Cold Steel and Secrets Part 4

1478 DR

When you’re caught, the only thing to do is to start accusing others. Rucas Sarfael forgot who gave him that advice, but it sounded better than the blood pounding in his ears as Arlon pressed a dagger against his throat.

“Yes, you were betrayed,” he said as calmly as he could to the enraged Nasher.

The wounded man growled. The crowd of Nashers pressed Sarfael against the edge of the bed where Arlon was propped upright. The Nasher’s head bandage still seeped blood from the wounds he got bowling over ash zombies with his thick skull.

“But I was not the one who betrayed you,” Sarfael went on. If ever he needed his luck, he needed it now. He had to turn the night’s disaster into something other than a death sentence for himself. He could make an honest confession, admit that he was a spy for Dhafiyand, but quite truthfully deny that he had anything to do with the Red Wizard who engineered the attack against them and stole the box that might or might not contain Neverwinter’s long-lost crown.

Of course, the minute he confessed to being Dhafiyand’s spy, he rather doubted that he’d get another word out.

So better to lie and lie profusely, to throw metaphorical sand in their eyes, and hope that the blinded Nashers would let him go free.

He still doubted the outcome, but he refused to let that show on his face.

“The Sons of Alagondar sent me,” Sarfael said.

“What?” cried Arlon Bladeshaper, so startled he let his hand drop and knife blade slip. Sarfael tried not to wince as the dagger nicked him.

“The Graycloaks are not pleased with your leadership, your reckless endangerment of your followers, your unwise alliances.” Ah, the words were just rolling off his tongue now. Sarfael almost smirked at the stunned expression on Arlon’s face.

“I am as true and loyal a Son as any man,” Arlon shouted. “No man has done more to reclaim the city. No one wants to see the new Neverwinter governed by its citizens more than myself.”

“Exactly,” said Sarfael, easing back on his heels and shaking off the hands of the stunned Nashers. “You want it so badly, that you do not stop and think about your actions. Older heads, wiser heads, know that a terrible price will be paid by all if you persist. Why look around you, see how many are wounded here tonight. All because you overreached yourself.”

“No! What do you mean?” Arlon grew quieter and the rest pressed close around Sarfael.

“Who were you to take the crown of Neverwinter?” Sarfael spoke with great solemnity. “You should have sent to the Graycloaks and told them your plans. Instead, you spoke rashly and loudly, very loudly, to others. Of course, you were overheard and followed out of the city.”

Not that Sarfael knew that. But it was a good guess that Arlon had failed to keep his mouth shut.

“No,” Arlon said with a quiet firmness that made him sound much more a leader than any shout. “I was with Elyne and the others here for the entire day. No strangers heard us.”

“Then you have a spy among you,” said Sarfael. “Someone who slipped out and betrayed your plans to the Red Wizard who attacked us.” Even as he said it, he was certain he was right. The only question was: Who had been playing his own game amid the Nashers? And, more unsettling, how had he missed the second spy?

“And none of us were ever alone.” Arlon looked slightly dazed at the abrupt switch from accuser to accused, but color was seeping back into his face. Give him a few more minutes, Sarfael thought, and he’ll be bellowing again.

“As is true of Sarfael,” Elyne said, stepping forward and brushing aside the others. “He stayed at the school and helped the students throughout the day. No messages were sent by him. He saved our lives tonight, Arlon, and these accusations are baseless.”

“Someone betrayed us,” Arlon stated.

“It cannot be anyone here,” Elyne said. “We kept to ourselves throughout the day. We left the city in small groups, but nobody went alone and nobody left our sight.”

“Except Montimort,” said Parnadiz. “He went off in the afternoon, said he needed something for his spell to summon the crown.”

Montimort flushed red and started to stutter a denial.

As always, Elyne stepped between the Luskar boy and the others. “He risked the most for us. He worked that spell. Why would he betray us?”

