My heart tells me that he has some part to play yet, for good or ill, before the end.

A traitor may betray himself and do good that he does not intend.

- Gandalf


Oft evil will shall evil mar.

- Theoden


In nothing is the power of the Dark Lord more clearly shown than in the estrangement that divides all those who still oppose him.

- Haldir




5. A Long-Unexpected Parlay

The sun was bright, the air cool, and a halfling and a young man were walking south along a great road.

The halfling was humming to himself, singing the words in his head so as not to disturb his companion.

The greatest adventure is what lies ahead.
Today and tomorrow are yet to be said.
The chances, the changes are all yours to make.
The mold of your life is in your hands to break...

The voice in his head became not his own, but that of the uncle who had first sung this to him, during his childhood in Gullykin not so long ago, and his thoughts wandered.

"It's a dangerous business, Monty, going outside your door. You step into the Road, and if you don't keep your feet, there is no knowing where you might be swept off to."

"Neat, uncle Bago."

"We Bagville-Sackinses were very well respected, and never did anything unexpected, until that dottering old Terminsel and those seven dwarves showed up at Sack-End with a mad quest to slay the black dragon Acydrayne and rescue that princess, Ice Pale."

"I like that story. I should like to go out into the Road someday."

"Hmm...well I do need to return this little bit of jewelry, an earring, in fact, that I borrowed from...ah, what was her name? Melissa? Tall lady with with auburn hair, likes to wear feathers in it. Can't miss her when you finally see her. Here, take this earring. Terminsel thought I should take it somewhere else and destroy it, but I've always felt that was simply because Melissa went for me. Petty ol' bugger. Yes, take this earring, and go off and see the world. Have an adventure...or three! Not sure where you can find her, but I know who might lead you there. But do be careful with this it, with my one earring. It is very...precious."

His companion, meanwhile, was biting his knuckles and having scattered daydreams of his own.

A pretty scarlet-haired girl...so strong and nice and cute...ohhh, the rabbits! They're everywhere! Get them off! STOP TOUCHING MEEEE!!!! Oh, and it's all His fault, yes it is....

Bully! Onyx! We hates it forever!!!

The young man shook his head, and suddenly couldn't remember what he'd been thinking of only a second before. He vaguely remembered something nice...it had gone all wrong...

And then, he could recall only something nice and beautiful, a memory just out of reach like a saying on the tip of one's tongue, and he was left with only the feeling one has when waking, and knowing one just had a beautiful, blissful dream that cannot be remembered, leaving only the bittersweet knowledge that it was so.



-----------



"Hold, Montaron, these young wayfarers are in need. Someone has set about thee, stranger, and you have barely escaped with your life."

Onyx, Imoen, and Jade exchanged curious glances. The figure accosting them was a green-robed young man with wild blonde hair and a wilder smile upon a face with numerous tattoos, making it look thoroughly clownlike an accentuating the oddity of his manic pearly grin. While twitching, he had spoken these words in a fruity voice to another figure only slightly less odd looking - a wryly grinning and extremely short man in studded leather, his head adorned with greasy black hair and a golden earring.

"Aye, Xzar," crooned the short man, whom the three youths recognized from their learning as a halfling, "They looked to have been roughed up quite well."

Onyx and Imoen exchanged quiet gasps. Xzar?

Jade's jaw dropped open. "Xzar?" she peered quizically at him, studying the featured beneath the tattoos. Oh gods, it is..."Xzar! Oh my...it's you!" She strode forward and opened her arms, smiling. "It's me! Jade! From Candlekeep!" She shook her neck-length scarlet hair. "Look! My hair's still short! It has been since you...."

"AAIEEEE!" Xzar screeched, hiking up his skirt and dancing backwards. "STOP TOUCHING MEEEEE!!"

"No!...Xzar! It's me! Jade! Jade..." The young woman's hands fell down, and she stared dejectedly into the ground as Xzar tried to hide behind his companion, who proved rather too short to be of much use in that matter.

How... Jade choked bitterly, He doesn't recognize any of us.

