has been so hunted over, so infested with beasts and creatures so deadly to man that I consider it foolishness to simply wander in and hope for the best' He shrugged. 'Still, in my younger days, I'd journeyed there a few times. I found nothing that wasn't picked over or nearly worthless.'
Baylee waited, captivated.
'Back in those days, even before the Army of Darkness descended on the City of Songs and the final battles were fought, some of the elves had started arranging for the flight of the elves to Evermeet.'
Anxiety chafed at Baylee, but he knew Golsway would only tell the story the way he wanted to.
'One of these men was a wood elf named Faimcir Glitterwing. He was one of those who reluctantly went along with Coronal Eltar-grim's decision to open the gates of Myth Drannor to the humans and dwarves, and others. Glitterwing was related to the Irithyl family, but was in no way close for the contention of being Coronal. He had been a hero in the Crown against Scepter Wars, and fell in one of them. But during that time, Glitterwing built a huge library, a library that rivaled even the greatest of libraries ever assembled by the elves. A library, by all accounts that I have seen, that rivaled what is maintained at Candlekeep.'
Baylee tried to imagine what such a library would hold. Magic, for certain, because the elves always had an interest in the arcane. But the histories, the geographies, the biographies and hopefully autobiographies, the stories of lands now dead and barely remembered, all those would be in there as well.
And more. By the Lady of the Forest, how much more could there possibly be?
'When it became apparent,' Golsway's image said, 'that Myth Drannor was doomed to fall and the mythal could not keep the hordes of evil out, Glitterwing's heirs sought to move the library to Evermeet. The task fell to Gyynyth Skyreach, Glitterwing's granddaughter. Both of Faimcir's sons had been killed in the Crown against Scepter Wars. Skyreach was every bit her grandfather's blood and temperament, according to the records I've read. But to move all the library at once would have taken a huge fleet.'
Baylee's imagination fired at once, seeing the elves cutting across the Trackless Sea, the ships heavily laden with the library. But knowing about the library wouldn't do him any good. Nor would it have gotten Golsway excited. The library would have been out of reach in Evermeet.
'Skyreach had only started moving the library when the Army of Darkness swarmed over Myth Drannor, beating the City of Songs down to her knees. Skyreach herself was aboard a ship, leading a fleet toward Evermeet She didn't reach her destination.'
Baylee waited with his breath held. A ship or ships had washed up on the shores somewhere around the Moonshaes and hadn't been discovered in hundreds of years. The possibility was staggering.
'I've researched this particular piece of information for decades,' Golsway said. 'A piece of gossip here, a thread of a tale there. But nothing seemed to add up. Nothing, at least, until a pictograph detailing Glitterwing's family's part in the Flight of the Elves was recovered. Uziraff Fireblade found the pictograph and sent it to me. I paid him a small fortune for it because he knew some of its worth, but not all. I'd planned on dealing with him myself because I know he and you don't get along very well.' The old mage sighed. 'Well, evidently that's not going to happen. So you'll have to make new plans.'
Baylee's mind was already working.
'You're sure this is him?'
Tweent looked at the man sitting at the far end of Nalkie's. 'There is no mistake,' he said.
Zyzll, his cousin, looked at him and shook his head. They sat in a booth across the room and at the other end. 'There can be no mistakes,' Zyzll said. 'The drow woman who hired us for this thing said she would have our heads if we failed. I believe she means it.'
Tweent glanced at his cousin with disdain. 'I can't believe you think of failure at a time when one of our greatest successes lies within our hands.'
'Don't look at me that way,' Zyzll complained.
Tweent touched his features, running his fingers along them and wondering what look his cousin referred to. The face was only hours old, and the newly absorbed memories danced around in his head like live things. 'It's hard to look at you any other way.'
They were dopplegangers, young by their standards, but still used to killing others to use for their identities. The faces they wore now belonged to two sailors they'd found late last night while stumbling back to their ship after a trip down the Street of Red Lanterns. Both wore dock clothing and carried a multitude of daggers. Zyzll carried a cutlass and Tweent carried a boat hook.
'The female drow paid us half the agreed upon price in gold coins,' Tweent said. 'When we meet her again tonight, wearing this man's face, she'll pay us the balance.'
Zyzll frowned. 'I don't trust her.'
'She's a drow,' Tweent said. 'Don't trust her. She won't be offended. In fact, she may feel quite honored.' He smiled. Trying out a new face's emotional range was one of the greatest things about having a new body.
'Suppose we kill him here and now,' Zyzll asked, 'and we go to meet the drow tonight but she doesn't show?'
'Don't forget,' Tweent said. 'Once we kill this man, we'll know most of what he knows. It could be well know enough to find her and make her pay.'
'Perhaps.' Zyzll cut his eyes toward the human in the booth. 'There is something else, though.'
Tweent raised his eyebrows. It was a favorite thing of his no matter what face he wore. 'What?'
'We've not yet decided who gets to become this man.'
Producing one of the shiny new gold coins paid them by the drow, Tweent spun it high into the air. 'Call it then, cousin.'
'Baylee, if you breathe a word of this to anyone, you're going to be buried in would-be adventurers seeking a quick fortune.'
The ranger knew the thought-specter of his old mentor was exactly right.
'You will find Uziraff Fireblade at one of his usual haunts in the Moonshaes,' Golsway said. 'He knows nothing of the elven ships that went down in the ocean somewhere near where the pictograph was found. He did not give me the location or the circumstance of how it was recovered. I did not want to tip my hand too early. But when you show up on his doorstep, he's going to know.'
I have never liked that man, Xuxa said, making an unpleasant clucking noise. She had tapped into the thought bottle's contents through her telepathic link to Baylee's own mind.
Baylee only half-listened to the azmyth bat. In his mind he was already planning his meeting with Fireblade. He had no love for the man either, and was surprised that Golsway had even had anything to do with him. Uziraff Fireblade was a full-time pirate and part-time archeologist, learning just enough to let him know when he could demand extra money for the return of an object he 'found.' Golsway had worked with the man in the past, but had never enjoyed the experience. Fireblade was a braggart, but he was an excellent swordsman with the twin cutlasses he carried.
'The trail won't end there if you follow it carefully enough,' Golsway said. 'But if it does, I'm sure what you can recover from the wreck will more than pay for itself. My only hope is that some of the books will survive in some form after all these years of being on the ocean floor.'
Baylee hoped so too. The thought of it almost made him too excited to sit there.
'And now,' Golsway said, 'it is time for me to go. But before I do, I wish you Mystra's favors in this endeavor or in any other that you choose to undertake. Take care, my son, and know that if I can, I shall watch over you.'
Golsway's final words echoed in Baylee's ears as the old mage faded from his view. He sat back in the booth, gazing at the silver flask in his hand.
The waiter brought his meal to the table, and he ate with more appetite than he expected. The pain over the loss of Golsway warred in him with the excitement of the elven ship sitting on the ocean floor awaiting his arrival.
The first thing we're going to need to do, Baylee told Xuxa, is find a ship heading for the Moonshaes.
In these waters, the azmyth bat responded, that will be easy enough. Trade ships go back and forth all the time. Money and supplies are another matter.
Baylee finished his plate and pushed it away. He nursed the single glass of wine he'd taken with the big meal. I’ll go see Madonld, Golsway's law-reader. If Golsway intended for me to make this expedition, he'd have left money for me. He gazed out at the green sea, wondering if he could book passage on a ship sailing this afternoon.