From everything he’d done, and from everything he’d said, Sarfael could think of no reason that Montimort would collude with any enemy. The boy lived to help Elyne. He even wanted to crown her queen of Neverwinter.

Still, Parnidiz’s story did spark a question. Sarfael remembered their earlier conversation about the spell necessary to summon the crown. “You said the spell came from knowing the right order of words, spoken in the correct place. What ingredients would you need?”

Montimort slid off the stool and along the wall, backing away from them.

“What have you done, my friend?” Elyne asked him, very gently.

“Nothing,” Montimort could barely speak. His voice came out in a strangled whisper. His limbs shook and his head began to twitch like a worried rodent.

Another question bobbed up in Sarfael’s worried mind and it was out of his mouth before he stopped to think: “Who gave you the spell to kill Karion?”

He heard Montimort squeak and Elyne gasp. The boy threw one despairing look at them and then bolted toward the door.

Stocky Parnadiz grabbed him. He locked his arms tight around Montimort and dragged him back.

“I did it for all of us,” Montimort yelled into their astonished faces. “I had to. But I would never have let him take the crown. I didn’t know he would try to steal it.”

“So you did know that Red Wizard?” Elyne asked in puzzled sorrow.

“No, yes,” Montimort squirmed under the weight of their stares. “I needed a spell, something to force Karion to help us. He… this man… he offered to teach me. I didn’t know what he was.”

“Did you tell him about the crown?” Arlon asked.

“He never saw the box,” Montimort said. “I would just take him copies of the certain words, ones I needed help to translate. I never spoke about the crown or what it was.”

“But he guessed,” Arlon said. “Something you said. Something you did. He knew what you were trying to summon.”

“He sent you to Upland Rise, didn’t he?” Sarfael asked. The location had made no sense to him at the time, unprotected, outside the city walls. A perfect place for an ambush. Now he understood.

Montimort nodded. “He said that we had to go there. That we could not make the spell work anywhere else. But I never thought he would steal the box.”

“Do you know his name?” Elyne questioned him.

“I never heard a name. Elyne, I meant no harm. I only wanted to help,” Montimort pleaded with her.

Elyne sighed. “You led us into an ambush, whether you meant to or not.”

“What will you do?” Montimort asked in a very small voice. “Will you make me leave the Nashers?”

“It’s not for me to decide,” Elyne said with a glance at Arlon, who lay looking somewhat stunned by all the revelations. “It will be put to a vote, you know that.”

Montimort turned pale. He had always been the outsider in the group, only tolerated because of Elyne’s constant championship.

Sarfael pitied the boy, but he could not let him remain silent. Too much was at stake. They had to recover the crown. Far better the Nashers held it than a Red Wizard. “What else can you tell us of this Red Wizard? We need to find him.”

“I met him in his house,” said Montimort. “At least, I assume that it was his. A small house near the docks. Very plain on the outside but the rooms were full of little treasures. Very warm too. But I suppose that was because he was an old man. He always had a fire going when I went there.”

Even as he spoke, Rucas Sarfael knew the name of their thief. He knew why the Red Wizard’s ink-stained hand had seemed so familiar when he snatched the box away from Montimort. But it made no sense: Dhafiyand a Red Wizard? Lord Neverember’s spymaster stealing the crown of Neverwinter for himself?

“There has indeed been treachery,” Sarfael said aloud and the rest turned toward him with startled looks. Perhaps they had never heard him sound so cold, so furious. “But I know this man and where he lives. I can take you to his house.”

Sarfael’s hand curled around the twisted black horn that formed the hilt of Mavreen’s sword. The Red Wizards turned her body into a monster. He still remembered the hideous night he was forced to cut her head from her shoulders to lay her back into her grave. He remembered too telling that story to Dhafiyand. How the old man’s ready sympathy made him willing to listen to Dhafiyand’s plots and plans. How Dhafiyand assured him that the Red Wizards were no longer a threat in Neverwinter because of his work.

So the spymaster had lied to his spy? Well, that was a dangerous game for him to play, thought Sarfael, for one betrayal must lead to another.

