city of late.”
“Because we’ve used it up. We’ve long ago emptied Luskan of all the treasures that interested us. We remain in the shadows, for the city remains a marginally useful source of information. Some ships still dock here, and from every port on the Sword Coast.”
“And so Borlann the Crow and the other High Captains are the true power after all.”
“If it serves us for them to believe so, then let it be so.”
That reply had Dahlia shifting uncomfortably for the first time, Jarlaxle noted, though she did well to hide it. He would have to play his hand carefully with her. She had ulterior motives, and he didn’t want to scare her off by making her fear that she would be getting herself in too far over her head with him. Still, the elf intrigued him, and the mere fact that she had so beautifully and thoughtfully engaged Athrogate to get to him showed him that she was not ill-prepared-in anything she did, he presumed.
“My associates’ interests in Luskan are minor in these times,” Jarlaxle clarified. “Their network is vast, and this but a minor endeavor.”
“Their network?”
“Our network, when it serves me,” Jarlaxle replied.
“And my proposition?”
The drow pulled off his great hat and swept a low bow before her. “Jarlaxle, at your service, dear lady,” he said.
“Jarlaxle and Athrogate,” Dahlia corrected. “I need him more than I need you.”
Jarlaxle straightened and met her stern gaze with a wicked little grin. “I doubt that.”
“Don’t,” she said, and she walked out of the alley.
Carefully scrutinizing her every alluring movement as she walked away, Jarlaxle’s grin only widened.
“The power in the west mounts,” Sylora said to Szass Tam. “The tremors grow stronger. There is great danger and great potential to be found there.”
“You have spoken with our agent?”
Sylora propped the mirror she carried up before her and closed her eyes, bringing forth its scrying magic once more. The shiny glass dulled, as if with a mist within and only a small circle in the middle of the looking glass cleared. It no longer showed the reflection of the Dread Ring, but a clear image of a single object, a skull-shaped crystal.
“There is much more to the skull gem than to serve as a phylactery for a lich,” Sylora explained. “It serves me as conduit to our agent, and when the time comes, as a guide on my journey.”
“You wish to leave at once.”
“It would have been better had I gone instead of Dahlia,” the Thayan sorceress replied.
“You question me?”
“Neverwinter is thick with Netherese.”
“A cult of the upstart Asmodeus is there, at my bidding, to… trouble them.”
“But not to defeat them. There is a Dread Ring to be created, to be forged from the secrets that Dahlia seeks to uncover, a power of uncontrollable catastrophe, and exquisite beauty.”
“More credit to Dahlia, then,” Szass Tam reminded. “It was she who identified the signs of approaching peril, and sought to exploit them.”
“They are beyond her,” Sylora insisted. She could hardly see Szass Tam through the haze of ash in the Dread Ring-and that was a good thing, given the archlich’s horrid features-but it seemed to her as though his posture showed indiflerence to her excitement.
“Dahlia is not alone,” Szass Tam assured her. “She thinks she is, and that is to our benefit. It is my hope that she will need us not at all to accomplish what she has set out to do. But you will watch her, and you will know, and we will… support her as we deem necessary.”
“Am I to travel to Neverwinter Wood, as we discussed?” Sylora asked, not willing to push any further. She knew when Szass Tam had heard enough, and knew, too, that arguing with him was a sure way to be invited into his dark realm-as a slave.
“Not yet,” Szass Tam instructed. “The cult-the Ashmadai-will keep our Netherese friends occupied. The greater prize will come from Dahlia’s work, so I would have you learn as much as you can, both through your work here in our libraries and through your regular contact with our agent. This is of utmost importance. Should we succeed, we will have another Dread Ring, and better, it will come in no small part through the suffering of those ancient relics, the Netherese.”
“This is my charge?”
“It is.”
“And my credit?” the wizard pressed.
“In your rivalry with Dahlia?” Szass Tam responded with a sly cackle, one that ended abruptly as he continued, his tone much more severe. “Dahlia suspected the link between the rising catastrophe and the fall of the Hosttower of the Arcane, not you. She has performed wonderfully, though it pains you to admit that. My suggestion to you is that you perform equally as wonderfully, for our greater purpose and for your own well-being. I have granted you this opening for redemption and excellence because of your history with Dahlia-if anyone in Faerun will watch over that one’s every movement, it is you.
“But you serve me, Sylora,” Szass Tam reminded. “You serve my ends and not your own, or your own will come quickly, I assure you. My desire is that Dahlia succeeds, and you will work toward that end. Our enemies are the Shadovar.”
His tone left no room for debate.
“Yes, Your Omnipotence,” Sylora replied, dipping her head in a scant bow.
Sylora’s only comfort then was her deep-rooted belief that Dahlia was far too young and inexperienced, and far too dedicated, to succeed in the facilitation of the needed catastrophe. The wizard horded the very real possibility, indeed the probability, that she would have to rescue Szass Tam’s victory in the west. Then, she hoped, the archlich would come to see the true limitations of that wretched elf.
“Borboy, really?” Athrogate asked with a snicker for the tenth time since he and Jarlaxle had watched Dahlia enter High Captain Borlann’s keep. The slim stone tower, known as Crow’s Nest, had been only recently erected on Luskan’s Closeguard Island where the River Mirar spilled out into the Trackless Sea.
Jarlaxle continued his amusement at the dwarf’s use of the derogatory nickname so many in Luskan had tagged on High Captain Borlann. He possessed his father’s title, and the magical Cloak of the Raven, handed down to him from his grandfather Kensidan. But there, at least according to the old seadogs haunting Luskan’s allies, the resemblance ended.
“Skinny little runt,” Athrogate remarked.
“As was Kensidan,” Jarlaxle replied. “But possessed of a presence that could fill a room.”
“Yeah, I’m remembering that one. Tough old bird. Bwahaha! Bird, eh?”
“I understood you.”
“Then why ain’t ye laughing?”
“Figure it out.”
The dwarf shook his head and muttered something about finding a companion with a sense of humor.
“Ye think she’s layin’ down for him?” Athrogate asked after a while.
“Dahlia uses every weapon to her advantage, of that I am certain.”
“But for that one? Borboy?”
“Surely you’re not jealous over an elf,” Jarlaxle remarked with eyebrows raised.
“Bah!” the dwarf snorted. “Ain’t nothing like that, ye fool.” He paused and put his hands on his hips as he looked at a candlelit window high up the moss-covered walls of Crow’s Nest. Athrogate gave a little sigh. “Though I’d have to be a dead dwarf not to see the fight’n’fun in that one.”
Jarlaxle gave a wry little grin but let it go at that. Like the dwarf, he stood staring at the keep. Nothing seemed amiss for a long while, but then from the window came a shriek that sounded like the excited screech of a giant crow. Both dwarf and drow came forward a step, peering more intently at that lone window-and the candlelight was snuffed all at once. Men began rushing around the compound, and another pair of shrieks sounded along with a
