Windwalker - Elaine Cunningham [50]
A delighted smile lit the elf's face. "Your voice is elven."
"So's the rest of me," she purred, "but I'm not going to show it to you up here."
The sea elf chuckled appreciatively then led the way down into the hold of the ship. They went to the cabin shared by the drow and Rashemi and shut the door.
The elf quickly dispelled the illusion, and stood before Xzorsh in her own form.
"I'm Sharlarra Vindrith, and I've recently left an apprenticeship with Khelben Arunsun, archmage of Waterdeep. The drow asked me to find you a teacher. In the meanwhile, I'd be happy to pass along some of the things I've learned."
"A gold elf teaching the Lost Art to one of the Sea People!" he marveled.
"Not a gold elf," she corrected him, and shrugged. "I'm… something else, though no one I've met can tell me precisely what."
He accepted this with a nod. "When can we begin?"
"As soon as our two friends are safely to their destination, or at least well on their way, I'll send for you. Can I get word to you through the harbor merfolk?"
"Yes, of course!"
"Wait for my word." The sea-elf looked hesitant, so Sharlarra took Liriel's little mesh bag of gems from her bag, spilled one into her hand, and handed the rest to the sea elf.
"I need one jewel in order to follow Liriel. Take the rest as my bond."
Xzorsh accepted the bag and watched as Sharlarra summoned a magical gate and stepped through it.
"Someday," he said wistfully, "I will be able to do that and more!"
He watched as the gate began to fade, the iridescent colors sliding along the surface like the captured rainbow of a child's soap bubble. Like that imagined bubble, it peeled away. A tall, raven-haired female elf stood where the gate had been.
"Where is he?" the female demanded in a low, rather husky voice.
"Whom do you seek?" Xzorsh asked.
"Blackstaff's apprentice."
The sea elf stood silent. He? The Blackstaff's apprentice had demonstrated an ability to change form, but Xzorsh had assumed that the apprentice truly was a beautiful elf maid with red-gold hair and violet eyes flecked with gold. In truth, he knew nothing about Sharlarra but the name she had given him. It could have been invented. Even her voice might have been the product of magic. Liriel had told him more than once that he was too trusting.
Yet the stranger knew of his wish to learn magic, and she had entrusted him with a fortune in gems.
The elf woman's gaze followed his to the coin bag, and she snatched it from his hand.
"He was here," she confirmed grimly. "A rampaging green dragon leaves a more subtle trail!"
"Those gems were given me in trust," Xzorsh said quietly but firmly. "I will not relinquish them to you."
The elf looked at him with measuring eyes. "The drow can be traced through these gems. Possession of them might bring trouble."
"Let it come. I never thought that the Art would be an easy thing."
"So be it." She tossed the gems at Xzorsh and waved him away from the door. He moved aside, and she wrenched it open.
A thin line of moonlight streamed down from the open hold. The elf woman splayed her fingers wide and reached out for it. As the light spilled between her fingers, she simultaneously began to shrink in size and rise toward the moonbeam's source. In a heartbeat she was a glowing mote among the dust swirling through the faint light, then she was gone.
Xzorsh watched with shining eyes and a heart filled with longing. He gazed at the stream of light long after the elf had disappeared, as if the secret to this marvel might be whispered by the swirling dust motes.
He dropped his eyes to the bag in his hands. With a reverent finger he traced the gracefully swirling rune that was the mark of a mage.
Someday he would have such a mark. Someday he would step through air bubbles into distant seas, and follow moonlight wherever it went.
Such dreams filled his heart as he quietly climbed the ladder and slipped, unnoticed, into the sea.
CHAPTER SIX