“Come,” he said out loud. “I will lead you to the Red Wizard. But bring your weapons. He is a cunning old dog and I expect him to bite when cornered.”

The house was empty except for one aged maidservant who fled when confronted at the door by a crowd of armed Nashers.

Elyne led Montimort, Parnadiz, Charinyn, and half a dozen others. The wounded, including Arlon, stayed behind, despite vehement protests by Arlon. But Sarfael insisted. He dared not confront Dhafiyand with anyone less than able. The man’s powers were obviously formidable, as demonstrated during the attack on Upland Rise.

“How do you know this house?” Elyne asked as they searched through the rooms for some trace of the box or Dhafiyand.

“I had some dealings with the man,” Sarfael answered. How many of his secrets had he given away to Dhafiyand while the man, that master spy, had watched and listened and betrayed none of his own?

“What dealings?” Elyne pressed him.

“Actions to be regretted,” Sarfael admitted.

She looked unsatisfied with his curt reply. “Who are you really?” she said. “You are no agent of the Graycloaks. I know the Sons well, and they might summon Arlon to them to lecture him about his tactics. But they would not place a spy in our midst.”

“Call me an adopted son of Neverwinter,” Sarfael said. “For that is what I am now. I find I have grown very fond of this city, and its citizens.”

“But how do you know this Dhafiyand?” Elyne said.

I never knew him, he thought to himself. For I all counted him an interesting employer, and preened myself when I tricked him out of an extra fee, and told him of Mavreen’s death when I was sentimental and deep in the cups at the end of an adventure.

Out loud, he said, “I thought he was a friend.”

Sarfael began to search the papers on Dhafiyand’s table. The piles slid in all directions. There were charts, maps, notes, and memorandum. But nothing of any use.

For once, the room seemed a little cool. Sarfael glanced at the fireplace. The fire was out, and gray, cold ash lay scattered across the hearth.

He walked across the room. The pearl-encrusted miniature lay facedown on the mantel. He turned the picture over. The painting was hideous. The moon elf lady stared back at him with mad eyes burning in an undead face.

“What did Karion say?” he asked Elyne. “When he was having that fit of prophecy? Something about a moon elf grasping for the treasures of Neverwinter with her undead hands?”

“Valindra,” Elyne said. “That was the name. But he also talked about Greeth, and Luskan, and things that were long ago. His powers of prediction were never great. He was a seer who always mixed up the past with the future.”

“She speaks with a painted mouth,” Sarfael recalled Karion’s words. He flipped the miniature over. The words to a Thayan spell circled across the deep, square back. The style looked familiar.

“Montimort,” Sarfael said to the boy, “is this another summoning box? Like the one that hid the crown?”

The young wizard took it from him and nodded. He pushed with his thumb the line between the back and the painting that formed the lid to the little Luskar puzzle box.

Unlike the larger box that they found in Karion’s house, it swung easily open, revealing a folded parchment inside. From the way that it was crumpled inside the box, Sarfael knew that somebody had already read it and hastily replaced it. He plucked it out of Montimort’s hand.

“What is it?” asked Elyne.

“A way to send messages in and out of the city with no one knowing,” he said. “Montimort told us, didn’t you, that a pair of boxes would be used by pirate captains to pass treasures between ship and city. Or messages?”

“Yes,” said Montimort. The boy was still pale and kept sending worried glances at Elyne. “They might use them to send a message.”

Sarfael plucked the wrinkled parchment out of the box. He unrolled it to reveal a single order, much like the one he’d seen only days ago on Dhafiyand’s table.

“Kill Neverember and bring the crown to me. You will have the reward promised.” It was unsigned, but Sarfael could not mistake it for a message from Waterdeep’s Open Lord. Neverember would not be ordering his own murder.

A shout from Charinyn startled them. The girl reached into the stack of kindling next to the fireplace and pulled out the box inscribed with the Thayan summoning spell. It had been hidden beneath the sticks.

