Victor Milan - The Nobles 02 - War In Tethys

War In Tethyr

Book 2 of the Nobles series

A Forgotten Realms novel

by Victor Milan

A ProofPack release

Proofed and formatted by BW-SciFi

Ebook version 1.0

Release Date: January, 24th, 2005

"Who dares impede the return of the Countess Morninggold to her home?" Zaranda called in a clear

voice.

The whispering from beyond the barricade rose to a crescendo. A commotion came from the branches

of the tree, and with a certain amount of crackling and rustling, a small figure appeared, crawling between

dead branches. Once clear, it paused to haul forth a glaive-guisarme fully thrice its own length, then hopped

erect with more swagger than conviction to confront Zaranda.

"We represent an autonomous collective of demi-humans of diminutive stature," the apparition

announced in the deepest voice it could muster. Diminutive was right. He was no more than three feet tall

and wore a morion helmet easily three sizes too large and a brigandine corselet that came down almost to

the hair on the tops of his feet. "We demand toll of all who would pass this way."

Halflings...

War in Tethyr

Victor Milan

WAR IN TETHYR

All characters in this book are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

All TSR characters, character names, and the distinct likenesses thereof are trade-marks owned by TSR, Inc.

This book is protected under the copyright laws of the United States of America. Any reproduction or other

unauthorized use of the material or artwork herein is prohibited without the express written permission of TSR, Inc.

Random House and its affiliate companies have worldwide distribution rights in the book trade for English language

products of TSR, Inc.

Distributed to the book and hobby trade in the United Kingdom by TSR Ltd.

Distributed to the toy and hobby trade by regional distributors.

FORGOTTEN REALMS is a registered trademark owned by TSR, Inc. The TSR logo is a trademark owned by TSR, Inc.

Cover art by Walter Velez.

First Printing: October 1995

Printed in the United States of America

Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 94-68154

987654321

ISBN: 0-7869-0184-5

TSR, Inc. TSR Ltd.

201 Sheridan Springs Rd. 120 Church End, Cherry Hinton

Lake Geneva, WI53147 Cambridge CB1 3LB

U.S.A. United Kingdom

To the memory of Roger Zelazny

Prologue

Night Wings

She sleeps, and as so often, dreams of flight.

First comes the unfolding. She seems to open outward from herself, like a piece of paper folded

to a small packet, expanding, becoming greater, becoming other, in a way she cannot comprehend.

A moment poised between exaltation and uncertainty, and then she flies, rising into a sky full of

stars, her wingbeats sure as a swimmer's strokes. High, and higher she rises, until the narrow grimy

streets and al-leys, the city itself, are no more than shabby toys beneath her. Beyond its walls

stretches the level countryside, black and silver and soft in starlight.

She soars above neat peasant cots, their fields and or-chards laid out with mathematical

precision like sym-bols on a wizard's scroll. Over stream and keep and sleeping herd she passes,

high and silent and unseen.

She knows two feelings strange to her in waking life: freedom and power. She can fly where she

pleases, and no one can say her nay—and she senses, somehow, that her power goes beyond the

ability to burst gravity's bonds. The sensations fill her with an almost terrible ex-hilaration.

Yet even as she begins to realize and exult in those unfamiliar feelings, she is gripped by an

awful unseen power that cancels both. Down she is drawn, and down, helpless now, plummeting into

a black chasm that yawns in the earth itself, into a pit filled with darkness, the impression of waving

tentacles blacker than despair, and a multitude of red-glowing eyes. A voice from below whispers

sibilant obscenities in her ears.

She screams, but her screams are as futile as her struggle and, screaming, she falls. . . .

* * * * *

The jarring impact to her ribs came like salvation.

"Up, Scab," the stable owner said. "You were riding abroad on night's mare, and your caterwauling riled

me steeds. Up now; time to be feeding, anyhow."

She nodded, not trusting her voice. The stable owner turned and shuffled off, dragging a foot lamed in

some forgotten skirmish. The land of Tethyr was plentifully supplied with those.

