my eyes closing, again and again. I've been too long without sleep.'
Erlandar Summerstar shrugged. 'Do not reproach yourself. We've all treated you like the ever-vigilant mountains above the vale-always there, never changing. 'Tis time, perhaps, we took charge of ourselves instead of leaving the vigilance to others.'
'I would not see it as cowardice in any man to withdraw back to the kitchens now,' Thalance said. One of his eyes was almost closed from the swelling of a great jagged gash on his brow-a gash that split his hair asunder, and spoke to all of how close the stone that made it had come to killing him. 'We were all… overbold. Shapeshifters can be better hunted by daylight.'
'Prudence would walk with you if you went back,' the boldshield told him, 'not reproach. Yet I will stay. The Lady Storm should not be alone here.'
'She has the wizards to look after her,' one of the armsmen said in the darkness.
'The wizards,' another said in tones of disgust. 'The Happy Dancing Mages-what use have they been so far? And just when will we see the tiniest flame of courage in any of their eyes?'
'Warrior, I saw who stood closest back there when that light burst forth, and the great eye appeared,' Ergluth snapped. 'It was the worried-looking one you lot have laughed so much about-the leader of the war wizards. We fled back to greater safety, and even the shapeshifter ran, screaming; Broglan stood like a statue I saw him. Sneer no more at wizards in my hearing.'
'So because this willful half-goddess has to prove herself as much a man as any of us,' a Purple Dragon veteran growled, 'we must stay here, and get slaughtered.'
'Aye,' another agreed from beside him. 'What odds that if she falls, Mystra reclaims her, and sets her back alive again to wiggle her hips at poor fools in some other realm? Mystra won't come down to succor the likes of us!'
The faintly glowing head of a phantom-the shade of a smiling court lady-rose out of the stones at the armsman's feet just then, and he jumped back with an oath. She went on smiling as she rose up, up into the ceiling above, and was gone.
'Still so sure you know every last detail of the doings of gods?' Ergluth Rowanmantle growled. 'I say again: we are no men if we leave a lady in distress, nor Cormyreans if we let Harpers do our duty for us. I will stay, in case the Lady Storm needs me.'
'Then I'll stay with you, to keep you awake,' Erlandar Summerstar muttered.
'I'll stay, too,' Thalance added quickly. 'I'd rather die trying to rid our vale of this evil one than be struck down afraid, and hiding, and alone.'
'Tarry it is, then,' a young Purple Dragon said briskly. 'Leave to snore, sir?'
There were snorts of amusement at this sally, and a few chuckles when their boldshield replied, 'Only to windward, warrior.'
The mirth stopped quickly when Thalance Summerstar asked the commander, 'That eye-what do you think it is?'
Ergluth raised and lowered his shoulders in a slow, heavy shrug. 'In truth, I know not. Some being of great wisdom and power … and yet not a godling or divine sending, I think. I've no proof, mind-just a feeling.'
'And I think we're all going to die here,' one of the older armsmen said sourly. 'I can't prove that yet, mind … it's just a feeling.'
Something moved in the lonely darkness. Slowly and stiffly, it rolled over. A single hoarse gasp of pain sounded in the chamber beyond the shattered door. A tentacle rose and flexed with a weary air, and then another uncurled slowly and tentatively. A face that had flowed like syrup rose up in dripping tatters, red eyes gleaming in the gloom. A jaw of wet fangs rose at the end of a fleshy tendril and retreated back into the face; a talon as long as a rack of swords wavered, shrank, and became a humanlike hand.
It was joined by another, and together the two hands traced a gesture in the air. And then another.
'Yes,' a voice above them said in sudden, fierce determination. 'So, let me. .' The voice sank into mutterings and a short, rising chant.
Sudden radiance spilled out of one of those two hands, and the other suddenly held a scepter-a scepter topped by an eye. The swirling radiance formed an image of the astonished Broglan staring at his suddenly empty hand.
The motes that formed it flickered, faded, and died.
The scepter remained. Above it two eyes burst into sudden flame and bent forward greedily. Twin jets of flame lashed out, entwining the scepter. Around the immobile, intent head and hands, other tentacles grew claws that grabbed excitedly at empty air, or talons that slashed at stone. A mouth, swaying on its own stalk in the distant darkness, snarled to itself. A mind-voice rose to a thunderous, silent shout: GIVE ME.
YOU WILL GIVE ME … I WILL PREVAIL. I WILL PREVAIL. I-AHHHH …
The scepter blazed red-hot. Flames streamed around it, circling from one eye to the other. Then came a sharp crack, a flash of blue-white magic. The scepter broke into shards, which flew away into the darkness and crumbled to dust.
The shapeshifter stiffened and then rose into a larger bulk. His two eyes were now black orbs surrounded by white flames.
'Yes. Yes. Oh, yes. Now I have the power!'
White fire leapt out. The shattered door disappeared-along with most of the wall around it. Stones collapsed in a quickening roar, and out of the heart of their dust, cold laughter arose.
'Storm?' a voice called lightly. 'Storm Silverhand? Your foe is back!'
SEVENTEEN
Shayna clung to Storm, emerald eyes large with fear. 'S-Stay with me,' she begged. 'Don't let him touch my mind again!'
'Be at ease, Shayna,' Storm murmured. 'Gently, now.' She held the trembling heiress in her arms, drew in a deep breath, and reluctantly called on the silver fire.
She wanted only a little thing from Mystra. There was a power learned by-thankfully-few archmages since the days of Netheril, the ability to 'hang' spells so that they waited, cast and ready to take instant effect, in an unseen, undetectable limbo. Storm used it now, soothing the terrified heiress while a spell of deeper slumber crafted by Azuth himself slowly unfolded.
When it was ready, she unleashed it on Shayna, kissing her to let the magic flow in.
With no more than a murmur, the noble went limp in her arms. Storm spun a ring of silver fire around her to stop the questing mind of the foe. Then she laid the sleeping girl against a pillar, curled up on her side, and set three sloping timbers over her to turn away falling stones. Storm carried the dagger and the coronet two rooms distant and thrust them under a pile of rubble-not a moment too soon.
As she set down the coronet, it blazed with sudden fire. A faint echo of the foe's mocking laughter arose from it. Storm stiffened and then hurriedly heaped stones onto the circlet, being careful not to touch it again. When it was safely buried, she selected a rock as large across as a serving-platter, set her teeth, lifted the huge stone with a grunt of effort, and hefted it into place atop the pile she'd made.
She turned again, looking back to where she'd left Shayna. Bursts of silver fire, like snowflakes of light, were winking and flaring out of thin air; her magic was under attack. The foe was seeking battle again.
As the first gray glimmerings of dawn stole into Firefall Keep, Storm, sword in hand, stalked through its rubble-strewn heart. She'd tossed handfuls of dust over her blade to keep it from gleaming, and was walking as quietly and alertly as she could.
Where was he?
Tendrils of smoke curled up from charred timbers among the rubble. Dead armsmen lay everywhere, crushed and half buried under falls of stone. The keep sported an open central well it had lacked yestermorn, an open bowl
