City of Torment

No more creatures seemed forthcoming. The wrinkled man opened his mouth to scream an alarm, but he managed only a single squeak before the shadow mastiff got him.

*****

Lord Behroun Marhana gasped and rubbed his hands, trying to get some feeling back into them. He'd accompanied Malya

Behroun wrinkled his nose as the hound crunched on the tough flesh of a limp humanoid figure the size of a child. He said, "I don't think the Lord of Bats will appreciate your pet eating his servants."

The eladrin noble glanced at him, spearing him with her disconcerting regard. "He has more than he needs. And he so loves making more. He merely requires suitable root stock*She held his gaze, as if leaving something unsaid.

"I guess." Behroun was already out of his depth. The more he tried to assert his own independence, the more Malya

Neither—it was a mutual decision, he told himself. The idea of releasing the archfey from Japheth's curse scared Behroun, but it was either that or destroy the pact stone.

Malya

Malya

The eladrin noble made her way to the stairs. Behroun followed, happy to leave the sound of crunching bones behind.

They ascended to the balcony. The door to the feasting chamber was open. Malya

Behroun rushed forward and saw the table. It was laid out with a smorgasbord of tempting repasts. But the chair at the table's head was empty.

"Neifion!" called the eladrin, her voice loud as a blizzard's howl. "Come out and receive your visitors!"

No answer.

Malya

Behroun doubted Neifion was lying curled up inside the credenza along the wall.

Then again... He walked over and threw open the low cabinet doors. Silver dishware nestled within in tidy stacks. Behroun released his breath, relieved he hadn't come face to face with the pale man curled up like a spider in too small a hole.

"How could he have..." Behroun trailed off, then he fumbled for the amulet around his neck. Had the creature somehow managed to retrieve Japheth's pact stone?

He worked the secret clasp. The amulet's star iron halves snapped open, revealing an emerald. The pact stone was whole.

Malya

"Or something found and killed him, trapped as he was."

"No," mused Malya

"But without his full power," Behroun added. "While the pact stone remains whole, Neifion has only a shadow of his strength."

"Hmm."

Behroun could almost see contingencies tumbling through her mind. But the woman's eyes blinked too rarely, and their blank expanse unsettled him. He looked away and said, "Perhaps he left the castle to go look for you, his one ally?"

"Doubtful." She sneered. "More likely he yet skulks in Darroch's shadowed halls, relishing his freedom and pla

Behroun glanced at the open door to the grand study. He said, "Let's go find him, then! He's our only link to Japheth. Although with just the two of us to search this place, it could take days."

The woman caught him with her terrible eyes, a look of disbelief on her face. Disbelief at his stupidity, most likely.

He forced out his next few words anyway. "Perhaps we could sneak into the kingdom that exiled you. You said it was near here. You must still have a few secret partisans. If we could enlist their aid—"

The eladrin noble's peals of laughter overwhelmed his fumbling words.

She said, "Have you forgotten my pet? I'm sure Tamur can sniff out Neifion if we put him on the scent."

"Oh, of course I hadn't forgotten..." he lied.

Trying to salvage some shred of dignity, Behroun said, "But your kingdom, where you were queen before your exile... I think it might be a good idea for us to collect a few of your supporters—"

"You," she said, putting a finger on Behroun's chest and giving him a slight push, "number among the mostly easily led mortals of any I've duped. There is no 'kingdom.'" "What? What do you mean?" Behroun, despite suspecting more and more the eladrin was playing him, was shocked all the same now that the game was over. A rarely seen smile on Malya

"However, I am an exile of a sort."

"You are?" he said.

"Yes. And I do have allies, mortal. They await me within the Citadel of the Outer Void, coiled and eager for my call. For them, no time has passed since I left. They await the Key of Stars, the single most wondrous artifact to fall to the world from beyond the sky. But-as I said, I am exiled through a cruel accident of fate. I ca

She looked at him as if wondering what reaction her introduction of so many alien names and senseless statements would have.

He couldn't help it. His face flushed hot with angry, helpless confusion. What in the name of Imphras Heltharn was she talking about?

The lengthening silence finally made him choke out, "Citadel of the Outer Void? I've never heard of it, nor of a star key. If this citadel is your true allegiance, why lie to me about it? What are you really up to?"

"Until the Feywild fell back into step with the world, I was a priestess without an altar, a proselytizer without an audience. But no longer!" Her eyes trailed faint lines of mist as she began to pace.

She continued, "I keep alive the old faith. The few in the world who tried to do so were imprisoned as traitors.

But I was free, despite being cut off from the living arbiters of my creed..." She whirled around, watching a scene in her imagination that brought awe to her normally haughty features.

"The Citadel is a place of power and change that lies just past the outermost edge of Faerie where time itself hardly reaches. Sealed, it will only open to the Eldest. But the Eldest sleeps in the world. For years uncounted, Faerie was cut off from the world. I could not reach the Eldest, nor could it reach the Citadel. I lived long without hope one would ever find the other."

She sighed, then said in a voice nearly as loud as a shout, "That's all changed! The Eldest can be roused, oh yes.

He can enter the Citadel. He is destined to take the. Key of Stars and unlock the Far Manifold..." Her voice trailed off.

Behroun said,"... I don't—"

"And I," said Malya

"And still need me, right?"

She whirled and pierced him with her flaring, cold eyes. Behroun saw his own breath begin to steam under her chill scrutiny.

"You still need me! My agent Japheth has the Dreamheart even now," he reminded her. He tried to distract her with another question. "But why do you want it at all?"