The halfling called 'Montaron' peered up at Jade darkly. "Ye best keep yer distance from him, lass," he grinned, "Me, on the other hand...." he shot her a sleazy wink, followed by one to Imoen. Jade snorted and shrugged, but behind her, Imoen wrinkled her nose and clasped Onyx's hand.

Montaron then broke into his best attempt at a friendly, innocent smile, and coughed, which seemed to signal something to Xzar, who crept out from 'behind' the halfling and grinned like a mad huckster. "Indeed," the blonde young man cooed silkily to the three. "I can offer you healing potions, if you wish, as a token of good will."

The three shared nods. "Let's see 'em," Jade spoke, maintaining an impassive front. Xzar handed over three blue potions. Not actually in need of them at the moment, she handed one to Imoen and one to Onyx, and they briefly opened and sniffed them before putting them away, satisfied.

Xzar smiled. "Nothing to fear from three simple potions, and I'll not even hold you in debt, though your conscience knows otherwise."

"Just like all good people," the Montaron fellow gave another strange, mischievious grin, his statement sounding as prepared as each he and the blonde man had issued so far.

"So what's the catch?" Jade smirked as Xzar was opening his mouth to go into it.

He began, his eyes focusing lucidly on her, but betraying no recognition. "Perhaps as payment you would go with us to Nashkel. It is a troubled area and we mean to investigate some disturbing rumors surrounding the local mine. Some...acquaintances...are very concerned about the iron shortage. Specifically, where to lay blame in the matter. You would be useful, though I'll not hold you to it. We are to meet the mayor of the town, a man named Berrun Ghastkill, I believe."

"Your conscience be your guide," Montaron licked his lips, looking pointedly at Imoen. "The mayor would pay well even for information, I hear."

"So..." Onyx looked at them skeptically, "How'd you gentlemen decide on this undertaking anyway? Anyone else with you?"

Xzar and Montaron exchanged extremely nervous glanced. Xzar twitched, and began to bite his knuckles and mutter something utterly incomprehensible under his breath. Montaron sneered at his companion, then looked way up at Onyx and began, "It's a living. Oh, no, just us two..."

".."nobody hear but us chickens!" Xzar interrupted proudly, then his eyes darted around like a hunted animal's. "And the rabbits... ssshhhhh..... they're in the ground....."

The halfling glared at his companion peevishly and continued, "...so we decided to head south to take a look. Hard to find work these days, it-is." He grinned proudly up at Onyx, Imoen, and Jade, as if expecting them to applaud a thespian performance.

"Speaking of work," Onyx smiled, "Exactly what sort of professions are you?" His and Jade's eyes met. X was already learning wizardy from Ulraunt when they took him away...

"Excellent question," the greasy halfling grinned proudly, "I am a very skilled weapons man, but also quite familiar with a number of mechanical devices, locks and traps and such among them, particualry the opening and the disarming. And, though I'd urge ye not to think of me as a stout pipe-smoking farmer like the rest o' me kin, I am as skilled as any hobbit in remaining unseen if I wish. All useful when navigating a mine that might harbor...unfriendly elements, I should think."

Montaron then gave Xzar a kick in the shin, and the tittering blonde man looked over the other three nervously and began, "I am Xzar!! Yes, I am Xzar. I study magic. Many magics. Oh, wonderful magics! They keep the teddybear hordes out the Fish Prince's lingerie armoire! I am the necromancer Xzar!" He lifted his arms triumphantly, causing his green robe to flair faux-dramatically, and pointed at several random points on the horizon, as if zapping them. His voice lifted into dissonant sing-songyness. "Oooh, old Elf-Wizard cast a spell, e-i-e-i-AIEE! And in that spell there was a zap, e-i-e-i-AIEEE! With a zap-zap here!" his index finger whipped the horizon, "and a zap-zap there," another finger accosted a tree, "here a zap, there a zap, everywhere a zap-zap, old Elf-Wizard cast a spell, i-e-i-e-AIEEEE!!!"

