Waterdeep.'
'Think nothing of it,' Brian said. Even the helm's magic was unable to conceal the smugness in his voice. 'Though I wish you luck in your alliance with the dragons and scorpions.'
Aglarel's eyes flashed, then he turned to Piergeiron. 'With your permission, I will remain in the city long enough to purchase some things that have caught my eye.'
'Of course,' Piergeiron said. 'All are welcome in Waterdeep. I'm sure this will blow over — '
'Please, Lord Paladinson, I think it is time to be honest with each other,' Aglarel said, raising his hand. He stepped away from the table and crossed to the door, then turned and executed a formal bow. 'In that spirit, it is only fair to warn you that the attention of Shade Enclave is required elsewhere. Your relief army will be receiving no more protection from us.'
With the soft footfalls of the Guards Most High rustling in his ears and his own hands thrust in his cloak pockets to hide how they were trembling, Galaeron followed Telamont down into the murky passages beneath the Palace Most High. As they descended staircase after staircase, Galaeron was sometimes almost able to recognize the strange tinklings and odd raspings that resonated from the dark sanctums of each level and was sometimes unsettled by eerie gurglings and ominous rumblings too macabre for an elf's ear to discern. Though he had no idea where they were going, or why the Most High had picked the last hour of darkness on the same night as Vala's departure to have him fetched to the palace, Galaeron refused to ask. If his plan to leave the enclave had been discovered, he refused to give Hadrhune — walking a bare two paces behind him — the pleasure of seeing him squirm. If the summons concerned something else, any questions he asked stood a risk of revealing his intentions to Telamont.
They were twenty levels deep when the leading guards finally left the stairwell, then led the group down a winding tunnel through a large archway into a vast chamber with a high vaulted ceiling. At one end of the cavern lay a hundred-yard slit through which the purple light of the predawn morning could be glimpsed outside. Several dozen Shadovar were pulling a large, comb like device back toward the slit. Closer by, several dozen more were folding a huge section of shadow blanket into a compact bundle similar to several others stacked neatly along the near wall.
When the laborers saw Telamont Tanthul and his party in the room, they immediately dropped to the floor and pressed their brows to the floor. Though this hardly seemed the sort of place where the Shadovar confined their prisoners, Galaeron's heart beat no easier. Malik and Aris had left Villa Dusari before Hadrhune arrived with the Most High's summons. Once Aris had collected his supplies, Malik would stage a diversion to make it easier for Galaeron and the giant to slip away from the enclave unnoticed.
'One of our shadow looms,' Telamont explained. He waved a sleeve toward the comb like device being drawn toward the slit at the opposite end of the room, then motioned his guards onward. 'Not what I brought you to see.'
They followed the guards around the edge of the room, then stepped through another archway into an even larger chamber where hundreds of Shadovar were busy sewing sections of blanket together with strands of shadowsilk. Again, the laborers stopped work to press their brows to the floor as Telamont entered. This time, the Most High turned to Hadrhune, his platinum eyes flaring with displeasure. 'We cannot have this,' he said.
'I shall see to it.' Hadrhune left the group and went over to the edge of the work floor. 'Return to your work, lazy ralbs! Do not dishonor the Most High by shirking your duty in his presence.'
The workers scrambled to return to their sewing, though all were careful to keep their gazes fixed on the area directly in front of their noses. Telamont motioned Galaeron to his side, then led the way along the edge of the work floor through a broad archway at the far end. In the room beyond, Prince Escanor stood on a bronze flying disk, holding a folded shadow blanket, while Vala, suspended by a new pair of magic wings, flew a line over the top.
'This is what I brought you to see, Galaeron,' Telamont said, crossing to the disk. 'I thought you might wish to say farewell.'
'Is that so?' Galaeron asked, trying to sense whether there was a double meaning behind Telamont's words. Did the Most High know what had passed between he and Vala at Villa Dusari the previous night? Or was he only trying to gauge the depth of Galaeron’s feelings for her? In either case, his answer had to be the same. 'Why would I want to do that?'
