CHAPTER 6
1 Ches, the Year of Lightning Storms
Araevin decided to wait at Daggerford for two days, on the chance that Theleda or even Darthen might turn up, or at least send word. In the early hours, while the humans slept, he and Ilsevele braved the bitter weather to ride or walk the countryside around the settlement. The afternoons and evenings they spent in the common room of the Dragonback, trading tales with Grayth or digesting news of distant lands from the caravan masters and traders who passed through the town.
Late in the evening of the second night, as the Dragonback's evening crowd was beginning to disperse, Araevin and his companions looked over a map of the Sword Coast over steaming goblets of mulled wine. He intended to set out on his quest soon, and he was taking the opportunity to study the roads leading south. He could feel the second telkiira in that direction, tugging at the back of his mind like something he had forgotten.
'Which one of you is Araevin Teshurr?'
Araevin and the others looked up, and found a young woman standing at the end of their table. She was a strikingly unusual person, her skin as pale as snow, almost a frosty blue in places. Her eyes were large and violet, and her hair was silver-white and long, streaming softly from her head as if she stood in a gentle breeze-though the smoke simply hung in the rafters of the tavern without so much as a hint of motion. Tall and graceful, she wore high leather boots, black breeches, and a soft quilted doublet over a shirt of white silk.
'Well?' she asked.
'I am Araevin Teshurr,' Araevin replied. 'And you are-?'
'I am Maresa Rost. Theleda Rost was my mother.' Without awaiting an invitation, the pale woman dropped herself into a seat beside Ilsevele, and fixed her startling purple eyes on the others in the company. 'You must be Grayth Holmfast. I don't know who you are, or you,' she said, looking at Ilsevele and Brant in turn.
'Theleda's daughter?' Araevin could not keep the surprise from his voice.
Theleda had a daughter? he thought.
Theleda had been the first to leave the company, a couple of years before their last travels, so there might be as much as twenty years during which she could have had a child.
'Yes, we went over that already,' Maresa said. She poured herself a large helping of their wine. 'My mother told me a few stories about her old adventures. You were two of the Company of the White Star, weren't you?'
Araevin studied the young woman closely. She had Theleda's pointed chin and heart-shaped face, but her coloration was so odd…
'Excuse my surprise,' Araevin said, 'but Theleda is human, and you are-I hope you will forgive me, I am not sure what kindred you belong to. I do not think I have ever seen someone like you.'
The young woman snorted softly and replied, 'Well, there are not many like me. I am a genasi. Theleda was human, of course. My father was a being of the elemental planes. The plane of elemental air, or so I understand, which is why I look as I do. It was an unusual romance, I suppose, and I understand it did not last long.'
Araevin shook his head. Who would have thought? Then something Maresa had said resurfaced.
'One moment. Theleda isn't-?'
'Theleda was murdered last summer,' Maresa said. 'One of her business rivals had her assassinated.'
Araevin sat back, his heart aching. First Belmora, then Theleda too? She had always been abrasive, arrogant, armed with too sharp a wit, perhaps. But they had shared many dangers together.
'Our company is growing smaller by the day, Grayth,' he said softly.
The cleric replied, 'I am sorry to hear it, but the news does not surprise me. Such things happen in Theleda's line of work.' He looked over to Maresa. 'I am sorry for your loss. Are you well? I mean, are you in any danger from those who killed Theleda? We may be able to help.'
Maresa smiled thinly and answered, 'No, I am not in any danger. I found the assassin who murdered my mother and killed him. And I found out who had hired him, and killed his employer as well. I went back to Waterdeep after I saw to that.'
Araevin was not sure if one should congratulate a young human-well, half-human-woman on having successfully killed the murderers of a parent.
'I see,' he managed, and decided to change the subject. 'How did you receive my summons?'
Maresa reached into her tunic and drew out a small pendant in a star-shaped design.
'This little keepsake of my mother's,' she said. 'I wear it to remember her by.'
Araevin nodded. He had given the tokens to his companions when they parted in order to serve as conduits for his call, if he should ever need them again.
'So what business did you think you had with my mother?' the genasi asked.
'I have just returned to Faerun after a long time in Evermeet,' Araevin answered, 'and I find that I have need of some trustworthy comrades to assist me in the recovery of some relics of my people. Theleda was an expert at traps and locks and such things, and I had hoped I might persuade her to travel with us again. But it seems we will have to do without her.'
'I might be able to help you. Mother taught me everything she knew.'
'It might be dangerous, and there may be little reward in it,' Araevin said.
'I have reasons to leave Waterdeep anyway, and as long as I get an equal share of the profits-or am reasonably compensated for my time, if there are none-I might be interested.'
'Maresa, I don't think you understand,' Grayth said. 'You may not have much regard for whether you yourself are in danger, but we may have to trust our companions with our lives. You are young, and we don't know you.'
'I told you that I dealt with my mother's murderers myself,' Maresa said flatly.
'Which we only have your word on,' Grayth replied.
'Fine. Allow me to demonstrate,' Maresa snapped. She stood up quickly and rested one hand conspicuously on the hilt of a rapier at her belt, a graceful weapon with a guard of gleaming silver. A slender wand of dark wood rested in a small holster next to the blade. 'Who's the best swordsman among the four of you?'
Grayth folded his thick arms across his chest and said, 'I don't know if that would-'
'Afraid to try your luck, priest?'
The Lathanderite stopped in mid-sentence, his face expressionless. He leaned back in his seat.
'She's her mother's daughter, all right,' said the priest.
'If my eyes were closed, I would swear that was Theleda speaking. And the gods know Theleda never had a good eye for picking a fight.'
Maresa bridled, but Ilsevele set a hand on her arm and said, 'In all seriousness, you know something about traps, and glyphs, and such things?'
'I already said so!'
'All right, then. Open this.'
Ilsevele reached into her pack for her spellbook. As a spellarcher, she studied wizardry in order to enchant her arrows. She had nothing like Araevin's skill in the Art, but she was no novice either, and as many wizards did, she had protected her spellbook with abjurations designed to prevent anyone from pilfering her spells. It was a small, slender volume bound between thin sheets of laspar wood, with clasps of silver.
'There's nothing deadly here,' Ilsevele explained, 'but you definitely won't like it if you open the book without passing my signs safely.'
Maresa bristled.
'An audition? Fine!' she muttered under her breath.
She sat down again, peering at Ilsevele's spellbook without touching it.
Araevin sat up straight and looked to Ilsevele. He knew what sort of protections Ilsevele had on her spellbook, and they were formidable even if they weren't deadly.
He said in Elvish, 'Ilsevele, do you think this is wise? If she fails, she will be shamed, and if she succeeds,
