Hand of Fire - Ed Greenwood [142]
"As will others who oppose us," the Red Wizard pointed out, recalling something about the next prophecy of Alaundo having to do with "gods walking among men." "Peace, you say?"
"The Lord Bane says," the priest said firmly, "and you would do well to remember that – " His voice deepened into solemn thunder, and the mage joined in, to chant with him in unison: "The Lord Bane sees all and guides us unerringly!"
"To supremacy," the priest added, completing the holy saying alone. He looked curiously across the table to see why the Red Wizard had fallen silent and saw the mage frowning, gaze fixed on the dark sphere of crystal.
"Spellfire," the Red Wizard whispered, remembering what the scrying-sphere had just shown him. "I'd give a lot to be able to wield power like that." He lifted his gaze to fix the priest with eyes that blazed with dark fire and added, "You might tell Lord Bane that."
Staring back at him, the priest suddenly shivered.
*******
Alustriel looked up, caught the distant Harper's "safe ahead" wave, and saluted him with a wan smile. The stealthy ring of Harpers had been riding guard around them for days now, keeping distant and often hidden in the surrounding trees.
She traded glances with Mirt and Asper. Silence reigned, and none of them felt like breaking it – not with Narm riding uncaring in their midst, little more than a grief-ridden shell of a man.
The dark and endless High Forest lay close by to the east. They were still some days shy of Silverymoon, where the High Lady intended to give Narm Tamaraith a new face and a new name.
If he lived to desire either. He'd refused to eat or drink these past three days and sagged loose-limbed in his saddle, held there only by the harness Mirt had rigged. Narm rarely looked up, and when he walked, stumbled along like a man near collapse.
"If we have to start changing him," Asper murmured to her man, as their mounts slithered down a treacherous slope and they watched Narm's head bounce and loll," 'twill be your turn, m'lord."
"If we have to start changing him," Mirt replied, "I move we send him into spellsleep, lash him to a horse like a grainsack, and gallop the rest of the way.
I grow weary of this."
"Easy, Old Wolf," Asper whispered reprovingly.
"How would you feel, if you lost me?"
"Like tearing apart half Faerun barehanded," Mirt growled. "I'd do it, too, not drift off into don't-care land."
Alustriel sighed. "Water ahead, says the Harpers' handtalk. We should rest the horses."
The water proved to be a tranquil little pool where a brook slithered down rocks and paused before vanishing through more rocks into a cascade they could hear rather than see.
Asper steadied the silent Narm as he knelt, lapped up water, then plunged in both his hands and washed his face.
He looked up, met Asper's smile with a twisted halfsmile of his own, water running off his chin, turned, and sprinted for the rocks at the bottom of the pool.
"Narm!" Asper snapped, whirling to run after him.
"Narm!"
A Harper sprang out of the trees, racing along the rocks, but the young wizard was faster. He bounded over the ridge and hurled himself into the air beyond without a sound.
Asper heard the thud of his body striking rock below and came to a halt on the edge of the cliff, breathing heavily. "Alustriel," she said grimly, "I'm sorry. I – I failed you."
"No," the High Lady replied softly, squeezing Asper's arm as she strode past. "Narm failed himself."
Alustriel looked down at the crumpled form on the rocks below, saw it groan and move, sighed, and stepped out into empty air.
Asper made a startled, wordless sound behind her as Alustriel plunged down. Her descent was swift, but her landing feather-soft.
"That was foolish," she said tenderly, kneeling beside the sprawled mage. "You might have killed yourself."
"I'm trying to," he