feet below. He only found three dead men caught in the knotted length of the anchor line.
None of the treasure remained.
'What do we do now?' Cordyan asked as he climbed back aboard Tsunami Dancer. 'The trail apparently ends here.'
Baylee shook the water out of his eyes. 'It doesn't,' he said. 'We'll pick it up again in Candlekeep.'
'How do you figure that?' Calebaan asked.
Baylee took out the special bag from his bag of holding. 'Uziraff didn't know about this,' he said grimly. He took out a piece of paper from his journal and scribbled a hasty note on it. He put the note into the bag, then closed it. When he opened it, the bag was empty.
'Where did it go?' Cordyan asked.
'Candlekeep?' Calebaan asked.
Baylee nodded. 'I've got a friend at Candlekeep. Innesdav, an acolyte there, gave me this bag when I was still a teen traveling with Golsway. He took the time during one of my visits there to read some of the journals Golsway had instructed me to fill at certain sites I'd had interests in. Innesdav liked my writing, told me I had a keen eye for putting information down on paper in a way that allowed people to sense it for themselves. He said the bag was a gift, and that I should use it to send him my journals as I filled them, or special papers that I wanted him to see.' He looked out at the stricken ship. 'Uziraff didn't know about the logbook.'
'And now the logbook's at Candlekeep?' Cthulad asked.
Baylee nodded. 'Unless something went very wrong.'
'Do you know what's in it?' Calebaan asked.
'Maps,' the ranger replied. 'It looked like Skyreach had written down the location of the lost library of Faimcir Glitterwing in her notes, but I didn't have time to study it further.'
'Then your treasure chase is still on,' Cordyan said.
Baylee nodded. 'As soon as I get to Candlekeep. I'm not going to let it slip away. Golsway gave his life to get this far.'
23
'Awe-inspiring, isn't it?' Baylee asked. He stood in the prow of Tsunami Dancer days later, looking up at the rocky volcanic crag where the citadel sat. Candlekeep boasted many towers that stabbed straight up at the blue sky.
'Yes,' Cordyan answered. 'I've only heard stories about it I've never actually seen it before.'
'Well, today you'll get a closer view of it,' Baylee said, 'than most everyone on Faerun. Provided Innesdav got my note.' He peered at the dock at the bottom of the crag. The rock was volcanic and black, reaching down into the green of the Sea of Swords. It made it harder to see the group of acolytes gathered near the small docks in their black robes.
Calebaan came up beside them, clinging to the rigging as the ship sailed through the choppy water of the tiny harbor. 'I've only been here once myself, and it was an experience I'll never forget.'
Xuxa dropped from the rigging above and took wing, speeding across the water. Innesdav is there, she cried joyfully.
Minutes later, Tsunami Dancer put into the harbor. The black robed acolytes tied the ship to the mooring anchors while the sailors unlimbered the boarding platform. It thumped solidly onto the dock.
'Baylee,' one of the acolytes yelled from the crowd, 'it is good to see you again.'
The ranger's heart sped up as he spotted his old friend. He bounded down the boarding platform and seized the man by the upper arms. Innesdav returned the grip, the old man's strength still surprisingly strong. 'And it is good to see you again, old friend,' Baylee said.
'I thought perhaps you would be here yesterday.'
'Blame the wind,' the ranger said, feeling of higher spirits than he had since finding out about Golsway's death.
Innesdav was a half-head taller than Baylee, but thin as a post, almost looking like a scarecrow instead of a man. He pushed his cowl back, a smile on his wrinkled face. 'It has been so long, young warrior.'
'The years pass so fleetingly,' Baylee agreed. Besides Gol-sway, Innesdav was the other important figure in the ranger's life. Where the old mage had been a stern disciplinarian, Innesdav had been the doting uncle, always there with a gift or a piece of candy when Golsway wasn't looking. And in those years when Golsway was most active at Candlekeep, Innesdav had provided a vast tutelage of his own, bringing to Baylee's attention fantastic stories told just for the sheer wonder and amazement of it.
'You have sent me a very interesting, if abbreviated library, my boy.'
'They arrived?' Baylee asked as the acolyte dropped his arm across the back of the ranger's shoulders and guided him up the carved stone stairway that curled up around the uneven face of the crag to the citadel that waited on top.
'Oh yes, they arrived.' Innesdav laughed. 'I must admit to some frantic consternation when gallons of seawater seemed to be pouring into that old closet we set up to receive your journals. For the first few moments, I thought you'd been drowned somewhere and this was going to be the first notice I received of it.'
'I'm sorry,' Baylee said. 'I couldn't tell if any water was going through with the books.'
'Yes, and plenty of it. I mopped for hours. After I looked at those books, of course.' Innesdav held up a hand and Xuxa flew down and grabbed the little finger of his hand. 'Ah, Xuxa, and how have you been?'
Running for our lives, up against foes that we have not yet named, the azmyth bat replied, pursued and harried by the Waterdhavian Watch, and chasing after what could potentially be one of the greatest finds ever made.
'That,' Innesdav said, 'sounds almost like the accounting you gave me the last time you came here.'
Xuxa chirped in amused agreement.
Baylee reflected on that event, trying to place the time in his mind. 'That was when we found Tchazzar's scroll, which outlined how the smaller kingdoms of Chessenta united and what the trade agreements were supposed to be.'
'Exactly,' Innesdav nodded. 'That scroll was supposed to have been writ in the blood of the men who agreed to it. And the man who could produce it would have controlled the lineage of those kingdoms and possibly been able to step into a ready-made country ripe for the taking. If the person seizing the scroll was a good enough mage.'
Baylee nodded. The story had been told for decades since the fall of unified Chessenta. But Golsway had uncovered new knowledge that had led them on a merry chase to the scroll they recovered. It now resided in Candlekeep for security reasons. There were some who said that the ghosts of the men who'd signed the document could be summoned back from the beyond to wreak vengeance on the men who'd sundered the realm they'd put together.
'Did you ever discover if the scroll Golsway and I found was truly the Tchazzar Scroll?' the ranger asked.
'We checked as much as we were able. It certainly looks like it But there is only one sure way to tell, and no one here is going to allow that to happen.'
They met in one of the many outbuildings that were as close to Candlekeep as any outsider was ever allowed. A terraced rock garden surrounded the building, dotted with numerous trees and stone benches. Natural springs ran through the rocks and across the landscaped areas.
Baylee felt at home there, relaxed in spite of the last few days and what still lay ahead, almost at peace because of the security he felt there. He sat across from Innesdav and beside Cordyan, too aware of her and too aware also that she was female.
Calebaan and Cthulad sat on another bench, the latter puffing contentedly on a pipe.
You should have been thinking more along those lines on the voyage to Candlekeep, Xuxa said.
Quiet, Baylee admonished. The junior civilar shifted beside him, and he wondered if the azmyth bat had included Cordyan in their silent communication.
