Chapter 4 -:o Brief encounter o:-

The Candlekeep Inn was uncommonly full one late Tarsakh evening. Ged, now seventeen years of age, had grown very handsomely into his features. He was only of medium height and more wiry than muscled, but his face was fine featured and his exotic eyes were almost hypnotic if he got intensely absorbed in something or got excited and shifted to the unusual violet shade he had been so awkward about in his youth.

He was watching his friend Dreppin having an armwrestling contest with a young nobleman who had earlier boasted about his feats to impress the now sixteen year old Imoen, who was herself growing up to become quite the beauty. Her hair had darkened from her youth, and it was now of an almost auburn color. Those rare times that she wore dresses (as she had tonight), she usually went barefoot like a gypsy and let her thick, long hair flow free. The effect was such that she had broken a few hearts among the visiting nobles and merchants already.

Dreppin was winning quite handily, and the crowd yelled encouragement to both Dreppin and his noble opponent. Ged sat in the corner, a sardonic smile playing on his face, sipping a mug of Winthrop's cider and lazily leafing through a book, one concerning dangerous monsters and written by the famous sage Elminster himself. He had finally mastered the Armor spell earlier today. Other than Cantrips and the basic Read Magic and Detect Magic spells, it was the first real combat spell in his arsenal. It was also a Conjuration/Summoning spell, the specialization he had chosen for himself amongst the eight principal schools of magic. He knew that Divinations were now out of his reach because of this choice, but reckoned being able to compensate for the deficiency by being able to summon various creatures and spirits to give him the answers he needed.

Being a Conjurer gave a wizard great power, which Ged was eager to harness as early and as quickly as possible. This summer he would become 18 years of age and considered that a possible moment to... what?

To strike out on his own?

Ged considered that for a moment.

Imoen would love to come with him, he knew without even considering it. She had become quite restless with her 'sedentary' life and had taken to sneaking out of the fortress in various ways. She had now done that thrice and Ulraunt had warned Winthrop that if she did it again, she wouldn't be allowed back inside.

Imoen had merely laughed at "Puffguts" when the increasingly pudgy innkeeper had tried to discipline her. She had told of her visits to Beregost and the Friendly Arm Inn to Ged and Dreppin with great flourish, making it sound as she'd been on some great, Faerun saving adventure.

Nevertheless, her vivid descriptions excited Ged in spite of himself. He could hardly remember what it was like, outside the walls of the keep.

Dreppin had lost any real wish for adventure he had ever possessed.

Ged sighed, and glanced over to the table, where his giant friend was already on the verge of winning.

For all his size and strength, Dreppin was a simple and good natured youth whose pleasure in life came from a mug of ale or a honest day's work. Once he, Imoen and Dreppin had dreamed of becoming adventurers together, now it looked like the nineteen year old stablehand and apprentice blacksmith had given up that dream.

A thunderous cheer and applause told him that his friend had just triumphed. He looked to the table again from his reading and intended to politely cheer and clap, but the shout died in his throat as he saw someone staring at him, standing only a few meters away.

The stranger, covered from head to toe in the brown robes of a Candlekeep reader, immediatly turned away and started towards the exit. He was a veritable giant, the tallest man Ged had ever seen and his shoulders were broader than Dreppin's, broader by half. And had it been only Ged's imagination, or had a sudden flash of fire, or something very much like it come from under the hood which the huge stranger covered his head with.

"Ha! The mighty Dreppin wins again!" Ged heard Imoen laugh. "Is there any man here with courage or girth enough to take 'im on? I'll kiss any man who can wins against good ol' Drep here!"

The humiliated noble, rubbing his sore arm, heard Imoen's boast and grabbed the robed strangers shoulder. The noble's retinue, trailing behind him, quickly surrounded the imposing, silent giant.

"Come now, my good monk... eh, that is, if you are monk...?" he dandy inquired, but received no other reply than a quiet gaze from beneath the hood.

"Test your strength against this peasant and I'll... If you win I'll give you five gold pieces! How does that sound, hmm?" the noble tried again, this time joined by the crowd which roared in approval.

Again Ged thought he could see something, like a fierce glow, flash quickly beneath hood.

The quiet giant hesitated for a moment, then quickly crossed to where Dreppin was seated and sat down. The chair creaked ominuosly beneath the stranger's bulk. The crowd grew silent in anticipation and Ged saw beads of sweat gather on his hapless friend's brow as Dreppin regarded the silent giant.

The huge man in monk's robes extended a huge, dark skinned hand and removed the glove he had worn. Dreppin clasped his hand and the contest was on. Ged could only look in amazement as he saw his friend exert all of his considerable brawn in trying to bend the strangers arm, to no avail.

