The Sorcerer

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

2 Eleasias, the Year of Wild Magic

After Ruha departed for Twilight Hall with Malik chained to her wrist, Khelben used his sending magic to advise Lord Duirsar of their imminent arrival. The spell failed. Nor did he receive any reply when he tried to contact Kiinyon Colbathin, and when Galaeron tried to contact Keya, the only response he experienced was a fleeting impression of terror. The six of them wasted a few more minutes hazarding uninformed guesses as to how the phaerimm might be interfering with communication magic based on the Shadow Weave as well as the Weave. Able to imagine only dire scenarios, they finally concluded that they simply could not know what was happening and divided themselves into two traveling groups.

A few moments later, Galaeron was lying between

Vala and Khelben on a sooty terrace high in the Vine Vale, staring down a staircase wasteland into the crater-pocked pasture inside the Meadow Wall. The once-lush grass was gone, burned off or blasted away by battle magic or withering beneath the rotting corpse of one of the thousands of elf warriors scattered across the field. In the center of the meadow, the marble cliffs of the Three Sisters were speckled around the base with stars of soot and sprays of crusted blood. Atop the hills themselves, curtains of black fume were rising out of the great bluetop forest, coalescing into a single dark cloud that left visible only the lowest reaches of Evereska's majestic towers.

As Galaeron watched, a leaden light erupted in the woods beneath the Groaning Cave, and a deafening crack reverberated across the entire vale and echoed off the looming cliffs of the High Shaeradim. As Galaeron blinked the flash from his eyes, he noticed a ring of falling trees expanding outward, their crowns all pointing away from the center of the explosion. By the time the blast played itself out, the circle of destruction was more than a mile across.

"It is safe for Laeral and Storm to come ahead with Aris," Galaeron said. He spoke without turning to look at Khelben. "You can be sure there are no phaerimm within a mile of us."

"That's awfully quick to be so certain of their positions," Khelben observed. "We haven't been here a minute."

"A minute is all I need," Galaeron said. He rose to his knees and waved a hand in the direction of the burning city. "The phaerimm are down there, looting Evereska of its magic."

"And their servants?" Khelben asked. "All it takes to sound the alarm is a beholder or even a gnoll."

The phaerimm think they have won," Galaeron explained. "They will have their servants with them, carrying their plunder and helping to claim and defend their new lairs."

"They have no fear of a counterattack?" Khelben asked.

"At the moment, they fear us less than they fear each other." Though the words were Galaeron's, the knowledge came to him in the form of a strange half-thought, closer to a premonition or a feeling than something he actually remembered. "They will know how preoccupied Faer?n has been with the problems caused by Shade, and how impossible it would be for anyone to send an army against them."

"True as that may be," Khelben said, "it does not always require an army to defeat one."

"They are certainly worried about the Chosen," Galaeron said, picking up on Khelben's meaning, "but I doubt they have a choice in the matter. It is not in the nature of the phaerimm to work together. Now that the prize is in hand, everyone must claim his share or watch another steal it from beneath him."

As Galaeron explained this, the tiny shape of a stick figure elf tumbled out of the smoke cloud, hit the edge of the cliff summit, and pin wheeled all the way down into the meadow. Had the mythal been functioning properly, it was not something that would have happened. A protective spell would have caught the victim and lowered him-or her-gently to the ground.

The death made Galaeron wonder what had become of his sister, Keya. The last he had heard, she was doing well with her pregnancy and also as a warrior, joining Vala's men on hunting forays and claiming half a dozen tails for her own belt, but that had been before the mythal fell. Could she be one of the bodies lying down in the meadow or perhaps the one he had just watched plummeting out of the smoke? He longed to try another thought sending, but knew that would be foolish. Assuming she remained alive, there was a good chance that she was fighting at the moment, and the distraction of an unexpected thought popping into her head might well prove fatal. Galaeron could only hope that the moment of fleeting terror he had experienced the first time meant she was still alive-and that his intrusion had not changed that

"How long will the phaerimm remain at each other's throats?" Khelben asked.

"A tenday, at least," he answered, "but not much longer. Their internal squabbles are swift and deadly."

"A tenday." Khelben's discouragement was hard to miss. "What then?"

"By then, they will have settled matters and prepared their individual defenses." Galaeron did not like the drift Khelben's questions were taking. They will be impossible to root out"

The Shadovar did it at Myth Drannor," Khelben countered.

