decay Galaeron could not imagine how they would ever wade through such a morass-much less find and reach Karse. He looked to Takari and asked, 'Which way?' She shrugged. 'I've never been beyond the Pale Ring, but no need to worry. Jhingleshod will find us.' 'Jhingleshod?' Takari gave him an enigmatic smile. 'Wulgreth's servant.'
'His servant?' exclaimed Malik. Once the phaerimm and beholders had gone off chasing Elminster, the little man had appeared alongside their hiding place, whispering after them until Takari jerked him into the shadow. He still had not forgiven her for the indignity his fright caused him to visit upon his pants. 'It might be easier to attract Wulgreth's attention by finding some trumpets to blow.' 'Not every servant loves his master,' replied Takari.
'While that is certainly true, it does not mean he will love us.'
'We'll worry about Jhingleshod later,' said Galaeron, looking back toward Turlang's forest. 'But we can't wait here. Sooner or later, either Elminster or the phaerimm will be back-maybe both. We'll leave as soon as Aris is ready.'
Kelda eyed the bog and snorted, prompting Malik to pat her neck. 'There is nothing to worry about, girl. Aris will be happy to carry you.'
Galaeron was not so sure the giant would be able to carry himself, much less Malik's horse. Aris was seated along the inner edge of the Pale Ring, madly chipping at a small rock into a granite cylinder just small enough to fill the hole the beholder's disintegration ray had left through his thigh. He blew the dust off, held the stone over the wound for a moment, tapped a couple of flakes off one side, then passed it down to Vala, who carefully lowered the rock into the wound.
The giant winced in pain, then laid his hammer over the wound and rumbled an incomprehensible prayer to the dour god of his race. A plume of crimson steam shot from the hole on both sides of his leg, then Aris pressed his back against an oak and held the hammer in place as the wound filled with stone-colored flesh. Though his clenched jaw betrayed how much the healing hurt, he remained stoic and silent.
When the rising vapor paled to pink, Aris returned his hammer to his pouch. The wound was still a puckered mess, but there was nothing tentative about his movements when he pushed himself to his feet and reached down for Kelda. The mare nickered, and dragging Malik along, backed toward the Pale Ring.
'You won't need to carry her,' said Melegaunt. He turned to Takari and held out a palm. 'If you will lend me your sword.'
Takari glanced at Galaeron, then reluctantly passed her weapon over. Melegaunt tipped it toward the sun and uttered a conjuration spell, all the while passing his palm over the underside of the blade. The side facing his hand grew black and hazy, while the steel facing the sun gleamed with silver sunlight. Takari scowled and started to reach for her weapon, but Galaeron waved her off. Though he had never seen anything quite like this spell, he recognized the general form as a Making, and he doubted it would harm Takari's weapon.
By the time Melegaunt finished, the dark side of the blade was as black and deep as a fissure in a cavern floor, while the light side shone too brilliantly to look at. He turned the dark face toward the bog, and a black stripe appeared on the surface of the water. When he adjusted the angle, the stripe broadened to a width of two feet and stretched to thirty paces.
Melegaunt returned the sword to Takari. 'Lay the shadow where you wish. It will keep our feet dry.'
Takari accepted the weapon with a gaping mouth, then stepped gingerly onto the shadow. When her foot did not pass through into water, she started forward.
Melegaunt motioned the others onto the black band. 'Quickly. The path lasts only a few moments.'
Vala drew her sword and started along the trail without hesitation, followed by Malik and Kelda, who was persuaded to step onto the shadowy trail only by the threat of being picked up again. Aris took two precarious steps before announcing it was like walking on thread and stepped off to wade alongside. Melegaunt went next, and Galaeron brought up the rear. The bog was more of a mess than it looked, with a muddy bottom that sucked at Aris's boots and filled the petrified forest with a steady cadence of slurping. Takari's trail was by necessity crooked and irregular, detouring around blockades of tangled trees, occasionally narrowing to mere inches as it passed beneath a half-fallen trunk. The air was damp and biting, numbing their faces and stiffening their fingers with cold. They were all shivering within a hundred steps, and the anemic rays of the rising sun were too thin to warm them.
