The Sorcerer

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

2 Eleasias, the Year of Wild Magic

Galaeron and Takari arrived at the statue of Hanali Celanil to find a small circle of phaerimm using all four hands to pull golden strands of magic off the hem of the goddess's gown. They were feeding the threads out behind them, filling the air with a shimmering snarl of loops and whorls so dense and bright that it was difficult to see the thornbacks themselves. Where the tangle touched the ground, it passed through the paving stones as sunlight passes through water, leaving the impression that the great statue stood upon the surface of a dark, still pond rather than a courtyard of granite cobble-stones. Galaeron counted twelve phaerimm pulling thread, with a thirteenth watching from beneath a tree at the edge of the plaza.

That's the one Manynests told us about" He did not bother with fingertalk. Though the phaerimm could undoubtedly eavesdrop into the Shadow Fringe where he and Takari were hiding, they could not do it without using Weave magic-and in the Shadow Fringe, Weave magic would shine like a beacon light for Galaeron. Tm fairly sure that*s their leader. It's the only one we absolutely have to kill, so if something goes wrong-"

"Nothing's going to go wrong, now that you've come to your senses and decided to bring me along." Takari let a hand drop the hilt of her borrowed darksword. "I only wish Keya would've given me Kuhl's sword. That one I can hang on to."

"Kuhl's sword is not Keya's to give," Galaeron said. "And Kuhl has need of it himself."

It was the fifth or sixth time he had reminded her of that, and his patience was giving way to alarm. There was a dark familiarity in the way that simple fact kept eluding her, in how every conversation seemed to return to Kuhl's dark-sword.

"Our need is greater." She pointed at the phaerimm leader and said, "You said yourself we absolutely have to kill that one."

"That is what we absolutely have to do. Kuhl and the others have to destroy the defensive perimeter-absolutely. If they fall, our success means nothing."

As he spoke, Galaeron looked Takari full in the eyes. Though hardly veiled hi darkness, the irises were shot through with tiny streaks of shadow. She had to be told; it was her only chance of controlling her hunger for the sword.

"Takari, I didn't come to my senses. We thought it best to keep you away from Kuhl and his darksword."

"What?" she asked. "Why would you keep me away from something that is mine by right?"

"Because it isn't yours by any right. You only think it is because you've been shadow touched."

"Shadow touched!" Takari objected. "I earned that sword!"

"If s an heirloom. How could you earn…" Galaeron let the question trail off as he realized what Takari was saying. He looked at her stomach, which had not yet begun to bulge, and asked, "You did that on purpose?"

Takari raised her chin and said, "Of course it was on purpose. Do you think I would lay with that roth? by accident?"

"Of course not, but neither did I think you had done it to steal his darksword."

"'Steal' is such a human word," Takari said, rolling her eyes. "I just wanted to use it and maybe keep it after he died."

"After you killed him," Galaeron corrected. He turned to keep an eye on the tree branch. Manynests would be arriving soon. "You always meant to keep it"

"How do you know what I meant-"

"I know a shadow when I see it, Takari," Galaeron said.

The phaerimm leader sent an angry gust whirling across the cobblestones, and the SpellGather began to pull threads twice as fast That would be word of the attack on Cloud-crown Hill. Galaeron did not have much time to convince Takari of her peril. The way she was thinking, once the battle started she would run down to take the darksword from Kuhl.

"There's a shadow in your eyes," Galaeron continued. "You wanted a darksword for yourself, and Keya showed you how to get what you sought."

"That doesn't mean I was going to kill him," Takari retorted. "Humans have short lives-especially around here-and I'm patient"

"Maybe that was what you intended, before you touched the sword, but you were going to kill him at the Floating Gardens."

"He was charging me!"

"You could have scrambled up any of a dozen trees. I saw how you were standing, Takari-and the way you held the sword. It was a double-hand stack."

"You don't know how quick Kuhl can be," Takari said. "I had to defend myself."

