Arclath's face swam into her head...and suddenly, in a rush that took her breath away, Amarune found herself missing his company very much.

She wanted to hear that laugh of his again, his airy gestures and all the nonsense he drawled. She...stlarn it, she wanted to be at his side again. Where she felt, well, not safe, but confident. Or rather, wrapped in his confidence, as if it could carry them through any danger or difficulty or unpleasantness.

Huh. And what pit of vipers would that that be, trailing along with drawling, pranksome, idiotic Lord Delcastle? be, trailing along with drawling, pranksome, idiotic Lord Delcastle?

She shook her head and gave the dimly seen ceiling a wry shrug. No matter. It seemed to be what her sleeping self had decided she wanted to do.

Her next shrug took her out of bed in a long-limbed wriggle. Stalking to her row of cloak hooks for some clean clothing, she found herself wondering if Lord Arclath Delcastle would be at Delcastle Manor at that hour.

Or if, regardless of what time of day or night she appeared at its gates, the Delcastle servants would let her in-or just sneer and slam those grand doors in her face.

Drawing a clean clout up her legs, she frowned at that. Mustn't let new vipers into their cozy little pit...

She smiled wryly and started thinking up grand tales of secret messages from the palace she'd be bringing him. She'd be...a highknight. Yes, she'd have to be.

"The words I bear are for the ears of Lord Arclath Argustagus Delcastle alone," she murmured to her mirror, keeping her face as calm as stone. "They are...royal words." words."

That sounded good. Almost good enough to get her in. sounded good. Almost good enough to get her in.

She grimaced and reached up to fetch the knives she strapped all over herself when being the Silent Shadow.

She had a G.o.ds-strong feeling she would be needing them.

"Behold," Elminster muttered to himself, "in what minstrels are pleased to call 'the dead of night,' one Elminster of Shadowdale returns to his chosen abode and battlefield, by one of the few ways he feels able enough to use about now."

The night-la.s.s he'd just enriched by two golden lions glided to a graceful stop in front of the two duty guards, smiled as she calmly pulled open her bodice, and announced, "Wizard of War Rorskryn Mreldrake has just lost a bet, and by way of forfeit, has paid me well to entertain you two loyal Dragons."

"Stand back, la.s.s," the older guard replied sternly, peering warily past her into the night. "We're under strict orders to let no one pa.s.s, not stray from our posts, and keep all who have weapons a safe reach away from us."

The night-la.s.s stepped back meekly and undid her gown.

"These are the only weapons I have," she told them slyly, gesturing down at herself.

The younger guard growled wordlessly, stepped away from the door they were guarding, and reached for her.

"I'll stand watch," his older comrade growled quickly. "Be quick."

His resolve lasted long enough for Elminster to begin to think his coins hadn't bought him pa.s.sage after all, but the night-la.s.s knew her work. One of her hands had been beckoning the older Dragon all the while, until eventually he growled and strode eagerly forward.

Wherefore Elminster stepped away from the bit of the wall he'd been pretending to be a part of for a very long time, and slipped through the door unnoticed, without a sound or any undue haste.

By the time the younger guard decided it would be prudent to at least look up from the la.s.s-whose name he very much desired to know, for future occasions-and peer around to make sure the street was empty of a patrol or a n.o.ble's coach or two or perhaps a small approaching army, Elminster was several secret pa.s.sages deep into the palace and descending some old, damp, seldom-used stairs.

He had magic to plunder, a hiding place to find, and a kingdom to save. In short, the usual...

Amarune drew in a deep breath, pulled her cloak more snugly around her-the moon was up, but the night had turned cold cold-and firmly clacked the knocker of the porter's door beside the gates of Delcastle Manor. Slowly and deliberately, thrice.

Almost immediately, she heard a soft, sliding sound, as if a plate on the other side of the door had been slid aside to let someone peer at her. In the shadowed gloom, she couldn't see any change in the door, but someone was there, watching and listening. There was movement behind the high, many-barred gates, too; guards, no doubt, taking up and aiming ready crossbows.

Silence stretched. She worked the knocker again.

This time, the response was a rattle of chain and a louder sliding. A square of heavy, double-layered grille revealed itself in the door at about eye level, a pair of steady eyes regarding her from behind it.

"Delcastle Manor," their owner murmured. "Your business?"

