CHAPTER THREE:
There was a sudden lurching sensation, and the curious feeling of movement without motion that was entirely intertwined with teleportation magics, and Llana opened her eyes to find herself stood in the blackened remains of a large piece of woodland. That they had done a through job there was undeniable, there was virtually nothing left standing, and the place stank of smoke and flame.
She crouched down and held a hand a few inches over the cindered floor, and even at that distance could feel the heat that the ground radiated. Turning her head she looked across at her husband, who was rooting through the cinders with the tip of a dagger.
Stood beside the assassin was the Elven Ranger, who looked out over the devastation with an expression that was virtually heartbreak. Llana understood love, perhaps better than almost any other on Faerun, she understood all of its variances, from the lust dappled love of the young, to the comfortable love of those who had spent a lifetime with their partners, and every shade and colour in between.
She also understood the love that people could have for pets, possessions, and places, and recognised that the Elf truly and deeply loved the forests, more than he himself could probably explained. For her, as a high priestess of Sune watching a display like that was an extremely uncomfortable thing.
For the time being though she neglected to approach the Elf, recognising that his grief, curious though it was, was still and intensely personal thing, and that, if she were to broach the topic then there would be better times and places than this.
Unfortunately though in this situation the Elven ranger would probably be the one that they would be forced to rely on. Her own husbands talents were invariably grounded in the urban places, her own would be of little use here, Orrin was looking about himself bewildered, Kellindel, who was being unusually quiet was a bard. Again comparatively useless in this kind of environment.
Then there was the abyssal-blooded being who had brought them there.
Yami was dealing with his own troubles at this point, the overpowering stench of the smoke had dredged up memories of his imprisonment there that he would happily be without. As always happened when reminded of certain elements of his past he could virtually hear the blood rushing through his body for a moment, before forcing himself to try to focus on the here and now rather than on the past.
When he finally trusted himself to speak without a snarl he looked at the others and shrugged, "does anyone have any idea where we should be looking? Or even what we should be looking for?" Llana's wordless glance told him that she herself was unsure, and none of the others seemed to have much clue either.
Kelron's arumvorax companion, brought along for the trip answered Yami's question itself. The golden-furred beast had been ambling around the area they'd teleported into, it's nose bent to the ground and snuffling and sniffing at the still smouldering floor. Suddenly it seemed to catch a scent, and charged towards a fire blackened tree stump, at which Kelron looked up and hurried over.
The wooden cinders gave easily to the massed ranks of metal-laced claws of the golden gorger, and in no time the beast had reduced it to fine charcoal.
And there, in the centre of what was once a tree, lay a small golden token, with the sign of Silverymoon etched into the front.
The wood-elf patted the creature's powerful neck, and it burbled happily for a moment before heading off again.
"Does anyone else think that was just a little bit too pat? Too easy?" Asked Karosin as he straightened up. "And more than that, shouldn't the heat have warped it a little?"
"I suppose it's possible that the magic protects them?" Replied Orrin, speculatively, "truth be told though I'm unsure, though I do agree that we've only been searching for a few moments and we already have this.
It should be harder."
The monk turned towards Yami, "If you wouldn't mind doing some aerial scouting I think we'd all appreciate it."
The half-demon nodded and crouched before taking off, the displaced air kicking up a huge amount of dust and cinders.
"Sorry about that!" He shouted as he headed upwards, looking to the left and right as he did so in the hope of seeing something, anything that was a more substantive clue than the one they had just found.
Though that's not entirely true, thought Yami to himself as he began to circle, we have found a fairly large clue, it's just that we don't believe at all what it seems to be showing us.
Given his bloodline his eyesight was far superior to that of a human, but even he could see no further clues from the air, everything seemed to have blended into one black morass of cinders, in fact the only splashes of colour he could see were the clothes of his group.
Nothing seemed to have survived.
Whilst he was flying overhead the rest of the group were down below, and had taken the decision to fan out and head in opposite directions to each other, and periodically they came across more and more trinkets of humanity and Silverymoon.
It was, as Llana later observed, as if someone had been using the small items as seeds and sowing them into the cindered floor.
After a time they all returned to a group and the decision was more or less universal.
"I'm nor sure whether they're deliberately overdoing it or if they think this to be subtle subterfuge, but there are far too many items here for them to have been accidentally dropped." Orrin's tone was curious, bemused and more than a little puzzled as he tried to work out the whys of the conundrum that faced them.
"Agreed", nodded Karosin, who had used double bluffs and other similar tactical feints himself in the past, though at this point he was struggling to come up with any more substance to add to the argument.
Llana had been about to add her own thoughts to the discussion when a voice rang in her head, a voice she recognised as being 'The Hornblade's', the wizard who was the head of the Silverymoon mages, and who answered only to Lady Alustriel herself.
