It confirmed what Ashok suspected; that Ilvani had never before been tempted to hurt herself for stimulation. She’d never needed to—her mind was forever active, strange, and deep. Peace and apathy were unknown concepts to her.
“What about the symbols?” he asked.
“I don’t recognize them,” Neimal said. “They’re in no language I know, and they’re nothing arcane. For all we know, she made them up in her head.”
“I don’t believe that,” Ashok said. “You said yourself Ilvani never puts the knife to her flesh.” Many shadar-kai of the Shadowfell used self-inflicted pain to keep themselves from fading, but in Ikemmu, such an act was defilement and strictly forbidden. “If she wanted a canvas, she could have drawn on the walls of her chamber. Yet I was just up there and found nothing like this. These symbols mean something.”
“Then their origin must be another plane or the mirror world, Faerûn,” Neimal said. “They’re outside my knowledge.”
“Faerûn,” Ashok said. The mirror world was outside his knowledge as well, but he knew at least one person who was familiar with it and with sending and receiving messages. Perhaps she would be able to decipher whatever message Ilvani was trying to send them.
CHAPTER
FOUR
ASHOK LED ILVANI PAST THE STONE DWELLINGS OF THE TRADE market while the Trimmer bell sounded at the top of Tower Makthar. She trailed a little behind him and stopped every now and then to examine one of the outdoor stalls. Her tears had ceased, but she still walked like a person asleep. Ashok wondered what was in her thoughts.
He was surprised she’d agreed to go with him at all. Ilvani avoided loud places and crowds, any situation where she might have to put her back to another person. Ashok recognized the tense set of her shoulders, the readiness of a body expecting to be hit. It had been the same for him, in his former enclave.
They turned a corner, and Ashok stopped short. Tethered to one of the merchant wagons was a large hound. Its owner probably kept the animal as a guard for his wares. Ashok tried to turn Ilvani aside, but she avoided his reach and walked right up to the wagon. She didn’t see the dog.
Ashok cursed and sprang forward, intending to grab the dog’s tether before it went mad and attacked the witch. The dog cocked its head and growled at him when he reached for its rope, but Ashok saw no sign of madness in the animal’s eyes. Ilvani passed by the wagon and kept walking. The dog paid no attention to her.
Bewildered, he hurried to catch up to Ilvani and kept a close watch as they walked through the market. They passed a pair of horses led by a dwarf. Ashok watched for a reaction from the animals, waited for them to buck and rear as the nightmare had done, but they didn’t so much as flinch at the witch’s presence.
Whatever its source, the madness Ilvani inflicted on the shadow beasts didn’t extend to common work animals. Ashok wondered at this distinction, but he didn’t have time to consider the reason for it. They were almost at their destination.
Ilvani slowed as they approached the halfling Darnae’s shop. Her gaze went immediately to the carvings around the arched brick doorway. She traced one with her fingernail and then turned her hand to look at it, as if she expected the symbol to rub off on her.
“This is one of the old houses, built before the shadar-kai came here,” Ashok said when she looked at him questioningly. Darnae had told him so when he’d visited before. “Will you come inside with me?”
She didn’t move. Ashok stepped over the threshold and turned to show her that nothing bad had happened to him. He held out his hand.
In response, she glared at him.
She was back to her old self enough that she didn’t want to be touched. He dropped his hand. He didn’t know whether to be grateful or not.
She came over the threshold. Her eyes took in the room in one swift glance: parchment, quills and ink arranged on cloth-covered tables, the room lit with soft candlelight. The surroundings brought peace to Ashok’s mind.
Why was it that he always felt so comfortable here, in a place as far from the world he knew as the mirror world was from Ikemmu?
Maybe it was simply the presence of the woman who stepped out now from the back room of the shop. Darnae had bright, prominently blue eyes and an angular face that lit with pleasure when she saw Ashok.
“I thought I might see you today, Ashok,” she said. “I opened a bottle of wine that Tatigan brought me. He had you in mind when he got it.…”
Her voice faded as she stepped around the counter and saw Ilvani. The witch crouched at eye level with a rack of quills, so that when she turned to look at the halfling, the two of them were eye to eye.
