29 Kythorn
We walked, following the stream; the forest thickened, further north, and Viconia lowered her hood to walk in the shade, her pale hair free to blow in the wind. A hostile brown bear Shar-Teel and Ajantis fought; many arrows and spells. We rested when we could, and hurried on:
A man sat below a tree in dappled sunlight, wearing fine brown and green cloth that did not quite blend into the forest. A second man, armoured, beside him; who was much less important. Next to the man on the grass glittered a silver flute, and a knife flashed between his hands, an arrow forming slowly out of the shape of a stick. It was as though we had entered into a romance tale.
"Eldoth!"
I do not need to say I ran to him; flung myself into his arms.
"Oh, Eldoth, I just knew you'd come to find me!"
"Indeed. I assure you I've hardly slept since your...unfortunate abduction." Thankfully he looked well enough; he had scarcely changed from the last time we had bid each other farewell, little knowing so much would happen. "What in all the planes have you done to yourself? You resemble a deranged druid." I remembered, ashamed, the changes in my own appearance: the hair-dye gradually growing out, dirty, bloodstained, foul-smelling. I drew back.
"I had to—Eldoth, so much has happened—Gorion and iron mine and killing Sarevok Anchev and..."
"Skie, do attempt to be comprehensible. Women," he remarked aside to the man beside him. "While you gather your thoughts: this humble woodsman names himself Peter the North."
"Swallowed a magical compass as a lad. M' stomach hurts when I'm facing the wrong direction." He burped. "I investigate subterranean trees, all right? If you don't mind I'll be going now."
A clang: Shar-Teel, drawing upon Eldoth and his friend? Just because she hates most (all) men—
"I have never seen a subterranean tree, and I ought to know," Viconia said, standing beside her.
"You're no druid. Nice armour," Shar-Teel said to the man. "What do you know about—"
"Help me!" Peter the North called quickly to Eldoth. "I gave you that wyvern poison, I—"
"Allow us to work this out," Eldoth said, placing an arm about the man's shoulders. "Peter; have you seen these gentlemen and gentlewomen before?"
"No. There's no sense in attempting the ruse any more is there? I was already ready to avenge myself upon your blackmail. I am training wyverns to serve as guards for the Iron Throne and I look forward to placating them with meat. Yours!" He scrambled with a whistle he held about his neck. "My pets—" He brought it to his mouth. A dull thump sounded an instant after the instrument's shrill noise.
"That wyvern poison is terribly efficient, really." Eldoth withdrew his arrow from the back of Peter the North's neck as the subterranean woodsman crumpled to the grass.
"You killed him! Just like that—" Imoen cried. Peter the North had been Iron Throne; had admitted it. Eldoth had to.
"Perhaps the tedious recriminations for aiding you may wait, my dear young girl? His so-called pets—"
Three wyverns broke through the trees. Wyverns in stories are five times or more the size of a human; these were only Imoen's height, slightly taller than me.
Baby wyverns.
I drew Varscona and rushed into fighting them, Shar-Teel in front of me.
Eldoth, chanting something. His magic would help; he sung his words for some time, his low voice casting its spell.
The middle wyvern turned into a small toad. Shar-Teel crushed it with the heel of her boot; she turned to the second wyvern, and I fought beside her.
("Magic tricks from a mere musician! I may better—")
Edwin's acid arrow hit the wyvern's head, narrowly missing its eye; it howled. Garrick, almost at the same time, released his own spell, two pink bolts striking quickly. Ajantis shielded Shar-Teel and me; a pattern we'd fought before, melee and casters. Good for confronting the Iron Throne. Imoen ran close to the fight; her fire spell burned from her hands, and then she raced back quickly in case of reprisal. Shar-Teel finally felled the wyvern with a thick wound to its neck.
One wyvern left; its tail lashed out at me, and I did not have time to duck. The poisoned spike sunk in; the last antidote potion on my belt. Eldoth helped to save us again—like Edwin, the acid arrow spell, eating into the wyvern's crumbling flesh; a few more spells and it also fell.
