Chapter Two


"Blast."

That one word was that was needed to sum up the entire situation, and Caramon's feelings on the matter. This time Thorn had told him, "These ashes are cold, they are moving faster this time. For some reason she keeps heading South."

"So in other words, we are falling even further behind?" asked Caramon in frustration.

"It would seem so."

Caramon, by far, was not a stupid man. Nor did he charge heedlessly into the unknown. Granted, his thought process seemed slower than Raistlin's, but that was only due to the fact that Caramon was a planner. "It would help if we knew where she was going..." he said, thinking aloud. "Think about it, what direction has she been heading the entire time?"

"South, of course," snorted Thorn. "But at any point she could veer off."

"I don't think so. I think she is trying to get someplace before she can't," said Caramon, pointed directly South and facing Thorn. "She is trying to get past Thorbardin before the winter sets in and she can't pass the mountians."

"But it's summer..."

"It's summer now, but by the time they get there it will be early fall. And then it will take time to pass the mountains. By then, winter will have arrived," surmised Caramon. "That's why the hurry. Now if we could just cut her off..."

Thorn snorted, "How? We can't fly, and horses only run so fast."

"Yeah, that is true, but I remember a few years before our group split up that Raistlin, Tanis and Flint used portals to get to Mithas in a matter of moments. I'll bet my sword that there's more of them, and one will get us ahead of her so we can cut her off."

"Not to be cynical, but that takes time, and by then she will be at the very Gates of Thorbardin!" cried Thorn.

"Ah," Caramon said as he mounted the large horse he was riding. "But the portals are probably near there. And even then, I am sure that if we can find one, we can find another that will take us past Thorbardin, and ahead of her by weeks. Then all we have to do is..."

Thorn picked up on the idea, "Double back the long method and cut her off. Caramon, you're brilliant, you know that? As smart as your brother. I would hate to play against you in a game of chess..."


He was bone-tired of riding, but even he could see that the next time they stopped to camp at night that his opportunity to escape Marion was near. Solace was about a day's walk straight through the vallenwoods, and as dangerous as that was, he was far safer hidden in those woods than he was with her.

After all, it was his home, or very near to it.

Raistlin looked over to her, noting that for all the determination, she was beginning to tire. He also racked his brains for a spell he might remember that did not need any complicated components. Hiding a smile, and his relief, he did remember one. Just the one, and it was a mere cantrip, but it would have to do.

Finally, she stopped the horses and untied his hands to help him out of the saddle. After he walked a bit to get all the kinks out, he waited for the right moment.

He had to admit, she kept a very close eye on him, but that had to lax at some point...

Seeing her half turn to get out her flint and steel, and he knew that he would have no better moment. Raistlin turned, picked up the edge of his robes so he would not trip, and ran into the thick woods. He could hear behind him, "Stop!"

He didn't.

Running in the general direction of Solace, he realized that if she had truly done her research, which she had appeared to have done, she would figure out that he would make a run for it, and to where. So he changed direction to the sound of rushing water.

Somewhere in his anxious and excited mind, he knew that this was not a good idea, but that never did dawn on him.

He could hear the sound of hooves, and knew that she was using a horse to chase him. Darting into the deeper bush where he knew a horse could not follow, and therefore forcing her into chasing him on foot, he ran.

The one thing that he hoped in the back of mind was that his lungs would not fail him in this extreme need for air. As it was, he had been running enough for them to begin to burn, and then finally they screamed in the torture. But he still did not cough. They did not fail, and the energy to run was there. Amazing what happens, he had time to think. When you must live and how the body responds to the need of survival. Will have to think more on that...

...When I have time to stop and think.

Finally, and a bit frightening so, the forest suddenly opened up to a clearing. Unfortunately, he had no time to fully connect on the type of clearing, and kept running. That was until he saw the gap in the land and that he was running to was a cliff, and at the bottom the whitewater of the river below.

...Oh shit!!...

