2019-09-16 to 10-11 – Scenes from a hard autumn – Taffeta
Aug 2, 2020 20:24:31 GMT
Grimes, Varis/G'Lorth/Sundilar, and 3 more like this
Post by Malri 'Taffeta' Thistletop on Aug 2, 2020 20:24:31 GMT
1496 DR, 14 Eleint – Willow Glade
"Sunday… please… if it's you, just tell me something that devil wouldn't know. Just one thing. I hate this. I just want to talk to my friend."
“It’s getting late. You should probably go back to your family. They need you.” Sunday crosses the glade and climbs the mound to stand next to the trunk of the giant willow tree, laying her hand on the rough bark. “I can speed up your journey and put you on the edge of the forest. If you still trust me.”
"I still trust Sunday," says Taffeta sadly. "I just wish I could be sure you're her." And she steps slowly backwards, leaving the peaceful clearing the way she came.
15 Eleint – Oriloki’s house in the Feythorn Forest
“Easy enough, Mistress Thistletop,” says the bespectacled goliath, the owl tattoo on his shoulder already shifting.
Good evening, Mistress Quick White. Mistress Thistletop would like to know how you are and what you’ve discovered? When should she expect you back?”
Taffeta watches Oriloki’s face nervously as moments pass… many moments...
“I am well, Oriloki-san. I am close to homeland in the East. I have some leads about the Cat Lord. Will talk in a tenday.”
"Excellent! Sounds most productive. It sounds as though you are well? Taffeta was worried. I will continue my research, on her behalf, into Khingo Khan."
"I am quite safe, I think. I need to be careful. I hope Taffeta and her family are fine. Tell her my promise to help stands."
The halfling releases the breath she didn’t realize she was holding in. “Well, that’s good. That’s something. Thank you.”
“You are most welcome, Mistress Thistletop,” Oriloki replies, turning his eyes back down to her from the distant spot they had been gazing toward. “Now, you said you had two requests?”
“Yes. I, uh.” Taffeta looks around. She knows nobody has come in since she arrived, that probably nobody could come in without Oriloki’s permission. And Oriloki answered all her questions about things only he should know. But still, fear and suspicion have become such close companions that she scans the room anyway.
“I need to know about… Phlegethos. And how to get there. And rakshasas and…”
“And?”
“And how to kill them.”
19 Eleint – somewhere in the Angelbark Wood
The sun’s gone down and the forest is dark and still. As quietly as she can, Taffeta sloughs off the twigs and fallen leaves in which she half-buried herself hours ago. Carefully brushes woodlice off her clothes and shakes spiders out of her boots. Finds her way, largely by instinct and smell and sound, to a small stream to wash off the dirt she covered her face with earlier.
Hide by day, travel by night. That’s how she’s lived for the last… what? Two months? It’s hard to remember.
An owl murmurs in the branches overhead as she eats a breakfast of hard biscuits from her bag, supplemented by foraged berries. Later, if she can find a well-hidden place, maybe she’ll risk a fire and catch and cook a rabbit or a bird.
Rustling. About twenty feet away. She stays very still, listening carefully. Hand on crossbow. There are slow steps passing. Four legs. Upwind of her so it may not she’s there yet. She peers into the darkness until the waning moon briefly outlines the antlers of a young deer stopping to sniff the air. He continues on his way.
Taffeta wraps the remaining berries in a cloth and puts them away in her bag along with the waterskin. Takes out a smooth stone.
“Evening, love. How are you all? I’m fine, still waiting to hear from Oriloki. Keeping on the move. Hug the girls for me.”
“Ma, it’s me today! We’re all okay. Idari’s teaching Carrot to play Old Men’s Bones. We miss you, please come back soon. Happy birthday.”
27 Eleint – Oriloki’s house
“Taffeta, how much do you care for your friend...?” Oriloki asks.
"What're you – What kind of question is that?" she splutters, then turns to one of the other Oriloki’s – she’s lost track of which is which – and demands, "What's he on about? What's going on?"
