Mari pulled Caledan to his feet, and the two scrambled back up the stairwell. "Now what?" she shouted.
"I was just about to ask you that," Caledan returned.
Once again they burst back into the topmost chamber. Avdis, who had just managed to gain his feet, stared at them in renewed horror and then promptly slumped back to the floor. They slammed the chamber's door shut and slid home the bolt just as the first guards reached the landing. Immediately the door resounded with forceful blows.
"That's not going to hold them for very long," Mari said, eyeing the door nervously.
"Then you'd better think of something fast."
"Me? This was all your idea," she retorted hotly.
The door shook under additional pounding.
Mari glared at him angrily. "A window, Caldorien," she said flatly. 'Try a window."
Unfortunately, the outside walls of the tower offered only a sheer drop to the ground far below. The only chance lay with the west window, where there was a decidedly crumbly-looking bridge about twenty feet down, spanning the gap from this tower to the next.
"We'll never make it to the bridge," Caledan said after peering out the window. "Even if we don't break our legs, the impact would probably destroy that rickety thing."
"What's the alternative?" Mari asked in exasperation.
The door shuddered violently. One more blow and it would fly apart.
"All right, let's try it," Caledan snapped.
Mari threw her arms tightly around his neck. The door burst open in a spray of splintering wood, and a dozen guards charged into the room, swords drawn. Gripping Mari tightly, Caledan jumped out of the window. With one hand, he grabbed a handful of the tangled ivy that snaked up the west face of the tower. The tendrils could not support both his and Mari's weight, and the vines ripped from the wall as the two fell.
They landed hard on the narrow stone bridge that arched between the two towers. Mari felt the stones shift beneath them with the impact, but the derelict old bridge withstood the shock. Though winded and bruised, the two scrambled to their feet. Guards shouted angrily from the window above, but Mari and Caledan dashed across the bridge.
They froze in midstep.
The door in the next tower flew open. A half-dozen guards stood in the opening. Mari and Caledan spun around, only to view a similar obstacle behind them. They were trapped.
Something hissed past Mari's ear. She looked up to see one of the Zhent officers above, reloading a crossbow. From both directions the guards began to edge their way carefully onto the bridge. Mari felt the stones shudder beneath her.
"This thing is about to collapse," she whispered to Caledan.
He nodded. "Do you see what I see?" he asked, not daring to point.
She peered down into the moonlit dimness. At first she could see nothing, but then her eyes adjusted, and she nodded jerkily.
"When I give the signal," Caledan whispered, reaching down and gripping her hand. She squeezed back tightly. She supposed it wouldn't hurt to be nice to the scoundrel. They were going to die together, after all.
Another crossbow bolt whistled by, this one putting a hole in Caledan's stolen cloak. The guards drew closer. When perhaps a dozen stood upon the bridge, Mari heard a low groan and felt the bridge lurch beneath her feet.
"Now!" Caledan shouted. Without hesitation they both ran and leaped off the bridge. The guards stared after them in dumb amazement Then the bridge broke apart, and the guards went crashing to the street below along with several tons of bone-crushing rock.
For a moment Mari felt as if she were flying. She heard the noise of the crumbling bridge behind her, but their leap had carried her and Caledan clear. They landed, hand-in-hand, in a cloud of dust and chaff.
"You couldn't have picked a wagon with clean straw, could you, scoundrel?" Mari said in disgust, spitting out an unpleasant mouthful. Her sore shoulder throbbed painfully. The two quickly slid off the back of the wagon that had been passing under the bridge.
"I wouldn't complain," Caledan countered, eyeing the rubble of the stone bridge and the bodies buried beneath it. They started off swiftly through the city's shadowed streets and were nearly back to the inn before they remembered to argue about whose fault this had all been.
Six
The priceless statuette shattered into a thousand pieces as it struck the dark marble wall of the tower's topmost chamber.
"I want them strung up by their necks!" Ravendas, Zhentarim lord and ruler of Iriaebor, demanded through clenched teeth. She was pale and lovely despite her rage, or perhaps because of it. "No, I want them run through, left to the rats, then strung up!"
A young boy sat in a chair before the fireplace, a dulcimer lying in his small hands. Ravendas's son. His green eyes were focused on the fireplace, watching the flames, as if he were oblivious to his mother's fury. The lord steward, Snake, stood serenely by the door, watching his mistress's tantrum. "You're being unreasonable, my Lord Ravendas," he said in his low, almost droning voice.
"I'm being unreasonable?" she thundered, turning upon Snake, her deep blue eyes flashing like lightning. "First two intruders raid my countinghouse and make off with a fortune in jewels, not to mention managing to kill a half-dozen of my guards. Then one of my best warships catches fire and burns to the water. Now I learn that-despite my orders against drinking-someone has been selling cheap casks of tainted wine to my guards and poisoning them sick in the bargain. More ships and caravans are passing through the city every day as the weather warms, and a quarter of my soldiers are flat on their backs puking their guts up."
Ravendas's golden hair glimmered in the torchlight. Her beautiful face was as hard as marble. "Did you not tell me that a sorcerer had been sent to deal with the Harper in my city, my lord steward?" The honorific was twisted into a sneering insult. "Did you not tell me that Caldorien was run out of Iriaebor by some underworld filth he had made an enemy of? Tell me, Snake, am I imagining these reports?"
"No, my lord, you are not," Snake replied deferentially.
This time it was a crystal vase that succumbed to Ravendas's wrath. "Then who is to blame for these outrages against me?" Snake started to speak, but Ravendas lifted a hand, silencing him. "No, I will hear no more excuses. Inform my captains that I want the perpetrators of these offenses found. Otherwise, it will be my captains' heads I will have. Is this perfectly clear, Snake?"
"Of course, my lord," Snake said, bowing deeply.
Ravendas lowered herself onto a silk-draped lounge and lifted a glass of wine. She drank deeply, and gradually the livid rage melted away. "Come, Kellen," she crooned to the boy, "Come play for your mother."
Without a word the boy slipped from the chair and sat at Ravendas's feet. His small fingers plucked at the dulcimer, and a sweet, sorrowful music filled the air. Ravendas closed her eyes for a moment, drifting with the music.
It would be a pity if Caldorien truly has fled Iriaebor, she thought. I would like to give him a taste of my power. He spurned me once. But no one, not the Harpers, not even those fools in Zhentil Keep, can stand against me now.
Her eyes opened and she regarded Snake, still standing subserviently near the ornately carved door. "How fare the excavations?" she asked him, her voice languid now.
"Very well, my lord. Soon you shall have what you desire. Every soul in Iriaebor will belong to you, and even those beyond."
"Excellent." A small black kitten crawled into Ravendas's lap, and she stroked its soft fur absently. Her cheeks were flushed with the wine, with thoughts of power. And of Cal-dorien.
The boy's music had stopped. The chamber was silent. Ravendas ran a hand over his dark, glossy hair-hair as dark as shadows, such a striking contrast to her own golden tresses. "Go with the lord steward, my son," she said to him. "It is late."