"I've come at the invitation of Lord Arclath Delcastle," Amarune replied carefully, knowing well what might be a.s.sumed about a woman walking alone and cloaked by night, and trying to sound polite, refined, and formal, "to speak with him. I am aware of the hour."

"I am sorry," the porter replied, sounding as if he really was, "but the Lord Delcastle is not now at home. Perhaps tomorrow, around highsun, I will be able to give you a different reply."

"I see," Amarune said, managing to keep her sigh quiet. "Do you know where he is?"

"Out dining. I was given to understand. Darcleir's Haven is a likelihood, but with so many friends, old and otherwise, newly arrived in Suzail, he might very well end up elsewhere. In the meantime, I regret I cannot admit guests to wait for him."

"Of course," she replied, turning away.

Where to, she was not quite sure. Nowhere at all might be safe for her, and among all these tall, formidable walls and the frequent Watch patrols, she could hardly linger on these streets of mansions and- Lost in her thoughts, she almost walked right into a pair of gleaming boots and the dark-clad man who was wearing them, standing right in front of her in the night.

She flung herself back, clapping hand to knife-and saw that it was Arclath Delcastle, smiling a rather tired smile at her. He was just arriving home from the Haven, having grown heartily tired of the company of overpainted, oh-so-pretty venomous vipers of young and predatory n.o.ble ladies, with their honeyed threats and condescensions.

Their eyes met, and one good look at her frightened, imploring eyes told him something. Breaking into a broad grin, he swept one arm around Amarune with a loud and delighted, "Lady "Lady Amarune! We Amarune! We must must talk! Your castle or mine?" talk! Your castle or mine?"

"Y-yours," she managed to whisper. "If it's...convenient."

"In your company, all all things are convenient," he replied heartily. "Open up, Lorold!" things are convenient," he replied heartily. "Open up, Lorold!"

The gates were already parting, guards coming to attention. Arclath gave them both bright smiles and nods, waved to the porter, and swept his cloaked guest past them all into the moonlit gardens beyond.

"I'm honored that you came to visit us so promptly! The family will be so so pleased!" pleased!"

He took her arm, firmly guiding her up a gentle slope of gra.s.s wet with heavy dew to a path lined with tall plantings of uruth and bedaelia. "To our right, the Delcastle bridal bower! Ahead of us, the summerhouse, and to our left, looking down across the main carriageway to the arbor, we can see in the distance the five fishponds my great-grandsire was so proud of. The Delcastle stables are justly famed for their-"

By then they were well along the floral path, and he stopped in midsentence, dropped his voice to a murmur, and asked, "Do you need shelter? A meal? A place to talk?"

"All of those, I suppose," Amarune replied, hesitantly. "To talk, mostly."

"Here, or inside, where the dragon that is my mother snorts fire and growls, devouring a steady procession of young and perfumed men entering her bedchamber?"

Amarune sighed. "Do you have a room you can call your own, with a door that locks?"

Arclath eyed her gravely. "I do. Have you a reputation left to maintain?"

Amarune snorted. "As a barepelt club dancer? I'll risk it."

"But what of my my reputation?" he asked lightly. reputation?" he asked lightly.

"I can probably manage to moan and gasp and sob your name loudly from time to time, and thereby salvage it," she told him dryly.

Arclath rolled his eyes then grinned like an eager lad, his eyes dancing. "Then come!"

"Can we at least have drinks first?" she teased. "Isn't that the courtly way?"

"We can," he promised. "Yet never make the mistake again of thinking n.o.bles are courtly away from court. As mistakes go, that can be one of the fatal ones."

Well, at least he was still good at one thing.

Not that breaking into the royal palace of Suzail with swift ease was apt to advance him far in any new career he'd prefer to pursue.

Panderer? Nay...

Elminster gave the dark and empty secret pa.s.sage he was traversing his best wry grin as he hastened along it. Then he winced. Aye, he had a blister rising on his left heel. He was getting too old for waltzing young la.s.ses home and then rushing back across too much of Suzail to seek his own hidehold, before- Hoy, there! He stiffened, slowed, and then advanced more cautiously. The murmur of voices ahead was many-throated and excited; something had befallen.

The clack was coming through some spyholes from a room beside the pa.s.sage and had the same air of alert bustle that befalls a castle before a siege; something he'd heard a time or twelvescore and remembered all too well.

Ah, that that voice was Mallowfaer, the Master of Revels, in full pompous bl.u.s.ter. voice was Mallowfaer, the Master of Revels, in full pompous bl.u.s.ter.