The silent man turned his head and looked directly at Ged. This time Ged clearly saw two yellowish points glow furiously inside the depths of the hood, right where the stranger's eyes would have been. The silent giant held his gaze for a fleeting moment, then turned back to the red faced Dreppin and almost contemptously slammed Dreppin's hand down so hard, that for a moment it looked like the table might split and crack. Dreppin gasped in pain, the crowd was stunned and the nobleman smirked, obviously pleased at himself. The silent winner rose up and put his glove back on.

Imoen, not one to be easily startled, walked over and took off the man's hood in an act of shocking frankness. She had to stand on her tiptoes to do that.

The man's face was quite handsome, he was perhaps in his mid twenties, bald and clean shaven. A strange tattoo, like a crown of thorns, adorned his forehead. But his eyes were dark brown and if cold, at least they didn't glow like hellfire.

Ged sighed in relief, thinking his imagination had run wild. He saw Imoen smile and, again standing on her toes, give the silent titan a full kiss on the mouth. The crowd cheered and Ged smiled as he saw the man being actually startled at her deed. Then the silent stranger gave her a thin, frosty smile that wasn't reflected in his eyes and put his hood back on. He stormed to the exit, ignoring the noble who was trying to invite him to his table and pushing his retinue aside as if they were autumn leaves caught in a sudden, strong breeze.

The huge man opened the door and vanished outside, where a thunderstorm was brewing.

"Didya see that?" Ged, jumped at the sound, then glanced at the grinning, flustered girl.

"I gave him a smooch and did he thank me or anything? What a GROUCH! He was kinda cute, though... Wonder who he was..." Imoen had moved to his table and sat down next to him, without him noticing anything. She was getting sneakier by the day.

Dreppin too, accompanied with two of Candlekeep's more amiable watchers, the hard drinking Hull and the easy going Fuller, came to sit in his table, carrying a tray with three full pitchers of ale.

Sighing, Ged put away his book and resigned to watch his friend get drunk. He would have time to go over the Armor's effectiveness against a troll's claws or wolf's fangs tomorrow with Parda. At least the old monk wouldn't try to goad him into a drinking contest.

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"Yes, I know of the man. A scholar interested in the great Alaundo's prophecies I believe. How curious that you should bring him up... Have you talked with him?" Gorion tried to keep his tone nonchalant, but deep inside he was deeply worried at Ged's question.

"No, he didn't say a word to anyone and I haven't seen him since. It's now been what, two weeks? He only came to my mind today when Dreppin falsely tried to claim no one had ever beaten him in arm wrestling. I had meant to ask you about something related to him, but I can't recall what it was, his eyes or that tattoo or something." Ged said in reply, without raising his head as he continued writing on a piece of parchement.

Gorion didn't say anything further and Ged seemed pleased with his initial answer for once. He had his own suspicions about the man in question and had already made several inquiries with his various friends and contacts elsewhere in Faerun.

The old sage was almost certain he knew what the mysterious stranger was all about, even though he hoped against hope to be wrong. In any case, there were certain preparations to be made.

"Ged." he said, and saw the boy raise his head in askance. From Ged's slightly perplexed gaze he saw the boy had already forgotten their short conversation. "Perhaps that is better, for now. Let him have the few final years of peace before it starts..." Gorion thought to himself.

Aloud, he said: "Tomorrow, I want you to report to the Gatewarden and have him teach you the basics of melee combat. Choose a weapon that's easy to learn and has other uses than just combat, a dagger or a staff I'd recommend myself but it's up to you."

Ged looked surprised and irritated. "Can I ask why, father? It will take all day and you promised me to start instructing me in the basics of the Sleep spell. If I start getting daily weapon lessons it will just set me back in my studies."

Gorion smiled sadly and shook his head. "You are young and naive, my boy. Magic will not get you through everything, especially not while you are so young still. It is better to learn to defend yourself just in case... something should happen."

Ged smiled politely and respectfully, but there was a slight note of a whine in his reply. "Yes, I know I am young and have no skill to reserve my energies for but a few spells a day. But still, you could teach me more and faster, I know I can learn. Why, Phlydia said just the other day that I've advanced faster than-"

Gorion made a small movement with his hand and shook his head. The decision was final.

"Yes father." Ged said, lowering his head.

"Can I take Imoen with me?" the boy asked, as if an after thought. "I'm sure she would love a chance to learn some swordfighting or archery, perhaps."

Seeing his adoptive father nod in reply, he once more concentrated on the parchment and forgot all about the rest of the world.

Gorion went to the nearby window and looked outside. He could see over the walls where the road led east where it would link up with Lion's Way and take one south to Beregost and beyond, all the way to Amn or northward to Baldur's Gate and deeper into the Savage Frontier.

There was still plenty of time to prepare, old friends to contact and favors to call. And perhaps he had been mistaken. Perhaps there still was time to further prepare the boy for what would surely follow.

No.

Gorion knew it in his heart, his luck had run out and what he had long feared had come to pass.

Ged's identity had been found out, and by the worst kind of person possible.