Mel Odom - The Lost Library of Cormanthyr

"I'm going to introduce myself and ask her what she wants."

"And what if she grabs you and teleports you out of here?" Aymric demanded, coming up on the other side of Baylee.

"That's why I'm here," a voice spoke out of thin air.

"Carceus?" Aymric asked. "Is that you, you old god-seller?"

"And whom else would it be?"

Looking in the direction of the voice, Baylee thought he saw a shadow ripple through the darkness at his side. Carceus Ravnei was a traveling cleric in the service of Gond Wonderbringer. He enjoyed friendships with a number of rangers due to his wandering travels trying to increase the number of followers of Gond in the Dalelands. His invisibility was due to some enchanted item that no one had quite nailed down over the years. The cleric had his secrets.

"Thank you for coming," Baylee said.

"After Xuxa's impassioned plea but a moment or two ago, how could I not come?"

Baylee watched as Cordyan's head came up. Her eyes held the color of newly worked copper still drawing some of the red of a fire into them. He stopped at the head of the table.

Cordyan stood up, her left hand drifting down to her sword hilt.

Baylee spread his hands, showing he was unarmed. "You were looking for me."

Xuxa fluttered through the night overhead, then settled onto a branch over the table. Her thoughts are closed to me, the azmyth bat announced. She has a very disciplined mind, though. And her intentions are definite.

Whatever they are? Baylee asked sarcastically.

Xuxa chirped in disapproval, almost drawing the lieutenant's gaze.

The man sitting at the table remained on the bench, looking up with no expression. He ate neatly from a small clay plate.

He is a watch wizard, Xuxa announced, though more than that I cannot fathom.

"Baylee Arnvold?" Cordyan asked.

"And you are Lieutenant Cordyan Tsald, though I don't know why you would be looking for me." Baylee watched the way the woman moved, noting the symmetry of power and grace. Though young in years, she carried experience wrapped around her. And for one so young, she had gone far in a very challenging arena to make lieutenant.

"First I must inform you I am here in an official capacity."

Baylee inclined his head. "Of course. I hope you've enjoyed the festivities despite that capacity. I hear you're quite good with an axe."

The woman let the compliment roll past her without acknowledgment. "I need to know when the last time was that you spoke with Fannt Golsway."

"I would have to refer to my journal to give you the exact date," Baylee said. Without warning, a leaden feeling filled his stomach.

"An approximation at this point would be adequate."

"Months," Baylee replied.

"What was the nature of that discussion?"

"I'm sure it had something to do with an antiquity or a point of history," Baylee assured the watch lieutenant. "Golsway has little time to talk to anyone about anything other than that."

"Would that be in your journal as well?"

"If it was something I was interested in."

The woman shifted, taking a step closer to Baylee. "I've been told you and your mentor weren't on the best of speaking terms the last time you saw him."

"We had a disagreement," Baylee agreed. "One which I fully intend to redress when I see him at the end of the second tenday from now."

"You have intentions of traveling to Waterdeep?"

Baylee glanced around at the forgathering. The questioning had drawn more than a few spectators. "Yes."

"Why?" Cordyan asked.

"You ask a number of questions without giving me an explanation," Baylee said.

"I'm afraid that is the nature of my business." Cordyan's face remained unreadable even to Baylee's trained eye.

"I'm returning to Waterdeep to see Fannt Golsway," Baylee answered.

Cordyan regarded him silently for a moment. Then she said, "I'm afraid I have some bad news for you. Fannt Golsway is dead."

"Malla, we are ready."

Turning her attention from the staff she held, Krystarn looked over the three men standing in the hallway with her. Only minutes had passed as the men readied themselves for the coming battle. "That is satisfactory, Captain Vnk'itn." She handed him one of the golden bands Shallowsoul had given her. "You understand my instructions on how to use this?"

"Yes, Malla."

Krystarn gave the two remaining bands to the other drow males. 'To flinch or lose your focus will get you killed more surely than a blade in the back."

All three males nodded. None of them appeared happy about being in possession of the bands.

"Those of you who fail to use the bands will die by my hand," she promised. Then she took up the staff the lich had given her. She spoke the activation phrase and tapped the staff against the floor.

A ruby beam spat out from the tip of the staff and splashed against the empty space between the walls of the hallway. The beam formed a thin crescent at first, finally flaring out into a full circle that rapidly expanded and filled with swirling rainbows. In heartbeats, it filled the hallway.

Once the dimensional door was secure, the beam faded away.

"Kill the ranger, Baylee Arnvold," she said. "And kill any who are with him." The drow warrior leaped into the dimensional door in front of her. The familiar chill wrapped around her, then took her away.

"When did Golsway die?"

Cordyan Tsald stared into the jade gaze of Baylee Arnvold. "A tenday and two days ago." Her heart went out to the ranger, and she wasn't used to it doing that so easily. In her trade, she worked with thieves and liars on a continual basis. And men motivated by a need for power or wealth. There were few whom she respected.

Hurt flickered in his eyes, scarcely under control. He had not known about the old mage's death. Cordyan would have wagered anything on that.

No, child, he did not know. Nor did he realize how hurt and confused he would be by such an act.

Cordyan looked at the woman standing beside Baylee who gently put a hand to his shoulder. She was surely too young to have been the one to touch her mind. The voice that she had heard carried more age than the young woman beside the ranger.

My name is Xuxa. I am in the tree above you.

Cordyan kept her off hand on her sword pommel as she glanced up. She saw the bat hanging from a branch above her, spreading its wings to further draw her attention.

He must know the rest of it. There will be no easy way to tell him.

"What happened?" Baylee asked.

With practiced neutrality, the watch lieutenant relayed all she had learned of the old mage's murder. She had worked the night patrol in Waterdeep long enough to know there was no proper way to tell anyone a loved one would not be returning home. Each word seemed to weigh the ranger down. The easy, light-hearted and challenging smile had dropped from his face from the beginning, and grimness hammered his features into tight, hard lines.

"Someone sent you out here to tell me about this?" Baylee asked.

The elf at Baylee's side shook his head slowly. "They suspected you of the old mage's death, my friend. Isn't that right, lieutenant?"

Cordyan didn't flinch from the question. Hiding wasn't her way. "There has been some consideration."

The words reached through the confusion and hurt that had surrounded Baylee. The ranger's emotions were immediately apparent to Cordyan, as were the real concerns of his friends around him. As she watched, a portly bald man in priest's robes materialized at his side as well, offering his sympathies.

"I am your only suspect then?" the ranger asked.

"I don't know," Cordyan answered. "I was given only to find you and question you. Then find out if you would be willing to accompany me back to Waterdeep. Even without the matter of the assassination, there remains the estate to be administered."