The Cleric Quintet: Night Masks

 

To Capture a Soul adderly and Danica had slept very late that day. Brennan did not appear with Cadderly's break-fast, and Cadderly, in his modesty, was glad of that. He suspected that the innkeeper's son had probably come to the door, then had turned away, blushing, at what he had heard inside. With a private



smile, Cadderly thought no more about it. The lovers left their room shortly after noon, taking a meal together in the hearth room. Fredegar served them himself -  an unusual occurrence that Cadderly realized was out of sorts only when the innkeeper asked him if he had seen anything of Brennan that morning. Still, Cadderly was too consumed by the presence of Danica to appreciate the implications of the missing youth.



He promised to keep an eye out for Brennan when he and Danica went out walking. Fredegar nodded his thanks, but he was plainly worried. "The mistakes of adolescence," Cadderly explained to Danica, not too concerned for the welfare of the youth. He figured that Brennan had been out late in pursuit of some young lady, and that maybe this time Brennan had made the catch. For all of Cadderly's inner turmoil, all the world seemed calm that morning, with Danica beside him again, and the young priest couldn't even begin to think dark and ominous thoughts.



They left the inn together, crossed the wide way of Lakeview Street, and moved down to Impresk Lake's sandy shore. The breeze was stiff off the water, chill but not cold, and long-winged birds zipped about at impossible angles and cut sharply in daring maneuvers all about them. The normal morning mist had long since dissipated, leaving the two with a grand view of the island that comprised the wealthier section of Carradoon, and the wide, arching stone bridge that led to it. Several multistory structures peeked up above the trees, and a fleet of boats, both pleasure and fishing, meandered around the land mass.



"I suppose I might come to accept the beard," Danica said after many minutes of quiet watching. She moved over and tugged at an exceptionally long strand. "As long as you keep it trimmed!" "And I love you," Cadderly replied with a contented smile. "Will you stay beside me?"



"Are you certain you want me to?" Danica said in a teasing tone, but there was a subtle undercurrent of dread in her question.



"Stay with me," Cadderly said again, more forcefully. Danica looked back to the water and did not answer. The request seemed so simple and obvious, and yet, the woman realized that many obstacles remained. She had gone to the Edificant Library to study the ancient works of Grandmaster Penpahg D'Ahn, the Most Holy One, prophet and founder of her order. Only in the library could Danica continue her work, and that work was very important to her, the culmination of all her personal goals. As important as Cadderly?



Danica was not honestly sure, but she knew that if she gave up her goals to remain beside her lover, then she would forever look back to this time and wonder what might have been, what level of perfection she might have achieved.



And there remained, too, the war. The last few days had come as a reprieve to the battle-wean7 woman, despite the attack on the road, but Danica knew that this quiet time was only temporary. More fighting would break out, if not now, then in the spring, and Danica had long ago resolved to be a part of that.



Cadderly, though, had run away from it, and the woman now did not know if he would change his mind.



So Danica did not answer the question, and Cadderly, wise enough to understand her hesitancy and her fears, did not ask it again. Day by day, he decided. They would pass their time together day by day and see what changes the wind across the lake brought.



They walked quietly along the beach for some time, Cadderly leading Danica to one of his favorite places. The shoreline jutted sharply out into the water in a small, tree-covered peninsula with banks only a foot above the water level. A single path, barely a foot wide, led the way into the thick tangle, ending at a small clearing right in the center of the peninsula. Although they were barely a half-mile from the bustle of Carradoon, and barely a half-mile from the island section as well, it seemed to Cadderly and Danica that the world had disappeared beyond the shelter of those trees.



Danica looked slyly at Cadderly, suddenly suspecting the reason he had brought her out here.



But Cadderly had other ideas. He led Danica down another narrow path, to the very tip of the peninsula, beside a small pool formed by the waves whenever a large boat passed by. Cadderly indicated a mossy stone and bade Danica to sit.



Cadderly walked the perimeter of the pool, muttering something under his breath that Danica could not make out. She soon came to understand that the young priest was chanting, a magical spell, most likely.



Cadderly halted the walk. His body swayed gently, a willow on the wind, he seemed, and his arms moved about in graceful circles. Danica's eyes settled on Cadderly's holy symbol, the single eye-and-candle design set in the center of his wide-brimmed hat. She felt a pulse of power from that emblem; it seemed to glow with some inner strength.