The message was short and precise, the limits of the spell ensuring that;
Attack in Cold Wood on group of travellers. Claim elven attackers though they could not see them. Seems suspicious. Please Investigate. Arrowheads and similar found.
The Sunite digested this news before formulating her own answer;
Shall head there as soon as investigation here complete. Absurd amount of alleged evidence here. Highly suspect. Feels like a set up.
Once she had completed her reply she turned to the others, "I've just had a message from Taern Hornblade, and he says that there has been an attack on a group of humans in the Cold Wood, and they found elven arrows and apparently other things which would appear to indicate that elves were responsible."
"He's asking us to go there and investigate once we're done here".
Kellindel just offered a shrug, clearly believing that they already were pretty much done there, and his reaction was mirrored by the others.
Orrin turned to Yami who had just landed and was trying to get his wind-ruffled hair to settle back down again, "can you put us onto the Cold Wood road?" He asked, aware that the chance that the half-demon had been there was pretty slim.
The demon-blooded sorcerer nodded, "that's the best I can do though, I've never actually been inside them myself."
"Perfect", said Karosin wearily, "it's a huge area of land, there's no guarantee that you'll put us within a hundred miles of the place where the attack happened, never mind putting us close, and whilst I don't mind a walk I have to be honest and say that I'd really rather get this over and done with as soon as possible, taking a hike with you people isn't how I'd intended to spend the next week."
Orrin frowned, keeping his tone polite, for the simple reason that the fellow did actually have a point. "True enough, there were clearly survivors or they couldn't have reported the attack, and that being so then there's at least someone out there who can lead us to the place where the attack happened."
"Back to Silverymoon then?" Asked Yami looking around the group.
"Back to Silverymoon", replied Llana, who was thankful that the monk had been the one to speak up, her husband had a talent for antagonism, and only responded to any response in kind with more venom.
"Not for me, thank you", Kelron had been standing further and further away from the group as they had discussed what he had found, as if he were in some way distancing himself from their conclusions.
"I'll head to the Cold Wood myself on foot, I intend to see if I can discern anything else myself, where humans and..." He looked at Yami for a moment, "other beings, are not welcome."
If the sorcerer took any offence at this he didn't show it, "fine then, one less body to worry about." Llana on the other hand felt a momentary pulse of annoyance, that she swiftly quelled, reminding herself to try and treat the wood elf as she would a grieving relative.
Which is absurd, it was only a piece of forest, and it will grow back.
Came an inner voice treacherously, one that she silenced.
Her antipathy towards Elves was not commonly known, but the combination of a Sembian upbringing and an absent High Elven father had combined to leave her more distrustful of the Elven races than any would have suspected, especially when one considered that her looks favoured her father in a lot of ways.
Kellindel, the other Elf in the party just shrugged arily, clearly not in the least bit bothered, "I'm probably not welcome there either." he said with a grin, "and it has that in common with half the taverns and temples of Sharess up and down the land."
"How will we meet up again?" Orrin was concerned, for Kelron was clearly the most adapted and gifted when it came to life in the natural world, and his apparent absence was not a good thing to the monk's mind.
"I will find you." replied Kelron simply, and without waiting for another word he simply turned around and ran, in a direction that took him towards the Cold Wood.
For a moment the party stood and watched him go, the arumvorax at his side as he easily and lightly crossed the ruined remains of a once mighty patch of forest.
"Yami's magical carriage service, we get you to where you want to be", the half-demon shook his head bemusedly as he spoke, before turning to the others. "ready?"
The familiar lurch of magical travel soon got them back to the gates of Silverymoon, the Mythal that surrounded the city meant of course that they couldn't use the spell to drop right into the heart of it. There was no sense at all in not blocking off that particular avenue of attack, especially when one numbered Demons and Drow as potential interlopers.
As he always had to do before heading into civilisation Yami had polymorphed his form into something more acceptable, and so it was that a tall blonde human in wizards robes treated the gate guards to a winning smile before leading the others inside.
Once they had entered the city Llana took the lead, taking them up towards the palace where she hoped to find some answers, or at the very least some better directions.
As he invariably did in urban environments Karosin drifted away from the rest of the group, using the distance to keep an eye out for anyone who appeared too interested in the party. This was something that he'd done ever since he'd first joined up with Llana in the Dales, and was a habit that annoyed her slightly, but she recognised that it was something that he would do whenever he sensed any kind of danger.
Unfortunately the life that they led ensured that this was virtually all the time.
Behind her Orrin, Kellindel and Yami conversed rapidly, each speculating new theories and then having them shot down one after the other, though in truth it was more through lack of evidence than anything else.
After a brief walk they entered the palace grounds, and were immediately taken to see the Taern Hornblade, being led through another labyrinthine series of tunnels to get to his office.
As far as some wizards chambers went the Hornblade's could probably be considered austere, a small library of spell books, most of which were written in elven and draconic, was placed into a bookshelf on the far side of the room, and there were a series of flawlessly etched summoning circles on the floor.
