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but it took some clever magic to convince her and the jordain Matteo of my
sterling character and good intentions."
"Now I know you're lying," Kiva said scathingly. "First, you're not terribly
clever. Second, you have no character of any kind, and third, your intentions are
never good. More to the point, neither Matteo nor Tzigone can be convinced of
anything by magical means."
"Ah, but the spell was not on them, but me! That talisman of Keturah's? The
one that protected the possessor against me and my agents? I had it
reproduced. I gave the copy to Matteo to pass along to Tzigone, and I carry
Keturah s original for my own protection."
The scorn melted from the elf woman's face. "It protects you from yourself!"
"Just so," Dhamari said smugly. "Since the jordain and the girl are currently
the greatest threats to my success, the talisman protects me by ensuring that I
do nothing to reveal my true thoughts and purposes." The wizard's smile held
great satisfaction. "If you wish to retract your insults, I will listen graciously."
"Just get the girl to the Nath with all haste. See she learns the spell of
summoning on the way!"
Kiva passed her hand over the globe, erasing the image of the gloating
human ferret. She tucked the scrying device into a bag and began to climb down
the steep ravine that led to a small, well-hidden valley.
The ground here was barren except for a covering of silvery lichen, and
roughly level except for the single, conical mound that rose some twenty meters
toward the slate-blue sky. Jagged rocks lay strewn about in a pattern that
suggested a long-ago explosion. There were several places like this in the Nath.
This was the least daunting and therefore the best choice for Kiva's current
purpose.
She walked over to the mound and gingerly pressed one hand against the
mossy side. She felt a faint vibration, a not-quite-audible hum of magic and
power and ancient, primal evil. Kiva, despite all that she had endured and all that
she had become, shivered with dread.
As tentatively as an urchin whistling in a graveyard, she began to hum an
eerie little melody, a song that sometimes echoed through the wild places and
passes of Halruaa. It was an act that mingled bravado and desperation, and as
she sang the hairs on the back of her neck rose in protest. The evil beneath her
hand chilled her like the caress of a malevolent ghost.
Still Kiva sang, preparing for the task that might yet fall to her. There was
always the chance that Keturah's daughter could not accomplish the task she
had been born to do.
Kiva sang until her throat was dry and tight, but her efforts brought no
change to the humming magic of the mound. She fell silent, unsure whether to be
disappointed or relieved. As Keturah had once told her, it was rank foolishness to
summon a creature one could neither understand nor control.
No one understood the Unseelie folk, the fey creatures that haunted the
mountain passes and wild places of Halruaa. Hidden gates led into the
netherworld of the Unseelie Court-a place of evil, a land not quite in this world.
Few who entered it returned. Even the Crinti feared the dark fairies and would
flee at the sound of their song.
Precisely why Kiva needed this spell.
Accepting the Crinti into her plan was rather like inviting rats into a granary to
eat unwanted surplus. The nasty gray creatures-whether two-legged or four-were
unlikely to leave once their purpose was fulfilled. The appearance of dark fairies
would send Shanair and her muscle-bound sisters scuttling back to Dambrath.
As far as Kiva knew, no one had ever managed to summon the Unseelie
folk, much less control them. Decades of study into dark elven magic had given
her some insight into the dark fairies, for legend had it that ancestors of the
southland's drow had learned their ways during captivity by the dark fairies, to
their great sorrow and utter damnation.
Be that as it might. Years of work had yielded a promising spell. Research,
however, was one thing, talent quite another. Neither Dhamari nor Kiva had the
gift of summoning. Keturah had had it, to a degree that few Halruaans had ever
achieved. Unfortunately, the stubborn little wizard-wench would do nothing to
promote Kiva's cause. But Kiva, being elven, was able to plot a long path around
this obstacle.
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