reappearance of the monster.
Bok kept its line straight across the bottom of the river, plowing
through the silt and mud and easily holding its course against the mighty
push of the currents. When the monster re-emerged directly across from the
guard post, the knights lining the city gate gasped in disbelief but held
their stations, grim-faced and weapons ready.
The gate was farther up the Rauvin from the angle of Bok's chosen path.
The golem continued on to the city wall, but didn't alter its course to
bring it to the gate.
It punched a hole in the wall and walked right through.
Entreri paced anxiously in his room at the Inn of the Wayward Sages,
near the center of the city. "They should have come by now," he snapped at
Sydney, sitting on the bed and tightening the bonds that held Catti-brie.
Before Sydney could respond, a ball of flame appeared in the center of
the room, not a real fire, but the image of flames, illusionary, like
something burning in that particular spot on another plane. The fires
writhed and transformed into the apparition of a robed man.
"Morkai!" Sydney gasped.
"My greetings," replied the specter. "And the greetings of Dendybar the
Mottled."
Entreri slipped back into the corner of the room, wary of the thing.
Catti-brie, helpless in her bonds, sat very still.
Sydney, versed in the subtleties of conjuring, knew that the
otherworldly being was under Dendybar's control, and she was not afraid.
"Why has my master bid you to come here?" she asked boldly.
"I bear news," replied the specter. "The party you seek was turned into
the Evermoors a week ago, to the south of Nesme."
Sydney bit her lip in anticipation of the specter's next revelation,
but Morkai fell silent and waited as well.
"And where are they now?" Sydney pressed impatiently.
Morkai smiled. "Twice I have been asked, but not yet compelled!" The
flames puffed again and the specter was gone.
"The Evermoors," said Entreri. "That would explain their delay."
Sydney nodded her agreement absently, for she had other things on her
mind. "Not yet compelled," she whispered to herself, echoing the specter's
parting words. Disturbing questions nagged at her. Why had Dendybar waited
a week to send Morkai with the news? And why couldn't the wizard have
forced the specter to reveal more recent activity of the drow's party?
Sydney knew the dangers and limitations of summoning, and understood the
tremendous drain of the act on a wizard's power. Dendybar had conjured
Morkai at least three times recently - once when the drow's party had first
entered Luskan, and at least twice since she and her companions had set out
in pursuit. Had Dendybar abandoned all caution in his obsession with the
Crystal Shard? Sydney sensed that the mottled wizard's hold over Morkai had
lessened greatly, and she hoped that Dendybar would be prudent with any
future summonings, at least until he had fully rested.
"Weeks could pass before they arrive!" Entreri spat, considering the
news. "If ever they do."
"You may be right," agreed Sydney. "They might have fallen in the
moors."
"And if they have?"
"Then we go in after them," Sydney said without hesitation.
Entreri studied her for a few moments. "The prize you seek must be
great indeed," he said.
"I have my duty, and I shall not fail my master," she replied sharply.
"Bok will find them even if they lay at the bottom of the deepest bog!"
"We must decide our course soon," Entreri insisted. He turned his evil
glare on Catti-brie. "I grow weary of watching this one."
"Nor do I trust her," Sydney agreed. "Although she shall prove useful
when we meet with the dwarf. Three more days we will wait. After that we go
back to Nesme, and into the Evermoors if we must."
Entreri nodded his reluctant approval of the plan. "Did you hear?" he
hissed at Catti-brie. "You have three more days to live, unless your
friends arrive. If they are dead in the moors, we have no need of you."
Catti-brie showed no emotion throughout the entire conversation,
determined not to let Entreri gain any advantage by learning of her
weakness, or strength. She had faith that her friends were not dead. The
likes of Bruenor Battlehammer and Drizzt Do'Urden were not destined to die
in an unmarked grave in some desolate fen. And Catti-brie would never
accept that Wulfgar was dead until the proof was irrefutable. Holding to
her faith, her duty to her friends was to maintain a blank facade. She knew
that she was winning her personal battle, that the paralyzing fear Entreri
held over her lessened every day. She would be ready to act when the time
came. She just had to make certain that Entreri and Sydney didn't realize
it.