She felt her ribs through the dirty, ragged smock she wore. No damage done; the kick had not been that

hard. The stable owner was no brutal man, nor even a hard one, intentionally. But he had been raised to

hard times, and hard ways, and knew none other.

At least he didn't try to become familiar with her. She was overyoung, by Tethyrian standards, though

not everyone was deterred by the fact. Likely as not, he didn't realize she was female. Her face was

generally obscured beneath grime and matted masses of dark red hair, and there was nothing of her

rag-wrapped scare-crow frame to suggest that she was a girl in her early teens rather than a boy.

There was a handspan of open space between the brick walls of the stable and the eaves, to allow air to

circulate in the stifling Zazesspurian summer. The slice of sky she could see had gone dawning purple,

stained with the faintest of pinks. A night bird fluttered past the opening, or perhaps a bat, returning to its

roost to sleep the day away. She felt a twinge of fear and long-ing.

The tasks she must perform in return for a few crusts of bread and lodging in a vacant stall were not

demanding: she must feed and water the horses, muck their stalls, brush them and comb their manes. Then

she would be on her own through the heart of the day, free—as free as she got in waking hours—to

continue her search for some wizard to accept her offer of apprenticeship.

If my reputation hasn't spread too far.

She picked herself up and felt her side again. The soreness was fading quickly. The hunger pangs that

gnawed her every waking hour like a rat in her belly were already stronger. She tottered off to the pump

be-tween stalls redolent of horse-sweat and hay and ma-nure, on legs that seemed to have atrophied from

dreams of flight.

Part I

Astronomy Domine

1

The golden mare tossed her long white mane and said, "I sense trouble ahead, Randi Star."

The woman who sat astride her in a high-cantled Calimshite saddle frowned. "Of course you do," she

said. "We're about to enter Tethyr. And don't call me 'Randi.' It's far too young a name for me."

The mare flared her nostrils and produced a ladylike snort. The slow sound of her hooves rebounded

from natural walls of dark granite, lichen-splashed and for-bidding, so high that, although it was midmorning,

the day's first sunlight had yet to spill farther than halfway down them. Playing around their ears like

schools of fish were the hoofbeats of burden beasts and outriders' mounts, the jingle-jangle of harnesses,

the calls of the muleteers, all muted as the caravan wound through the secret pass across the Snowflake

Mountains.

They were bound for Zazesspur on the Sword Coast, a city of fabled wealth and intrigue; the years of

trou-bles had, in truth, little scratched its wealth and done nothing at all to diminish its intrigues. The

caravan's hundred mules were laden with luxury goods, wizardry supplies of nonmagical nature, and

specialty items for Zazesspur's demanding craftsmen, but the core of the profit Zaranda planned to realize

on this expedition was a handful of rare and immensely potent magic ob-jects.

At that, the caravan and its riches—deceptively great for its size and unassuming appearance—were

merely a facet of Zaranda Star's complex scheme to re-tire her debts, and then just retire.

The mare, whose name was Golden Dawn, abruptly twitched her long, well-shaped ears and laid them

back along her neck. From behind, one set of hoof noises de-tached itself from the rest and grew louder.

"Behave, Goldie," Zaranda hissed under her breath.

"Our fat father needs to wash his ass," the mare replied quietly. "The bandy-legged little brute stinks

abominably."

"I think Father Pelletyr regards the smell as some-thing of a penance."

"The best kind," the mare said. "That which doesn't interfere with stuffing his belly."

The ass in question drew alongside, trotting to keep up with the longer-legged mare's walking stride.

Zaranda Star twitched a nose that, while still long and fine, had been broken once in the past, and reset ever

so slightly askew. The beast's rank smell made itself apparent even over sun-heated rock and the stink of

man- and beast-sweat, leather and weapon-oil from the caravan behind. In truth, the priest's mount could

have been kept cleaner. But the father had a wondrous way with healing magics, and for one in Zaranda's

line of business, that counted for much.

"Ah, Zaranda, child," said the priest. "How much far-ther through these beastly mountains, do you

think?"