“Mistress Quick White seems to have found herself in a spot of bother,” answers the first Oriloki. Or possibly the third, if they moved around while she was facing the other way. “I’m not sure why she went back home to Wa, but it seems while there she was tempted into losing control. She is now trapped on an island of devils. You know when the Gilded Mirror gets really busy and Leocanto operates a one-in, one-out policy?”
"Not really, I don't go there much. Is that a gambling thing?"
“When it gets too busy there’s not much space for customers. So a new customer has to wait for someone inside the place to leave before they can enter.”
Taffeta looks up in bafflement and distress at one Oriloki and then another. "Wha–? Fine, but... Are you saying Paw's waiting to get into a... a devil casino?"
“No, I’m trying to explain how Paw became trapped on the island and how one can rescue her. Her being trapped on the island means a devil has got out into the world. To free Paw, one must trap a devil on the island. Balance, you see?”
"Oh! Like a trade? We take a devil there, they let Paw go?"
“I don’t know if it will be as amicable as that, but that’s the gist, certainly! A devil may not even need to be brought there in the way you might bring a gift to a party - just trapped there in her place.”
"Okay. Right. Trap a devil there." Her fingers, nervously fiddling with the thick plait of hair resting on her shoulder, finds a twig tangled there.
“Mayhaps you could persuade one of the many recent influx of Tieflings from Port Ffirst to accompany you and leave them there? Ah Mr Mace or a Mr Hogg? Aha just my little joke.” Taffeta doesn’t laugh. “This is all guesswork,” another Oriloki continues. “Mistress Quick White was understandably none too clear given her circumstances. Also this island is long thought a myth. I will need to research further back at my old school if I am to furnish you with more useful information. But I feel quite confident in my conclusions.”
"All right. Okay. Thank you. Do you – do you know how to trap a devil? I've... killed one, sort of. And I've trapped animals of course. But..."
“I can trap almost anything - you may recall use of an arcane cage? But I can certainly ascertain a more fiend-specific method now I know more about the isle”
"So you'll come? To help Paw?"
“I shall certainly offer whatever aid is within my power and remit to provide. I shall have to check with my superiors about any active engagement in such a risky undertaking, of course.”
Having extracted the twig from her hair, Taffeta is about to set it on the table when she notices Oriloki – one of the Orilokis who aren’t speaking – looking at her hand, his eyebrow twitching slightly. She withdraws her hand and puts it in her lap, still holding the twig. “Let me get to Waterdeep,” continues the other Oriloki, “and I’ll be able to say more accurately how long. Will you be staying in the vicinity? I can contact you within an instant of my return.”
"I'm not sure... I may be around, I may be travelling. I'll be near here for a few days at least."
“Of course. Whatever you wish. My mansion is open to you if you need it. Just please do vacate the premises if and when asked so it can be rebuilt momentarily.”
"Oh no, thank you, no, I won't stay here,” she says, glancing nervously at the Oriloki who is still watching the twig in her hand. “But I won't be far off. You'll do that mind-thing to tell me when you're back?"
“Sending, it is called - and most assuredly.”
29 Eleint – outside the Djinn & Tonic in Daring Heights
The area is dark except for the hazy, billowing glow coming through the shuttered windows and under the closed door of the caravan. This is the second day Taffeta has watched the Djinn & Tonic from a hidden place in the roadside shrubs.
Scout first, arrive later. That’s how she’s lived for… however long it’s been.
The caravan isn’t in quite the same place it was when she first visited it, three years ago. Just a few days after moving to Daring Heights. A few days after travelling to a completely different continent – she, who’d never been more than two days’ travel from where she was born before – suddenly she was meeting a djinni and going to a completely different plane to help him. Because that seemed to be what people did here.
When it’s late enough that night has properly settled in, but not as late as it was last night when the light in the caravan finally went dim, she creeps over and climbs the few steps to the brightly painted door, and knocks. The door swings open, revealing the impossibly spacious interior of the establishment.
Seeing a new guest enter, the red-eyed elemental excuses himself from a group of Aarakocra who are sitting on cushions around a low table. As he approaches Taffeta, she holds up a hand to signal him to stop a few feet from her. “Hello Ka’sam, do you remember me? How we first met?”