Galaeron risked turning his attention from the phaerimm long enough to lock gazes with Takari.

"When he grabbed for the sword, you were going to fall and let the blade swing up in his groin." There was no accusation in his voice, only insistence and certainty. "It would have looked like an accident."

Takari met his gaze for only a moment before her eyes flicked away, her defenses finally starting to crumble. She retreated to the edge of the Shadow Fringe and peered out through snarl of magic threads.

"Hanali’s gown is starting to look ragged," she said. "If we don't attack the SpellGather soon-"

"You can't ignore this, Takari," Galaeron interrupted. "Think back to when you borrowed Kuhl's sword at the Floating Gardens. You took the time to turn him face up."

"I didn't want him to drown." She sounded as though she were remembering, not explaining. "He's not so bad, for a human."

"But after you borrowed the sword…"

"I didn't borrow it You can't borrow what's s already…" Takari let the sentence trail off, then raised a hand to her mouth and turned to look at Galaeron again. "And now I want him dead!"

"If s the sword. That one carries a curse." Galaeron took her by the arm and gently pulled her away from the Fringe edge. "It opens you to your shadow."

"My shadow?" Takari gasped. It was the first time Galaeron could recall seeing true terror in her eyes. "Will I turn into one of them?"

"That will depend on how you react, I think," Galaeron said. "I'm not sure, but I do know you mustn't take Kuhl's sword from him again. If you fall in that, you'll have to kill him, and if you kill him, you will be lost."

"Great." Takari's eyes slid away from his, focusing some-where beyond his shoulder. "Manynests…"

Galaeron turned around to find the little bird flying into the tree above the phaerimm leader's head. In his beak, he carried something pointed and twice as long as he was.

"What's that he has?" Takari asked.

Galaeron twisted a few strands of shadowsilk together at the top, then uttered a spell and began to whisk himself with the brush end.

"I don't know," he said. "It's not part of the plan."

Manynests landed on the lowest branch over the phaerimm's head-disk. He stretched his neck forward, letting out a sharp chirp, and released what he was carrying. The pointed end dropped first, spinning slightly so that the long spine rising along one side of the shaft grew visible.

"It's a tail barb!" Takari gasped.

The barb hit the phaerimm on the rim of the mouth and bounced off its missile guard. The creature puffed in surprise and tipped forward to retrieve the barb. It held the thing over its open mouth for a moment, then raised its head-disk toward the branch where Manynests sat scolding it in peeptalk.

"Ithinkthat'soursignal" Galaeron's words came out in a rush, for the spell of speed he had cast upon himself had already taken effect "Remembertheplan."

Without awaiting a response, Galaeron floated to the edge of the Fringe and sent two dark bolts hissing into the phaerimm leader. The first burned a fist-sized hole through the middle of its chest and sent it wobbling back into the tree trunk. The second clipped it along the rim of its mouth, gouging a long furrow along the side of its head-disk and lopping an arm off at the shoulder.

Takari's booted feet landed squarely in Galaeron's back as, executing her part of the plan, she caught him with a flying drop kick that sent him tumbling tall-over-arms out into the courtyard. He did not pass through the strands of Weave magic so much as they passed through him, burning like nettles and engulfing him in a crackling halo of green sparks. That was not part of the plan. He glimpsed the leader of the phaerimm wrapped around the base of the tree. Its three remaining arms rested limply on the ground and black gore oozed from the hole in its body. Galaeron brought himself to a halt and spun to face Hanali's statue.

The members of the SpellGather had stopped pulling magic and were already starting to drift away from the circle. Galaeron pointed two arms back toward the shadow from which he had emerged. Takari was already retreating into the shadows, her legs and the tip of her borrowed darksword just disappearing into the Fringe as planned. Galaeron gestured wildly in her direction, his arms throwing off huge sheets of green sparks as they sliced through the air.

"After her!" He used his magic to howl in Winds, "She's getting away!"

