been? Araevin, did you learn anything more about the attack on Reilloch?'
'We've spent the last two tendays in Faerun,' Ilsevele said. She looked at Starbrow, and decided that the moon elf obviously enjoyed some special confidence with her father. 'We learned the hard way that the daemonfey are very interested in the lorestones. We found… no, Araevin should tell the rest. The tale is his.'
The company gathered in Seiveril's tent turned their eyes on Araevin. He gave Ilsevele a pained look, but stood and faced the others.
'We followed the first telkiira's directions to a second telkiira, lost in an abandoned tower in the Forest of Wyrms…' Araevin began.
He went on to relate the course of their adventure along the Sword Coast, from their arrival in the Ardeep, to their meeting with Grayth and Maresa, their journey through the Trollbark to the Forest of Wyrms, and the fierce battle against the daemonfey at the ancient tower. Then he described what he'd discovered when he opened the second loregem, and what Quastarte and his fellow mages had divined of their secret enemy.
'So, we don't know exactly why the daemonfey want these telkiira. But they must be important to the Dlardrageths, if they are pursuing them at the same time they choose to launch a war against the High Forest and Evereska together.'
'I've heard of the Dlardrageths before,' Starbrow said to Seiveril. 'Their old tower used to lie abandoned near the outskirts of Myth Drannor. I never knew the story behind it, though.'
'Where is the daemonfey army now?' Grayth asked Seiveril.
'They are near the top of the Sentinel Pass, the northwestern approach to the city, about ten miles from Evereska's walls.'
'What are you up against, and what do you have to stop them with?' the cleric asked.
'We face an army of perhaps fifteen hundred fey'ri, five hundred demons of various sorts, and several thousand orcs, ogres, and other such creatures,' Seiveril replied. 'Against that stands Evereska's army, roughly two thousand strong, plus our own expedition, which will number close to six thousand by tomorrow.'
'They have that many demons?' Grayth asked in surprise. 'How did they do that, I wonder?'
Araevin rubbed his jaw, thinking. His human friend had touched on something important, he was sure of it. Demons were not native to Faerun. They could only be summoned from their foul hells for a very short time by battle-conjurations, or sometimes bound to longer service with difficult and expensive rites. If the daemonfey army had so many demons and yugoloths among their numbers, then they were clearly not using short-lived summonings or difficult binding rituals to enslave their fiendish allies.
'They must control a gate of some kind,' he said. 'The demons are serving of their own free will.'
'Evereska's scouts have reported the presence of demons in this army for most of its approach,' Seiveril said. 'So, the gate must be located somewhere near the place where the daemonfey legion and their orc allies began their march. That would be somewhere in the upper De-limbiyr Vale. Hellgate Keep, perhaps?'
'Presumably, there must be some constraint on how rapidly the demons can enter the world through the gate,' Grayth said. 'Otherwise all the North would be overrun by hellspawn.'
'Wherever they are coming from, the most pressing point is the fact that they are at Evereska's doorstep,' Ilsevele pointed out. 'Father, you said they were only ten miles away. Will you have time to bring the rest of the army through the elfgates before the battle is joined?'
'I don't know,' Seiveril said. 'We have two companies of volunteers holding the top of the pass, but we do not expect to do anything more than slow the daemonfey for a few hours. We will try to meet the invaders in the West Cwm at sunrise. We'll be marching soldiers up the track to the Cwm all night.'
'Sounds like an even fight. Can you beat them?' Maresa asked directly.
Starbrow looked to Seiveril, then back to Maresa. 'The numbers are about equal, but we have the advantage of defending,' the moon elf swordsman replied slowly. 'We could hold the Sentinel Pass or the Sunset Gate against any number of enemies-if our enemies did not possess the powers of flight and teleportation-but since they do, we can only choose our battleground against the orcs, ogres, and goblins. The fey'ri and their pet demons may choose to simply fly or teleport past the Cwm and either trap us in the Cwm or attack the city directly.'
