The Broken Sphere

toward a circular, red-glass portal on the starboard side of the hull. 'Out on the observer station.'

Teldin grunted his thanks and hurried over to the portal. Just aft of the large, multipaned porthole was a small door. He grabbed the knob and pulled it open.

And there was Grampian (or so he assumed), a tall, nondescript, brown-haired man with a build slightly more slender than Teldin's. He stood on a small, semicircular gallery -open to the stars-leaning on the rail for a good view of the underside of the squid ship's hull. Apparently he was too absorbed in what was going on below him to have noticed Teldin's arrival.

Silently, the Cloakmaster stepped out onto the observation gallery and shut the door behind him. He drew his short sword, felt the sharkskin grip slick with the sweat of his palm. He took a step forward….

Suddenly he was struck by a vision. Superimposed on the tall human ahead of him he saw an even taller figure-gangling, slender to the point of malnutrition, standing twice Teldin's own height. Instead of brown hair, he saw a bald skull, strangely domed, covered with tightly stretched powder-blue skin…

An arcane.

Chapter Fourteen

The Cloakmaster must have gasped or made some other sound as the realization struck him; or maybe the arcane that called itself Grampian had otherwise sensed a presence behind it. In any case, it turned, its magically disguised face twisting into an expression of shock.

Teldin hurled himself across the intervening space, simultaneously releasing the magic of the cloak and returning to his true form. He drove a shoulder into Grampian's chest, slamming the figure back against the rail. Viciously, he grabbed the 'man's' shoulder with his left hand and spun him around. Then he locked his left forearm around the figure's throat, drove a knee into the small of his back, and wrenched backward. Grampian gasped, a high-pitched whistling hiss, as Teldin arched its spine backward like a bow. The Cloakmaster settled the point of his short sword over where he guessed the creature's kidney might be, and pressed just hard enough to break the skin. 'Call them off!' he hissed into Grampian's ear.

'It's you!' the magically disguised arcane cried, its voice pitched high with terror. 'The cloak bearer!'

Teldin applied more pressure to the sword, feeling its point penetrate another fraction of an inch into Grampian's back. Pain jolted the body he held. 'Call your men off!' he repeated. He felt his lips draw back from his teeth in a terrible, feral snarl. 'Now!'

'How did… ?' the creature started.

But the Cloakmaster cut the arcane off by driving his knee into its back a second time. 'I'll kill you,' he snarled, his voice cold and low, terrifying to his own ears. 'Call them back or you're dead.'

Teldin was expecting some kind of resistance and was surprised when the arcane immediately bellowed, 'Return to the ship! Cease the attack!' Looking down, the Cloakmaster saw the mercenaries still on the squid ship's hull hesitate for a moment, then obediently start climbing back aboard the nautiloid. At first he was heartily surprised at how easily they accepted the order. But, then, Why not? he asked himself. They're mercenaries; it's only their fight as long as their employer says it's their fight.

Behind him Teldin heard the door burst open. He spun, holding Grampian in front of him like a living shield.

'You!' Berglund stood in the doorway, sword drawn. He stared at Teldin, his face pale. 'By all the fiends, what are you doing here?'

'Drop the sword, Berglund,' Teldin shouted. 'It's over.' He twisted the sword and felt Grampian's muscles spasm with pain. 'Tell him!'

'It is over,' the disguised arcane echoed hurriedly. 'Drop your weapon.'

He watched Berglund's eyes and saw the thoughts flash through the pirate captain's mind-saw him make his decision. The short sword clattered to the deck. Berglund kicked it toward Teldin's feet. 'Get down there, Berglund,' the Cloakmaster told him harshly. 'Get your men back here. And bring my first mate over.' He tightened his grip on Grampian's throat, hearing the arcane gasp and choke under the pressure. 'And don't think of trying any tricks. Tell him, Grampian.'

'No tricks,' Grampian gasped. 'Do what he says. We must reach… an arrangement.'

*****

They sat in the nautiloid's main saloon, a large compartment at the aft end of the bridge deck. Teldin was there, with Djan, the wounded Anson, and Grampian-now in his true form, having let his magical disguise dissipate. The surviving members of the squid ship's crew-only six of them, not counting the two men present-were aboard the Boundless. Grampian had ordered his mercenaries to confine themselves to the cabins on the lower 'slave' deck of the nautiloid, and they seemed willing enough to follow their employer's orders.

Teldin frowned. He didn't feel fully comfortable. The mercenaries outnumbered his surviving crew by more than four to one. And Berglund, he knew, was a wily man. The only thing that the Cloakmaster had going for him at the moment was 'Grampian'-or whatever the creature's real name was-and the fact that Djan had a crossbow leveled at the blue-skinned giant's skull from point-blank range. The saloon had only one door, which meant the mercenaries couldn't get to them without giving plenty of time to… encourage… the arcane to call off his sellswords. Berglund could, conceivably, set up some kind of standoff, trading Teldin's crew's lives for the arcane- and if he did, Teldin knew he'd have to surrender. But he didn't think the arcane would countenance that kind of risk to its own precious blue skin, and he tried to tell himself that Berglund didn't have enough personal stake in the matter to initiate something like that.

The Cloakmaster forced his doubts aside. He'd worry about those things if they came to pass. Right now he had to concentrate on the present: there were some things he had to know.

Teldin stared into the arcane's small, watery eyes. Even with the creature seated, he still had to look up into its face. 'Who are you?' Teldin asked quietly.

With its magical disguise dropped, its voice had a high, fluting tone to it. 'My name is T'k'Ress,' the creature said emotionlessly. 'I understand you met my… '-it hesitated-'my brother, you might say, T'k'Pek.'

Teldin raised an eyebrow and nodded slowly. T'k'Pek was the name of the arcane he'd met aboard the Nebulon, a cylindrical ship in orbit around Toril, before the creature had been killed by the neogi. Interesting, he thought. 'Why?' he asked.

The arcane's voice remained emotionless, though its expression seemed to indicate tolerant amusement. 'The cloak, why else?' T'k'Ress answered. 'I wish you to understand, Teldin Moore,' it continued, 'that there is nothing personal in this. My interest in the cloak is purely business, my acts motivated purely by business necessities.'

Teldin wanted to spit. 'That's what your hired dog Berglund said,' he snarled, 'after he killed my crew.'

T'k'Ress extended a six-fingered hand, palm up. 'The deaths are regrettable,' it said quietly. 'Would that they were not necessary.'

'But you'd do anything to get the gods-damned cloak, wouldn't you?' With an effort, Teldin fought his rage back to more manageable proportions.

The arcane pivoted its shoulder girdle, a strange gesture that Teldin tentatively interpreted as its version of a shrug. 'If the truth be told, I have little interest in the cloak as such,' it said levelly. 'I cannot speak for others of my race, but I would expect them to share my outlook.'

Teldin stared at the creature. 'What?'

'I have little interest in the cloak as such,' T'k'Ress repeated.

'Then… ?'

'Why?' the blue-skinned giant finished. 'Business, as I have said.

'You know that my race survives through trade,' it went on quietly. 'We are the only source for new