Ed Greenwood Elminster's Daughter

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"No."
"Pay taxes?"
Narnra made an incredulous sound. The old wizard grinned again and asked,
"D'ye know who I am?"
"No. I can see and hear that you're an old man and a powerful mage, yes, but no
more."
The old wizard nodded, strolled a few paces away, spun around, and snapped,
"What do ye do with thy days?"
"Steal. Sleep. Spy on folk to steal from. Steal. Sell what I've gained and use the
coins to buy food. Eat. Flee the Watch. Steal some more."
"What happened to your mother's shop? House? Goods?"
"Snatched, seized, and spirited away, the moment the city knew she was dead,
thank you for asking," Narnra said coldly. "Some slave-seeking noble sent his men
after me."
The wizard nodded slowly. "I find myself unsurprised."
The mists suddenly boiled up into a gigantic, looming serpentine head, all scales
and great jaws, parting to menace her
Narnra screamed and so did the Mage Royal.
The world burst into blinding brightness in a great roaring flood of force that
swept the dragon head away and the Silken Shadow after it, tumbling end over end
unseeing into surging flows of power that caught and clung and held her, drawing
her down out of roiling chaos into . . . hanging upright in midair once more.
The mists churned and whirled around her with more force than before, trailing
sparks here and there, but otherwise, the cellar was much as before except that the
senseless Red Wizard now floated head-downwards.
The old wizard was standing just as before, but his gaze was now bent on the
cellar entrance arch. "I did warn ye, Mage Royal," he said quietly. "Know ye not an
illusion when ye see one?"
Narnra found that she could turn her head and did so. Caladnei was on her knees,
struggling against what looked like ropes of crawling fire that held her wrists down
and away from her sides, looped around her neck, and snarled around her spread
knees and her ankles behind her.
"Will ye stand peaceful, and work no magic?" the old wizard demanded.
The Mage Royal of Cormyr glared up at him over the crackling flames and said
flatly, 'Wo."
The wizard shrugged and turned back to Narnra and in a chilling, throat-choking
moment the dragon head loomed in front of her once more.
She knew what it was now and managed to keep from screaming but could not
help staring at it, trembling, as those great jaws yawned once more. . . .
"Lass, did ye ever see anything like this before now?" the white-bearded wizard
asked gently, from below.
"N-no," Narnra managed to hiss. "Take it away!"
The dragon-head dwindled and backed away from her at the same time, shrinking
until it was barely larger than her own head whereupon it became frightening all
over again, seeming like the head of a great serpent watching her out of the mist, a
snake that could slay her at will while she hung mage-bound.
"Have ye ever seen a living beast like this before?" the old wizard asked again,
sharply. The smaller dragon-head turned this way and that, displaying itself to her as
a gown-merchant's model might have done . . . then sighed back down into the mists
and was gone.
"N-no," Narnra managed to say, suspicion suddenly welling up dark, hot, and
choking. Was this old brute . . . ?
The mage pounced. "But?"
"But nothing," she flared, eyes blazing down at him.
"Truth, lass! Ye lie as badly as a wrinkled rug! Tell me truth!"
"I... Mother's apprentices used to tell me about dragons. That was a dragon,
wasn't it?"
"How many apprentices?" the old wizard snapped. "Their names?"
"Uh, five, most of the time. Goraun, Rivrel, Jonczer, and the two younger ones,
Tantheld and Silen Rorgel, who was called 'Silent' because he almost never spoke.
They . . . Rivrel's dead; knifed by someone taking things from the shop after Mother
died. I think Jonczer was killed too, but I saw only a lot of blood, not his body. The
others . . . disappeared. They may be dead, they may've stolen things and fled; I
know not."
"Did ye ever see any of them work magic?"
"No."
"What exactly did they tell ye about dragons?" [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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