CHAPTER SEVEN
The Year of the Secret (1396 DR) Veltalar, Aglarond
Raidon cracked his knuckles, one after the other. Angul was plunged point first into the vault floor, simmering. He stared at empty air where the warlock had escaped into a collapsing portal mouth formed of his own shadowed cape. Holding the Dreamheart. He stared as if wishing alone could bore that portal open anew.
'He's slippery like a fish off the hook,' said Captain Thoster. The pirate stood looking down at the girl Anusha, one hand scratching his chin as he considered the sleeper. 'Japheth'd give up his mind to the relic for this one, eh? She doesn't look like anything special. He called her Anusha in the grotto.'
Seren, standing in the vault doorway, said, 'He was hiding her aboard the ship all along. How macabre.'
A low growl sprang up. A dog, large and black, advanced on the captain from the vault's corner.
'Blackie!' exclaimed Thoster, his eyes lighting with recognition. 'What're you doing here? I thought the crew threw you overboard!' The pirate approached the growling beast, his hands proffered for the dog to sniff.
'Your hound is a poor guard-it took up with the ghost girl here quick enough,' Seren said. 'Dispatch the disloyal cur.'
The captain shook his head, laughing at the mercenary wizard's suggestion. 'I think I might have a treat, Blackie,' he crooned to the dog, one hand searching through his voluminous pockets.
Raidon watched without really seeing, as canine and man were reacquainted. His thoughts were elsewhere.
Once again, the aberrant relic had avoided destruction through the warlock's interference. The object had obviously corrupted the man as it had corrupted Nogah.
It was Raidon's own fault. The Dreamheart had lain before him, fully vulnerable. The Blade Cerulean was poised, vibrating unswerving conviction through its hilt into Raidon's soul. Why had he hesitated?
Because the Dreamheart looked at him. In that look a momentary connection formed, and Raidon saw through the eye. As the golem of Stardeep had warned him, he saw down into the mantle below the world and glimpsed awakening Xxiphu. Beslimed creatures, sluggish yet with eons of sleep heavy on their tentacles, swam through drowned crannies and crept along purple-lit tunnels leaving trails of mucus. Malevolent and vile, they converged on a cavity high in the city's crown painted with glyphs in colors Raidon's eye couldn't resolve. The creatures… the aboleths, Cynosure called them, gathered in that arcane cavity. They were performing a ghastly ritual.
And over all, a great bulk frozen in stone was stirring.
The Dreamheart's foul vision dazed Raidon long enough for the warlock to make good his treacherous escape.
'You don't look well,' came Captain Thoster's voice. 'But not half as upset as Japheth looked when you knocked him into the dark, eh?'
Raidon opened his eyes and turned to regard Thoster, but he did not speak.
Seren scowled and said, 'Is there anything you don't find funny, Captain?'
The captain sighed. 'Oh, come. Yes, our ship is holed and we're taking water, I know. But we ain't dead, are we? We got something from all this running around.' He pointed to Anusha. 'If Japheth cares so much for this lass, then we got ourselves a fair bargaining chip. He kept hold of the Dreamheart for her. He'll give it up if we threaten to rough her up.'
'Hmm,' Seren replied, nodding slowly.
'No,' Raidon murmured, tired at the mere thought of the captain's banal suggestion. 'Anyway, it's too late.' He stood, avoiding using Angul's hilt to pull himself upright. 'Things have gone too far.'
'What's that mean?' asked Thoster, who was feeding another dried piece of fish to the dog.
'Japheth, the great kraken Gethshemeth, and Nogah before them handled the Dreamheart too much. I told you it was but a piece of something terrifyingly larger. A.. creature.'
Thoster shrugged. 'So?'
'So this monstrosity, this… Eldest aboleth, is already partly roused. Its children, less potent but also less sleepy, are coming awake within the bowels of Xxiphu. Even now, those already awake perform foul rituals to fully animate their stony father. If the aboleths succeed, you can say farewell to Faerun as you know it.'
The conviction in his voice shocked even Thoster to silence.
'All hope's lost? Even if we get the Dreamheart now?' asked Seren.
'A threshold has been passed. What I saw in the eye when its gaze locked with mine…' Raidon shook his head.
'The ritual has already begun. To disrupt it, we'd have to go straight to the source. In Xxiphu, if I plunge Angul into the heart of the entity to which the Dreamheart belongs, that might finally slay it.'
'Might?' asked Seren. Raidon didn't answer. Instead, he said, 'So forget Japheth. His part in this is done. We need to figure out how to reach Xxiphu, and soon.'
*****
Hazy layers of smoke squeezed tears from Raidon's eyes. The clink of tallglasses, the shouts of patrons, and the clack of magically animate devices in the room across the hall were maddeningly loud. The sword sheathed on his back tugged this way and that, distracting the monk further.
But Thoster wouldn't talk options until they retired to the Lorious's frantic saloon. The captain's eyes twinkled as he watched well-heeled Veltalarans indulge in ales, wines, pipes, and lit bundles of rolled leaves. Thoster's hat perched high on his head. The man obviously enjoyed the attention of his ostentatious dress at least as much as he enjoyed keeping an eye on a few of the staff who flirted shamelessly with him. The captain seemed unfazed by the idea of seeking Xxiphu. Which was suspicious. Raidon just didn't have the mental energy to decipher Thoster's game right then.
Seren completed their triangle, but her head was buried in a tome she'd liberated from Japheth's suite. Her dark hair hung down just above the yellowed pages, hiding her eyes and face. The wizard ignored the babble of the saloon well enough to read, or at least gave a credible semblance of doing so.
Raidon watched her, as if he might find his own focus in the studious lines of the woman's shoulders and neck.
She was enthralled with the miniature library Japheth had accumulated. She'd selected a few choice tomes and scrolls and tucked them away into her satchel.
To what end, though? Did Seren really care that the Dreamheart's constant handling had finally done its damage? The wizard was just a breath away from abandoning Raidon, despite her grudging acceptance of the terms Raidon had offered her on the ship.
But did it matter? Perhaps the situation was beyond their ability to influence. If Cynosure were still functioning, Raidon might have transported himself directly into Xxiphu. But that was a wish that wasn't going to be granted.
'You've had your ale, Captain,' the monk said, his voice raised to break through the babble of a dozen others.
'Can we discuss the idea you mentioned back in Japheth's suite about salvaging the situation?'
'I've had one cupful. That ain't enough to quench my thirst!' Thoster grinned, tossed off the contents of a tankard still a quarter filled with tawny liquid, then burped. His eyes followed the progress of a dark-haired woman across the saloon.
'If the Eldest is fully roused, ale and wenching will be the least of your needs,' Raidon said.
The captain guffawed, then pointed. 'Here comes your drink. Maybe that'll soothe your sour disposition.'
A server, a halfling, stopped at the table. He deposited a tea service before Raidon. Though surprised to see the steaming pot, Raidon tapped his fingers in thanks.
'You ordered this for me?' he asked Thoster.
The captain nodded. 'You were busy in Japheth's suite.'
When the captain and the wizard had gone on ahead to secure a table, Raidon stayed behind to make certain the dog and the sleeping woman were in good health. He'd explained to Thoster they might yet have need of Anusha. Also, the sword had not wanted him to waste time caring for the woman and beast. Whenever Raidon
