“Yes, weighing against all the good you’ve done for me is this botched assassination. And it is quite a heavy sin.” Kaverin closed his eyes to better enjoy the breeze tousling his red hair. “It has most certainly put Cimber on guard. He’ll be dangerous now, far more difficult to kill.”
From the corner came a coarse laugh. “He’s no match for you,” snorted Phyrra al-Quim. “Not with the spirit gone.”
Kaverin offered her a patronizing smile. “It is a good thing I will be the one to determine when we cross swords with Cimber, Phyrra. He could not have bested someone as bright as you for top honors at that school you both attended if he did not at least possess some native intelligence.”
A cloud of silent resentment settled over the young woman. She did her best to hide her emotions by hunching back into the shadowy corner, but Kaverin rarely missed such things. That petty streak will have to be frozen in her soul, he decided, but we’ll have time enough for that later.
“No, I’m afraid you’ll have to find some way to protect yourself, Quiracus. Our cover as Tantrasan ambassadors will keep Artus himself out of these cabins until we reach Chult, but if you’re found here—and Artus will make certain the crew searches everywhere for you—it might endanger our cover,” Kaverin concluded, making a halfhearted attempt to appear sympathetic. “That just won’t do, you see.”
Quiracus was on his feet, pointing at Kaverin with a trembling finger. “I swear I’ll tell him you’re here if you don’t help me. I—”
The elf stiffened, then crumpled to the floor. The bone handle of an ancient Mulhorandi dagger protruded from his back. “Thank you, Phyrra my dear,” Kaverin cooed. “He was beginning to give me a headache.”
The mousy woman retrieved the blade, wiped it clean on Quiracus’s shirt, then slid it back into her boot. Grabbing the elf under the arms, she hauled him to the other side of the small cabin. “Shall we dump him out the window?” she asked. Daggers of light flashed across the room as her round glasses caught and reflected the lantern’s radiance.
Kaverin pondered the point for a moment. “No,” he said at last, stifling a yawn. “Leave him for my nightly visitors. They’d love that kind of present, don’t you think? Perhaps they’ll go home early, as a show of appreciation.”
The stone-handed man tried hard to mask the apprehension in his voice, but couldn’t. He was getting sleepy, and that meant the emissaries of Cyric would soon arrive. “Perhaps if I read something from this enthralling book I’ll stay awake … for a while anyway.”
Kaverin sat down next to the lantern and opened Artus’s journal once more. Like his dark eyes, his angular features betrayed none of his feelings. His mouth was small and tight, with lips as pale and bloodless as the rest of his skin. Like an icicle, his sharp nose slashed down across his face from his forehead. The few who had ever touched Kaverin Ebonhand and lived often complained that forever after they suffered a chill where they’d come in contact with him. It wasn’t an icy cold so much as the clamminess of a corpse.
“Are we all comfy?” he asked mildly.
Deftly Feg hopped onto the perch loop standing nearby, fanning his master all the while. Across the room, Phyrra stuffed a towel beneath the elf’s corpse to stop the blood from spreading. Then she settled back into her shadowy corner and wrapped her thin arms around herself.
“Another page about me,” Kaverin exclaimed. His voice was high and full of excitement, like a child who had just been given a magical toy. “It says: ‘Pontifax and I have finally brought Kaverin to justice. As usual, though, he has turned even his punishment to his advantage… ’ ”
Today Kaverin Ebonhand of Tantras was found guilty of ordering the murder of Rallo Scarson, a Harper who dared threaten his network of evil agents. I don’t feel any relief at the verdict or overwhelming pride in the Lord’s Court here in Ravens Bluff. It was the evidence I gathered with Pontifax’s help that proved Kaverin was guilty beyond any reasonable doubt; given that evidence, any sane man would have found for the prosecution.
The Harpers will be pleased I’ve made Kaverin pay for the death of Rallo, even if I no longer consider myself one of their ranks. Theron Silvermace spent the whole trial watching me. I’m certain he was taking notes, gathering proof that I am still worthy of the little silver harp-and-moon pin. It’s been two years since I stormed out of the meeting in Shadowdale, and still the Harpers haven’t tried to take the pin back. I wonder why.
Anyway, Pontifax and I have finally brought Kaverin to justice. As usual, though, he has turned even his punishment to his advantage.
Since his henchman had been put to death for actually murdering Rallo, the court could not impose the same fate upon Kaverin for the same crime. (Like many of the city-states along the Dragon Reach, Ravens Bluff has a pretty skewed idea of justice.) They decided instead to chop off his hands. How civilized. And when they did, just an hour ago, Kaverin laughed. His hands were lying in the dirt, bloody and twitching, and he laughed.
Pontifax was right—the man is insane.
Before the clerics appointed by the court to heal up Kaverin’s wrists could do their duty, the mage who had been serving as his lawyer throughout the trial muscled past. In his hands, he held two blobs of black stone. When the mage touched these to Kaverin’s gory wrists, they transformed. Still chuckling madly, Kaverin held his new jet-black hands up for all to see.
Before he walked away—he was free now that the punishment had been exacted upon him—Kaverin pointed one stony finger at Pontifax and me. Not very subtle, but we got the threat quite clearly. He blames us for his conviction. Rightly so, too.
Sooner or later, we’re going to hear from Kaverin Ebonhand again. If we do, I’ll make sure no mage in the world will be able to save him.
Five
Port Castigliar was a sorry excuse for an outpost. It consisted of seven tin huts, two small plots of vegetables, a large but ramshackle supply depot, and a graveyard. The latter was more densely populated than the land for five miles in any direction.
As Artus and Pontifax stood on the narrow stretch of beach, watching the ship’s boat from the Narwhal unload its cargo of food, cookware, knives, and weapons, they could not help but wonder if they’d come to the right place. “Are you certain this is where Theron said we should land?” Pontifax asked, wiping his rain-soaked hair out of his eyes.
Artus scowled. “I have the map right here,” he said, then patted his pack. “My journal may have been stolen, but I was smart enough to keep the map with me at all times.”
Pontifax stared uneasily at the Narwhal. The galleon waited impatiently in the deep waters off Port Castigliar, anxious to move on to more substantial stops in Refuge Bay. The lowering sky was dark and threatening, promising worse than the downpour already underway. “Quiracus might have disembarked before we got to the deck this morning,” the mage offered absently.
Artus grunted. The crew had half-heartedly searched for Master Quiracus. Not only was the elven first mate wanted for questioning concerning his attack of Artus, but he was next in line to take command of the Narwhal. When no sign of him had been uncovered, it was decided he had fallen overboard in the battle with the dragon-turtle—decided, that is, by the newly risen Captain Nelock. Actually, Nelock had made it quite clear he hoped Quiracus never surfaced, and he did all he could to keep the hunt subdued. Even if he had found the elf hiding somewhere aboard ship, Nelock would have offered him shelter, just so long as he disappeared at the first port.