The God Catcher

TWELVE

The tower of Rhinzen Halnian rose up into the night, a pillar of rose-colored granite with delicate buttresses. Tennora could not help thinking, as she eyed it from the shadow of a barberry bush, that three days ago, she had come and gone here as easy as she pleased, never considering how lucky that made her.

The tower itself was ringed by a high wall with only one gate, guarded by four moon elves, well armored and well equipped with spells and weapons both. She'd slipped past them by scaling the wall near the gardener's shack. They were mostly there to deter unwanted guests-to out-and-out prevent their entry, the tower had more reliable and magical guardians.

She doubted that Master Halnian had changed the spells to enter by the front door, and she planned on slipping in that way. But after that she would have to be careful. She was an intruder.

That truth nagged at her as she sat waiting for the last of her former classmates to file out of the tower.

Or you could go home, a part of her thought, and she knew it had a point. What was becoming of her that she was attempting her second burglary in as many days? And this time at the home of someone who had taken her under his wing and…

Promptly thrown her out, another part added.

There wasn't another way to save Nestrix.

She pulled her stormcloak close and strode across the gardens toward the entry.

The storm clouds of the afternoon had finally broken up. Thousands of stars littered the night sky, and Selune shone among her court, a queen in a silver crown.

She kept her hood low and her cloak closed as she approached the grand double doors that led into the tower. Two massive stone griffons, rearing rampant, guarded the doorway. Though they looked like mere-if marvelously carved-statues, the night showed that their eyes glowed faintly blue. They were golems created by Master Halnian and charged with protecting his home and study from intruders.

Over and around the two griffons, the gossamer web of a warding spell stretched across the entryway. Invited or accompanied guests could come and go as they pleased. Elsewise, a rain of ice would fall from the ward, entombing the unwelcome and holding their bodies in place for the griffons or the Watch-whoever came first.

It was the only way in, unless she could scale the sheer walls-and even then while the windows would let objects out, they were warded against things coming in. She briefly imagined clinging to the edge of a windowsill by her fingernails while trying to unravel the ward. It might be safer than the griffons.

There was a chance that Master Halnian had not removed her from the list of persons who could pass through the ward unaccompanied, and it was not a chance Tennora felt good about taking. If she'd had any other options, she would have gladly gone with them instead.

The griffons seemed to watch her as she approached, sending a chill through her that presaged the ice. She took a breath to calm herself and continued her measured pace toward the doors.

Nearly there, Tennora's legs started to shake so hard they could barely carry her. Stone creaked as the griffons turned their heads ever so slightly toward her.

She didn't dare stop-her legs would certainly buckle beneath her and draw the attention of the guards. And the griffons, the griffons

…

The griffons flexed their claws into the stone floor of the entryway.

Tennora closed her eyes and kept walking, ready to feel the sting of ice with every breath. Four steps up to the entry and she quickened her pace, hurrying toward the doors.

They clacked their stone beaks.

The air stilled and grew chilly, frost spreading across her cloak. She leaped forward, reached out a hand toward the doors.

With a soft groan, they opened for her.

As her feet hit the marble floor of the entrance hall, Tennora finally allowed herself to breathe. A glance back at the griffons showed they were once again staring at each other and no one else. Tennora brushed the frost from her shoulders-it was as if they had known she didn't belong, even if clearly no one had told them she was no longer welcome. She pulled off her cloak, balled it up, and stuffed it into the sack she had tied to her belt-it would serve as decent batting until she handed the gorget over to Ferremo.

A chorus of voices, piping up one by one out of her memories, had been berating Tennora from the moment she escaped the God Catcher. As she ascended the staircase of Master Halnian's tower, they rose to a howl.

"How can you do this to someone who took you in?" Aunt Aowena wailed. "How can you betray Master Halnian?"

"This will come down on all of us!" Uncle Eckhart said. "Shame on you!"

Her father's sad voice floated up. "This is not the path for you. You know better."

Mardin's voice said, "The life of a thief is no grand thing. You do this, you won't be able to escape it. Turn back while you can."

Tennora rubbed her forehead with the back of her hand, warm from the leathers and from climbing the stairs-and from the fear and the concern unfolding inside of her. They were right- she was right. This would only end up hurting her in the end. And who was to say she could even pull it off? She'd picked the locks on two doors in her lifetime; chances were good she wouldn't be able to pick Master Halnian's display case.

She looked around the empty landing, a place she'd stood more times than she could count but had never truly noticed before. The door on the tower side led into the library, where she'd spent most of her long apprenticeship.

In the momentary quiet of Tennora's thoughts, a new thought rose up, clear and unhurried. It sounded like her mother's voice.

"You do what you can and what you must," it said. "Don't let them know what you want."

No one else was going to save Nestrix. No one else knew how.

She started up the stairs again.