Whether it was his accent or the sweeping lines of green sparks, the phaerimm were not falling for it. They raised their arms in his direction, and even with his speed magic, Galaeron barely had time to raise a shadow shield before a hundred golden bolts came streaking in his direction. He huddled down behind the circle and tried not to scream. The hiss of the approaching bolts rose to a sizzle, and the sizzle to a roar, and the roar to a deafening crash as the missiles reached his shield and vanished down into the shadow plane. The crash disappeared into a ringing silence that left the ground shaking and Galaeron's eardrums throbbing, his nostrils tingling with the rainwater smell of spent magic.

Galaeron did not wait He nipped the shield around and dived through it into the shadows, and even then he was very nearly caught by the storm of fire magic and disintegration rays that converged on the place he had been kneeling. He remained a moment to see if any of his attackers would be foolish enough to pursue him into the dark circle, then he closed it behind him and streaked through the shadows back to Takari's side.

"That plan worked about as well as a pixie ladder," Takari said. "I don't think they were fooled by your disguise."

She was peering out into the courtyard, watching two trios of phaerimm work their way toward the shadow where she and Galaeron stood watching. “It doesn't look like it," Galaeron replied, "but my plan did work."

Galaeron dispelled the illusion magic that made him look like a phaerimm, then took an arrow from Takari's quiver and began to rub it with shadowsilk.

"Really?" Takari sounded more than doubtful, she sounded distrustful. "I don't see that"

"They stopped attacking the mythal, didn't they?"

Galaeron plucked a death arrow from her quiver and rubbed the head with shadowsilk. He uttered a piercing spell and passed the missile back to her.

Takari nocked the arrow and raised her bow, but turned to Galaeron before firing and tipped her head back, lips slightly parted.

"In case this one doesn't work either-"

"It will work."

Galaeron took another arrow from her quiver, and Takari rolled her eyes.

"Same old Galaeron." There was genuine disgust in her voice. "Won't ever give a wood elf a chance."

She set the tip of her arrow on the closest phaerimm, which was no more than twenty paces away, and pulled the bowstring back.

Galaeron laid his free hand over her draw arm.

Takari turned, her expression one of irritation.

"I do love you," Galaeron said.

Takari's jaw dropped. Had Galaeron not tightened his grasp, she would have let slip the arrow.

"You're only saying that because we're about to die."

Galaeron shook his head, then looked back to the approaching phaerimm. They had closed to fifteen paces. He cast another piercing spell on the arrow in his hand.

Takari ignored the thornbacks and continued to study Galaeron.

"You always did have a lousy sense of timing," she said, "but I'll take what I can get"

She loosed her arrow, and the shaft took its target square in the body. Galaeron's shadow magic allowed it to penetrate the phaerimm's missile guard and sink to the fletching. The thornback squalled in pain and teleported away, though not so quickly that Galaeron failed to notice the black disintegration crater forming around Takari's arrow.

The five survivors attacked with a veritable spell-storm of flames, meteor stones, lightning, and half a dozen other kinds of magic death. As the spells entered the shadow where Galaeron and Takari were hiding, they were tunneled through a shadow door that opened on the opposite side of the courtyard, and the phaerimm were blasted from behind by their own spells.

Two died instantly, and two more teleported away to safety. Galaeron handed the death arrow to Takari. She nocked and loosed it into the remaining thornback even as it flicked its fingers at their hiding place. Galaeron's dimensional door shimmered once, then crackled out of existence. By then, the phaerimm who had dispelled it lay motionless on the ground, a black hole expanding around the arrow buried in its head-disk.

Galaeron grabbed Takari's hand and guided it to his belt

"Hold tight," he said.

"You can be sure."

He turned and raced into the deep shadows. Though his power was great enough to keep at bay most of the lesser creatures they were likely to stumble across on such a short journey through the Deep, Galaeron was careful to keep moving and moving fast. Shadow-touched though she was, Takari was still enough a creature of the Weave that Galaeron could feel her radiating heat against his back… warm and distinct… and if he could feel it, so could the shapeless mouths that preyed on the hapless visitors who wandered too far from the Fringe.