"At the cost of their other ambitions in Faer?n," Vala pointed out. "And there were only a few dozen at Myth Drannor. Here, there will be hundreds."

Khelben sighed and said, "We have lost Evereska." His fist thudded into the ground, raising a small cloud of ash and dust. "It will be all we can do to contain them in the vale."

Though Galaeron did not share Khelben's despair, he remained silent, ordering his thoughts and summoning to mind all he knew about the situation in Evereska. He had an inkling that matters were not as hopeless as Khelben thought, but whether that feeling was due to Melegaunt’s wisdom or his own need to undo the terrible mistakes that had led to the fall of the LastHome, he could not say.

Vala laid a warm hand on his forearm and said, "I'm sorry, Galaeron. You did everything you could."

Galaeron started to say that he had not yet done everything, but he was cut off by the soft crackle of a teleport spell. He glanced over his shoulder to make certain the new arrivals were who they expected and saw a gray cloud rising two terraces above. Laeral and the others lay on the ground, spitting soot and blinking confusion from their eyes.

"Hold your spells, miladies," Khelben called to his fellow Chosen. "We're safe enough for now."

The sound of Khelben's voice seemed to draw Laeral out of her afterdaze. She glanced into the bottom of the valley, and her face fell.

"Goddess help us!" she gasped. "We're too late."

"I think not," Galaeron said, finally convinced that the inspiration he felt was more than his own desperation.

He rose and motioned for Laeral to bring the others down, then took a length of shadowsilk from his pocket and began to wrap it around his little finger, fashioning it into a small cone.

"We have come just in time."

Khelben rose to his knees and pulled Galaeron back down.

"Have patience, elf. We'll save as many Tel'Quessir as we can, but first we must plan."

"The best way to save my people is to kill the phaerimm in their city."

Galaeron went back to fashioning his cone.

Laeral and Khelben exchanged knowing glances, and Khelben said, "This isn't your fault, Galaeron. It was Melegaunt who freed the phaerimm, not you."

That's right," Storm said. Having recovered from her afterdaze, she was jumping down onto the terrace with Galaeron and the others. "We know how the Shadovar think, now. They planned ail along to make the phaerimm everyone else's problem. I'd bet my hair that Melegaunt breached the Sharn Wall where he did on purpose. What better way to lure the phaerimm out of Anauroch than to offer them Evereska's mythal?"

"If it was indeed an accident, it worked to the Shadovar's advantage," Galaeron agreed. He finished his cone and carefully removed it from his finger, then set it aside on a stone. "But I am no innocent in this. I was warned many times about Melegaunt, and still I brought Shade into the world."

"You can't blame yourself," Aris said. He was sitting on the back wall of the terrace, leaning over to cup a hand beneath one of the thousand springs that had once watered the terraces of the Vine Vale. "They would have found another way."

Galaeron raised a hand to forestall more forgiving words, and said, "I'm not seeking absolution… nor am I speaking out of guilt"

"Then out of vengeance." Laeral phrased this as a fact, not a question. She glanced at Storm, then added, "I know how I would feel, were my sister down there and I unable to contact her."

"If I was seeking vengeance, I would not want your help." Galaeron could see they were still afraid his shadow might be influencing him, and he had no doubt it was. That did not mean he was wrong. "I am talking about victory, not retribution. Hear me out. If you don't like what I say, IT! not hold it against anyone who chooses to remain behind."

Khelben scowled, clearly unhappy with having someone else assume the leadership. Still, he listened patiently. When Galaeron finished, his frown turned thoughtful, and he looked to the other Chosen.

"What do you think?"

"Simple plans are the best," Storm said. "This one is simple, IT! give it that"

"Perhaps too simple," Laeral said. "What's s to stop the phaerimm from seeing through it?"

"The arrogance of the phaerimm themselves," Galaeron answered. "They won't believe anyone capable of defeating their spells of clear-seeing."

Leaving the others to consider the merits of his plan on their own, Galaeron started to fashion another cone out of shadowsilk. After a moment, Aris removed a stone from the terrace wall and shaped it into a small bowl with two quick strikes of his hammer, then filled it with soot from a charred log and used the spring to moisten it When he began to smear the resulting paste up his legs in thick black stripes, Vala cocked a doubtful eyebrow.