I reached back for Eldoth's hand. "Thanks, everyone! I'd like you all to meet my fiancé Eldoth." As if formal introductions would work in such a setting. Well, the wyverns were gone; for a moment we weren't being attacked, cleaning up after the battle. Ajantis' hand glowed a faint blue, healing himself. "Eldoth, I know this is all so sudden, I promise I'll explain properly—I'd like you to meet my friends," I said.
"I shall be delighted."
"This is Imoen. She's my best friend—and, of course, a Great and Terrible Pink Wizardess." Imoen smiled back at both Eldoth and me. "This is Garrick; he's a bard, like you. This is Edwin-the-greatest-wizard-on-Faerun."
"(She finally realises my true place!—Wait, Faerun only? There are other continents—) Good day, bard," Edwin commented.
"This is our party leader, Shar-Teel."
"I dislike still more the turn our gender ratio takes. Annoy me and you're likely to find a sword in your guts." Shar-Teel bared her teeth at him.
"And—and here's Ajantis the paladin!" Ajantis can be trusted to be more polite. "And this is Viconia, a healer. She's very nice and very kind."
Viconia hissed. "The warnings I have given you of speaking of me so weakly involve the concepts 'flaying', 'to the bone', and 'extreme pain'." But she probably wouldn't really; I can run for longer than her anyway. I'd been worried that Eldoth might take some time to understand about Viconia, but I needn't have doubted him:
"Charmed to meet a woman of your dusky beauty," he told her.
"This male is not worth my breaking." Viconia sniffed.
We kept on—"Druids to the west; barking mad, if you'll pardon the lowest form of humour, much better to avoid them," Eldoth explained, and as we walked I told him everything.
"Yes, Skie, I abandoned the city not long after you, a trifling matter between gentlemen; your father cutting you off—I remain unable to believe, by the way, that you heard no previous rumours; a secret, concealed iron mine...that you and this—motley band—" Edwin, especially, glowered at that—"wish to raid."
"With you with us—Oh, Eldoth, it's so wonderful to see you again." He's told stories about fighting armies of gnolls, here in the Cloakwood forest on his own. He'll aid us easily.
"Or are you too weak, jaluk?" Viconia had wandered near to us, almost whispering her taunt to him. The ends of her hair blew into his face; in the shadow under the closely-grown trees.
He watched her, his eyes half-lidded. "I find nothing more tedious than idle contests of strength. Perhaps we shall talk over my Aluryath wine upon our rest, dark maiden. I've never met a lady such as you; I am desirous to know you better."
"Must I accept such arrogance from a male? On your knees," Viconia bantered.
"It surely has not escaped your notice, oh thorn of blackest jet, that such roles are reversed upon the surface?" Eldoth said.
"I thought so when I first fled the caverns of the Underdark. But Shar-Teel is proof that you surface dwellers alter the rightful order, and that traces of it remain," Viconia said.
"One wild boar does not make a herd," Eldoth said, somewhat softly.
"Boar? I have not heard that surface word," Viconia said.
"A hunted animal. Large, foul-smelling, tusked, and entirely uncouth." He doesn't know Shar-Teel properly yet.
"Ah; you intend to insult her. I quite prefer breaking men with some pretense to a spine." Viconia seemed to eye his back.
Eldoth lifted his muscled shoulders, posing for strength. "You would find my spine sufficiently erect for any eventuality."
"Perhaps you both have good points?" I tried.
"Skie, don't bother us right now," he said. Some more of Viconia's white hair fell into his face; he pushed it away. "You would possess charming hair if you'd a chance to brush it once in a while, coal-wench."
"That shadow on your face would make you appear virile—for a human—if only you'd the masculinity to enlarge it."
"I see your wit is sharp as your war-hammer, priestess."
"I see your tongue would be better exercised elsewhere...musician."
"Quiet," Shar-Teel ordered.
"And do stop monopolizing the time of our cleric," Edwin said coldly.
Eldoth had the good wine he promised, and although under the circumstances we could only sample it, it was a nice evening meal. Ajantis would not touch either of the two squirrels Shar-Teel had from her crossbow—there's a reason why squirrel meat isn't sold in the city, I admit—and did his trick of surreptitiously-shuffle-leftover-fruit-into-a-pouch yet again. Kleptomania does run in some noble families, although I haven't heard of it afflicting the Ilvastarrs. (I can give it up any time I want.) It must be such a trial for a paladin to have.