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to enjoy it.
Enjoyable, too, was the murderous rage, barely contained, in the Red Wizard's
eyes.
Xandra entertained herself with fantasies of seeing that wrath unleashed upon
her Baenre fosterling.
At last, the long-anticipated day was nearly at hand.
"You have learned well," the Mistress began. "Soon you will have a chance to
test your newfound skills. Succeed, and the reward will be great."
The drow plucked a tiny golden key from her bodice and held it high. She
cocked her head to one side and sent the Red Wizard a cold, taunting smile.
Mulander's eyes widened with realization, then gleamed with an emotion
that went far beyond greed. His intense, hungry gaze followed the
key as
Xandra slowly lowered it and tucked it back into its intimate hiding place.
"I see that you understand what this is. Would you like to know what you must
do to earn it?" she asked coyly.
A shudder of revulsion shimmered down the Red Wizard's spine. He
fervently hoped that his flowing robes hid his instinctive-and potentially
fatal- response. He knew immediately that it had not, Xandra's smile
widened and grew mocking.
"Not this time, dear Mulander," she purred. "I have another sort of adventure
in mind for you."
The Mistress quickly described the rite of the Blooding, the ritual hunt
that each young elf was required to undergo before being accounted a true
drow. Mulander listened with growing dismay.
"And I am to be this prey," he said in a dazed tone.
Anger flashed in Xandra's eyes like crimson fire. "Do not be a fool! You must
prevail! Would I have gone to such trouble and expense otherwise?"
"A spell battle," he muttered, beginning to understand. "You have been
preparing me for a spell battle! And the spells you have taught me?"
"They represent all the offensive spells your young opponent knows, as
well as the appropriate counter-spells." Xandra leaned forward, and her
face was deadly serious. "You will not see me again.
You will have a new tutor for perhaps thirty cycles of Narbondel. A battle
wizard. He will work with you daily and instruct you in the tactics of drow
warfare. Learn all he has to teach during the course of this session."
"For he will not live to give another lesson," Mulander reasoned.
Xandra smiled. "How astute. For a human, you possess a most promising streak
of duplicity! But you are among drow, and you have much to learn about
subtlety and treachery."
The wizard bristled. "We in Thay are no strangers to treachery! No wizard
could survive to my age, much less reach my position, without such skills!"
"Really?" The drow's voiced dripped with sarcasm. "If that is the case, then
how did you come to be here?"
Mulander responded only with a sullen glare, but the Mistress of Magic did not
seem to require an answer. "You possess a great deal of very interesting
magic," she said, complimenting him. "More than I
would have guessed a human capable of wielding, and judging from your pride,
more than most of your peers have achieved. How, then, could you have
been overcome and sold into slavery, but by treachery?"
Not waiting for a response, Xandra rose from her chair. "These are the terms I
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ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
offer you," she said, her manner suddenly all business. "At the proper time,
you will be taken into the wild tunnels surrounding this city-as part of your
preparations, you will be given a map of the area to commit to memory. There
you will confront a fledgling wizard, a drow female marked by her golden eyes.
She will carry the key that will release you from that collar. You must defeat
her in spell battle-do whatever you must to ensure that she does not survive.
"You may then take the key from her body, and go wheresoever you will. The
girl will be alone, and you will not be pursued. It may be that you can find
your way to the Lands of Light-if indeed there is still a place for you there.
If not, with the spells I have taught you, as well as the return of your own
death magic, you should be able to live and thrive Below."
Mulander listened stoically, carefully masking the sudden bright surge of hope
that the drow's words awoke in his heart. For all he knew, this could be an
elaborate trap, and he refused to display his elation for this wretched
female's amusement.
Or did she perhaps expect him to show fear?
If that was the case, she would also be disappointed. He knew none. The Red
Wizard did not for one moment doubt the outcome of this contest, for he knew
the full measure of his powers, even if
Xandra Shobalar did not.
He was more than capable of defeating an elven girl in spell battle-he would
kill the little wench and set himself up in some hidden cavern of this
underground world, a place surrounded by magics of warding and
misdirection that would keep even the powerful dark elves from his door.
This he would do, for the Shobalar wizard was right about one thing-there was
no welcome awaiting
Mulander in Thay, and no welcome for Red Wizards in any land other than Thay.
Another of Xandra's thrusts had found its mark, as well: he had indeed been
undone through treachery. Mulander had been betrayed by his young
apprentice, as he himself had betrayed his own master. It occurred
to him, suddenly, to wonder what treachery Xandra's young prodigy might have
in store for her mistress!
"You are smiling," the drow observed. "My terms are to your liking?"
"Very much so," Mulander said, thinking it prudent to keep his fantasies to
himself.
"Then let me add to your enjoyment," Xandra said softly. She advanced upon the
man and reached up to place one slim black hand against his jaw. His
instinctive flinch, and his effort to disguise the response, seemed to
amuse her. She swayed closer, her slim body just barely brushing against his
robes.
Her crimson eyes burned up into his, and Mulander felt a tendril of compelling
magic creep into his mind.
"Tell me truly, Mulander," she said-and her words were mocking, for they both
knew that the spell she cast upon him would allow him to speak nothing but
truth. "Do you hate me so very much?"
Mulander held her gaze. "With all my soul!" he vowed, with more passion than
he had ever before displayed-more than he knew he possessed.
"Good," Xandra breathed. She raised both arms high and clasped her hands
behind his neck, then she floated upward until her eyes were on a level with
the much taller man. "Then remember my face as you hunt the girl, and remember
this." [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]