"You're a little large for camouflage," she said. "Don't you trust Galaeron's magic?"

"I trust Galaeron," Aris replied. He glanced at Galaeron and gave a grim nod. "But given who we are going to attack, I think it wise for one of us to use no magic. Besides, stone giant camouflage is better than you know. The number of times you have walked past one of us and not known it would surprise you."

"Nothing surprises me anymore," Vala said. She dipped her hand in the bowl and leaped up on the terrace behind Aris. "Bend down, and IT! do your neck before we go."

"Then you've decided to go as well?" Laeral asked.

"Have to. My men and our darkswords are down there." She peered around Aris, looked down at Galaeron, and added, "And I really need to see how this turns out."

Her words made Galaeron ruin the shadow cone he was pulling off his finger. She was probably alluding to the promise she had made to slay him if he ever fell completely under the sway of his shadow, but there was a warmth in her tone that made him hope that she might forgive him, that there might still be room in her heart to love him.

Continuing to hold Vala's gaze, Galaeron began to wrap the shadowsilk around his little finger again. At the same time, he whispered the incantation for a spell of thought sending and began to speak to her in his mind.

Vala.

Her jaw dropped, and her sooty hand came off the back of Aris's bald skull.

Before we go, I want to apologize for leaving you behind, Galaeron said. I'd understand if you never forgive me, but I hope you can.

Vala's eyes softened.

There's nothing to forgive. The choice was mine, and I knew what could happen. She returned to camouflaging the back of Aris's head, adding, But I am torn up, Galaeron. Inside.

Galaeron's heart sank. / see. I didn't mean to intrude. Please forgive-

There's that word again, Vala interrupted. I don't blame you-that's not what I mean. But since Khelben and the others helped me escape, I've been filled with this… I haven't felt anything good. I just want to go home and drink mead in front of the fire. Alone.

What about Sheldon? You must want to see him.

Galaeron felt ashamed of himself. He had allowed Vala's usual stoic bearing to lull him into thinking she had somehow emerged whole from her enslavement He had been thinking only of how her ordeal affected him, not of what it might have done to her.

Not like this, she replied. Not all broken inside.

You won't always be broken, Galaeron said. I'll stand by you for however long it takes. I wish I'd told you this before, Vala. I do love you.

Vala gave him a wistful smile.

Now you tell me. Now that your shadow made you.

Galaeron didn't realize they had become an object of attention until Vala's eyes grew self-conscious and her gaze darted away. Khelben cleared his throat, and either ignoring the looks that had been passing between the two or pretending he had not noticed, he stepped in front of Galaeron.

"You are quite certain the phaerimm will not be able to detect or dispel your magic?" he asked.

"They would have to use the Shadow Weave," Galaeron said, "but we must be wary of beholders. They could undo us with their antimagic rays."

"Beholders we can handle," Storm said.

Khelben sighed, then said, "Very well. If you are determined to pursue this foolish plan of yours, it seems we have no choice except to come along to protect you. How soon can you be ready?"

In answer, Galaeron slipped the last cone of shadowsilk off his finger and pressed it to Khelben's chest

"Hold that there."

Khelben did as instructed, and Galaeron drew on the Shadow Weave to cast a spell. The black cone expanded to a full ten feet in length, engulfing the Chosen in a stocking of darkness. Galaeron fashioned a barbed tail at the narrow end and four crooked arms at the wide end, added some teeth and other details to create the head-disk, and he found himself looking at what appeared to be a shadow-swathed phaerimm.

"An excellent likeness," Aris complimented. "Though the elbows are too far down the arms, and the tail barb should curve a little more."

Galaeron made the necessary corrections and a few more when Vala, Laeral, and Storm added their opinions. When everyone agreed the likeness was true, he stepped back and spoke a final word to set the shape.

"In Evereska, we should try to stay in the wooded areas where shadows won't seem out of place," Galaeron said. "I assume you can use your own magic to fly and speak the phaerimm wind language."

Khelben replied with a whistling gust of wind and floated into the air.

"Good," Galaeron said. "Avoid using your silver fire. If the phaerimm see it, they will know you are here."

"What about wands and rings?" Laeral asked.

"The shadow mask will conceal their use, as it will your voices and gestures," Galaeron said, "but you must careful not to fling any spell components outside your disguise. The phaerimm do not need components, so if they see you using them. "

"Understood," Storm said, stepping forward. "Me next I always like fighting with four arms."

