'Thank you.' The Blackstaff seemed to gather both breath and thoughts for a moment, then said, 'I believe these two Zhents are far more than just mere nuisance wizards. Each of them-Old Ghost in particular-poses a great and steadily growing threat. They must be destroyed, whatever the cost.' The Blackstaff cleared his throat. 'I can see to that, but I need something from you: Your commitment to stand back from the Knights, whatevet happens, so I can have a free hand in dealing with Horaundoon and Old Ghost. If it costs the lives of these young adventurers, then so be it. I need you out of Shadowdale and not meddling in the doings of the Knights until those two wraiths-and I believe they're far more than that, now- are dealt with. Then, if some Knights have survived, by all means rush in and seek to salvage them.'
Khelben stopped talking, and silence fell.
'So,' he asked, after sraring across the table at his fellow Chosen for some time, 'have we agreement on this?' 'No,' Elminster said cheerfully. Silence fell again.
The Blackstaff sighed. 'Care to be, in your words, more specific?'
The Old Mage nodded and said quietly, 'Thy first two sentences regarding the nature and potential of the two Zhents-or former Zhents-I agree with. As usual, however, we disagree entirely on what to do and how to proceed.'
'So your preference in this matter would be…?'
Elminster's smoking pipe drifted to his mouth, but he waved it away. 'I prefer to continue as I have been: I will watch over the Knights myself and as much as possible leave Horaundoon and Old Ghost alone for now, to see what they do. For one thing, after a brief disappearance during which I could find no trace of them, they seem to be slaughtering Zhentarim as fast as they can, without resorting to an open assault on the entire Brotherhood, or darting about hunting down lesser, far-flung Zhent agents. And anything that reaps Zhents so energetically is something I don't want to hamper. Nor have I any desire to stand back from the Knights.'
'So you cleave to your whimsical meddling,' the Blackstaff snapped, 'because it's the style you prefer. Leaving threats that could and should be dealt with now, before they can do more damage to the reputation of all who work with the Art-and before they can claim more lives of mages, however evil and selfish the motives and aims of such victims. In other words, you stray from the very tasks Our Lady has set for us and defy Her will.'
'I do nothing of the sort,' Elminster replied mildly. 'Ye prefer one style, and I another. Ye seek to cloak thy preferred style in the mantle of 'right' and 'holy to Mystra,' and deem mine to be disobedient straying. I reject thy judgment-and have my own good reasons for doing so.' A faint smile rose to his lips. 'Ye'll have to do better, Lord Mage of Waterdeep. Try again.'
Khelben rose, tall and black and terrible, and stood glowering across the table. 'This is not a game, Elminster. This is the future of the very world around us. I believe these two wraith-spirits to be that powerful or that they'll soon become so. I did not come here to fence clever words with you. That game you can always best me at, as I seek to cling to truths and consequences, and you ever seek ro redefine and mock and introduce irrelevancies.' The Blackstaff leaned forward. 'So let us do this differenrly. For once. If I agree to let Horaundoon and Old Ghost continue to exist for now, so we can witness more of their villainies and hopefully learn something, you depart from Shadowdale and your oversight of the Knights. Leaving them to flourish or perish on their own, without meddling from any of us. And if needs be they serve as lures for the two wraith-spirits and suffer the consequences, so be it.' He let silence return and after it had deepened asked, 'So, can we find agreement on that?'
'No,' Elminster said quietly, 'I'm afraid not.'
'Afraid? Afraid of what?'
'Afraid my refusal to agree to thy terms will widen the rift between us and weaken our shared service to Mystra. I feel no animosity toward ye, Arunsun. I hope ye can hold none for me, despite the irritation my manner awakens in ye, and thy great flaw.'
'My great flaw,' Khelben repeated flatly.
'Indeed. Thy habit of mistaking thy decisions and preferences for the 'right' ones, and anyone who disagrees with ye as a foe.'
Khelben regarded his fellow Chosen in expressionless silence for a moment and then said heavily, 'So when these Knights reach Shadowdale-and they will reach Shadowdale, under your vigilant guardianship-they'll find you there waiting for them.'
