There, cradled in the rigored arms of a woman and protected from the elements by the press of bodies and a simple bloodied cloth, lay a screaming child. Its skin was red and splotchy from its exertion and its tiny fingers were balled into fists, beating the air in obvious fear and frustration.
Aelrindel gazed at the creature for a long moment, noting by the cast of its distorted face the moon elf blood that flowed within its veins. That and something more.
Or less.
The child had a roundness to its face, a solidity to its tiny frame that bespoke of other parentage, human parentage, if Aelrindel could judge these things right. It was one of the a Tel'Quessir, the Almost People. He sighed for the wailing child, caught forever between two worlds, and now, but a little while after its birth, already standing at the doorway to the gods' realm. He reached out his hand and stroked the child's cheek. Pale blue eyes opened wide, and the babe made a soft, surprised sound.
It stopped crying.
Aelrindel knelt before the child and started reaching for it with both hands.
"What do you think you're doing, Ael?" Faelyn asked, the incredulity behind the question clearly reflected in his voice.
"We cannot leave the child here to die," Aelrindel responded, not taking his eyes from the babe.
"Why not?" Faelyn continued, "Let the gods care for it. It is-"
"An abomination?" the First Hilt interrupted bitterly.
Faelyn swore. "Gods, Ael! Do you think I really believe that?"
Aelrindel shook his head-though there were some among their community who did see the a Tel'Quessir as abominations.
"Even so," Faelyn went on, "we cannot take this child in. Remember the Oath. We are what we are. Besides, it is an ill-omened foundling. The signs-"
"Damn the signs, Faelyn. I know them welclass="underline" 'Born from battle, bad for luck.' Those are nothing but superstition," Aelrindel said with finality.
Inwardly, though, he sighed. Faelyn was right. No one had ever brought an outsider to the community, yet what were thousands of years of tradition in the face of this one helpless half-elf child? He had made his decision.
He reached out again to the foundling.
"Ael, don't." He could hear the strain in Faelyn's voice.
"Enough," Aelrindel snapped in a voice full of command. "The choice is mine, Faelyn, and I have made it."
From the corner of his eye, he saw his friend respond to the tone of command, stiffening as if he'd been struck.
"As you wish," came the flat response.
Kaer'vaelen.
It would always lie between them.
Aelrindel reached out to the child and gently, with great care, gathered the foundling into his arms. Staring into its soft, wide eyes, he didn't see the glint of anger flash across then settle in Faelyn's eyes.
All around them, the river burned.
Chapter 2
The Year of Wild Magic
(1372 DR)
Taen shivered beneath thick blankets.
Bitter, ice-tinged air blasted the camp again and again, like the unrelenting breath of a white dragon. Despite his best efforts, fur, wool, and quilted cloak could not keep the chill at bay. Gathering what protection he could, he stumbled toward the dying fire. Tongues of red-gold flame swirled madly beneath the wind's hard lash, casting a riot of shadows across the camp. Unbidden, Taen's vision penetrated night's shifting shroud to reveal the uneven lumps of his companions, huddled under their own blankets and shivering in obvious misery. Their cursing reached his ears despite the wind's dreadful moaning and the sharp snapping of tree limbs.
Winter in Rashemen, he thought as he idly poked at the burning logs with a soot-covered piece of wood, is as hospitable as the first layer of the Abyss. Six days from Mulptan and the raging weather had begun its assault. Snow and ice storms became constant companions. Shortly before dusk on the ninth day, a great wind had begun to blow, forcing them all to slow their pace and bend beneath its force. Even Borovazk, their Rashemi guide, had grown concerned. Throughout their journey, the normally brash ranger had gently chided their softness, poking fun at the group's complaints about harsh weather. When the wind had raised its deep-throated voice and howled through the snow-covered crags and across the rolling hills, however, Borovazk had grown quiet. "Is nyvarskiz," he had finally shouted so that they could all hear him. "Ill wind. Very dangerous." With that, he had put a halt to their travel, so they had made hasty camp amidst the uneven stones and ancient trees, miserably waiting out the storm.
Still, Marissa had asked them to come, driven by her connection to nature and, she had said, the secret promptings of her god. They had followed her across the eastern realms of Faerun, then north through the harsh, unforgiving lands of the Rashemi. All of them had followed, as she had no doubt suspected they would.
"Where is she?" a gravelly baritone voice asked from the shadows behind him.
Taen dropped another log on the fire and turned to see Roberc gazing up at him. The broad-chested, thickset halfling danced from foot to booted foot, shivering in the cold despite being buried beneath several layers of fur skins. The gleam of the fighter's mail caught Taen's eyes in the dancing firelight. Not for the first time, he found himself wondering if the halfling ever removed his armor.
"I don't know. She went off into the trees after we set camp. You know how she is," Taen answered after a few moments.
Wild, he thought to himself. Restless the way a wolf is restless-or the wind. As usual, such thoughts threw him into turmoil. Marissa was restless, almost half wild, more comfortable with wood and stone than flesh and blood, yet a part of him yearned to lose himself in that wildness, to cast off the weight of memory and the certain knowledge of his own failure. Easier for a man to cast off his shadow, Taen knew.
Roberc swore, interrupting his bitter thoughts. "I'm glad that she feels free to go for a stroll while the rest of us freeze to death."
For a moment, Taen was shocked by the halfling's blasphemy, but only for a moment. There was little softness in the fighter, and none of the lighted-heartedness or playfulness found in others of his race. Thick stubble covered much of his chin and cheeks save for a single swath of blistered skin near the left corner of his mouth. The puckered flesh looked red and angry even now in the shadow-filled camp. When the halfling smiled, which was rarely, it never reached his deep-set eyes; they were gray and hard as river stone.
The fell wind gusted again, whipping the length of Roberc's salt-and-pepper hair in all directions. The fighter cursed once more against the bite of winter and brought two scarred fingers to his mouth. He whistled sharply once, then again. Almost immediately, there came a deep, echoing bark from somewhere close in the darkness beyond the fire. A few moments later, a large brindle hound came into view, running straight for the halfling.
The deep-chested dog came to a stop immediately in front of the fighter. Thick, panting breaths blew steam into the frigid air, and its long pink tongue lolled out of a short, powerful muzzle. The hound stood completely still, its thick-boned torso standing nearly above Roberc's head at its shoulder. A thick layer of studded leather barding covered most of the dog's rough outer coat, but Taen could still make out the curled length of its tail.
"Come, Cavan," the halfling said in a commanding voice. "Since we can't sleep, we might as well patrol. There's no telling what lurks about in this blasted land."