Master Halnian's office was on the fourth floor, facing the harbor. The door was unlocked, and Tennora slipped inside without anyone noticing.

The lights were low-only the small glowballs caged inside the shelves that held Master Halnian's treasured items, and a brazier lambent with dying embers. The moonlight cast everything in shades of gray, and Tennora was very grateful she knew the room as well as she did.

Behind the divan were the glass-shuttered shelves that held Master Halnian's prized treasures-among them the gorget of the Songdragon.

Tennora crossed the room on tiptoes and slipped behind the divan. She traced the keyholes on the case that held the gorget-they were sturdy brass locks. A little shallow. Maybe eight pins deep. She unrolled her case on the floor and selected a wire with a curve so gentle it lay flat against the center of her palm.

The gorget of the Songdragon perched a wooden stand, glistening in the light of a glowball. It was only a part of the armor enchanted for the fabled Songdragon, a shape-changing dragon who had secretly resided in Waterdeep and come to the city's aid after the Spellplague, but it had been a crucial piece: the gorget held the enchantment that prevented Ahghairon's dragonward from taking hold and sapping the Song Dragon's strength.

Despite the fact the gorget had been created during the unpredictable period after the first wave of the Spellplague, the enchantment was solid and still worked. The negative effects that imbued so many of the artifacts from that time were minor and well-established, and so long as the Song Dragon hadn't gone flying in her armor at the end of summer, she was safe.

Behind her, the doorknob turned.

Tennora dropped to the floor as the door opened. Behind the divan, she watched Master Halnian's slippered feet pad across the room to the desk on the side of the room opposite her. She dared not breathe as he dropped a stack of books onto the desk, then flipped through them and rifled papers. He gave a little frustrated grunt and walked back to the door.

He tugged the bellpull there, and Tennora took advantage of the sound to pull her knees up and shuffle against the divan. Her pulse was beating mercilessly against her ears, so loud she was certain Master Halnian would hear it.

The door opened again. "Take these back to the library," she heard Master Halnian say. "And bring me…" He sighed. "No, never mind. I'm finished for today. Go finish your tasks and go home."

"Yes, master," a voice said. Tennora winced-it was Cassian. Damn it-she'd have to get out past him too. The door closed, but Master Halnian remained. Tennora shifted to the comer of the divan, a place more deeply in shadow, and watched between its legs.

Master Halnian sighed again noisily and started around the desk. Stopped. Sighed again. He opened the drawer closest to him and withdrew a small bag. She heard him inhale deeply as if smelling the contents.

He tossed the bag in his hand for a moment as if weighing it. "Just the once," he finally said.

He walked back around the desk, heading for the divan. A brazier full of lambent coals rested beside it on the side farthest from Tennora. She pressed herself against the back of the divan, willing herself to take up less space, to be less noticeable.

She heard Master Halnian mutter, and the coals in the brazier crackled to life with little effort from his cantrip.

Tennora shifted enough to peer around the end of the divan. He was holding the bag still, considering it as if it held a puzzle. After a few breaths, he set the bag in the brazier and lay down on the divan with another heavy sigh.

"Just the once," he muttered again as the fire ate into the edges of the bag. Smoke began to billow up out of the brazier, thick and faintly blue.

The smoke flowed downward, coiling along the floor, smelling meaty and faintly of pinesap. She fought the cough that rose in her chest and took a long, slow breath.

Tennora's spine prickled, then her arms and the back of her head. Her lids felt heavy. Quickly unlacing the bag from her belt, she wadded sack and stormcloak against her mouth and nose.

Even still, she felt the smoke curl around her brain.

She didn't want to simply touch the enchanted weapons and jewels that lined the shelves any longer-she'd rather devour them, seize them in both fists and draw everything out of them, learn their deepest secrets. She felt spells she hadn't thought of in tendays crowding into her memory, waiting to be spoken-but evaporating as quickly as they surged forward.

She pressed the burlap more firmly against her face.

Son of a barghest, she thought. The smoke was a magic enhancer.

A minor class of intoxicants, but one that made for interesting study-magic enhancers made it easier to cast spells and gave one access to more power. Usually short-lived, usually overflowing with side effects, they were hard to obtain. And hard to hide.

The confusion of the moment was rapidly subsumed by anger.

She was the one unsuited to the Art? She was the one who couldn't properly do magic? Rhinzen Halnian, Master of the House of Wonder, was enhancing his spells and calling her a waste of time. Telling her it was for the good of the city that she be released from study.

Gods, what a mess, she thought, glaring up at the ceiling. What an utter mess.

The sound of his breathing slowed, shuddering in and out of him as if his lungs were trembling.

Tennora longed to gasp in air for him. But it meant he was asleep or entranced, or at the least unconscious. She moved very carefully to her feet.