She laughed. She had a good laugh, and strong, white teeth to laugh with, though she often thought her

lips were on the thin side. There were even those who had thought them cruel, but most such had been

ill-in-tentioned to start with.

"Many hard years have passed since I've been a child, Father," she said. "And in answer to your

ques-tion, not much farther at all."

"That's good to hear. The men and beasts are suffer-ing in this heat." In truth, the day's heat had filled

the chasm much more quickly than its light had.

"You're suffering, you mean," Goldie said. "You'd be best advised to go easy on the elf-bread, Father."

She gave him a meaningful sidelong look. The father was a man of substance, much of which was

rhythmi-cally jiggling inside a threadbare gray robe. He had a big florid face with a prominent nose and

white hair ra-diating like the petals of half a sunflower from around the ample tonsure Nature had granted

him, atop which was perched a gray skullcap, now mottled with sweat. A golden pendant bearing the

bound-hands symbol of Ilmater hung around his neck by a strand of thumb-thick duskwood beads.

He made a mournful face. "Ah," he said, "surely such a noble beast as yourself would not begrudge a

mendi-cant servant of Ilmater the modest pleasures of his table?" He had never entirely adjusted to the idea

of conversing with an apparently normal mare, but then Faerun was a realm of wonder, and Ilmater a

tolerant god.

"Of course not," Goldie said in a honeyed tone that instantly made Zaranda's eyes narrow. "But still, I

can-not help thinking of the burden on your poor mount's legs."

Father Pelletyr's face collapsed like a souffle in an oven around which an ettin has just commenced a

drunken clog dance. He began to fiddle with his beads and cast guilty downward looks at his ass. In so

doing he neglected to keep switching at her flanks with the little fir bough he carried for the purpose, and

the beast fell behind the longer-legged mare.

"Goldie!" Zaranda said sotto voce. "Now you've made the poor man feel guilty."

"Can I help it if he's oversensitive?"

The priest caught them up again. The trail had begun to wend downward. Ahead, it bent right, around a

knee of granite with a twisted scrub-cedar perched on its top.

"Was it really needful," he asked in mournful tones, "to take such a strange and circuitous route? Surely

there are easier roads into Tethyr."

It was a fair question. The secret path through the mountains had been rife with precipices and

rockslides. At a higher elevation, an avalanche had swept two mules and their packs away, but no men had

been lost, and the loss of goods had been minimal. Withal, the mountain crossing had been much easier than

what Zaranda and her companions had gone through to get the most valuable of the goods they carried.

"Surely there are," she replied, "and in consequence they're better attended by bandits and marauders of

every stripe. I'm a merchant, Father. Trading away danger for discomfort strikes me as a favorable

bargain."

"But surely—oh, dear."

This last was directed down the trail. Zaranda and the Ilmater priest had come around the granite knee

to where they could see the end of the narrow defile, open-ing onto foothills rolling quickly away to the flat

green landscape of Tethyr.

The way was blocked by heaps of boulders, one to each side, and between them a dead fir sapling lay

across the path as a barricade. Behind the barrier sev-eral polearms could be seen waving tentatively, like

metal-tipped branches.

"Oh, no," Goldie said. "Not another adventure."

Reins and fir branch alike dropped from Father Pel-letyr's hands. Like most of Ilmater's ilk, he was no

fighting priest. With plump fingers, he began to fumble at his medallion.

"O Holy Ilmater, O Crying God, Succorer of Tyr the Blinded God, who suffered for us upon the rack,

friend to the oppressed, aid us your children now—"

From behind his little ass came the crunch of weighty hooves on granite pebbles. The little beast

scrambled to the side of the path with an agility that be-lied its burden to avoid being shouldered out of the

way by a rangy blood-bay gelding.

The gelding's rider, like the horse itself, was tall and spare, with long muscles that seemed to have been

carved of oak and weathered dark. He wore a leather tunic laced up the front with a rawhide thong,

trousers of muted leaf-green, knee-high boots of soft doeskin with fringed tops turned down. Across his

back was slung a quiver and a strung longbow. His right forearm was encased in a leather armlet. Guiding

his horse with his knees, the tall man touched the priest's arm gently with his left hand, while his right traced

the elven signs for Bide, Father. Father Pelletyr nodded, swallowed, and interrupted his prayer. The

newcomer gave him a grim smile.

