defense.
'Your plan did not take into account… the quickness of the Chosen. They fling magic as easily as you do aspersions.'
Hadrhune responded with a smile-the predatory smile of a hunter in pursuit of crippled prey.
They are only human,' he said. 'How could their spell-craft be quicker than that of a shadow lord?'
'That is a mystery to me,' Escanor replied, sounding more sincere than sarcastic. 'Next time, perhaps you should lead the assault and tell us.'
'There will not be a next time,' Telamont said in that low even tone that Malik had learned to associate with cold rage. 'We cannot afford one.'
'Unfortunately, I doubt the choice is yours,' Malik said. He had long ago discovered that times like these were when he stood to gain the most with the Most High, since everyone else was too busy cowering in fear to curry favor. 'Now that the Chosen have seen how powerless you are to stop them, they will certainly return to roll up the shadow blankets faster than you can lay them.'
Telamont whirled on Malik, his platinum eyes shining brightly enough to see by.
'We are not powerless!'
'N-n-no, of course n-not,' Malik stammered. 'Only, after the losses Shade suffered in Tilverton, you will be if you lose a company of warriors each time you try to stop the Chosen from stealing one of your shadow blankets.'
One of Telamont's murk-filled sleeves reached out, and a tendril of shadow knotted itself into Malik's robe and picked him up by the lapels.
'Why must you always be right, little man?'
Malik shrugged and thought it might be wiser to say nothing, but that was never an option when Telamont Tanthul wished an answer. He lasted only a breath before the Most High's will forced him to speak.
'It is my curse, Most High,' he said-but of course there was no stopping there. 'It is my design always to tell you what you wish to hear-but since that is rarely what is true, before I know it I am foolishly blurting out the things your other advisors are too wise to say.'
'Too wise,' Escanor asked, glaring pointedly at Hadrhune, 'or too cowardly?'
Telamont's glance darted in the prince's direction.
'Careful, my son. You are one of those Malik is talking about'
He lowered Malik back to the floor, then slipped a murky hand through Escanor's ribs and grabbed the prince's still glowing heart.
'Interesting. Tell me about the spell that did this.'
Escanor's gaze shifted to the hand in his chest.
'It was the silver fire.' His voice was shaky. 'It burned through my spell-guard-'
'No.' Telamont pulled his arm away, and a glowing palm appeared at the end of his sleeve. 'Silver fire is raw Weave magic. If that's what this was, we would be spinning into a dimensional vortex right now.'
'Really?' Malik gasped.
He had witnessed enough combat to know that when raw Weave magic contacted raw Shadow Weave magic, the result was a rip in the fabric of reality. It was just such an accident- when the magic bolts of Galaeron Nihmedu's Tomb Guard patrol met one of Melegaunt Tanthul's shadow bolts-that had ripped the Sharn Wall and released the phaerimm in the first place.
'Then you must be…' Too late, Malik realized the risk he was taking by revealing that he realized Telamont's true nature. He tried to hold his tongue, but the curse compelled him to finish what he had started. '… living shadow magic!'
The Most High's murk-filled cowl turned in Malik's direction.
'Not living, exactly.' A faint crescent of purple appeared where a human's smile would have been, and Telamont finished, 'No need to feel bad about blurting it out. You were never going to leave here anyway.'
'Most High?' Malik looked around as though searching for a door, but of course there was no escape into anything but the shadows. 'That is hardly needed! I can keep a secret as-'
'The enclave, worm,' Hadrhune said. 'He means you will never leave Shade Enclave.'
'Just so,' Telamont said. 'I find your advice too… necessary… to let you go.'
'Is that all?' Malik sighed in relief. 'Then we are in agreement Why would I wish to leave Shade? I have everything I desire here-Villa Dusari, the ear of the Most High, a stable for my beloved horse and plenty to feed her. I would be a fool to leave all this!'
For once, there was nothing more for his curse to compel him to say.
'How very pleased we are,' Hadrhune said, running his thumbnail across his palm. 'I am sure the princes are as delighted as I am.'
'The only delight that matters is mine,' Telamont said. 'I will be delighted when someone tells me what to make of this.'
He held up his glowing hand.
'Obviously a form of false magic aura,' Hadrhune said. 'Commonly used in bazaars and such places to make plain weapons appear enchanted.'
Telamont remained silent, and when Hadrhune did not add anything more, he turned to Malik. Resolved to jeopardize his position no further that day by being the bearer of bad news, Malik tried to remain silent as well.
Then he found himself saying, 'We have a saying in Narjon, where I was once an esteemed merchant if someone fills your oil jar with sand, it is not because he wishes to give you sand.'
Telamont and the princes remained silent and continued to look at him.
'Have you no scale cheats in Shade?' Malik asked, exasperated. 'It means someone is trying to deceive you. Whoever created this false aura wishes you to believe his spell is silver fire-'
'Phaerimm!' Telamont and Escanor growled the word together.
'That would explain the swiftness of their spellcasting,' Hadrhune said, turning to Escanor. 'It surprises me that you failed to see it in the field.'
'Had you ever been in the field, perhaps you would-'
'Enough,' Telamont said in that cold, dangerous tone again. 'You are both to blame.'
He raised an arm, and with a flick of his sleeve sent Hadrhune crashing into Escanor. They went tumbling across the throne room floor locked in an embrace of pain. Telamont waited until they had vanished into the shadows before turning to the rest of his princes.
'Let that be a lesson to you,' he said, 'hi all things, you succeed or fail together. If one fails me, all fail me.'
The princes' eyes dimmed with fear, then somehow speaking in flawless unison they said, 'We understand, Most High.'
Telamont glared at them for a moment, then finally waved a sleeve in the direction Escanor and Hadrhune had tumbled.
'See to your brother's wounds and your own. This war is too close to lose another prince.'
The princes bowed and retreated into the shadows, leaving Malik and the other attendants alone with Telamont The Most High placed a sleeve around Malik’s shoulders, turned him toward the dais, and started to ascend back to his throne.
'It pleases me that you are happy here, Malik.'
'Very happy,' Malik said. 'Except for the frequent attempts on my life, perhaps.'
'Ah, yes,' Telamont sighed. 'Hadrhune.'
Malik waited for the Most High to say he would no longer have need to worry or that something would be done about that, but they continued to climb in silence until they came to the step where Malik normally stopped.
Telamont kept his arm around Malik's shoulders, guiding him onto the throne platform itself. This drew an astonished murmur from the attendants below, but the sound faded to silence as the Most High took his seat and stared into Malik's eyes.
'Hadrhune was not so different from you once-if you will forgive being compared to an elf.'
Malik's jaw fell at this revelation, for he had never seen enough of Hadrhune's shadow-swathed face to note
