Cloak of Shadows - Ed Greenwood [97]
Eyebrows rose. "I have heard of him, yes," Amdramnar said mildly, reaching for his glass. "He must have been, oh, several hundreds of years old, at least."
Itharr nodded. "We believe so." The Shadowmaster fixed bland eyes on him and seemed to be waiting for him to say more, but the burly ranger spread his hands to indicate he had no more to say, and kept silence.
"Would you judge that the gate that brought you here was of his making?" Amdramnar asked. "Could he have been taking you to it, perhaps?"
Sharantyr and Belkram spoke together, "No." After exchanging quick glances, Shar went on. "We don't think so. The place where we camped was not in quite the direction we'd been faring, and he'd said nothing of such things to us." She let a note of sadness creep into her voice and added, "He… liked to talk. There were very few things about magic that he didn't warn us about, not just on this venture but always, in all the time I've known him."
The Shadowmaster frowned. "I'm sorry to hear of his passing," he murmured, "though not all of my kin would share that view, I'm afraid. Some of the elders here in the castle are-were-sworn foes of his. Just what disagreements they had with him were very much before my time, so I've never known just why this… coolness… existed between Elminster and my kin." He stirred. "Nevertheless, Shadowdale-Faerun-has lost a great mage, and that's something all should be saddened by. 'Tis only the advances in magecraft that make life, in whatever small ways, better and better with the passing years. Are things seen this same way in Shadowdale?"
"They are." Sharantyr agreed. "Though the power of sorcery corrupts far too many men, and far too often, some good always finds its way down to the farmhands and the honest tradesfolk. His death diminishes us all." Amdramnar frowned over his glass, then looked up. "What you say leaves me downcast, but also curious. If Elminster of Shadowdale knew nothing of the gate that brought you here, how came it into being, and when?" He smiled thinly. "It's no secret that we haven't seen any stream of visitors from Daggerdale before you."
It was Itharr's turn to shrug. "Truly, we went through the gate by accident. We've heard of such things before-fireside tales of wizards fighting wizards are full of them-but we'd never seen one. At first, well, I thought it was some sort of trap to lure us, or even something to do with mating, that a will o' wisp had spun."
The Shadowmaster chuckled. "Oh, that's something I've never thought of. How do they mate, I wonder?" He set aside his glass again. "Can you find this end of the gate again, to get back home?"
Sharantyr shook her head. "No," she said simply. "We don't even know for sure if they work in both directions." "Well, some do, and some…," their host replied, tilting his head from side to side in a gesture of resignation. Then he leaned forward again. "Some of my kin certainly know sorcery enough to get you back to Faerun, though just where you'd emerge is another matter. I must warn you, however, that such powerful spells are regarded as valuable, and the caster will expect payment"-he eyed the sword Sharantyr held-"in the form of a service, if you have nothing more tangible that you're willing to part with." He smiled and leaned back again, waving a dismissive hand. "However, that can be a problem for another day."
The Shadowmaster spread his hands to indicate the room around them. "Now that you're here, however accidental your journey, what are your plans?"
"Uh, to get home again safely," Belkram said with a tentative smile. The shapeshifter nodded approvingly.
"A wise ambition," he said. "I must warn you that, were you to wander freely about the castle, you might well be attacked by those of my kin who fear you're spies for an army of mages from Thay or elsewhere. Or you just might talk too loosely of what you've seen when you get back home, and spur someone more greedy than prudent into trying to take magic from us."
He held up a gentle hand to indicate he suspected them of