As Tazi stepped across the threshold into the dimly lit chamber, she was almost overcome by the smell of rotting flesh. It took all of her control not to gag on her own rising gorge. Against the far wall was Ebeian's bed and Tazi saw what looked like his head and part of his torso. The rest of him was scattered in between. There were flies buzzing everywhere.
As though moving through a dream, she carefully picked her way around and over what turned out to be chunks of her friend, littering the floor. Tazi had to duck under one of the cross beams because it was festooned with ribbons. She paused to stare at the innocuous sight, so out of place in the chamber of death, and Steorf, who had never left her side since she entered the room, murmured something. His right hand immediately started to glow and he held it up closer to the ribbons. Tazi blanched at what his light revealed.
The ribbons hanging the length of the timber were entrails. She squeezed her eyes shut and swayed slightly, stepping on something decidedly spongy. Steorf grabbed her upper arm, fearing she might stumble. As soon as he did this, Tazi whirled to face him. His touch had galvanized her into action.
"Who did this to him?" she demanded fiercely, her sea-green eyes blazing. Steorf involuntarily took a step back at her vehemence.
"I haven't been able to discover that yet," he replied, "but I wanted you to know what had transpired without delay. Considering the nature of your friendship-" he paused, almost tripping on that last word-"what happened to Ebeian could come back to you."
He looked down at her with his solemn gray eyes.
It took a moment for his words to sink in. When they did, Tazi was indignant.
"Are you saying you or someone else could think I did this to him?"
"Once again, Thazienne Uskevren, you misunderstand me," he answered gravely. "When I discovered Ebeian like this, I was concerned there was the possibility that you might be in jeopardy as well."
Tazi peered up at Steorf closely for a moment, weighing his words a little more carefully. What she said next was somewhat difficult for her to tender.
"Thank you for that. We need to find out who did this to him, though, and why."
Tazi could see various emotions briefly flicker across the young mage's face. He looked both pleased and sheepish at her words.
The mage said, "I believe the best way for us to do that is to bring in a cleric of Mystra. He would be able to speak with the dead.
"It is one of the necromancy spells," he added quietly, "that I have not yet mastered."
Ignoring his look of discomfort, Tazi ordered, "Then do it now, before any more time passes. Judging by the smell and the flies"-she motioned to the clouds of insects-"we've already lost enough of that. I'll pay whatever they ask."
Steorf looked hard at her.
"Coin," he said evenly, "has never been an issue for me. Will you be all right here with him?"
Tazi turned to face Ebeian's bed and nodded briefly. With that, Steorf turned like some great bird of prey and was gone, leaving Tazi alone.
She stood staring at the bed a few paces away, collecting herself. With Steorf gone, the room took on a menacing air. Every creak the floorboards made as Tazi neared the bed she had often shared with the elf was like a scream. Her nerves were stretched to their limits. Death was something she didn't see much of, but when Tazi did, it was always horrific, and this time it had claimed someone close to her.
Tazi reached the bed and could feel the sting of tears behind her eyes. She rubbed at them and forced herself to look closely at what was left of her friend. Carefully, she sat down near his remains and rummaged through her sack. She was surprised to find she had stuffed Alall's rag in there without realizing it.
Almost gingerly, even though she knew Ebeian couldn't feel anymore, Tazi began to wipe his face free of the caked blood. She wanted to do something for him, to see his face as it had been, but she also needed to keep busy for her own sake. The coppery smell of blood was overwhelming and nauseating, and the entrails strewn about recalled a gruesome night for her. She found herself dragged into memories she had desperately tried to forget.
Nearly two years before, on a night a little drier than this one, Tazi had gone out to play a trick on another suitor of hers. She had meant to pilfer a small gift she had presented him with, but she walked into a living nightmare instead.
Her suitor, a mage named Ciredor, practiced a dark magic with a high price. Tazi had discovered his hidden sanctum and found that Ciredor had committed a heinous act. He had split open a young boy from Selgaunt Bay and pulled out various organs and entrails from his body but had left the child alive. He was using the boy's life-force as an energy source for his magic.
Various clues had proven to Tazi that a then recent acquaintance of hers, a young woman from Calimport named Fannah, would likely be his next victim, and Tazi wouldn't let that happen. She realized that she needed to kill the boy to stop Ciredor, but he discovered her before she could take her first life.
Tazi found herself in a fight to the death with the mage, but she wasn't alone. Steorf had followed her and he managed to temporarily distract the dark wizard.
Steorf's concern for her safety proved to be a crucial error. Ciredor easily bound her friend against a wall and turned his attention to Tazi once more.
She could still remember the excruciating pain when one of Ciredor's minor spells caused her hair to grow immediately to its former waist length. He had toyed with her mercilessly, and Ciredor delivered the final blow when he revealed that for the preceding seven years, her friend Steorf had been on Thamalon Uskevren's payroll, no more than a hired hand. Her father was buying her friends for her.
Despite how devastated Tazi was by that discovery, she didn't let it stop her. She was able to use her emerald ring of protection to thwart the killing bolt of magic Ciredor had thrown at her. He was stunned that she had been able to stop him, and that was his downfall. Tazi, though blinded by terrible pain, managed to throw the small dagger she kept secreted in her boot into his chest. While he was incapacitated, she killed the young boy who had been his energy source. Weakened by the wound and the drain of the battle on his magic, Ciredor vowed revenge and fled, never to be seen again. Tazi was left alone with the ashes of the child she had killed and Steorf's betrayal.
She shook her head violently. The smell of decay brought Tazi back to the present and was suddenly so overpowering that she ran to the window of Ebeian's room and flung it open. Leaning heavily on the casement, she breathed in the damp air and let the rain cool her face, but she could still taste ashes in her mouth when she thought of Steorf's betrayal. Nothing could wash that away. Tazi turned from the window and leaned against the wall, raking her hands through her short hair.
What's happening? she wondered. How is it that Steorf is in my life again?
Glancing at Ebeian's body once more, Tazi tried to determine what had transpired. Someone had killed him-that much was beyond obvious-but she started to look more carefully around the room. She rummaged through the wardrobe and his desk. Nothing was out of place and nothing gave her any answers. She felt sure Ebeian wasn't killed in his room. Someone would have heard all the noise if it had happened there. Ebeian would not have gone down quietly, Tazi was certain of that. Of course, a mage might have been able to cast a spell of silence while Ebeian was killed. Steorf had been the first to discover him and it looked like Ebeian had been dead a tenday at least. Steorf…
"I haven't spoken to him in two years and now he shows up for this," Tazi wondered aloud. "What would he have been doing with Ebeian?