She realized that a tenday had passed since Ebeian was attacked and she had not heard or seen anything having to do with Ciredor. He must have returned to Calimport or crawled into some other hole to hide. It was the only course that made sense.
'I don't know where he is,' answered the elf.
'Thazienne,' Steorf reminded her kindly, 'Ebeian's body can only tell you what he knew when he was alive.'
She turned back to look at him.
'This isn't Ebeian anymore,' Steorf explained. He could see Tazi wanted to protest. 'All this is now is a shell. Eb's soul has already passed on. The cleric simply reanimated Ebeian's body.'
'Then what have I been talking to?' she asked.
'You've been able to access the memories that were imprinted in his body. Hurry now' he warned at the sight of Ebeian's flickering torso.
Tazi looked back at the elf's remains. In the glow of the spell, she had almost fooled herself into believing Ebeian had come back to life. The more she had questioned him, the more he'd responded like his old self. Even understanding what she was talking to, Tazi found it hard to believe it wasn't her friend any longer. The glow was fading.
'What does Ciredor plan to do with your soul?'
'The pain was very severe while he was killing me,' Ebeian explained, 'so I couldn't hear everything that he was telling me.'
'What could you hear?' she implored, seeing the magical glow that surrounded him start to waver.
'He said my soul and the others were to be used for the 'Skulking God,' whoever that is.'
The last few words were very hard to hear.
Trying to eke out every last bit of magic, Tazi leaned in and spoke one last question into Ebeian's pointed ear.
'Does he have all the souls he needs?'
She had to strain to hear his response.
'No,' he whispered. 'He still needs Fannah's.'
Horror-struck, Tazi sat up as though a lightning bolt had passed through her body. She looked first at Steorf then to the cleric. The older man let out a grunt and collapsed onto the floor. She and Steorf rushed to his side. Tazi could tell that he was breathing, and Steorf began ministering to him immediately. In a few moments, the cleric started to come around, and Steorf guided him to a chair.
'I'm fine now,' he assured Steorf and Tazi. 'That was much more draining than I'd anticipated. I don't think I'll have the energy for my obligations on the fifteenth, but somehow I think Mystra will forgive me.'
'It looked like you were struggling the whole time,' Steorf observed.
'Something very strong was trying to prevent me from completing the spell. You,'-he turned to look at Tazi-'have a very powerful enemy.'
Tazi, who had returned to sit by Ebeian, answered, 'Yes, I do.' She began to play with the emerald ring on her left hand. 'I've faced him before and won, though. I can do it again if I have to.'
But her voice lacked conviction even to her own ears.
Steorf, assured that the cleric had recovered, moved to stand near Tazi again.
'I didn't see any of this,' he offered. 'Not Ciredor's hand, not Fannah's part in it…' he trailed away. When she didn't say anything, he tried once more. 'What do you want to do now?'
Tazi stroked Ebeian's face.
'I wish I could've asked him one more thing,' she whispered, 'but I wasted that.'
The glow was gone from his body, and Tazi could see that all that was left of him was a shell. Ebeian was gone forever, his soul stolen away. She got up and faced Steorf.
'What would've been that last thing?' he asked her.
Tazi just shook her head.
'I've lost him, but I'll be damned if I let that bastard take Fannah, too.'
Steorf nodded slowly and asked, 'What do you plan to do?'
That simple question stopped Tazi in her tracks. Her momentum was cut short, and she floundered.
'There's someone I have to speak to,' she finally said and turned to leave, everything else forgotten.
Steorf started to follow.
'No,' she said, stopping him with a light touch of her hand on his thick chest. 'I need you to get Fannah and bring her back to my rooms at the Kit. Don't leave her side for a moment. Where I have to go now, I have to go alone.'
With that, she slipped into the night.
CHAPTER 3
Tazi held her fist poised in the air. She chewed her lip for a moment, trying to decide if this was the right course of action.
I can't see any other way, she said to herself.
Having made up her mind, she brought her fist down on the thick door. One rap, silence, then two raps.
'Come,' a deep voice invited.
Tazi swung open the heavy door to Erevis Cale's bedroom. She had been there just a few times before. The only other semi-private room in which she ever spent time with Cale alone was in his pantry, occasionally sharing some brandy with him. Of the two rooms, Tazi preferred the pantry. His bedroom was decidedly uninviting.
The only light in the room came from a tarnished oil lamp on Cale's oak night table. Tazi found her eyes had a hard time adjusting to the dim lighting. She understood that Cale didn't need much light as he kept his furnishings to a minimum, more austere than even her elf friend. Aside from his long, wrought-iron bed and night table, there was just an overstuffed leather chair and a pine trunk near the foot of his bed. Tazi's eyes lingered for a moment on the trunk and found, despite the way the night had passed, that she couldn't resist a quick smile at an old memory.
When she was about twelve years old, Tazi began to cut her thieving teeth. The most obvious place to start practicing, she discovered, was at home. With so many rooms and so many people coming and going from the household, there were many opportunities for her to acquire the odd, sundry bauble. One of her mother's jewels here, a silver candlestick there… and so it went.
She worked her way through most everyone's quarters, and when the items went missing, the staff took the brunt of the blame. No one suspected her.
Feeling fairly confident, Tazi one day decided to filch something from Erevis Cale's room. While most of the staff and even a few of her family were somewhat intimidated by the new butler, Tazi was fascinated by the gaunt man. She didn't hesitate to sneak into his quarters.
Even then, Cale kept his personal effects to the bare essentials. The young Tazi was somewhat disappointed that there were such slim pickings in his bedroom. Her eyes lit up, however, when she caught sight of his pine trunk. Finding it locked, Tazi took out a crude pick and began to work on the catch, certain that there would be something of value hidden inside.
This was the sight Cale discovered when he walked into his room.
'Having some trouble?' he asked the young Thazienne.
'As a matter of fact, this lock of yours is giving me a difficult time,' she replied, not showing a hint of surprise or fear at being caught.
Cale walked over to where Tazi was kneeling, crossed his arms over his chest and fixed her with his most menacing expression. The effect it generated was not what Cale expected. Tazi looked up at him for a moment, solemnly, then clamped her hand over her mouth to stifle the giggles that threatened to escape. She could see Cale was momentarily caught off guard by her reaction, but he quickly recovered.