“Open it,” Sarfael said, but he knew what he would see. The girl pried the lid open. The box was empty. The crown, if it had been there, was gone. With a cry of disappointment, Charinyn dropped the box on the table.

“So where is it?” Elyne said.

“With Dhafiyand. Now the true question: where is he?” Sarfael tapped a restless finger against the hilt of Mavreen’s sword. Then he swore. “The docks! Lord Neverember is coming by sea. He must be there. We have to stop Dhafiyand.”

“You want us to save Lord Neverember?” Elyne asked. For the first time in that long day, Sarfael saw her smile. “You do know that we are the rebels sworn to overthrow his rule?”

“Didn’t you tell me you were a terrible Nasher?” Sarfael said as they headed to the door. “Didn’t you say you wanted to keep your friends safe? If Lord Neverember is murdered on the docks, do you think General Sabine will just pack herself on her horse and go? She’ll loose the Tarnians through the city. And, if Dhafiyand follows who I think he follows, what will come after will be even worse. Do you truly want the undead roaming freely in the streets?”

Elyne matched him stride for long stride as they made for the docks.

“Well, we will do what we can,” she said. “But if one of my students cuts off Lord Neverember’s head by mistake, don’t blame me. We often use his picture as a target in the school!”

Lord Neverember’s ship was easy to spot. It boasted the most fluttering flags and pennants hanging from its three masts. It also had a crowd of Neverwinter dignitaries gathered at the base of the gangplank. And one old man, very plainly dressed, surrounded by more than a dozen servants in equally dark and dreary garb.

“There he is,” whispered Sarfael, pointing at Dhafiyand. Montimort gave a squeal of pure rage and dashed forward. The other Nashers pelted down the dock toward the startled crowd.

“Did you never teach them surprise is a part of ambush?” Sarfael yelled at Elyne as they raced after the young hotheads.

“Remind me to add that later,” she said, stretching out her long legs and racing forward. As she ran, Elyne began calling to the crowd in front of them, naming those she knew among the older nobles and pointing to Dhafiyand. “Seize him. Stop him! Treason! Murder!”

Sarfael set up his own cry, hoping to rally the nearby Tarnian troops to their aid and to keep them from standing against them. “To me, to me. For Neverember!”

Dhafiyand turned and fled up the gangplank. The Nashers followed hard upon his heels.

Lord Neverember stood at the railing, waving to the crowd below, very brave in polished steel with jaunty plumes waving from the top of his fine helmet. But his easy grin turned grim as Dhafiyand and his minions overran the surprised honor guard standing on the deck.

Illusions melted away from Dhafiyand’s dark-clad servants, revealing them to be revenants, zombies, and skeletons.

At a flick of Dhafiyand’s fingers, a talon of sulfurous darkness formed around the Tarnian captain who stepped in front of him. The claw encircled the woman’s neck and dragged her bawling with rage out of Dhafiyand’s way, tipping her over the rail into the river below.

Some of the Nashers started to cheer, then remembered that they were fighting with, and not against, Lord Neverember’s people. Parnadiz even pulled his stroke at the last minute, turning a spinning sweep, which almost caught the Tarnian guard standing before him, into a direct strike against one of Dhafiyand’s servants.

The undead swarmed across the deck, driving the living before them, pushing them up into the rigging and across the rails. More dived screaming into the river, often with an undead pursuer still clutching their body.

The bodyguards closest to Lord Neverember pulled him away from the increasingly desperate fight, and, despite his howls of protest, bundled him back into the ship’s cabin.

“Let me fight!” Lord Neverember banged against the door, but a grim Tarnian dropped a wooden bolt across it and braced his body against it for extra protection.

While the cries of the living increased, the pandemonium was remarkably one-sided in the frenzied fighting. The dead fought silently and seemed all the more terrible for it.

“Elyne!” a shout from Montimort warned her when one of Dhafiyand’s undead servants tried to bash her from behind. The boy shadowed her every step, flicking spells into the crowd. But the undead seemed indestructible. Every blow, every spell, barely slowed them as they strove to reach Lord Neverember in his cabin.