Cadderly's arms waved again as he reached low in front of him and swung them slowly out wide to either side.



The water reacted to his call. The center of the pool bubbled with sudden energy, then rolled outward, great ripples moving to every edge. Danica moved her feet in close to her, thinking that she was going to get splashed, but the water did not break the edges of the pool. As the waves crested, there came a great hissing sound and the water vaporized, rolling up into the air to form a grayish cloud.



More water rolled out to be consumed, and when it was done, just a few small puddles remained where the pool had been. The cloud hovered for a few moments, until the pull of the wind broke it apart to nothingness.



Danica blinked in amazement and looked to Cadderly, who stood very still, staring at the mud-and-puddle pit.



"You have become powerful," she remarked after some time had passed. "For a nonbeliever."



Cadderly glared at her but could not sustain any anger in the face of her disarming smile. Through his smile, though, Danica recognized the young man's torment.



"Perhaps it is just a variation of a wizard's magic, as you fear," she offered, "but perhaps the strength does come from Deneir. You seem too quick to deny what others of your order - "



"My order?" Cadderly was quick to interrupt, his tone both sarcastic and incredulous.



"Your holy symbol vibrated with power," Danica replied. "I witnessed it myself."



"A conduit to the energy, much like the tome on my desk," Cadderly said more sharply than Danica deserved. He seemed to understand that, and his tone softened considerably as he continued. "Whenever I call on the magic, I merely recall some of the words in that book."



"And it is a book of Deneir," Danica reasoned.



Cadderly shook his head. "Do you know of Belisarius?" he asked.



"The wizard in the tower to the south?" Danica said.



Cadderly nodded. "Belisarius has a similar book - a spell book. If he attached a god's name to it, would it then become a holy book?"



"It is not the same," Danica muttered, frustrated.



"I do not know," Cadderly said finally.



Danica looked to the lake behind her, to the gently lapping waves against the many small rocks at the peninsula's tip, determined to change the subject. Then she looked at the muddy hole, somewhat disconcertingly. "How long will it take to refill?" she asked, clearly not happy with the results of Cadderly's display. "Or must it wait for the next rain?"



Cadderly smiled and bent low, scooping a few drops of the remaining water into his cupped palms. He pulled his hand in close to his chest, again muttered some words under his breath.



"As the graceful rain must fall!" he ended, then he threw his hands out before him, threw the water to the air above the muddy pit. A tiny cloud appeared, hovering and churning in the air, and a moment later, a steady stream of water poured forth, splashing into the mud.



Before Danica ended her first burst of laughter, the pool had returned, as full as when she had first seen it.



"You find this humorous?" Cadderly asked, narrowing his gray eyes and thumping his fists against his hips so that he seemed a caricature of wounded pride.



"I find you humorous," Danica retorted, and Cadderly's expression revealed that he was truly hurt.



"You have all the proof right before you," Danica explained, "more proof than the vast majority of ordinary people will ever know, and yet you remain so filled with doubts. My poor Cadderly, so damned by the unending questions of his own intelligence!"



Cadderly looked to the pool he had magically evaporated and then refilled, and chuckled at the irony of it all. Daniea took his hand then and led him back to the clearing at the center of the peninsula. Cadderly thought to keep going, down the other narrow path and back out to the wider beaches, but Daniea held tight to his hand and did not continue, forcing him to turn about.



They were alone in the sun and the breeze, and all the world seemed peaceful. Daniea smiled mischievously, her almond eyes telling Cadderly without the slightest doubt that it was not yet time to leave.



It was nearly twilight when Cadderly and Daniea made their way back to the Dragon's Codpiece. Farther down Lakeview Street, fatherly Ivan watched their progress. The dwarf was much more at ease than he had been, and the safe return of Cadderly and Daniea told him that his suspicions might be unfounded, that he was acting as silly as a mother hen.



But was it a coincidence, just a moment later, when a beggar came to the end of the alleyway next to the Dragon's Codpiece, and appeared to be watching the young couple as intently as Ivan?



Ivan sensed that the man meant to go after the two, and the dwarf started to make his way slowly up the street. He didn't have his great axe with him - it wasn't considered proper to stand about on one of Carradoon's streets so obviously armed - but he was wearing his deer-antlered helmet. If this beggar made a move against Cadderly, Ivan resolved to gore him good.