Rhinzen lay insensate, his eyes twitching feverishly beneath their lids. Blood flushed his cheeks, and his lips were slightly parted, drying on the wind of his breath. He didn't react to Tennora's movement, but she stood watching the rise and fall of his chest for as many breaths as she could bear before turning back to the case.

She took a deep breath through the cloth and held it, before dropping the bag and pulling the picks out of her belt.

The cabinets were locked, but not warded-no one could enter the tower without passing through the wards at the doors. Master Halnian's only concern would be overzealous students. The locks were well made and sturdy, but Tennora worked quickly and quietly.

The gorget's moonstone sparkled lavender, indigo, and silver. She lifted it gently off the stand. Nothing went off-no alarms, no traps-and she breathed a sigh of relief.

She had it.

Master Halnian stirred, grazing consciousness enough to mumble half the words of a spell. Tennora froze, but the magic sputtered and the spell failed. Master Halnian twitched and slipped back into sleep.

With the drug in him, Master Halnian was as good as a trap. The longer she stayed, the more likely she was to get caught by his mumblings. Gorget still in hand, Tennora crept back out of the room, easing the latch shut with the softest of clicks.

Just like that, she was out. A grin tugged at the comers of her mouth, unbidden. She had done it. She yanked the opening of the bag wide.

Footsteps raced up the stairs. Tennora spun around and threw her back against the slight recess of the door. She winced at the thud, but Master Halnian didn't stir.

The slap of sandals came closer, and Cassian appeared before her. He skidded to a halt, looking guilty. Then he seemed to realize Tennora didn't belong there.

"Tennora?" Cassian said, looking her over, bewildered. "What are you wearing? What are you doing here?" He looked down at the gorget, halfway into her haversack. "Is that…?"

"Cassian," she said in warning tone. "This isn't your concern."

"Tennora, whatever you think you're doing, it's a very bad idea." Cassian reached for the sack. She pulled it out of his reach and stepped into the hall.

"This isn't your concern."

"Cassian?" a third voice called. A slim young woman, an elf with black hair to the middle of her back, came up the stairs with a bottle of zzar in her hand. Another apprentice-Shava. "What are you-" Spotting Tennora, she froze. "Oh." "Oh indeed," Tennora said. "Looks like I'm not the only one breaking rules."

Shava hid the zzar behind her back. Cassian blushed. "There is a world of difference between taking some drink and taking a priceless artifact. Give me the sack."

Tennora took a step back. "Not a chance. I need it."

"Tennora, this isn't like you," Cassian said. "You're a good girl. You don't steal from Master Halnian. You don't keep up with people like that… that Nester woman. What changed? Where's the old Tennora?"

Tennora laughed, mostly at herself. "Cassian, please. I have an appointment to keep."

When she started to leave, Cassian moved in front of her. "I'm better than you at spells," he said. "Don't make me stop you."

"I'm not going to make you do anything," Tennora replied, and kept walking. Cassian grabbed her arm.

"I'll tell your aunt," he said.

Tennora looked down at his hand on her arm, appalled that she'd ever thought highly of him. "Are we in the nursery? So you'll tell my aunt-who do you think she'll believe? Who do you think she'll want to believe?" She shook him off. "Let me tell you something about noble families, Cassian, because it might come in handy someday when you're a wand for hire. When it's our business, we can be at each other's throats. When it comes from outside, we're a wall you can't break. She won't believe you because it's better you're a jealous liar. Besides"-she smiled bitterly-"who'd ever believe poor, sweet Tennora was capable of anything like robbery?"

Behind him, Shava had set the bottle of zzar down, moving with slow care. She brought her hands up and started the movements of a spell-not one Tennora knew, but an attack spell, clearly. Tennora was careful not to let on that she'd noticed, and counted the beats of Shava's casting.

Wait, she thought. Wait.

Cassian stepped back. "You won't get away with this."

She sighed. "And you'll probably never forgive me for this. Sorry, Cass." She grabbed him by the arm and swung him between her and Shava just as the spell went off. Shava shrieked and tried at the last moment to redirect the force, but it was too late. Cassian took the brunt of the concussion of sound, though its edge crashed into Tennora. Her legs quivered, her ears throbbed, and she felt as if moving would pitch her forward through the floor and down into the Abyss itself. She edged toward the stairs as Shava rushed to Cassian, who lay even more dazed and shaken on the floor.

By the time Tennora had gotten one foot balanced on the top stair and shaken the sensation that she would fall, Shava had managed to get Cassian to his feet. He leaned heavily on the elf girl.

"Tennora-" he started.

The door banged open. Master Halnian, eyes wild and body swaying, took in the three of them. His face was flushed, and his eyes focused on spots that held no one and nothing. His robe was torn open at the collar, and the muscles on his pale and fine-boned chest stood out, sinewy and taut as ropes.

