Plague of Spells as-1

by Bruce R Cordell

  "My dream form can stray only a little way from my body. Only about a mile, maybe two. I can't explore the whole world when I dreamwalk-only what's nearby."

  Japheth rubbed his jaw, not certain if he believed the girl. He knew of a quick and dirty enchantment that could compel her to tell the truth… but if it turned out she hadn't been lying, the act of robbing her of her own volition, however J briefly, would turn her against him. That was the problem with such inducements-one never really knew in the first place whether one had properly identified a reasonable target | for harsh questions until afterward. That's why enlightened | societies frowned on the use of involuntary, magical interrogations or even baser forms of physical torture.

  Of course, in these post-Spellplague years, when 5 things were only just coming under control, surviving institutions were not the sticklers for decorum they had been before the Year of Blue Fire.

  More to the point, Japheth had worked long and hard on developing a persona that matched his circumstances. That facade he'd created for himself, friendless and cruel, hard to acquaintances and vicious to enemies, would force the truth from the girl in a moment, regardless of consequence.

  Why didn't she show more fear? She even knew he walked the crimson road, yet she treated him in a strangely friendly manner, as if she didn't, in truth, fear him.

  Japheth decided, for the moment, to act as if he believed Anusha.

  "Very well, then, Lady Anusha," he said, surprising himself with the smile in his voice, "let's get you cleaned up and give you a little exercise, eh? You can move about here within my cabin unseen. No one has the key but me."

  Japheth drew some fresh water from ship stores and filled a large hand basin for Anusha. He heated the water with a flourish of fire, smiled, and left her to her own devices.

  It was tricky given the limited space in the cabin, but she managed a reasonably decent sponge bath. If nothing else, at least she had tendays of clean clothing in her travel case.

  She found a hand mirror in the trunk and observed her image in its restricted oval. Presentable, she decided. Her hair was still damp, but she rather liked the look. She imagined it made her seem daring. Anusha wondered if Japheth thought so.

  She struck a pose, and then laughed. "How about that, warlock? You've found a stowaway who isn't afraid of your mysterious ways."

  A voice outside the door silenced her.

  "Captain? Can I help you?" It was Japheth's voice, faint as if from some distance away.

  A much louder reply sounded right outside the door. "Japheth, ain't you a fair sight; just the man I was looking for. We have a problem."

  Anusha stifled a gasp.

  "What sort of problem?" Japheth's voice was closer now.

  "Something's moving around your cabin. It may be our ghost still devils us."

  Anusha began to stealthily gather her unpacked clothes, combs, and other oddments from the floor, cot, and tiny cabinet holding the hand basin. Her belongings were everywhere!

  "Captain," came Japheth's voice, "you're right. Behroun sent along a secret spy to watch us. Seren flushed it out, but its presence remains."

  She smothered a gasp of surprise.

  "Damn me for a kobold!" came Thoster's reply.

  "I'm afraid so. Fortunately I recognized the creature's purpose. It is a ghost in truth-the spirit of an executed murderer. Behroun suborned it with necromancy and set it to watch us."

  "Beat me with a yardarm!"-

  "Indeed," returned Japheth. "Just in case the spirit survived Seren's attack, I set a trap for it in my cabin. Lucky I did! I caught it not more than an hour ago. It is held fast in a prism chiseled from a gorgon's heart."

  "A gorgon's heart?"

  "Dangerous to gaze upon, I know, but not to worry. Such things are extremely effective for holding ghosts and other immaterial wisps. Do you want to take a look? If you take just a quick peek, you should be all right, I suppose. I don't have to warn you what could happen if you stare too long at a prism carved from a gorgon's heart."

  "… no, no Japheth, I can imagine it well enough without taking a gander. Sounds as if you have the spirit well in hand. We can deal with Behroun when we return to Impiltur. Ain't no need to risk the Green Siren's captain, eh?"

  Japheth laughed in agreement.

  "Just see to it you don't let it loose again, eh? And don't speak of this to anyone, not even Nyrotha." "Of course."

  Anusha heard the captain's heavy footsteps recede.

  A quiet knock sounded on the cabin door. Anusha unbolted the latch and stood back.

