defensive, slowly being beaten back by humans and unhumans alike.
In the swirling haze of the flow, fleets had begun to close on the Spelljammer in a deadly swarm. The closest vessel, a deathspider, attacked with simultaneous firings of its forward ballistae. A rain of heavy boulders fell upon one edge of the minotaur tower, causing the starboard wall to cave in and sending a ripple of impact through the ship.
The deathspider banked and fired a second time. The roof of the neogi tower exploded under the onslaught of stone shot, burying a dozen warriors from the Tower of Thought under a ton of rubble. The hand-drawn flag of the Cloakmaster lay torn and forgotten beneath a layer of rock and stone wall.
Teldin and his companions knew it had started as they climbed from the hole in the library doors. The flow was peppered with the dark silhouettes of vessels creeping toward them like hungry carrion, and the sound of hand-to-hand combat echoed from every corner of the Spelljammer. The war had indeed begun.
The weave of the amulet stung like fire through Teldin's chest. With each passing second, the pattern's energy seemed to grow hotter, more urgent, spreading deeper and deeper toward his heart. He knew he should be thinking of Cwe-lanas, held prisoner by Coh and the Fool. He knew he should be sitting at the table in the neogi tower with CassaRoc and Djan and Chaladar, drawing up detailed strategies for the war against the unhumans. He knew he had duties to protect his friends and allies.
But the Call was upon him, buzzing in his head like a swarm of furious insects. With every step, every action, he was driven to turn and run toward the great ship's tail. The psychic pull was inexorable and could not be ignored. He needed to go now.
'I cannot wait any longer,' Teldin told the group. 'It's calling me, burning inside me. You can see it for yourself.' He opened his tunic. His chest glowed from within, a yellow pattern of light burning just beneath the skin. 'Teldin, what of the war?' CassaRoc asked. 'Damn the war! It's all because of me anyway,' Teldin said. Anger shone like a light in his eyes. 'If I'd gone after the adytum when I first arrived, we might not be having this war. If we leave now, the war will be over all the sooner.'
Djan folded his arms. 'Agreed, my friend, but we're still going to have to deal with the war when we try to leave the tower. Where are we going to go?'
Teldin thought back and visualized his route in his head. The sigil on his chest seemed to spark, and words and images came to him unbidden.
'The adytum is located within the Spelljammer's tail.' He grimaced in pain as the sign on his chest burned. 'I must somehow get to the Elven High Command, and go from there-perhaps through the Old Elvish Academy-then into the ship's memory, then through the Dark Tower.'
'Memory? What are you talking about?' Djan asked.
Teldin concentrated, and images came to him of a spiraled hall of statues, of row upon row of miniature vessels arranged throughout the rooms. The burning in his chest became cooler, under some control.
Teldin sighed and relaxed. The more he acknowledged the Spelljammer's call, the less pain he felt inside. 'I meant the Armory,' Teldin said.
CassaRoc laughed. 'Dream on, Cloakmaster. The Armory and the Dark Tower? The shivaks won't let you get into one of them, let alone both. I suggest you think of something else.'
'What else can I do?' Teldin appealed. 'It's calling me. I'm not sure where I have to go, but I still have to try.'
Djan nodded. Na'Shee was already securing her weapons. CassaRoc shook his head. 'All right, all right. We go out and cut through the war as quickly as possible. We make it to the Elven High Command. Then what?'
Djan said, 'The treaty with the elves. They should help us get through the tower. Surely they must know of passages connecting at least the elven towers together.'
'We can go across the battlement, for what that's worth,' CassaRoc said, 'and cross above the academy. We can go straight into the Armory there.'
'The Armory will be well protected,' Na'Shee said. 'Those shivaks are hard to kill.'
'Perhaps the elves will loan us a few warriors when we get there. I think we should leave our people here, to help out the allies,' Teldin said. 'A small band would work better inside the towers anyway.'
CassaRoc nodded. 'Just ourselves, then?'
'Just ourselves,' Teldin said, 'and whoever the elves can spare.'
'And what of Cwelanas?' Na'Shee inquired suddenly. She adjusted her crossbow, a sword, a dagger, and a heavy, double-headed flail that hung from her belt. The weapon's pointed, cast-iron spheres depended from heavy chains, attached to a thick club.
Teldin looked away. 'The call is upon me. The Spelljammer is giving me no choice.'
They ran down the steps of the library toward the goblin quarters. At the corner, they saw a small amount of fighting going on toward the bow, but most of the battles were restricted to the central and aft portions of the Spelljammer, directly in their path. There the fighting was fiercer than they had imagined. Without hesitation, the group dove into the fray, their shields raised and their swords unsheathed. Within mere seconds, Teldin was attacked by one of ShiCaga's towering ogres, and together Teldin and CassaRoc felled the Unhuman, hacking at its ribs and legs. CassaRoc delivered the death blow through the ogre's heart.
At one point, an ogre wizard leaped toward them from the shadows of the minotaur tower. A spell played like dancing light around his hands, and he pointed them toward the Cloakmaster. But Estriss, the mind flayer, shoved Teldin aside and thrust out toward the mage with the power of his mind. The wizard reeled in dim comprehension as the world went black and he crumpled to the combatants' feet under the unimaginable weight of Estriss's mind blast.
He is big. He will survive, Estriss said to no one in particular.
'Too bad,' CassaRoc said.
Na'Shee took the lead and plowed through the fighting, screaming a war cry with every swing of her blade. By the time the warriors passed the ruins of the beholders and the blasted neogi tower, their blades were wet with the blood of their enemies, and their hearts were cold with the fear that their comrades inside the tower were dead.
At the Elven High Command, the guards recognized Teldin as the Cloakmaster, but raised their swords in hatred as CassaRoc shoved Estriss toward the entrance. The leader of the guard, a tall elf bearing a thick white moustache, approached the mind flayer and said haughtily, 'This thing cannot enter! We are at war with its kind!'
The doors opened, and Lothian Stardawn strode out to greet the warriors. The captain of the guard turned to him. 'Lord Stardawn-'
'Colonel Suchbench, this is a valuable ally of ours,' Stardawn said. 'He is illithid, yes, but he is not a servant of Tre-bek. He is of the alliance, and he is a friend of the Cloakmaster.'
The colonel brushed back his wide moustache and considered the illithid. 'I don't like it, my lord, not at all, but you're in charge here. Pass, mind flayer,' he said. He leaned closer and whispered, 'but I'll see you dead if harm comes to any elf.'
The warriors were led to an expansive entrance chamber. The walls were hung with ornate draperies and decorated with pale, ancient statuary that reflected the history and art of the elves.
'Cloakmaster,' Lothian Stardawn said, stopping in front of Teldin. 'What can the Empire of the Elves do for you?'
'Stardawn,' Teldin said, 'I am being summoned by the ship-' he pulled open the top of his shirt '-and I can no longer resist. The time is now.'
Stardawn's eyes widened at the sight of the glowing pattern in the Cloakmaster's chest. For an instant, he considered that this situation might be more complex than he had thought, that perhaps this human truly was destined to be the heir to the Spelljammer's helm. Then he dismissed the idea as unbecoming for an elf of his stature.
The Spelljammer will soon belong to the elves, to me, he mused.
'What can we do for you?' Stardawn asked.
'I have discerned the location of the ship's adytum,' Teldin said. 'The answers to my quest will be found there. I need your help in getting there.'
Stardawn's eyes narrowed. 'And where is this adytum?'
Teldin pointed with his sword. 'It's hidden within the ship's tail. To get there, we need passage into the
