Mel Odom - The Lost Library of Cormanthyr

The grinding repeated itself, lasting longer this time. Then it faded away, echoing to the top of the well.

"The second was Enoreth?" Calebaan asked.

"Yes." Baylee wished the wizard would be silent and let him think.

"Hanali Celanil would probably be the third," the watch wizard yelled down. "She was the goddess of elven beauty. Remembering the vases and other things you say Glitterwing collected, it would be a logical choice."

"You can't be logical in this business," Baylee called back, remembering words Golsway had spoken, "not and survive. You're generally dealing with madmen and zealous protectors who wanted to die and take their treasures with them."

What would make Celanil important to Glitterwing? Xuxa asked.

Nothing, Baylee answered. Glitterwing wouldn't have been interested in beauty. Everything the ranger had read of the man suggested an iron-edged pragmatism.

What about the one that doesn't fit? Xuxa asked. Erevan Ilesere is the elven god of change and of rogues. Maybe Glitterwing intended it as a protest against what was being done by letting the humans and dwarves into Myth Drannor.

In a way, it made sense. Rillifane Rallathil is god of the wild elves. Glitterwing was a wild elf.

An acceptable answer, Xuxa said. However, there remains only one way to find out.

Wishing the Lady's blessing on his efforts, Baylee touched the gem beneath the oak tree pictograph.

Steel shafts plunged out of the mortar at Baylee. He let go the harness and plummeted down into the well a couple feet before stopping himself. The trident-trap set into the wall missed ripping into his flesh by less than a finger's breadth.

He stopped his fall by squeezing on the harness ropes and held his position as the trident retracted into the wall.

"Baylee!" Cordyan yelled from above.

"I'm fine," he called back. With shaking arms and legs, he climbed back up to the pictographs. When the trap had retracted, it had also reset the gems. Well, we know the first two are right.

That only leaves four more possibilities, Xuxa replied. Do you think you can dodge them all?

A memory flooded into Baylee's mind as he touched the first two gems. Remember when we were attacked by the skeleton warriors? One of them got down on his knees and prayed. He gazed at the fletched arrow pictograph. And it was to Solonor Thelandira, not Rillifane.

You're assuming those skeleton warriors once knew Glitterwing, and that they shared religious beliefs.

They were also elves, someone who Glitterwing could have forced into servitude as skeleton warriors. If he was desperate, maybe he would have used his own people.

A slim case, at best.

I can't build one for any of the others, Baylee responded. His finger caressed the gem. When the grinding started again, he was already dropping, hoping to avoid the trident trap yet again.

But this time, the door in the side of the well opened into a yawning blackness.

"It's open," Baylee called out. He scrambled up the rope in the well, drawn by the mysteries waiting within the door. Hanging even with it, and no trident in sight, he held up the lantern.

A straight shaft, carefully mortised in to make smooth surfaces along the sides, led back. It was a crawl space only, not large enough for him even to squat and walk through.

Xuxa fluttered in front of him, a smaller target and fully able to see in the dark with her infravision.

Baylee pulled himself through after her. Behind him, Cordyan was ordering men down into the well. The ranger crawled perhaps thirty feet before the tunnel suddenly ended and opened up onto a large cavern. He walked forward, looking at the crush of houses and buildings that had been flattened beneath the surface of the ruins. The ground had grown soft over the years, drawing the remains of the structures deep into the tunnels below.

The tunnels looked dwarven in nature, and Baylee thought the elves might have built Rainydale over an old dwarven mining city to use the underground storage areas for their fruits and vegetables. And, as a military man, Glitterwing would have wanted it as a more defensible position.

He consulted the map as Xuxa clung to the wall nearby. The cavern was shown on the map, but it held a different shape than it did now. He had the lay of the land figured out by the time Cordyan had all of her men organized.

When looked at properly, the trail could be seen snaking through the fissures to the right. With the long sword naked in his fist, Baylee trotted forward.

The intense earthquake caught him off-balance. Out in the open area of the cavern, rocks crumbled and fell, and stalactites dropped from the curve of earth overhead.

"What was that?" Cthulad demanded.

Baylee got to his feet, watching the choking dust rise from the tunnel floor. The dust shortened his visibility. "I don't know. But it couldn't have been good." He continued along the trail, knowing the library lay somewhere up ahead.

Krystarn Fellhammer shoved herself back to her feet, yelling at the drow warriors around her to get back into position. Mild tremors followed the large quake.

She gazed around the caverns, wondering what had set the earthquake in motion. There were still a few echoing quivers every so often, reminders that the land had been cruelly torn in the battle with the Army of Darkness.

"He seeks now to destroy us all," a voice whispered behind the drow.

Krystarn turned, spotting Nevft Scoontiphp behind her.

The baelnorn didn't look at her, staring instead at the new fissures that had opened up in the walls of the cavern.

"You're saying Shallowsoul did that?" Krystarn asked in disbelief.

"He failed to stop them," the baelnorn said. "He never intended for the map Skyreach had among her things to reach humankind. He was supposed to hold the library here until a suitable heir could be found."

"An heir?"

The baelnorn nodded. "In his mortal life, he was the caretaker of the library, hand-picked by Glitterwing himself, and transformed into the lich by Glitterwing as well. Haven't you learned anything in these years you've been among us?"

"There is no heir." Krystarn ignored the creature and started her men moving down the trail again. "And the way through the well will be blocked once we kill all the humans who have invaded these caverns. I can't believe Shallowsoul hadn't already blocked the way."

"He was charged not to. And after awhile, I'm sure he forgot it was even there. His mind is not what it once was."

Krystarn fell into the group of drow warriors, her morning star naked in her fist. Shallowsoul had alerted her only moments ago of the breach made by the group of humans. She'd even watched Baylee Arnvold lead the way through the hidden door.

"The humans have near to fifty warriors," Scoontiphp stated.

"We are drow," Krystarn said. "For us, it is but more who will die by our hand."

The baelnorn smiled. "Thinking of that as your epitaph?"

Before Krystarn could reply, Scoontiphp disappeared, leaving only his mocking laughter twisting in the echoing emptiness behind the line of advancing drow warriors.

She pushed the baelnorn's words out of her mind. She had her own agenda to pursue, and the hobgoblin army under Chomack was awaiting her word, still totally unknown to Shallowsoul. It was a comforting thought, one totally drow in nature.

Baylee felt the pull of a trip cord before he saw it. "Get down!" he roared over the creak of a spring loosing. A huge stone block pulled free of the nearby wall and slammed against the wall on the other side of the trail. It burst into a shower of rock, leaving only the thick pole that it had been tied to.

Pushing himself to his feet, the ranger regained his lantern from the ground and took stock of the situation behind him. Cordyan was next in line, shaken but still grimly in control of the watch unit.