Rivalen gave him a disbelieving smirk. 'Of course you have.' He came to Galaeron's door and studied his cell for a moment, then motioned him toward the back. 'If you don't mind kneeling.'
Galaeron did as the prince requested, though he took care to tuck his toes under him so he could spring to his feet quickly. To avoid letting his gaze stray toward the keystone in the ceiling and give away his plan, he kept his eyes locked on Rivalen.
'Why the hurry?' he asked. 'A few more hours, and you wouldn't have to kidnap us.'
The prince drew a set of lock picks from his cloak pocket and kneeled in front of the door. 'In a few more hours, you would have escaped and been in another realm betraying the Most High to someone else.' 'Not actually,' Galaeron said, 'but I see your point.'
He fell silent and allowed the prince to work. On the other side of the interrogation chamber, Aris's escorts finished binding his wrists and ankles with shadow line and set to work on the chains binding him to the wail. The giant kept jerking his arms and legs away, complicating their task to the point that one of them was drawing his sword.
'Aris, don't get yourself hurt,' Galaeron ordered. He was beginning to see how he might help Aris and Ruha escape, but he needed the giant free of the chains. 'It isn't worth it'
'Yes, you must be careful with those hands,' Rivalen called, still working on Galaeron's lock. 'The Most High values them nearly as highly as he does the secrets Galaeron carries from Melegaunt.'
Ruha's escorts succeeded in opening her cell and motioned the witch out. As she approached the door, she glanced over her shoulder and raised her brow.
'At least you'll be in the same city as Malik,' Galaeron said, nodding her out into the interrogation chamber. 'Assuming he's still alive.'
'He is, indeed,' Rivalen said. 'After betraying your plan, he is a favorite of the Most High.'
The tumblers in Galaeron’s lock clicked open. The prince smiled and withdrew the picks.
Galaeron leaped to his feet and launched himself at the doorjamb with as much force as he could gather in two steps. 'Run!' he yelled. 'Save your-' The prince waved a dark hand at him, and Galaeron slammed into the back of the cell so hard his breath left him. He slid halfway down the wall, then found himself floating out the door still gasping for breath.
'Did you think I would fail to see the trap?' Rivalen asked. He held Galaeron suspended in front of him. 'You are foolish as well as ungrateful. If you try something foolish again, Weluk will cut the witch's throat.'
One of Ruha's escorts pressed a glassy dagger blade to her throat, and Rivalen's assistant began to bind Galaeron's wrists.
'You Shadovar have a strange sense of gratitude,' Galaeron said. 'If you think I'll help you destroy Faerыn to save Evereska, you are wrong.'
'Your thinking will change,' Rivalen assured him. 'And we have no wish to destroy Faerыn.'
'Then your wishes are different from your actions,' Ruha said, ignoring the knife at her throat. 'You have seen for yourself what the melting of the High Ice is doing to the Sword Coast and the Heartlands. You are starving whole nations out of existence.'
'The Shadovar have spent seventeen centuries starving, and we endure,' Rivalen shot back. 'If the Faerыnian kingdoms are too weak to survive a few decades of hunger so the Netherese lands can grow fertile again, then they were not meant to last.'
'I would take issue with that,' said a familiar-and very angry-female voice. 'As would Waterdeep, Silverymoon, the Dalelands, and even Thay, I'm sure.'
A tremendous clanking filled the dungeon as an entire company of Purple Dragons literally stepped out of the opposite wall of the interrogation chamber, followed closely by Alusair Obarskyr, Vangerdahast, and Dauneth Marliir. Galaeron was almost embarrassed to realize that he had been staring at an illusion the entire night without realizing it.
Galaeron looked over to Ruha, and she shook her head. The issue remained in doubt. Her confidence in Storm had not been because she knew they were being watched.
Alusair turned to a wiry priest who followed her out of the wall and gestured toward the two sentries lying on the floor over at the guard station. 'Owden,' she said, 'would you mind…' 'Of course, Princess.'