"Master Halnian," Cassian said, "thank goodness. We have a very serious problem-"

Master Halnian answered with a howl like a beast's that collapsed into a string of nonsense. "Never never and the blood of the moon is so black!" he cried. All three students took a step backward, away from the master.

"Master Halnian?" Shava asked. "Are you-"

"Stop the fires! Stop the burning!" he cried. The air between his hands burgeoned with a spell that shivered and wavered. "You'll not needle me, devils! I have the body and the blood and the might of the goddess! Don't drink me! Don't needle me!"

The spell flashed blue. Master Halnian raised his hands over his head. "You'll not needle me!"

"Get down!" Tennora shouted, and pushed Shava and Cassian to the ground just before a ball of lightning exploded out from Master Halnian's hands. As with Nestrix's breath, the lightning threw her backward.

She pulled herself to her feet. Her ears were ringing, and she fought to find her way away from the drug-addled spells of her former eladrin.

Master Halnian sprang at her with a scream and knocked her back down, driving the wind from her lungs. His slender hands gripped her by the shoulders as fiercely as an eagle's talons. His gaze seemed to meet the middle of her head.

"Selune, give me back my powdered power!" he pleaded, tears forming in his bloodshot eyes. "The devils take the broken blood!" He shook her violently, jarring her against the marble floors. He was stronger than he looked. "The devils take the innocent! They eat his mother's heart!"

Tennora brought her knee up and forced him off her, to the side. His bony fingers clung to her, leaving bruises, but her kick pushed him away.

"No!" he wailed. "No! No! No!"

She pulled her dagger out and held it, ready to fight him off. Master Halnian surged to his feet, his eyes still mad, his veins still protruding above his skin like strings pulling his overtaxed muscles into action. His hands moved swiftly and another spell started to build there-uneven and erratic.

"You are one of them!" he said. "You are one of them oneofthem oneofthem!" His voice dissolved into a murmur that became the verbal component of the spell. A column of light shot upward, piercing the tower floors and continuing into the sky.

"Oh Hells!" Cassian said. "Get out, get out!" He grabbed Shava by the hand and shoved Tennora ahead of him down the stairs.

"What's he doing?" Tennora shouted over the sudden roar of The first of the meteors struck when they reached the landing in front of the library. The tower jolted and threw Cassian and Shava to their knees. Tennora fell back against the wall and grabbed hold of the window ledge as a second shock rattled through the stones of the tower. The sound of Master Halnian's sobbing laughter echoed through the stairwell, and the plaster of the ceiling sifted down like heavy snow. They'd never make it down the spiralling stairs in time.

"Quickly!" Tennora shouted, pulling Shava and Cassian in turn to their feet. "Cass, get us out the window."

Cassian did as he was told, pulling a wand from his pocket. They climbed up beside him on the windowsill as a third and fourth shock hit the tower. "Yuettfawellsevell," he said, and all three leaped.

Tennora's heart caught in her throat as the wind whipped her hair free of its braid and the ground surged up to meet them. Cassian reached out and grabbed her by the hand. She clung to him as if he could anchor her.

The spell that surrounded Cassian engulfed both Tennora and Shava and buoyed them just as they reached the ground. They landed as if they'd done no more than leaped off a step, but both women, never having experienced such a spell, landed on their knees.

"Hells and devils," Shava panted. "What's wrong with him?"

Tennora pulled herself to her feet. "He's been taking something. A smoke. I think it's some kind of-"

A piece of the granite casing, its polished pink and gray surface scorched and crumbling into gravel, slammed into the ground, peeling up the mat of grass. Smaller chunks followed, skidding along the garden's turf. Tennora risked a look up as she scrambled back out of their reach.

The meteors had stopped, but the tower was coming down. It leaned toward them at a precarious angle. The casing had been knocked out of true and, freed of its mortar, rained down on them. If Master Halnian had another fit, threw out another spell, the building wouldn't stand a chance.

"We have to get out of the way!" Shava cried.

"But Master Halnian-" Cassian said.

Tennora sprinted toward the gate. The guards were rushing in, trying-no doubt-to rescue Master Halnian. And best of luck to them-even if they could get inside the tower, even if Master Halnian was still alive, they still had to contend with Master Halnian himself.

"Outside his study," Shava said. "Quickly!"

"And carefully!" Tennora added over her shoulder. Whatever Master Halnian had been breathing, he wasn't entirely in his right mind. She dashed through the gates as a squadron of the Watch clattered in, bellowing for someone in charge.

Very good luck to you if you find him, Tennora thought, and she added a little prayer to Tymora and fallen Mystra that Master Halnian had not been killed by his own spell or by the drug that smoldered in his brazier.

Behind her, Cassian kept calling her name, but she didn't look back. She ran into the streets of the South Ward, holding the gorget of the Songdragon to her chest and trying not to grin. It was, as her aunt would have said, a most inappropriate time to be elated.