  Japheth glided into the chamber and closed the door behind him. There was no place for both of them to stand except within half an arm's length from each other. The warlock smelled of musk and sandalwood.

  "You look rested," he said, grinning. His eyes danced, and the brooding lilies of his face melted.

  "I thought you were giving me up!" she whispered, despite that she wanted to shout.

  The warlock laughed, nodding. "I wondered if you could hear what I said. A shade of the truth to make the lie more believable, is all."

  "What if the captain had decided to look?"

  Japheth shook his head. "I knew he wouldn't. Thoster and his crew will do much to avoid the unquiet dead. Behroun told me the Green Siren had an encounter with a ghost ship last year. They lost a quarter of the tirew. I suspected the captain would be happy to let me handle the 'ghost spy,' especially after I threw in that nonsense about a gorgon's heart."

  "Still," she chided him. She grabbed his upper arm and squeezed.

  Japheth looked down at her hand.

  Anusha immediately released her hold and said, "Oh, I'm sorry! I didn't-"

  "No, no, you can touch me. I don't mind. I mean…" Japheth cleared his throat and said, "We shouldn't be embarrassed of a little contact in a close space like this. It's bound to happen."

  "Yes," she agreed, wondering what Japheth was really thinking. Her stomach fluttered as if butterfly wings trembled beneath her skin.

  "In any event," continued the warlock, with perhaps just a touch of new color on his cheeks, "if you're concerned the captain will drop in unexpectedly, maybe you should slip out of here as a dream and look around the ship every so often, just as a precaution."

  "I can't fall asleep on a moment's notice," Anusha replied. "I can only dreamwalk once I'm asleep, and I'm afraid I've been getting too much of that lately. The first time I dreamwalked, it was only after I stayed awake for nearly a tenday!"

  Japheth looked thoughtful. He carefully pushed past her to his cot, his shoulder brushing against hers. He said, "See? Bound to happen," he said lightly, then turned his attention to his duffel and its contents.

  "You know, Anusha, I could help you fall asleep whenever you wished, instead of waiting for tiredness to overcome you. Then you could dreamwalk at need."

  "I could?"

  He nodded, an excited smile turning up the corners of his mouth. His hands skimmed over the cluttered containers on his coverlet. He selected one glass bottle filled with a thick purple fluid. He popped the seal, gave a sniff, and then recoiled. "This is too strong undiluted…" he said under his breath.

  "Ah!" Japheth plucked a silver vial from the cot and uncorked it, looked in, and mumbled, "Empty, that's good." He allowed a single drop of the thick purple fluid to fall in.

  The warlock grabbed the waterskin from his belt and filled the silver vial to the brim. A puff of white mist escaped the open vial like the exhalation of a panting beast. A smell like blackberries wafted through the cabin. Japheth capped the vial and held it out to Anusha.

  She accepted the cold silver thing. She asked, "So what is this exactly?"

  "It is a potion of somnolence," said Japheth, as if that explained everything.

  "Is it a drug?" Anusha asked.

  Japheth's gaze flicked down to the vial in her hand, then back to her eyes. He replied, "It will help you unleash your dream form when you're too provoked to sleep. Just a sip should be enough
to send you off to dreamland in less time than it takes to count down from ten. But yes, I suppose you could call it a drug. Use it only when you have time to sleep for several hours. If you don't abuse its use, you'll be fine. But if you're worried, pour it out. I was only trying to help."

  Anusha examined the vial, her mind turning over the warlock's gift. Because it was from him, she ultimately decided to keep it. She didn't want to hurt his feelings. And after all, the soporific fluid could prove indispensable in the right situation. It couldn't hurt to keep the elixir.

  The morning dawned wet and windswept. Iron gray waves stretched away in all directions save for the mist-shrouded line to the south. The line was the boundary between the sea and an island.

  Foam-spotted wakes stretched away from the shoreline in both directions. Flashes of green fins, black gills, and long, muscular tails were visible even from the Green Siren's deck. Countless fish swam just below the surface. The swarm grazed some invisible nutrient, moving now in unison, now in erratic frenzy.