'I fear so, though I promise ye I'll do my level best to hide from them.'
'Why? What is so important about staying in that small, dust-filled dump of a tower in Shadowdale?'
'Mystra's will,' Elminster said. 'It brought me there, and it compels me to remain.'
'Why?'
'Ask Her, son of Arielimnda. On this matter, I will say no more.'
'Oh?' Khelben's eyes flashed fire, and he turned and strode across the chamber, black robes swirling. 'So now you presume to decide what I am to be told and not told? As if I am your lackey.''
'It is the same presumption you make, Blackstaff,' Elminster said, 'when dealing with your fellow Harpers.'
'But they are lackeys,' Khelben told the wall, then turned back to meet Elminster's gaze and added gruffly, 'That was a jest, mind. I-'
'We all presume to share and withhold news and lore, as we see fit,' the Old Mage interrupted. ' 'Tis something Chosen do. Yet misunderstand me not, Khel. Mystra hath ordered my silence on this. If it gnaws at ye not to know, yet ye prefer not to ask her, then take solace in the lesser reasons: I, SyluneI and Storm are a small cluster of rocks 'gainst the waves of Zhent expansion, and my tower is where it is to be adjacent to a divine breach in the Weave that can be hedged about with items of power I store and guard there. Moreover, it stands close to a way through which the dark elves can at any time surge up into the surface lands.'
'Aye, aye, aye,'Khelben replied testily, waving Elminster's words away. 'Yet I wasn't speaking of you abandoning your tower! I seek your absence from the lives and doings of the Knights, so they can stand or fall on their own-and the two wraiths won't conceal ot lessen their deeds and schemings for fear of you. So I can seize the best opportunity to destroy them both at once and nor manage to fell only one and leave the other, warned but fled, to lurk and become twice or thrice the nuisance to hunt down.'
Elminster nodded. 'Thy tactics, I'm content with. Both at once is indeed wisest, if ye. can bring it off. I find matters are seldom so tidy. Yet again I must say thee nay, Blackstaff. I must be seen to be in Shadowdale, free to wander elsewhere but appearing when great foes or matters of import-and ye'U grant these wraiths are both, just as ye paint them-unfold there. I have my orders, as ye have yours.'
The black-robed figure across the room let out something that was almost a roar and came striding toward Elminster raging like a black flame. For an instant the form almost seemed gaunt-thin with large, snapping-with- anger dark eyes and pointed ears… and then it was the Blackstaff again, Khelben Arunsun as large as ever, towering across the table with both knuckles planted on its old stone surface, fists clenched whire with anger.
'Secrets,' he said, 'may be the stock in trade of every Chosen, but it is folly and corruption when Chosen keep secrets from each other. I more than mistrust these 'orders' you speak so glibly of. They are far too handy an excuse for doing just what you want to do. Let me tell you straight, Elminster Aumar: I suspect you of deceiving me, of hiding behind Our Lady.'
Elminster rose slowly from his bench, planted his own fists on the table, and leaned forward in exact mimicry of rhe Blackstaff s pose, until their noses were almost touching.
'You,' he replied, imitating Khelben's voice precisely, 'suspect far too much, Khelben Arunsun. Nasty, suspicious minds may be useful for wizards in keeping themselves alive, but no one should ever forget that they are nasty, suspicious minds.' He sat down again, swung booted feet up onto the table, and puffed at the pipe that came swooping back to him. 'I stay and do what I do,' he said, in his own voice. 'Have ye anything else ye'd like to try to bully me about? Or-ahem-discuss?'
Khelben stepped back from the table, glowering. 'Again you take it upon yourself to decide what will be and what will not be. I will not back down on this, El.'
'Well,' a pleasant contralto voice observed from the long-empty-of-door archway behind them both, 'it's nice to know that the Blackstaff remains as hog-headed as ever. And everyone's favorite Old Mage just as merrily, provokingly irritating. Haven't you two given the slightest thought to the notion that one day, in some small way, it might be nicer for everyone-yourselves, your fellow Chosen, the rest of the Realms-if you undertook to grow up?'
