Cold Steel and Secrets: A Neverwinter Novella, Part III by Rosemary Jones

Author:Rosemary Jones [Jones, Rosemary]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Random House Digital Wholesale
Published: 2011-12-19T16:00:00+00:00

Dawn faded into bright morning before Montimort regained his human form. Elyne hugged him fiercely when he sidled out of the storage closet where they’d left the rat.

Then she smacked him firmly on the side of his head.

“Don’t do that again!” she said. “Running off. Not telling me.”

Sarfael watched the scolding with tired amusement. He’d long ago trained himself to doze on his feet. Rather like his horse, when he considered it. But it had been a long night, made longer by Elyne’s nervous pacing alternating with her bouts of attacking the practice butts with any weapon close at hand. At one point, he suggested that she go home and he wait for the boy. But the look she gave him indicated that she could practice blows on his body as well as the straw-covered target, and he’d kept quiet after that.

“But I have it, the key, the word we needed,” Montimort said. “I can trigger the spell upon the box and summon the crown to us.”

“You’re sure?” said Elyne. “That the spell will work?”

“I’m certain,” Montimort replied. “But we need to be outside the city. And high. Upland Rise.”

“But I thought the box was for carrying the crown into the city,” Sarfael said, remembering Karion’s tale. Upland Rise was a wasteland outside the city, stripped of its trees in Lord Neverember’s recent rebuilding of the docks.

“I spent days studying it,” said Montimort. The excited boy nearly twitched out of his clothes with excitement. His voice rose and sweat gleamed on his face. “The spell will only work on Upland Rise. We have to go tomorrow night. At moonset.”

“After dark it’s not safe,” Elyne said. “Not without a large group.”

“We have to do it then,” Montimort insisted.

Sarfael looked at him with narrowed eyes. How could the boy be so sure?

“Very well,” Elyne said. Obviously she had no doubts about Montimort’s sudden revelations. “I’ll go to Arlon and we’ll assemble the Nashers. You’ll need protection out there. And we’ll need to leave the city throughout the day, in small groups, or we’ll attract the attention of one of General Sabine’s patrols. Sarfael, you bring him last.”

“Moonset,” repeated Montimort, sounding as if he were reciting remembered instructions. Sarfael wondered again where he’d learned that lesson.

“We will meet you there,” Elyne promised before she left.

Sarfael remained behind. The boy fidgeted under his regard.

“How did you find the key?” he asked. “The word that you needed?”

Montimort shrugged. “Karion knew it. He talked so much about the box, knew its history so well. I realized he had to have the key. He kept hinting as much when we were there.”

“So you figured that out,” Sarfael said. “But how did you get the word from him? Last time he saw you, he tried to kill you.”

Montimort bit his thumbnail and mumbled something.

Sarfael waited.

Finally, Montimort blurted out, “I scared him. I scared him into giving me the word. But I didn’t know the cat would kill him. Then it attacked me! It wasn’t supposed to do that! And when it came after me, I changed and ran.

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