Dhafiyand surveyed the carnage with the same calm he had once displayed arranging the papers on his table. He stood in the center of the deck, directing stinging tendrils of darkness and whips of flame against any who dared attack him.

Sarfael battled vigorously to overcome the Red Wizard’s undead minions and reach his former master, but a tall skeleton armed with a wicked long blade barred his way.

The skeleton forced him back, back, across the deck until he was stopped by the bulwark. Sarfael spun, whirled, and drove Mavreen’s blade with desperate force down on the right shoulder blade of the skeleton. The bone cracked. The creature swung its own great blade at Sarfael’s head, but he rolled aside and the skeleton’s sword sank hard into the wooden bulwark. The skeleton jerked back but the abused bone of the shoulder shattered, leaving its arm dangling from the sword as it staggered into Sarfael’s next blow. He cut through the neck and sent the creature’s skull rolling.

Then he looked to the center of the fight and, for the first time since Mavreen died, his heart quickened in fear. For a bright redhead could be clearly seen advancing upon Dhafiyand.

With Montimort at her side, Elyne advanced step by deadly step through the swaying, pushing mass of Nashers, Tarnian guards, and undead on the deck. With deft strokes, she drove Dhafiyand’s fighters back into the blades of her students, protecting Nasher and Tarnian alike. Her calm voice cut through the din of clashing steel and cries of alarm.

Sarfael dived after the intrepid pair, determined to overtake them.

Elyne fought her way to within a sword’s length of Dhafiyand. The Red Wizard lifted his hands and a swirling shield of darkness rose before him. Elyne struck and struck again, but the shield held.

Dhafiyand’s malevolent gaze rested on the swordswoman striving to reach him. He drew a great breath and raised his arm. A spear of glowing iron appeared in his hand. Sarfael shouted a warning, but she was too close to the Red Wizard. Dhafiyand hurled the spear at her.

Montimort let out a terrible cry and leaped between Elyne and Dhafiyand. The bolt of red-hot iron pierced his chest. Blood flew in all directions. Montimort dropped like stone to the deck.

With a choked exclamation, Elyne fell to her knees beside him, trying to shield the boy’s body with her own from the fight still swirling around them.

Sarfael closed the gap between himself and Dhafiyand. He lunged forward as Dhafiyand finally turned to face him.

“You told me there were no Red Wizards in Neverwinter,” Sarfael said, dodging the spinning shield of shadow that Dhafiyand directed against him.

“I lied,” said Dhafiyand with a slight smile. “After all, deception is my trade.”

Parnadiz charged the Red Wizard with a roar, using the same bullish tactics that he once tried against Sarfael in their mock duel. With an impatient swat of his hand, the Red Wizard knocked him halfway across the ship.

Charinyn cried out. She pulled her cape from her shoulders. With one practiced flick of her hand, she dropped it over the startled Dhafiyand’s head. The man clawed at the fabric, dragging the cloak off his face.

In that single moment of distraction, Sarfael drove Mavreen’s sword deep into his former master’s heart.

The Red Wizard’s mouth opened, but no sound came out. He swayed in place.

Sarfael pulled the sword out for a second strike. But it was not necessary. Dhafiyand crumpled into a heap of dark robes.

All around the deck, the undead dropped as their master died.

Dhafiyand already forgotten, Sarfael hurried to Elyne’s side. She kneeled next to Montimort, cradling the boy’s head in her arms. “Why didn’t you change, little rat, why didn’t you change?” she whispered to him, her voice breaking with every word. “Why did you have to find such courage today?”

“I’ll call for a healer, there must be one on this ship,” Sarfael said. But she raised her tear-stained face to him and he knew it was too late. He reached out a gentle hand and closed the dead boy’s eyes.