They had traveled about a dozen heartbeats when a terrible gurgling growl erupted in the distance behind them. Takari stopped, her hand pulling on Galaeron's belt as she turned to look over her shoulder.

"Keep moving!" he warned. "Or it'll be us next"

"What is it?" Takari asked.

"Its guarding our back trail," Galaeron answered. That’s s all that matters."

A lightning bolt crackled in the distance and fell silent There was no flicker of light, not even a faint one, and Galaeron knew that had they been looking straight into the bolt, they would have seen nothing. So deep in shadow, light vanished almost at its source. The shadow monster growled again, then died with an agonized wall.

"That can't be good," Takari said.

"We can do our own dirty work," Galaeron said. "The attack will slow them down. The sound will draw things that even phaerimm don't want to run into."

"What about us?" Takari asked.

"We don't want to run into those things either." Galaeron pulled her toward the Fringe and added, "That’s s why we went first."

Once they were out of the Shadow Deep, Galaeron came up behind the tree where Manynests had alighted. He stopped in the Fringe. Though they could not see into the courtyard from the their vantage point, any phaerimm still lurking in the area were less likely to come poking around in the shadows. He cast his piercing magic on another death arrow and returned it to Takari.

"Use that only if a phaerimm comes for us," he said. "Let me borrow the darksword."

Takari unhooked her scabbard, but did not hand it over.

"Where are you going?" she asked.

"To surprise our pursuers," he said, drawing the darksword from the scabbard. "This shouldn't be difficult, but you know what to do if I don't come back."

Though the hilt began to chill his hand, the cold no longer caused him any discomfort Like Melegaunt, Telamont, and Hadrhune, he was part of the shadow.

"Yeah," Takari said. "Die."

"I meant check the leader," Galaeron said. "Be certain if s dead."

Takari shook her head in mock despair and said, "I know what you meant, Galaeron." She started to turn away, then changed her mind and grabbed Galaeron behind the neck. "First, you prove you weren't lying. First you prove you love me."

She pulled his head close to hers and kissed him long and hard, a kiss born of two decades of longing, a kiss that would no longer be denied. Though he knew their pursuers would be coming up fast, Galaeron let himself melt into it, let his spirit and his lips and his tongue touch Takari's as he never had before. They joined as only elves can join, and Galaeron felt what she had always known, that they were spirit mates, that they belonged together no matter what the heartache and loneliness and sorrow brought down on them by their destiny. Nothing remained to keep them apart- nothing except their human lovers.

Takari sensed this as soon as Galaeron did, of course, and she was the first to pull away.

Galaeron would not make her ask.

"I still love her," he said.

He was not admitting anything Takari did not already know, but he had to say it aloud. He owed her that much- and himself, too.

"I'd have to be blind to miss that," Takari said. She smiled-a little sadly-and glanced down at her belly. "I have a few entanglements of my own."

Galaeron kissed her again-briefly-and slipped back into the shadows. Once he was alone, he had no fear whatsoever of the unseen creatures who haunted the Deep. He was as much a part of the darkness as they were, and anything powerful enough to find and stalk him would also be intelligent enough to sense the power he bore. This wisdom was also born of the gift Melegaunt had passed to him, as was his knowledge of the phaerimm, and the ways of the Shadow Deep, and the lore of shadow spells, and who knew how many other dark Shadovar secrets. As far as Galaeron could tell, the only part of Melegaunt's experience that the old archwizard had failed to pass along was what to do with so much power and how to wield it wisely. Melegaunt likely had never known or-if he had-cared.

Twenty steps later, the Fringe lay well out of sight. Galaeron stopped to wait. There was no need to hide, nor anyplace to do so had he wished. In the Deep, there was only shadow, and in the hands of those who knew the art, shadow could be shaped into whatever was needed or desired.

