The Mage In The Iron Mask

necessitated that he only view objects directly in front of him. Maneuvering himself into position, he faced his antagonist dead on, and fainted dead away, for he realized that he was confronting a man whose features were identical to his own.

'Throw him into our deepest dungeon,' the High Blade ordered. 'The wing in which we house the other madmen, vagrants, and detritus of society.'

The Hawks complied.

Rassendyll was tossed into a damp cell whose light was cast from a torch down the hall, its illumination barely creeping in through the guards' peep hole and the slot through which the slop that was considered food would be passed.

The weight of the mask bore heavily on his neck and shoulders, throwing him off-balance and dampening all of his perceptions. His body hurt, and he was racked with questions about his fate.

Clearing his throat, he cried out in torment and confusion, 'Why? Why? Why?'

A lone voice answered him from one of the cells down the hall. It said gruffly, with a basso bellow reminiscent of a thespian or an opera star, 'Will you keep it down? An actor needs his sleep.'

PART ONE

The Prisoner, the Thespian, amd the Traveler

1

A Friend in Need On a Mulmaster city street:

'Oh thank you, Mister Volo,' the pudgy thespian Passepout exclaimed, his bulgy flesh bouncing beneath his tunic as he tried to put as much distance as possible between himself and his previous night's lodging, the prison known as Southroad Keep. 'I don't know what I would have done if you hadn't come along to bail me out.'

'Think nothing of it, old friend,' Volothamp Geddarm replied to his former bond servant, pausing only a moment to adjust the beret atop his curly scalp before adding, 'and I thought I had cured you of that Mister Volo stuff.'

'No,' Passepout corrected. 'You cured me of calling you Master Volo. The title of 'mister' is the least form of respect I deign to use for my savior and salvation.'

'Again,' the impeccably dressed master traveler of Faerun (if not all Toril) instructed, 'think nothing of it.'

'But you don't understand, Mist… uh, Volo,' the thespian insisted. 'It was horrible being locked up in a dungeon cell alongside madmen, vagrants, and the other detritus of society.'

'Believe me,' Volo countered, 'there is far worse company you might have been keeping in Southroad Keep's subterranean dungeon, and not all of them are prisoners either.'

'It was horrible, dehumanizing, and torturous.'

'How long had you been incarcerated?' the master traveler inquired.

'Overnight,' the pudgy thespian answered in righteous indignation, 'and I didn't get a wink of sleep. An actor needs his sleep, you know.'

'So I've heard.'

'Of course,' Passepout continued to rant. 'The cell was hard and damp, the food was low-grade slop.'

'How terrible for you,' Volo concurred half-heartedly, occasionally fingering his well-groomed beard with the hand that he had free from tending the traveler's pack that bounced as he strode.

'It was,' the actor agreed, missing the sarcasm that was conveyed by the master traveler's mischievous grin. 'And if that wasn't bad enough, there was this madman bemoaning his incarceration all night, and he was accompanied by a horrible clanging as if someone were beating his cell walls with a coal bucket.'

'The nerve of that poor soul.'

'Indeed,' the thespian continued. 'I am quite sure that this incident has scarred me for life.'

Volo looked around at the dark and smoke-filled streets of what had been nicknamed the City of Danger, put his arm around his boon companion, and tried to put the fellow's one-night incarceration into proper perspective.

'Surely, the legendary son of Catinflas and Idle, scourge of the Sword Coast, expert ballplayer and star goalie of Maztica, and circumnavigator of all Toril; not to mention master thespian, and sponsored actor and artist of the House of Bernd of Cormyr, will be able to put this behind him,' the master traveler encouraged, trying not to be too sarcastic in his tone.

'Of course you are right,' Passepout conceded. 'It would take more than one torturous night's incarceration to scar me for life.'

'Indeed,' Volo agreed, then changed the subject, asking, 'by the way, how are things with your position in the Bernd family household?'

Passepout looked sheepishly at his traveling companion, mentor of the road, and savior many times over, and confessed. 'I am afraid that I am no longer in the Bernd family's employ.'

'What happened?'

'I didn't do anything wrong, really.'

'Well surely Master Bernd is a fair man, and his son Curtis is quite fond of you. I'm sure either of them would have stood by you.'

'Curtis was away on his honeymoon with Shurleen,' the thespian explained, slightly wistful about the wedding of the woman whom he had at one time thought to be the love of his life, 'and my problem wasn't with Master Bernd, but rather with the authorities in Cormyr itself.'

'What did you do now?'

'Well, remember Sparky and Minx, the Bernd family cats?'

'Of course,' Volo replied, 'two nobler felines I've never met.'

'Indeed,' the thespian explained, 'but there was a certain maid that I had taken a fancy to. Her name was Marissa, and she was quite pretty.'

'Of course.'

'Well,' the portly thespian continued, 'Marissa complained about the additional work that she had to do cleaning up after them, and mentioned her concern that the two felines might have kittens, and thus increase her workload, resulting in less time for me.'

'So?'

'So I did what we always used to do back in Baldur's Gate.'

'Which was?'

'I had them spayed.'

Volo fingered his beard, and commented, 'It is a very serious crime-in all of Cormyr-to interfere with the reproductive capabilities of a feline.'

'As I soon learned,' the hapless thespian replied. 'The maid threatened to tell the authorities of my deed unless I vacated the premises forthwith, and so I did. It turned out that a certain young stable hand that she fancied, thought himself an actor, and it was all just an elaborate scheme to put me in the doghouse, and him in the main house. If you know what I mean.'

Volo shook his head in gentle amusement, and urged his companion on. 'So what then?'

'The maid was quite insistent about going to the authorities, so I figured it would probably be prudent of me not to wait for Master Bernd's return. So I left a note of apology and took to the road, to experience life in the theater known as Faerun, once again.'

'This way,' Volo interrupted, indicating that it was time for them to turn the corner. 'I've just checked in to