She had noted that the labors of the road, and his new companions, were
affecting the assassin. Entreri revealed more emotion, more desperation,
every day to get this job over and done. Was it possible that he might make
a mistake?
"It has come!" echoed a cry from the hallway, and all three started
reflexively, then recognized the voice as Jierdan's, who had been watching
the Vault of Sages. A second later, the door burst in and the soldier
scrambled into the room, his breathing ragged.
"The dwarf?" Sydney asked, grabbing Jierdan to steady him.
"No!" Jierdan cried. "The golem! Bok has entered Silverymoon! They have
it trapped down by the west gate. A wizard was summoned."
"Damn!" Sydney spat and she started from the room. Entreri moved to
follow her, grabbing Jierdan's arm and yanking him around, bringing them
face to face.
"Stay with the girl," the assassin ordered.
Jierdan glared at him. "She is your problem."
Entreri easily could have killed the soldier right there, Catti-brie
noted, hoping that Jierdan had read the assassin's deadly look as clearly
as she.
"Do as you are told!" Sydney screamed at Jierdan, ending further
argument. She and Entreri left, the assassin slamming the door behind them.
"He would have killed you," Catti-brie told Jierdan when Entreri and
Sydney had gone. "You know that."
"Silence," Jierdan growled. "I've had enough of your vile words!" He
approached her threateningly, fists clenched at his sides.
"Strike me, then," Catti-brie challenged, knowing that even if he did,
his code as a soldier would not allow him to continue such an assault on a
helpless foe. "Although in truth I be yer only friend on this cursed road!"
Jierdan stopped his advance. "Friend?" he balked.
"As close as ye'll find out here," Catti-brie replied. "Ye're a
prisoner here suren as I be." She recognized the vulnerability of this
proud man, who had been reduced to servitude by the arrogance of Sydney and
Entreri, and drove her point home hard. "They mean to kill ye, ye know that
now, and even if ye escape the blade, yell have nowhere to go. Ye've
abandoned yer fellows in Luskan, and the wizard in the tower'd put ye to a
bad end if ye ever went back there, anyway!"
Jierdan tensed in frustrated rage, but did not lash out.
"Me friends are close by," Catti-brie continued despite the warning
signs. "They be living still, I know, and we'll be meeting them any day.
That'll be our tine, soldier, to live or to die. For meself, I see a
chance. Whether me friends win or I be bargained over, me life'll be me
own. But for yerself, the road looks dark indeed! If me friends win,
they'll cut ye down, and if yer mates win. . . " She let the grim
possibilities hang unspoken for a few moments to let Jierdan weigh them
fully.
"When they get what they seek, they'll need ye no more," she said
grimly. She noted his trembling, not of fear, but of rage, and pushed him
past the edge of control. "They may let ye live," she said, snidely. "Might
that they be needin' a lackey!"
He did strike her then, just once, and recoiled.
Catti-brie accepted the blow without complaint, even smiling through
the pain, though she was careful to hide her satisfaction. Jierdan's loss
of self-restraint proved to her that the continual disrespect Sydney, and
especially Entreri, had shown for him had fueled the flames of discontent
to the verge of explosion.
She knew, too, that when Entreri returned and saw the bruise Jierdan
had given her, those fires would burn even brighter.
Sydney and Entreri rushed through the streets of Silverymoon, following
the obvious sounds of commotion. When they reached the wall, they found Bok
encapsulated in a sphere of glowing green lights. Riderless horses paced
about to the groans of a dozen injured soldiers, and one old man, the
wizard, stood before the globe of light, scratching his beard and studying
the trapped golem. A Knight of Silver of considerable rank stood
impatiently beside him, twitching nervously and clasping the pommel of his
sheathed sword tightly.