Lord Neverember emerged from the cabin looking flushed and angry. He shook off the restraining hands of his bodyguards and stepped over the body of Dhafiyand. One of his boot heels skidded on the bloody deck, but he righted himself, snapping out an order in passing to the men clustered around him. One dropped to his knees to search Dhafiyand’s corpse as Lord Neverember strode to the gangplank.

“I am more than pleased to congratulate the brave sons and daughters of Neverwinter, who so valiantly defended our person against this insidious plot,” Lord Neverember waved over the ship’s railing at the gathering crowd below. “Their bravery shows that the enemies of the new Neverwinter shall not prevail. Soon our city will rise again as the emblem of all that is good and noble, a center of culture and trade, a shining beacon for others!”

Leaning against the same railing, Rucas Sarfael panted and waited for his heart to stop slamming against his chest. Trust Dagult Neverember to wade through the blood of his former spymaster to make a rousing political speech to the populace gathering on the pier.

Lord Neverember’s bodyguard stood up with something in his hands that glittered briefly in the sunlight. He grabbed a rag from a nearby bucket and wrapped it around his prize, hurrying over to Lord Neverember. The Tarnian whispered in the Open Lord of Waterdeep’s ear. Lord Neverember briefly lifted the rag and stared at whatever the man held in his hands. Then he took the bundle from his bodyguard and passed it to another servant.

“Secure it,” he said, loud enough for Sarfael to hear.

The man bowed and hurried back to the ship’s cabin.

Lord Neverember surveyed the crowd upon the deck. Upon seeing Sarfael, he motioned him closer.

“I owe you my life,” he said to Sarfael with a smile. And then, with a grimmer look: “Do not abuse my favor.”

Warned, and rather charmed by the man’s style, so like his own, Sarfael bowed deeply before Lord Neverember.

“My lord, it is forever my honor to have assisted you in your noble endeavor to build a new Neverwinter. And to give you this evidence of nefarious plots.” He handed Lord Neverember the paper that he’d taken earlier from Dhafiyand’s house, the one inscribed with the order to kill him.

Lord Neverember briefly glanced at it.

“I am sorry to lose Dhafiyand. He was a man of great subtlety and guile,” he said. “It is unfortunate that his loyalty did not match his intellect.”

“Who can know the hearts of Thayans?” Sarfael responded. “The man betrayed you and betrayed us all, but I count myself lucky to have stopped him before any harm befell your lordship. I could not have done it without the assistance of your noble cousin.”

He beckoned to Elyne. Like himself, she had moved to one side, letting Neverember’s bodyguards clear the remaining zombies and other bodies from the ship. Except for Montimort. When they reached for him, she stepped forward and claimed his body. He lay wrapped in her cloak, his thin face covered from view.

Parnadiz crouched on the deck. Blood dripped from the cut on his shoulder. Charinyn kneeled beside him, ripping off the tail of her shirt and binding his wound. The rest of the Nashers clustered close to them, their blades still drawn but down as they waited to see what would happen next.

Elyne approached Sarfael and Lord Neverember with her head held high. Like the others, her sword remained out of its scabbard, but she held the blade down and away.

“My lord,” said Sarfael, “without these loyal daughters and sons of Neverwinter, as you yourself just named them, we may have well lost the city to Dhafiyand’s dark designs. I hope that your gracious thanks will extend to them and their safe passage off this ship and back to their homes.”

Lord Neverember snorted, but quietly, and when Elyne reached them, he swept her into a hasty but warm one-armed embrace.

Sarfael chuckled to see her quickly exchange her sword to her left hand to avoid entangling it in Lord Neverember’s friendly hug.

“My dear,” said Neverember, “I regret that we meet again in such difficult circumstances.” Which Sarfael considered quite restrained, seeing the chaos all around them.

“My lord,” replied Elyne as she stepped neatly out of his embrace. “We rejoice to spare Neverwinter further attacks this day.” She did not look at Sarfael.

“A fine sentiment and we will welcome you at any time to our court,” Lord Neverember returned. “But you must wish to return home now. Shall you need an escort or any assistance?”