It was the only kind of smile he was equipped for. He was handsome in a heavy-browed, brooding way,

with long black hair bound at his nape, a broad jaw shad-owed with stubble the sharpest razor could prune

but never clear, brown eyes dark as the woods around the Standing Stone of the Dalelands. He carried the

twin messages of serenity and menace.

With the silent man at her elbow, Zaranda rode to the barricade and stopped. Goldie tossed her head and

danced a bit to let her rider know she was not happy. Ignoring her, Zaranda dismounted and strode forward,

glad of the chance to stretch her longs legs; unlike most folk who, like Father Pelletyr, favored their ease,

Zaranda preferred to be in motion, working the muscles of her lithe, pantherish body. The tall dark man

fol-lowed, unslinging his longbow.

Zaranda stopped ten feet shy of the abatis and stood to her full height, which was considerable—greater

than that of most human men of Faerun. The wind off the Tethyr plains stirred in her hair, which was dark,

a brown that was almost black save for a blaze of white over her right brow. It was a heavy, unruly mane,

cur-rently caught up in a simple bun in back and hanging square-cut before. The white hairs of the blaze

refused to be tamed and tended to stand up in a lick. She had a long-boned athletic frame that spoke of

power, grace, and resilience, much in the way of the yew longbow her ranger companion carried.

Her face she would have called handsome and most others beautiful despite the broken nose. Her

beauty was of the worn sort that resulted from seeing more of the world than was good for her.

For a span of heartbeats she simply stood. From be-hind the barrier came a twitter of small voices.

With a certain ostentation, she adjusted the saber she wore across her back, hilt projecting above her

right shoulder for easy access, then dropped hands to hips. At last she deigned to speak.

"Who dares impede the return of the Countess Morn-inggold to her home?" she called in a clear voice.

The whispering from beyond the barricade rose to a crescendo. A commotion came from the branches

of the tree, and with a certain amount of crackling and rustling, a small figure appeared, crawling between

dead branches. Once clear it paused to haul forth a glaive-guisarme fully thrice its own length, then hopped

erect with more swagger than conviction to con-front Zaranda.

"We represent an autonomous collective of demi-humans of diminutive stature," the apparition

an-nounced in the deepest voice it could muster. It was a halfling male, no more than three feet tall,

wearing a morion helmet easily three sizes too large and a brigan-dine corselet that came down almost to

the hair on the tops of his feet. "We demand toll of all who would pass this way."

The morion spoiled the effect by slipping abruptly down, covering his face to his snub nose. Goldie

pawed the earth and whickered laughter. The halfling pushed up the helmet and looked aggrieved.

A half dozen other halflings had clambered up in the branches on the abatis's far side, or onto the piles

of boulders, to observe the proceedings from relative safety. Like the spokesman, they were all got up in a

parody of brigands.

"Do you maintain this road?" Zaranda asked.

Carefully holding his helmet in place, the halfling blinked innocent blue eyes at her. "No," he admitted.

"Then by what right do you demand toll?"

This provoked another flurry of conversation in the piping halfling tongue instead of the accented

Common the spokesman used with Zaranda; though most hu-manoids in Tethyr spoke Common, few would

consent to do so without a heavy dose of regional or racial ac-cent, to prove they weren't that familiar with

it. Zaranda had a smattering of Halfling, and could have followed the conversation had she chosen to do so.

"Because we're an autonomous collective," one of the onlookers finally said. The spokesman turned

back to her with renewed purpose.

"Because we're an autonomous collective," he said.

"So?" Goldie asked.

The halfling goggled at her. "It talks!"

"Bites, too." Goldie stretched her fine arched neck and with a considerable display of teeth pulled up a

clump of tough trail grass . "Best mind your manners," she added, munching significantly.

