into a smile of sorts. 'Come to think of it, 'twas a reward, indeed.'
The young war wizard blinked. 'Ir was?'
'However he killed them, they enjoyed swifter and less painful deaths than I'd have given them for loosing Onsler Ruldroun upon the realm again.'
'Father!' Torsard Spurbright's shout was shrill with genuine excitement. His sire hastened to hide the little note from Silverymoon he'd been re-reading, by using it to mark his place in the thick tome-a history of the life of Baerauble of Cormyr-he was currently leading. He closed the book just in time, as the younger Lord Spurbright burst into the room.
'Have vou heard rhe news? A war wi7.ard traitor's esraned from the dungeons under the Royal Court-the deep cells!'
Lord Elvarr Spurbright lifted both of his bushy eyebrows. 'The deep cells?'
'Yes! Rude Rune or suchlike, he's called! He's been hanging down there in spell chains because there's something precious in his mind, so Old Thunderspells can't just kill him. Have you ever heard the like?'
The elder Lord Spurbright nodded slowly. 'I have, as it happens. Whence came this news? And had it any warning attached to it?'
Torsard waved a dismissive hand. 'Oh, the usual, 'Mind under your beds-he's everywhere! Everywhere!' clap-cackle!'
'Cackle that was first uttered by whom?' Elvarr asked again patiently.
His son blinked. 'Oh. Ah, the Princess Alusair, they're saying.' Lord Elvarr Spurbright winced, then chuckled. 'Oho. Dearest Vangerdahast isn't going to be pleased by that.'
'My old friend Yellander repaid me well. Those dolts didn't know who I was, but they certainly knew where I was and what they had to bring to me. They even brought along his written instructions, to make certain they did everythingy «rf right.'
'And?'
'And I killed them, of course. Using the spell I'd been thirsting so long to use again-the spell, by the way, that means you dare not try to betray me-I drank their lives. Which is why I'm grinning like this. The life-energy of three men is raging in me like a flame!'
Telgarth Boarblade kept his face carefully expressionless. He had wondered why a man he remembered as a cold-eyed, veteran war wizard was babbling like a gloating maniac. So he hadn't been rescued by a complete madwits, after all-just someone mostly mad-witted.
So, does taking a threefold life need three fatal blade thrusts? Something to ponder…
Onsler Ruldroun babbled on. 'The beauty of it is, Vangerdahast can't lay the smallest spell on me! No realm can confine me, and no-'
'What's that? 'Boarblade snapped to shut off this flow of insanity. He cocked his head and turned as if he'd heard something.
The war wizard or, Boarblade supposed, ex-war wizard-what did they officially do to war wizard traitors, anyhail, besides execute them? — fell blessedly silent. His eyes narrowed, and he thrust his head forward to listen intently.
Then he waved his hand in a swift spell.
After a moment, he nodded, scooped something from a belt pouch, and handed it to Boarblade. It was a small, ordinary-looking stone.
'Well done, Boarblade. You repay my freeing of you already. Throw that at the man you'll find skulking outside. Hit him with it, but throw it slowly, mind. Underhanded, like a little girl swinging her arm back and forth to throw something as high as she can.'
Boarblade nodded, not asking for an explanation, but the bright-eyed wizard gave him one anyway.
'I need time to speak the awakening word, whilst the stone is in the air-to turn it deadly to the next living thing it touches.'
'There's only the one person outside?' Boarblade asked quietly, wondering what innocent he'd doomed by his ruse-but not caring much-as he hefted the stone in his hand. 'I can't mistake my target?'
'Just the one man. Throw slowly, remember.' Boarblade nodded and went out. Well, he'd worked for worse masters.
As the two princesses settled themselves in the chairs to which the Royal Magician had waved them, Vangerdahasr himself closed and bolted the door, took up a wand from a sidetable close to it, and cast a careful spell that made the walls, floor, and ceiling all glow a deep, rich blue.
There arose a short-lived singing sound, and as it died away, so did the radiance, leaving everything looking as ir had before.
'The strongest warding I know,' the wizard explained as he strode back to join them. 'As I promised you, this meeting will be private.'
Princess Tanalasta's gaze was cool, and her question politely calm. 'So, Lord Vangerdahast, do our royal parents know it is taking place?'
Alusair looked around the small, simply furnished parlor. She didn't recall ever having been in the room before, despite spending some years delighting in crawling, darting, and worming her way into everywhere in the Royal Palace. How had she never noticed that door at the back of the Horndragons' Chamber before?
Stlarning magic.
Tanalasta grew tired of waiting for a reply that evidently wasn't forthcoming.
'Yes, before you ask,' Tanalasta said into the deepening silence, 'we are wondering why you, ah, 'invited' us here. We are also expecting some answers when we ask things, Vangey. Being of royal blood and speaking to a courtier and all.'
The Royal Magician settled himself in the chair facing the two princesses, surprised them both with a friendly little grin, and said, 'Sorry, Tana. Deeper apologies if informality is going to offend you-either of you. A great part of my life has been spent watching over you and trying to shape you, however fumblingly and harshly, and I all too often think of you as something akin to granddaughters. I'm hoping, in the years ahead, we can even become friends.'
'He wants something,' Alusait told her sister.
'Well of course he wants something,' Tanalasta said. 'Everyone we ever see or meet always does. However, I quite take your point- this wizard never bothers to be polite to anyone except Mother and Father unless he wants something he can't force or command out of them.'
She turned her gaze back to the Royal Magician. 'However, being as we are speaking in private, I don't care in the slightest if you call me Tana, Vangey.' She glanced at her sister again. 'Loos?'
Alusair shrugged. 'He can call me anything he wants. If he gets too rude, I'll switch from 'Vangey' to 'Thunderpot.' Now can we ger on with this?'
'Yes.' Vangerdahast sighed with just a hint of weariness. 'Why don't we?'
'Buried, and the manute pile heaped back over rhe grave,' Boarblade reported, deciding not to use any extra words. Not when his babbling master could supply far more than would ever be needed.
'Good,' Ruldroun said. 'Close the door.'
When Boarblade turned back, the former war wizard was standing silently in the far corner of the room with two wands in his hands, both of them trained on Boarblade.
The long runner-rug that had been lying on the floor berween the door and that back corner had been rwitched aside to reveal a sequence of chalked circles, like a row of srepping stones, each touching its fellows, between where he was standing and where his new master was tegarding him from. The dangers were very clear.
'So, Telgarth Boarblade,' Ruldroun said quietly, 'the time has come for a little truth on your part. You are a mage of some small ability, yes?'
'Yes.'
'You have been a Zhentarim for years.' 'I have.'
