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By Root 617 0

hand. They stepped between the stones together, and the bard felt an odd, tingling chill. They were somewhere else again. Somewhere familiar. Storm knew almost at once that she was in Shadowdale. Elminster let go of her hand and strode away, reaching into his robes for his pipe. Storm stood staring after him for a moment. Then, in two quick strides, she caught up to him. Setting a firm hand on his shoulder, the bard spun Elminster around. “Not a step farther,” she warned. “Not until you tell me just what's going on. Where are our horses? Why'd we have to ride across half of Faerun for the key, anyway? Can't this Duara teleport? And wh-” Elminster laid a finger over her mouth and said, “The need for haste is past. I doubt anyone could have followed us through all the places I took us-not yet. Our mounts have preceded us to the Twisted Tower's stables. Come to my home. There ye'll meet a friend to us both: Lhaeo.” The Old Mage lit his pipe and said not a word more until they were strolling up the flagstone path to the door of his ramshackle stone tower. It opened at his approach, and he turned and said, “Put away thy blade, Storm, and be welcome.” As they went in, his scribe Lhaeo called from the kitchen, 'Tea shortly, Old One!“ ”For Storm, too,“ Elminster said softly. By some trick of magic, Lhaeo heard his master and called out, ”Welcome, Lady Bard!“ ”Hello, Lhaeo," Storm replied, looking at the Old Mage with amusement. Elminster was calmly shoving piles of papers onto the floor, emptying a chair for her to sit in. Dust curled up in thick tendrils. Muttering, he gestured, and it was

gone. “A mite dark in here for me to see beautiful lady guests,” the Old Mage murmured, then reached out to touch a brass brazier. He made a popping sound, and flames flared up, casting a warm, dancing glow on the chair. Elminster gestured with courtly grace, indicating that Storm should sit down. The bard stared at the brazier in puzzlement. “How does it burn, without any fuel?” “Magic. Of course.” Elminster turned away, raising yet another dust cloud on his foray through more piles of parchment “Of course.” Storm reached out and tapped his shoulder. “Elminster,” she said coldly, “talk.” Her tone held the sudden ring of steel. The Old Mage seated himself calmly on thin air, puffed on his pipe, and grinned at her through the rising smoke. “Ye deserve to know, lass. Right, then: Duara was briefly an apprentice of mine. She dwells in Telflamm, these days, and joined the Harpers a summer back.” He puffed his pipe, and a blue-green smoke ring rose slowly up into the low-ceilinged gloom overhead. “She can't use a teleport spell because she hasn't the power yet. Like all young, overeager mages, she took to adventuring to gain magic quickly-and unlike most magelings, came across a dragon hoard.” Another smoke ring rose up from the pipe. The Old Mage watched its drifting journey, nodded approvingly, and went on. “Er, the hoard had a dragon attached to it, of course, but that's another tale. Among the baubles, she found my key, so she sent word to me by caravan-letter that she had it and would bring it to the magefair if I was interested.” “Who are your mysterious foes, then? How did you lose the key?” Storm asked. “And why was Duara so dim as to send open word to you?” Elminster shrugged. “She'd no idea anyone save me would be interested in the key-or even know what her letter was about. When I got her note, I used magic to fars-peak with her, telling her I'd be coming to the fair. She told me that since sending the letter, she'd been attacked several times, twice found her tower ransacked, and even been threatened one night in her bedchamber by a mysterious whispering voice demanding the key.” Storm rolled her eyes. “So what is this key?” “The key to this closet, of course,” Elminster said calmly, reaching out a long arm into the dusty gloom behind him. The key gleamed in his hand as it slipped through a slyly smiling dragon head carved into the wall. Lines appeared in the stone around the small carving, outlining a door. It began to swing open by