The Kingless Land - Ed Greenwood [78]
Almost stammering in his hasty thanks, the thin old man in the faded blue-and-gold mage's robe plunged into eager speech. "Lord, my deductions are complete. Long have I labored, seeking the signs, casting divinations, and consulting elder lore, and their message have I here unraveled for you. One of the Dwaerindim-Hilimm, the Stone of Renewal-must now lie at Daern's Moot!"
The baron raised one eyebrow and glanced at the other old man, who sat listening in stony silence, thin lips pressed firmly together. "Daern's Moot," he mused. "Hmm."
"It's a crossroads in Felsheiryn, Lord," Baerethos added eagerly. "A ring of overgrown stones-once a wizard's tower, though long fallen in utter ruin-stands there, sometimes used as a camping place by passing peddl-"
"I'm familiar with the place," the baron said mildly, holding up a hand for silence, and took up his scepter from the table to rap a bell that sat beside it.
Its tones brought the bright-armored officer scurrying from the doors to stand at attention beside the baron.
"Orders," Ithclammert Cardassa said simply, not looking up. "Send two patrols in force, under Warblade Denetharl, to Daern's Moot. There they are to look for a mottled brown-and-gray stone-a smooth sphere about so big, with markings like a sun or star on it." The baron held up his hands, perhaps four finger widths apart, or a little more. "Tell them thus: it may be floating in the air by itself when found, or it may not. Turn over every stone of the ring and look beneath it. Use shovels. Bring back anything like that you may find at the crossroads, as fast as you can. Beware wizards seeking to take the stone from you."
The other old man at the table stirred and opened his mouth, but the baron gave him a stern look. He looked down at the tabletop, reddening, and kept silent.
The officer swept out his arm in the horizontal chopping motion that serves in Cardassa as a salute, and hurried away. Something that might almost have been a smile touched the baron's lips as he turned to the second old man and asked mildly, "You have other thoughts regarding the Dwaerindim, Ubunter?"
The old man in rather rumpled maroon silks shot his rival Baerethos a look of scorn, gathered himself upright in his seat, and said in stately, cultured tones, "Indeed I do. Great Lord. Rather than trusting the writings of the oft-drunken bard Haerlaer, as my colleague seated to the north of me has done, or mistaken the wizard Jhantilar's writings of 'the resting place of the sweetest master I have ever known' to mean the wizard Daern rather than the sorceress Skalaerla of Brostos, I have chosen to trust Hathparauntus of Sirlptar."
Ubunter leaned forward, seized by excitement, and almost chanted, "He writes that in the days before Skalaerla fell into disfavor, she planned for the fall she knew must come by walling up certain magics in a crypt under Castle Brostos-activities she was observed in by Delgaer the Halfwit, younger brother of the baron of the day. He-"
"You believe the incoherent writings of a halfwit?" Baerethos burst out. "This is scholarship?"
"The point," Ubunter said witheringly, "is not that Delgaer was as sound of wits as most men, but simply unable to speak-nor is it if he wrote the truth or not, or even if Hathparauntus reported it accurately! The point is that we know from other sources that the Baron Oldrus Brostos read Delgaer's diaries long after the halfwit's passing, investigated the crypt, and ordered it sealed after trap-spells bearing Skalaerla's warding runes slew three of his best armsmen! Something was there, and is there still; why should it not be what we know Skalaerla had but none could find after she was chained and her quarters searched? The something she would surely have used to end her captivity, or even prevent it, if it had been available to her hand! I say that Hilimm, the Stone of Renewal, lies hidden