  As the Green Siren drew closer, the shore resolved into a beach of acrid water, weeds, and brine pools. The polluted-looking sand was vacant but for gray rocks in heaps, oddly scoured rock formations, and a lone tower slick with dark fungus.

  Captain Thoster had warned Japheth to expect the old tower, and indeed the small isle on which the tower was situated. He named isle and tower Hegruth. Both had been drowned beneath the surface of the Sea of Fallen Stars for millennia. The receding sea now revealed the forgotten ruin of unknown provenance. Its obscurity and appearance on no terrestrial map made it the perfect place for a clandestine meeting with… someone.

  Thoster had been less forthcoming about the identity of she who was supposedly going to offer them the deal of the decade, a deal so fruitful it would make Marhana's fortune. Japheth knew their contact was a female by the pronoun Thoster used to describe her, but nothing more.

  The warlock turned his gaze away from the tower to scan back along the Green Siren's deck. The crew not taking in sail or shipping oars openly stared at the approaching tower, apparently as unfamiliar with the beslimed spire as himself. Captain Thoster stood on the elevated poop deck at the pirate ship's stern. On the captain's left was the doughty helmsman, whose scarred hands gripped the wheel with casual skill. To Thoster's right stood Seren, the war wizard. The woman caught his eye and winked.

  Japheth stared back without acknowledging the gesture. Seren was like him in some ways-she had learned, sooner than most others, to master anew the raw arcane energies that permeated the world after all spells went awry. Unlike him, she hadn't cheated by finding an easier route to reclaim arcane magic with drugs and pacts. By Seren's accoutrement, it seemed she had found her way back through study of magic with a vicious, unyielding determination.

  He completed his scan of the deck. Nowhere did he detect a wavering, shadowy silhouette with the outline of an impetuous girl. That didn't mean Anusha wasn't present in her "dream form." With her sharing his cabin, he hadn't taken any traveler's dust in two days. Without the heightened sensitivity of the drug, he was blind to her direct presence.

  His palms broke out with moist itch, even as his mouth dried. He recognized the signs; he'd gone too long since last he'd stepped foot on the road. He should take a pinch now. Just a single grain, that would be-

  He squeezed his eyes shut, slightly disgusted at the sudden veering of his desire. He had resisted the urge to stride the road longer than normal, and now he was out of sorts. The itch on his palms grew more pronounced. Why did he resist the urge?

  Anusha was the reason, he admitted.

  Why was he suddenly so concerned with how she viewed him? It wasn't like him. Then his cloak fluttered of its own accord, as if something beneath its dark folds sought escape. Had he imagined it, or was his control over the portal stitched into the cloak's hem fraying with his lack of concentration? He couldn't restrain a worried groan.

  A voice in his ear interrupted his internal dread. "Are you well, Japheth?"

  The warlock blanched and spun around, recognizing the whisper a moment too late to quell his reaction. Anusha had apparently been standing next to him all along.

  From the poop deck, Japheth saw Captain Thoster's large hat swivel toward him for a moment, then back to the approaching tower.

  Barely moving his lips, Japheth said to thin air, "Do not startle me so. The captain notices my strange antics of late.

  I think he's worried about the ghost in the gorgon heart."

  He thought he heard a suppressed giggle, nothing else. The girl's physical remove from reality made her rash, he thought.

  Then again… wasn't he being equally rash avoiding that which was required, if not now, then later? It wouldn't matter what she thought of him if his mind spun free of reason for failing to set spiritual feet on the crimson road.

  His shaking hands produced a small, dull tin. From it, he produced a grain of traveler's dust.

  "Japheth," came her instant whisper. He ignored the entreaty. He tilted his head toward the sky and dropped the miniscule crystal into his left eye.

  The itch faded. His breathing steadied, and his hands ceased their shake. By the time the tin was re-stowed in the folds of his cloak, he saw the outline of Anusha's dream form fold itself into the scene. He smiled her way, and then looked out again past the wooden railing.