Zaranda noted that the watchers in the gallery kept casting covert glances to the sheer heights above;

the cliffs dropped a hundred sheer feet before they gave way abruptly to foothills.

One of the spectators, clearly dissatisfied with the spokesman's polemical talents, called out, "This road

belongs to the people."

Zaranda flashed a smile. It was a smile with consid-erable flash to it, too, which smoothed away the

years and the cares and made her seem a maiden girl again. When she wasn't angry.

"Just so," she said. "And we're people, aren't we?"

The halflings blinked at her.

From behind strode, or rather waddled, Father Pel-letyr. Even a noncombatant clerk of Ilmater had a

hard time taking this lot as a serious threat. All the same, he held his holy symbol prominently out before

him. Half-lings were reputed to have a wicked way with stones of the slung or flung varieties.

"Let us remain calm, my children," he said in a sonorous and only ever-so-slightly quavering voice.

Zaranda had to remind herself that in fiend-haunted Thay of the Red Wizards, not so very long before, she

had seen this man face rank upon rank of ghouls and animated skeletons without flinching, and make mighty

specters flee his wrath. The father was a man of enormous and sincere piety, and, well, death to the

undead. It was living threats he could use some stiffening on. "Surely we can settle this matter in amicable

wise."

"Surely we can, Father," Zaranda said.

"Pay us!" several halflings offered helpfully.

"And while it goes against my principles as a mer-chant to pay tribute to casual banditti on the high road,

I was about to ask my comrade-in-arms, here, to pro-vide an entertainment to our hosts. Stillhawk?"

Quick as thought, the dark man had an arrow from his quiver and nocked. He aimed his longbow

skyward, scarcely drew back the strength. Yet when he released, the shaft shot a good two hundred yards

straight up to-ward the puffy white cumulus mounds overhead.

When it reached the top of its trajectory and fell sideways to begin its return to earth, Stillhawk's

sec-ond shot struck its shaft in the middle and transfixed it. The conjoined arrows fell to ground not a score

of feet from Zaranda.

The halflings goggled. "Is that not an elven bow?" one asked in wonder.

"That is indeed an elven bow," Zaranda replied. Stillhawk walked over to retrieve his arrows. His

soft-booted feet scarce made impressions on the earth. "Made for him by the elves of the Elven Woods,

who raised him and taught him archery."

The dark man plucked the razor-edged broad head from the shaft, licked the ash-wood arrow lightly, and

ran a scarred thumb across it. When it passed the arrow-head, the split shaft was mended.

"And sundry minor magics as well," Zaranda added. "Kindly forgive my answering for him. He cannot

speak; an orcish raiding party cut out his tongue when he was a boy."

Stillhawk nodded in satisfaction and returned both arrows to his quiver. The halflings made oohing

sounds.

"Wasn't that nice?" Father Pelletyr said, beaming. "Now, if you splendid little fellows could pull this tree

aside—"

The spokesman began to sidle and roll his eyes at the heights. "Well, with all respect due a man of the

cloth, Father, it ain't perhaps so simple as that. No, not at all."

Zaranda stuck two fingers in her mouth and whistled.

Something arced out from the top of the cliff, some-thing round and initially dark against the clouds. It

showed a glint of metal in the sun as it fell, rebounded from a rock with a clang, and rolled until it almost

touched the tips of the spokesman's hairy toes.

It was a helmet. He gaped at it in dismay.

"Don't fear, my friend," Zaranda said. "Your com-rade's head is not within. Your fellows above are as

safe as if they were home hiding behind their mothers' skirts. But they won't be pelting us with boulders

from above."

The halflings stared upward. A figure appeared, leaning precariously out over the rim, and gave them a

jaunty wave of his hat.

"Permit me to introduce the noted bard Farlorn Half-Elven," Zaranda said. "A man whose skills go quite

beyond his gift for the making and playing of songs. Now, if you'd be so kind as to remove this barrier,

gentlefolk, you and ourselves might be about our re-spective businesses in peace."

Victor Milan - The Nobles 02 - War In Tethys

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