and returned along a thousand channels to the stone nestled low between two ribs on the right flank. A stone from her hut, the anchor around which her spectral form could coalesce, the only thing that allowed her to animate this false Elminster. She felt for the stone with the body's fingers. When she could not feel it from the outside, she nodded in satisfaction and got up. The longer she stayed shielded, the more danger her companions were in.
Worse, the moment this imposture was discovered, they were walking dead. Sylune sighed experimentally, nodded again in satisfaction, and set her shoulders.
'Elminster once more,' she murmured, raising a hand. The shield fell away, and she was gazing across moonlit space to the anxious eyes of Sharantyr, hand on the well-worn grip of her sword.
Being Elminster, Sylune did not smile reassuringly, but merely raised a gently mocking eyebrow and said, 'Enthralled by the spectacle of my manly beauty, lass?'
Shar's face melted into a grin. 'All the time, Old Mage,' she replied happily. 'All the time.'
'Hmmph. Great advantage ye take of it, I must say.' Elminster strode past her to peer hawklike into the night, locating the two Harpers. Belkram was curled up asleep in his cloak, drawn sword laid ready on its spare folds by his hand. Itharr was standing watch, looking around alertly. He raised a hand in salute to Elminster, who returned it and seated himself on the most comfortable-looking rock.
'All's well?' Shar asked, shifting her legs into a more comfortable position. Moonlight flashed on her blade as she moved. El watched it glimmer down the steel as an owl hooted somewhere not far off in the trees behind them.
'Aye. Should it not be?' Sylune made the words a testy challenge.
Shar gave her a quick smile of admiration for capturing the Old Mage's manner and said mildly, 'Well, given that we've just seen the skies open and Toril wracked by forces that beggar even your mighty magic…'
Elminster snorted. 'Be not so sure. Gods seem to feel the need to impress.'
Sharantyr wrinkled her lips in wry disbelief. 'Indubitably,' she replied in cultured, courtly tones, 'and yet the earth did shake, and magic is either failing us or going wild. Forgive me if, as a mere mortal, I find myself somewhat anxious as to what the future holds. Say, tonight and the morrow.'
Elminster sighed. 'The world has been falling apart for a long, long time. I know-I've been watching it. What particular part of this ongoing devolution concerns thee most, just now?'
Belkram rolled over and eyed them both. 'Sleep fails me, amid all this chatter. Is this another version of his 'I'm older than the earth beneath ye, and have seen a thing or three' speech?'
'It is,' Sharantyr said gravely. Belkram yawned.
'Ah, 'twas well I woke, then… wouldn't have wanted to miss this…'
'A little less biting sarcasm, ranger, if ye please,' Elminster responded, looking around them at the night.
Tattered wisps of cloud were racing across the sky now, as if hurrying to a meeting they'd missed with all those divine falling meteors. When the clouds touched the moon, Daggerdale was bathed in a bright light of a violet hue that none of them had ever seen before. A little way distant, Itharr stared up at it in wonder, shook his head, and returned to peering into the dark trees around.
'What a sky,' Shar murmured. Belkram gave her a look.
'It's all those Shadowmasters circling up there, interfering with the moonlight. Stop staring at it and get some sleep; I'll take over watch. If we start falling asleep where we stand, we won't even give the shapeshifters a moment's entertainment in battle.'
'Cheerful, isn't he?' Elminster said to Shar, and added indignantly. 'And what am I, suet pudding? Why must he take over watching from ye? Are my eyes so old and wandering?'
'Wandering, yes,' Sharantyr mock-growled, and added sweetly, 'besides, you're the one we're watching over, because you're the bad-tempered, witless wizard in this band.'
And with that, she rolled herself in Belkram's cloak and sought slumber. The ranger and the wizard watched her in silence until they heard the faint rattle that served Sharantyr as a snore. Then Belkram leaned forward and whispered, 'Old Mage, what's to stop these shapeshifters scrying us from afar and simply attacking when we fall asleep?'
'The Fall of the Gods. Magic will fail the Malaugrym as it fails us, in this e'er-growing chaos of Art.'
'Aye, but without any magic of our own, how can we hope to stay alive against foes who can take any shape to elude our notice, escape us, or defeat us?'
'There is a way to make magic more reliable, if the need is strong enough,' Elminster growled, and sat back as if dismissing the subject.
'How?' the ranger asked softly.
The Old Mage glared at him, but Belkram waited in unblinking patience.
Elminster made no move, but the singing of a quick cloaking spell was suddenly around them. 'Spells ye cast can be steadied by feeding thine own life-energy into them, giving of thyself to make the magic as steady as it should be.'
'Has a spectral one enough to spare, to so give?' Belkram asked, eyes steady.
'I shall do this when necessary, but only then,' Elminster replied firmly, and let the cloaking magic fall away. The owl hooted again, and somewhere far off over the moonlit hills to the northeast a wolf howled.
They listened to the mournful sound until the wolf was done, and then Elminster stirred and spoke again. 'Be more worried about attacks when relieving thyself is of paramount importance, or when you're hungry and downing weapons and wariness to eat.'
'The monster who disturbs my meal,' Belkram said darkly, 'is liable to become my dessert.'
'I shall devote myself,' Elminster offered serenely, 'to recalling the most superb sauces to accompany a platter of whole roast shapeshifter with apple in mouth.'
'You could use the same sauce Lhaeo drenched those frogs with, a few nights back,' Sharantyr murmured.
They both stared at her, but she was fast asleep, even through the sputters and chuckles of their suppressed mirth that followed.
Overhead, one last flaming star burst out of the night and flashed across the sky, heading west. It passed the waning 'slaying moon' without pause or herald, and they did not see it fall.
5
Daggerdale, Kythorn 15
When first it came, the violet moonlight made Arashta Tharbrow look up from her bitter reverie in alarmed wonder. What now, after a night in which she'd already seen stars falling from the sky and felt Toril shake around her? A night in which the small radiance she'd conjured to see what she was doing in the dark depths of these endless woods had twisted into a ball of worms and fallen to the earth beside her. A night in which the spell she'd hurled in disbelief to scorch those worms had produced a sprayed handful of ice pebbles instead.
'The gods are against me,' she whispered despairingly, sitting down on what was left of a stone wall. She'd been a fool to come here alone, to wild, ruined Daggerdale. And if she couldn't rely on her spells, she'd very soon be a dead fool.
Who knew what beasts or brigands might be lurking near, watching her now?
She pushed down cold rising fear with firm anger and stood up, her robes swishing back to cover her high- booted legs. She was a sorceress of the Zhentarim, and folk feared her. Even veteran warriors deferred to her in the streets of Zhentil Keep-and sometimes in her bed. She took what she desired and did as she wanted, within the orders given by her superiors.
Those serpents! The mocking laughter of Thundyl echoed around her head one more time, and she saw again his amused face-and those of Rhaglar and Morgil, Master of Magelings, standing at his shoulder on the night of her humiliation, wearing smiles that vied with each other in open cruelty.
Arashta ground her teeth and banished those hated visions with a furious wave of her hand. Her long,
