Curse of the Shadowmage - Mark Anthony [7]
"But what happened to Talek Talembar?" Pog asked.
"Like many heroes, he met an unheroic end," Kellen said quietly. "He was slain by a goblin's arrow, in a land that is now lost under the Fields of the Dead, far to the west." He played one last wistful note on the bone flute, and the shadows swirled like mist before a wind. When they coalesced again, it was in the shape of those mundane objects standing between candle and wall: chairs and tables and small halfling children. The shadowplay was over.
Pog's forehead crinkled in a frown. "That's not a good enough ending," she protested. "Talek Talembar ought to live happily ever after." Nog nodded emphatically in agreement.
"But that's not what happened," Kellen said softly. He cast a sad look toward the door of the kitchen. "Sometimes people don't live happily ever after, and that's just the way it is."
Before Pog and Nog could protest further, Estah poked her head into the common room, calling her children to their chores. They groaned but obeyed, dragging their feet as they shuffled into the kitchen.
Alone, Kellen ran his fingers over the smooth bone flute. He thought about the part of the tale he had never told Pog and Nog. A thousand years after the time of Talek Talembar, the crypt of the Shadowking was found once more, and the Nightstone with it, and the Shadowking almost came to life again. It was a story Kellen knew all too well, for he himself had been a part of it.
It was Kellen's own mother, the Zhentarim lord Ravendas, who discovered the crypt beneath the Tor- the crag upon which perched Iriaebor's many-towered Old City. With the Nightstone, she aspired to rule all the Zhentarim. However, to remove the stone from its resting place, she needed someone with shadow magic, such as Talek Talembar himself had possessed. Kellen wasn't entirely certain of the details-adults could be infuriatingly vague about certain subjects when they knew children were listening-but Ravendas tricked Caledan into thinking she was someone else, someone he loved, and thereby used him to create a baby. That baby was Kellen, who like Caledan possessed the shadow magic. Ravendas had what she needed.
Though Kellen didn't know it at the time-his mother had kept him locked in a room in Iriaebor's High Tower- the Harpers had sent Caledan and Mari to stop Ravendas. Helping them was the renowned Fellowship of the Dreaming Dragon, including Estah, the mage Morhion, a monk named Tyveris, and a thief called Ferret, who was lost forever in the destruction of the Shadowking's crypt.
For indeed, it was destroyed in the end, as was Kellen's mother, and by her own evil plan. When Ravendas seized the Nightstone, its magic consumed her. From her body burst a dark, monstrous shape: the Shadowking reborn. The Shadowking would have walked the face of Toril once more, but at the last moment Caledan discovered the long-lost secret of Talek Talembar's shadow song. When he played the song on his pipes, the Nightstone burst asunder, and the Shadowking-as well as Ravendas-was no more.
The events in the crypt had taken place two and a half years ago. Afterward, Kellen went to live with Caledan and Mari at Estah's inn, and for a time they had all been happy. For a time. Kellen sighed. Once again, he wondered why Caledan and Mari could not seem to get along. He supposed that, sometimes, even love wasn't enough to overcome all differences. Picking up his flute, he played a melancholy tune. Shadows swirled once more on the wall, and the dark silhouettes of two birds whirled and dived gracefully. Kellen concentrated, and the music changed, growing bolder. Suddenly,