“No, my lord,” she said. “We will take our wounded and our dead.”

Lord Neverember signaled to his bodyguards and they fell back, letting the Nashers pass down the gangplank. Four carried Montimort’s body on a hastily improvised stretcher.

As Elyne brushed past him, Sarfael reached out a hand and touched her arm. She stopped abruptly.

“I am sorry for the boy’s death,” he said.

The look she gave him was bleak. “It was my fault. He died to protect me.”

“I told myself the same thing when Mavreen died. These days, I’m not sure if it’s true, but I don’t think knowing the truth would lessen the guilt in my heart.”

She turned away without reply, following the others down the gangplank.

“A pretty rebel,” said Lord Neverember, watching Elyne catch up with the ones carrying Montimort’s body. She leaned down to catch an edge of the stretcher and help them maneuver it off the pier and up to the street.

“My lord?”

“Oh, I am not a fool. But better the enemies that I know, rather than the ones hidden in shadows. Besides, being a wise woman, she has never voiced any great ambition to rule this city and she holds her friends very dear. Which makes her a minor threat compared to some.”

Sarfael bowed again and reminded Lord Neverember, “Today she saved your life.”

“A good point.”

“And you gained a crown.” Sarfael knew he pushed his luck with that statement, but Lord Neverember’s man had taken something from Dhafiyand’s body.

“A crown?” Lord Neverember said. “I do not remember seeing such a thing. Crowns would be a dangerous treasure to find in Neverwinter. It could even cost a man his head. As Dhafiyand found.”

Sarfael stepped back. “Well then, it is lucky that I saw no such thing aboard this ship or any other place.”

“Very lucky, indeed,” said Lord Neverember. Then, more surprisingly, “I could use a new spymaster in Neverwinter.”

Sarfael thought about that a moment, and about the body of the last spymaster being bundled efficiently away by Lord Neverember’s servants. In a few days, he doubted that any would speak Dhafiyand’s name and, in a year, he would wager that none would remember the old man-or, at least, none would admit to remembering him. No one ever carved epithets for spies.

“There are other threats in this city,” he said to Lord Neverember. “Give me a license to hunt the undead and those who create them. Let me do it openly, in your name and for the new Neverwinter.”

Lord Neverember considered the offer longer than Sarfael had contemplated his. “Very well, if that is what you wish. I will have Soman Galt draw up some grant or other. Our mayor can give you a wax-sealed charter to destroy the undead as you see fit and to let you command a small force to assist you. Name those you wish to fall under your protection.”

Sarfael smiled. Not all of the Nashers would want to join him, some were too deeply committed to their dreams of rebellion, but he also thought that the day’s fight had shaken others, let them see that there were far greater threats than Lord Neverember.

“Thank you, my lord,” he said and he truly meant his gratitude.

But Lord Neverember had already walked off, to greet the city officials crowding up the gangplank, clap shoulders, and shake his head with rueful goodwill over the day’s events.

Figuring himself fortunate to be forgotten, Sarfael rushed down the gangplank and hurried after the Nashers. He meant to catch up with Elyne and sound her out about the hunting of the undead.

But, as he reached the street, Sarfael remembered the box. They’d left it behind in Dhafiyand’s room. If any of the Nashers went back there, then there was every chance that the whole mess would start again.

With a curse, Sarfael whipped around and raced back to Dhafiyand’s house.

The house was dark and cold. Already it felt more like a mausoleum than a home. The servants had fled; word of their master’s death must have traveled swiftly up the streets. Or perhaps they had been illusions, like the others on the boat.

The box lay open on the table, just as they had left it.

Sarfael piled kindling in the grate and lit it with his tinder and flint. The flames flickered, and he grabbed handfuls of paper from the table, stuffing it into the fireplace. The fire began to crackle and burn merrily.

Sarfael lifted the box from the table. The emerald decorating the lid of the box winked in the firelight. He held the wooden box high, ready to throw it into the roaring fire.

