Elminster Must Die

gaze again and again in their waking hours thereafter. Why-

Amarune felt a sharp pain just under her ribs. Lord Bloodbright had noticed her head turning away and had pinched her, hard. She looked swiftly back up at him-and found herself meeting an almost murderous glare.

She grimaced a swift and silent apology and hastened to move against him like a roused wanton, grinding against his hip. That restored his smile, but Amarune found herself right beside some old blowhard of a fat merchant in wine-stained velvet who’d evidently decided that this chatter about the Ghost Regent was sorely in need of some supercilious correction.

“You would do well to remember,” he brayed, “that the Princess Alusair is what is popularly known as a tormenting ghost, and shares those shadowed halls with risen- from-their-graves courtiers who now walk as skeletons, decrepit skeletons, and shambling horrors-these last being the same walking dead known in less refined cities, such as Waterdeep, as ‘zombie rotters.’ ”

He winced, lip curling in exaggerated disgust at such nomenclature, waved a chubby and many-ringed hand that glistened with the grease of the batter-fried prawns he’d been devouring with zealous greed, and added, “There are also a few battle wights-once palace guards-and even sword wraiths, these last being the remnants of corrupt highknights, who fly about wielding black swords. Deadly, utterly deadly.”

“You’ve seen all these grisly spirits personally, Orstramagrus?” The younger Lord Dawntard was a sly, sardonic man, and even his friendly utterances sounded like sneers. This one was none too friendly and was delivered in a voice already slurred with drink.

The fat merchant flushed. “More than a few, young Kathkote. More than a few.”

A hiss of gleeful anticipation arose among the cluster of courtiers and young nobles standing near. Even Amarune knew that reply was a deft dig, to be sure; the elder Lord Dawntard, Kathkote’s father, had been a bold farfarer across the Realms in his day, whereas the son had never ventured farther from Suzail than the family hunting lodges, upcountry. Dawntard’s usual companions, the younger lords of Windstag and Sornstern, chuckled aloud as they pressed closer, so as to miss nothing of Dawntard’s furious reaction.

Unexpectedly, Kathkote grinned. “Oooh, cleverly said, Old Ostra, cleverly said. You do have some dash left in you.”

Lord Broryn Windstag’s face actually fell in disappointment. The big, florid, blustering scourge of stags and bold warrior had obviously been hoping for a fight, with his everpresent toady Lord Delasko Sornstern at his elbow.

A cellarer deftly steered full tallglasses of dragonslake into the hands of all three lords, pointedly serving the merchant and the courtiers from a decanter of Charsalace-a fine wine, but very far from dragonslake-so as to leave the lords preening at the silent recognition of their status.

Bloodbright seemed to have little taste for tarrying where bullying young rivals might try to snatch the mysterious lovely on his arm away from him; he whirled Amarune hastily away. Almost to the far end of the room, where the high windows of Dragontriumph Hall afforded a view of many lighted windows across the courtyard. Courtiers not exalted-or idle-enough to be invited to the Open Feast were hard at work behind those windows, in the huge, curving string of interconnected buildings known as the royal court, which shielded the royal palace on two sides from all the bustle and unwashed rest of Suzail.

Amarune had a brief glimpse of tall, dark portraits mounted on the pillars between those windows. Each was startlingly realistic and life-size. There was a masked princess wearing one crown and holding another that dripped blood, and there was a king in blood-drenched armor, rising up in his saddle at the heart of a gory battlefield to hold a gleaming chalice aloft in laughing triumph.

Stirring scenes that caught the eye and imagination. Obarskyrs, no doubt, but which ones, and why had they been painted thus?

She knew she dared not ask the man whose hip she still rode, who was starting to parade her down the other side of the long table.

Where the chatter sounded even more interesting.

“Ho, Marlin! I know you were hard at work on something to do with our shared hobby! Anything you can discuss, yet?”

“Heh, no, not yet, Mellast. Not yet. It’ll be worth the wait though, believe you me.”

“… ah, but that wouldn’t be smugglers at all! That’d be our daring Silent Shadow!”

“Silent Shadow? Sounds like something fat old noblewomen titter over and vie to be ravished by!”

Amarune managed not to stiffen. Well, we all have our secrets …

“Perhaps so, perhaps so. D’you mean to say you’ve not heard of him? Or her, for all I know!”

“Milvarune is so backward, my dear Jhalikoe. We stagger along from season to season hearing almost nothing of fair Cormyr except the exploits of Krimsal-quite the villain, that one. Almost like our nobles out east!”

“Oh, he’s no worse than a lot of our other Cormyrean lords, believe you me; he’s just more open about what he’s up to-most of the time. Right now, he’s in hiding, and no wonder, considering some of the murders and mutilations he managed this last winter.”

“Ah.” The envoy from Milvarune was obviously newly arrived in Cormyr. He thanked a server with a silent smile and nod for the tallglass that had just been steered into his hand. “Yet I take it this Shadow is more a thief than a slayer? More like your Skult and Vandarl?”

“Ah, so your staff has told you some useful things; good, good. Yet the Silent Shadow’s not like Skult or Vandarl at all. That is to say, they all steal, yes, but ‘Skull and Van’ are thieves for hire, and good ones. You’d best beware of them; our wealthy nobles can’t use either to rob fellow nobles, because these two miscreants are wise enough to refuse such tasks-but can freely use them to rob or harass non-noble creditors or those who get above themselves and presume to challenge nobles when it comes to competing in trade matters. The Shadow, now, is different. A loner, a thief of great daring, who works by night, purloining coins and jewelry from seemingly inaccessible nobles’ bedchambers and locked tower-top rooms.”

“Ah, I see! So fat old noblewomen would titter and coo over him!”

“Indeed! Oh, you’re going to fit in here in Suzail just fine!”

Abruptly firm fingers dug like daggers into Amarune’s elbow and steered her away. Lord Bloodbright, it seemed, knew just how long tarrying could continue before it became obvious eavesdropping.

They threaded their ways through gusts of laughter and around a drunken courtier noisily imitating an effeminate visiting noble of Sembia in a manner that would have earned him a death-challenge had any Sembians been within earshot, to a cluster of men speaking in low tones, almost face to face. One was the darkly handsome Lord Rothglar Illance, a lordling Amarune had been warned about. Not that she’d have failed to be on her very best behavior anyway, with Illance’s tall, muscular mountain of a bodyguard, Marlazander the Mighty, standing right behind his lord, constantly peering this way and that, looking for trouble with a face of cold menace.

Bloodbright firmly led Amarune to the table, where some feasters had started to take seats. As they approached, Bloodbright went tense against Amarune, who saw the reason why a moment later.

One of the highest-ranking servants of the palace had just slipped into the chamber and was advancing in smooth haste toward them.

Or rather, was approaching a man seated at the feasting table almost right in front of them, whom Amarune only then recognized: Ganrahast, the Royal Magician of Cormyr.

Understeward Corleth Fentable bent over beside Ganrahast, murmured something, then stood smoothly back and turned away. Amarune knew that although Fentable hadn’t once glanced in their direction, she and Bloodbright had been noticed, judged, and almost certainly found wanting.

She forgot about that a moment later, when Ganrahast, the leader of the wizards of war, rose from his seat wearing a frown-and hurried out.

Faster than Amarune had ever seen any war wizard move before.

Many of the nobles around were frowning, too.

Evidently the Royal Magician had been moving faster than any of them had ever seen him move before, too.