Galaeron pressed a shadow cone to her chest and repeated the spell he had used to disguise Khelben, then did the same for himself and Laeral. Finally, he turned to Vala.

"Since you're not a spellcaster, it would be best to disguise you as a mind-slave."

Vala rolled her eyes and tried to make light of the suggestion, but the hurt was plain in her eyes.

"Don't enjoy it too much."

"Not at all," he assured her. "If you think you could hold a blank look-"

"Galaeron, just do it"

Galaeron flattened a small disk of shadowstuff in his hand and carefully molded it over her face. When he cast his spell, Vala's complexion darkened by half a dozen shades. Her eyes grew glassy and vacant, and her expression fell dead and still. It pained Galaeron to see her even in this counterfeit bondage. It reminded him of how selfish and deluded he had been during his shadow crisis and of all she had sacrificed to save him. How he would ever repay her, he could not begin to imagine.

"Are we all set then?" Khelben asked. "I've opened a door to the woods at the base of Cloudcrown Hill. Unless you've a better idea, I thought Lord Duirsar's palace the ideal place to open our campaign."

"There is no better idea," Galaeron said. He turned to find a magic door shimmering at the downhill edge of the terrace. "The phaerimm are sure to be fighting over the plunder there."

"I thought as much." Khelben waved a slender phaerimm arm toward the door. "Storm and Laeral have departed."

Not bothering to ask why Khelben had asked for an opinion if he had already sent the two sisters through, Galaeron started toward the shimmering door. He made it only one step before Vala caught him by his collar-she probably thought she was holding onto one of his disguise's four arms-and pulled him back.

"Wait"

She spun him around and stood there staring at him with her vacant eyes. Finally, she asked, "Where do I kiss?"

Galaeron leaned forward and pressed his lips to hers. It felt a little like kissing a zombie, at least until he closed his eyes, and even then it remained tentative and reserved-at least by Vaasan standards.

When they finally finished and Galaeron caught his breath again, he asked, "For luck?"

"Just in case," Vala corrected, drawing her darksword. "I wouldn't want a Shadovar's fist to be the last thing that ever touched my lips."

She stepped past Galaeron into the magic door and vanished with a crackle.

Galaeron followed Vala into the portal. He had grown so accustomed to teleport magic that he was no longer bothered by the breath-taking cold or the eternal instant of falling, but that did not prevent him from being dazed when he finally felt the ground beneath his feet again. The air was filled with sluggish rumbles and long, unintelligible howls. A crimson ball of fire was rolling toward him in slow motion, with orange tendrils curling out from its flanks in listless swirls.

Galaeron dived out of the way and found himself floating among the enormous trunks of a majestic bluetop forest, four spindly arms waving in front of his face. The sight reminded him that he was supposed to be impersonating a phaerimm, though exactly why still remained a mystery to him. While the open woods around him felt familiar, there was something that did not seem quite right, as though he turned a corner and found himself in an unexpected room.

The fireball was still coming, slowly. Behind it, a fork of lightning flickered into existence and slithered through the trees like a crooked white snake, then exploded through a bugbear's chest and twisted off in pursuit of a mind flayer. The attack was answered by ten golden bolts, flying along in a tight wedge formation that angled toward their moon elf target at about the speed of a flock of migrating geese.

Galaeron floated out of the fireball's path. Crouching behind a freshly split boulder about fifty paces distant, he saw a much-battered bladesinger still holding up the smoking hand that had hurled the spell. More offended by the attack than concerned about it, he pulled a few strands of shadow-silk from his pocket and hurled them in the bladesinger's direction, hissing an incantation. The elf was instantly wrapped in a cocoon of sticky black shadow.

Galaeron! the familiar voice of Laeral Silverhand sounded inside his mind. There's no need to defend yourself. You can fly faster than that spell's coming.

A pair of shadow-swathed phaerimm emerged from the trees behind him, Vala close on their barbed toils. As soon as Galaeron saw the emptiness in her eyes, he recalled their plan and saw that something had gone terribly wrong.

This isn't Cloudcrown Hill, he objected.

No-we're at the Groaning Cave, Vala replied. I recognize it from when we came during my first visit.