Telamont's eyes brightened beneath his cowl, then a breeze brushed Galaeron's face as Vala swooped down to land. Escanor came to stand beside her, saying nothing but absentmindedly running his dark fingers along the feathers of one of her magic wings.
'We've said our good-byes, Most High.' Her green eyes flashed, hard and cold, over Galaeron's face, then she directed her full attention to Telamont. 'I'm sorry you put yourself to such trouble.'
'No trouble, my dear.' Telamont tipped his cowl in her direction, then turned and studied Galaeron for a moment. Finally, he said, 'You surprise even me, elf. I had not expected you to release your emotions so easily.'
'I doubt it was as difficult as you think, Most High,' Vala said, with enough bitterness in her voice to bring a pain to Galaeron's heart. 'As it happens, they ran more shallow than any of us thought. I'm glad to be rid of him.'
'Indeed?' The purple line of a smile appeared in the shadows beneath the Most High's eyes. He turned to Hadrhune, then said, 'This one may someday rival even you, my servant.'
'Yours to see, Most High-but we must remember that only one of us serves the enclave.' Hadrhune allowed his glare to linger on Galaeron just a second too long, then turned to Telamont and said, 'I am afraid I must beg my leave, Most High. There is a disturbance in the Trades Ward that requires my attention.'
'Of course.' Telamont had barely raised his hand to dismiss Hadrhune before the seneschal melted into the darkness and was gone. The Most High turned to Galaeron and said, 'If you will allow me a few moments, the battle with the Myth Drannor phaerimm is going to be a difficult one. I would like a few words with Escanor before he departs.'
'Take all the time you need. Most High.' Though Galaeron's voice was calm, his heart was pounding. The disturbance in the Trades Ward was Malik's diversion. Aris would be expecting Galaeron at the Cave Gate within a quarter hour. 'With your permission, I can find my own way home. The route was not complicated, and the company here is not to my liking.'
He cast a meaningful glance at Vala, who smiled cruelly and brushed the edge of her new wing against Escanor.
Telamont took all of this in with his metallic eyes, then raised a sleeve in dismissal. 'Perhaps that is wise,' he said. 'I shall need you at the world-window by midday tomorrow, rested and alert. When Escanor lays the shadow blanket over Myth Drannor, we will need all of Melegaunt's wisdom that you can summon.' 'As you command, Most High.'
Galaeron bowed, more to hide his smile than to show subservience, then turned and left. He did not say goodbye to Vala or even wish her well in combat. He could think of nothing but of how she had betrayed him for Escanor, how Escanor had stolen her from him, how Telamont had permitted it… and, most especially, how he was going to make them pay. AU of them.
The greatest danger, Malik realized, was not that the witch's stolen haik would slip through his grasp — though it might — or even that the merciless winds would beat him unconscious against the enclave's stony underside — though they might. The greatest danger was the lazy vultures who spent their lives in search of easy meals from the city rubbish chutes. Already, one creature was perched atop his right shoulder pecking at his fingers, and two more were circling above his head fighting over the left shoulder, and a dozen more were circling beneath his dangling feet, ready to snatch up any bloody morsels the others let fall. 'You are sure this is a good idea?' Aris called down. 'Undoubtedly one of my best.'
Malik craned his neck and ran his gaze up ten feet of camel-wool haik to the jagged breach they had punched through the exterior wall of the workshop. Aris had care-fully sculpted the hole to look like the crater of a powerful blasting spell, ingeniously fashioning two cragged teeth into the edge to bind the upper end of the cloth.
'Who would believe I would dangle myself here on purpose?' Malik asked.
'I'm more concerned that you still be there for them to find,' Aris said. 'It is a long way to the ground.'
Malik did not look down. He had already done that once and through a hole in the murky haze glimpsed
