Pool of Radiance_ Ruins of Myth Drannor - Carrie Bebris [108]
Corran searched her face for a long moment. Respect lit in his eyes. “All right, then.”
At his words, the tingling in her collarbone subsided, and with it her fear. Courage washed over her, chasing away the shadows of self-doubt and cynicism, filling her with the belief that victory was indeed possible. Despite the incredible odds, they might just pull off their mission.
She regarded the paladin with a mixture of surprise and new understanding. This must be the aura of which Ghleanna spoke-the reason the others had followed Corran almost without question from the beginning. The sorceress had been right. Until now, Kestrel had never allowed herself to feel it.
Their circle broke up as each person made individual preparations. Ghleanna readied her spells, Faeril and Corran offered devotions to their gods, Durwyn arranged his arrows near the doorway for easy access. Athan paced impatiently, eager to wet his sword with cult blood.
Kestrel withdrew a small pouch and sprinkled white powder onto her hands. The chalk would help her maintain her grip as she scaled the wall. Her rope and grappling hook hung from her belt, but she hoped to find enough natural holds in the rock to free climb. Mordrayn might be entranced now, but once the sorcerers set off their fireworks, Kestrel didn’t want to risk the archmage kicking her grappling hook loose while she dangled from a rope.
She went to the doorway once more and studied the cavern, plotting her course. Fewer cultists gathered on the west side of the pool, but approaching the ledge from that direction required her to leap over a stray arm of the vile amber liquid. The east side held no water trap but twice as many human obstacles. She would dart west.
Behind her, Corran drew near. “Don’t let even a drop of the pool touch your skin,” he cautioned.
She gazed at the insidious lake, recalling the horrible fate of the bandits she’d observed in Phlan. “I’ve seen what it can do.”
He leaned on his sword and cleared his throat. “I was thinking… perhaps I should follow you to the ledge. In case the cultists spot you. And so that when you face Mordrayn-”
“No.” She turned toward him, struck by the look of genuine concern she discovered in his eyes. “You will slow me down, Corran. Or attract attention.” Besides, she preferred to work solo-at least, she always had before. As tempting as she found his offer to cover her back, she shook her head. “If I’m to succeed, I must do this alone.”
Reluctantly, he nodded his agreement. “After you destroy the sapphire, the rest of us will close in as quickly as we can.”
Quickly enough to save her from a cruel death at the archmage’s hands? Standing here with the paladin, she actually believed it was possible. “I’ll see you there.”
“Take care, Kestrel.”
She shrugged. “Always do.” But as she walked away, she cast one last glance at her former adversary. “Corran,” she called. The paladin turned. “You, too.”
Kestrel slipped out of the antechamber and slunk into the nearest shadows. Though Ghleanna had cast a hastening enchantment on her, she crept down the slope slowly, relying on stealth instead of speed. Once she reached the outer wall of the cavern she stuck close to it, darting from shadow to shadow as she made her way toward the ledge. And Mordrayn.
The cultists’ chanting muffled her movements. She realized, after she reached the cavern floor and could observe them more closely in the dim light, that only some of the cultists were participating in the Mythal ritual. The sorcerers all had their eyes on the Sapphire of the Weave as they repeated their profane mantra. The cult fighters, however, who comprised at least half the assembly, stood quietly on alert. She would have to proceed very cautiously as she wended her way past their ranks.
She paused and pressed herself against the wall. She’d traveled about a third of the distance to Mordrayn’s ledge and had another third to cover before reaching the arm of the pool that obstructed her way. All the cultists had gathered on this side of the tendril, so once she passed that obstacle she