Shadowstorm

CHAPTER SIX

20 Uktar, the Year of Lightning Storms

A mixture of dread and relief washed over Tamlin as he received the news that part of the overmistress's army was marching on Saerb. Dread that war, real war, had finally come. Relief that it had fallen first on Saerb, rather than on Selgaunt.

Prince Rivalen, Vees Talendar, and the bull-necked Rorsim Soargyl joined him around a conference table in the palace.

Tamlin said, "Our spies report that a contingent of the overmistress's army moves on Saerb. I wish your views on how we should respond."

Rorsim looked to Vees, to Rivalen, back to Tamlin, and said, "I could put two hundred good men in the field to intercept Forrin."

Vees looked puzzled and stroked his beard. "Two hundred? What would two hundred do? Forrin has many times that."

Rorsim eyed Vees. "Our two hundred could join with Corrinthal's forces, if possible. Or assist with a retreat of Saerb's population to Selgaunt, if not. There isn't a wall built for a fight anywhere in the north. They cannot make a stand there."

"We do not even know where Corrinthal's forces are," Vees answered reasonably. "Divinations have been inconsistent. Nine Hells, he could be dead."

Rorsim cocked his bucket-sized head to concede the point.

Tamlin looked to Rivalen. "Prince? Your thoughts?"

"Where are the men you promised us?" Rorsim blurted at Rivalen. "I have done what can be done with the Helms, Scepters, and militia, but-"

Shadows swirled around Rivalen. He regarded Rorsim coolly and Rorsim retreated into the depths of his chair.

"Members of an elite unit will be available soon," Rivalen answered in his deep voice. "They are engaged in other matters at the moment."

"Other matters," Rorsim muttered. "Always other matters."

Rivalen manipulated something with his fingers, studied its corners. Tamlin saw that it was a fivestar.

Rivalen said, "Hulorn, I believe that sacrificing any of the meager force you have here would put Selgaunt in a very weak position should the army gathering at Saerloon choose to march. There are rumors that may happen soon."

Rorsim leaned forward in his chair. "We would have advance notice and would be able to return before Saerloon's forces could arrive. There is no risk to Selgaunt."

Rivalen regarded Rorsim with his golden eyes. "There is always risk in war, and unknowns. I know that much better than you, Rorsim Soargyl. How many wars have you seen firsthand? Battle is not a contractual dispute over the shipment of goods."

Rorsim's face reddened behind his beard. "I have drawn my fair share of blood, sir."

Rivalen's golden eyes flared. "I do not doubt it. But should something delay your force's return from the north, then what? Should Forrin learn of your advance and divert from Saerb to engage you, or cut off your route back to Selgaunt, then what?"

"That is sense, Deuce," Vees said to Tamlin, and leaned back in his chair.

Tamlin thought so, too. He said, "I admire your zeal for battle, Rorsim, but even if we could get men into position in time, this is not our fight."

Rorsim looked like he had eaten something sour but said nothing.

Vees said, "Take the time we have just gained to further strengthen Selgaunt's defenses."

Rivalen said, "Hulorn, the war for Sembia's future will be won or lost here, not in Saerb. That is a hard truth, but a truth nevertheless."

"Yet I am uncomfortable doing nothing," Tamlin said. "The people of Saerb…"

Rivalen tapped his fingers on the table. Shadows flared from his fingertips with each tap. "They will flee, Hulorn. And when the Shadovar troops become available to us here, they will travel to the refugees and encourage a retreat to Selgaunt. We can bring them into the city. Assuming that is acceptable to you?"

"Shade troops, you mean?" Tamlin asked. There seemed little a shade could not do.

Rivalen nodded. "Yes, Hulorn. Shade troops from the enclave."

The plan pleased Tamlin. He would not abandon the people of Saerb, but he would risk little. He nodded at Rivalen.

"Thank you for the advice, all, and for the offer, Prince. We will do as Prince Rivalen advises. We are adjourned."

Rivalen knew that Tamlin was, at his core, a compromiser. He wanted always to feel as if he were doing something but he wanted also to take no risks. Were he to flip a fivestar to decide a question, he would hope for it to land on its edge so that he could choose a middle course. For now, that served Rivalen. But sooner or later the young Hulorn would have to choose obverse or reverse. Rivalen had grown fond enough of Tamlin to allow him a chance to make that choice.

