Part 34 (1/2)
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE.
WE M MUST D DO W WHATEVER W WE M MUST.
Arclath prided himself on a certain supple grace of stride, a smooth saunter that drew the eye. He'd needed it that morn to thread his way through all the rus.h.i.+ng chamberjacks and chambermaids without too many jarring collisions.
He'd also needed all the charm and glib tongue-work he could master to fend off frequent challenges from Purple Dragons as he sought out wizard of war after wizard. The ones he did find seemed to delight in frowningly directing him this way and that.
Not that the one he was standing in front of, at the moment, was any trial on the eyes. A real beauty, with a long, glossy fall of blue-black hair-the hue they called ”midnight”-and large, liquid, dark eyes to match.
”I am Lord Arclath Delcastle,” he replied to her query. ”What's your your name?” name?”
”Raereene,” she replied, adding a polite smile and a calm wave of her hand that told him that his come-hither glance was wasted, and that she was more than used to the blandishments of men both young and old. ”You're seeking someone?”
”One of your colleagues,” Arclath told her. ”A wizard of war who asked me to report to her, and gave her name as Glathra.”
The young beauty nodded and pointed at a nearby door. ”I know not her present whereabouts, but if you wait in yon chamber, I can promise you she'll be there soon. It's where we always find her, sooner or later.”
Delcastle gave her a bow and smile of thanks, and made his way to the door. It proved to open into a little office-at the same time as an old, bearded man closed a secret panel behind himself on the far wall of the room and turned to face Arclath.
Who let the door close behind him as they stared at each other, and a crooked smile grew across the old man's face.
”Well met, Lord Delcastle,” he said, going straight to a sideboard along one end of the office-ignoring its honor guard of a ceremonial suit of full armor, set up all lifelike on a stand-and selecting a decanter from the neat row atop it. ”Care for a drink?”
”Who are you?” Arclath asked, waving the offer away. ”A war wizard?”
”Yes,” the old man replied, ”and I'd like to have something of a chat with thee. I've been hearing some strange things about young Lord Stormserpent and magic and some famous adventurers known as the Nine, and I'd like to know what ye know of such matters. What're the fair n.o.bles of the realm saying, hey?”
Delcastle stared at the old man in bewilderment. ”Glathra?” he asked, frowning. ”Is it you? Is this some sort of test? I've been known to enjoy little games, yes, but right now I rather lack the time-”
”Ah, n.o.bles, n.o.bles!” Elminster lamented mildly, sipping from the tallgla.s.s he'd just filled. ”So important. Never have time for anything of consequence; so busy with feasting and dalliance and debauchery-”
Arclath sighed. ”A tune I've heard more than a few times before. Saer, not now now! This council must go perfectly perfectly or-” or-”
”Or thy head'll be served up on the next feast platter? Well, if ye don't listen listen to me, it will go rather to me, it will go rather less less than imperfectly; 'twill be a disaster, perhaps even offering the realm a regicide!” than imperfectly; 'twill be a disaster, perhaps even offering the realm a regicide!”
Arclath arched an eyebrow. ”My, my, so dramatic...”
He strolled across the room toward one of the two closed doors at its other end from the sideboard. ”However, you don't seem to be the person I'm looking for, so I'll just be-” He reached out, hesitated for a moment, and then chose the handle of the right-hand door.
”Dead in about ten breaths from now,” Elminster finished his sentence for him briskly, ”if ye step blindly through yon door. The elder Lady Illance is changing her gown in the chamber beyond, and her guards are very very swift with their blades. Their swift with their blades. Their poisoned poisoned blades, may I add, despite Crown law.” blades, may I add, despite Crown law.”
Arclath whirled around. ”What? They'd not dare! dare! The-” The-”
Elminster shook his head. ”Ye are blind indeed, young Delcastle. Nigh every last n.o.ble at council will be breaking one Crown law or another-and they'll all all have weapons, spells on themselves, and some sort of forbidden magic or poison about their persons. Are ye have weapons, spells on themselves, and some sort of forbidden magic or poison about their persons. Are ye sure sure ye're a n.o.ble? Know ye ye're a n.o.ble? Know ye nothing?” nothing?”
