Кейт Новак - Azure Bonds

Alias could see that there was only water where the portal had been. The sight of her reflection brought to mind the copies of her Phalse had created. Struggling to her feet, she limped to the feast hall door.

“They’re gone!” she cried. “What happened to them?”

Dragonbait shrugged his shoulders. The smell of brimstone rose from his body.

“You hoped to lay them to rest by destroying Phalse,” Akabar reminded her. “It appears your wish was granted.”

“Maybe they were never really there,” Olive conjectured. “Maybe they were just an illusion Phalse conjured up to use against you. They must have vanished when you killed him.”

“Perhaps,” Alias whispered sadly. She could not believe either explanation.

Elminster, detecting the scent of lemon and ham from the saurial’s body, cocked an eyebrow but said nothing.

“I think it’s time to check the larder and see what goodies Phalse left behind,” Olive suggested.

“In the cellars of this place,” Nameless said to Dragonbait, “you will find a sword. I would be honored if you would accept it in place of the one you lost.”

Dragonbait nodded graciously.

Nameless knelt by the injured halfling, who still cradled her head in her hands. “There’s something I’d like you to have, too, Mistress Ruskettle.”

The halfling’s eyes shone as she held her hand out. In it Nameless placed a small, silver harp and crescent moon pin, the symbol of a Harper. She smiled up at Nameless. “Really? For me?” She pinnned the gift to her tattered gown. “Thank you.”

“That’s going to raise some hackles,” said Elminster quietly.

“Let it,” Nameless said.

Elminster smiled at Akabar. “I have a gift for ye, Akabar Bel Akash, a piece of advice perhaps more valuable than any magic item. It takes less time to solve thy own riddles than to wait in Lhaeo’s office.”

Akabar grinned and nodded.

Nameless looked uncertainly at Alias. “I have no more gifts to give you, yet I would ask for something from you.”

Uncertainty gripped the swordswoman, a fear that Nameless would ask for something she could not give him, or something she would not wish to. “What is it?” she asked.

“I know of your birth,” her ‘father’ said, “and Mistress Ruskettle has told me something of your travels. But I wish to hear you tell your tale.”

Alias laughed with relief. Moving to the edge of the pool, she sat down and beckoned her audience to draw close. Olive perked up attentively, eager to hear the tale that would bring her fame throughout the Realms when she began telling it herself.

“I woke in Suzail, in the land of Cormyr, to the sound of two dogs barking.…”

As the three men and the saurial listened to Alias’s beautiful voice, Olive leaned back and promptly fell asleep.

KATE NOVAK grew up in Pittsburgh, where she received a B.S. in Chemistry from the University of Pittsburgh. After getting married, she gave up laboratories; her husband Jeff keeps her from starving while she pursues her writing career. Her works published by TSR include pick-a-path, adventure gamebooks and game modules. She is a Girl Scout leader and a fussy cat owner.

JEFF GRUBB, also a Pittsburgh native, was a civil engineer before being kidnapped by Wisconsin leprechauns and put to work designing games and fantasy worlds for TSR, Inc. His writing credits include Manual of the Planes , an AD&D™ Hardbound supplement, and the FORGOTTEN REALMS Boxed Set. He is currently serving as authoritative source, guardian spirit and traffic cop for the ever-growing Forgotten Realms. His wife Kate keeps him sane in all this.