Galaeron looked over his shoulder and saw the cave less than a hundred paces up the hill. A small company of elf warriors was gathered on the entrance veranda, crouching behind the stone balustrades and using the high terrain to fire arrows and spells down on the bugbears and illithids in the forest below. Like everything else in this strange battle, their attacks seemed to be in slow motion, the arrows floating rather than flying to their targets and the spells less flashing across the sky than simply advancing.

Galaeron drifted out of the path of two arrows coming toward him, then heard a soft crackle as Aris arrived in the wood. The fireball had already passed by and was in the process of exploding into the hillside behind them. Galaeron grabbed the giant by his arm and pulled him forward so the back blast wouldn't burn him.

Khelben appeared an instant later, in the middle of a slowly wagging tail of flame. He floated there in the fire for a moment, afterdazed and no doubt finding it even more difficult than had Galaeron to adjust to his new surroundings. Galaeron shoved Aris's arm toward Vala, then he floated over and pulled the Chosen out of the fire.

"Where are we?" hi his confusion, Khelben neglected to use thought speech. "This isn't-" He caught himself and switched. Cloudcrown Hill!

We came out on the other side of the city, Laeral informed him, near the Groaning Cave.

Worse than that, Galaeron said. We came out in the past.

How can that be? Storm demanded. She reached behind Galaeron and batted an arrow aside. It can't happen.

It did, Galaeron replied. A little after we arrived in the Vine Vale, this whole wood was leveled by an explosion. And now-

It's still standing, Vala finished. / saw the blast, too. Somehow, we got here before the trees fell.

A fork of lightning snaked down from the cave mouth and caught Storm square in the center of her phaerimm disguise. The blast drove her to the ground but seemed to cause her no injury. Khelben and Laeral lifted their head-disks toward the source of the attack, and that alone was enough to send several dozen elves scrambling away in slow motion.

These disguises have one drawback, Vala sent as she rushed to take cover behind a fallen bluetop. They work!

She vanished over the trunk. Galaeron and the Chosen followed, and a moment later they were taking shelter in the crook of a massive limb. Aris came and stood behind them, his camouflage working so well that had Galaeron not been directly under the giant, he would never have seen him.

/ should have realized something like this would happen. Khelben's tone was apologetic. We've already seen what comes of mixing Weave and Shadow Weave.

We have, agreed Storm, but not this time. If this had something to do with shadow magic, how could Aris be here? He has no shadow magic.

That's true, Laeral said. Whatever went wrong, it happened when Khelben opened his magic door.

"The mythal!" Galaeron was so excited that he forgot himself and said this aloud. It had a defense against teleporting!

Not "had," Khelben replied. Evereska's mythal still has a bite.

So it sent us into the past? Vala asked.

Arrows began to sink into the trunk of the fallen bluetop at sporadic intervals.

And it relocated our exit portal, Laeral said. We're lucky the mythal was weakened, or the displacement might not have been so minor.

If this is minor, Vala said, / don't want to see major.

The comment brought to mind the strange blast that had leveled the woods around the Groaning Cave shortly after Galaeron and the first group arrived in the valley. He turned to look at Khelben.

Khelben? Do you remember that big blast we saw after we arrived?

The gray light? he replied. Of course.

Well, Galaeron said, that happened here.

It was impossible to say what happened beneath Khelben's disguise, but all four of phaerimm arms stopped moving, and his tail dropped to the ground.

Time! he gasped. We're moving through it faster than everyone around us-

And when we catch up… Laeral let the sentence trail off.

What? Aris asked. He had vanished so completely into the forest that Galaeron had forgotten he was there. I don't understand.

Trouble, Storm said. Really big trouble.

It seemed to Galaeron that the arrows were starting to thunk into their tree trunk more rapidly. He peered up toward the Groaning Cave and saw the archers moving a little less torpidly now, sending their shafts down the hill with a speed that could almost be described as flying rather than drifting. A battle mage caught sight of him and stretched out a finger to send a lightning bolt in his direction.

Galaeron used his shadow magic to send a thought message to the man.

Hold your attack! I am Galaeron Nihmedu, an elf and a friend.

The mage followed his order by stumbling back to the balustrade and completing his spell. The lightning bolt shot down the slope far faster than previous ones, almost too fast for the eye to follow. Galaeron barely had time to roll aside and cry a warning before the bolt was there.

Storm rose into its path and took the bolt full in the body.

Storm! Galaeron cried.