'I have been in howling blizzards warmer than this swamp!' complained Malik. 'How can the water not be ice?'
'It is not cold you are feeling, it is death,' said Melegaunt. 'Death ancient and mad and mighty, death sorrowful and ashamed.'
'Then what are we doing here?' demanded Malik. 'If this Wulgreth is mighty enough to drain the heat from an entire swamp, we have no chance at all.'
'Not Wulgreth,' said Melegaunt. 'I am speaking of Karsus. It is his magic that makes the Dire Wood, and his mad regret that twists everything within it.'
Karsus was a name that Galaeron, at least, recognized from his years at the Academy of Magic. Karsus was the foolish Netherese wizard who had tried to steal the Weave from the goddess of magic and brought the floating cities of Netheril crashing to the ground.
Daring to hope he was finally beginning to understand Melegaunt's plan, Galaeron asked, 'So it is Karsus's magic you mean to use against the phaerimm?'
'In a manner of speaking, yes.' Melegaunt ducked under a tree trunk and came face-to-flank with Malik's horse, which had slowed as the little man paused to eavesdrop. The wizard slapped the horse on the rump, urging her forward and nearly knocking Malik off the trail, then said quietly, 'You will see.'
Galaeron silently cursed the Cyricist, then found himself debating the merits of killing him and being done with it. Takari would not think much of the idea, but Melegaunt clearly had his suspicions about the fellow, and the wizard had proven on more than one occasion that he would not balk at doing whatever was necessary to save Evereska. Vala would agree to whatever Melegaunt decided, so the only problem was Aris, and if it came to that, even Galaeron's magic was powerful enough to… the thought brought him to a stunned halt, scarcely able to believe how easily his shadow had crept up on him. The dark thoughts had seemed so normal.
So shocked was Galaeron that he barely noticed Melegaunt disappearing around the next tangle of stony trees, but he did notice when the path vanished beneath his feet and plunged him to his waist in icy water.
His breath left him in a shriek, and his feet turned instantly to blocks of numb flesh. His knees began to ache with cold, his thighs felt like slabs of ice, and his body drained into the swamp. He staggered a single step and nearly fell when the mud refused to release his boot. Something large and soft bumped his leg and stayed. He cried out again and pulled his dagger, but could not bring himself to reach into the icy water to find out what it was.
Galaeron heard another splash and looked forward to see Melegaunt dropping into the water as the shadow trail vanished beneath him. The wizard let out a surprised roar, then spread his hands and levitated himself out of the water. The path was fast disappearing behind Malik and his horse, but with Vala and Takari spinning around to look toward Galaeron, they were helpless to continue forward. Galaeron waved them on. 'K-k-k-keep m-m- moving!'
The trail vanished beneath Kelda's rear hooves, and that was all the impetus the mare needed to nose Malik forward. He gave Vala an urgent shove, and they were moving again, staying a few bare steps ahead of the vanishing shadow trail. Takari started to lay a crooked course back toward Galaeron, but Aris gestured them forward again.
'Go.' The giant plucked Melegaunt from the air, then sloshed back to Galaeron. 'I'll get them.'
The soft thing on Galaeron's leg slithered around his thigh, a tiny set of scales or barbs or whatever ticking against his elven chain mail. He took a deep breath, then reached into the water with both hands and felt something huge and fleshy around his leg. He jabbed his dagger into its body, then pulled it from the water and immediately wished he had not.
The thing was as long as his arm, with a slimy black body tapering from a round head to a narrow tail. He could not imagine what it was until he turned it over and saw a ring of sharp little teeth surrounded by a fleshy- lipped sucker.
'By the Fey Wand!' He held the thing at arm's length. 'Ifs a leech.'
'More my size, I'd say' Aris stooped down and crushed the creature between two fingers, then plucked Galaeron up in his free hand. 'And you should see the dragonflies up here.'