"Prince Rivalen, will you remain a moment?" Tamlin asked.

"Of course, Hulorn."

While they waited for Vees and Rorsim to exit the conference room, Tamlin poured himself a goblet of wine. When they were alone, he said, "I have heard nothing from the envoys sent to hire mercenaries. It has been too long. Something has happened to them."

Rivalen allowed concern to show in his eyes, though his own agents had killed Selgaunt's envoys. Rivalen wanted the Hulorn entirely beholden to the Shadovar.

"They perform dangerous duty," he said. "No doubt the overmistress has many spies in Selgaunt, just as you do in Ordulin."

Tamlin sipped his wine, regarded Rivalen over the rim. "I would feel more at ease with our situation were Shadovar troops in the city. You have said often that your forces are highly mobile. If they were at our disposal, perhaps we could take the offensive rather than await a siege? Mirabeta has taken a risk sending out half her army to Saerb."

Rivalen nodded and gave Tamlin what he most craved-praise. "You think aggressively, Hulorn. That is admirable and befits a leader of a nation."

Tamlin tried to hide his smile behind another drink of wine but Rivalen saw it. Tamlin said, "I will settle for winning this conflict and remaining the leader of Selgaunt."

Rivalen looked pointedly across the table. "Why rein your ambition so? You should be as aggressive with it as you are in your war planning."

"How do you mean, Prince?"

Rivalen looked away. "I hesitate to speak it."

"Come," Tamlin said. "We have already been candid with one another about sensitive matters of faith. This is no different. I have come to rely on your candor, Prince. Please."

Rivalen nodded. "Hulorn, I believe Sembia has been transformed by this conflict. The overmistress has rendered the High Council moot and your people accept it as if it were always so. It is a dead institution. Sembia will have its autocrat. It is only a question of who it shall be and whether he shall be benevolent or… otherwise."

Tamlin paused in mid drink. The moment stretched.

"Intriguing," he said at last, his tone thoughtful, and hurriedly added, "That you think so, I mean."

Rivalen knew he had laid the foundation. He was bringing Tamlin along at exactly the right pace. He'd seen it before. He knew the look in a man's eye when ambition found purchase. Tamlin's expression showed it. He thought he wanted to be a shade and a king. What he really wanted was deeper than that. He wanted to step out of the shadows of his father, of Erevis Cale, of his own self-image as an unaccomplished son of an accomplished father. Rivalen knew the feeling, had experienced it himself thousands of years earlier. Perhaps that was why he was so fond of the boy. Besides, it amused Rivalen that Tamlin sought to escape the shadows of his past by stepping into the shadows Rivalen offered.

"I know the wait for Shadovar reinforcements is difficult, Hulorn," Rivalen said. "But be assured that our troops will arrive as soon as they are freed from other obligations. Let us then decide what course to take in war. In fact, it is my hope that I will be able to lend even more aid than troops at that time."

Tamlin raised his eyebrows. "Oh?"

"I will inform you when I have more information to tell."

Tamlin smiled. "The Sharran keeps his secrets, eh?"

Rivalen donned a false smile. "Indeed, but only because matters are still a trifle unclear." He spun shadows around his fingers.

Tamlin watched him intently, then said, "The leading priests of the city, those who remain, have informed me that they will not fight directly against Mirabeta's forces. They will aid and heal, but none will bear arms or cast spells to harm. I presume the priests of Ordulin and Saerloon have taken a similar position."

"Perhaps or perhaps not. Your priests play at neutrality to preserve the status of their faith, whatever the outcome of the war. It is disheartening. You need not accept their terms, Hulorn."

"No?" Tamlin asked.

"No. There are priests in Shade Enclave whom I may be able to call upon. Hulorn, perhaps now is an appropriate time to discuss Shar's faith further?"

Tamlin tipped his goblet toward Rivalen. "I think I would enjoy that very much."