Elminster rolled his eyes and glided to a cautious halt by the spyholes, taking care to keep well back from them as he peered through.

The robing-room on the other side of the wall was crowded with courtiers, and war wizards, too; facing El but half-hidden behind the shoulder of Understeward Corleth Fentable was a rather bruised-looking Rorskryn Mreldrake. The spyholes were situated behind and just above the left shoulder of Khaladan Mallowfaer, who evidently wanted to impress everyone with his authority and exacting attention to detail, but also sounded determined to demonstrate just how pompous and nasty he could be, in the process.

The burdens of his song were intertwined harmonies of exasperation at unfolding chaos, glee that the problem could not-by any stretch of verbiage he would allow-be laid at his his door, and that he was in charge of formal protocols at the moment and could therefore decree with nigh royal authority. It seemed the palace had become aware that Ganrahast and Vainrence both seemed to be missing, with our wizards of war very alarmed about it and rushing about searching here, there, and everywhere without wanting to admit that anything at all was amiss-with the council only days away! What to do? door, and that he was in charge of formal protocols at the moment and could therefore decree with nigh royal authority. It seemed the palace had become aware that Ganrahast and Vainrence both seemed to be missing, with our wizards of war very alarmed about it and rushing about searching here, there, and everywhere without wanting to admit that anything at all was amiss-with the council only days away! What to do? What What to do? to do?

At that moment, with a sputtering roar, it became clear that Understeward Fentable's superior, the bullying, bl.u.s.tering, and overblown Palace Steward Rorstil Hallowdant-who was both lazy and a drunkard and therefore spent much of his time snoring somewhere, leaving things to the highly efficient and widely liked understeward, much to the relief of most courtiers-had heard quite enough of someone else else being haughty and giving orders right and left. being haughty and giving orders right and left.

"The Master of Revels," he said in a voice that had a finger-lopping-sharp edge to it, "seems to forget that everyone everyone in this chamber right now is a dedicated, skilled professional, from the clerk of the shield here beside me to the under-clerks of protocol yonder, all four of them. It is our in this chamber right now is a dedicated, skilled professional, from the clerk of the shield here beside me to the under-clerks of protocol yonder, all four of them. It is our common common business to know the location and deeds of each royal personage, both before and throughout the council, from the smallest appointment to the grandest feast, and from our beloved King Foril to Lord Royal Erzoured and the Countess of Dhedluk. The Master of Revels needs only to coordinate, and business to know the location and deeds of each royal personage, both before and throughout the council, from the smallest appointment to the grandest feast, and from our beloved King Foril to Lord Royal Erzoured and the Countess of Dhedluk. The Master of Revels needs only to coordinate, and not not to command." to command."

"Of course," Mallowfaer responded in a voice that had an edge all its own, "but the Crown Prin-"

"Crown Prince Irvel confers with me me often. I last spoke with him- often. I last spoke with him-and with Princess Ospra, Prince Baerovus, and Princess Raedra-just before departing the Sunstatues Chamber to come here. All of them are confident the customary support of the entire palace will make this council a success, however tense matters become. I should add that even one not born to high station, the Lady Solatha Boldtree, shares this confidence and has said as much. To with Princess Ospra, Prince Baerovus, and Princess Raedra-just before departing the Sunstatues Chamber to come here. All of them are confident the customary support of the entire palace will make this council a success, however tense matters become. I should add that even one not born to high station, the Lady Solatha Boldtree, shares this confidence and has said as much. To me." me."

"Nevertheless-"

"Nevertheless," the palace steward said crushingly, "we deal with functions and courtesies large and small here in this great seat of rulership, day in and day out, and shall continue to do so without any need for the Master of Revels to try to alter or gainsay the usual precedence or procedures. the palace steward said crushingly, "we deal with functions and courtesies large and small here in this great seat of rulership, day in and day out, and shall continue to do so without any need for the Master of Revels to try to alter or gainsay the usual precedence or procedures. I I fully expect each and every one of you to-" fully expect each and every one of you to-"

Elminster shook his head and strolled on down the secret pa.s.sage, Hallowdant's coldly cutting words fading behind him. He found himself both amused-he could practically complete the palace steward's speech by heart, without any need to actually hear the rest of it-and heartened. Murmurs of agreement had been backing Hallowdant in a sort of chorus.

The court was bent on their duties.