Onyx, Imoen, and Jade exchanged glances that were various degrees, curious, amused, and skeptical. "Let's discuss," Onyx told his friends. Jade gave Xzar and Montaron a brushing-away signal and the two turned. The three backed up good number a few paces and huddled.

"They're...weird," Imoen wrinkled their nose. "I remember X from before he left Candlekeep. He was a weirdo then too."

"They're...manageable," Jade frowned at Imoen.

"I sense evil intent, for what it's worth," Onyx nodded, "And we all know the terms he and I parted on. But...we were twelve. He doesn't seem...any better, but...I would give him another chance."

"Yes," Jade glared at her brother. "Onyx, I think you of all people owe it to him. And as for me," her green eyes flicked to the robed wizard, "He...he was my friend. I..." a single tear left her eye, "I'm very glad to see him again. Even in...this state." Does he really not recognize me? she asked herself bitterly. "I...well I am both sad and happy to see him....like this."

The three huddled closer, Onyx putting an arm comfortingly over his sister, Imoen an arm around her waist. "But..." Imoen pleaded, shedding a few tears herself, "He...I'm scared, Jadey. Of him, and the little creep."

"Please," Jade hugged Imoen, "I have to give Xzar a chance. I can't just...find him again after eight years and walk on by!"

"I rue that as well," Onyx sighed, "Gorion said companions on the road are an asset. But if they so much as leer at Imoen, they're history." He looked caringly at the girl in question and held her more closely with his huddling arm, and she smiled back at him "They touch her, they're dead." He looked pointedly at Jade. "I may regret some things, but not putting her safety first."

He looked sidelong to wear the other two stood a number of paces away.

"We'll be nice to them, if they be nice to us!" Xzar grinned down at his grumbling associate.

Onyx grimaced. Now that I see him again, I do pity him...

His attention snapped back as Imoen's smile broadened. "Ony, I feel a lot safer with you around. You too, Jadey. Maybe we could ask them about meeting those two friends' of Gorion's at the Friendly Arm first, before heading south?"

Jade looked skeptical. "Do we really need two more old monks with us?"

"Jade," Onyx looked at her, "It's worth checking out."

Jade bit her lip. "The man with the glowing eyes knew Father's first move. And that would have been his second."

Onyx nodded bitterly. "He'll find us sooner or later either way. We must amass what help we can."

Brother and sister locked eyes, each reading the same unpleasant thought in the other's.

The utter incompetence of the two thugs.

Gorion's ensuing flight.

Intercepted by the man with the glowing eyes.

Murder...not within Candlekeep's watched walls.

Onyx flicked his eyes in the direction of Xzar and Montaron. "Jade, you talk to them. You were closest to X."

The three broke huddle, and walked back over to the other two. Montaron was looking on quizically as Xzar sang, "...oooh, Montaron Montaron bo Baron fee fi fo Faron mi mi mo Maron....Montaron!!" his finger shot out in the direction of the three, and he stopped suddenly and shrieked, "Hiyeee! 'Tis the three Vanguards of Doom, come to serve toast at the End of the World! Prepare the flying-castles and charbroil the moon!"

Montaron kicked the wizard, "Can it, you loon! It's the wayfarers!"

"Oooh," Xzar grinned as the three, "Of course it is. The talking bats agree." The young necromancer looked skywards and giggled.

"Montaron, Xzar," Jade called, "Your quest sounds worthy and profitable, but we would first like to go to the Friendly Arm Inn, but a short jaunt north, to meet two other companions who may be off assistance on this quest."

"We had best not tarry!" Xzar bit his knuckles, "But 'tis best to travel accompanied..."

"Ye be owin' us for our time!" Montaron grumbled, his eyes looking up at Imoen's eyes, then losing some altitude, but staying on her. "O course, I'm sure ye can make it up..." Imoen shuddered as the halfling's gaze caressed her up and down. Xzar, too, seemed to look, not quite at, but through her, not with physical lewdness, but...in a dispassionate way, as if the demented wizard were analyzing her - body, mind, and soul. It was far more disturbing, she decided. She felt a chill as she never had before, and hoped never to again.

