The knight sneered. 'How generous! Just you, against us all?'
She shrugged. 'If some of you would like to be gallant and retire while I butcher the rest, be assured I'll get to you all eventually.'
'You're mad!' barked a Gralhund warrior, stalking to meet her.
'That's true enough,' the woman agreed. 'So, shall we?'
Reluctantly, shaking his head, the Gralhund warrior swung his axe at her-and she danced aside, sprang behind his swing to thrust steel into his armpit, and spun to slice open the throat of another warrior with her dagger.
'Doomed,' Loraun murmured-but stared, jaw dropping, as the stranger with the silver hair slashed, thrust, leaped, and slew, a tireless butchery that took her into the heart of the Just Blades.
Everyone in Ombreir watched in deepening awe, waiting for her inevitable fall… a fall that did not come.
'Twenty or more, already,' Mirt mumbled, shaking his head. He could see some sort of warding magic was turning aside hurled lances and fired arrows from the woman, but still. .
Sheer weariness should drag her arms down soon, and they'd overwhelm her.
'I weary of this,' they heard her say, through some trick of her magic-in the instant before beams of silver fire lashed out from her eyes, to blast to ashes Prince Uldrako and the senior Gauntyl and Gralhund knights riding with him. 'Now begone, or I'll slay you all!'
She buried her steel in another two warriors-and the rest of the Just Blades shouted, turned, and fled, leaving more than sixty fallen on the hill.
The woman watched them go, then turned and walked back to the gates, drenched in blood not her own and leaking silver flames here and there where she'd been wounded.
'The barrier still stands,' she warned those gaping at her.
'I'd not seek to depart, were I you.'
She handed back Mirt's bloody sword and dagger, and told him, 'I need a bath, and trust your cooking best. Make me some of that shieldfry of yours. There's still enough of Ambror left for a good meal, I think.'
Mirt gave her a hard look, as men gagged or winced around him, and decided she was jesting. He hoped.
'Cook for me up in South Tower,' she ordered. Then she commanded everyone else, 'Where not one of you will go, until Mirt and I come down out of there.'
The fire quickened. Mirt set two pans to warming over it. No need to weaken a shield when he had cookware. He laid Ombreir's best leg of lamb on the cutting board, hefted the cleaver, and set to work.
Silver hair swirled in the doorway, shedding a fine mist of water. Her bath was done already. 'You know who I am, don't you?'
He nodded. That night, years ago, had just come back to him. 'Dove, of the Seven,' he growled. 'Saw you once, dancing at the Bright Bared Battlelass, in Waterdeep.'
Dove grinned. 'Couldn't resist the name of that place. Pity 'tis gone. So you've seen all of me.'
Mirt nodded. 'Thews and thighs to out-muscle mine,' he said. 'So what brings a Chosen of Mystra into the endless war that is Amn?'
'Serving the goddess. In this case, hunting down Red Wizards who repeatedly offend against her wishes.'
'Tell me,' Mirt said, cutting up garlic. 'Please.'
'Klellyn, a Thayan agent. Silver fire-put my tongue in his mouth, left no mark. He cast a wildfire spell you were close enough to feel.'
Mirt nodded. 'Wildfire's bad?'
'He was trying to forever make magic 'go dead' in one tower here, as a trap for other mages. Lured there, a simple dagger thrust could end them. That sort of deliberate damaging of the Weave is something we Chosen are sworn to try to prevent.'
Mirt set the lamb to sizzling, turned to face Dove, and asked simply, 'Are you going to let me live?'
'Of course. You, I like and trust. You're no misuser of the Art.'
'Was the vizier?'
'Small, puny. . Ongalor is a vindictive fool, about half the astute schemer he thinks he is. The five wizards who work with him, though… Orauth is formidable, and Maundark's deadly enough.'
'Why the doubles, for all of us? Why didn't he just blast us?'
'He wanted the Just Blades to slaughter all of you. The doubles obey him and can be used in many swindles. Later, he'll let others capture those doubles. When those others put forward the doubles or their remains, the five wizards will end the magical disguises on the doubles, and Ongalor's rivals will be discredited, not to be trusted by anyone in Amn.'
Mirt nodded, then frowned. 'Five. . three gone with Ongalor, Klellyn dead-did you kill Ambror, too?'
'Yes. Another Thayan I was after. He'd just cast a life-draining magic that would have withered away two folk here and used their life force to allow him to mind control others at will. You're penned in with more serpents than Loraun. The fifth wizard is still here in Ombreir.'
'Who?'
Dove drew Mirt's sword out of his scabbard, turned to the door and flung it wide-and drove the sword deep into Tauniira, who'd been leaning against the door listening.
Spitting blood, Tauniira staggered forward into the room.
'Behold the wizard Varessa,' the Chosen said. 'Ongalor's lover-and commander.'
Mirt gaped at his dying comrade.
'She killed the real Tauniira months ago,' Dove added. 'Just as I've now killed her. After all, in war, people die.'
THE SIEGE OF ZERITH HOLD
The Year of Shadows (1358 DR)
'For nearly the entire Year of Shadows, the goblin hordes of the High Peaks and the Kuldin Peaks attacked Erlkazar, laying siege to Duhlnarim fir over three months. The war against King Ertyk Uhl of the Starrock goblin tribe seemed endless…'
'Fire!'
Arrows vaulted over the wall of Zerith Hold. The twang of bowstrings drifted off just in time to hear the entire volley slap to the ground like a wind-driven steel rain.
'Again!' shouted Lord Purdun, the rightful ruler and keeper of Zerith Hold. His red hair and the long-healed scars on his left cheek shone bright in the afternoon sun as he stood atop the wall, looking out over the ruined battlefield.
The archers responded with another chorus of buzzing from their bows.
The half-elf, half-steel dragon ranger, Jivam Tammsel, crouched behind the crenellation, beside Purdun, winded from the fight. The ashen scales that ran down his neck, shoulders, and back slid effortlessly over one another with each gulp of air.
The two men had been inducted into Elestam's Crusaders together, and both had sworn an oath to protect