“The birds lost all their feathers,” Ilvani said. “No more owls.”
To Darnae’s credit, she hesitated only for a breath. Then she nodded thoughtfully, as if Ilvani had pointed out a fact she’d never considered before. She walked over to the rack, picked up a quill, and fitted it to Ilvani’s hand. To Ashok’s surprise, Ilvani didn’t jerk away when the halfling touched her fingers.
“Ashok.” Darnae addressed him, though she never took her eyes off Ilvani. “Could I ask you to go around the counter to the back room and get my bandages and the water basin, please? The ceiling slants downward back there, so watch your head.”
“I don’t think I should leave.”
“Go,” Ilvani said, surprising him again. “I’m fine.”
Ashok went to the back room and found the bandages and the basin. He brought them to the middle of the room where Darnae and Ilvani had arranged themselves on the floor. Ilvani was trying to hand Darnae back the quill, but Darnae wouldn’t take it, so Ilvani slipped it into the green bag she had tied at her waist.
“My thanks, Ashok,” Darnae said. She put the basin on her lap and began unrolling the bandages. “Won’t you sit with us?” she said when Ashok remained standing.
He sat, his hand automatically moving to shift his weapons. He still hadn’t recovered his chain from the forges. He hadn’t checked on Cree, either, or made his report to Uwan about Olra’s death. Everything that had happened in the past few hours was like an indistinct dream. All he had been able to think about was Ilvani’s safety—no, that wasn’t entirely true. He needed answers, a reason why Olra had died. He needed an explanation to give to Cree for why he had lost his eye.
But more than anything, he needed to be doing something. If he stopped for a breath to think, the red rage would consume him again.
He sat in silence while Ilvani let Darnae tend to her wounds. The halfling removed Ashok’s hasty bandage and cleaned the cuts—Ashok saw her pause when she discovered the symbols, but he didn’t say anything, just let her examine the marks—and when she finished bandaging them, she wet a strip of cloth and wiped Ilvani’s face clean. Throughout the ministrations, Ilvani didn’t move or protest. Ashok marveled at the two of them.
He hated to disturb the scene, especially with Ilvani so tranquil, but finally he had to speak. “Darnae, this is Ilvani. I’ve told you about her before.”
“You have, and I’m pleased to know you, Ilvani,” Darnae said. Her smile quickly faded, though, and she sat aside the basin of water, now pink with Ilvani’s blood. “What brings you here now and with such wicked wounds?”
“I made them,” Ilvani said before Ashok could answer.
“I see.” Darnae stood and went to one of the tables. She brought back a sheet of parchment, quill, and ink. Dipping the quill in the black liquid, she drew a quick sketch of one of the symbols Ashok had seen carved on Ilvani’s arm.
“Do you know what it means?” Ashok said.
Darnae sighed and nodded. “The language belongs to the peoples of northeastern Faerûn—a high, cold, and mysterious country. Have you ever heard of Rashemen?”
Ashok shook his head, but Ilvani stared at Darnae steadily. “Snow and spirits,” she said.
“Yes,” said Darnae. “I’ve never traveled there myself, but put simply, that’s what Rashemen is, and that’s what this symbol means—
’spirit.’ Their people worship the spirits of the land.”
“Telthor,” Ilvani said quietly.
Darnae nodded. “That’s the Rashemi name for them.”
“How do you know about the spirits, Ilvani?” Ashok asked.
“The woman told me,” Ilvani said. “The snow rabbit. The unproven. She tried to tell me more, but the darkness and the storm came between us.”
“The dust storm?” Ashok said. “You mean the same one that caught the caravan?”
Ilvani shook her head. “I see her in my dreams. The storm is in my dreams. It swallows us up.”
“The woman you saw might be one of the witches,” Darnae said. “They rule Rashemen and command the magic of the spirits.”
“But how is she able to contact Ilvani across an entire world, and why?” Ashok said.
Darnae shrugged. “Rashemi magic is said to be powerful. Whatever the witch’s reasons—”
“She’s in danger,” Ilvani said. “She asked me to help her, but I couldn’t.”
“It’s not only her,” Ashok said. He told Darnae what had happened earlier that day. When he’d finished, Darnae looked more concerned than ever.
