Tantras

shoulders.

Cyric looked at Adon and cursed again. 'This lump is only so much ballast,' he sneered and flicked water into Adon's eyes. 'All he'll be good for on this trip is making the rowing harder.'

The hawk-nosed thief started to row again, and Midnight used a cloak to dab some of the water from Adon's face. 'I know you can hear me, Adon,' the mage whispered. 'I still care. I won't let you get hurt.'

When Adon failed to respond, Midnight frowned and wiped more water away from the cleric's face. She didn't notice the salty tears mixed with the cold drops from the Ashaba.

Kelemvor had stood in the windy courtyard much of the night. Sleep had been out of the question. Besides, the fighter had not been alone. Guards had been stationed to watch over the courtyard of Midnight and Adon's executions, and a small crowd of rowdy gawkers had decided to keep an all-night vigil. Watching the dalesmen laugh and make disgusting jokes about the event scheduled to occur at first light made Kelemvor sick at heart. The festive atmosphere that pervaded the killing grounds was horribly out of place.

The fires of Kelemvor's anger were fanned into a blaze of rage as workmen arrived at the courtyard and began to assemble a complex stage for the executions. The spectators had evidently been taken into prime consideration in the design of the stage. It was composed of two circular platforms that moved like opposing gears, constructed to display the victims for all who cared to see them. Columns jutted from the center of the platforms, with crude, metal hooks where wrists and ankles would be bound. There was a circular opening, not unlike the knot of a tree, midway down each column. Kelemvor realized with a shiver that the executioner's spikes would be driven through the holes, and into the bodies of the condemned — his former allies. It would be a slow, horrible death.

Kelemvor wasn't sure what he planned to do when the time for the execution actually arrived. He felt that he had to atone somehow for his failure to help Midnight at the trial. Still, the evidence given against Midnight and Adon at the trial had been so conclusive that the fighter was not even convinced that his friends were really innocent. It certainly was possible that Midnight had lost control of the powerful magic she wielded and accidentally caused Elminster's death. Kelemvor simply couldn't decide.

The first hint of dawn played across the horizon as a band of reddish gray light appeared in the distance. Kelemvor found himself standing beside a pair of guardsmen who struggled to hold back their yawns.

Suddenly a series of alarm gongs sounded from the Twisted Tower, and the guards shook themselves to battle readiness in a matter of seconds.

'The prisoners!' someone shouted from the tower. 'They've escaped!'

'Kelemvor, come on!' one of the guards, an obese young man, shouted as he headed for the Twisted Tower. 'We need every man we can get!'

The dalesmen still think of me as one of them, Kelemvor realized as he followed the guards to the main entrance of the tower and was admitted without a second glance, even though the irate villagers were held back. The door leading to the dungeon stood open, and Kelemvor and the overweight guard raced to the landing. From there, they saw a congregation of dalesmen in the cavernous chamber. Forcing his way through the crowd, Kelemvor stopped abruptly as he saw the solemn faces of Lord Mourngrym and Thurbal.

The reason for their distress sat propped upon a small stool at the head of the corridor leading to the holding cells. Kelemvor studied the wide-eyed expression of total bliss that graced the dead man's features, then looked down to see the hilt of the man's short sword protruding from his neck. The blade had been driven through the man with such force that the tip had pierced the mortar of the wall behind him, pinning the dead guard in place.

'Who killed him?' Kelemvor growled. His words broke the silence on the landing, and everyone turned to him.

'He killed himself,' a red-haired guard said as he nervously rocked back and forth on the balls of his feet. 'When I came to relieve him, there was this mark on his neck. I asked him what had happened to him, and he rattled off some story about a man that was big, about Forester's size, with red hair like mine, and an odd accent.'

The guard stopped rocking for a moment and turned to Mourngrym. The dalelord nodded, and the guard continued his story. 'He said this man came down the back stairway and took the prisoners to see Lord Mourngrym.' The redheaded guard paused for a second, then started rocking again. 'When he finished telling me that, he took out his sword, smiled, and rammed it through his own throat, right where the mark was! That's just how it happened. I swear!'

The dalesmen remained silent but became aware that the prisoners were shouting from their cells. One voice was louder than the rest.

'I saw it!' a filthy, dark-haired mercenary shouted. 'I saw it all!'

Mourngrym turned away from the dead man and walked to the cell of the prisoner.

'Cover him,' Thurbal said, gesturing with his dragon's-head walking stick, and followed his liege to the cell. Kelemvor was close behind.

'What did you see?' Mourngrym said.

'Not so fast!' the prisoner snapped, his hands dangling from the bars. 'What's in it for me?'

Mourngrym grabbed the prisoner's hand and yanked it sharply. The prisoner cried out as his face slammed against the rusted iron bars. Mourngrym's sword left its sheath with a blinding motion and stopped, poised just over the man's wrist.

'You get to keep your hand,' Mourngrym snarled as another guard grabbed the prisoner's other hand before he could gouge Mourngrym's face. 'Speak quickly, or I'll take you apart, starting with this hand!'

The prisoner stared into the blood-red face of the ruler of Shadowdale and quickly told all that he had witnessed the previous night.

'Cyric,' Kelemvor said, hanging his head. 'It must have been Cyric!'

There was a hoarse shout from the top of the stairs. 'More bodies up here! Forester is dead!'

'Come with me,' Mourngrym said to Kelemvor, and they hurried up the narrow stairway, crossed the hallway, and entered the audience chamber, where the trial had been held. A short, bald guardsman stood in the middle of the room, his sword drawn as if he expected trouble at any second. The guard's pudgy hands trembled as he led the dalelord and the fighter up a few narrow stairs to the rear of the small stage. Curtains bearing Mourngrym's coat of arms hung against the back wall. There was a small stain at the bottom of the red curtain. Forester's body had been left in the space directly behind Mourngrym's throne.

'Calliope, the maid, noticed the stain,' the bald guard mumbled softly.

The dalelord shook with anger. 'Search the tower.' Mourngrym said, wringing his hands. 'I want to know who else is… missing.'

Within the hour, Cyric's movements had been mapped out, and the missing boat was discovered. Mourngrym was suspicious of the guardsman at the bridge. The bodies of Segert and Marcreg had been discovered near his post. The guard was led away to the dungeon for interrogation.

'Does this look like the work of your friend?' Mourngrym said as he crouched over Segert's body. He exposed the wound on the corpse's neck for emphasis.

'He was not a friend,' Kelemvor said as he surveyed the corpse's wounds. 'And, yes, it looks like Cyric's work.'

There were shouts from the kitchen, and Kelemvor accompanied the dalelord back into the tower, to the kitchen. They found the cook pointing at the stairs that led to the storage room. The body of the young guard-in- training had been placed on a hook and dangled beside a number of butchered slabs of meat. Smears of chocolate and cherry still covered the lad's ashen face.

'Come with me,' Mourngrym said, but Kelemvor remained standing at the door, staring at the young man's corpse. The dalelord gently put his hand on the fighter's shoulder and turned him away from the body. 'We need to talk,' Mourngrym said softly as he led Kelemvor to his private audience chamber.

The two men climbed a set of stairs. At the first landing, the dalelord unlocked a large oaken door and ushered Kelemvor into the room. Mourngrym's audience chamber was small but comfortable, with a few pieces of dark wooden furniture scattered about the room and brightly colored tapestries on the walls. A single, small opening admitted the weak morning sunlight from outside the tower.

The dalelord collapsed into a chair and started to wring his hands. 'I need someone to find them, Kelemvor. Someone who is loyal to the causes of the Dales — freedom, justice, honor — and someone who knows how to find