by Mel Odom
The stone golem hit the ground first and shattered, sending debris in all directions.
The civilar grabbed Baylee’s leg, then managed to grab the rope as well. The ranger hung on with grim determination as their swing arced them out high over the center of the room. Cordyan shifted, taking her weight from Baylee to the rope. The ranger felt the load lighten immediately.
He glanced back over his shoulder, watching as Calebaan and Cthulad ran to intercept the falling phylactery. The rope swung back, and Baylee twisted with it, losing the view for a moment. When he turned back around, he spotted Folgrim Shallowsoul swooping in on the flying carpet.
The lich snatched the phylactery from the air and glided around the spinning field of gemstones. Nevft Scoontiphp gestured toward the lich, but Shallowsoul held out a hand.
Whatever spell the baelnorn had employed failed. A moment later, Scoontiphp was covered in fire. His screams echoed throughout the caverns.
Get down, Xuxa warned.
Cordyan slid down the rope, working her way across the knots. Baylee was only a heartbeat behind her. The rope just managed to reach the floor.
“Now, human,” Shallowsoul said as he flew toward Baylee, “now you’re going to pay full measure for your part in this.”
Baylee reached into a pocket and took out a handful of caltrops. He flung them backhanded as hard as he could. The caltrops spun through the air, blackest black against the shadows. The lich was less than fifteen feet distant. The sharp pronged caltrops embedded in his face and upper chest.
Screaming in pain, obviously weakened from all the spellcasting he was doing, the lich fell backward from the flying carpet and landed in the swirl of gemstones. He disappeared at once, but it took longer for his screams to die away.
Baylee touched down on the ground just as a quake ripped through the ground. Chunks of earth pushed up through the floor while other sections of the floor dropped away.
Incredibly, Scoontiphp pushed himself up from the ground, beating at the flames that couldn’t quite devour his flesh.
Baylee crossed the trembling floor, leaping across the broken areas of flooring. “What happened?” he asked the baelnorn.
“We failed,” Scoontiphp answered. “The lich’s spell is still in effect.”
Baylee watched the prismatic rainbow of gems as it swelled to start filling the room. “But Shallowsoul is dead.”
“Maybe not.” The baelnorn remained erect with effort. His clothing held burn marks.
The prismatic bubble that had been the swirl of gems grew at a fantastic rate, driving the men and hobgoblins before it. Books and whole shelves leaped across the intervening distance, caught up in the cyclone winds being generated by the growing prismatic bubble. A hobgoblin, unable to find shelter quickly enough, was swept up in the bubble. The humanoid’s body didn’t penetrate its surface. Instead, it exploded against it, with not even enough time to yell.
Baylee scooped up a few books from a nearby shelf just as they were starting to lift up. He tried to hang onto them, but they were pulled too strongly, threatening to drag him into the bubble as well. He had no choice but to let them go. They flew into the embrace of the whirling winds and vanished.
“This way!” Cthulad yelled, twisting into a corridor off the big room. The members of the watch followed the old warrior immediately.
“Look at it,” Calebaan said as he passed Baylee. “So much knowledge, and it’s all being taken away from us.”
Baylee watched in silent frustration. He called Xuxa to him, then tucked her inside the crook of his arm so the winds wouldn’t harm her. Books and vases and skulls and display cases whirled madly, sucked one after another into the prismatic bubble. He felt a hand on his shoulder.
“Come on, Baylee,” Cordyan said, urging him to follow the others, “there’s nothing else to be done.”
The vacuum increased so much that even boulders and stalactites were pulled against the bubble. They shattered at once, blasting out against the surrounding walls hard enough to leave scarring. The bubble continued to increase in size.
It can’t fill all of the library, can it? Baylee asked Xuxa as he stepped into the corridor.
I don’t know, the azmyth bat said. She squirmed against his arm.
The next room held another prismatic bubble that was already starting to spread to fill the room, trapping the party in the corridor.
Nevft Scoontiphp knelt and traced lines of green fire on the floor with his forefinger. A shimmering filled the air at that end of the corridor. “I can get us to safety,” the baelnorn said. “But we have to hurry.”
Without hesitation Cthulad led the way into the shimmering area, promptly disappearing. The party filed quickly through the magical gateway. In a moment, only Baylee and the baelnorn remained.
“I can’t hold the way much longer,” Scoontiphp warned.
Go, Xuxa ordered.
The library, he replied.
For now, Baylee, it’s gone, disappeared somewhere into the astral plane. It will be harder to get to, true, but not completely unattainable. The next discovery you make may lead you straight to it. A spell, a legend, something will put a little more knowledge into your hands. If you keep looking.
Baylee said nothing, watching the mad swirl of prismatic lights engulf the room.
Baylee, you have to go. Now.
I know. But he couldn’t. It was too much to walk away from.
The library’s gone, Xuxa said, but it hasn’t gotten away. Not as long as you are alive to pursue it.
Without any other course of action open to him, Baylee turned and went through the shimmering portal. He felt a moment of lightness, then he was gone.
