Unlike most who approached Alaodin, I did not want anyone murdered. I requested an audience with the Old Man of the Mountain, for I greatly wished to come and study the Imaskari lore at Sentinelspire. Why he granted my request I don't suppose I will ever know. Nor do I care. He probably thought he could find a use for whatever knowledge I unearthed, or perhaps he saw me as a potential contact within the Yuirwood.
'Alaodin sent an escort for me-a quiet, secret thing that most of his blades did not even know. Using the portals, they brought me to the Fortress, and I spent many long days and nights studying in the vaults and libraries of the Fortress. Alaodin, despite being one of the world's foremost murderers, had gathered an impressive collection of lore and relics of power-both Imaskari and otherwise. One item in particular was the relic you carried for so long.'
'Erael'len?' said Berun. 'It came from Sentinelspire?'
'It did,' said Chereth. 'How such a holy relic to our faith came to be in the possession of the Lord of Assassins I do not know. He had never been able to unlock its secrets, though he sensed the power within it. And here, I must confess that I defiled the rules of hospitality. I stole Erael'len and fled. I had no choice. For such a holy relic to rest in the hands of someone so unworthy… my heart would not bear it. During my escape, I was forced to kill several of Alaodin's men.
'Alaodin felt that his honor had been insulted-that, and I'm sure he wanted the relic back. And so Alaodin gathered his very best assassins and sent them to kill an old druid in the Yuirwood. And here, my dear son, is where you enter this tale.'
Berun's mind reeled. When the Old Man had ordered him to lead the blades into the Yuirwood and kill an old druid, Berun had not asked why. The opportunity to kill had been enough. The order to hunt and kill in lands he'd never seen had been… intoxicating. There had never been any word of retrieving a relic. At least not to Kheil. If that had been part of their mission, it had been only for the ears of one of the other assassins.
'Kheil and his band,' Chereth continued, 'killed many of my people. But the old druid Chereth? Me, they missed, and Kheil was captured by my best wardens. And at my word, they put him to a just and deserved death. But the mysteries of the Oak Father are beyond comprehension. From death comes life. And so, by the grace and power of the Oak Father, I called you back to serve, to serve the will of the god and all we hold precious-growing things, the wild, life itself.' The old half-elf smiled, and his voice became raspy with emotion. 'And you did, my son. You did. Served beyond all my hopes and dreams for you.'
Chereth turned, walked away, and began to pace the roof, the strange lights playing about him.
'But still my quest continued. I shared my desire with others of my Circle and other Circles. I pleaded with them of the need to strike a blow for the wild, lest it be lost beyond repair. But they failed to see the wisdom of my words. They failed to see the depth of civilization's stain upon the world. And so I left, and together we sought the final pieces I needed.'
'Why, master?' said Berun. 'Why did you never tell me any of this?'
Chereth stopped his pacing and held Berun's gaze. 'You were strong. Never doubt that, my son. Strong like a diamond. But, like a diamond, I knew that one strike in the wrong place and you would shatter. I knew you had taken to your new life, becoming Berun for me and for the Oak Father. But I could also see that your old life still haunted you, that still you had to struggle with the corruption of Kheil in your soul. This is why you took so readily to the wild, I think. In civilization, in the cities, towns, even in the villages… Kheil's desires began to reawaken, did they not?'
It was true. The fear, the memories, and all the horrors endured by a little boy forced to survive on his own in the streets channeled that into an anger, a bloodlust, that could never be satisfied. Yes, that had been Kheil. And in the cities- hearing the call of merchants, the plaintive cry of animals caged and penned when they longed to roam, the bickering, the laughter, all the thousands of little sights and sounds and scents of civilization… they woke the old fears, and the fears sought the one comfort they had found: The desire to kill, to slay the things that had used and abused him as a child.
All this was true, but Berun simply said, 'Yes.'
'Yes,' said Chereth, and he resumed his pacing. 'Besides, I did not want to draw you into the petty bickerings of the Circles, of men and women whose minds were too small to see what ought to have been plain as summer sun before them. And so we left, you and I, wandering, doing what good we could in the lands where I continued my search for the final keys that would allow me to accomplish my desire.
'Five years ago, during our wanderings through the Ganathwood, I found the last piece I needed. I knew that to begin my plan, I had to return to Sentinelspire-the one place in all the world you could not go.
'And so, return to Sentinelspire I did, anticipating a great battle. I even prepared for my own death. But other events had happened in my absence. I'm sure that the death of Alaodin's god sixteen years ago was a severe blow to his power. His faith was shaken, but the lack of power also shook his authority within the Fortress. An old half-elf druid managed to enter the heart of the Fortress itself, kill many of the Old Man's blades, and rob the place of a valuable magic item on the way out, then when the Old Man's best assassin was killed in quest for retaliation… well, the resentment and ambition that had been building for years boiled over. While you and I were wandering the wild, the Old Man had to put down two rebellions among his own people. He won both times, but the last one was particularly savage, and almost half the blades of Sentinelspire ended up dead. Good for me, since they were still cleaning up the mess when I arrived. Already weary, both physically and emotionally, from slaughtering their brothers, the surviving assassins were in no position to offer much beyond a token resistance to my powers.
'To make a long tale short, I killed the Old Man. Killed him not far from where void now sit. Rather than seeking to avenge the death of their master, most of the assassins hailed my arrival. For I brought the thing they lacked-vision. I promised them a new way, a new vision of the future, in which my followers will rule as kings and queens of a new Faerun.'
Berun shook his head. It was all too much to take in. 'A new way? A new Faerun? I have no idea what you mean.'
'Ah, and here we came to the thing for which I have labored and hunted all these years. My final solution. But for that, I must have a witness. Someone I am sure you will be gladdened to see.' He looked up, his gaze fixed on the shadows gathered round, and said, 'Bring the boy.'
The shadows moved, taking form, and Berun recognized the creatures that had met him in the corridor and brought him here. They bowed to their master and disappeared down the stairs.
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Surrounded by at least a dozen of the dark creatures, Lewan stood once again before the courtyard of the Tower of the Sun. The rain had slackened to a heavy drizzle that seemed to hang in the air. The grounds were much as Lewan had last seen them. The bodies of the assassins and the tiger still lay amidst the foliage. Rain had diffused the blood, but there was so much. Most of the inner courtyard was soaked in it, looking more black than red on the wet pavement, and much of it was slowly seeping into the street. Lewan was shocked at his utter lack of revulsion. Had he changed so much already? Seen too much death for it to have an effect upon him? He did not like the thought of that.
'What happened here?' Ulaan whispered. 'Did… they do this?'
Lewan glanced at their escorts. If the creatures had understood her words, they gave no sign of it.
'No,' he said. 'This was mostly my master, Sauk, and the trees.'
'The… trees?'
'And the vines. It all happened so fast.'
'I don't want to be here, Lewan. Let's go. Like you said. Just run away.'
The creatures were not close-the nearest of them a few paces away-but still, he and Ulaan were hemmed in. Lewan and Ulaan had not been bound, nor once prodded on the way. But there was no mistaking the creatures' intention. 'I don't think that's possible anymore,' he said.
'I'm scared.'
'Me too.'
Shuffling his feet, Lewan felt something under his boot and looked down. They were standing in the midst of the arrows the archer had dropped during the fight. Lewan counted at least five of them within easy reach. He
