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"Hurry," Tay-Fay repeated. Her voice was faint, but clear. "She's getting away. She's taking your horse."
She-the pale-haired woman, the witch-queen of Aglarond-Bro gasped as the morning's events formed a pattern in his thoughts. The Simbul had come to Sulalk because she knew everything that happened in Aglarond and because everything in Aglarond belonged to her, if she wanted it. The Red Wizards had followed the queen, because they were her sworn enemies and that's what enemies did: follow each other and fight whenever, wherever they could.
Wizards didn't care if a handful of Aglarondan farmers got in their way. Maybe the Simbul had cared. She hadn't killed him when she'd had the chance. He could almost wish she had.
"Bro-o-o!" Tay-Fay persisted, turning his name into a melody. "She's getting away!"
With Zandilar's Dancer. Bro had no real hope of separating the Simbul and her prize. As a loyal Aglarondan, he shouldn't even try, but broken pride and a broken heart would destroy him as surely as her magic if he didn't. The half-elf rose with his human sister's help. He wasn't quite himself; the barn spun dimly before he was ready to follow Tay-Fay toward the light.
The Simbul had cast a spell on Zandilar's Dancer. There was no other way the colt would have stayed inside the wide and glowing circle she'd made in the center of the fenced-in yard. But magic wasn't enough to keep Dancer calm or convince him that the Simbul was trustworthy. He reared when she tried to reclaim his dangling halter rope.
Bro watched the colt he'd raised from birth straighten his neck and sink onto his haunches. He knew as surely as he knew his own name that Dancer was going to bolt and that breaking a wizard's circle was certain death or worse. With waving arms and a banshee wail, Bro raced toward the colt.
He felt his hair rise like cat's fur as he leapt over the glowing line. It seemed as if countless hot thorns had pierced his skin, but Bro kept his balance when his feet touched down inside the circle. He lunged for the halter rope then hung on for dear life when the Simbul shouted his name and Zandilar's Dancer reared for the sun.
Alassra spread her arms in a desperate attempt to control the spell the boy's sudden appearance within her circle had disrupted. She almost had the magic in balance when his sister followed him across the line. The spell was ripe. Either it carried them away or it killed them. She seized the boy with her left hand and the girl with her right, then let it fly.
There were foggy cracks in time and space around them long enough for Alassra to count to ten-twice as long as she considered prudent. There were dangers between here and there that couldn't be ignored-which meant she didn't know where they were headed, except it wasn't Velprintalar. That meant more spells unreeled from her memory to insure that they hovered a moment in breathable air when the fog dissipated.
The boy, naturally, chose that moment to wrest free, taking the colt with him. They hit the ground ru
A tangle of branches hid the sky. "Trees and moonlight! Cold tea and crumpets! Where are we? When are we?"
A moment's concentration and, stars or no stars, the Simbul had one answer: The Yuirwood. The forest's ancient magic pressed against all her senses. The trees tolerated her presence among them; they did not welcome her. Respectfully, Alassra made herself small and inconspicuous, though not before she cast one last spell above the living canopy. The stars of summer were in the sky, each one subtly displaced.
The principles of movement through time were the same as those through space-every traveling spell required a bit of both. But to move herself, two children and a horse far enough through time that the stars were displaced should have been-after her skirmish with the Red Wizards-temporarily beyond her abilities.
"Damned odd," she muttered, puzzled but not concerned.
In six centuries of wizardry, Alassra had survived far worse than a misdirected traveling spell, though usually it took more than children and domestic animals to confound her. The horse, she knew, was more than it appeared to be, hence her interest in it, but it remained a horse, neither help nor hindrance where magic was concerned. The little girl, whose hand Alassra still held, didn't know her own name, much less where they were; she hadn't played a role in bringing them here.
That left Bro, the half-elf-Ebroin of MightyTree, to give him the Cha'Tel'Quessir name she'd plucked from his thoughts and the lineage she read from the beads strung around his neck. They'd come to rest in his native place. Bro was as overwhelmed as his sister, but far from empty-minded. In the two years Alassra had been watching him and his colt, he'd shown no magical bent, either for wizardry or the forest magic of his ancestors but this wouldn't be the first time shock had kindled latent talent. Poised on the verge of manhood, he was the right age for a sudden awakening.
Mindful of the forest's interest, Alassra gently touched his brow. The echoes were very faint; the talent not much greater. Bro hadn't cast a spell. That was some relief: Faerun didn't need an untrained druid with the power to pull Mystra's Chosen through time. He'd intended to cause trouble, and he'd achieved his goal. She found she liked him better than when she'd known him only through the mirror.
"I'll have to leave you here," she said as she lifted her spell from his limbs. "Even the witch-queen has her limits."
Bro drew a free breath and clasped his hands around Alassra's throat.
"You killed them!" he cried. "You could have saved them, but you didn't. You let them die-my mother, Dent, the whole of Sulalk-and then you tried to steal Dancer!"
He was no threat, not to the likes of her. The challenge lay in not killing him when she flung him aside. He landed hard, ten paces away, and for a moment Alassra thought she'd failed. Then Bro hauled himself to his feet and attacked again.
"Be still!" she commanded, lofting another little crystal into the air. He froze and, like an unbalanced statue, toppled face-first to the ground. "You're determined to make this difficult for both of us, aren't you?"
5
The city of Bezantur, in Thay Mid-afternoon, the fourteenth day of Eleasias, The Year of the Ba
The tide was out and a stiff wind, ru
Those who could flee the city had left a month ago; those who could not-the poor and the powerful-endured. A perverse few claimed preference for air with a life of its own, but most suffered the stifling, pungent breezes with little grace. Perfumers did better trade than food sellers as everyone created a private aura, using one favored scent against a myriad of others. In the end, stale perfume became the worst stench of all.
The state room of the Black Citadel at Bezantur's heart smelt as bad as the meanest alley. Aznar Thrul, Zulkir of Invocation and Tharchion of the Priador-the newest Thayan province of which ancient Bezantur had become the capital-fought Reeking Heat with incense cauldrons and fans: strategies Bezantines had long abandoned. Heavy smoke attracted other aromas, which the fans plastered over every surface. A decade into his tharchionate and Thrul's laudatory murals were reduced to obscure blotches, and the ceiling was a greasy stain where swarms of insects made their homes.