Epilogue
Crouched in the bottom of the well after hours of labor to remove all the rock that had fallen into it from the earthquakes, Baylee shined his lantern into the hidden shaft that had first taken them into the underground lair under Rainydale.
It’s covered over, Xuxa said.
Baylee silently agreed. From where he stood on the mound of debris that had filled the well, only a jumbled mass of rock was visible, and there was no telling how much remained of the caverns themselves. Baylee covered the lantern and secured it to his gnomish armor. He climbed back up the rope trailing over the lip of the well. Topside again, he breathed in the clean, fresh air of the evening. The sun was already sinking in the west.
“The way?” Cordyan asked, sitting nearby. Her face was grimed and scratched from digging in the well.
Scoontiphp’s spell had taken them back to the hills not far from the well. The watch members who’d been left there had managed to keep the horses together, so they wouldn’t have to walk out of the woods. Of the baelnorn, though, there had been no sign. Baylee knew Scoontiphp had entered the shimmering area after him, but he had no way to known where the baelnorn had gone.
“Totally blocked,” Baylee announced. “It would take a team of dwarves who were both skilled and patient to get back into those caverns.”
“Even then,” Calebaan said, sitting under a tree only a few yards away, “I don’t think there would be much of the library for them to find.”
“No.” With exhaustion sinking into him, Baylee collapsed beside the well. Xuxa fluttered to hang from a nearby tree. Despite his fatigue, the ranger rummaged in his pockets and turned up a small journeycake made of nuts and berries. He unfolded the cheesecloth it was stored in and pinched off a bite for Xuxa.
The azmyth bat chirped in appreciation.
Baylee took some of the journeycake for himself, savoring the flavor. Even the land on top of the underground caverns had changed. Uprooted trees lay scattered across the countryside. Cracks broke through the ground, but none of them that Baylee had investigated led down into any caverns. Still, in a matter of weeks, the forest would reclaim the land, making it look no different than any place around them.
After a look from Cordyan, Calebaan excused himself and left them by themselves. Cthulad was already shoutin
g orders at the men, organizing them into the party they’d need to begin the long trip back to Waterdeep.
“I want to thank you for saving me back there,” Cordyan said. She wiped at her face with a rag she soaked with her waterskin, and ran her fingers through her hair.
“We were both lucky,” Baylee replied. “But you’re welcome.”
“So where do you go now?” she asked.
“I don’t know,” Baylee said. “I’ve got some leads that I want to follow up in my journal. And there are those books I sent to Candlekeep from the shipwreck. Maybe they’ll offer a direction.”
She was quiet for a time. “There remain things to be taken care of in Waterdeep. Fannt Golsway’s will, among others. Lord Piergeiron would probably appreciate the chance to talk with you.”
She is right, Xuxa put in from her branch. She held the journeycake in her front claws.
For some reason, the memory of Cordyan’s soft lips against his returned to Baylee with an intensity he couldn’t remember ever experiencing. He shot a look at the azmyth bat, wondering if Xuxa was deliberately triggering the experience.
The bat contentedly ate her journeycake and responded with not a thought.
“But if you chose to go on from here,” Cordyan said quickly into the silence that followed, “as a member of the Waterdhavian Watch, I no longer have reason to ask you to accompany me back.”
Baylee nodded. “I think going back would be a good idea. There are some things I need to have put in order.”
“Golsway’s home in its present condition may not be a proper place to stay while you’re there. Do you have anywhere else?”
“There are some acquaintances,” Baylee admitted.
“I see.”
“Unless you have somewhere else in mind?”
The civilar looked flustered. She glanced away again, running her fingers through her hair. “I was going to suggest the rooming house where I stay. The food is good, the beds are decent, and the rent is reasonable.”
“That sounds good.”
“We’ll talk about it on the way back.” Still acting self-conscious, Cordyan pushed herself to her feet and walked toward the group of watch members.
As he watched her walk away, Baylee felt the disappointment of losing the library after such a hard chase lift slightly. A few days in Waterdeep to settle affairs, and dinners with old companions to remember Golsway were in order. The thought warmed him. And he had lost the library after finding it. Finding something, as Golsway had always pointed out, was half the joy of the hunt.
He said a quick prayer for his mentor, asking Mielikki’s blessing for the old mage, then pushed himself to his feet and trotted after the watch lieutenant. “Hey.”
Cordyan turned to face him and Baylee fell into step beside her. “Well, getting back to our discussion about the rooming house.…”
She waited, not making it easy for him.
“You mentioned the beds and the meals,” Baylee said, “but you said nothing at all about the company.”
She held her features straight for a moment, then let a smile curl her lips. “Actually, the company can be quite charming. When properly inspired, of course.”
And Baylee smiled back at her, thinking of the future instead of the past for the first time in a long, long time. It was a good feeling.
About the Author
Mel Odom, author of F.R.E.E.Lancers and F.R.E.E.Fall, has published over forty books in the science fiction, thriller, and action-adventure fields. He lives in Moore, Oklahoma. The Lost Library of Cormanthyr is his first FORGOTTEN REALMS® novel.
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