Vala actually blushed, and Galaeron instantly resented the way her green eyes held the prince's gaze.
"It was nothing," she said, leaving her hands in Escanor's. "Your attacker was distracted."
Galaeron edged closer to Vala. "You turned away at the wrong time, Prince, or you could have killed it yourself while it was teleport-dazed."
"Yes, a pity I could not read your mind," Escanor said, fixing his coppery gaze on Galaeron and releasing Vala's hands. "You were right to hold the phaerimm in the cavern. It would have been dangerous to let them escape with the secret of the Splicing."
Leaving Galaeron to fume, Escanor turned to face Ruha. "You are the Harper pursuing Malik?" "I am."
Escanor regarded the little man as though he found this difficult to believe. "Is he really such a terrible criminal?"
"It would not do to underestimate him, Prince," Ruha said. "Those who do often pay for the mistake with their lives."
This drew a fang-filled smirk from Escanor. "Then I am glad you are here to watch him, Harper, but mark well Hadrhune's warning-Malik has committed no crime in this city, and if he does, it will be our justice that settles the matter."
Ruha inclined her head. "My only desire is to see that he does no more harm than he already has."
"Good." Escanor turned to Vala and gestured toward the gate. "If you and your friends care to accompany Galaeron, it would please the Most High for you to see the palace this morning."
Vala nodded and started forward. Galaeron stepped to her side, making sure to place himself between her and Escanor as the others closed around them. Whether the prince noticed the maneuver was impossible to say, but Vala's frown was unmistakable.
As the entourage left the gate, she leaned in close and whispered, "Your shadow is showing, Galaeron. What do you think is going to happen?" "Nothing I can help."
A twinkle came to Vala's green eyes, and she surprised him by smiling. "So you are jealous."
"Elves don't feel jealousy-and even if we did, there's nothing to be jealous about," he said. Though the feelings they shared for each other had grown too strong to hide over the last few months, Galaeron remained reluctant to act on them. Not only was Vala a human who would grow old before his eyes, she had promised to stay with him only until his shadow crisis ended-or she was forced to end it for him. After that, she would be returning to her son in Vaasa, and Galaeron did not think a few months of love worth the heartbreak of watching her leave-that was going to be hard enough already. "I don't want you to forget your promise." "Why would I?" Vala asked.
Galaeron shrugged. "Because the prince is powerful and wealthy, and you humans have such a weakness for fleeting pleasures."
"Galaeron," she said, shaking her head wearily, "fleeting pleasures are not weaknesses! They're the stuff of life."
Vala looked away, and the entourage continued up the street. Paved in a duller version of the same black stone that lay in Villa Dusari's courtyard, the avenue was narrow and winding, meandering through a canyon-like labyrinth of dusky buildings so tall that even Aris had to crane his neck to look up at many of the residents who called greetings and fond wishes to Escanor as the procession passed. There were not many side streets, and those that they did intersect always ran uphill to the left and downhill to the right. It slowly grew apparent to Galaeron that they were spiraling up a gentle mound, though one so encrusted in looming structures that its terrain was all but impossible to discern. As they ascended, the villas grew ever larger and more magnificent, eventually becoming so enormous that it required the entourage close to a minute to pass by.
As they passed one of the largest, a many-spired mansion with flying buttresses and a line of long barrel vaults leading into the shadowed interior, Prince Escanor stopped long enough to wave in its direction.
"My abode," he said. "I hope you will attend me here soon, when we are not quite so occupied with our war duties."
Though Escanor took pains to address himself to all his guests, Galaeron-or his shadow-knew that the invitation was meant primarily for Vala. Biting back the urge to suggest that the invitation would come the first time only Vala was free to answer, he merely looked up the street and inquired how much farther it was to the Palace of the Most High. Escanor waved him on. "Not far."
Indeed it was not. Just past the prince's home, the street opened into a broad hilltop piazza surrounded by similar mansions, all with their grandest entrances facing center. In a ring around the plaza stood a forest of gloom sculptures, all rooted in urns of polished obsidian with a single ribbon of shadow rising in the ever-shifting figure of a Shadovar warrior or wizard. Not far from Escanor's mansion stood the only likeness Galaeron recognized, that of the Shadovar who had helped cause the release of the phaerimm, Melegaunt Tanthul.
"The Ring of Heroes," Escanor said, waving his hand at the wall of figures. "Everyone represented here died accomplishing some great service to Shade Enclave." "There must thousands!" Vala gasped.
"Tens of thousands," Escanor said. "Shade Enclave is an ancient city with ancient enemies, and much of our time in the shadow plane was spent defending ourselves from the assaults of the malaugrym."
"The malaugrym!" Ruha gasped. "Then the phaerimm must seem weak enemies to you, indeed."
"Different, but not weak. The first rule in the shadow plane is never to underestimate an enemy," Escanor said. He turned to Aris. "If you wish, I will have someone teach you to read the stories of the gloom sculptures in their changing shapes."
This drew a rare smile from the giant. "No gift would please me more."
The prince had only to glance in his steward's direction, and Mees said, "It shall be done this day."
Escanor nodded and turned to Galaeron. "You are wondering what Melegaunt's story says about you?"
Galaeron shook his head. "Only if it'll say he's honored for drawing Evereska and Waterdeep into the war against the phaerimm."
Vala started to hiss a reproach, but Escanor stopped her with a raised hand. "We must expect him to be suspicious." Despite the prince's patient words, the color of his eyes had deepened to angry red. "I think we should hurry to the Most High. Galaeron's shadow is making him foolish as well as distrustful, and that is a bad sign."
Escanor led them through a hundred paces of gloom sculptures and emerged on the far side of the Ring of Heroes. Directly ahead stood the dusky grandeur of the Palace Most High, its seamless walls fashioned of polished obsidian and its shadowed spires vanishing into the umbral haze above. like so much in Shade Enclave, it seemed all sinuous curves and exaggerated proportions, with a shape that could not be named, nor even held in mind for more than a passing impression. Paying no noticeable attention as a company of Shadovar spell-guards snapped to attention, Escanor steered his entourage into a keel-arched portal so high that Aris barely had to duck his head.
After passing through a short vaultway, the entryway opened into a vast hall of glassy curves and dusky translucence where every buttress soared into darkness and each corridor vanished into shadow. A hundred or more high-born Shadovar drifted in and out of the doorways, or stood rasping in tight knots of conversation, or sat patiently on the benches along the walls, their gem-colored eyes glowing bright against the murk at their backs. Ignoring the bustle of murmured greetings and inquisitive stares shot the entourage's way as it passed, Escanor marched his group down the center of the floor to a crowded seating area outside an enormous pair of guarded doors.