Cloak of Shadows - Ed Greenwood [123]
"Couldn't I just buy you a nice meal," Belkram offered, "and a little too much wine? No?" He looked mournful. "It used to work," he told Itharr wearily. "What went wrong?"
Itharr started to laugh, then clutched at his temples in pain, wincing. A few breaths later, the ring's magic had repaired him enough to sigh, swing himself off the table, and hand the ring to Belkram.
"Heal thyself, dolt," he said, "and hurry, or we'll have a lust-crazed Malaugrym all over her, and that'll sure slow her down when we start running through this place trying to escape."
Belkram put on the ring and looked at Shar. "Ready?"
She lifted her sword in response, and the two Harpers drew their blades again. Shar stepped between them and did as Sylune directed. A part of the wall that looked as solid as the rest grated suddenly aside. Belkram was ready with the table leg.
The room beyond was crowded with ornate bookshelves. The narrow aisle between them ran to the right, and the three rangers followed it cautiously, peering around a corner to look straight into the politely smiling face of a handsome man in a maroon monk's cassock, who sat at a table with several books open in front of him.
"Please be seated and take your ease," the man said, closing a book. It immediately lifted itself off the table and drifted over his shoulder, heading for a gap on one shelf. "No danger awaits you here."
A book floated out of the smooth ranks of tomes in another bookcase, heading for the table. As the volume opened itself for the Malaugrym's scrutiny, the three Faerunians saw that another book was also on the way. All over the library, volumes were drifting unhurriedly about in a continuous, graceful dance.
"And your name, sir, would be?" Sharantyr asked softly, sitting down. The sword in her hand flashed once.
With smooth effort, the man avoided looking at the blade-beware, this one is very dangerous, Sharantyr told herself-and said, "Milhvar of the Malaugrym. And whom do I have the pleasure of addressing?"
"Sharantyr of Shadowdale, in Faerun," Shar told him, "and these are my… companions, Belkram and Itharr." "Adventurers come to explore the demiplane of Shadow?" Milhvar asked. "Or do you pursue a private purpose?"
"We came here by accident." Belkram replied, "but have become friends of Amdramnar. Others in this castle have not been so friendly."
"I've just heard talk of a duel or some such unpleasantness in the Hall of Stars," Milhvar said, briefly glancing at the contents of the tome in three places and then sending the book on its way again, "and you do seem to travel with cutting edges in plenty, ready for use. Have you any plans here in Shadowhome that I can help you with?"
"To get home again," Itharr offered. Milhvar raised his eyebrows.
That's all? Just to leave, before you've seen more than a handful of rooms and a few warring kin? It seems a poor return for the dangers you've faced, surely?"
"I-" Shar began, but broke off, half-rising from her seat, when two other Malaugrym came hastily around a bookshelf.
Milhvar looked at her raised sword, then over his shoulder at the approaching pair, and said to her, "You can safely put that down. We rarely brawl on sight here in the castle, and never in the library. There is too much of lasting value here." He closed another book and let it rise gently over his shoulder.
"Oh," he added, "be known, Sharantyr, Belkram, and Itharr of Shadowdale-a most favorably named place, I must say-to Indyl and Thaune of the blood of Malaug. Have you business with our guests, you two?"
"We do," Thaune said excitedly. "Or at least, we hope so." He sat down on a corner of the table, ignoring Milhvar's pained look. "Olorn's got it in for you. He's raging around the Great Hall vowing revenge and trying to whelm armies of us against you right now. Would you be willing to use that sword on him, if a couple of us cornered him and held his magic in check?"
"It's the only way you'll be safe from him," Indyl put