The bolt sank into Storm's body and vanished with no stench of charred flesh and not even much of a crack. She settled back behind the tree trunk and let out a satisfied belch.

Don't concern yourself, Galaeron, Laeral said. Storm can eat lightning all day.

A little gift from my sisters when I went to fight Iyachtu Xvim, Storm explained. Now, don't you think we ought to get away from here? Far away from here?

What could it hurt? Khelben replied.

For one of the Chosen, you don't sound all that confident, Vala observed.

It's not a matter of confidence, Laeral said. It all depends on whether the temporal displacement wave is centered on us or our point of arrival.

Huh? Vala asked.

She means run! Galaeron said.

He lifted Vala to her feet and shoved her into the woods in the direction opposite the elves who were attacking them. Khelben and the other Chosen rose into the air and floated along beside her, using their magic and their bodies to deflect the barrage of attacks that rained down from the veranda of the Groaning Cave. Before following, Galaeron took a moment to dispel the shadow web he had cast on the bladesinger.

Leave… this… place… now! he urged, spacing his words so the elf would be more likely to comprehend. Big danger!

The bladesinger pulled out of the dissolving shadow web looking more confused than alarmed but quickly took the advice when a beholder and his escort of bugbears came charging after him from the phaerimm side of the battle. Galaeron sent a similar warning to the elves on the veranda outside the Groaning Cave. Their only answer was a shimmering sphere of force that closed to within a dozen paces before Galaeron noticed it and fled his hiding place. A dull rumble sounded behind him a moment later, and he looked back to see the bluetop erupting into a spray of splinters. The ball expanded almost swiftly enough to catch him. Time was definitely moving faster.

Galaeron caught up to the others and followed close behind, dodging silver snakes of lightning and using his magic to turn arrows with wind spells or shadow shields. Aris ran alongside at a distance of twenty paces, slipping through the woods as stealthily as any ranger. As long as the companions kept moving, they had little to fear from their elf attackers, who clearly found it impossible to hit targets that must have seemed mere blurs. Though there were bugbears, illithids, and beholders aplenty in the wood, they were too busy fighting to pay any attention to a shadowy band of "phaerimm."

The companions had little trouble leaving the area of the cave, only to discover that the battle in the rest of the forest was just as fierce and twice as confused. There seemed to be no clearly drawn ranks or objectives, just random clusters of elves and mind-slaves and the occasional phaerimm attacking each other with spell and steel, sometimes from a hundred paces distant, sometimes standing toe-to-toe. All too often, the battles were between elves and elf mind-slaves, the former reluctant to strike killing blows and the latter all too eager. Whoever the combatants were, they seemed to be moving faster, their lightning bolts flashing through the wood faster than Galaeron's eye could follow, their arrows whizzing past too swiftly to deflect

Whenever possible, Galaeron urged the warriors to flee and used his magic to free the elf mind-slaves. It was this last good deed that complicated their flight, when six phaerimm appeared behind a rank of advancing bugbears and began to whistle at them in Winds.

"Yoooou!" The phaerimm's challenge was slow and trilling, but not so slow it was difficult for Galaeron's speech magic to understand. "Explain yourselves."

Realizing no one else would understand the importance of responding with an accusation, Galaeron floated forward to confront the phaerimm.

"You stole… my slave." Though Galaeron had not intended it, the wind spell he was using to modulate his speech ripped through the forest like a cyclone, tearing leaves from the trees and assailing their challengers with sticks. "I… demand a gift!"

"A gift?" The six phaerimm drifted a few paces back, clearly buying the space to begin a spell battle. "Who are you? Why do you whistle so fast?"

"Who dares ask-"

That was as far as Galaeron got before three tongues of silver fire shot out to engulf the three closest phaerimm.

"No time!" Khelben yelled in Common, already flinging a handful of rainbow dust on the ground beneath the phaerimm. "We've got to keep going!"

Galaeron was already hurling a shadow ball at the nearest surviving phaerimm, while Vala had drawn her sword and was cocking her arm to throw. Though the forest time had nearly caught up to their time, enough of a difference remained for Khelben and Galaeron to unleash their spells before their foes reacted. The shadow ball caught its target at an oblique angle and drilled a head-sized oval through half the length of its body. The phaerimm collapsed in a limp heap, its life spilling out onto the forest floor in a steaming heap.