Onyx caught Imoen's look, like that of a frightened deer. "I can't take this," she whispered to him and placed the center of her body behind his left arm.

"That does it," Onyx snarled, extending his armored arm out further over her, taking her left hand with his left, his arm over the chest the halfling was staring at. He pointedly stared the three-feet-plus down at the wretch. "You, little man, no longer need be hindered by us."

"No! Y-" Jade glared daggers at her brother, but when she caught Imoen's pained gaze, fell silent.

"What!?" Montaron grimaced, then his scarred face became calm and sly and he smiled up at the paladin with thinly-veiled malice. "Sleep lightly, taskmaster!" he hissed, his tongue as sharp as his shortsword.

"Be on your way," Onyx stated impassively.

Jade snarled. Her mind was filled with pain and rage. But she understood. She looked at Onyx. Then Imoen. Then Montaron. Then Xzar. And she made her decision.

"Montaron," Jade called to the halfling, who ceased snarling at her brother with the manner and approximate dimensions of a large rabid dog, and smiled at her, "You and Xzar may accompany me. South." She glared at her brother.

"Ooh goodie!" Xzar clapped his hands excitedly "I always did want to go south! You know, they say it leads to the land with the coconut-juggling hippopotami, where a single rose makes a madman king!"

"He just needs the rose..." Imoen mumbled into Onyx's shoulder.

"Aye, maybe we'll go there after the mines, X," Montaron laughed, seeming now more amused than annoyed. "Well, miss Jade was it..."

"Yes, Jade," the warrior stepped up to the halfling, in a manner he couldn't misconstrue as anything but threatening. And he didn't. "Keep your hands to weapons and thieving, and we'll get along just fine." She looked up at Xzar. "Right, Xzar?" she cooed.

The necromancer, though still showing no recognition, bounced happily up and down, clapping his hands and giggling, "Yes, mommy! On slippery feet of comet speed like dancing cats!"

"Well, sis," Onyx extended his hand to Jade, "Are you sure it has to be this way?"

"I'm sorry, bro," Jade answered in a low voice, and took a step toward her brother and friend and away from the halfling and the wizard. Her eyes stared deeply into her brother's. "I have to try." She looked to Imoen. "I'm sorry, Immy."

"No, I'm sorry," Imoen shuddered, "But I just can't...I'm not big'n'tough like you, Jadey. It's not that I don't trust you and Ony, but..." Those eyes... Montaron's, the little monster. And Xzar's... I can't have a crazy wizard looking at me like he wants to dissect my soul...I just can't! "...I just can't. I'm sorry."

"Well then," Jade held her mouth firm, even as the corner quivered, "Looks like our paths are about to diverge. Perhaps we'll meet in Nashkel."

"Yes, I hope so," Onyx's sapphire eyes met her emeralds, "Fare thee well."

"Fare thee well."

The fighter drew away from the paladin, and gave a come-along gesture to the necromancer and the halfling. Xzar bounded to her side like a happy puppy, and Montaron trudged alongside the necromancer, shooting a blatantly threatening glare to Onyx as the three turned south.

As they drew away down the road, Jade began to methodically question each of her two new companions, causing Xzar to twitch with extreme nervousness and agitation, and Montaron to smile faux-charismatically and deliver nice answers. Or direct threats.

"Oh well," Imoen sighed as the three grew smaller and smaller, "Those two are weird-o-weird! I hope we see Jade again," she pouted sadly, and looked up at her best friend Onyx.

"We will yet...she's my sister, and might as well be yours..." the paladin sighed and hugged her with one arm, "Well, we still have each other," he took her hand.

"You betcha!" Imoen grinned and practically leapt into the air as they turned around again and continued north, Imoen skipping and Onyx striding, hand in hand.

In the spot along the Coast Way of the long-unexpected parlay, the ground was much trod, and a five-petaled wildflower had been trampled into the dirt.