Spellfire - Ed Greenwood [178]
Thiszult cursed as he looked up at the sun. "Too late, by half. They'll be out of the dale and into the wilderness before nightfall! How, by Mystra, Talos, and Sammaster, am I to find two children in miles of tangled wilderness?"
"They'll stay on the road, Lord," one of the hitherto grimly silent cult warriors told him. Thiszult turned on him.
"So you think!" he snarled. "So Salvarad of the Purple thinks, too, but I cannot believe two who have destroyed The Shadowsil, an archmage of the Purple, and two sacred dracolichs can be quite so stupid! No, why would they run? Who in Faerun, after all, has the power to match them? No, I think they'll turn aside and creep quietly about the wilderness slaying those of their enemies they come upon, while the rest of us search futilely elsewhere, until we are all slain or overmastered! I must reach them before dark, before they leave the road!"
"We cannot," the warrior said simply. "The distance is too great. No power in the Realms could-"
"No power?" Thiszult fairly screamed. "No power?
Why think you I follow these two, who felled such great ones! Hah! That which I bear is power enough, I tell you!" He reined in sharply and cast his eyes over the warriors in leather who rode behind him.
"Ride after us, all of you-to Deepingdale, and the Thunder Peaks beyond! If you see my sigil-thus-upon a rock or tree, know that we have turned off the road there, and follow likewise."
"We?" the warrior who had spoken before asked him.
"Aye-you and I, since you doubt my power so much. Trust in it, now, for it is all that stands between you and spellfire!" He gestured at all of them. "Halt!" Turning to the warrior, "You, dismount… No, leave your armor behind!" He touched the warrior, and spoke a word.
They both vanished, warrior and mage, in an instant.
The other men-at-arms stared. One of the now riderless horses reared and neighed in terror; the other snorted. Quick hands caught bridles. "Stupid beast," one warrior muttered. "There's no danger, now. Why'd it take fright?"
"Because the smell of the man that was on its back a breath ago is gone" another, older fighter told him sourly. "Gone-not moved away, but suddenly and utterly gone. It would scare you, if you had any wits.
A stupid beast, you call it? It goes where you bid it, and knows not what waits, but you ride to do battle with two children who have destroyed much of the power of the cult hereabouts in but a few days, and know they await you, and still ride into danger… So who, of man and mount, is the stupid one?"
"Clever words," was the reply, but it was made amid chuckles. The reins of the two mounts were lengthened so that they could be led, and the warriors hastened on.
"Is it in your mind, then," one asked the older warrior, "that we ride on a hopeless task?"
The older warrior nodded. "Not hopeless, mind you-but I’ve seen too many young and over-clever mages who follow our way-like that one, who just left us-come to a crashing fall, to think that this last one has any more wisdom or real power than the others."
"What if I tell Naergoth of the Purple of your doubting words when we return? What then?" asked the one he had rebuked earlier. The old warrior shrugged and grinned.
"Say the word, if you will. It is my guess you'll be adding them to a report of Thiszult's death, unless he flees. I've served the cult awhile, you know. I know something of what I say, when I speak." His tone was mild, but his eyes were very, very cold, and the other warrior looked away first. They rode on.
A wild-eyed Shandril was buckling and lacing and kicking on her boots for all she was worth, at the head of the stairs. "We must away," she panted to Narm, as Lureene fussed about her. "Others come…
I dreamed it… Manshoon, again, I tell you-and others! Hurry and get dressed!"
"But…but…" Narm decided not to argue and began to eat stew like a madman, wincing and groaning as he burned his lips on hot chunks of meat. Lureene took one look at him, as he