“Don’t!” A sharp command came from the doorway.

He looked over his shoulder at Elyne.

“Montimort was the only one who knew the spell,” he said to her. “You can’t use it again, not without him. It’s just a temptation for thieves. Every faction in Neverwinter will try to steal it from you.”

“We can find another wizard,” Elyne said, advancing into the room. Her sword was drawn and her face was still streaked with tears. “With the box, we can summon the crown from wherever it is hidden. That is what Karion said.”

“And Montimort murdered Karion to steal his secrets from him. Who else will do such things to gain a crown in Neverwinter?”

She blanched. “There was no malice in Montimort. He had a gentle heart.”

“He did, but he betrayed it for the prize of a crown.” He kept his words blunt, no kind lies for the grief-stricken woman in front of him. But there were desperate stakes. All he had done to secure Lord Neverember’s pardon would be undone by a simple box of wood and the dream of a crown.

She stared with loathing at the box in his hands. “I think there is some evil in it, to tempt Montimort so, to drive Karion mad,” she said.

“Then let it go,” he counseled her.

“I can’t,” she said. “I’ve failed Montimort today. How can I fail the others?”

“How will it aid them, to gain a crown?”

She shook her head and gestured with the sword. “Put it down.”

“When you tell me one thing: Whose head will wear a crown in Neverwinter? Yours?”

“No!” Her denial was vehement and instant. “I never wanted such a thing.”

“Arlon?”

She flung her hands wide, as if she had been hit in a practice duel at her school. “He is not ready to rule.”

“Well, if you mean to give it to Lord Neverember,” Sarfael said with a sudden smile, “then I think the problem is already solved.”

Elyne swung her sword, but not at him. She sliced through one of the tapestries and cut it down, just as Arlon might pound his fist on the table.

“Ah,” she cried, “what should I do?”

“Watch it burn,” said Sarfael, and he threw the box into the flames.

The fire consumed it quickly, but they stood together, watching silently until it was completely gone.

Out on the street, Elyne walked at his side. Without talking, they automatically took the turns leading back to her school for elegant fighting.

“I never learned how or why you came to Neverwinter,” she finally said to him.

Sarfael lifted one eyebrow. “Didn’t I tell you some story or other?”

“You told me several. I am fairly certain that none of them are true.”

“Only fairly certain?”

She frowned at him, but not too severely.

“Well, once I had a student, who ended up teaching me a trick or two. And that led me to some very interesting encounters.” He paused for a moment but all he heard was Elyne’s quick step at his side.

“What is in the past is in the past,” Sarfael said, his hand resting easy on Mavreen’s sword. “These days, I think the future is much more interesting.”

“And what is in the future?” Elyne asked.

“Ah,” said Sarfael with a twinkle in his eye. “Desperate work, hard fighting, countless adventures, and an official grant from Lord Neverember to sanctify it all.”

“And, just so I’m clear in my own mind about this, exactly who would be having these countless adventures?”

“Why you,” said Sarfael, draping a friendly arm across her shoulders, “and me. It’ll be the perfect partnership. You’ll see.”

Elyne’s laughter echoed down the street.

In the moonlight streaming through the open window in Dhafiyand’s room, the lady might be mistaken for a young girl, a beautiful moon elf, but then the shadows shifted and her nightmare face was revealed.

Valindra kneeled by the fireplace and shifted her cold hand through the dead ash. She lifted up the large emerald left behind.

Then she stood up and spoke a spell long forgotten by the living. The emerald shimmered and changed. A gleaming green woman stood before her.

“Speak!” Valindra commanded. “Does the crown of Neverwinter still exist?”

“Yes,” replied the emerald golem.

“Can you bring it to me?”

“No. Not without the box.”

Valindra scowled. Then her brow grew smooth. “But can you tell me where the crown is?”

“Yes,” said the golem.

With a satisfied smile, Valindra commanded the golem: “Then speak. Tell me how I can take the crown of Neverwinter for myself!”