“My dear Taffeta, I never forget a face, or a favour! When I first arrived in Daring Heights I was looking for help to find and rescue my sister, from the tale I was told afterwards it was quite the adventure - The Dao’s Crystal Garden.”
When I first arrived in Daring Heights – yes! She’d forgotten that part! The caravan had suddenly appeared from nowhere just a few days before. She’d volunteered to help Captain Thundercog test the siege defences but nobody else turned up so the captain suggested she go to the Ettin to see what else she could help with, and there she found some locals getting ready to check out the mysterious vehicle: Barden, Dûm Bah, Seraphina, Aramin… Nowhere…
She’s never thought about it before, but it strikes her now that Ka’sam and his sumptuous dimension-defying home on wheels must have arrived in Daring about the same time she and her household trundled through the portal in their overstuffed wagon. Each trying to help their family. And she helped his, and now it’s time for him to help hers.
Feeling a little calmed by this thought, she replies, "Good. Yes. Well it's about that favour I've come - if I’m not disturbing you?"
Ka’sam dismisses the thought, “Not at all - how can I be of service to you tonight?”
Highharvesttide – Oriloki’s house
“So, what did you find out?” she asks after satisfying herself, in the usual way, that her host is who he seems to be.
“Paw appears to be trapped on the Isle of Devils,” Oriloki replies. She knows he’s irritated by her bluntness and she strongly suspects that he not only wants her to know it, but also wants her to notice how graciously he is choosing not to mention it. “I have a way to get people there. It seems Paw visited the Order in Waterdeep to research the Cat Lord and some fanatical death cult in Wa. She was accompanied by an unknown Monk. Together they persuaded a low-ranking archivist to let them look at some secret files. This set off alarms and they fled. The Order would like me to track them down and find out what happened, and deal with any dangers arising from this.”
“Oh, Paw, what you got yourself into?” mutters Taffeta to herself. “Okay, mister, sounds like you and I are heading the same way. You reckon we’ll need any help?”
“Mmm, I’m not yet entirely sure I’ll be joining you on the actual voyage. But safety in numbers is certainly a thing I’d recommend. I can post some notices in Daring Heights and Port Ffirst?”
“All right. Thanks. When do we go?”
“I’ve some business to attend to in the coming tenday; perhaps after that?” He sees her frown. “I believe she is safe; merely stuck.”
Taffeta doesn’t stop frowning, but nods. “Okay. Well. Soon as you can.”
1 Marpenoth – outside the Order of the Crimson Fist barracks in Daring Heights
The soul coin keeps whispering in her mind. She doesn’t like it. Oriloki didn’t tell her it would do that when he suggested she try to find some, and Ka’sam didn’t tell her when he gave her this one.
She can’t ‘hear’ it as much now it’s in her magic bag but it’s still distracting. Which is not what you need when you have to be absolutely alert and straining all your senses for danger, like now. And later. And yesterday, and tomorrow, and…
She feels the exhaustion trying to drag her down but she clenches her fists hard and focuses again on the barracks gate across the road from her hiding place.
This is a visit she hasn’t been looking forward to. But they went to Sigil to get information about the rakshasa – against her wishes, against Sunday’s promise, but they went – and she needs to know what they found. And she can’t ask Sunday, or whoever is at Big Willow pretending to be Sunday.
And anyway… she doesn’t like to admit it but if what Varis and Daisy are right, then she needs help. If the rakshasa is a threat to everybody and not just to her and her family, then she can’t keep hiding and waiting. She has to kill it. Who else can she ask to help her with something like that? Daisy, yes, and maybe Pieni, but the three of them can’t do it alone. Paw’s trapped on the Isle of Devils, whatever that is. Sunday’s… like that. Nobody knows what’s happened to Zmee. Tugark’s at the bottom of the ocean. Dorian… she still isn’t sure she trusts Dorian, and anyway she isn’t sure he’s even still around. Barden… she hasn’t seen Barden since last winter, no idea where he’s gone. Who else? Who’s left?
