Pool of Radiance_ Ruins of Myth Drannor - Carrie Bebris [17]
Kestrel set aside her empty bowl. “The Mythal? What’s the Mythal?”
“The city’s ancient protective magic,” Faeril said. “Centuries ago, Myth Drannor’s most powerful wizards-including your human Elminster-came together to weave a protective spell that encompassed the entire city like a mantle. We suspect, however, that of late it has become corrupted.”
“I believe that is why Mystra summoned us here,” Beriand said. “As elves, we are naturally attuned to the Mythal. Though the magical Weave remains strong, many of its threads bear a foreign taint. The contamination has worsened in the time we have been here.”
Faeril offered more stew to the travelers. When Corran and Durwyn accepted, she rose to serve it. “It has been rough going since our arrival,” she said over her shoulder as she ladled the food. “We were forced to retreat to this shrine, and most days so much violence rocks the streets that we cannot leave. By day it is orcs, and by night, swarms of undead. But there are many here who need our ministry-we have saved many lives-and the Mythal must somehow be purified. So we stay.” She returned with two more steaming bowls.
Corran thanked her as she handed one to him. “In your time here, have you heard any talk of something called the Pool of Radiance?”
Faeril glanced at Beriand, whose face betrayed no hint of recognition. “Only from another band of travelers like yourselves,” she said. “They also seek it, but we had no information to help them.”
“Athan and his band were allies of ours,” said Corran, “but they were killed this day. Do you know what happened to them?”
Faeril gasped at the news. “These are ill tidings indeed. Athan was a fine warrior, one of the best men I have ever known.”
Beriand’s expression also saddened. “We had not heard-greatly we rue their passing. I know only that they had just come from the Room of Words, a chamber high up in the Onaglym, or House of Gems.”
Kestrel wondered if the tales she’d heard of Myth Drannor’s riches might prove true after all. A whole house full of gems? “What were they doing there?”
“They had recently found an item known as the Ring of Calling,” Beriand said. “They believed it would grant them access to the city’s acropolis-or the ‘Heights’-but first they needed to break the ring’s bond to its previous owner. They went to the Onaglym’s Room of Words in hopes of finding a command word that would free the ring from the skeletal arm on which they found it I do not know whether their research proved successful.”
At Beriand’s mention of a ring, Kestrel removed her newly acquired one and put it in the cleric’s hand. “We found this on one of the adventurers. Is it the Ring of Calling?”
He shook his head immediately. “Alas, no. The Ring of Calling is mysteriously bonded to the skeletal arm of its last wearer. No amount of physical force, nor any of the magic Athan’s band attempted, could remove it.” He gave Kestrel’s ring back to her. “Did you find any such ring?”
“No.”
He sighed. “Then I can only assume that whoever killed the party now has the ring, and searches for the enabling word themselves.”
“Back in the Room of Words?” Ghleanna asked.
“That is the most likely place to find it,” said Beriand. “The chamber is a repository of books containing words that power magical items. When Coronal Eltargrim Irithyl opened the elven capital city to other races, the dwarves came despite their distrust of magic. But later, when they built the House of Gems as their stronghold, they created the Room of Words to feel more empowered over the city’s many magical devices.” Beriand chuckled. “They thought if they could just collect all the enabling words in one place, they could somehow protect themselves.”
Kestrel didn’t think the dwarves’ idea sounded all that silly-at least it was some action against the mysteries of sorcery.
“Why did Athan’s band need the ring to reach the Heights?” Durwyn asked. “Couldn’t they just walk there?”
“The wars that brought down Myth Drannor left the city’s surface in such ruin that