Arclath stared at the old wizard, eyes narrowing. ”You're...you're Elminster, aren't you?”
El smiled, nodded-and slumped into a rather stiff parody of a courtly bow that left Arclath rolling his eyes and grinning.
Then he shook his head, still smiling, and said, ”Well, I know I can't walk around the palace asking for your advice and warnings at every second step without half-a-dozen war wizards and Dragons pouncing on us both!”
Elminster produced a grin of his own and went to the suit of armor. Plucking off its close-visored helm, he calmly emptied a dead mouse and its nest out of it, lowered it onto his head, and replied hollowly from inside it, ”That's why ye're about to acquire a bodyguard. Help me on with all the rest of this clobber. Duar was about my size, I see, and he's far too long dust to be wanting it all back now.”
”About your height height, maybe, but he was twice your girth and even larger in the shoulders,” Arclath sighed, ”but I doubt we dare tour the palace looking for a better fit.”
”I suppose not,” Elminster agreed cheerfully. ”Besides, this is the suit with the enchanted codpiece-and I just might need it. Ye never know.”
His grotesquely broad wink left Arclath rolling his eyes again, but El was already sliding open the secret panel and waving Arclath through it. The n.o.ble stepped into the gloomy s.p.a.ce beyond, and El followed.
The moment the panel closed behind them, the left-hand door at the end of the room swung open to reveal Glathra Barcantle and a man wearing a crown whom half Suzail knew at a glance: King Foril. They had been listening, and their faces were grim.
”So Elminster is after the Nine and believes them to be here,” Glathra said gloomily.
The king nodded. ”He must not gain them. Any he does find, we must take back from him. Arclath can help us with that.”
”Can, yes,” Glathra muttered, ”but will he?”
Foril sighed. ”Distasteful as it seems, it's high time to compel a few of our oh-so-loyal n.o.bles to demonstrate their loyalty to Cormyr. Do whatever you must.”
Marlin was high-hearted with excitement, but Lothrae was coldly calm.
The words had all come out in rather a babbling rush, true, in his anxiousness to inform Lothrae that a third third member of the Nine was bound to an item, somewhere which apparently half Suzail knew about! member of the Nine was bound to an item, somewhere which apparently half Suzail knew about!
”Contain yourself, Marlin,” Lothrae said curtly. ”It will be the height of folly to rush off searching all Faerun for magic that could be anywhere, when the council is almost upon us. We must be careful, avoid doing things that will draw both attention and suspicion, and keep our minds on seizing the right opportunity.”
”But we need all the magic we can get,” Marlin protested. ”The Spellplague was unpredictable. Like a Dragon Sea windstorm, it left some things untouched here here whilst utterly destroying castles'n'all over whilst utterly destroying castles'n'all over there there. And it's not done yet! Things're still changing, stlarn it.”
”All of this is both true-and irrelevant. The 'but the Spellplague' argument can and has been used to justify anything and everything,” Lothrae replied coldly. ”Were you to advance such an argument at court, expect to be openly sneered and laughed at; for far too many years, every single argument began thus. 'But the Spellplague' nothing.” nothing.”
”But if someone else gets the axe-”
”Then you'll know whom to kill to gain it, without without turning all Suzail upside down and alerting much of it to your name and interests in the doing,” Lothrae snapped. ”And with that said, leaving it clear to both of us that you have nothing more useful to add to our shared wisdom just now, this converse is at an turning all Suzail upside down and alerting much of it to your name and interests in the doing,” Lothrae snapped. ”And with that said, leaving it clear to both of us that you have nothing more useful to add to our shared wisdom just now, this converse is at an end.” end.”
The glowing air above the orb went dark, Lothrae's image winking out, fading, and falling, all in less time than it took Marlin to draw breath to protest.
He was alone amid the dust-covered Stormserpent discards again.