She straightens her back and steps quietly out of the shadowed alley into the quarter-moon’s dim light. Maybe Varis will be gone, or asleep, by Tymora’s favour. Maybe she can just find Baine. She feels sorry to draw him into all this; he’s so young. But he’s strong and brave and his heart’s in the right place, more or less, and he can tell Varis what’s to be done. Slip in, find Baine. Find out what they learned in Sigil. Tell what she’s learned from Oriloki and Ka’sam. Say she’ll help with their fiend if they’ll help with the rakshasa. Find out whether they need her to pick up anything for them in Kundar. Leave. Back into the night, back into the trees.
Right.
She steps up to the wall of the compound, looks quickly around her, and blurs through the red stonework into the training yard beyond.
9 Marpenoth – somewhere north of Storn’s Hollow
Even at night it’s warm here.
Her first time in Kundar was in winter, and she came and left by teleportation. This time it was four or five days on foot – she lost count – first through grass and low hills, then dry and dusty plains and scrub. Every morning harder and harder to find a place to conceal herself, every day harder and harder to keep out of the blazing sun long enough to snatch some sleep, every night less and less cover to hide her trudging figure.
And now, on the return journey, doing it all again but with a sack over her shoulder weighing more than she does herself. But at least her purse is a good deal lighter than it was.
She thinks she isn’t far from the little hamlet she passed on the outward journey. Probably reach it tonight. Won’t go in, of course. Dangerous for her, dangerous for the inhabitants. Keep off the road, keep clear of others. That’s how she’s lived for… too long.
But not much longer. Not much longer.
Her family are safe with Rowan and Will – as safe as they can be until that thing is dead forever.
She knows it’s still weak, still re-forming.
She knows where to find it.
She has a tuning fork to get there.
She has a soul coin to smooth the way.
She has the dragon-scale armour to turn aside the fires of hell.
But first, she has a friend to rescue.
And before that, she has a promise to keep.
She walks on. Out of the Scorching Badlands. Into the fire.
"Sunday… please… if it's you, just tell me something that devil wouldn't know. Just one thing. I hate this. I just want to talk to my friend."
“It’s getting late. You should probably go back to your family. They need you.” Sunday crosses the glade and climbs the mound to stand next to the trunk of the giant willow tree, laying her hand on the rough bark. “I can speed up your journey and put you on the edge of the forest. If you still trust me.”
"I still trust Sunday," says Taffeta sadly. "I just wish I could be sure you're her." And she steps slowly backwards, leaving the peaceful clearing the way she came.
:::ı}|(o)|{ı:::
15 Eleint – Oriloki’s house in the Feythorn Forest
“Easy enough, Mistress Thistletop,” says the bespectacled goliath, the owl tattoo on his shoulder already shifting.
Good evening, Mistress Quick White. Mistress Thistletop would like to know how you are and what you’ve discovered? When should she expect you back?”
Taffeta watches Oriloki’s face nervously as moments pass… many moments...
“I am well, Oriloki-san. I am close to homeland in the East. I have some leads about the Cat Lord. Will talk in a tenday.”
"Excellent! Sounds most productive. It sounds as though you are well? Taffeta was worried. I will continue my research, on her behalf, into Khingo Khan."
"I am quite safe, I think. I need to be careful. I hope Taffeta and her family are fine. Tell her my promise to help stands."
The halfling releases the breath she didn’t realize she was holding in. “Well, that’s good. That’s something. Thank you.”
“You are most welcome, Mistress Thistletop,” Oriloki replies, turning his eyes back down to her from the distant spot they had been gazing toward. “Now, you said you had two requests?”
“Yes. I, uh.” Taffeta looks around. She knows nobody has come in since she arrived, that probably nobody could come in without Oriloki’s permission. And Oriloki answered all her questions about things only he should know. But still, fear and suspicion have become such close companions that she scans the room anyway.
“I need to know about… Phlegethos. And how to get there. And rakshasas and…”
“And?”
“And how to kill them.”
