inventoried their contents anyway, and found that nothing had been removed. That makes sense, he realized. Raiders after a specific target could not afford to waste time deliberately locating and opening each vault, not unless they were confident of defeating the circle in its entirety and holding the Tower in the face of every counterattack that could be thrown at them. Most likely it would be a single vault that had been attacked. He descended into the mazelike levels below the great hall, and found another vault undisturbed. That was not the case with the fourth vault he checked, however.
At the end of a long, low corridor with a ceiling of groined stone stood a door of iron and adamantine leading to a place known as Nandiyerron's Armory, after the archmage who had built the room a thousand years before. Araevin turned into the corridor leading to the armory, and realized at once that something was amiss. Whispers of spectral magic, the remnants of deadly spell traps even he did not understand, whirled and drifted in the heavy air of the passageway, and the door at the far end stood open. The walls and floor were deeply pitted with black, bubbled stone, as if great gouts of acid or fire had been loosed there, and the stink of hot stone still lingered.
Philaerin lay crumpled before the open door, his staff broken in his burned hands.
'Eldest…' Araevin whispered.
He picked his way down the scored passageway and knelt beside the high mage. A black, even hole had been blasted through the center of Philaerin's chest by some slaying spell, but none of the attackers had managed to so much as scratch him otherwise. Araevin glanced at the passage around him, trying to guess at how many spells had been thrown there while the battle raged in the tower above. Demons, yugoloths, and such monsters summoned from the infernal planes did not leave bodies behind when they were slain-they returned to the foul hells from which they had been called forth. Philaerin might have repelled a few attackers, a small army of them, or none at all, but the battle had gone on long enough for many spells to damage the passageway.
Araevin rose and stepped into the vault of Nandiyerron, quickly examining what was left of its contents. All the Tower's vaults stored a number of relatively minor items, such as rings bearing protective enchantments, or arms and armor that any wizard or priest of middling power might make. He was not concerned about things like that. It was not good that such devices had been stolen, but they were not truly dangerous. On the other hand some of the vaults held uniquely dangerous items, things that could do great harm in the wrong hands. And Araevin saw at once that something important was indeed missing from the vault.
'The Gatekeeper's Crystal,' he said aloud. 'Damnation.'
No one knew who had made the Gatekeeper's Crystal, or even when it had been made, but it was a powerful weapon indeed, an artifact that could easily disjoin and destroy magical wards and protections of any sort. The device consisted of three similar shards, each a dagger-shaped wedge of pale unbreakable crystal. Tower Reilloch held only one of the shards. The other two were lost, as far as Araevin knew. But perhaps those who had attacked the Tower knew differently.
'Araevin? Is that you?' Quastarte's voice echoed from the passages outside.
'I am here, Loremaster,' Araevin called. He stepped out of the armory and knelt beside Philaerin again. 'I have found Philaerin. And I have found what is missing.'
The old sun elf entered the passageway and halted.
'Is he-?'
'Yes,' said Araevin. 'He was trying to keep them from the shard.'
'Ah, no,' Quastarte breathed as he hurried to the side of the Eldest, tears brimming in his eyes. 'So that is what they were after, then. The Seldarine know what sort of evil they plan with it.'
'They will need the other two pieces to use the device, won't they?' Araevin asked.
'Each shard is dangerous in its own right,' Quastarte said. 'But in conjunction, the three shards together are terribly powerful. Almost one thousand years ago the joined crystal was used to destroy the defenses of Myth Ondath. Only five years past, the Harpers used the crystal to throw down the old defenses of Hellgate Keep and raze that fortress of evil. But each time the crystal is used for such a purpose, its three parts separate and hurl themselves across vast distances and into far planes. It took us two years to find this one piece after the Harpers used it against Ascalhorn.'
'And now it is gone.'
Quastarte sighed and said, 'We thought it would be safe here, if anywhere.'
Araevin looked down at the fallen high mage on the pocked stone floor. Philaerin's face was not peaceful in death. His teeth were bared in a rictus of agony, and his eyes were wide and staring. He reached down to compose the Eldest's features, but as his hand neared Philaerin's face, a thin, cold sensation of magic at work briefly kissed his fingertips.
He drew back quickly and said, 'Odd. There's a spell on him.'
Quastarte leaned close.
'Hmm. Yes, I feel it too. A defense of his? Or some curse of his enemies?'
'It was not very powerful. Not much of a defense or a curse.' Araevin considered for a moment. 'I will try to negate it.'
Quastarte nodded. Araevin drew a breath, then spoke the words of a spell of negation, canceling out the charm he had sensed. To his surprise, the spell crumpled at once, flaring bright blue as it did so. He saw at once that it was a minor dimensional pocket of some sort, a temporary storing place not much larger than a big goblet. The spell ended, and from the imaginary space a small gemstone suddenly appeared, clattering to the ground. It was a deep green, so dark as to be almost black, and a glimmering white star flickered in its depths.
'What in the world?' Araevin breathed.
'A telkiira! ' Quastarte said. 'I have not seen one like this before.'
Araevin leaned back, thinking. Telkiira were small gemstones that could hold the thoughts or memories of their makers, even potent arcane lore such as spells or the rites necessary to create enchanted items.
'I wonder what this one holds?' he said.
'Whatever it was, Philaerin considered it important enough to conceal from his attackers.' Quastarte frowned and picked it up in his hand, studying it carefully, and continued, 'It doesn't advertise its secret, it seems. Sometimes all one has to do is touch a telkiira in order to find out what it contains. But this one is guarded against casual contact.'
'Would the demons return for that, do you think?'
'I don't know,' the loremaster said. 'But we should make sure that it does not fall into their hands. Perhaps you should hold onto it, Araevin. If the demons do return, you will defend it better than I.'
Araevin took the stone and gazed into its depths. It seemed an ordinary gemstone, if a somewhat valuable one.
'Very well,' said Araevin. 'Since our enemies have shown that they can enter our vaults and know something of where we keep our more powerful relics, it may make sense to keep it close at hand instead of simply hiding it again.'
He exchanged a dark look with Quastarte and understood that the old loremaster shared his true concern. The raiders had known their way around Tower Reilloch quite well. They might have prepared their attack for months, secretly scrying the Tower's defenses… or perhaps they had had assistance from someone familiar with the Tower's secrets.
'True,' Quastarte said, thinking aloud. 'Of course, that suggests to me that perhaps you should remove it from the tower entirely. Do you think you might absent yourself for a short time?'
'If you are certain you will not need me here,' Araevin replied. He found a silk handkerchief in his pocket and carefully wrapped the telkiira within. 'I could go to Lord Miritar's estate and visit with Ilsevele and her father for a time. He is a councilor of the realm, and deserves a firsthand report of what happened here. And it would seem perfectly innocuous for Ilsevele and I to go to Elion for a time. No one would think it out of the ordinary, would they?'
The old loremaster grasped Araevin by the shoulder and said, 'We may be jumping at shadows, but at this moment I would rather take too many precautions than too few.'
'Do not hesitate to summon me back if I am needed,' Araevin replied. He stood and slipped the small, silk- wrapped stone into his belt pouch. 'Once I am away from here, I will examine the stone more closely to see if I can determine what is hidden inside. It may shed some light on who our attackers were, and what they intend to do with the shard.'