The night was old but Elyril did not attempt to sleep. Minddust and excitement kept her heart racing for hours. She had long ago giddily dismissed the steward and now sat in the study with Kefil.

And with the book.

The mastiff lay at her feet, licking his paws. The book lay against her breast, warming her skin and the invisible holy symbol she wore at her throat. She fiddled with the magical ring on her finger, amused that she knew yet another secret of which the Nightseer was ignorant. He would learn of it soon enough, when he bent his knee to the Lord Sciagraph.

And to you, Kefil projected.

She smiled, replayed the events in her mind again and again.

Kefil said, The guardsman, Phraig, was not a man.

"Not while he was in this room," Elyril agreed. "Then, he was a vessel of Shar."

Kefil grunted indifferently and shifted his position.

Elyril stared at the walls and listened with pleasure to the death rattles of everyone who died in Yhaunn over the next slice of the night: an elderly chandler, a young girl with wetlung, a male prostitute who fell from a balcony, a cobbler with a weak heart. The grief of those the dead left behind she offered to Shar and Volumvax as sacrifice. Cradling her book and thinking of the Lord Sciagraph, her mind drifted into dark places.

Kefil's growl brought her back to herself.

Had she fallen asleep?

The darkness in the room deepened. A presence emerged from the black. Kefil scrambled to his feet, growling and snapping.

She recognized the presence immediately and felt such ecstasy that she could scarcely breathe. Her body tingled; her muscles went weak; her heart rose. She closed her eyes, fell to the floor, and whispered, "I kneel before Shar's shadow, who shrouds the world in night."

Silence, Volumvax commanded.

The sound of his mental voice in her head made her giddy and lightheaded. He had never before spoken to her. The room spun; her breath came so fast she feared she would pass out. Indeed, she must be Shar's chosen servant!

You dare call to me? the Lord Sciagraph said.

Dread devoured Elyril's excitement. She fumbled for a reply. "I… did not. I am grateful my lord has blessed me with his presence. I… have news."

She kept her head down but held up the book given her by Phraig.

Silence for a moment, then, You possess half of the book to be made whole. What is its secret?

"A ritual hides behind the words."

You are my servant, and Shar's.

The praise sent such a thrill through Elyril that she gasped.

"It was left behind by servants of Mask. The Lady put it into my hands."

The temperature in the room dropped noticeably. Elyril could see her breath when she exhaled.

Volumvax touched the back of her head-he was not flesh, she realized, but shadow-and the touch filled her with such terror that it nearly stopped her heart.

Mask? The servants of the Shadowlord are afoot?

Elyril could not breathe, could not speak. An ache in her mind turned to a stab of pain, transformed to a flash of agony. She thought her eyes must pop out of her head. She screamed, but dared not look up.

Speak now, Dark Sister, or your heart stops after its next heat.

Her mouth was too dry. She nodded, tried to swallow.

Give me their names.

She nodded her head, gulped, croaked, "Erevis Cale and Drasek Riven, Lord Sciagraph."

Volumvax withdrew his touch and Elyril gasped with relief, sagged.

Time is short, priestess. Obtain the rest of the book. When it is whole, perform the ritual and summon the storm…

Elyril almost looked up but caught herself just in time. "Lord Sciagraph, I do not know how to find the rest of the book."

The Nightseer holds it, though he knows not what he holds.

Elyril did not process the words immediately. "The… Nightseer?"

It was I who arranged to put it into his hands through one of his underlings.

Elyril was unsurprised that Volumvax had kept the secret of the book from her. Such was the habit of Shar's inscrutable nature. She was pleased, however, that the Nightseer possessed it in ignorance.

Before Elyril could ask anything more, Volumvax's manifestation ended.

Too weak to stand, Elyril crawled back into her chair, her mind racing.

She thought it strange that the Lord Sciagraph had shown such anger at the mention of Mask. She thought it strange, too, that Shar and Volumvax seemed to be acting without the full knowledge of the other's activities. Did the Lord Sciagraph keep secrets even from the Lady of Loss? No. It was blasphemy.

Elyril put it from her mind and turned her thoughts to how she would obtain the rest of the book from the Nightseer.

Kefil said to her, You are imagining all of this. It was a dream.