:::ı}|(o)|{ı:::
19 Eleint – somewhere in the Angelbark Wood
The sun’s gone down and the forest is dark and still. As quietly as she can, Taffeta sloughs off the twigs and fallen leaves in which she half-buried herself hours ago. Carefully brushes woodlice off her clothes and shakes spiders out of her boots. Finds her way, largely by instinct and smell and sound, to a small stream to wash off the dirt she covered her face with earlier.
Hide by day, travel by night. That’s how she’s lived for the last… what? Two months? It’s hard to remember.
An owl murmurs in the branches overhead as she eats a breakfast of hard biscuits from her bag, supplemented by foraged berries. Later, if she can find a well-hidden place, maybe she’ll risk a fire and catch and cook a rabbit or a bird.
Rustling. About twenty feet away. She stays very still, listening carefully. Hand on crossbow. There are slow steps passing. Four legs. Upwind of her so it may not she’s there yet. She peers into the darkness until the waning moon briefly outlines the antlers of a young deer stopping to sniff the air. He continues on his way.
Taffeta wraps the remaining berries in a cloth and puts them away in her bag along with the waterskin. Takes out a smooth stone.
“Evening, love. How are you all? I’m fine, still waiting to hear from Oriloki. Keeping on the move. Hug the girls for me.”
“Ma, it’s me today! We’re all okay. Idari’s teaching Carrot to play Old Men’s Bones. We miss you, please come back soon. Happy birthday.”
:::ı}|(o)|{ı:::
27 Eleint – Oriloki’s house
“Taffeta, how much do you care for your friend...?” Oriloki asks.
"What're you – What kind of question is that?" she splutters, then turns to one of the other Oriloki’s – she’s lost track of which is which – and demands, "What's he on about? What's going on?"
“Mistress Quick White seems to have found herself in a spot of bother,” answers the first Oriloki. Or possibly the third, if they moved around while she was facing the other way. “I’m not sure why she went back home to Wa, but it seems while there she was tempted into losing control. She is now trapped on an island of devils. You know when the Gilded Mirror gets really busy and Leocanto operates a one-in, one-out policy?”
"Not really, I don't go there much. Is that a gambling thing?"
“When it gets too busy there’s not much space for customers. So a new customer has to wait for someone inside the place to leave before they can enter.”
Taffeta looks up in bafflement and distress at one Oriloki and then another. "Wha–? Fine, but... Are you saying Paw's waiting to get into a... a devil casino?"
“No, I’m trying to explain how Paw became trapped on the island and how one can rescue her. Her being trapped on the island means a devil has got out into the world. To free Paw, one must trap a devil on the island. Balance, you see?”
"Oh! Like a trade? We take a devil there, they let Paw go?"
“I don’t know if it will be as amicable as that, but that’s the gist, certainly! A devil may not even need to be brought there in the way you might bring a gift to a party - just trapped there in her place.”
"Okay. Right. Trap a devil there." Her fingers, nervously fiddling with the thick plait of hair resting on her shoulder, finds a twig tangled there.
“Mayhaps you could persuade one of the many recent influx of Tieflings from Port Ffirst to accompany you and leave them there? Ah Mr Mace or a Mr Hogg? Aha just my little joke.” Taffeta doesn’t laugh. “This is all guesswork,” another Oriloki continues. “Mistress Quick White was understandably none too clear given her circumstances. Also this island is long thought a myth. I will need to research further back at my old school if I am to furnish you with more useful information. But I feel quite confident in my conclusions.”
"All right. Okay. Thank you. Do you – do you know how to trap a devil? I've... killed one, sort of. And I've trapped animals of course. But..."
“I can trap almost anything - you may recall use of an arcane cage? But I can certainly ascertain a more fiend-specific method now I know more about the isle”
"So you'll come? To help Paw?"
“I shall certainly offer whatever aid is within my power and remit to provide. I shall have to check with my superiors about any active engagement in such a risky undertaking, of course.”