Khelben's prismatic wall was not so effective. It sprang up beneath the phaerimm as he had obviously intended, but the thing floated through its defenses in a spray of gem-colored flashes and counterattacked with a black disintegration bolt. Khelben took the bolt square in the chest and smiled, then stretched two of his arms in the creature's direction. hi the meantime, the last phaerimm had loosed a flight of magic bolts at Vala. To Galaeron's horror, she stood her ground and hurled her darksword at her attacker.

"Vala!"

Galaeron stretched out a hand to raise a shadow shield in front of her, but even with time on his side, he was not that fast The bolts struck home.

"No!"

Vala staggered from the impact and dropped a foot back to brace herself. She raised her fist, pointing her ring in the phaerimm's direction and shooting the same flight of golden bolts back at her attacker.

The darksword arrived first, opening the thing from lip to tail. It trilled wildly and vanished in a silver dazzle of teleport magic. The golden bolts sizzled off into the forest to draw an anguished cry from some elf warrior Galaeron had not even seen. Vala opened the same hand and called her sword back without lowering her arm.

Khelben's phaerimm refused to retreat so easily. A wall of flames sprang to life between it and its attackers and set the forest instantly ablaze. Unable to see, Khelben elected to save his spell, and the whirling disk of shadow that Galaeron sent spinning through the barricade cut nothing down except a long swath of bluetops-and perhaps the half a dozen elves whose voices he heard screaming in panic and rage.

Balls of flame as large as a beholder began to sizzle off the fire wall in the direction of Galaeron and the Chosen. Galaeron barely managed to pluck his shadow off the ground and throw it up in front of him, and even then the heat was enough to singe his hair as the crackling orbs struck his silhouette and vanished into the shadow plane.

Unable to react quickly enough, Khelben caught one of the spheres full in the chest and erupted into flame. He floated calmly to the ground, where he remained until Laeral, who caught two spheres in the chest without emitting so much as a wisp of smoke, covered his body with hers and smothered the fire.

As this happened, Storm was streaking headlong into the flames. She took three of the fireballs square in the head-disk and laughed, then plunged headlong through the burning wall… and was too late.

Aris had already emerged from the woods on the other side of the burning wall. He stooped down and wrapped his big hands around the phaerimm-it was at the near end of the fire barrier, not where Galaeron had expected at all-and squeezed until it popped. Storm was left with nothing to do but dispel the phaerimm's magic and extinguish the flames.

Galaeron rushed to Khelben's side and asked, "How bad-?"

"It isn't," Khelben growled. His disguise remained that of a shadow-swathed phaerimm, so it was impossible to see how badly he was hurt. "We don't have time. Those phaerimm were lost. The time streams must be converging."

"Right," Laeral said. "Let's go."

Aris and the three Chosen turned to start through the woods again, and Galaeron was about ready to start after them when he realized that Vala was neither ahead of them nor behind.

"Wait'"

Storm stopped and twisted her head-disk around to look at him.

"Wait? We don't have time to-"

Galaeron flew over to where he had last seen her and noticed a set of boot prints-a set of big boot prints-on the ground.

"They took her!"

"They?" The three Chosen gathered round and began to curse as one. "Of all the black fortune!"

"That's human," Galaeron said. "Male and large. Very large."

"Vaasan," Khelben growled. He looked into the woods, and in Common yelled, "Kuhl! Burlen!"

Their answer came in riotous motion as a dozen elf warriors sprang out from behind tree trunks, under logs, beneath piles of dead leaves, and rushed to attack. Only the slim advantage of their faster-moving time stream spared Galaeron and his fellow Chosen from being chopped into a dozen pieces each by the darkswords that had once belonged to Vala's slain company of warriors.

"Up!" Galaeron cried in Common. "Watch yourselves!"

As he yelled the warning, he was already rising above the reach of his attackers. Khelben and the other Chosen followed, but poor Aris found himself surrounded by half a dozen elves tossing their glassy black swords from hand to hand.

The elves below Galaeron and the Chosen drew their arms back to throw.

"Hold!" Galaeron cried, speaking Elvish. "I am Galaeron Nihmedu, a citizen of Evereska, once a Tomb Guard princep patrolling the Desert Border South, who resides in Treetop in Starmeadow, son to Aubric Nihmedu and brother to Keya Nihmedu of the Long Watch, friend to-"

"Strange how you do not look much like an elf," said a familiar-though much hardened-female voice.

