"And was what I did so stupid?" Ambreene asked with menacing softness, her hands twisting the chain until it cut deep into his throat.
Elminster smiled unconcernedly, and chucked her under the chin as if she was a small girl. "Well, 'twas certainly spectacular…" he murmured. "7 wouldn't wear a gown like that."
He bent his head to her bodice and peered. "Ah, leaping dragons… Thayan work; very nice…"
Ambreene thrust herself against him, hooking her legs around his and pressing as much of herself to Elminster's body as she possibly could. She put her head over his shoulder and dug her chin down with bruising force, holding him with all the strength in her quivering body.
"Now," she said into his ear, "any harmful spell you work on me will hurt you as well. Khelben wronged my Grandmama and my family; my revenge was for him. But your magic will serve me just as well, giving me spells enough to destroy him another way… can you feel the memories leaving you?"
"No," Elminster said lightly. "I know how to make the Eye work as its creator intended it to. I'm giving ye only the memories I want ye to have… and keeping them, not letting them drain away."
Ambreene favored him with a disbelieving sneer. "And just how can you do that? Lady Teshla could not, and the Eye hasn't shown me any way to wield it thus! What makes you such an expert?"
Mirth glinted in Elminster's eyes as he said mildly, "Why, lass, I created the thing in the first place. In Myth Drannor, 'twas… in my spare time."
Ambreene shook her head derisively, but said nothing. He was so calm… what if it were true?
And then she gasped and stiffened as the world around her vanished in a flood of memories that were not her own. Images as vivid as if they were befalling here and now and she were living them… She was dimly aware that her nails were raking someone's back, that he was growling in protest, and that there was a sudden strong smell of pipesmoke, but…
She was standing on the deck of a storm-tossed ship, watching as a grandly robed man turned his back on his son-who laughed and hurled a bolt of lightning with both hands. The blast cut his father's body in two from top to bottom and sent the front of the ship boiling up into flames…
Then she was in a bedchamber where a sword pinned a man to a door, his lifeblood spreading on the floor. He gasped, "Why, Maruel? Why have you done this?"
"Because I want to," the breathtakingly beautiful woman on the bed said with a sneer that matched Ambreene's best. "And because at last I have the power to. I am the Shadowsil, and from now on I will take what I want… not beg for it!" She waved a casual hand, and by itself the long blade obediently slid out of the man, all black with his blood. He crumpled to the floor, gasping, "But I loved… you."
"And what is that to me, fool?" she laughed…
The scene whirled away, and Ambreene was somewhere else again…
A tower, where a woman wept, smoke curling away from her empty hands and ashes all around her. Nearby, a man who sat on empty air said, "And so your trick has turned to visit itself on thee. Well done, Alatha-oh, well done indeed!"
The woman's raw howl of grief whirled Ambreene away into a scene of a sorceress betraying her tutor, then another, of an ambitious magistress turning to evil and mistakenly slaying the man she loved…
"All of these happened, lass, and I was there to see them," Elminster told her gently. "Have ye such a hunger to join them?"
Ambreene wept and tried to pull away from him, shaking her head and straining to think of things she chose… but her thoughts were dragged ruthlessly back into the whirlwind of revenge and grief and evil…
"Gods! Oh, gods, stop! Have mercy!" she sobbed.
"Better mercy than ye intended to show Khelben, I hope," the Old Mage said grimly, and abruptly she was seeing a young lass clad only in long, luxurious hair, who knelt amid glowing, floating symbols, in a chamber whose dark walls winked with stars.
"Who…?"
"A lady in Myth Drannor, Grafting the first foresight spell," Elminster replied.
Abruptly, the spell poured into Ambreene's own mind, writing itself in runes and whirling concepts of fire. She gasped and moaned as her mind stretched dizzily. A bright light seemed to be rushing through her, and…
"Note that this magic allows thee only to see what lies ahead for others. If thy mind can encompass it and ye stay sane, 'twill become thy most useful tool-and thy greatest burden," Elminster said as she blinked and saw his face again in the moonlight, inches from her own.
Gentle hands put the Eye of the Dragon into her hands. "Now… about that kiss…"
Ambreene seemed to be weeping again as warm lips brushed hers tenderly, and that old, wise voice said, 'Thanks for the memories."
Then the old wizard turned away in the moonlight. She stared after him with eyes that streamed the tears of a thousand years. Elminster strode across the garden, and as he went, his battered boots left the dewy grass and trod on air. Up on emptiness he walked, as if the starry sky was his own private staircase. Up over the garden wall he went, and on, over the rooftops of the city.
When she could see him no more, Ambreene looked down at the pendant in her hands. Suddenly it spoke with Elminster's voice, and she nearly flung it down in startle-ment.
"Ah, lass," it said, "be not downcast, for ye heard aright what they say about wizards. Put this on whenever ye need to talk to me… or to Khelben. He's waiting for ye to come and see him."
Ambreene stared up at the starlight for a very long time, too dazed to shed more tears, as still and silent as one of the nearby statues.
So it was that the young, softly chuckling couple strolled right past without noticing her. Ambreene knew the lass-Berentha Manthar, a shy noble maid of her own age, whom she'd smiled with at several feasts, heiress of House Manthar since the hunting death of her brother Carn-and almost stirred to speak a greeting. But as the thought struck her, Berentha's young and devastatingly handsome man, Ferentar from Amn, asked huskily, "So, Berentha, as Selune is our witness here this night… will you wed me, and cleave to me all your days?"
Ambreene swallowed as she looked expectantly at Berentha's half-hidden face. She felt a tingling within her, and the need to know the truth that lurked behind honeyed words overcame everything. She seized on the foresight tingling within her.
It was a strange thing to wield, but she conquered it in time to know that Berentha meant it with all her heart when she replied softly, "I will… oh, Ferentar, I will! Do you promise, too, before Selune and all the watching gods, to be true to me?"
"Of course I do, beloved Berentha," the young man said softly.
The chill that almost choked Ambreene left her trembling helplessly. Her foresight told her that Ferentar wanted to be Lord Manthar, with a dashing fur cloak and coins to spare on wine and dancers. He cared little for this stupid wide-eyed Waterdhavian cow gazing so ardently up at him-oh, she was pretty enough, but…
Ambreene wanted to scream out a warning and thrust them apart forever-but the cursed foresight rolled on. She saw herself doing that, and Berentha's face freezing into that of a bitter foe… and the wedding day coming anyway, and then Lord Ferentar Manthar whispering at parties in all the high houses that Ambreene Hawkwinter was a wanton sorceress who'd tried to seduce him to gain House Manthar's riches for her own. Then she saw him laughing in satisfaction as he pushed Berentha over a benighted balcony to her death, and turning in anger to the masked lords to demand Ambreene Hawkwinter's arrest for the spell-slaying of the Lady Berentha Manthar… and then Ferentar's face seemed to melt into that of Grandmama Teshla, and she heard herself screaming, "Khelben! Lord Khelben! Help me!"
Strong arms were suddenly around her, and the gruff voice of Khelben Blackstaff said into her ear, "I'm here, lass-stand back, young Ferentar, or I'll turn out the cesspit of your mind for all Waterdeep to see! — I'm here." Ambreene turned her face toward the comfort of that voice, and as she heard a gasp of outrage that could only be Berentha, Faerun spun crazily around her-and plunged into darkness…