The Nether Scroll - Lynn Abbey [88]
"Something went wrong-you probably figured that much yourselves. The Beast Lord was a long time coming back into the chamber; I was starting to think maybe I was trapped in there. Mystra's mercy-I was starting to think that if I did get one of those doors open I'd find myself in the Outer Planes! It was just luck that I hadn't tried picking the locks on the athanor when the upper door finally cranked open. The Beast Lord had a hard time getting its newest swordswinger up and moving."
They'd come up to another intersection, which Dru had to study before leading them straight ahead. He forgot that he'd left his story unfinished.
Tiep wanted to hear the rest. "So the goblin made the scroll disappear. Then what happened?" He got another sigh for an answer. "What now? What did I say this time? He loosened it, didn't he? And that wrecked the magic, right? And now it's gone. Bully for Sheemzher-he didn't save a goblin or one of the damned bugs, and if it's really gone, how're we going to get Galimer back?"
Dru walked a little faster.
"Druhallen!" Rozt'a called sharply. "He's made a good point-what are we going to do?"
"Yeah, that's all I want to know. I don't care about the goblin."
"We'll go back. It's there. The scroll's still there. I can sense it-see its shadow when I look for magic. It's been displaced in time."
Feeling bold after Rozt'a's support, Tiep asked, "What's that supposed to mean?"
"You've heard the expression: He got kicked into the middle of the next tenday? Well, that's where the scroll is. Not as far as the middle of next tenday, though, maybe midnight, or dawn. It's already drifting backward. The Beast Lord wasn't surprised that it was missing. Maybe the scroll gets displaced every time it uses the athanor."
"You keep saying 'it,'Dru," Rozt'a saidas soon ashe'd finishedtalking. "Isn't theBeast
Lord a he? Wyndyfarh said 'he.'"
"The Beast Lord's some sort of mind flayer, Rozt'a."
Tiep had heard of mind flayers before, but not from any of his foster parents. His mates in
the Berdusk alleys used to whisper about mind flayers every time someone disappeared. As if
it took big scary monsters to make a kid vanish from the streets.
"What sort of mind flayer?" Rozt'a asked in a serious voice.
"I wish I knew. The pieces don't fit together-it's alone, renegade, and using magic. The one thing I'm sure I do know about mind flayers is they don't touch magic. I'd almost pay good money to see Amarandaris's face when he realizes he's not dealing with a minor beholder."
"Is that what the Zhentarim think they've been trading with?" Rozt'a shuddered. "I'd rather take my chances with a beholder. What about Lady Wyndyfarh. She said the Beast Lord was a nuisance. What do you suppose she thought he-it-is?"
"That's just the question I want to ask Sheemzher here when we bring him around."
Tiep was satisfied. The dog-face didn't have a prayer if he'd crossed Dru. There were some nasty spells written inside Dru's wooden box, spells he never memorized unless he had to. Galimer once said that Dru could make the dead sit up and answer questions. He could unravel a goblin's secrets without half trying.
Of course, Sheemzher was sitting on a few secrets Tiep didn't particularly want Dru or Rozt'a to hear, which meant Tiep was in favor of necromancy. According to common wisdom-the only sort of wisdom Tiep laid claim to-dead folk answered only the questions they were asked. If the goblin were dead and Dru didn't get around to asking, specifically, What do you know about Tiep and Zhentarim? then Tiep's secrets were safe.
Not that Tiep, himself, didn't want to know how the goblin knew the Network had its hooks in his hide.
Damn Sememmon, anyway. Why couldn't the Dark Lord just have killed him when he'd made his one, admittedly huge, mistake on the streets of Scornubel three winters ago?