Silver Shadows - Elaine Cunningham [99]
He took a black arrow from his quiver and showed Arilyn the mark upon it-the stylized design of the flower from which he took his name. "I carved this onto his cheek."
She looked sharply at the elf. "You couldn't have told me this sooner?"
Foxfire shrugged, but he looked a bit sheepish, "Once the humans leave the forest, they are all but lost to us. It did not occur to me that you might be able to trace this man to his lair."
"Hmm. Do you know anything else that might be of interest?"
He hesitated for several moments before answering. "You may wish to speak with Ferret. She has lived among the humans, trying to find just such answers as we now seek. It is not widely known where she went, or how she passed the months away. Please trust me when I say that it is best left this way. There are those among us who do not approve of her methods, and yet others who would be too quick to imitate them…"
Arilyn nodded, for she understood this matter far better than he knew. "I'll do that. What else?"
The tribe has been willing to undergo your training. They have made your weapons and would use them in defense of their home. But I do not know whether they would leave the forest and follow you-or me, for that matter-into battle. It is not our way."
"And yet your people have done just that in the past," Arilyn mused. Something from Ferret's tale clicked into place in her mind-an incredible possibility that might just galvanize the forest folk. "I need time alone to think about these things," she said abruptly. "Where can I go where I will not be disturbed? It is important."
"If you like, I myself will stand guard below your dwelling. None will pass," Foxfire said, looking a bit puzzled by her vehemence.
Arilyn noted this, hut did not take time to respond to his unspoken questions. She strode over to her tree and climbed the ladder to her small dwelling. Although it seemed rude to do so, she pulled up the ladder after her and laced shut the deerhide flaps that covered the small windows.
When all was secured, Arilyn pulled her moonblade from its sheath and held it up before her face.
"Come forth," she said softly, steeling herself for the appearance of her magical double. The ghostly mist swirled up from the elven sword, quickly taking the form of its half-elven mistress.
"What is it that you seek to do, and to undo?" the elf-shadow asked, but there was a note of reproach in her voice.
"I need to call you out in battle," Arilyn said, ignoring the elfshadow's rhetorical question. Of course the thing knew what she planned-it was her, albeit a straight-laced and rather too noble version of herself. "Actually, I might need to call all of you-all the elves who ever have wielded the sword. Can this be done?"
The elfshadow clearly had not expected this response. "Only once before, but yes, this is possible."
"Good," she said briskly. "I need to infiltrate a fortress. There are nine of you, and one of me. That's enough to start a pretty good fight and to get the doors open."
"You must realize that there are risks," the shadow cautioned her. "Calling forth all the elfshadows takes a tremendous toll upon the sword's wielder. Not even Zoastria, who endowed the moonblade with the elishad-ow entity, called forth her own double more than a few times."
"Which brings me to my next question," Arilyn said. "Zoastria and Soora Thea. Is it possible that these are one and the same?"
"I do not know. Would you like to speak with her?"
Arilyn took a long, deep breath. This was the moment she had longed for-and dreaded-since she had first learned the secret of her moonblade's magic. It was mind-boggling enough to regard her own image as the entity of the sword. The possibility of conversing with the essence of an ancestor was utterly beyond her imagination. And not just some unknown ancestor-the essence of her own mother lived within the sword!
Yet as much as she longed to see Zberyl again, Arilyn was not entirely sure how her mother would react to Arilyn's quest