Outside, in the hall, Trebek stood silently at the door, deep in his own thoughts. He took a clump of brain mold from a pocket and chewed it slowly, silently, until the mold's being washed through him with a sweet, intoxicating hum.
Estriss, he thought, you consort with humans. You cannot be trusted.
Trebek started down the stairs and paused between floors of the horned tower. Estriss could be a problem, he thought. He was a friend to this human, this inferior Cloakmaster. Trebek shivered in disgust. You are a liability. I will see you dead before you get in the way of true illithids and our power on the Spelljammer.
Phlbasta, Trebek thought, you are not a true mind flayer to me.
Chapter Four
"…It was decreed that there the two artifacts that shall bring the Chosen One to complete the Cycle of All. The Compass, imbued with the very soul of Egrestarrian itself, and the Cloak, which shall protect the Pilot as it had the First, and give to him the ability to end that which we inadvertently begat. It is not penance that shall be paid, but the price of destiny- Tru'vaer. 'It was With our spells and invocations that the Cloak was banished and left on the island of Got on the world known as Westrelon; and the Compass was taken to an unnamed sphere uncounted thousands of leagues distant, where it ivas left to be discovered in the center of a natural ring of dormant volcanoes. "May destiny call the artifacts together once again. May destiny call the Cloakmaster to the Renewal of the Dream…"
"Cwelanas?" CassaRoc said, turning toward the newcomer. "Teldin, you know our elven friend?"
But Teldin had already gone to her. He held the lithe Cwelanas lightly in his strong arms, his lips pressed hard against hers, her arms curled around his neck and her body slowly molded against his.
"Yes," CassaRoc muttered, "1 suppose you do." She had hardly changed since Teldin had last seen her. Cwelanas's long silver hair spilled over her shoulders and hung seductively over one side of her slim face to hint at hidden beauty. Her eyes glimmered a pale gold, and her smooth, soft skin was almost alabaster, tinged pink with the heat of the kiss.
Cwelanas, Teldin thought. It had been so long since they had been together, but hardly a day had gone by without his thoughts turning to the elven woman he had left behind on Krynn-the woman he had never dared hope to see again.
He held her close in a long embrace, until Chaladar very obviously, very loudly, cleared his throat. Teldin slowly pulled his lips from hers and looked up sheepishly.
"We really should hurry things up," Chaladar told him.
Teldin smiled and nodded, then led Cwelanas over to CassaRoc's table. "You know each other?' Teldin asked.
CassaRoc nodded, smiling, and shoved a stool out with his foot. "Sit down, woman. We have a few minutes, eh, Chaladar?"
Chaladar's face was stern. "We should leave before anyone-discovers he's- "
"That's what I said," CassaRoc interrupted. "We have a few minutes. Mostias…"
The immense centaur closed off the tap and placed three tankards of ale on the bar. "Well ahead of you, little man. He took the tankards in one huge hand, brought them around to the table, and placed one in front of each warrior. "Anything for a friend of the Cloakmaster," he said, smiling at Cwelanas. He then bent down and whispered to CassaRoc, "There is the matter of a certain tab…"
"Not now," CassaRoc whispered hurriedly, "not now He waved Mostias away.
Teldin and Cwelanas left their ales untouched, and instead sat staring into each other's eyes. CassaRoc watched them both for a moment, then took a long draft of his ale. "Women," he said under his breath.
"I thought I'd never see you again, said Teldin, breaking the awkward silence between them. "I thought you were out of my life forever."
"And I, yours," Cwelanas said. Her red lips glistened, and her eyes sparkled with gold. "I felt lost without you after you left me on Krynn. I've been through so much since we saw each other last-you don't know how much I've thought about you."
Teldin could focus only on Cwelanas, on the light playing over her soft, silken hair and the cool smoothness of her skin. He had been alone for so long on this seemingly endless quest that true companionship-even love, he thought- had become barely a consideration. But Cwelanas had stirred his heart from the moment he had first encountered her aboard the Silver Spray, her father's elven ship, docked at the quays of Palanthas.
Since his last day on Krynn, Teldin had eventually fallen under the guile of Rianna, who had betrayed him; and had come to love Gaeadrelle Goldring, whom he still loved as a friend; and Julia, whom he had lost to the gods. After Julia's death, he did not know for sure if there would ever again be room in his heart for love.
He looked into Cwelanas's sparkling eyes. Perhaps, through all his adventures on his haphazard quest, this was the woman that he truly wanted. She had been there for him at the beginning, and as he gazed into her eyes, he realized that his feelings for Cwelanas were strong, and that they had been there since the start, and he had been too dense to understand them.
Something opened in him then, a warm flicker of hope deep within his chest. If there could be room that had not been destroyed by the fear of his friends and lovers turning against him, betraying him for the power of the cloak, then there was room only for one… room enough for Cwelanas. "How did you come here?" Teldin asked simply. Something flickered behind Cwelanas's golden eyes. To Teldin, they seemed wide and beautiful, two enchanted wells that he could drown in; but he noticed that their luster was slightly dimmed, and she kept her eyes averted from him as she talked.
"It was shortly after we left you at Sancrist," Cwelanas began, "when we were attacked by pirate ships that swooped down on us from wildspace.
"My father was injured in the attack. I saw him go down under the blade of a buccaneer, and that was the last I saw of him."
"Why did they attack?"
"Oh, Teldin." Cwelanas hesitated, and her eyes filled with tears. "Oh, Teldin, because of you, because they wanted that cloak of yours."
Teldin stared into his memories, recalling his long-ago conversation at Crescent with Julia and Djan, of Teldin's way with verenthestae-what Djan had described as a force exhibited in people whose very existence seemed to sow the patterns of destiny and fortune for themselves and others.
Cwelanas wiped her eyes with the back of her hand and took a gulp of ale. She touched Teldin's hand. "It's not your fault, Teldin. I didn't mean that. They somehow found out about your cloak, and they finally tracked us down on Krynn. They kidnapped me. They tried to get it out of me… where you were heading, what the purpose was for your quest.
"I told them nothing, Teldin. I could not betray you. Even- even though they tortured me…"
She lifted one sleeve. Teldin grimaced at the long burn scars running up one arm. "Cwelanas,…" he said.
She shook her head and rolled down her sleeve. She held her arm tight against her. "I–I wouldn't tell them anything, Teldin. I would not have them kill you, not after they killed my father."
The room was silent. Some of the warriors had heard Cwelanas's tale before, but it was still a tale of tragedy and dishonor, and all respected her for what she had been through.
"I was on board their ship for weeks, I think, perhaps even months. I was kept locked in a cargo hold, and when I was not being questioned, or assigned slave duties throughout the ship, they… they shared me… with the crew."
Her eyes grew distant. Teldin's jaw clenched tightly and his hand unconsciously gripped the hilt of his sword. ^, They finally made a mistake," she continued, "and I escaped from my chains in the hold. On deck, I overpowered the second mate and killed him with his own dagger. I went through the ship carefully and slit the throats of all those who had…