James Ward - Pool of Radiance

There was truth to that, Gensor thought, and he nodded and gestured for Cadorna to go on.

"Promise him a virtually unlimited supply of guinea pigs for his 'experiments.' "

"Same thing you promised me, eh?"

Cadorna flushed. "No! I didn't mean-"

Gensor waved a hand to silence him. "Merely a joke, Councilman. I understand the difference." While Gensor didn't trust Cadorna to tell the truth about the time of day, he knew the councilman was serious about providing an unfettered environment for his magic-at least, as long as it was convenient to do so. And once Gensor was powerful enough, he really wouldn't need Cadorna anymore…

"Uh, well, anyhow, as I was saying, I want you to enlist Yarash's aid. Meanwhile, I'll see that the three parties under discussion are arrested for something… maybe even the brawl last night." Cadorna sped ahead. "The council won't care about the details once I tell them that I propose to send the party upriver to find the source of its pollution and put a stop to it. Not even the First Councilman himself knows about Yarash. Can you believe it? But that won't stop me from telling the party something about the old wizard to pique their interest. Those three will bound off on this mission like lambs to slaughter when I tell them about the chance to stop the horrible devastation being done to the river… and when I mention that Yarash knew Denlor well…"

Gensor nodded in deference to Cadorna's insight, and Cadorna continued.

"If Yarash defeats them, I get the ioun stones. By the time they return- if they return, and I can't imagine how they'd manage it-I'll be First Councilman. I'll simply have the Black Watch arrest them at the city gates."

"On what grounds?"

"I don't know-treason, perhaps. It won't matter. No one will question my authority. Under completely legal auspices, the Black Watch guards will strip them of their weapons and magical items, including the ioun stones! And the beauty of it is that that's merely my contingency plan. I fully expect Yarash to turn all three of those bunglers into sea slime."

"You have a great mind, Councilman."

"Thank you, Gensor." Cadorna wagged a finger in the air. "And now for the second part of the question-the Lord of the Ruins. I know that he's a dragon-oddly enough, a bronze dragon. I can't imagine what would possess a good dragon to go quite so far afield, but I guess it must simply have sensed greater room for power in the control of humanoids…"

Gensor had heard other rumors, but he wasn't about to spoil Cadorna's fun. "Yes?"

"Well, any decently armed troop of warriors with a magic-user or two can defeat a dragon, and for whatever reason, the pool doesn't seem to give it control over humans. I'll lead a party there myself, confront the wyrm, kill it, and complete the figure of power for myself."

The mage literally clapped, his admiration genuine. How Cadorna managed to gather so much information eluded him. Perhaps one day he would make Cadorna tell him…

"You've been before this council before," said Cadorna sternly, condescendingly, as he peered down at Shal, Ren, and Tarl from his dais. "And for the same offense, no less. I have no choice but to send you on an even more dangerous mission." Cadorna went on to tell the three what he wanted them to know about Yarash.

"How do you know this sorcerer is responsible for the pollution of the Barren River?" Ren demanded belligerently. "And if you know, why haven't you done anything about it before now?"

Cadorna sighed. "The council sent seven groups up-river before an orc spy told me of Yarash. None of the groups returned." Cadorna looked up at the big man, his gray eyes pleading for sympathy. "I allowed the tragedy to continue because I was afraid for the lives of any who might try to stop the sorcerer. You must understand, I am sending the three of you only because your reputation precedes you." Cadorna waved his hand to the south with a flourish. "Look at Sokol Keep! Untold numbers died there before you succeeded. And the gnoll encampment… I expected you to return with my treasure. Imagine my surprise when others came back with news that the gnolls had been vanquished completely. The three of you have a formidable reputation. You are perhaps the only ones capable of defeating the sorcerer."

Tarl spoke next. "We all have personal obligations that go wanting as you send us on these tasks, Second Councilman. Do we have a choice in this matter?"

"You most certainly do. You were arrested for brawling. Naturally you may wait in our holding cells until midnight, at which time the Black Watch will toss you over the north wall, and you will be banished from Civilized Phlan… permanently."

The glint in Cadorna's eyes was noticeable even to Tarl. He spoke no more.

"Defeat the wizard," Cadorna went on, "and you will be hailed as heroes. I personally will see to it that the town council bothers you no more. The young mage"- Cadorna pointed toward Shal but addressed Ren and Tarl, as if she could not comprehend his words-"may be interested in speaking with Yarash. He was known to have consorted with the wizard Denlor."

Tarl turned his gaze from Cadorna to Shal, watching for her reactions. The town guards had arrived before he could tell her about his meeting with Tyr in the inner sanctuary of the temple. Tarl had learned three things there: that an ioun stone would greatly enhance his powers so he could heal Shal; that Anton would not recover until the one who spat the word into his forehead was defeated; and that his own immediate calling was to follow Shal. The message from his god was clear-Shal's mission would lead Tarl to his own. "As Tyr has directed me, I will follow Shal," he declared.

Shal didn't understand the full implication of Tarl's words. She thought only that her friend was assuring her of his loyalty to her cause of avenging Ranthor's death. Tarl had already done a great deal. Without his healing, she knew, she would be dead. Shal now felt a total rejuvenation of spirit and physical health, and she was forced to recognize a very special feeling for Tarl that she had not acknowledged before. "I've made my decision," she announced. "For me, there is no choice but to go."

"I personally find bashing it out with sorcerers- especially very powerful ones-a real treat," said Ren sarcastically, and then he turned serious. "If you're right about what that wizard's doing to the river, he's dead meat."

"Good! Then it's settled," said Cadorna. "Be on your way by the tenth hour tomorrow morning. Godspeed and good luck." With a wave of his hand, he dismissed the three from the council chambers.

Ren, Shal, Tarl, and their two horses left Phlan from the docks, choosing to travel by a small single-masted ferry around the mouth of the Barren River, rather than risk trying to cross its foul waters where the river doubled back on itself north of Phlan. More than two hours after they debarked, they could see the high walls of Valhingen Graveyard off to the west.

"That's the place where my brothers died," said Tarl, pointing at the high timber fence. "In Vaasa, there is no city as large as Phlan. We believed at first that those wooden walls were the fortress around the city. We were already within the gates before we knew…"

Shal and Ren said nothing. The pain of Tarl's recollection was palpable.

"I will return here and, with Tyr's help, fight the vile creature that tricked me into parting with the Hammer of Tyr."

" You lost the hammer?" asked Shal, aware that Tarl had previously made oblique references only to the fact that the hammer was lost in the graveyard.

Tarl made no response at first, then began haltingly to describe the full horrors of his first day in Phlan. The time since that day had weighed heavily on Tarl, and he felt a rush of cleansing energy just from speaking truthfully about his encounter in Valhingen Graveyard. He described each moment he had omitted from his earlier descriptions-his terror when the skeleton hands had reached up and gutted the horses, how he had forgotten the words to clerical spells he had known for a year or longer, the fight-enchanted word cast against cursed word-between Anton and the vampire, and finally how he had foolishly given up the hammer in exchange for freedom instead of using it to fight the vampire.