Stormlight - Ed Greenwood [77]
"The kitchens it'll have to be, then," Storm said, "but try to choose rooms that you can't be smoked out of if our foe sets the ovens or pantries alight with everything that'll burn."
"So we build ourselves a cage and cower in it," Thalance said, acquiring a frown of his own. "I can see how that'll prevent this shapeshifter from catching us alone… but doesn't that give him free run of the keep, and keep us all in a known space he can hurl magic into whenever he pleases?"
Storm nodded. "All of that, yes. Consider warriors expendable-as most Purple Dragons already believe their commanders do-but necessary to guard the few war wizards we have left."
Thalance glanced at the two mages, wondered briefly what horrible fate might have already befallen the third. "And what will they be doing?"
"Trying to identify and keep track of our foe by means of wizard eye spells, so that I can shrink down my barrier around him and put him in a trap This wont be quick or easy, especially after he guesses or learns what we're trying to do. The mages will need to sleep in shifts and be watched over constantly… we don't know how far the foe's mind powers can reach."
"Into our midst, you mean," old Insprin said calmly.
Storm nodded.
Broglan shook his head. "I don't like it," he said, looking around at the tureens and platters, "but I can't see any better way of doing things. We should act like we're taking this food back to the kitchens to start with, and all go to these rooms together. Then we'll have to shuttle our spellbooks and all down from our rooms."
He looked at the two Summerstars, and added, "If I may presume to give orders to you two, my lords, you're going to have to learn how to use wands that hurl magic missiles, so that you can defend us while we're packing up, dismantling, and such."
Thalance and Erlandar both nodded soberly. "We can take orders," the younger Lord Summerstar said quietly. I'm just glad to have some sort of plan to follow at last."
He looked down at the silver-haired woman at their feet, where she was settling the last lid onto a tureen, and asked, "Lady Storm, will you lead us?"
"No," she said, rising smoothly. "I have to go and think-and, to cover all of you, hunt shapeshifters while I'm at it." She smiled at them all, and then said briskly, "I believe that side table over there, if you upend it, can bear all the food at once; if two of you carry it like a litter, the rest can guard. Just remember to set it down at once if you're attacked."
"You're going off by yourself?" Broglan asked. "Lady, is that wise?"
Storm rolled her eyes at him. "Broglan, if I'd stuck to what was "wise" down the years, I'd be long dead. Mystra would have given up on me, and I'd have lived and died a house drudge in some village or other in the North, safe and growing daily more bent and crabbed and frustrated. If I were wise, I'd never have come here-I'd have stayed safely at home working on my farm until word came that Cormyr was awash in blood, and the king and Lord Vangerdahast were able to change their shapes at will, and the realm was whelming for war! Speak to me not of 'wise,' all right?"
"Yes," Thalance told Insprin, "she's definitely a marchioness."
“Definitely,” the thin, gray-haired elder wizard agreed.
“Right,” Storm said. “Be about it, then. Broglan, before the lot of you leave this chamber, tell Ergluth or whichever officer is at the doors where you’re going-and ask him to tell Corathar where to find you when he returns.” She started away.
Storm turned, silver hair swirling about her shoulders, and added, “Of course, bear in mind that when you see him again, it might be the foe walking into your midst-but then again, it might just be a scared young mage, of lesser powers than the rest of us."
"Ill test him by asking about his noble past," Erlandar offered.
If the foe can take the memories of those he slays," Storm reminded him, "he already has those of,Athlan, and Pheirauze, and the gods know who else in this kingdom!"
"Get gone," Broglan