Then a new thought crossed his mind.
"What about Volo and Passepout?" he asked evenly.
"They will not be a threat, I assure you," Honor replied.
"I don't want them harmed," Rassendyll ordered, "unless it can't possibly be avoided, and then only if the security of Mulmaster is in jeopardy."
"Agreed," the two elder men said in unison, neither wishing to clarify their answer.
Beneath the city of Mulmaster:
The normally indefatigable Volo began to tire of carrying Selfaril's corpse and opted to drag it after several wrong choices in the darkness had caused them to backtrack several times.
"Maybe I should be the navigator," Volo offered to Passepout. "I am the master traveler after all."
Passepout considered the offer for a moment. The slight bit of appetite that he felt back in the High Blade's study had metamorphosed into a ravenous hunger, and he had no desire to delay its satiation any longer than he had to, nor did he want to carry the body either.
"Why don't we just leave it here?" the pudgy thespian suggested. "No one will find it. We don't even know where we are."
"That's the exact reason why we can't leave it here," Volo answered. "That light in your hand is programmed to lead us on a certain path. Do you want to risk running afoul of a powerful mage's magics?"
Passepout didn't have to answer and returned his focus to choosing yet another underground corridor, hoping desperately that the orb would not begin to dim once again.
The two travelers and their deceased burden finally found their way back to the room in which Mason had removed the iron mask from Rassendyll's head. The two halves of the magically insulating/leeching metal were still right where they left them.
"Well, we certainly took a roundabout way to get here this time," Volo concluded. "That which took us bare minutes before, seems to have taken hours now."
"My stomach feels like it has been days," Passepout said, as he went to fetch the halves of the mask.
"Careful," Volo advised sharply.
"I know, I know," Passepout said with a pout. "I have to keep the two halves of the mask apart until we have them in position around the stiff's head."
"That's not what I was referring to."
The exasperated Passepout turned around and placed his hands on his ample hips, and said in his most long-suffering voice, "Well, what then?"
"The luminescent orb," Volo replied. "Keep it away from the mask. We don't want our only source of light to go out on us do we?"
"I didn't think of that," the thespian admitted, and carefully placed it on the ground between them. As Volo unwrapped the head of the corpse, Passepout brought the iron mask's two halves over to him, one at a time.
"Would you like to do the honors?" Volo asked, already knowing the answer.
"No," the thespian replied with a shudder.
"Well, I'll need your help anyway," Volo countered. "I'll lift the stiff's head off the ground. You set the mask half underneath it. Then I'll lower its head back down, and place the other half on top. Agreed?"
"Agreed," Passepout said reluctantly.
Like clockwork the two went through the procedure as outlined by Volo. Though Mason had clearly told them what would happen when the two parts were placed in contact with each other, both of the travelers were awed by the magical glow that began to permeate the metal and fuse the two halves together.
Once the glow had dissipated, Volo lifted the corpse into a sitting position to observe their handiwork.
It was then that the two travelers noticed that they had put the iron mask on backwards with the sight and breathing holes affording them three clear little windows to the back of the dead High Blade's head.
Volo looked at Passepout, who returned his scathing look.
"Well, it's not like he's going to need to do much seeing or breathing," the thespian offered, "given his current condition and all."
The master traveler chuckled. His friend did indeed have a point. Taking a deep breath, he heaved the now heavier corpse back onto his back, and the two travelers set off through the door that they had not used to enter the chamber.
As luck would have it, the traveling twosome made the right choices in the dark, and in a matter of minutes they had located the open hole to the sewer.
"Whew!" Passepout said aloud as he looked down the hole. "This really stinks."
"Then this must be the place," Volo replied, unceremoniously dropping the iron-masked corpse down the hole. After a few seconds they heard what sounded like a far-off splash, at which point they knew that the man whose last goal had been the rebuilding of the Mulmaster navy, was embarking on his final journey out to sea.
"Where to now?" Passepout asked. "I'm hungry."
"Back to the surface, I guess," Volo said guardedly.
The master traveler was not surprised when, seconds later, the orb's luminescence went out completely. It was possible that the spell that Mason had cast on it had been adversely affected by the magic-leeching mask… or perhaps it had simply fulfilled the task that had been assigned to it.
Volo turned his attention to keeping his frightened friend from panicking, and frantically tried to formulate a plan that would return them to the daylight and salvation. The master traveler had no desire to spend the rest of his days in total darkness, no matter how few they might turn out to be, but there was equally no sense in wandering around in the dark without the benefit of a torch or talisman.
As Passepout began to cry, the master traveler tried to think harder for a possible solution.
In the Bedchamber Shared by the High Blade and the Tharchioness, in the Tower of the Wyvern:
Rassendyll entered his brother's bedchamber, prepared for the next trial of the neverending night.
"I've been waiting," the Tharchioness said seductively, "and you know how I hate that."
"We have a slight problem," he said, still no more than a step inside the chamber. "I was attacked in my study."
The Tharchioness drew her hand up to the talismanic brooch that rested nestled between her silken breasts. "Are you all right?" she asked, her voice the epitome of concern.
"Yes," he replied. "I was meeting with an old associate of my father whom I have decided to take on as an advisor. Together, we subdued the blackguards."
The Tharchioness's ears perked up at the word "blackguards."
"Did you say blackguards, as in more than one," she inquired.
"Yes," Rassendyll replied, "one of mine and one of yours."
The Tharchioness's fingers began to massage the broach in a nervous, rhythmic pattern. "What do you mean?" she asked, her voice breaking slightly.
"It appears that one of your ambassadors and the captain of the Hawks seemed to have been planning a coup," Rassendyll replied, repeating the story that Honor and Mason had advised him to tell.
"Are you sure you are all right?" she asked, kneeling up on the silken sheets of their marriage bed. "I don't know what I would do if you had been killed."
"I'm just a little winded and a bit tense from the ordeal," he replied, "so I think I will be sleeping alone tonight."
The Tharchioness thought quickly and knew the proper response.
"I understand," she said sweetly, "but will you at least kiss me good night?"
Rassendyll assessed the shapely form of the woman who was his brother's wife, his eyes immediately drawn to the talismanic brooch that seemed to be casting off an aura of some kind.