Cadderly and Daniea turned into the inn, and the beggar leaned casually against the wall. Ivan stopped, perplexed and feeling very foolish. He looked all about, as if expecting everyone else on the street to be pointing at him and chuckling, but no one had apparently noticed anything unusual about his stalking advance.



"Stupid dwarf," he muttered under his breath. "What're ye getting so anxious about? Just a poor man, looking for a bit of coins." Ivan stopped and scratched his yellow beard curiously when he looked back toward the alleyway.



The man was gone.



Daniea giggled, but Cadderly was not amused at the knock on his door - not at that particular moment.



"Oh, go and answer it," Daniea whispered to him. "It is probably the innkeeper's son, who you have been worried over the whole of the day!"



"I do not want to go," Cadderly replied, pouting like a child. This brought another chuckle from Daniea, who pulled the bedclothes up tight about her neck.



Groaning with every move, Cadderly pulled himself out of bed and eased over to the door, wrapping himself in his discarded cloak.



"Rufo?" he asked as he cracked the door open. The hallway was dark, the candles in the great chandelier atop the stairs having long since died away. Only the glow from the hearth room's fireplace offered any light at all. Still, Cadderly could not mistake Rufo's tilting posture.



"My greetings," the angular man replied. "And my apologies for disturbing you." Cadderly blushed deeply, a sight the angular man obviously enjoyed.



"What do you want?"



"You are needed in the hearth room," Rufo explained, "as soon as you can."



"No," The answer seemed simple enough, and Cadderly moved to shut the door, but Rufo stuck his foot in the way.



"Headmaster Avery will return with a delegation from the Ilmater chapel," Rufo lied, for he knew well that Headmaster Avery was snoring contentedly back in their room.



Cadderly looked back over his shoulder to the balcony doors, to the blackness of the night. "What time is it?" he asked.



"It is very late," Rufo admitted. "The priests of flmater wish this done in private. They seek information about the deaths of their acolytes at the Edificant Library during the time of the chaos curse."



"I have already written my testimony - "



"Avery asks that you come," Rufo pressed. "He has not required much of you, certainly less than he asks of me." Obvious resentment rang clearly in the angular man's tone. "You can do this much for him, impudent Cadderly, after all the headmaster has done for you."



The argument seemed solid enough. Cadderly groaned again, then nodded. "Ten minutes," he said.



Danica's giggling renewed as soon as the door was closed.



"I will not be gone long," Cadderly promised as he pulled on his clothes.



"It does not matter," Danica replied coyly. "I am certain I shall fall asleep immediately." She stretched languidly and rolled to her side, and Cadderly, cursing his luck, left the room.



He, too, must have been sleepy, for he didn't even notice the weasellike man - was it a man? - behind a slightly opened door, watching him go.



"Cadderly?" Danica uttered the question, but she heard it as though someone else had spoken the words. A smell of exotic flowers permeated the room.



Somewhere deep in her mind, she was surprised that she had fallen asleep so soon. Or had she? How long had Cadderly been gone? she wondered. And what was that smell?



"Cadderly?" she asked again.



"Hardly."



The word should have sounded like a warning to the woman - she knew she should open her eyes and find out what in the Nine Hells was going on ... but she couldn't.



She felt a thumb, a gloved hand, she believed, pressed against her eyelid, and then her eye was forced open, just a crack. Danica tried to focus her thoughts - why was she so sleepy?



Through the blur, she saw herself in a small mirror. She knew that the mirror was hanging around someone's neck.



Whose neck?



"Cadderly?"



The laughter that came back at her filled her with dread, and her eyes popped open against the permeating drowsiness, suddenly alert.



She saw Ghost for just an instant, too briefly to strike out, or even to cry out. Then she fell back into her own thoughts, into the blackness that suddenly became her own mind, and she felt a burning pain throughout every inch of her body.



Danica did not understand what was happening, but she sensed that it was not good. She felt herself moving away, but knew that her body was not moving.



Another blackness loomed in the distance, across a gray expanse, and Danica felt herself pulled toward it, compelled to sink into it. The first blackness, her mortal coil, was left behind, far behind.



Few in all of Faerun would have understood, but few in all of Faerun were as well versed in meditation as Danica.



Her identity!



Someone was stealing her very identity!



"No!" Danica tried to cry out, but control of her body's voice was almost gone by then and the word came out as an indecipherable whimper.



Danica focused her will, dismissed the continuing smell that she now suspected was some sort of sleeping poison. She located that approaching blackness and pushed against it with all her mental strength, understanding that to enter it was to be lost.



