'At last!' Serafi cried exultantly. 'To know fleshly sensations again…'
The spectral knight encircled the mage in vaporous arms. Morhion screamed as cold fire stabbed his chest. He arched his back in agony, his feet leaving the ground as he floated in the ghost's ethereal embrace. 'Now you will die Morhion,' Serafi hissed, 'and I will live again, as I-'
'Not so fast,' Caledan growled, taking a faltering step forward.
'What is this?' Serafi's sepulchral voice driped venom. 'A feeble, half-mad invalid would challenge me! Faugh! I have nothing to fear from you, Caldorien. Even I can see that you are without power now. Your shadow magic is gone.'
'Really?' Caledan said dangerously. 'You're awfully confident of that.'
The hot flames of Serafi's eyes flickered. 'A pact is a pact,' the dark spirit shrieked. 'The mage is mine!'
'You're wrong,' Caledan countered. He seemed ill no longer. An aura of dark majesty surrounded him. This man had been, however briefly, the King of Shadows. 'Morhion belongs to all of us, and bargain or no bargain I'm not going to let you take him.'
Before the spectral knight could react, Caledan whistled sharp notes of music. A rift appeared in the air around him, like a dark wound in the fabric of the world. 'You wish to experience a new plane of existence, Serafi?' Caledan thundered. 'Then how about the deepest pits of the Abyss?'
As the others watched in awe, Caledan thrust his arms above his head. Tatters of shadow streamed out of the rift to coil around the spectral knight. Serafi howled in fury. Above, engulfed by strands of shadow, Serafi began to spin turning faster and faster, until his form was a black blur.
'No!' the spectral knight's voice screeched pitifully. 'This cannot be!' Like foul water spinning down a drain, the cyclone emptied into the rift. Serafi's voice became a terrified wail. 'But he made a pact-' His words were cut short as the rift closed with a clap of thunder.
Caledan collapsed to the ground. Morhion dashed to him and picked Caledan up, shocked at how light his friend was, as if he were merely the husk of a man.
Caledan coughed weakly, leaning against the mage. 'Well, the spirit was right about one thing,' he croaked. 'I think that was the last of my shadow magic. It's gone now I know it.' Mari and Ferret approached quietly. 'Something tells me I owe you a great deal, friend.' Caledan continued to Morhion. 'Perhaps more than I can know. I hope now you can consider that debt repaid.'
'I have never sought repayment, my friend,' Morhion said intently. 'But I do thank you.' Ferret looked around. 'Hey, where did that kid go?'
'I'm here!' Kellen cried, bounding off the last few steps of the staircase that wound up the outside of the pinnacle. 'I had to get something we left up by the throne.'
'What is it?' Mari asked, kneeling beside the boy. 'This, ' Kellen held out his hand. In it was a star-shaped piece of metal attached to a silvery chain. The Shadowstar. It had cooled and solidified once more.
Mari took in a sharp breath. 'I thought it was destroyed!'
'Don't worry, Mari,' Kellen said solemnly. 'I'll keep it safe.'
Carefully, the boy slipped the medallion around his neck. The Shadowstar gleamed dully against his tunic, looking like an ordinary piece of jewelry. Mari cast a frightened glance at Morhion. Almost imperceptibly, the mage shook his head. If there was anywhere on the face of Toril that the Shadowstar was truly safe, it was with this strange and powerful child. Smiling, Kellen reached up and gripped Caledan's hand.
'Can we go home now?' he asked.
Epilogue
One of the advantages of being a child, Kellen had learned, was that adults tended to forget that children were in the same room with them. Thus, simply by being quiet, Kellen managed to learn all sorts of interesting things. True, it was a little like eavesdropping, but it was the adults' fault for not being more observant, or at least so it seemed to him.
