"Durothil and Veldann. And their allies."
"You named them, not I," said Amlaruil. "Nor will I name them, unless I must. Sun elves comprise half of Evermeet's people, and almost a third of the sun elf Houses are in Durothil's camp. I must take great care when I act against the wishes of the powerful Houses on the council."
The queen sighed and turned away from the pool, moving over to take a seat on a nearby bench of marble.
"In all fairness," she said, "I must concede that the isolationists possess a persuasive argument. Less than five years ago, we boasted more than two hundred high mages in Evermeet. But Kymil Nimesin's attack on the Towers of the Sun and Moon, and our expedition to aid Evereska against the phaerimm two years ago, cost us dearly in this irreplaceable resource. We have fewer than eighty high mages today. Evermeet is weaker than it ever has been."
Seiveril studied her.
"I presume that you will soon call the council together to relay your findings about the Gatekeeper's Crystal," he said finally. "So why did you send for me, my lady?"
"Because I think you are right, Seiveril, but I may not be able to act on our common conclusions," Amlaruil replied. "Evermeet cannot exist in isolation from the rest of Toril, but powerful voices will be raised in opposition to anything we do to act on this belief. If I ignore them, I court disaster. I want you to know that even if I must remain silent in the debate to come, I do not disagree with you."
"What is it that you see coming?" Seiveril asked. "The crystal was taken from an elven tower, by creatures who were once elves," Amlaruil replied. "I do not know what evil purpose the Dlardrageths have in mind, but I am certain that it will fall to us to oppose it."
Fires danced and guttered amid the ruins of Myth Glaurach. The snow-covered buildings echoed with the sounds of ringing hammers and hissing steam. More than two thousand fey'ri soldiers, the legion imprisoned for five thousand years in the Nameless Dungeon, camped amid the ivy-grown stones of the long-fallen Eaerlanni city. Armed with powerful magic, fey'ri sorcerers worked furiously to repair the city's ancient ramparts and prepare deadly spell traps against any possible attacker. Other demonblooded elves were busily engaged in refitting the prized arms and weapons of the ancient Vyshaanti-another of Nar Kerymhoarth's buried secrets-for the fey'ri army. Hundreds of fey'ri scoured the lands nearby, foraging for food and searching diligently for signs of enemy spies.
Sarya Dlardrageth was pleased. She stood amid the broken rubble of the fallen grand mage's throne room, gazing out into the bitterly cold night. She and her followers were not much troubled by winter weather, and despite the freezing temperature she wore only a light dress embroidered with the dracophoenix emblem of her House. Before her eyes lay the strongest army for more than five hundred miles, a winged legion whose every soldier commanded magical powers, and none of her enemies even suspected its existence.
"Siluvanede lives again," she said into the night, her breath steaming. "We shall reclaim the lands and cities we once ruled, and the children of our onetime enemies will grovel at our feet. Time itself has proven to be our decisive weapon. We still exist, while the proud kingdoms of Sharrvan, Eaerlann, and Illefarn are no more."
She turned away from the firelit night. Behind her waited her son Xhalph, along with a dozen of her chosen fey'ri. Only she and Xhalph remained of House
Dlardrageth, but the proud sun elf lords and ladies in the throne room each led a House of fey'ri sworn to serve her. Cruel and arrogant as they were, they attended her every word, obedient to her will. House Dlardrageth had forged chains of fear and loyalty to ensnare the fey'ri Houses long ago, and the fey'ri nobles were zealous servants indeed. Their souls depended on it.
"Command us, my lady," said Jasrya Ilviiri. She was a tall, beautiful fey'ri whose skin glittered in diamond-shaped scales, evidence of her marilith heritage.
"Oh, I shall," Sarya answered. She moved over to a table on which lay a large parchment map taken from a merchant near Everlund a few tendays before. The fey'ri gathered close to follow her. "Since I and my sons were freed five years ago, I have studied this new world tirelessly. This is the shape of things in the North today.
"In our time, this part of the world harbored three elven realms: Eaerlann, Sharrven, and Siluvanede. All these are gone. Siluvanede, our home, was conquered by Eaerlann after our defeat and came to nothing. Sharrven perished soon after, but Eaerlann persisted until quite recently, finally falling only five hundred years ago. No strong realms have risen in the place of the kingdoms we knew, and the High Forest is almost empty. A few thousand mongrel wood elves roam the forest, living in simple bands or wretched little villages scattered here and there, but they answer to no lord or ruler." Sarya looked up from the map, baring her small pointed fangs. "They are the heirs of Eaerlann. Since time has denied us the opportunity to exact our vengeance from the Eaerlanni, the wood elves will be made to answer instead for the wrongs we have suffered."
"We will make good sport of their deaths," Xhalph promised, his four muscular arms crossed before his huge chest. "I have already tasted their blood, and I thirst for more."
Sarya smiled and continued, "Beyond the High Forest and the valley of the Delimbiyr lie more dangerous foes. South and east of us the city of Evereska still stands, home to thousands of sun elves and no small number of cursed moon elves. Evereska's sun elves will be my subjects. The moon elves shall serve us or die. No other elven realms stand within a thousand miles of us."
"Evereska was a strong city in our time, Lady Sarya," said Lord Breden Yesve. "Its walls were high, and its army strong. And it was guarded by a powerful mythal."
"It was still a strong city when I was freed five years ago," Sarya replied. "But here we have another stroke of good fortune. Two years ago Evereska was attacked by magic-wielding monsters called phaerimm. The city was virtually laid waste, its army decimated, its mythal desperately weakened. It is my belief that Evereska now lies within our grasp."
The fey'ri grinned in response, his black fangs gleaming.
"Evereska's army played no small part in our final defeat," he said. "I look forward to settling that score."
"You will," Sarya promised. "But I am not quite finished yet. To our north, in the vale of the Rauvin, lies a young, weak confederation of dwarf and human cities known as Luruar, or the Silver Marches. The chief city of the league is the city of Silverymoon. It is a city of temples and schools of magic, protected by strong wards. Many of the People live there, as well."
"With the humans?" one of her fey'ri asked. "Have they no sense of dignity?"
Sarya frowned. "Understand this: the world has changed while we slumbered. In our day the humans were crude barbarians who sometimes aped our cities and our speech. Humans are not the savages they once were. Their squalid cities and ramshackle empires cover the land like an infestation of locusts." Her face twisted into a snarl. "They have stolen our ancient lands, driven off our folk, desecrated our sacred places, destroyed the great forests. Of all the wrongs we have suffered at the hands of the Eaerlanni and their allies, this may be the greatest: In our absence they permitted the shining cities and high kingdoms of the People to fall beneath the stinking tide of humankind. Elven Faerun has been dying for centuries, and they have done nothing to save it."
"If humans have become so numerous, and the Tel'Quessir so rare, are they not our most dangerous enemy?" asked Breden Yesve.
"In time they will be," Sarya replied. "But, as it turns out, no human realms now stand between the High Moor and the Graypeak Mountains. Other than the league of the Silver Marches, there are no human settlements larger than a small town for many hundreds of miles. We will have little interference from human kingdoms at first. By the time they think to intervene, we will have strengthened our position to the point where we can dictate terms to our new neighbors, or destroy them if they prove unmanageable."