Elminster_ The Making of a Mage - Ed Greenwood [72]
Elminster bent forward to take it up. There was an unfamiliar swaying sensation at his chest as he knelt. Frowning, he looked down and saw the breasts and the smooth curves of a maid. Elminster stared down at himself in astonishment, and ran a wondering hand over his body. It was solid and real… he looked wildly around, but he was alone. Mystra had turned him into a woman!
Clutching the reassuring, familiar hilt of the Lion Sword, El crawled forward across the rock until he could stare down into the placid waters of the pool. He studied his reflection there, seeing his own sharp nose and black hair, but a rather softer face, with a pert mouth-now frowning in consternation-a long neck and below it, a slim-hipped, rather bony woman. He was Elminster no more.
As he stared down, something seemed to grow in the depths of the pool… something blue-white and leaping-a flame.
El sat back. A flame was burning under the water, a flame with nothing to feed on! A flame that was rising, and becoming golden… Mystra!
He reached out an eager hand to touch the flame as it broke the surface, never thinking that it might destroy him until it was too late and his slim fingers were already feeling-coolness! A voice seemed to speak in his head. "Elminster becomes Elmara to see the world through the eyes of a woman. Learn how magic is a part of all things and a living force in itself, and pray to me by kindling flame. You will find a teacher in this forest." The flame faded and Elminster shivered. He knew that voice.
He looked down again in wonder. Now he was… "Elmara," she said aloud, and repeated it, her voice more musical than before.
She shook her head, suddenly recalling a night in Hastarl bought with stolen coins at Farl's urging. She remembered hot kisses and smooth, cool shoulders sliding soft and curved under his fingers, which wandered with tentative awe.
If he went into such a room now, he'd-she'd-be on the other end of the lovemaking. Hmmm.
So this was Mystra's first trick. Elmara twisted her lips wryly, shivered again, and then drew a deep breath. Elminster, the upstart prince whose failed battles had made him known to at least two magelords, was gone… at least for now, perhaps forever. His cause, she vowed, would never die, but end fulfilled. That might take years, though, and for now-
Elmara murmured, "So now what?" A breeze rustled the leaves again in answer.
Shrugging, she rose and walked all over the little knoll-noting that her stride was subtly different, shorter and swaying from side to side more-but there was nothing else to be found except moss and dead leaves. She was alone, and nude, the occasional twig sharp under her bare feet. What to do?
There was no food here, and no shelter. The sun already felt hot on her head and shoulders… she'd best get into the shade.
Mystra's voice had said she'd find a tutor in the forest, but she was reluctant to leave the pool, perhaps her only link to the goddess… but no. Mystra had said that El should pray to her by kindling flame, and there was not enough wood or leaves on this knoll to do that. Mystra had also said she'd find a tutor, and that implied she'd have to look for one.
Elmara sighed, juggled the Lion Sword thoughtfully, and squinted up at the sun. This forest looked like the High Forest above Heldon. If this was the High Forest, going south would bring her to its edge, and perhaps to food, if she couldn't find anything to eat among the trees, and to some idea of where exactly she was. The ground under the trees was dark and rolling, with sharp slopes and little gullies everywhere. If she left this knoll, she doubted she could ever find it again. That thought made her remember the pool, and she knelt and drank deeply, not knowing when next she'd see water.
Right, then. Time waited on no man-or woman, she reminded herself wryly, wondering how long it would take to get used to this. As she set off down into the trees, she did not look back, and so didn't