Ganrahast or no Ganrahast, things would go on. Haughty and fussy and backbiting though they were, the courtiers of Cormyr would deal with things.

King rise or king fall, regicide or n.o.bles poisoning each other with abandon or chasing each other down the halls with gore-dripping battle-axes, the palace servants would endure. And the Forest Kingdom with them, for they were were the kingdom. They and the carters and crofters, foresters and horsebreeders, goodwives and crafters and smiths, from the Thunder Peaks to the Stormhorns. Let Hallowdant and Mallowfaer spit and snarl; most of the other faces he'd just seen through a spyhole were both worried and excited. They were the faces of men who the kingdom. They and the carters and crofters, foresters and horsebreeders, goodwives and crafters and smiths, from the Thunder Peaks to the Stormhorns. Let Hallowdant and Mallowfaer spit and snarl; most of the other faces he'd just seen through a spyhole were both worried and excited. They were the faces of men who cared cared.

The Forest Kingdom was still strong. Whoever warmed the throne or this or that high lord's chair might change, but the kingdom would endure.

Which meant a certain Sage of Shadowdale could take the items that held the survivors of the Nine for Ala.s.sra. Cormyr would get along just fine without them.

Lord Arclath Delcastle stopped, put his hands on his hips, and sighed in exasperation.

He had arisen early this fine bright morning, checked that his slumbering guest was still sleeping-they had talked late into the night but had slept apart, Arclath showing her his private pantry and sideboard and that she could lock herself in with them, and had heard her promptly do so-taken a quick breakfast of spiced plover's eggs and hearth cakes, thrown on some suitably dandified finery, given his trusted servants firm instructions to render all reasonable aid to Amarune and to do so with respect, and taken himself off to the palace.

He had two tasks to discharge there, the lesser concerning himself and the greater concerning the news Amarune had agreed that the war wizard Glathra should hear, without delay.

His personal business was the same as many of the lesser n.o.bles of the realm this morning. He sought to learn where his seat at council would be and which particular courtier he should look for on the day to escort him to his seat.

In Arclath's case, this lesser task also involved conveying his mother's regrets; she of course would not be attending, and was in fact sending Arclath in her stead, while his father was too drunk to even know there was was a council. a council.

His more pressing task-to report to the wizard Glathra that the mask dancer Amarune, the Silent Shadow, had just learned that she was the great-granddaughter of the infamous wizard Elminster, who was lurking in Suzail at that moment and wanted her to steal particular magic items for him that held the ghosts of the legendary Nine-would have been much easier if Arclath had been able to find find Glathra. Glathra.

Not that any of the wizards of war he collared seemed to know where she might be found, stlarn them.

The whole palace was in an uproar that morning, everyone rushing about terribly busy with council-related security requirements, servant deployments, and furniture rearrangements. Both the sprawling royal court and the majestic royal palace were a noisy bedlam of hurrying, calling, feverishly working folk; every last chambermaid and page seemed swept up in it all.

He was growing tired of holding his own hips. He'd much rather have his hands on Rune's, and- Enough. Banish that that thought until he could do something about it. thought until he could do something about it.

Drawing a deep breath, Lord Arclath Delcastle squared his shoulders, put a "no nonsense, please" frown on his face, and marched forward into the tumult.

He knew a few senior war wizards by sight, and surely some some of them must be there in the palace. He'd just keep going until he found one and ask for Glathra until he found someone who- of them must be there in the palace. He'd just keep going until he found one and ask for Glathra until he found someone who- "Hold, saer!"

Arclath sighed. The challenges were going to come frequently that morning, by the looks of things. He gave the Purple Dragon guard barring his way with horizontal-held spear a patient smile, and began, "Fair morn to you, Telsword. I'm looking for Wizard of War Glathra..."

The man scowled, instantly suspicious. "And just why d'you want to see her, Lord?"

Oh, it was going to be a long long morning. morning.

In a dark pa.s.sage deep beneath the palace, Elminster came to a halt and cursed softly. On the wall ahead hung an old shield he'd watched Vangerdahast enspell, far more years earlier than he cared to remember. Its enchantments made it a silent warning of certain things arriving where n.o.bles liked to congregate. When it started to glow, wizards of war had known to curse and hasten off to deal with whatever trouble the less loyal n.o.bility of the Forest Kingdom were bringing to fair Suzail.

Those wizards were all dead. Which left him.

Turning to begin hastening, he got to work on the cursing part.