The priest scurried away. Alusair, attired in a full suit of battered plate armor, clanked across the interrogation chamber to where Rivalen stood.
'You will be kind enough to return the prisoners to their cells, Prince,' she said, pointing to Galaeron and Ruha. 'It is not yet morning.'
Rivalen looked around the room and, finding several dozen crossbows not quite trained in his direction, seemed confused. He bowed but did not give the order- apparently deciding that since he was not yet under attack, Alusair had either not heard everything he had said or did not find it indefensible.
'I beg your forgiveness, Majesty,' he said. 'I did not mean to be presumptuous, but fearing the elf would use his shadow magic to escape, I assigned certain of my lords to keep a watch on their prison.'
Alusair said nothing and looked to the guard station, where the one she had addressed as Owden was kneeling over the fallen sentries. He looked up and shook his head.
Rivalen was quick to cover. 'As it happened, my caution was well-warranted. We spied a shadow whorl outside and followed it down to this dungeon.' He waved a hand at the fallen guards. 'Alas, we were too late to save your men, but we did capture the elf and his accomplices as they were attempting to leave.' 'That's a lie!' boomed Aris. 'We were-'
Vangerdahast made a motion, and the giant's lips continued to move without sound. Aris scowled and shook his head in angry denial. If Alusair noticed, she paid him no attention and kept her attention focused on Rivalen.
'Cormyr is grateful for your vigilance,' said the princess, 'but the prisoners have not yet been returned to their cells.'
Ruha's escorts started to return her to her cell. Rivalen snapped something at them in ancient Netherese that prompted them to stop in their tracks, then he turned to Alusair with a smile.
'It is nearing dawn, Princess. Given how close the prisoners have come to escaping already, surely we can steal a few hours from the night.'
Vangerdahast scowled and tottered forward. 'That is not how the law works in Cormyr, Prince Rivalen.' He pointed an ancient and crooked finger through the bars behind Galaeron's back. 'Remove your bindings and return the prisoners to their cells-or take their place.'
Rivalen's golden eyes glowed almost white at the threat. He sneered at the old wizard a moment, then turned to Alusair. 'If that is the crown's wish, then, of course, we will obey.'
Vangerdahast pointed a serpentine finger at Ruha's guards and spoke a word of magic, and the two lords were hurled into the cell's back wall with enough force to shatter their black armor and leave them slumped on the floor.
'The crown has already stated its wish,' Alusair said, motioning a squad of Purple Dragons forward to surround Rivalen and the others. 'Will you unbind the prisoners, Prince?'
Rivalen hesitated, and Galaeron felt the cold magic of the Shadow Weave welling up as the prince prepared to carry him to the enclave.
'Go ahead, Rivalen,' he said. 'Abduct me now, and all Faerыn will know I am telling the truth.'
The swell of cold magic faded, and Galaeron instantly regretted his words. Another second, and he would have been back in Shade Enclave, with no choice except to immerse himself in shadow. The restraints came free of Galaeron's hands of their own accord, and Rivalen shoved him through the door of the cell with enough force to bounce him off the far wall and drop him to the floor.
'You will give the prisoners to us at dawn.' Though Rivalen attempted to phrase it as a command instead of a request, the mere fact that he said it made the question implicit. 'The Most High would find it difficult to understand why a friend would harbor fugitives from his justice.' 'Would he?'
Alusair nodded, and Vangerdahast made a motion with his crooked finger. The doors slammed shut, locking Galaeron in his cell and the two Shadovar in the one adjacent. The Purple Dragons escorted Ruha away and placed themselves between Aris and the Shadovar who had been holding him prisoner.
Alusair watched Rivalen watch this, then said, 'But he would understand allowing his friends to starve.' She gave him a cold grin, then echoed his earlier words. 'After all, if the Faerыnian kingdoms are too weak to survive
