spat death at empty air.

Zalarth choked off his snarl of anger as he saw the she-lich through an archway, striding up a broad stair toward him. His wand spoke again, but she only smiled and shook her head as the wand's magic was turned away by an unseen shield in front of her. She raised a clawlike hand, and Zalarth desperately twisted his ring as he looked over the balcony rail.

The ring took him there, to the floor of the hall, in the shifting rubble. In a breath or two she'd be hurling spells down at him, to say nothing of what Elminster might do. He had only an instant to choose a new destination.

Unfortunately, the mageling was rising up in front of him like an awakened zombie, face streaming blood. Wild eyes met Zalarth's, and bloody lips parted in surprise.

"Master Zalarth! How come you h-?"

Zalarth snarled in frustration. The wand crackled, and Avaerl of Sembresh stiffened, sobbed, and buckled at the knees.

"Gulkuth," he whispered hoarsely, with his last breath, raising a faltering hand. "Gulkuth!" And then he crashed on his face and lay still. Dust curled up around him.

Zalarth shrugged. Gulkuth? A spell? He looked through the nearest archway, reaching for his ring. At any moment rending magic could rain down on him from above.

Something stirred under his feet, and the Zhentarim staggered and almost fell. He looked back.

Sharantyr was struggling to her knees, feeling for her sword. Dust caked her wild-tangled hair and the side of her face, and her eyes were bright with pain-but a ring gleamed brightly on her finger, and she was rising, steel in hand.

She meant his death. Zalarth's wand came up and he said coldly, "It is always a pleasure to destroy a Knight of Myth Drannor. Die, bitch!"

"Excuse me," said a calm new voice from very close by, and Zalarth felt his elbow struck sharply. His aim was driven wide; the wand's power smote a stone wall harmlessly.

"Met are we, mage of the Zhentarim," another voice said formally, "and the pleasure, I assure you, is all ours."

"Aye. Farewell, tyrant mage," the first voice said, and Zalarth Bloodbrow scarce had time to look from one grimly smiling speaker to another before two long swords passed each other in his chest, sliding in with silken ease and leaving a sudden rising burning in their wake, a burning worse than anything he'd ever felt.

Zalarth felt himself falling, falling with mouth open but no breath left to speak, hands open but with nothing to grab. He stared hard into the rising white mists that had not been there an instant ago, and sank forever into the nothingness beyond them.

"Best chop off that finger, there. There's no telling what Zhent rings will do, and I'd hate to have to kill this one four or five times," Belkram said briskly. Itharr nodded, looking all around.

"Where's Elminster gotten t-ah, there!" He pointed.

Belkram looked up to the balcony where the Old Mage was unconcernedly puffing on his pipe. Elminster waved to them lazily.

The two Harpers shouted in horror. Behind Elminster, a bone-white face had appeared, a gleam in its dark eye sockets and a widening grin stretching its ghastly jaw. Long, skeletal arms reached for the Old Mage, and there was nothing-utterly nothing-that Itharr or Belkram, or Sharantyr coming unsteadily to her feet beside them, could do.

Sharantyr threw back her head in despair, and screamed. "Mystra, aid us all!"