The Jewel of Turmish - Mel Odom [85]
Water burbled and ran around the island that housed the main body of the structure. Fed from an underground spring, the small lake was thirty feet deep in some places and had steep sides. The central core of the spring ran down through the plateau and into the mountains. Over the years, druids had sought the source of the spring, trying to discover what pushed the water up to such incredible heights. None had been able to fathom its true depth, but there was speculation that the spring was fed from a source deep below even the sea bottom that surrounded them.
"If Borran Kiosk is once more at large," Shinthala continued, T can't find him. Perhaps someone more gifted than me will be able to."
"If you can't find the mohrg, dear lady," Torinbow said gently, "I dare say no one could."
Shinthala stopped, stretched out her hand, and tracked her fingers through an open blossom. Golden pollen stuck to her fingertips. The sweet powder glistened in the swath of sunlight just within her reach. The heavy buzzing sound of a bumblebee reached her ears only a moment before she saw the fat-bodied creature. She remained still as the bumblebee flew to her fingers. The insect drew the pollen from her fingertips then flew off in its zigzag manner.
"What do you think, Ashenford?" Shinthala asked. "Do you think the monster once more walks the coast of the Vilhon Reach?"
Torinbow hesitated then said, "I don't want to assume that these are just stories spreading from a few drunken men with nothing else to do… and there is the tale of the slaughtered priests of Eldath."
"That story is true," Shinthala said. "I received a message myself from a senior priest of Eldath's temple in Alaghфn. The priests were murdered by an unknown hand in the graveyard where Borran Kiosk was imprisoned."
"The possibility exists that someone else could have murdered them there to encourage that conclusion," Torinbow said.
Shinthala gazed out at the children of the druids who summered on Ilighdn. Toddlers of both sexes played in the water with leaf boats they'd made, or chased butterflies under the supervision of their parents and their animal companions.
Shinthala said, "I didn't defend Gulthmere Forest against Malar's forces by assuming every rumor I heard was only that."
"Perhaps your tie to the mohrg just isn't strong enough," the half-elf suggested.
Reaching into the leather pouch at her waist, Shinthala took out an object and showed it to the half-elf. Torinbow nudged the cylindrical object with a forefinger.
"A sliver of bone?" he asked. "From Borron Kiosk?"
"Retrieved from Adrius Glistenmoon, one of the Great Druids who served during the war against Borran Kiosk."
Warily, Torinbow drew back bis hand from the bone sliver.
"My tie to Borran Kiosk was tight enough," Shinthala said. ISven though he still slept in the crypt the priests of Eldath had prepared for him, I should have seen him there."
"But you did not?"
Shinthala closed her fist cautiously over the bone splinter. So far she'd seen no indication that it was still animate, still undead.
Returning the sliver to her pouch, she said, "Perhaps this piece of Borran Kiosk was gone too long from the rest of him."
"Or perhaps someone of considerable power is hiding the mohrg."
"That thought had occurred to me, but why would someone do that?"
"Borran Kiosk was one of Malar's favorite playthings," Torinbow said. "If the Beastlord resurrected him, it may well be that he has hidden the mohrg as well." The half-elf scowled. "Borran Kiosk can't remain hidden. He will attempt to raise another army of undead to overtake the Vilhon Reach, as he has done before."
"That will never happen again." The thought shivered through Shinthala despite the warm sunlight around her. "Back then, when the Vilhon Reach was younger and the Emerald Enclave had yet to come into its power, no one was there to watch something like Borran Kiosk manifest itself. He pulled together his