Outside the window, snow was drifting like white goose-down between Iriaebor's countless towers. Kellen at in the corner of the common room of the Sign of the Dreaming Dragon, stringing together red berries and pine cones to make a garland. Everyone at the inn was getting ready for a celebration, for tomorrow was Mid-winter Day. And this year, as Estah had said, there was more cause than usual for celebration.
As the blue winter dusk gathered outside, bright laughter filled the common room. At a long trestle table, the Fellowship of the Dreaming Dragon-with a few additional members-had been reunited.
'And you did what with my pickpockets?' Ferret rasped incredulously.
'Don't get excited, my dear weasel-faced boy,' Cormik rumbled indignantly. 'It was a business decision, that's all.' As usual, the corpulent proprietor of the Prince and Pauper was opulently attired. Tonight he wore a doublet of thick fir-green wool slashed to reveal silk of holly berry crimson.
'Your legion of pickpockets was competing with your corps of beggars,' Jewel expounded. The ageless thief had traded her traveling leathers for a graceful velvet gown the same dusk-purple hue as her eyes. 'All too often your beggars were wasting time groveling before people who had already had their purses lifted.'
'It was terribly inefficient,' Cormik chided, adjusting his jeweled eye patch. 'Under the new plan, the beggars approach a target first. If the mark doesn't cough up some gold out of pity, the pickpockets move in to take it from him. It's really a much more elegant solution.'
'And we doubled the profits from both beggars and pickpockets,' Jewel added. The matriarch of the Talondin clan reached out and patted her grandson's hand affectionately. 'I'm so glad you've decided to move your operations to Iriaebor, love. Cormik and I really have so much more to teach you.'
'That's right, Ferret.' Cormik pressed his cheek to Jewel's. 'And now that I'm part of the family, you can be certain I'll be checking up on you with great regularity.'
Ferret rolled his beady eyes. 'Lucky me,' he said sourly.
Everyone ignored him.
With a puff of wintry air, Jolle came in from outside bearing an armful of firewood. The stout halfling stamped the snow from his boots and proceeded to build the fire into a cheerful blaze. Pog and Nog ran shrieking through the common room. The tiny halfling children were engaged in some game that only they could comprehend. Estah bustled in from the kitchen bearing a huge tray of steaming honey rolls. The red-cheeked halfling plunked the tray onto the table and stood, hands on hips. 'All right, Tyveris,' she said sternly, 'I defy you to fin-ish off a third platter.'
The bespectacled monk looked up from his pewter plate and grinned. Tyveris had managed to steal away from his duties in the High Tower for the evening. 'Well now, that's a challenge I really can't refuse,' the big Chultan said with a laugh. He picked up a sticky honey roll in each hand and promptly began to devour the entire platter as Estah watched with a mixture of chagrin and amazement. The battle between Estah's cooking ability and Tyveris's appetite had been going on for a decade now with little indication of a truce in sight. Booming laughter rang out. The others turned in surprise. It was Caledan.
As always these days, he had sat quietly at the end of the table nearest the fire, neatly clad in his slate blue tunic with a fine wool blanket around his shoulders. Now he was laughing. The others stared in amazement. Since they had returned from their journey over a month ago, Caledan had smiled often enough, but he had not laughed once. Now he was laughing so hard his shoulders shook. Abruptly, his laughter turned into coughing that racked his body. As one, the others leapt from their chairs. Mari and Ferret were first to Caledan's side. They eased him back in his chair, and Estah hurriedly brought a steaming cup of herb tea. Caledan managed to gulp some down, and his coughing ceased. He ran the back of his hand across his mouth, and it came away with a smear of blood. The others looked on in concern.
'I've spoiled the fun,' he said huskily. 'I'm sorry.'
'Don't be,' Mari said fiercely.
He gave her a grateful look, then testily waved the others away. 'I'm all right. Really. Now, don't we a celebration to get ready for?' After that, the merriment continued, though more subdued than before.
At last it grew late. Estah and Jolle went upstairs to put Pog and Nog to bed. Tyveris bid his farewell,
