Crown of Fire - Ed Greenwood [26]
"Tired. When I said I was sick of endless battle," Shandril told him grimly, "I meant it."
The glow from the pool lit the face of the Zhentarim priest who stared into it, watching them from afar.
He smiled a slow, cruel smile and said, "Oh, maid, if you're sick of battle now, you'll be at the doors of death over it, before long-I can promise that." The warriors standing with him all laughed. It was not a pretty chorus.
As they struggled through the endless green depths of Hullack Forest, and the day wore on, Delg felt the constant weight of watching eyes on them. More than once, he called a halt to peer around suspiciously, looking at the dim legions of tree trunks on all sides. "We're being watched," he said. "I can feel it."
"Magic?" Narm asked.
"Of course magic, stumblehead," the dwarf replied grumpily. "If a beast-or even a Zhent sneak-thiefwas stalking along behind us, I'd have seen it by now."
As you say, oh tall and mighty one," Narm replied, eyes dancing.
Shandril flicked a warning look at her husband as the dwarf growled something under his breath, and Narm raised his hands. "Peace! Peace, oh giant among dwarves!" "A bit less tongue, youngling," Delg replied, "and we'd best be on our way again-unless Elminster taught you any clever spells that can ward off scrying magic."
The mage frowned. "No, no… but I'm trying to remember something Storm said, back in ShadowdaIe, about the goddess Tymora."
"Tymora?"
"Aye… Rathan gave us a luck medallion blessed by Tymora, and Gorstag gave us another. Storm said something about how such things can be used, but I can't recall-"
The dwarf snorted. "Of course not. You're a mage, and mages can't even remember their own names or ages. Let me look at these medallions."
Shandril obediently pulled on the chain around her neck, drawing her medallion out of the breast of her tunic. Narm brought his out of his robes. The dwarf squinted at them both and sighed.
"By the gods, you two innocents'll be the death of me yet! With these, we can be cloaked from magic, twice – each use will burn away one medallion."
"What?"
"Aye."The dwarf fairly danced in impatience. "There's a charm on these things." He swung around to fix Narm with eager eyes. "You can cast an invisibility spell, can't you, lad?"
Narm nodded. "Y yes."
"Well, if you cast it on one of these medallions, the spell will last until the next morn, so long as the medallion isn't touched by a living being, or moved. The spell covers everyone within ten paces--or whatever, I forget exactly how far-and nothing can see, hear, or smell them from outside that space.
Even sniffing beasts and wizard spells miss you. All the spells that detect things find all sorts of traces, aye-in the wrong places, and moving in the wrong directions."
"You speak truth?" Narm's astonishment overrode his manners.
"Nay, lad-I want to die under a dozen Zhentarim blades," the dwarf snarled, "after all we've been through thus far. So I'm lying to you both so Manshoon can walk right up to us while you think us safe.
Of course I speak truth! One of these saved my life, once, when our company was too badly wounded to go on; with it, we bought time for healing."
"If that's so," Shandril said quietly, "I could use a rest from all this running-and time to practice a bit with my spellfire. I'm still burning things to ashes when I mean only to cook them gently, or send spellflame past them at something else. I've no wish to burn most of this forest down, or slay things I have no quarrel with."
"Let's go on until we find another clearing, then," Narm said. "And some water to drink."
"We're past highsun," Delg said. "We'd best be getting on."
It had grown late, the sun sinking low amid the trees, before they found another clearing. "Here,"
Shandril said, giving her medallion to Delg.
The dwarf set it on a stone near the center of the open, grassy space, and