Soon, Galaeron sensed a fiery presence approaching along the path he and Takari had taken. Though it was impossible for an elf-or any creature enclosed within a skin-to perceive shape, he felt by the intensity of the thing's heat and its apparent size that it was a phaerimm. He waited long enough to be certain only one creature remained, then he raised a wall of shadow in front of himself and waited.

While far from lost, the phaerimm was obviously frightened. In the vain hope of keeping shadow monsters at bay, it was talking softly to itself, using its powers to stir the shadows into a constant whirl. The thornback also had half a dozen spells prepped and ready to cast-Galaeron could feel the scorching nodules of Weave magic hanging from its body. He allowed it to pass, then dismissed his shadow wall and stepped out behind it

The nervous phaerimm reacted quickly, encasing itself in a cocoon of fire and launching a volley of magic darts. The blow caught Galaeron in the shoulder and sent him tumbling back head over heels-not a safe way to travel in the Shadow

Deep, even for him. A pair of jaws opened beneath him and tore into his calf, trying to drag him down into some hidden lair. He brought his darksword down alongside his leg. It felt like cutting air, but the mouth opened and he pulled free.

The phaerimm was faring worse than he. Galaeron could feel it a dozen paces ahead and off to one side, stirring the silent shadows into a froth as a pack of shadow creatures- some flying and some slithering-manifested all around and pulled in six directions at once. The thornback was defending itself as well as it was able, but its teleport spells would not work and its other spells were ineffective. No matter how many creatures it destroyed, more formed to take their places. No matter what kind of armor it covered itself in, their shadow fangs and dark claws tore through. An arm came off, then the tail, and finally a long strip of thorny hide.

Galaeron would have left the creature to its fate, save that Melegaunt's wisdom had taught him better than to count a phaerimm dead until it lay disemboweled and burning on the ground. Moving back toward the tree where he had left Takari to avoid attracting a pack of his own attackers, he prepared a volley of shadow arrows and sent them hurling into his entrapped foe.

The impact caught both victim and tormentors by surprise. The phaerimm literally came apart, pieces flying in the dozen different directions that it was being pulled. The angry shadow creatures-those that had not been pinned in place by a dark arrow-melted back into the darkness and came undulating in Galaeron's direction.

Galaeron opened a shadow door and stepped through, emerging into the relatively safe world of the Fringe. For a moment, he was lost to the afterdaze and did not know where he was. Then, as the flash and flicker of war magic began to filter up through the trees from the slope below, he recalled that he was in the middle of a battle and that it was his job and Takari's to make certain the statue of Hanali Celanil was free of phaerimm when Khelben and the Chosen arrived with the High Mages, and that Takari should have been waiting for him right there in the Fringe.

"Takari?"

Galaeron glanced around the Fringe, finding nothing, and limped out onto the hillside. He was dizzy and sore, his arm so weak he could barely lift it.

'Takari!"

The only answer came in the form of a series of excited peeps from the tree above his head. Galaeron raised his chin and found the familiar white face of Manynests peering down at him.

"She did what?" Galaeron gasped. Takari was not the type to leave her post, not even when she was shadow touched. "That can't be right"

Manynests answered with a sharp chirp, then pointed his beak down the hill.

"What about the leader?"

Manynests chirped a question.

"The phaerimm leader," Galaeron said. "The one you dropped the barb on."

The finch peeped angrily.

"All right, the one you attacked" Galaeron said. "What did she do about that phaerimm?"

The bird's answer caused Galaeron to limp around the tree as fast as he could move. There were no phaerimm in the courtyard surrounding the statue-at least at first glance-and there was nothing where the leader should have been, save for a puddle of steaming black blood.

"She let it go!" Galaeron cried. "Takari left her post!"

Manynests dropped out of the tree. He landed on one of the darts still protruding from Galaeron's shoulder. He twilled a long question, then cocked his head and looked down the hill toward the battle.

"No," Galaeron growled. "I really don't think Kuhl needed her help."