As Flarwood scrambled to obey with the eagerness of a puppy, the ruler of Silverymoon added, "The things you've mentioned are the trappings of war, not the anchors of a realm. I bend my efforts these days to make the folk of the Moonlands feel as if they belong to a kingdom, sharing a realm that is theirs-so in time to come they'll govern themselves, looking to no throne or lineage."
"But that will take years!" Flarwood protested, lean shy;ing forward in his excitement. "Our children's children will be old before we see this."
Alustriel leaned forward until her face was close to his and he was looking straight into her eyes. As her long silver hair stirred restlessly about her shoulders she asked gently, "Ah, yes, you've said it perfectly, Good shy;man. For our children's children. Have you ever heard of a better reason to do anything?"
Draevin Flarwood blinked a little, and she kept silent to give his thoughts some time to spin to a con shy;clusion. She hoped they knew how.
When he stirred to speak again, the word she'd expected was the first to leave his lips. "But-"
She held up a stern hand and said gravely, "Goodman Flarwood, it will some day give me great pleasure to debate and discuss the future of the Moonlands, but I know not yet if I’ll have that discussion with you-or if you will be dead."
Draevin Flarwood blinked for the second time in the same day-possibly a record-then managed to gasp, "Uh. . pardon, lady?"
"Draevin," she said gently, "you met with Tradelord Muirtree earlier this day, did you not?"
"Why, yes, and it was a good meeting, very positive for trade. We-uh-that is, I can't discuss what we agreed upon, though of course if you insist, I'll h-"
"Did you strike Garthin Muirtree with your sword, Draevin?"
All the color spilled out of Draevin Flarwood's face, leaving it the hue of old bone, and he gasped, "What?"
"Did you take a weapon to Tradelord Muirtree?"
"N-no, of course not, Lady Alustriel. He and I are friends. I-"
"Do you know of anyone else desiring to harm the tradelord, or doing so?"
"No," the merchant replied emphatically, frowning, "but, lady, why do you ask me? Don't you know who hurt Garthin?"
"And how should I?"
"Well, doesn't your magic reveal who, the moment you bend your will to ask whom it might be?" When Alustriel silently shook her head, Draevin Flarwood looked almost as if he might cry. "But you hold the power of Mystra in your hands!"
"In this, good sir," Alustriel replied quietly, "I hold but moonlight in my hands."
As she looked into the young merchant's gaping face, memory changed it to that of an even younger man, staring and drooling after he'd spent much of a day screaming under the coldly patient fingertips of the Lord Mage of Waterdeep. Khelben had ruthlessly taken apart that man's mind to find the secrets he needed to know to defend Waterdeep against but a dozen smugglers. "For the good of the city," had been the Blackstaff's justification, and she saw again his grim face as he told her those words.
That grim face changed again, into a younger, laugh shy;ing one with a hawklike nose and the beginnings of a beard. Elminster, rearing her and her sisters with warm, humor-laced kindness so long ago. The easygo shy;ing yet unfailing love that had forged her-forged them all, down the years-led her to her own dignity-to-the-winds rule in Silverymoon, here and now. In the Gem of the North men and women were free to be heroes and fools, and encouraged to love openly. They were all held to be equal, man and woman, elf and dwarf, halfling and human, until they personally proved themselves otherwise.
Alustriel drew in a deep breath. She could mind-compel Draevin Flarwood or any man, reading his every private thought and recollection, but only at the cost of much time, and burning away many memories-and his will to think, and brilliance in doing so-from his brain. She would not do that, this day. She would never do that. "Never," she hissed.
"Uh-ah. . Great Lady?"
Alustriel returned to the here and now with a shiver that shocked the young merchant into speechlessness.
"You have our leave to depart, Goodman Flarwood," Alustriel told him gently "Say nothing of this to anyone."
Silently Draevin Flarwood nodded, knelt to her with his hands folded as if in prayer, and backed toward the door, still on his knees. As she winced and leaned for shy;ward to bid him rise, he found his voice again and asked beseechingly, "Tell me but one thing if you would, O Shining Lady. Tradelord Muirtree; will he recover?"
Alustriel swallowed. "No," she said gently. "No, I don't think so."
"Tradelords of Luskan," Dauphran Alskyte said coldly, "are not accustomed to being summoned to pri shy;vate audiences with unescorted women, and there accused of murder. In case you've not noticed, Great Lady, I am a tradelord of Luskan."
"The fact has not escaped our discernment, most charming sir," Alustriel purred, feeling Taern's silent growl of anger from the balcony above. It made her own irritation more easily turn into amusement. "Will you take wine?"
The Luskanite barked out a short and mirthless laugh. "I thank you, but no. A considerably more foolish man than the one you see standing before you would know better than to partake of what may be drugged-so he might thereafter awaken in the throes of execution for any number of falsified crimes, to the great cost-and displeasure-of my masters in Luskan."
Alustriel shrugged. "You may well be more familiar with drugs and deceit, most wise sir, than myself. . or any who can command spells to achieve their ends."
The door behind the Luskanite opened then. Taern showed himself just long enough to make the clear, unmistakable gesture that meant some magical defense or other carried by the waspish tradelord was blocking his truth reading, then disappeared again.
Dauphran Alskyte showed how closely he was watch shy;ing Alustriel's eyes by whirling around, in time to see the door close. He whirled at once back to face Alustriel again.
"It seems, Lady," he said icily, "that you are rather less a stranger to deceit than you claim to be … unless that was a sophisticated Silverymoon method of bring shy;ing us fresh air, perhaps? Or something else you'd care to enlighten me about?"
The High Lady of Silverymoon regarded her unwill shy;ing guest through half closed eyes, calling on the abil shy;ity to feel magic that Mystra imparts to all of her Chosen. Taern's truth field briefly revealed itself as a shining net laid over the chamber. Against it stood a small, dark shroud, enveloping the Luskanite and cen shy;tered at his throat. Alustriel opened her eyes again. There; that amulet.
"No," she said coldly, "I would not care to enlighten you."
Given time enough, she could infiltrate the amulet's enchantment, drifting past its defenses without shat shy;tering or altering the magic, then mind-read Alskyte to confirm when he spoke the truth. A simple detection of falsehood would do his wits no harm, so long as she didn't try to force him to think of specific things-to hunt down the memories she needed to see. Goading words could, of course, turn his thoughts just as surely.
"Have you any fresh accusations to hurl at me, Exalted Ruler?" the Luskanite snapped. "Or am I free to go, leaving you to sink back into your web of suspi shy;cions and feeblewittedly imagined conspiracies?"
"Dauphran Alskyte," Alustriel replied, sinking back into where she could let her perception drift out, "you have much still to answer. The small matter of Talanther's missing figurines, for instance."
The tradelord went white, showing her his guilt as clearly as if he'd babbled it before all her hushed court. "You dare-?" he hissed.
"I rule here, Dauphran," Alustriel reminded him gently. "For the safety of my people, I dare everything."
Aflame with rage, the Luskanite failed to notice the hesitant, half-asleep edge to her tone, or her nearly closed eyes. He shook his fists as he strode angrily around a table toward her, shouting, "I've never been treated with such insolence, wench! Accused of this, accused of that! D'you think we of Luskan are so crack-witted that we go around openly offending against the laws of trade and of state? Do you think we are all so governed by greed that we can't control ourselves from thievery and connivance from one moment to the next?"