“I am sorry for the trouble I’ve caused, but I promise you this: Release my friends and me, and I’ll never set foot in Cormanthor again. Or allow us to go our way now, and I’ll return to face your judgment when Hulburg is no longer in peril. If you can’t release me, then at least release Hamil and Sarth, and let them finish my errand for me. I led them to the Irithlium; it’s my fault that they broke Myth Drannor’s law.” He met her eyes, hoping that she could see the sincerity in his words. “Please, don’t delay us here.”
Noble of you, but I don’t care for the idea of whistling up Aesperus without you around, Hamil observed. You’re the one he bargained with, and I think he keeps track of things like that.
“It is not as simple as that, I fear.” Ilsevele sighed. “If matters were truly so desperate, you should have sent word to me. Some arrangement might have been possible. Now, my hands are tied.”
Geran fell silent. He hadn’t really thought it would be as simple as asking, but he had to try. As he searched for another argument, Sarth cleared his throat and spoke. “I am not familiar with your customs, my lady,” he said to Ilsevele. “What is to be our fate?”
“Our Council of Justice will deliberate on that when next they meet,” the coronal answered. “That will be on Greengrass. You and Master Hamil will likely be sentenced to a year and a day of service in restitution for your offense. Geran’s fate is more problematic.”
Sarth gave Geran a sidelong glance, but said nothing more. Greengrass was a little more than two months away; even if they were released with nothing more than a stern warning, they’d miss Kara’s march against Marstel’s soldiers.
“Is there anything else?” Ilsevele asked. Geran stopped himself from trying once more to beg for release; it would only annoy her even more. The coronal nodded to the guards and left, leading her small entourage down the stairs again. The heavy door at the base of the stairs clanged shut and locked.
“What do you know about this Council of Justice, Geran?” Hamil said. “Are they likely to be reasonable? Can they be bribed?”
Geran shook his head. “It’s hard to say. I’ll have friends on the council. I’ll have enemies too. I would guess that the Disarnnyls and their allies are more than a little embarrassed by Rhovann’s actions. I doubt they like being reminded of the dishonor he’s brought on their House, and they may judge me accordingly.”
“So we just wait?” the halfling demanded.
“What else can we do?” the swordmage answered. He returned to his bunk and stretched out, trying to imagine some ploy or stratagem that might win back their freedom, but nothing came to him.
Two nights later, Geran was lying awake, still brooding over the impossible situation, when a stealthy footfall on the steps outside their cell caught his attention. He sat up quickly, peering into the gloom; it was not completely beyond possibility that the Disarnnyls or some other rival from his days in Ilsevele’s service might strike at him while he was held in the coronal’s tower. But he saw only a slender gray-cloaked figure stealing softly into the chamber. The visitor hesitated a moment, as if uncertain whether or not to go any farther. Geran glanced across the cell; both Sarth and Hamil were asleep. Slowly he swung his feet to the floor and stood up. “Who’s there?” he called softly into the shadows.
The visitor did not answer at first. But then she approached the bars, pushing back her hood to reveal long hair of raven black and eyes that gleamed a rich violet hue in the dim light. “It is I, Alliere,” she whispered in Elvish.
“Alliere?” Geran repeated in amazement. She was the last person he would have expected to call on him during his imprisonment. After all, he’d been certain that she would never wish to lay eyes on him again, but here she was. He’d forgotten how beautiful she was; her fine, delicate features were simply flawless, and her eyes were entrancing. In fact, she looked exactly the same as the last time he’d seen her, but that was no surprise-a couple of years were nothing to one of the Fair Folk. He moved to the cell door, gripping the iron bars in his fists. He slipped back into Elvish without even realizing it. “What are you doing here?”
“I wanted to see you. We never spoke before you had to leave Myth Drannor. That was my doing, and I’ve come to regret it.”
He shook his head in the darkness. “It might have been for the best,” he said softly. Losing Myth Drannor had been hard, but losing Alliere had almost destroyed him. Before he’d returned to Hulburg, he would have done anything to see Alliere again and beg her to come away with him into his exile. Now he realized that perhaps fate had been kind to separate him from her so completely and quickly. The wound to his heart had been swift, giving him time to begin his healing. If he’d had some reason to cling to the idea that they might be together again, he never would have been able to leave her behind-or find another heart as dear to him as hers.
She looked down at the floor. “Still, you deserved better of me. Words of parting, at the very least, but I could not bring myself to face you.”
“It was never my intention to hurt you.”
She stood in silence for a time before she spoke again. “Daried told me what you’d told him about Rhovann’s vendetta against you, about how he’s ruined your homeland. I bear much of the responsibility for that.” She sighed. “My indecision, my confusion, led Rhovann to hope for things that were not in my heart. He came to believe that you had in some way stolen me away from him. There must have been something I could have done to avert the feud that grew between the two of you.”
He nodded. “I played my part in it, too, and I’m sorry for it.” She reached over to rest her hand on his. After a long moment, Geran stirred and smiled. “As far as I know, I’m permitted visitors. You didn’t have to sneak in to see me in the middle of the night.”
Alliere laughed softly. “I’m sure you’re allowed to have visitors, but I doubt you’re allowed to have assistance for your escape.” She reached into the folds of her cloak to draw out a small jar and a stylus with a slip of paper rolled tightly around it. “Daried gave these to me to give to you. The guards would never allow you to have them if they knew, so hide them well.”
He took the jar and the stylus from her, frowning in puzzlement. “I don’t understand. What am I to do with them?”
“The jar contains a magical pigment. With it, you can create a moon-door. Simply use the stylus to scribe the diagram shown on the paper upon one of the walls, and when the moon appears in the proper phase, the magic of the door awakens. It will become a portal that you can use to escape.” She nodded at the small slip of paper in Geran’s hand. “As I understand it, the next opportunity is the night after next, a little after midnight.”
“Where will this portal lead us?”
“To a clearing a couple of miles outside the city borders. I will cache your belongings for you there tomorrow, and have mounts waiting.”
He grimaced. “We can’t leave without the manuscript we removed from the Irithlium.”
“Daried said that you would say that.” Alliere glanced about, listening for any sign of guards approaching before continuing. “It’s with the rest of your belongings. I’ve already removed them from the guards’ vault and replaced them with illusory copies. With any luck, you’ll be many miles away by the time anyone discovers that you are missing.”
He looked down at the jar, paper, and stylus in his hands. An ember of hope arose in his heart, and for the first time in nearly a tenday, he allowed himself to consider the possibility that his foolish quest hadn’t been so foolish after all. I told Hamil and Sarth I still had friends here, he reminded himself. It seemed he had even more than he’d thought. “What will happen to you when we escape with your help?” he finally asked.
“I hope no one will be able to prove that I had anything to do with it,” she replied. “Daried is under suspicion, of course, so he couldn’t do anything openly, but no one knows I slipped into the guard’s vault, and no one knows I’m here now. But I cannot stay long-I would much prefer not to be caught at this.”