He had a desk that was covered in papers and inkwells, but that seemed to be entirely un-magical and un-decorative.
"Please do come in", said a gruff voice as they were led inside.
Taern Hornblade stood just a few inches over six feet, and had probably been taller during his younger days, but a slight stoop had developed during his many years and battles Despite this though he carried an aura about himself, an aura of stately command and surety. Dressed in simple blue robes and with grey hair and beard it was sometimes had to reconcile his appearance with the fact that this man had been one of the most feared mages of his age, and still commanded sufficient magical energy to reduce an Orc army to so much shredded metal and flesh.
"I shall not waste anyone's time with introductions and explanations, there is little enough of that at the moment and we'll be better spent using it in other ways." He paused for a moment as he gathered his thoughts, "You have of course found a huge amount of evidence that doesn't so much suggest, as flat out state that we were the ones responsible for the burning down of that section of forest, and unless you're beyond ignorant you expect to find the reverse when you head out to the Cold Wood.
Correct?"
"Correct", replied Orrin who was wondering where this was all going.
"Normally I would suggest that the trip out there could be a waste of time, but on this occasion I think, that there's something to be gained."
"Two things actually", Taern corrected himself. "The first being that you know what to look for and what to ignore, and as careful as whoever is doing this staging has been thus far you're more likely to spot a mistake if you can see it through all of the erroneous evidence."
"You know what I mean", he waved his hand as if impatient with the very idea, "the baubles and trinkets that they seem to scatter about."
"There's also a chance", he continued, "that you being seen in both places, and don't doubt that someone will be aware of your presence, will be panicked by the fact that it's the same people who have linked both of these happenings."
Frankly he wasn't going to hold out much hope of the second option, but the first might just be viable.
"Can we speak to the people who were attacked?" Asked Llana, who was both concerned for them and hopeful they could help, as well as being aware that without someone's assistance that it would be like trying to find a needle in a haystack, and that would just be getting there.
"Of course, though as they themselves are guilty of no crime I couldn't keep them here, but they did leave the name of the inn that they're staying at."
The mage crossed to his desk, his stride still strong, and handed Llana a piece of paper.
"Guilty of no crime, but they are... Unpleasant", he imbued the word with sufficient feeling to ensure that everyone got the message that the comparatively gentle word was probably the least of it, and that they could look forwards to spending time with the type of people most normal people crossed the street to avoid.
"Unpleasant people like me", replied Karosin with a smile that was colder than ice.
"I'm sure", said the Hornblade in a droll tone that only cause the pale-skinned human to smile more widely.
"I think it might be best if I spoke to them myself", said the assassin, before turning to the rest of the group. "They're more likely to speak openly to me than anyone with elven blood, and you", he turned and looked at Orrin, "are hardly suited to subterfuge."
Kellindel's bardish pride was hurt by the implication that he might not be able to wheedle the required information out of a gaggle of presumablydim witted humans, but he suspected that the malevolent fellow probably had a point. He could see that Llana too was struggling to form a cogent argument against it and apparently coming up short.
Still he had no intention of sitting around and doing nothing...
"Whilst our murderous companion is undertaking his mission I suggest that I head into a few of the elven taverns and see if I can't find something out there, I'll admit it's unlikely but you never know."
At Kellindel's suggestion Yami nodded, "I'll come too, I can take on the form of an elf easily enough."
Llana worked to unset her jaw, this was the precise reason why she resented the duality of her physical nature. Half-elf and half-human and thus unable to walk with absolute freedom in either society. It was something that had galled her from an early age, and that personal and often inward focusing loathing was a facet that she had worked so hard over the years to change, but she found herself ever surprised by how easily she was rankled by any reference to it, deliberate or otherwise.
She said nothing though, instead considering how she herself would keep occupied in this time.
Fortunately Orrin came to her aid, "I shall be returning to the children", he turned to Llana, "perhaps you would like to accompany me, they could always do with being reminded of the breadth of Sune's love, it is a lesson that can be hard to remember at times in the orphanage."
At this offer Llana gave a genuine beam, something that caused a mingling of relief and annoyance to flare up momentarily in Karosin, though he quickly quelled it, settling on being glad that she wouldn't be brooding in his absence, which she was rather prone to doing.
"It'll be easier for all of us to come and find you two there then", said Kell, who at that moment was reminding himself that he'd need to go home and change first. He sure as hell wasn't going to be heading into a tavern in the soot-stained clothes he was wearing, and stinking of smoke no less!
That wasn't going to pass muster.
"I think it'd be best if we don't set a time, just agree to head there once we've either found something out or decided that it's impossible."
Taern nodded, "that seems sensible enough", he bowed to the assembled group, "unfortunately I must go, there have been small rumours and they're only going to get bigger I suspect."