A moment later, she felt another presence, similarly wandering out of body.



Her thoughts screamed a thousand protests at it, but it did not respond; it just kept making its way for the blackness that Danica had left behind.



"Where are they?" Cadderly asked impatiently when he came down into the hearth room. The fire burned low and the place was empty, except for him and for Rufo, sitting nervously at a table in the far corner.



"Well?" Cadderly growled as he moved over and took a seat opposite the angular man.



"Patience," Rufo replied. "It will not be long."



Cadderly leaned back and threw one arm over the back of the chair. By his estimation, it had already been too long. He looked at Rufo again, noting a subtle undercurrent of nervousness in the angular man. Cadderly dismissed the feeling and any suspicions it started to encourage, reminding himself that Kierkan Rufo was always nervous.



The young priest dosed his eyes and let the minutes slip past, let his thoughts linger back to Danica and the pleasures and implications this day had brought. He would never leave her again, of that much he was sure.



Cadderly's eyes popped wide.



"What is it?" he heard Rufo ask loudly. Cadderly studied the man, saw Rufo blink.



Heard Rufo blink!



The fire crackled so powerfully that Cadderly thought the whole wall would be aflame, but when he turned to regard the hearth, the embers barely seemed to glow with their last flickers of life.



A fly buzzed by the bar. Gods! Cadderly thought, the thing must be the size of a small pony!



He saw nothing there.



And then he was aware of that song again, playing softly in the back of his mind. Instead of trying to figure all of this out, Cadderly wisely just allowed himself to feel.



Something - some danger? - had put him on his guard, and he had subconsciously replayed a page from the tome, enacted a magical spell to heighten his hearing.



"What is it?" Rufo asked him again, more urgently. Cadderly did not look at the man, just held a hand up to silence him.



Breathing.



Cadderly heard the steady inhale and exhale of breath a few tables away. He looked over but saw nothing.



But there was something, someone, there! Shifting his probe, Cadderly felt the magical energy.



"What are you saying?" he heard Rufo ask, and he realized only then that his lips were moving, forming the words from yet another page of the Tome of Universal Harmony.



Cadderly saw a silvery outline of a young man, recognized the stringy locks of hair hanging down to one side of the invisible intruder's head.



Rufo shoved him roughly, forcing his attention.



"What?" the angular man demanded.



Cadderly started to rebuke him, then stopped and instead locked his intent gaze on Rufo.



Danica calmed her thoughts; she had to beat the other presence to the void of her physical mind. She turned her spirit about, willed her mind to connect fully with the tiny part of her that she had left behind, the part that had forced her mouth to utter that pitiful sound. She sensed the other presence pushing at the blackness then, nearly entering her form.



She felt a burning sensation.



Danica saw too many things in the next instant for her to possibly sort through them. She saw, most clearly, murders, dozens of murders. She saw Night Masks.



The assassin band, the scourge of flfestgate, had killed her parents. She saw a clan of giants, through the eyes of a giant.



She saw the other giants die at her own giant hands.



She saw Cadderly, on the road to Carradoon, huddled at his desk over the Tome of Universal Harmony, crouched behind the protection of his partly opened door.



To her horror, Danica realized that she was recalling someone else's memories, had connected with the small part this other identity had left behind on its journey to take her body! And that this person, whoever it might be, had been close to Cadderly on several occasions.



Let me outl her thoughts protested.



The other identity cried out to her in rage and agony and disbelief. She heard no words, but understood its meaning acutely, understood that her focused rage could push her back to where she belonged.



Let me out!



Danica pushed against the foreign blackness with all her mental strength, called upon her rage in combination with her years of mental training. The burning intensified, then abated, and Danica felt a physical presence once more -  her own body.



The smell returned and Danica felt a doth pressed against her face. Giving in to her warrior instincts, she locked her fingers into a gouging position and cocked her arm for a strike.



She fell hard against the floor, but she didn't realize it.



Shadows, evil, misshapen things, grumbled and growled from the angular man's shoulders, their demeanor toward Cadderly obviously hostile. Rufo reached out across the small table to touch Cadderly again, but the young priest slapped his hand away.



"Cadderly!" Rufo responded, but the young priest sensed clearly that the man's apparent concern was a facade. Before Rufo could move again, Cadderly pushed against the table, slamming its other edge into the angular man's belly.