'Why haven't they done so already?' asked Ilsevele.
'I think they're being overly cautious. They know there is strength in numbers, and so they prefer to keep their army together so that we won't be offered the chance to destroy it piecemeal. And perhaps more importantly, I don't think they know we're here.' Starbrow offered a fierce smile. 'They brought an army sufficient to reduce Evereska by itself, but there was no army from Evermeet here yesterday. By tomorrow morning, Evereska's strength will be more than tripled.'
'But they might choose to avoid fighting you at all,' Grayth pointed out.
'Not without abandoning their ground forces. If they assail Evereska directly and leave their orcs and goblins to fight through on foot, we'll destroy a large portion of their army seven miles from the city walls.' Starbrow shrugged. 'In that case, the best move for our enemies is to concentrate all their efforts on destroying the army that meets them in the Cwm by surrounding us through the air, knowing that we dare not leave Evereska itself with too little strength to defend against a direct attack.' 'How can we help?' asked Ilsevele. Seiveril looked up sharply.
'I didn't ask you to fight, Ilsevele. There is no need-'
'Nonsense,' she said. 'If you called for all of Evermeet to take up arms in the defense of the LastHome, then you called for me as well. I am a captain in the queen's spellarchers, and I have just as much reason to be on this battlefield as you do.'
'I don't know how tomorrow will turn out, Ilsevele. If you were to be hurt, I could not stand it.'
'I will be exactly as careful as you are, Father,' Ilsevele retorted. 'Now, I'll ask again: How can we help?'
Starbrow cut off Seiveril's protest with a motion of his hand.
'Stay close by our command group,' the mysterious elf said. 'We have no time to find a different place for you, and to be honest, I think we will need all the skilled fighters we can get around the standard. In my experience, demons like to use their teleporting ability to butcher the opposing commander when the fight grows heavy. There will be a point in the battle when several dozen appear at once to tear down the standard and kill any leaders they can sink their claws into.'
'How can you fight an enemy that can be anywhere he wants with a mere thought?' Araevin wondered aloud.
'Simple,' said Starbrow. 'You set a trap and wait for him to stick his foot in it. We'll create a false standard to lure in any demon rush, and prepare an ambush around it to make sure we punish the fiends for the attempt.' He looked over to Seiveril. 'Lord Miritar, we need to get up to the Sunset Gate and oversee the disposition of the troops. I think our foes will wait until they get their main body over the pass, but if they have spied out the movements of our army, they may push their vanguard ahead to seize the cwm before we can get our forces there.'
Seiveril said, 'You go ahead. I'll be there as soon as I speak with Lord Duirsar again. I also have to send word to Muirreste to bring the rest of the expedition through in whatever order he deems best.' He turned to Araevin and his companions. 'None of you are bound by any oath or promise to fight here. You do not have to stay.'
Ilsevele gave her father a level look and said, 'I stand by what I said before.'
'I suspect you have a need for capable mages,' said Araevin. 'I will help, too.'
'Lathander opposes the forces of darkness, wherever they appear,' Grayth said. 'I wish I had time to summon the Order of the Aster here to join in this battle, but since I am the only one of my order here, I will stand for my fellows and do what I can.'
The tent fell silent before Maresa shrugged and said, 'It's not my fight. But I agreed to aid Araevin, so if he stays, I'll stay too.' She jabbed a finger at the mage. 'Running headlong into battles was not part of our agreement, but someone has to watch your back.'
Thin, freezing mists clung to the mountainsides in the dark of the night, gathering and pouring downslope like rivers of wicked moonlight. Sarya Dlardrageth stood on an ancient Vyshaanti battle-platform recovered from the depths of Nar Kerymhoarth, admiring the masterful workmanship of a war machine crafted almost ten thousand years past. Shaped like a brazen disk forty feet in diameter, the battle-platform hovered in the air,
