Tangled webs - Elaine Cunningham [78]
"She caused a bit of trouble down in Skullport," Khelben reminded him.
"My point precisely. According to the Dark Sister, this lovely young drow played a pivotal part in the raid that took out a nest of Vhaeraun worshipers and freed a shipload of children destined for slavery. Oh, i've been following her progress," he said in response to the archmage's incredulous gaze, and his voice lost every hint of its lazy drawl. "Did you think i would send a strange drow to the Promenade Temple and not follow through to ensure that my original judgment was sound?"
Khelben ceded this point with a nod, but the worry lines creasing his forehead did not disappear. "i do not doubt that you did your job, Danilo. But did you know that this drow also singlehandedly rescued a criminal from Skullport's dungeon, then booked passage upon this man's pirate ship and used some sort of powerful gate spell to remove it from the underground port?"
"No," the youth admitted and grimaced. "i stopped gathering information after the battle, assuming that the lovely lady had achieved happily-ever-after, as the bards are wont to say."
Khelben lifted one eyebrow at Danilo's reference to bards, but for once the archmage refrained from giving his opinion on the matter of bardic reliability. "it is the drow's magical escape from Skullport that concerns me and gives credence to the baron's report. Anyone who commands power enough to bypass Halaster's gates is a potential danger."
The young man nodded somberly as he picked up the parchment. Once again he read the reports of increased drow activity in the area of the River Dessarin. There had been sightings of a raiding party traveling the Dessarin, and the bodies of several drow males had been discovered in the hills east of the river. Several different bands of human adventurers were apparently squabbling over bragging rights for this victory. The small town of Trollbridge had claimed an attack by a drow female who wielded powerful magic and who had apparently enspelled a young swordsman to do her bidding.
Danilo did not doubt that the pair described were the same he had met less than a month before. By all accounts, the pretty little drow had been busy. But he could not credit to her the atrocities that Baron Khaufros reported or accept the baron's suggestion that the dark sorceress would take over the wills of whatever men she happened to meet. But he did understand Khelben's concern about the girl's magical ability. A powerful wizard, drow or otherwise, was always a wild card, and the game currently playing out in the northern seas was complicated enough.
"She should be watched," Danilo admitted.
"She should be stopped," the archmage retorted and then paused. "There is something else you should know. We have received word from the harbor merfolk that a Waterdhavian hunting vessel known as the Cutter was scuttled by pirates. There were no survivors; all of the men aboard were put to the sword. The captain of the attacking ship was Hrolf the Unruly, the man your drow rescued from Skullport's dungeons."
The young man's face went very still. "Wasn't Caladorn aboard that ship?"
"i'm afraid so," Khelben said somberly. "Since the young fool has his mind set on adventuring at sea, the Lords of there was, in truth, little for them to do. At length they fell to drinking and the telling of grim tales.
For once Fyodor took no part in the storytelling. The old legends of Rashemen, however, were very much on his mind. He took a solitary post on the forecastle, gazing at the horizon with sightless eyes as he sought inspiration in his country's rich treasury oflore. Fyodor had learned that no matter what puzzle life offered him, he could usually find an answer in the remembered deeds of ancient gods and heroes.
Alone in Hrolrs cabin, Liriel frantically studied