"You lie," Elyril said, and held the book tightly against her body.

Rivalen returned to the darkness of his quarters and sat in a large armchair. Matters had progressed well with the Hulorn. Rivalen felt he could turn Tamlin to Shar whenever he wished. The boy's ambition ruled his morality. Rivalen liked that about him.

Cradling his holy symbol in his hands, he whispered the words to a spell that would allow him to send a short message to the Most High. When he felt the magical energy gather around him, he uttered the sending. "The Hulorn's trust has been earned and Selgaunt is ours when we wish. War in Sembia is inevitable."

The magic carried his words across Faerun, into the ears of the Most High. Rivalen awaited a response and it came quickly. He felt it as a buzzing in his ears followed by the whispered words of his father.

Perhaps the non-Shadovar who know you to have created this war should be dealt with?

Rivalen nodded. His own thoughts mirrored those of the Most High. He wanted the Hulorn to regard the Shadovar as saviors of his cause, not instigators of the war. Rivalen had taken care to ensure that only two non-Shadovar knew of Shar's involvement in starting the conflict-Elyril Hraven and Vees Talendar. He would be direct with Elyril. For Vees, he planned something unique. It did not please him to ponder the killing of a Dark Sister and Brother, but he would do it nevertheless.

The Most High continued, his voice harder. You have done well, Rivalen. Your mother would take pride in your accomplishments.

The words pulled Rivalen to his feet. The magical sending ended.

Shadows swirled around him, reflecting his concern. Jumbled thoughts careened around in his mind. The Most High's words echoed through his brain.

What had the Most High meant? He had never before mentioned Alashar in such a manner. Did the Most High know, or even suspect, that Rivalen had murdered Alashar at Shar's command? How could he have learned it? Rivalen had revealed the secret to no one. Only he and Shar knew it.

Rivalen replayed in his mind countless conversations he'd had with his father over the centuries, scouring them for hints. He remembered nothing that alarmed him and tried to put his mind at ease. His father could not have known. If he had, he would have killed Rivalen long ago. Unless…

Unless Shar herself had informed the Most High and at the same time commanded him to take no vengeance. Perhaps the Most High's Own Secret was that he knew the truth of Alashar's murder. For centuries he could have been looking upon Rivalen not as a son, but as the murderer of his beloved, his need for revenge held in check only by Shar's interdiction.

Rivalen tried to dismiss the thoughts as blasphemous. He reminded himself that he knew nothing for certain and wondered if he were not imagining threats. He had seen it often among Sharrans. A faith so reliant on secrets sometimes bred among the faithful mistrust and wild imaginings that bordered on madness. Still, his theory rang true to him.

"Why?" Rivalen asked the darkness. "Why betray your most powerful instrument?"

Shar gave him no answers. She never did.

But Rivalen saw an answer.

Shar wanted a wedge between the Most High and Rivalen. She had betrayed Rivalen to bring him closer to her. She wanted Rivalen beholden to her, wanted him to choose his faith over his city and his family, the same way Rivalen wanted the Hulorn beholden to him.

"I chose faith over family the day I murdered my mother, Lady."

The darkness held its silence, and its secrets.

Thoughtful, Rivalen removed an exquisitely crafted miniature chest from an inner pocket. Concentrating on it, he triggered its magic, and its mate, a full-sized chest exactly alike in appearance to the miniature, appeared on the floor at his feet.

He spoke the sequence of command words that discharged the protective wards he maintained on the chest, and used a minor spell to open its lock. He lifted the lid.

Coils of shadow leaked from the opening, carrying indecipherable whispers into the air. Within the chest lay The Leaves of One Night. He had taken to carrying it with him, rather than leaving it in the vault of the temple in Shade Enclave. It seemed right to have it near him.

He placed his hand atop the book's black cover, felt its coolness, felt the characters written on it shifting under his touch. He intoned a prayer to Shar and the book whispered in his mind.

He resolved that he would no longer secrete it on the ethereal plane. He wanted it closer to him, wanted Shar's words nearer his ears. The chest and the book would remain warded in his quarters or on his person. If Shar had something to say to him through the book, he wanted it close enough to him that he would hear.