He was running too fast to stop quickly, and skidded over the edge of the cliff. In the reaction time, he remembered that cantrip. Good time to think about it! Raistlin, sometime you are such an idiot...

"Hava!" he cried barely in time to catch the branch as he went by it.

The branch grasped him back and he stopped falling with a sudden jerking stop.

He took one breath, then another when he realized that the weak root he had cast the spell on was now an inch thick and strong enough to support even his twin's weight. Raistlin looked down at the raging river. He was still too far up to safely fall and not kill himself, and when he looked up he saw that he was too far down to climb back up.

Raistlin was stuck and in need of rescuing.


Marion heard the frantic cry, and the word behind it, and ran through the brush. Slowing when she came to the clearing, and the cliff, she stood there perplexed. Then she saw the skid marks and the sign of passage right over the edge. Moving cautiously she looked over the edge.

If she was in a good mood, she might have laughed at the sight below her.

Raistlin hung below, holding onto a tree root that had been magically grown, a good twenty feet down the cliff. His crimson robes were shredded and pretty well what remained were tatters that fluttered in the breeze, leaving his upper body effectively bare. His gold eyes looked up at her in vague askance. She called down, "You should never have ran, Mr. Majere."

"Could you really blame me?" he called back. "You kidnapped me. What would you do in my position?"

"Probably the same thing," she muttered, then her voice regained his former strength. "Raistlin, you have to hang on. The only rope we have is with the horses and I have to go back to get it."

"I'm not going anywhere," came the sardonic reply.

Marion ran back to her horse and led the charger through the thick brush and to the cliff edge. Taking the length of rope she tied to the saddlehorn and then threw the other end down the cliff. His voice called up, "It's not quite long enough..."

She looked over the cliff and saw that it was just too short by mere feet. However...

Marion pulled the rope back up and tied in around her waist. She then scaled the cliff facing downwards, a risky move but one she was familiar with and the only way to see where she was going. When she came up too short that way, she lay down flat, and upside down on the cliff and stretched her arms down. That managed to reach him if he reached out one arm. He shook his head in disbelief, "You are crazy."

"Maybe so, can you reach me?"

Reaching up, she saw that he was inches too short.

Sighing in frustration, she incanted a short spell and then stretched out her hand. Nothing happened. Looking at Raistlin who had repeated the words to memorize them, she said, "Can you cast it?"

"I think so," he answered. "What does it do?"

"It will call your staff to you. It didn't work with me because I am not the owner of the staff."

His eyes widened, and then he repeated the words, "Calla zaffi Magi."

When he reached out his hand this time, the Staff of Magius materialized in his hand. His eyes widened in surprise, then he looked up at her. "If I go with you, will you teach me other things like this?"

"If you come with me, I can teach you things that would have Justarius drooling," she promised, and in her tone, even he knew she was serious.

He reached up with the staff and she grasped it with two hands and he held on with first just the one, then he let go of the branch and hung on to only the staff.

She whistled and her horse began to back up, pulling them up the cliff. She walked backwards up the cliff, and he followed. When they came to on the edge of the cliff, and on solid ground again, he asked, "Is this why you follow Miiro?"

"Miiro is an archivist, Raistlin. She has access to tomes and books that rival the library in Palanthus. And what she does not have, she can ask Antinus for. You see, while Astinus worships Gilean, the Scales of Balance between Good and Evil, Miiro represents the Balance between Law and Chaos," answered Marion. "They have an understanding with one another, and a mutual respect."

Raistlin lay back thoughtfully, "I think I would like to meet with this Miiro."

"She was hoping you would say that," Marion said with a slight smile.


Caramon and Thorn came to the campsite in the vallenwoods, and at this point Thorn bent down. "They never camped here..." he pointed to the woods. "I think Marion was about to light a fire when it appears your brother made a run for it, heading in that direction."

Caramon dismounted the horse and followed Thorn, leading the horses behind him. When they came to the cliff where an obvious scuffle had been, Thorn said, "And I think Raistlin fell over the edge in his haste to escape..."

With that the larger twin collapsed on his knees, "So he is dead?"

