Elminster_ The Making of a Mage - Ed Greenwood [92]
There was a little silence as the Blades smiled mirthlessly at each other or displayed looks of unconcern, all trying-in vain- to hide the fear in their eyes.
Elmara spoke into that quiet tension. "We are in the house of a mage, and as a worshiper of Mystra, I am closest among us to the mantle of wizardry. It is right that I make the first attack"- she swallowed, and they saw she was trembling with excitement and fear-"as I am the most likely of us to prevail against… what we face."
"What are ye, Elmara-the Magister in fool form, perhaps, or the Sorcerer Supreme of all Calimshan, out for a lark? Or are ye really just the soft-witted idiot ye sound to be?" Dlartarnan asked sourly.
"Hold hard, now," Tarthe said warningly. "This is no time for dispute!"
"When I'm dead," the warrior returned darkly, "it'll be just a blade-thrust or six too late for me to enjoy one last dispute… I'd just as soon enjoy it now."
"Soft-witted idiot I may be," Elmara told him pleasantly, "but sit on thy fear long enough to think… and ye can't help but agree that however ill my efforts befall, they are still the best road we can set foot upon."
Several Blades protested at once-and then as one, their voices fell silent. Grim faces looked out at the globes, back at the trembling young mage, and then back at the globes again.
" 'Tis madness," Tarthe said at last, "but 'tis just as surely our best hope."
Troubled silence answered him; he raised his voice a little, and asked, "Does anyone here deny this? Or speak against it?"
In the hanging silence after these words, Ithym gave a little shake of his head. As if this had been a signal, the two priests shook their heads together-and one by one, the others followed, Dlartarnan last.
Elmara looked around. "We are agreed, then?" The Blades stared at her in silence until she added, "Well enough; I need every man here to have ready all the weapons he can hurl afar- but to loose nothing until I give word, whate'er befalls."
She waved them to one end of the balcony while she went to the other. "I must cast some spells," she said. "Someone keep an eye on those lights behind us and tell me if my work draws them hence."
She stamped and shuffled and murmured for a long time, casting powders into the air, drawing many small objects from various places in her clothing, and from sheaths beneath garments and in and about her well-worn boots.
In wary silence, the Blades watched the young mage trace small signs in the air; each glowed briefly and then faded as she traced the next. Radiances washed over the young mage and then were gone, and though her intent, earnest expression never changed, both she and her companions-at-arms noticed that with each new spell she worked, the four silent globes hanging so menacingly near pulsed and grew brighter. The lights in the doorway winked and drifted around each other, ever faster, but made no move to spill out into the passage.
At last El bent to her boots and drew forth six straight, smooth lengths of wood. She held two end-to-end so their slightly bulbous tips touched, deftly twisted and pushed, and they became one. In like manner she added length to length, until she held a knobbed staff as tall as she was.
She shook it as if half expecting pieces to fall off, but all held firm. Then she brandished it against an imaginary foe. Dlartarnan snorted; it looked like a toy.
Elmara leaned the toy staff against the balcony rail and came toward them, rubbing her hands thoughtfully. "I'm about ready," she said, casting a keen look at the waiting globes. Her hands trembled slightly.
"We gathered that," Ithym said.
Tarthe nodded, smiling thinly. "Mind telling us just what spells you've worked… before all the bloodletting begins?"
"I've not much time to chatter; the magics don't last over-long," Elmara replied, "but know ye all: I can fly, flames will harm me not-even dragonfire, though I doubt the mage who wrote the spell had ever faced it when he made his claim-and spells hurled my way will come back upon the sender."
"You can do all that?" Tharp's voice was thoughtful.