Having extracted the twig from her hair, Taffeta is about to set it on the table when she notices Oriloki – one of the Orilokis who aren’t speaking – looking at her hand, his eyebrow twitching slightly. She withdraws her hand and puts it in her lap, still holding the twig. “Let me get to Waterdeep,” continues the other Oriloki, “and I’ll be able to say more accurately how long. Will you be staying in the vicinity? I can contact you within an instant of my return.”
"I'm not sure... I may be around, I may be travelling. I'll be near here for a few days at least."
“Of course. Whatever you wish. My mansion is open to you if you need it. Just please do vacate the premises if and when asked so it can be rebuilt momentarily.”
"Oh no, thank you, no, I won't stay here,” she says, glancing nervously at the Oriloki who is still watching the twig in her hand. “But I won't be far off. You'll do that mind-thing to tell me when you're back?"
“Sending, it is called - and most assuredly.”
:::ı}|(o)|{ı:::
29 Eleint – outside the Djinn & Tonic in Daring Heights
The area is dark except for the hazy, billowing glow coming through the shuttered windows and under the closed door of the caravan. This is the second day Taffeta has watched the Djinn & Tonic from a hidden place in the roadside shrubs.
Scout first, arrive later. That’s how she’s lived for… however long it’s been.
The caravan isn’t in quite the same place it was when she first visited it, three years ago. Just a few days after moving to Daring Heights. A few days after travelling to a completely different continent – she, who’d never been more than two days’ travel from where she was born before – suddenly she was meeting a djinni and going to a completely different plane to help him. Because that seemed to be what people did here.
When it’s late enough that night has properly settled in, but not as late as it was last night when the light in the caravan finally went dim, she creeps over and climbs the few steps to the brightly painted door, and knocks. The door swings open, revealing the impossibly spacious interior of the establishment.
Seeing a new guest enter, the red-eyed elemental excuses himself from a group of Aarakocra who are sitting on cushions around a low table. As he approaches Taffeta, she holds up a hand to signal him to stop a few feet from her. “Hello Ka’sam, do you remember me? How we first met?”
“My dear Taffeta, I never forget a face, or a favour! When I first arrived in Daring Heights I was looking for help to find and rescue my sister, from the tale I was told afterwards it was quite the adventure - The Dao’s Crystal Garden.”
When I first arrived in Daring Heights – yes! She’d forgotten that part! The caravan had suddenly appeared from nowhere just a few days before. She’d volunteered to help Captain Thundercog test the siege defences but nobody else turned up so the captain suggested she go to the Ettin to see what else she could help with, and there she found some locals getting ready to check out the mysterious vehicle: Barden, Dûm Bah, Seraphina, Aramin… Nowhere…
She’s never thought about it before, but it strikes her now that Ka’sam and his sumptuous dimension-defying home on wheels must have arrived in Daring about the same time she and her household trundled through the portal in their overstuffed wagon. Each trying to help their family. And she helped his, and now it’s time for him to help hers.
Feeling a little calmed by this thought, she replies, "Good. Yes. Well it's about that favour I've come - if I’m not disturbing you?"
Ka’sam dismisses the thought, “Not at all - how can I be of service to you tonight?”
:::ı}|(o)|{ı:::
Highharvesttide – Oriloki’s house
“So, what did you find out?” she asks after satisfying herself, in the usual way, that her host is who he seems to be.
“Paw appears to be trapped on the Isle of Devils,” Oriloki replies. She knows he’s irritated by her bluntness and she strongly suspects that he not only wants her to know it, but also wants her to notice how graciously he is choosing not to mention it. “I have a way to get people there. It seems Paw visited the Order in Waterdeep to research the Cat Lord and some fanatical death cult in Wa. She was accompanied by an unknown Monk. Together they persuaded a low-ranking archivist to let them look at some secret files. This set off alarms and they fled. The Order would like me to track them down and find out what happened, and deal with any dangers arising from this.”
“Oh, Paw, what you got yourself into?” mutters Taffeta to herself. “Okay, mister, sounds like you and I are heading the same way. You reckon we’ll need any help?”