Thorn walked around, and even looked over the edge. "No, the tracks indicate that two people went back the way we came..."

Following, they eventually came to another clearing, this time a still smoking fire could be seen. "And it is here they hobbled the two horses, rested for the night, and then left," Thorn picked up a length of rope. "But he did not go unwillingly this time. Something has changed, Caramon. From the evidence I would say that Raistlin has been tainted by the lies of Miiro and its cohorts."

"Are you saying that he is now trying to run from us?" asked Caramon, unable to believe it.

"Well, he isn't totally unwilling. The extra bits of rope indicate that his bindings are unneccessary, and..." Thorn showed him the tracks. "See how there are one set of tracks going to each horse?"

"Yeah, so?"

"Remember how before there were two sets to one horse before, then a set would walk over to where another was kept," Thorn answered. "Before that indicated that she was likely tying him to the saddlehorn to prevent escape, and then leading that horse. Now, not only are the horses too far away from each other for one to be led, but there is only one set of tracks to each horse, then they leave together in a single file. That tells me that the other person, likely your brother, now goes willingly."

That knowledge dawned on Caramon and he saw what Thorn meant, and his expression turned grim, "We have to find those portals and kill this bitch before he becomes our enemy too."


The vallenwoods gave way to hills, and those hills began to become more extreme. Soon they could see the mountians of Thorbardin. The leaves were turning color, and then they began to fall. Time was passing, and this time, they came to a town whose short building signified the dwarven people.

Marion hopped off her horse and took the reins from Raistlin's nerveless fingers. The ride had been a hard one when they realized that the chill in the air was the sign of an early fall, and an even earlier winter. If they wished to make their way past Thorbardin before any hope of passage closed to them, they had ridden hard and fast, sometimes through the night, taking time to sleep in the saddle.

Her charger held up under the torture, but she knew that the end of the journey that this set of horses could take them was ending shortly and the tall grey warhorse would be set free to wander the herds again until she needed him again. However, Raistlin's horse, which was not of the same stock was exhausted and they now had to stop for a fresh horse for him.

Even still, her fey horse Avanti still needed to rest sometimes too.

Letting the stableboy take the horses to be cooled off and then fed, she supported Raistlin as they walked into the Inn. A warm bed would be a welcome change anyway. She used the Staff of Magius to push, and hold, open the door as they walked in. Reaching past the counter with it, she also used to push open the kitchen door, "Silf, get out here!"

The wiry dwarf, a build odd for such a race, came out and eyed her, "My lady Miiro, you grace us with your presence again. Who is this with you?"

"This..." she thought for a moment. "If anyone asks, is your Lord Miiro, got me?"

"Clear as crystal, milady," he answered as he wrote that down in the guestbook. "Your usual room, or are you going to be here long enough?"

"That will do, and have the fire stoked a little higher. Lord Miiro likes it warmer than my Southern bones do," she answered. "Boil some water for his tea, please, Silf?"

"Aye, a simple enough task," he left to do as bidden and she let Raistlin sit in a chair near to the fire.

It was thankfully quiet as the men were in the mines, and the women at home. As children had no business in the tavern, there was no one about except for a few elves that were clearly taking a break from their hunting. A dwarf whose beard was just beginning to grow, but yet of the typical build of a dwarf, came out with a few bowls of thick stew and some still warm bread. Sitting it on the small end table by the chair as she peeled off the wet layers from the shivering Raistlin, he said, "He carries the same mark as you, when you feel threatened."

"He knows not of what he carries, Jasper, and so he cannot control it yet. But, the Gods willing, he soon will, and the legacy shall carry on," she answered quietly. "Thank you for the stew, Jasp."

"No problem, Mary," he said as he piled some blankets and pillows beside her that a maid brought. "You don't come around half as often as you should, and you are always welcome. It would so much better if you lived here than in that frigid..."

"Speak not of it, Fireforge," she chided. "Too many ears to hear."

"Aye, milady," he said, then went back to the kitchen.