Jeff Crook - The Rose and the Skull

"Before I came to Sancrist, I learned from the elves of Qualinesti of a poison sometimes used by draconians to envenom their arrows," Nalvarre said.

"Poison?" Liam exclaimed.

"When dried, if hardens into amber-like nodules. It only dissolves in one substance-blood. No other liquids have an effect upon it," Nalvarre said.

"How can you prove what you are saying?" Liam asked.

"I have come here to test the poison," Nalvarre said, "so that you may see with your own eyes. If you will pass me that bottle of brandy, we can begin."

Warily Liam took a bottle from the table behind him and handed it to the priest. Nalvarre removed the cork and tipped the bottle until a little brandy spilled out into his cupped palm. Then, dipping his finger into the liquid, he shook a drop onto one of the amber beads. The drop splattered on the paper, staining it, but the bead remained unchanged.

"Now, if you would be so kind," Nalvarre said, holding out his hand.

Liam looked at it without understanding.

"With your dagger," the priest said as he wiggled his fingers.

Liam took Nalvarre's hand and held it firmly in his own. Reversing the dagger, he pricked the priest's thumb. Nalvarre jerked, and a drop of blood welled from the tiny wound.

Careful not to let the wound touch the bead, Nalvarre squeezed his thumb above the paper. A drop of blood swelled, dangling for what seemed an eternity, before finally falling. It splattered on the paper next to the brandy stain.

As the blood soaked into the paper, the amber beads began to shrink, then disappeared as they dissolved in the blood.

Liam's fist slammed on the desk, sending stacks of papers sliding to the floor. "They did poison him!" he snarled.

"That's why the draconians hunted the gully dwarf so relentlessly, because he knew Gunthar's secret," Nalvarre said.

"What secret?" Liam asked, the blood rising in his face.

"Something Gunthar whispered to the gully dwarf just before he died. As it was told me, 'the book… Kalaman… Liam… in bell room… tell him… tell no one else.' I think it might have something to do with the Revised Measure."

"Perhaps," Liam pondered this surprising information hopefully. If Gunthar had finished the Measure and hidden it somewhere, it would certainly be welcome news. But where? In the bell room? There wasn't a bell room in Castle uth Wistan.

Perhaps in Kalaman? Kalaman!

His eyes shot to the note in his hand, to the watermark on it, from Kalaman. The book he'd given Gunthar several years ago, a book which was kept not in the bell room, but in Belle's room, the former bedchamber of Gunthar's ladywife. The room now occupied by…

"I want Lord Tohr brought to me this instant!" Liam shouted as he stalked to the door. He jerked it open.

Liam stepped back from the open door, finding Lady Jessica already there, her arm raised as though about to knock. Her mouth gaped open.

"Lady Jessica!" Liam shouted. "What are you doing here?

Excuse me please. Guards!" he shouted, then stepped back again in surprise. "You!"

Valian, held firmly by two Knights of the Sword, struggled as though to escape.

"Sir Valian came to my room and asked me to be brought to you," Jessica tried to explain. "He said it was important."

"I'll say it is," Liam said as the captain of the guard appeared at the door. "Captain, hold this elf. Don't try to escape, Valian."

"I came here to warn you," Valian shouted as the captain entered the room with drawn sword, "not to… escape."

"Warn us of what?" Liam asked.

"That all along Lord Tohr has schemed to take control of the Knights of Sancrist Isle," Valian said, "and that he had Gunthar killed. I don't know how."

"It was poison," Nalvarre said.

"I suspected as much," Valian said.

The captain of the guard stood in the center of the room, looking in confusion from one person to the next.

"Lord Gunthar was poisoned?" the captain of the guard asked.

At that moment, a guard appeared at the open door. He glanced around the room for a moment, as though looking for someone in particular. His eyes lighted on the captain.

"Captain, Sir Liam, Trevalyn Kesper has been found dead in the chambers of Lord Tohr Malen," he said.

"That was my doing," Valian said.

"And what of Lord Tohr?" Liam asked.

"He is not in his room. All the other Knights of Takhisis are missing as well. The watch is having trouble finding many of our own Knights as well. Perhaps the others… "

They turned at the sound of horns from the courtyard. Footsteps pounded in the hall. Liam raced across the room and threw open the window. An arrow thudded into the heavy curtain beside his head.

Outside, men shouted Solamnic challenges, and metal clashed against metal. Axes rang like hammers on shields, and men cried out in pain. Fires flared up, lighting all the sky.

Liam turned, a tear in his eye. "Brother against brother," he groaned. "What have we come to?"

Despite the Cataclysm, which shook the land to its foundations, and the Chaos War, which shook the world to its core, robbing it of both its gods and its magic, the Whitestone Glade had endured virtually unchanged, a strange and magical place. The monolithic pale white stone and the meadow surrounding it had been held a blessed sanctuary by the people of this land. No matter the weather, in winter as well as in summer, the weary found rest there, the tormented peace.

For the Knights of Solamnia, the Whitestone Glade was their most sacred place. Legend stated that Vinus Solamnus had received his celestial vision of an order of honorable Knights at Whitestone Glade and that the gods themselves had sanctified it. Certainly some of the most important decisions concerning the fate of Krynn had been made here. It was here during the War of the Lance that a dragon orb was destroyed and the dragonlance was revealed, thus directing the course of the war from certain disaster to eventual victory. When the power of the dragonlance was demonstrated, the stone itself was split to its core. There were some who mourned its defacement in such a vulgar and melodramatic display, but the magic of the Whitestone had not been harmed. It bore its wound like a proud old soldier, with dignity. A few even claimed it was more beautiful than before.

It was natural that the survivors gathered there, as the moon shone down, filling up the glade as though with silver water. In the distance through the trees, numerous fires burned a deep golden red. It would have been a magical sight, with a sylvan loveliness, were it not for the knowledge that each pillar of smoke and each merry flame was a house, or a barn full of the summer's harvest. Slowly, singly or in weary pairs, Knights straggled into the glade and collapsed near the Whitestone, where a group of Knights had gathered around a bonfire. One or two stood guard, but there seemed little need for a watch any longer.

"They are gone," Valian commented as he bandaged his wounded arm. Blood ran from a cut on his brow, and his armor was rent in a half-dozen places. "I imagine they're half way to Xenos by now."

Liam rose and stood quietly for a moment near the Whitestone, weighing his thoughts. Everyone looked at him expectantly, even the dark elf. Lady Meredith sat in the grass with most of her battered armor strewn about her, a bloody sword lay across her knees. Ellinghad Beauseant stood at the edge of the firelight, warily keeping watch in the night. With a towel and a bowl of watered wine, Lady Jessica cleaned a ghastly slash to the ear of the Lord High Warrior, Sir Quintayne. Nalvarre assisted her, directing her efforts with his bandaged hands. He'd fought at the stables, protecting the horses, wielding a quarterstaff with deadly purpose, but staves against swords is rarely a fair contest, and the wounds he sported on hands, head, and chest bore this out.