Steven Schend: Blackstaff

As Tsarra, Danthra, and their six charges made their way down Calamastyr Lane, a number of acquaintances cried out to them from their windows or shops.

"Good hunting this morning, Tsarra!" "Willing to sell a haunch? Or spare a bird or three?" "Looks like the Blackstaff eats well tonight!"

The eight made their way through streets crowded with merchants and stalls. Their pace slowed due to the crush of people and their necessary wariness of pickpockets, until they reached Elvarren's Lane.

From there, it was a quicker jog back to the dark stone walls surrounding their home. All of them touched their left palms onto the slim gate in the wall's northmost face. Their touches allowed them through the apprentice's gate, rather than using the main entrance on the Swords Street side of the walls. They all waved to their fellow apprentices who either walked the top of the walls or stood atop the tower high above on guard duty.

As they rounded the courtyard to enter the tower's main door, Tsarra gave her students their assignments. "Lynx, Lhoris, Tarik, and Trehgan, take the carcasses into the kitchens and begin the butchering. The rest of you can either help them and learn a useful skill or help the others with mornfeast. Tell the others that I'll be busy this morning, but I think I'll have time after highsun to speak with each of you on the progress of your studies. Then we'll all prepare a venison feast for everyone on our last night of kitchen duties. After tonight, we have no extra duties for a tenday, so-" Her next words were drowned out by the cheers of the brothers al Fuqani and Lhoris.

Danthra clapped a hand on her shoulder. "Let them be. All of us enjoy that shift when we only have our studies to attend to, instead of kitchen or guard duties. You and I should get ready for meeting with the Blackstaff soon. We have the ritual and that other matter to discuss." Danthra smiled, but her eyes were haunted and nervous.

Tsarra gripped her friend's trembling hand and asked, "What was the original reason for our meeting him today? Maresta is your teacher, so why me again?"

Danthra and Tsarra were the last to step into the tower, the junior apprentices racing in ahead of them. "I need you there to supervise as a senior apprentice, since Maresta's still abed with that bad cold. Besides, I'm trying a new spell, and I want you to be among the first to see it. Also, Master Arunsun wants a third party to choose the magical item to investigate, so be sure to bring one.

Besides, why wouldn't I want my best friend there for support when under the Blackstaff's scrutiny?"

"Well, we'll both stand up better under Khelben's scrutiny after we clean up and change clothes. See you soon. Lower, not upper study, right?" Tsarra said and smiled when Danthra nodded.

The Dreamer turned and said, "Tahakim," as she stepped on the lower step of the tower's central stairs. The young woman vanished, to no one's surprise.

Even after fifteen years as a resident, Blackstaff Tower continued to amaze Tsarra. From the outside, it looked to be a simple three-story stone tower, which is all it was-physically. Anyone trained at the tower soon learned that there were at least a dozen more sub-levels reachable only by magic. All areas linked to the central stairs, and they required magical passwords to shift a walker on the stairs to that level. While every student asked where exactly the sub-levels were, none of the senior apprentices, Master Blackstaff, or Mistress Laeral, would say more than, "That secret must be earned, youngling."

Tsarra spent more than a year trying to figure it out, and she guessed that the windows were no more than illusions projecting what was going on outside the tower. She could never determine if the added levels were in separate dimensions or just far away in other towers elsewhere in the Realms. It was nigh impossible to alter the outside or inside walls of the tower.

There were four command words Tsarra used most often while walking the stairs. "Summath" teleported her to one of the dormitory levels, the one assigned as her chambers and those of four other female students; "Aradsol" took her anywhere on the stairs to the roof;

"Vhuarm" sent her down to the cellar where tunnels linked it to Piergeiron's palace and other places across the city; and "Traeloth" deposited her into the main entry chamber of the tower's ground floor.

The three core levels of the tower could be reached simply by walking up or down the stairs.

Tsarra said, "Summath," and her step took her to a landing off the stairwell. The teleports were always so smooth that someone not paying attention would scarcely believe they had shifted from the main tower.

She moved around to her door and opened it, pulling her bow and quiver off as she shouldered the door open. She put her weapons on the bed across from the door, unbuckling her sword belt and laying it on the bed as well. She quickly unbuckled her leathers and stepped over toward her wardrobe.

She pulled out a shallow but wide ceramic basin from under the wardrobe, its bottom holding a mosaic of Sune. Tsarra shivered, thinking of the man's cold alblutions earlier. She was glad she'd made friends at the Firehair's temple, trading minor items for others easily made by her own hand. She grabbed her large pitcher from the windowsill and stood in the basin as she poured the water. The water, shockingly cold as it hit her feet, rose in a shimmering wave, warming as it rose and fell again, as comfortable as a summer shower. Tsarra stood in the basin, letting the water rain down on her two or three times before she felt clean. As she stepped off the basin, the water fell and steamed away.

Tsarra toweled her long hair but dried herself in the morning sunbeams and air. She stood before her wardrobe a while before choosing a simple shift of gray wool. She approached the bed and took up the bow and arrows, placing them carefully back in their places on hooks next to the wardrobe. Finally, she drew the scimitar from its sheath, and its silver sheen caught the morning light to dazzling effect. Mhaornathil-the only thing she'd inherited from her mother other than her elf blood-was a Rilifane-blessed scimitar that could cut ghosts as easily as flesh. Tsarra loved the blade almost as much as she hated undead, the bane of her existence since her father died by undead hands fifteen years before. Still, Tsarra knew she couldn't use the scimitar for the test. Danthra already knew a lot about the blade, and it wouldn't be a fair test of the spell. She snapped the weapon back into its sheath and hung it and the sword belt on their pegs above her headboard.

Tsarra approached her window to stand in the sunlight a moment and breathe in the fresh morning air. Within five breaths, she sensed her familiar coming, even though he didn't loop around the tower and land on the windowsill for a handful of moments. She loved the muffled rustle of his wings as he landed, as well as his purred greeting.

In its language, she said, "Good hunt to you too, mighty one."

Jet black in hue, the tressym stuck his head out, gesturing for a head scratch, his ravenlike wings ruffling slightly over his back.

Tsarra obliged him, letting him rub his head solidly on her palm. She stopped a moment, staring into his mismatched eyes-one of deep blue, the other green-and smiled.

"Of course you're a good companion and a very good hunter," she said.

When the creature tensed to hop onto her shoulder, she held him back, smoothing his feathers and chucking him under the chin. In Common, rather than the purrs of tressymspeak, she said, "Not a chance until the smell of those chipmunks you ate fades from your breath.

Now, go take a nap. I've got to work with Danthra for a while. Oh, and remember to leave Chaid's familiar alone until he gets used to you."

Nameless let out a trilling purr, and she said, "I don't care if he looks and smells like prey. He's not food, any more than you are."