  The air was like crystal, the sky an open glass, and the water a translucent skin that his enhanced vision easily, joyfully pierced. The many wakes in the water were indeed, as earlier surmised, fish, though swimming among the crowd were several scaled humanoid forms, half hidden among the schools, keeping their heads just below the water's surface. Japheth wondered if those creatures were associated with the entity they were to meet. He mentally shrugged-it didn't matter that much to him at the moment, as the drug's euphoric effect blew through his mind like a gust of cool air.

  Something emerged from the tower balcony. Some sort of humanoid, kin to those swimming beneath the surface in front of the tower. He'd made an astute guess.

  Though still relatively far, Japheth's dust-enhanced vision saw the figure had a round face surmounted by wide, bulbous eyes that stared back at him, rarely blinking. Its lipless mouth was a long slit bisecting the lower face, closed, though he suspected rows of needle teeth within. The creature wore a gold crown on its head like an artificial crest. Its garments were singularly gold-hued, as was its pincer-headed staff. This must be the… female they had come so far to meet.

  Captain Thoster's voice rang out across the waves, apparently magically augmented by Seren, "Hail, Nogah of Olleth! We have come, as you asked. Let us parley and see how we may serve each other, and in so doing, serve ourselves!"

  The creature replied, her words also supernaturally loud, though blurred and lisped, as if being formed by a vocal apparatus never meant to choke out Common. She said, "Well met, Captain Thoster. Welcome to my abode, again."

  The captain barked orders. The anchor was let out. The ship's launch was prepared for a landing party, and then carefully lowered over the side. Those going ashore would include the captain, Seren, Japheth, and several nervous crew members.

  Japheth just stared, absorbing all the frenzied activity but apart from it. Whorls and swirls of dazzling color intruded upon his vision, and just as reality seemed to waver in favor of a winding road of ruby, Thoster called him over to the side of the ship where they'd lowered the launch. Japheth forced his mind back from the imaginary trip it yearned to take. Instead, he climbed down a knotted rope ladder into the rocking launch.

  Anusha's roiling, uncertain outline wavered at the prow. She gazed at the tower, though all aboard the ship but he failed to see her. The crew pulled on the launch's oars, not bothering with putting sail to the single, short mast. Quickly enough, the craft crossed the distance between the anchored Green Siren and the squalid shore.

  Japheth disembarked. Seawater slopped over the top of his boots and soaked his feet. The odor of decaying fish bur
ned his nostrils. Once the boat was pulled up onto the beach, the landing party made for the base of the tower, Thoster and Seren in the lead, followed by four pirates with their weapons drawn. Japheth brought up the rear. The girl, whose sleeping body still lay in the Green Siren, kept him company.

  A gaping hole in the tower's base opened onto narrow basalt stairs that circled upward in shallow loops, tracing the tower's circular exterior. When they reached the first landing, the weapon-wielding pirates preceded Thoster and the others into the chamber where their host waited.

  The room was moist, and the ceiling was so low the captain's hat threatened to scrape it. As before, Japheth's drug-heightened sensitivity revealed a translucent, greenish sparkle to the captain's skin in a regular, repeating pattern.

  The warlock realized the pattern he saw below the captain's skin resembled the fishy scales of the creature standing before them, she who Thoster called Nogah.

  Emboldened by his altered state, Japheth broke the mutual silence. "You are no sea elf, that's certain."

  Nogah fixed the warlock with her dinner-plate eyes and blinked.

  Captain Thoster laughed, and then said, "Nay, sea elves ain't been seen much in the Fallen Stars since the Spellplague. Except for Myth Nantar, their cities mostly shook to rubble, and they're keeping beneath the waves-who knows when they'll be back, or if. Nogah here is kuo-toa. She's a 'whip,' which means something like a queen-in-waiting, maybe. Her folks have been gathering in the waters hereabouts ever since they seized Olleth-"

  "Captain Thoster," lisped the kuo-toa whip, "your swift arrival is much appreciated. But who are these two?" The creature gestured with her staff toward Seren and Japheth. She didn't react to Anusha, who stood at the kuo-toa's elbow in immaterial guise.

  "Nogah, these are the ones I promised who can help," said the captain. "Seren is a wizard, and Japheth says he's a warlock."

  "They can access arcane magic?" she inquired, her eyes blinking rapidly.