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"Good," Je
Coryn nodded and hurried back downstairs. The volumes were heavy, but she and Do
Je
"Hmm. I was just doing a little reading while you were bringing things up," the Red Robe explained. "I learned a few important things-unfortunately, though, nothing I learned seems to be good news."
Coming to peer over her shoulder, Coryn noticed an illustration of a small, pale stone on the open pages. The drawing was rendered in black ink, but, using great swirls and arrows, the mage who had made the drawing had indicated the power of the artifact.
"Yes, that looks like the Irda Stone, the one that Kalrakin had." Squinting at the strange symbols, she was surprised to realize that she could read the writing, though this was the first time she had ever seen such script.
"It is an artifact dating back to the Age of Dreams, isn't it?" Dalamar asked, coming over to join the women in examining the tome. His robe was already thick with coal dust.
"Yes." Je
"So I actually bolstered his magic when I cast the fireball, and the stone absorbed the lightning bolt? I made him stronger?" Coryn was dismayed to remember her losing battle with the sorcerer.
"You had no way of knowing what was happening, but yes, that's what transpired," Je
"Any clue in your book as to how he must have gotten the stone?" asked Dalamar.
Je
"He will be hard to defeat with magic," the dark elf noted. "But perhaps we can use uncommon spells to distract him, to get close enough to strike without magic, to slip a dagger between his ribs," he added coldly.
"We might," Je
"There must be some way to trick him!" Coryn exclaimed.
"If there is, we'll find it," Dalamar said fiercely, his words having a calming effect on the young woman. "We have much work to do."
"And time is wasting," Je
"No, it's a helmet-you don't want to burn your hair off, do you?" explained Je
The dark elf had already removed his robe, Cory saw, looking trim and muscular in his trousers, boots, and suspenders. Like Je
The leather bowl fit comfortably over Coryn's scalp, with a flap that protected the long dark hair she bound at her nape. Very curious now, Coryn allowed Je
"Take one of these poles." Je
"This is platinum dust, powdered by dwarven smiths in the mines of Thorbardin," Je
Coryn had been about to reach for the vial; she looked up, startled. "These are such rare ingredients. How can you afford them all?" she asked.
Je
Hesitantly, Coryn took three pinches of the grainy, gray-colored powder, and dropped them into a clean bowl. In short order she added the other items as directed by Je
Next came the more exotic components: Cory painstakingly counted out twenty-five tiny black specks that, Je
"That, my dear, cost a sum of diamonds, twice as much,
by weight, as the dried seaweed." She looked at Coryn and actually gri
So was Coryn. "Who sells things like this?"
"I myself did, for a long time-many, too many years. Now that I have closed my shop, there are others-none so knowledgeable, nor with such a complete selection, as I was proud to maintain. I got this from an importer who brought it across the ocean from Kothas. Palanthas has more of such merchants than any other city in the world, though you will find magic-sellers in Sanction, Caergoth, Haven-even in rat-holes like Tarsis."
"Of course there are other ways to gain certain components," Dalamar interjected. "Go out yourself, snare a hundred bats, then dry them in a kiln so carefully that you can remove their eyes, their fur, and their feet, still intact. Takes a bit of learning, and time-but saves you the cost, and dealing with fools."
"I will learn how to do exactly that one day," pledged Cory.
She turned her attention to her glass, which had been heating up all this time. Following instructions, she gathered a medium-sized lump of the molten material on the end of one of the long tubes. Heating it carefully, she watched it soften, and turned the pole quickly to keep the gooey stuff from falling into the furnace. Soon it was soft and malleable.