A young moon elf of little more than eighty appeared from behind the trunk of a bluetop, her turquoise hair tucked up beneath an ostentatious battle helm that could only have been made by the Gold elves of Evermeet Her gold-flecked eyes were shot through with red lines, and her cupid's bow smile had gone straight and grim with worry, but Galaeron would have known his sister had she looked a hundred times more drained. His heart drummed in joy.

"Keya! You're alive!"

Keya narrowed her eyes in suspicion and said, "So it seems, for now."

There was a slight drawl as she spoke, just enough to suggest the slower passage of forest time. She reached behind a tree and pulled Vala into view, and Galaeron was astonished to see that someone had actually taken Vala's darksword and bound her hands in elven rope.

"Where did you come by this mind-slave?" Keya asked. "Tell me that, and we will let you live-so long as you swear to leave Evereska and never return."

"You are not a very good liar, Keya." He dispelled the masking magic that made him look like a phaerimm, then drifted down toward the ground, adding, "But neither you nor Evereska has anything to fear from us."

"Hold there, you devil!" Keya ordered. "Any lower, and IT! give you the death you deserve for impersonating my brother."

This drew a snicker from Vala, which drew an angry glower from Keya.

"Keya!" Khelben snapped in Elvish. "He is your brother. Release Vala and flee this area-now!"

"Do you think I take orders from worms?"

To demonstrate that she did not, Keya hurled her dark-sword. Even with the faster speed of his time stream, Khelben barely had time to pivot out of the way and let the weapon tumble past Two dozen archers suddenly appeared from their hiding places, arrows nocked and arms drawing their bows back to fire. Storm and Laeral were already casting spells of paralyzation. Keya's entire company froze where they were, bows half flexed and swords half raised.

Khelben retrieved Keya's darksword from the tree where it had lodged itself, then flew down to her. Burlen stepped into view from behind the tree where Vala had been held, his own arm rising to throw his darksword.

Galaeron stopped him with a shadow web.

Khelben nodded his thanks, then flipped the weapon around and shook the hilt in Keya's face.

"You are trying my patience, young lady. We have reasons for our appearance, and no time to explain them to you now."

A loud crackle sounded from the direction of the Groaning Cave. Galaeron glanced back and saw a tiny brilliance flickering down through the bluetop boughs.

Khelben continued to lecture Keya, "When we release you and your company, you are going to take it on faith that I am telling you the truth and flee this area-"

"Uh, Khelben?" As Galaeron spoke, he was watching the tiny sphere of brilliance expand above the trees. "There isn't going to be-"

"Starmeadow!" Laeral yelled, already laying a portal on the ground in the center of the elven company. 'Teleport!"

Storm was already shoving paralyzed elves into the circle. Khelben took one look at the expanding circle of light and cursed, then wrapped his arms around Keya, Burlen, and two more elves, and vanished. Galaeron sprang to Vala's side, grabbing her bound hands, and started back toward Laeral's teleportation circle.

Vala jerked him back, nearly pulling him off his feet.

"Not without my sword!"

Back near the Groaning Cave, crooked forks of light began to dance down through the trees, and the war rumble there fell into a sudden silence. Galaeron stepped around Vala and found her sword leaning against the tree. He snatched it up and cut her bindings-no other blade would have severed the elven rope-then handed the weapon back to her.

"Now can we go?"

Galaeron grabbed her wrist and turned toward the teleportation circle and ran headlong into a small wood elf with doe-brown eyes, an impish smile, and a bared long sword.

"Well met, Galaeron," she said. "Still rescuing Vala, I see."

Galaeron's jaw fell. "T-Takari?"

Takari smiled and said, "So you do remember."

Galaeron surprised her with a heartfelt embrace, and she surprised him by returning it just as warmly.

"I was afraid I'd never see you again," he said.

A long, deafening crackle sounded from the direction of the Groaning Cave, and a column of leaden light appeared in the forest in front of the veranda.

Vala appeared beside them.

"Break it up, you two!" She slid an arm between them and used a deft elbow to force Takari back, then said, "No offense, but we've got to go."

Takari glanced at the offending elbow as though she might remove it, then smiled sweetly and said, "No offense taken."

She glanced back in the direction of the brightening column of light, then turned and waved at what appeared to be a pile of leaves.

"Come along, Kuhl! We'll let Galaeron teleport us out of here."