“I’m so sorry, my friend,” she said, laying a small hand on Ashok’s arm. Ashok looked down at her tiny fingers and remembered how fragile she was—a child but not a child.
“I thought if you could decipher the symbols, we might be able to figure out why this is happening,” Ashok said. “But you can’t fight dreams.” He should know. The nightmare’s haunted visions had tested and beaten him once.
“There is something we haven’t considered,” Darnae said. “The shadow beasts and the shadar-kai are connected to the Shadowfell, which is itself a world of spirits. The witches of Rashemen have a similar connection to their telthors, and if some force is disturbing the natural order on the Shadowfell plane—”
“Then it’s possible something similar is happening to them in Faerûn,” Ashok said.
It explained the pattern of the madness. The common animals in the trade district had been unaffected by Ilvani’s presence, and the shadow snake, the one that had tried to escape from Cree and Skagi, was smaller than its two-headed companion, weaker in mind perhaps and less connected to the Shadowfell and its influence.
“It could be the witch is reaching out to Ilvani to try to understand what’s happening.” Ashok looked at Ilvani to see what she thought of this, but the witch had stretched out on the floor with her head resting on her bandaged arm. She was asleep.
“She looks exhausted,” Darnae said. “Her dreams must be terrible.”
“It’s strange, though. I’ve never seen her as peaceful as she looks right now,” Ashok said. On the plain, she’d been broken, ready to die. Now she slept like a child, and she’d been more coherent speaking to Darnae than to anyone else. “Something about your presence calmed her.”
“I don’t think it has anything to do with me,” Darnae said. “But this building …”
“Ilvani seemed fascinated by the traces of magic.”
“It’s possible the magic was once protective in nature,” Darnae said. “If that’s true, then its echoes might be creating a barrier to the Shadowfell forces.”
“Whatever it’s doing, I’m grateful,” Ashok said. “She deserves some peace.”
“So do you,” Darnae observed.
Ashok shook his head. “Not until I find a way to stop what’s happening to her. This Rashemi witch wasn’t invited into her dreams.”
He took off his cloak and laid it over Ilvani’s sleeping body, taking care not to touch her. It was time to talk to Uwan and decide what action to take. He knew the leader would do everything in his power to protect Ilvani, if for no other reason than to safeguard her connection to Tempus.
“You should leave her here,” Darnae said. “Let her sleep while she can. I’ll watch over her.”
“Thank you,” he said. “I’ll be back for her soon.”
She offered him a fleeting smile. “Someday, at a more peaceful time, we will have that wine together.”
He clasped her small hand. “I’d like nothing better.”
Ashok found Skagi in the training yard, which was empty now. The recruits were occupied with other duties. Skagi had his falchion out and waved it in a series of midair strokes, but the movements were restless, with an edge that belied his calm exterior.
“What news?” he asked Ashok. “Where is the witch?”
“Safe,” Ashok said. “Our guess was right. Somehow, she’s causing the Shadowfell beasts to go mad, but the threat comes from her dreams.” He related what Darnae had told him.
Skagi cursed and sheathed his falchion. “What do we do about it?”
Ashok spread his hands in a gesture of helplessness. He sympathized with the warrior. Like Skagi, he wanted an enemy in front of him, a clear target he could attack. Right now, they had neither.
Suddenly the door to the tower opened, and Uwan came out. The leader saw the two of them, and his expression darkened.
“I have news,” Ashok said, but Uwan made a sharp gesture, cutting him off.
“Don’t bother,” he said. “I’ve spoken to the Sworn of the Wall. She told me the whole tale, which was your duty, not hers. All I want to hear now is where Ilvani is.”
Ashok told him, including his conversation with Darnae.
The leader’s expression softened somewhat. “I’m sorry to hear of Olra’s death,” Uwan said. “She was one of the finest Camborrs I’ve ever seen. Tempus will guide her soul to its rest.”
Ashok felt his rage rekindled at the mention of the god’s name. A tremor went through his body, an impulse to strike out at Uwan that he’d never felt before. “If Tempus had been more attentive, he might have saved her life,” he said bitterly.
