Shadows of Doom - Ed Greenwood [138]
Elminster nodded. "A simple stone tower, a hollow cylinder with a spiral stair climbing around its inside to the top. If there's no creature hiding there, leave your daggers-and anything else metal ye may be carrying, no matter how small; don't forget buckles and hairpins and any other jewelry ye may have-at the bottom and get to the top, all of ye."
"Why?" Itharr asked.
Elminster sighed. "Ye have no idea just how tired of that particular word one can get, after even a few hundred years. Just do it. After all ye've gone through to keep me alive, I'd like to see ye survive this. It's thy turn."
* * * * *
There was no lurking monster; the tower was empty. The three left all their metal at the base of the tower, as Elminster had ordered-and, necessarily, most of their clothing with it.
Feeling more vulnerable than ever, they hurried up old, worn stairs of some smooth black stone none of them had ever seen before and soon came out on a bare circular battlement.
"What is this place?" Belkram asked, looking down.
Below them, Elminster had also discarded all the metal about his person-dagger after dagger, hidden item after hidden item, from various pockets of his robes -and now stood quite alone in the middle of golden nothingness.
He faced away from them and spoke a Name.
He whispered it, so that they never heard what it was, but its echoes burst back at them with a sound like thunder, shaking the tower and causing the golden light to pulse with sudden brightness.
There came a burst of blue-white radiance beside Elminster. It was so bright that they had to look away, but it faded quickly.
When they could see again, a young girl stood beside the old wizard. They faced each other, and a shimmering blue-white light pulsed about the girl's bare back.
She seemed nude, and yet light played about her so one could not be sure. She spoke with Elminster for a few breaths, then they stepped forward into an almost fierce embrace.
"Ye gods," Itharr muttered. "I've seen this old man kiss more maids, since first I laid eyes on him."
"It's a wonder he has any lips left, after six or seven hundred years, or whatever his count really is," Belkram replied.
"Hush," Sharantyr hissed. "Look!"
Below them, vivid light pulsed, more blue than white and coming from the joined lips of the wizard and the girl. Blue-white flames suddenly burst from that joining of their faces and enshrouded them both.
Itharr stirred. "What if that's killing him, after all w-"
Belkram laid an iron hand on his arm. "Stay. I think not. And even if it does, I fear there's not a gods-blessed thing we can do."
The flames died, and the two figures below parted, patting each other like fond old friends saying farewell. The flames seemed to have harmed neither.
Then the girl was rising toward where they stood watching atop the tower. Sharantyr swallowed.
"You know who she is, don't you?" she said. Two slow, fearful nods were the only reply.
The girl-no, the lady-had risen smoothly up to meet them. She floated in over the battlements, and they drew back to make room for her.
She was thin, and clad only in shifting motes of blue-white light. Her beauty was awesome, matchless. Sharantyr felt suddenly coarse and clumsy in her presence.
She did look like a young, thin maiden, but taller than any human girl would be. Long, dark hair moved about her shoulders as if with a life of its own. She was sleekly graceful, and as she moved, her body shimmered with those tiny winks and sparkles of ever-shifting light, motes that seemed to curl out of her skin. Her eyes glowed with the same eerie blue-white light. She made no sound as she came, and her feet did not touch the stone but floated just above it.
She smiled, and her eyes glowed bright blue.
"You have my thanks," she said in a voice that held soft thunder, "and that