“Mmm, I’m not yet entirely sure I’ll be joining you on the actual voyage. But safety in numbers is certainly a thing I’d recommend. I can post some notices in Daring Heights and Port Ffirst?”
“All right. Thanks. When do we go?”
“I’ve some business to attend to in the coming tenday; perhaps after that?” He sees her frown. “I believe she is safe; merely stuck.”
Taffeta doesn’t stop frowning, but nods. “Okay. Well. Soon as you can.”
:::ı}|(o)|{ı:::
1 Marpenoth – outside the Order of the Crimson Fist barracks in Daring Heights
The soul coin keeps whispering in her mind. She doesn’t like it. Oriloki didn’t tell her it would do that when he suggested she try to find some, and Ka’sam didn’t tell her when he gave her this one.
She can’t ‘hear’ it as much now it’s in her magic bag but it’s still distracting. Which is not what you need when you have to be absolutely alert and straining all your senses for danger, like now. And later. And yesterday, and tomorrow, and…
She feels the exhaustion trying to drag her down but she clenches her fists hard and focuses again on the barracks gate across the road from her hiding place.
This is a visit she hasn’t been looking forward to. But they went to Sigil to get information about the rakshasa – against her wishes, against Sunday’s promise, but they went – and she needs to know what they found. And she can’t ask Sunday, or whoever is at Big Willow pretending to be Sunday.
And anyway… she doesn’t like to admit it but if what Varis and Daisy are right, then she needs help. If the rakshasa is a threat to everybody and not just to her and her family, then she can’t keep hiding and waiting. She has to kill it. Who else can she ask to help her with something like that? Daisy, yes, and maybe Pieni, but the three of them can’t do it alone. Paw’s trapped on the Isle of Devils, whatever that is. Sunday’s… like that. Nobody knows what’s happened to Zmee. Tugark’s at the bottom of the ocean. Dorian… she still isn’t sure she trusts Dorian, and anyway she isn’t sure he’s even still around. Barden… she hasn’t seen Barden since last winter, no idea where he’s gone. Who else? Who’s left?
She straightens her back and steps quietly out of the shadowed alley into the quarter-moon’s dim light. Maybe Varis will be gone, or asleep, by Tymora’s favour. Maybe she can just find Baine. She feels sorry to draw him into all this; he’s so young. But he’s strong and brave and his heart’s in the right place, more or less, and he can tell Varis what’s to be done. Slip in, find Baine. Find out what they learned in Sigil. Tell what she’s learned from Oriloki and Ka’sam. Say she’ll help with their fiend if they’ll help with the rakshasa. Find out whether they need her to pick up anything for them in Kundar. Leave. Back into the night, back into the trees.
Right.
She steps up to the wall of the compound, looks quickly around her, and blurs through the red stonework into the training yard beyond.
:::ı}|(o)|{ı:::
9 Marpenoth – somewhere north of Storn’s Hollow
Even at night it’s warm here.
Her first time in Kundar was in winter, and she came and left by teleportation. This time it was four or five days on foot – she lost count – first through grass and low hills, then dry and dusty plains and scrub. Every morning harder and harder to find a place to conceal herself, every day harder and harder to keep out of the blazing sun long enough to snatch some sleep, every night less and less cover to hide her trudging figure.
And now, on the return journey, doing it all again but with a sack over her shoulder weighing more than she does herself. But at least her purse is a good deal lighter than it was.
She thinks she isn’t far from the little hamlet she passed on the outward journey. Probably reach it tonight. Won’t go in, of course. Dangerous for her, dangerous for the inhabitants. Keep off the road, keep clear of others. That’s how she’s lived for… too long.
But not much longer. Not much longer.
Her family are safe with Rowan and Will – as safe as they can be until that thing is dead forever.
She knows it’s still weak, still re-forming.
She knows where to find it.
She has a tuning fork to get there.
She has a soul coin to smooth the way.
She has the dragon-scale armour to turn aside the fires of hell.
But first, she has a friend to rescue.
And before that, she has a promise to keep.
She walks on. Out of the Scorching Badlands. Into the fire.
