Rozt'a glowered at the scroll before handing it back. 'I'm glad for you, Druhallen, if you've seen the truth of magic, and I pray to all the gods that you're right, because we are exchanging it for Galimer.'
'No question,' Dru agreed. His excitement rekindled the instant his fingers touched the warm, shining gold. He was a boy again, freshly apprenticed to Ansoain and she couldn't teach him fast enough. 'Sit with me a moment. I want to try something.'
'Druhallen…' her voice was ominous, distrusting.
'I'm not going to open the scroll. I'm not going to touch it. Here, you can hold it.'
She took it reluctantly. 'Druhallen, what's going on in your mind?'
'I came-We came all this way to cast a single spell, and I didn't cast it. I never found the time, never found the place, and when it came time to leave, it never even crossed my mind. I still have all the reagents-the dragon's blood, the mummy's bone, the perfect pearl. They're going to waste-'
Rozt'a opened her mouth, then shut it.
'Rozt'a, I want to cast the Candlekeep spell on the scroll. I'm going to cast it, but it's the kind of spell that's safer with an anchor, someone to keep an eye on things and stop the magic if it goes awry.'
'How will I do that?'
'Just take the scroll away. You'll be holding it. It won't be difficult.'
She was skeptical, but eventually agreed. Dru committed the spell to memory, then made the preparations.
'You're sure I can just walk away?'
'It's a passive spell, Rozt'a. Nothing happens here.'
Dru sat outside the circle with a clear view of the scroll and spoke the words that Candlekeep's blind scryer had taught him, meaningless words that belonged to no language he could name. Nothing happened at first, and he suspected the ultimate irony: After all this, he'd gotten some minor aspect wrong and the spell would not kindle. Then Druhallen's thoughts let go of time.
Slowly at first, but soon with dizzying speed, Dru's awareness moved against time's flow to the beginning-the very beginning-of light, heat, and majesty. The time stream caught him and carried him on a lightning bolt through the scroll's history. Druhallen had visions of huge sparks and larger explosions, none of which had meaning to him, except that the scroll was old. Its history was older than humanity, older than Faerun and when the lightning bolt carried him through those moments, it was moving too fast for him to collect any impressions of Netheril, Dekanter, or his own past. It was traveling too fast to stop and carried him into the future, where no mortal mind should travel but where the scroll had place and presence.
He'd perceived a return to pure light, pure heat, and majesty when it ended and he was sitting in the grass beside an abandoned trail, staring at an empty circle in the dirt.
'You were getting weird,' Rozt'a said from behind his back. 'Your eyes were starting to glow. I figured it was time to stop. Are you yourself?'
Dru turned around. 'Of course I-'
Rozt'a had her sword drawn, ready to lop off his head. 'You're absolutely sure?'
'It was a scrying spell, Roz. Like reading a book or looking at a picture-except I couldn't understand the words and the pictures didn't make much sense either.'
She lowered the sword and laughed at him.
Each of the next two sunrises Druhallen unrolled the Nether scroll and read another line. His second and third readings were not as insightful as the first had been, but they expanded his horizons and gave him peace-the only peace he got those days. Tiep had awakened shortly after Dru had cast his Candlekeep spell. The youth had sucked in his gut and told Rozt'a the truth before breakfast.
She'd swallowed her rage-a terrible thing to watch-and shut him out of her life. Rozt'a didn't rant or vent her frustrations on helpless trees and bushes, she simply treated Tiep as if he weren't there. If he spoke, she didn't hear. If he got in front of her, she turned the other way. Dru had tried talking to her.
We said we'd always understand, that we'd always be there to help him. He didn't believe us. He was right.
Damn straight he was right. He's gone over, Dru. First Weathercote, now this. Or have I got it backward? First the Zhentarim, then Weathercote. He's out of my life.
Not until the four of us are together. We can't decide without Galimer.
Tiep or me, Druhallen. If he goes into Weathercote Wood, I don't.
Dru had tried to reason with her; at least he'd thought he was using reason. The Nether scroll hadn't given him any new insights into women, especially Rozt'a. When he'd refused to judge Tiep immediately and send him on his way to Yarthrain at the junction of the old and new branches of the Dawn Pass Trail, she'd turned her back on them both. Add one delirious goblin and he had all the reagents necessary to conjure disaster, which was exactly what he foresaw once the green trees of Weathercote Wood lined their horizon.
Rozt'a was adamant, Tiep was forlorn, and Sheemzher was useless as their guide through the treacherous forest. Dru solved one problem when he removed the amber pendant from the goblin's neck. The red jewel sparkled when he warmed it between his palms.
'We're here,' he whispered. 'Sheemzher's hurt. If you want him and your scroll, you're going to have to show us the way.'
The amber went cold but, in the distance, red light winked in the trees.
'We're on our way,' he said, kneeing Fowler off the trail and hoping Rozt'a and Tiep would follow quietly.
Dru had no luck in getting his companions behind him and bad luck when Fowler balked before they'd gone a hundred yards. With the fevered, twitching goblin still draped over his shoulders, Druhallen dismounted and walked back to Rozt'a.
'Get down,' he told her. 'We have to talk.'
Rozt'a dismounted cavalry-style, swinging her leg over Ebony's neck and sliding to the ground without ever breaking Dru's stare. She began the discussion with, 'I don't trust him.'
'All the more reason, then, to keep him with us… until we can talk it through and put it behind us.'
'There's nothing to talk about. He's gone over.'
'Tiep's no more Zhentarim than you or I-but he will be, if we don't pull him out of this now.'
Rozt'a gave Dru a mighty scowl. 'Is this more of your 'truth through illusion' nonsense? Helm's eyes, Dru-you were the one who started worrying three winters ago, right when Tiep made his little mistake. You were right; I was blind. Cut is cut, right? I want him gone from my life… now… before Galimer comes back.'
'Because Galimer will agree with me? You're angry with yourself because you didn't see that he was in trouble. That's the reason you want him gone.'
If Rozt'a had had her sword drawn then, Dru would have been skewered on the spot, but he knew a little about timing even if he didn't know why it worked.
After a painful silence Rozt'a said, 'He's doing personal favors for Darkhold. The Dark Lord owns his soul.'
Dru shook his head. 'No more than he owned Ansoain.' He hoped that was a true statement.
Rozt'a blinked and swore and listened to Dru describe the piece of parchment he'd seen in Amarandaris's quarters. 'You might have told us.'
'I didn't want to upset Galimer. Tiep didn't want to upset us. We're all human.'
'It's different. Very different, and Tiep's in too deep. There's no pulling him out.'
'There might be. The Network-Sememmon in particular-is toying with Tiep. They don't want or need him, it's the thrill-the possibility-of corruption that keeps their interest. I think I can offer them a better thrill.'
'Dru…'
'I have an idea. It might work. I'll talk it over with you, and him, and Galimer after we're done with Weathercote Wood. Can you wait that long? We can still get out of this better than we were when we came in. It's that, or we leave Tiep here with the horses, and I don't like that for more reasons than I can count.'
He didn't like leaving the horses behind, period, but there was no riding or leading them closer to the Wood. Men owed something better to the beasts that served them than a grassy trail-side in the middle of nowhere, even if the animals seemed perfectly content. Setting the horses free had one unanticipated benefit. Without Tiep's
