Elminster's Daughter - Ed Greenwood [134]
Florin cast a quick glance at the lass standing calmly then started toward the fire-wreathed one, looking back for a warning that did not come.
The spell-flames were dying away swiftly, now, and the lass within them was beating at the ground in pain, writhing and weeping, raising a sooty and tear-wet face to Florin that was-no longer feminine at all!
Florin pounced on the wounded man, ignoring the threads of smoke rising from the blackened and ashen remnants of robes. A pain-twisted face tried to shape a word, so he slapped that mouth with the wet greenfins still in his hand. By the time the smoldering man had finished sputtering and spitting, his wrists were pinned to the scorched turf under the ranger's knees.
"Elminster?" Florin called back at the other lass.
"Indeed," a familiar voice replied. "None can hope to deceive ye, gallant Florin!"
The ranger's reply was a swift, rude snort of derision, followed by the words, "This dog has the look of a rogue mage. Should 1 be slaying him about now?"
"Nay. I've a use or two for him yet. Hold him still, will ye?"
As he spoke, the likeness of the young, hawk-nosed lass melted away from him, revealing an older, hawk-nosed, weatherbeaten, and very familiar Old Mage of Shadowdale-who promptly bent and, with a grunt, picked up the stricken lass he'd been carrying when he appeared.
Florin shook his head slightly and asked, "Are you going to tell me why all three of you arrived wearing the same shape? And who it really belongs to?"
"No," Elminster replied serenely, "to thy first, but as to thy second, this in my arms is truly herself: a lass from Waterdeep-a thief, so watch thy pockets-hight Narnra Shalace. That beneath ye is a Red Wizard of Thay."
The handsomest man in Shadowdale received this news with no evidence of surprise, merely asking, "Will any of you be staying for a nice fish fry?"
"I'm afraid I know not, yet. We wait upon the temper of a woman."
"A-?" Florin looked down at the broken, white-faced body that Elminster was laying tenderly beside him. "This Narnra?"
"Indeed. Hold the Thayan securely, now. Defeating his spell was a simple matter of calling on the defensive enchantments of my tower, but now I must work a rather exacting magic."
"I should hope so," the ranger murmured. "Sloppy spells give mages a bad reputation-when the wrong castle gets blasted to dust, the wrong thousand folk slain, and so on."
Elminster gave Florin a sour look. "Aren't there some ladies somewhere ye could be causing to swoon about now?"
Florin raised both his eyebrows and the still-dripping bunch of fish. "With these?"
The Old Mage sighed, gestured for silence, and cast his spell. In the creeping silence that followed, both men watched as Narnra's broken body slowly became whole again… and that of the Red Wizard took on her injuries, sinking and twisting under Florin. As the Thayan began to gasp and moan in pain, Narnra's eyes fluttered open, and she stared up at them and felt her limbs-and sudden lack of pain-in wonder… and growing apprehension.
"W-where am I now? " she murmured. "There was a rooftop… something falling…"
Elminster took her shoulders and gently helped her to sit up. "That was just magic, lass. Bad magic."
As Narnra got a good look at the unfamiliar green trees and meadows of Shadowdale, and the pinched, pain-wracked face of the Red Wizard beside her, all the color drained out of her face- and she flinched away from the hands on her shoulders.
"Will you send him back like this?" Florin asked quietly, eyeing Narnra's shaken face.
"Nay," Elminster said quietly. "I'll teach him some magic, show him why I made some of the moral choices I did, then set him loose… and he'll choose his own fate, for good or ill. The world needs Red Wizards just as it needs carrion-worms. Let's see if I can steer this one. My Lady The Simbul herself cannot slay them all. However…"
He looked at his daughter, and said, "This wizard tried to slay ye with his spells just now, back in Marsember. I place his fate in thy hands."