Kleef glanced aft toward Malik. “One that involves the Eye of Gruumsh?”
“No, that is our plan,” Joelle said. “Shar’s plan is to drive Grumbar away, since his earthly essence is what keeps her Shadowfell separate from the physical world. If she can make him leave with Abeir when the worlds divide, her essence will be free to spill across all of Toril. Shar will become even more powerful than she is now-and master of her fellow gods.”
“And what’s that have to do with Luthic?” Kleef asked. Joelle gave him a look of strained patience, and once again, Kleef suddenly felt the need to prove that he wasn’t the idiot she seemed to believe he was. He took a chance and asked, “Is Luthic what keeps Grumbar on Toril?”
Joelle smiled-and sent a flood of warmth pouring through Kleef. “Indeed,” she said. “Grumbar’s passion for Luthic has no limits. If Shar can overcome that, Toril is hers.”
“Sounds like that might be hard to do.”
“Not as hard as you might think,” Joelle said. “Shar has threatened to reveal their dalliance to Gruumsh One-Eye-and if that happens, the Savage One’s anger will know no bounds.”
Kleef nodded. “That would be bad,” he said. “Kings have been known to go to war over such things.”
“So have gods,” Joelle said. “So Shar has convinced Grumbar that the only way to protect Luthic is to leave her-to depart with Abeir when it separates from Toril. And if he doesn’t, Shar will make certain that Gruumsh discovers their dalliance.”
“And Grumbar buys that?” Kleef asked. “He’s not willing to fight for her?”
“He might be-if Shar hadn’t also planted the idea that Luthic never loved him at all,” Joelle said. “Shar has Grumbar thinking that Luthic was only trysting with him because he was the earth primordial-because his favor allowed her to extend her grottos into every last corner of Toril.”
“Any truth to that?” Kleef asked.
Joelle shrugged. “Enough for it to work,” she said. “Grumbar has just about given up any thought of remaining on Toril. He isn’t even trying to secure the dominion of stone and earth in this plane.”
Kleef fell silent, trying to come to grips with the idea of thinking about gods and primordials on the level of common city folk. Joelle’s description of the love triangle sounded like the trouble behind a hundred house brawls he had been called to break up, and he could not help feeling it all made just a little too much sense.
“How sure are you about all this?” he asked. “It’s hard to believe the gods conduct their lives no better than we do.”
“Because we are seeing them through our eyes,” Joelle said. “We can only understand them in terms of ourselves. To Malik, it probably looks like Grumbar is dying of a broken heart. To you, it might seem that Grumbar is leaving out of honor, because he endangered Luthic by encouraging her to break a vow of fidelity.”
“Vows?” Kleef asked. It hadn’t escaped his notice that Joelle’s explanations all revolved around love. “I thought you said Gruumsh and Luthic weren’t married.”
“I said that Luthic wasn’t property, but they aren’t married either-at least not to my way of thinking,” Joelle replied. “To one of Helm’s Watchers … well, it’s impossible for me to know how you would see their arrangement. But the heart of the matter remains the same-Shar is tricking Grumbar into leaving Toril, and it has fallen to us to change his mind … and that is what the Eye is for.”
Kleef recalled what Joelle had said about the Eye being a gift. “You’re going to give it to Grumbar?”
“That’s the plan: to take it to his temple in the Underchasm,” Joelle confirmed. “Luthic stole it from Gruumsh as a symbol of her devotion-to prove she would rather face the Savage One’s wrath than lose Grumbar.”
“And to tie him to Toril,” Kleef said. “Because now that Luthic has made an enemy of Gruumsh, she’ll need help to hold him off. Grumbar would be duty-bound to stay and support her.”
“I hadn’t thought of that.” Joelle’s tone was approving. “It will be good to have a Helm worshiper helping us.”
“I haven’t said I’m coming,” Kleef reminded her. “I’m not even sure I believe you.”
“No?” Joelle kept her eyes on her work. “What part do you doubt?”
“The part where you know so much,” Kleef said. “How can you know what the gods are thinking?”
“Is that all that troubles you?” Joelle tied off the last stitch, then finally raised her eyes. “The Lady of Love revealed it to me, of course.”
Kleef lowered his brow, his customary suspicion already turning to disappointment. “Revealed it how?” he asked. “In a dream?”
Joelle’s eyes twinkled. “Something like that,” she replied. “It came to me as revelations from the goddess always do-in a moment of passion.”
Kleef felt the color rising to his cheeks, but pressed on. “That’s not much comfort,” he said. “What did you see? What did she say?”
“See? Say?” Joelle laughed and returned the needle to the mending kit. “Clearly you have never had a divine revelation. I didn’t see anything, and Sune didn’t say anything-at least not that I can remember. She just entered my mind, and I knew.”
“You … knew?” Kleef repeated, scarcely able to believe how close he had come to accepting Joelle’s story. “How am I to trust in that?”
“How can you not?” Joelle countered. “You’ve seen the Eye. You’ve felt its power. Do you think Malik and I could steal that without divine help?”
“Steal it, maybe,” Kleef said. He thought back to the moment Malik had revealed the Eye to him-to the cold terror he had experienced as it awakened and looked into him. “But carrying it into the Underchasm? For that, you will need the help of the gods.”
“Which must be why Helm sent you to us.”
Joelle smiled and touched Kleef’s hand, and he started to see the sense in her words. The earthmotes had dropped, and the Sea of Fallen Stars had risen to its ancient levels. The entire world was at war, and Cormyr was imperiled as never before. Clearly, change was coming to Toril. Joelle allowed her fingers to linger, and Kleef began to realize just how right she was. With dead gods rising and the heavens themselves engulfed in a power struggle, perhaps Helm had returned.
Perhaps he had sent Kleef to protect Joelle on her journey.
Then Kleef realized what was happening and pulled his hand away. “Don’t do that.”
Joelle looked mystified. “Do what?”
“Try to charm me,” Kleef replied. “It’ll never work. I won’t turn my back on my duty.”
Joelle’s voice grew stern. “No one is asking you to ignore your duty, Watchman. Quite the opposite, in fact.” She retrieved the cloth she had used to clean Kleef’s wounds, then dropped it in the bucket and rose to leave. “We’ll remove those stitches in a few hours. Your wounds will be healed by then.”
“A few hours?” Kleef’s head was already spinning from everything she had told him, and he struggled to figure out why she might make such an outrageous claim. “You didn’t cast any healing magic.”
Joelle looked back over her shoulder. “Kleef, I’m a Chosen of Sune,” she said. “My love is healing magic.”
CHAPTER 6
Arietta stood at the Lonely Roamer ’s taffrail, searching a rolling gray sea for a white triangle of sail or the distant flash of the Wave Wyvern’s oars-anything to suggest the Shadovar were pursuing them as Lady Joelle had said they would. She saw only the same forest of square-rigged masts she had been watching for hours now, a fleet of overloaded pinnaces and caravels that had departed Marsember on the same tide as the Lonely Roamer.