"Destroy the thing and be done with it," Sydney heard the knight say to
the wizard.
"Oh, no!" exclaimed the wizard. "But it is marvelous!"
"Do you mean to hold it here forever?" the knight snapped back. "Just
look around -"
"Your pardon, good sirs," Sydney interrupted. "I am Sydney, of the
Hosttower of the Arcane in Luskan. Perhaps I may be of some help."
"Well met," said the wizard. "I am Mizzen of the Second School of
Knowledge. Know you the possessor of this magnificent creature?"
"Bok is mine," she admitted.
The knight stared at her, amazed that a woman, or anyone for that
matter, controlled the monster that had knocked aside some of his finest
warriors and taken down a section of the city wall. "The price shall be
high, Sydney of Luskan," he snarled.
"The Hosttower shall make amends," she agreed. "Now would you release
the golem to my control?" she asked the wizard. "Bok will obey me."
"Nay!" snapped the knight. "I'll not have the thing turned loose
again."
"Calm, Gavin," Mizzen said to him. He turned to Sydney. "I should like
to study the golem, if I may. Truly the finest construction I have ever
witnessed, with strength beyond the expectations of the books of creation."
"I am sorry," Sydney answered, "but my time is short. I have many roads
yet to travel. Name the price of the damage wrought by the golem and I
shall relay it to my master, on my word as a member of the Hosttower."
"You'll pay now," argued the guard.
Again Mizzen silenced him. "Excuse Gavin's anger," he said to Sydney.
He surveyed the area. "Perhaps we might strike a bargain. None seem to have
been seriously injured."
"Three men have been carried away!" Gavin rebutted. "And at least one
horse is lame and will have to be destroyed!"
Mizzen waved his hand as if to belittle the claims. "They will heal,"
he said. "They will heal. And the wall needed repairs anyway." He looked at
Sydney and scratched his beard again. "Here is my offer, and a fairer one
you'll not hear! Give me the golem for one night, just one, and I shall
amend the damage it has wreaked. Just one night."
"And you'll not disassemble Bok," Sydney stated.
"Not even the head?" Mizzen begged.
"Not even the head," Sydney insisted. "And I shall come for the golem
at the first light of dawn."
Mizzen scratched his beard again. "A marvellous work," he mumbled,
peering into the magical prison. "Agreed!"
"If that monster -" Gavin began angrily.
"Oh, where is your sense of adventure, Gavin?" Mizzen shot back before
the knight could even finish his warning. "Remember the precepts of our
town, man. We are here to learn. If you only understood the potential of
such a creation!"
They started away from Sydney, paying her no more mind, the wizard
still rambling into Gavin's ear. Entreri slipped from the shadows of a
nearby building to Sydney's side.
"Why did the thing come?" he asked her.
She shook her head. "There can be only one answer."
"The drow?"
"Yes," she said. "Bok must have followed them into the city."
"Unlikely," reasoned Entreri, "though the golem might have seen them.
If Bok came crashing through behind the drow and his valiant friends, they
would have been down here at the battle, helping to fend it off."
"Then they might be out there still."
"Or perhaps they were leaving the city when Bok saw them," said
Entreri. "I will make inquiries with the guards at the gate. Fear not, our
prey is close at hand!"
They arrived back at the room a couple of hours later. From the guards
at the gate they had learned of the drow's party being turned away and now
they were anxious to retrieve Bok and be on their way.
Sydney started a string of instructions to Jierdan concerning their
departure in the morning, but what grabbed Entreri's immediate attention
was Catti-brie's bruised eye. He moved over to check her bonds and,
satisfied that they were intact, spun on Jierdan with his dagger drawn.
Sydney, quickly surmising the situation, cut him off. "Not now!" she
demanded. "Our rewards are at hand. We cannot afford this!"