Naked anger showed on Uwan’s face, exactly as Ashok intended. He grabbed Ashok’s breastplate and yanked him forward. “You question Tempus’s will, after all He’s done on your behalf?” Uwan said. “You speak out of grief and ignorance. I won’t hear it.”
Uwan would hear nothing against Tempus. That was the worst part. Nothing would threaten the leader’s conviction that Ashok was favored by Tempus. In Ashok’s view, that made him little more than a toy to be manipulated and directed as the god saw fit.
But Uwan had seen the proof with his own eyes, or so he claimed. Deep in the caves of Ikemmu, while he and Ashok fought for their lives against Vedoran, a vision had appeared. Uwan was convinced that Tempus had intervened that day to save Ashok’s life.
“I didn’t ask for any god to act on my behalf,” Ashok said. He wrenched himself from Uwan’s grasp and stepped back to put some distance between them. “Remember our agreement. A Guardian—I serve Ikemmu, not Tempus.”
“Yes, and as such, you should have come to me immediately when Ilvani was hurt,” Uwan said. “You earned your place in Ikemmu, but now you have to abide by the rules that come with the rank. I should have you both thrown in a cell until you learn your place.”
“I’m to blame, not Skagi.” Ashok ignored the other man’s protests. “I wanted to help Ilvani. She’s safe with Darnae—”
“Darnae? A halfling,” Uwan said, “who knows nothing of the shadar-kai and even less about Ilvani.”
“She’s lived in this city a long time and breathes the Shadowdark air just like the rest of us,” Ashok said. “She knows the shadar-kai. Ilvani will be safe with her.”
Uwan glared at him. “Your judgment is impaired where Ilvani is concerned. You know almost nothing about her needs or her nature, yet out of guilt you’ve taken her protection on yourself.”
Ashok started to speak, then stopped. He knew Uwan was right. He didn’t know enough about Ilvani to understand what was going on in her mind.
“Punish me however you want,” he said, “but what Darnae said about the Rashemi—is it possible she’s right?”
“I know little about Rashemen and its witches,” Uwan said. “But Natan and I once spoke at length abo
ut Ilvani. Her brother knew her best. He told me that her ramblings are deceptive—there is meaning beneath them, but it’s indecipherable because no one among the shadar-kai can see as Ilvani does.”
“She says she can see the telthors—the Rashemi spirits,” Ashok said.
“I have no doubt she can. Natan believed that she could see much more,” Uwan said. “Just as he was a conduit to Tempus, so Ilvani has an intimate connection to the Shadowfell, the passage for the spirits of the dead. The shadar-kai, rightly, do not dwell on the shadowy paths of the soul. We fix our gaze on the light of Tempus. Natan told me Ilvani has no such luxury. There are spirits everywhere, existing in worlds hidden from our eyes.”
“And Ilvani has a window into those other worlds,” Ashok said, understanding what the leader was getting at. If it were true, it would mean Ilvani’s mind was constantly being bombarded by images she couldn’t fully comprehend, let alone communicate to others. “Right now this Rashemi witch has a stronger connection to Ilvani than anyone else. We have to help her.”
“Agreed,” Uwan said. He looked thoughtful. “Since we can’t pry into Ilvani’s dreams, the only course of action I can see is to send you and Ilvani to Rashemen.”
“To the mirror world?” Ashok felt something stir in his blood.
“It’s not as far away as it sounds,” Uwan said. “Trade caravans venture out from the Underdark often, and some of them pass through Rashemen. You’ll take a party and accompany one such caravan. Your mission will be to travel with it as far as Rashemen and then seek the counsel of the witches.”
“Will they accept outsiders like us?” Ashok said.
“You mean shadar-kai? If they won’t, you’ll have to convince them,” Uwan said. He gave a short laugh. “You’re certainly stubborn enough to find a way.”
CHAPTER
FIVE
THE VILLAGE OF TINNIR, RASHEMEN
LOOK HERE, ELINA.” SREE LED THE CHILD UP TO THE PEBBLED stretch of shoreline and pointed to a cold-water minnow school swimming in the shallows. No bigger than the child’s fingers, they bobbed the surface of the gray water, mouths open in search of food.
Unbroken Chain: The Darker Road Page 6
