Murder in Cormyr by Chet Williamson

Author:Chet Williamson
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub, azw3
Tags: Fantasy, General, Science Fiction, Forgotten realms (Imaginary place), Fiction
ISBN: 9780786911738
Publisher: Wizards of the Coast
Published: 1998-07-13T04:00:00+00:00

21

"Fastred?" said Captain Flim. "The ancient brigand? The ghost?"

"None other," said Lindavar, still gazing as if hypnotized at the seated relic.

"Gods save us," muttered Flim. "Maybe Mayor Tobald was right. Maybe the ghost did it-did for both of them."

"Why hasn't he done for us then?" I said, glad that my voice didn't break. In truth, I was scared. I expected to see the skeleton leap up any second, run down the passageway for his axe, and behead all of us tomb despoilers. "He looks like he hasn't gone anywhere for, oh, at least five hundred years. Give or take a decade," I added Ughtly to try to keep my fear at bay.

"That is true," said Lindavar. "We're dealing with some physical body here. Among the undead, a ghost might madden its victim or age him ten years; a lich might paralyze his victim; and I have never heard of a wight using a weapon. So wherever this one's spirit now dwells, I greatly doubt that it lies within anything that swings an axe, in spite of its habits in life."

That made me think of something. "Lindavar," I said, "why wouldn't Fastred's axe be with him? Wasn't it the custom in the old times for warriors to be put to rest with their weapons in hand for the next world?"

"So one might think," said Lindavar. He stepped toward the dais then and stopped a foot away, examining the skeleton's hands. "But that appears not to be the case with this burial. I see no sign that any axe has ever rested here."

"I've got another question," said Captain Flim. "What I want to know is, there's supposed to be a treasure here, and what those runes said makes me think that even more. So where is it?"

Lindavar looked at a spot by Fastred's bony feet, just off the dais. There was a square approximately one foot deep by a foot and a half wide that was free of the dark dampness that clung to the rest of the stone floor. "It was there, I expect. I also expect that whoever killed Grodoveth also helped himself to the treasure."

Captain Flim dubiously eyed the small bare space where a box had sat. "That's all the bigger it was? I thought Fastred's treasure was supposed to be more, somehow."

"Perhaps he had it all changed to precious gems," I suggested. "You can hold a king's ransom in the palm of your hand that way. Besides, Fastred doesn't seem to have been the showy type. I mean, look at this place-a chair, a brief message, and possibly a treasure. The soul of efficiency. Makes sense to boil all the gold and silver down to a box of jewels."

"Maybe the gnome took it," Flim said frowning."Took it and hid it before he came and got us. Maybe he even killed Grodoveth and made up his story when he saw us."

"I doubt if there is a gnome in all of Faerыn," said Lindavar, "capable of beheading a chap the size of Grodoveth.

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