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When the wizards’ caravan from the Hosttower of the Arcane saw the snow-capped peak of Kelvin’s Cairn rising from the flat horizon, they were more than a little relieved The hard journey from Luskan to the remote frontier settlement known as Ten-Towns had taken them more than three weeks
The first week hadn’t been too difficult The troop held close to the Sword Coast, and though they were traveling along the northern in off the Trackless Sea were coh
But when they rounded the westerne that many considered the northern boundary of civilization, and turned into Icewind Dale, the wizards quickly understood why they had been advised againstthis journey Icewind Dale, a thousand square miles of barren, broken tundra, had been described to the lands in all the Real on the northern side of the Spine of the World, Eldeluc, Dendybar the Mottled, and the other wizards from Luskan considered the reputation well-earned Bordered by ilacier on the east, and an unnavigable sea of countless icebergs on the north and east, Icewind Dale was attainable only through the pass between the Spine of the World and the coast, a trail rarely used by any but the most hardy of merchants
For the rest of their lives, twoclear in the wizards’ ht about this trip, two facts of life on Icewind Dale that travelers here never forgot The first was the endless h the land itself was continuously groaning in torment And the second was the eray and brown horizon lines
The caravan’s destinationfeatures in all the dale - ten sion, under the shadow of the only mountain, Kelvin’s Cairn Like everyone else who caht Ten-Towns’ scris made from the headbones of the knucklehead trout which swah, had even ains in er slipped through the folds in the older man’s robe and then cut deeper into the wrinkled flesh
Morkai the Red turned on his apprentice, his eyes locked into a widened, amazed set at the betrayal by the man he had raised as his own son for a quarter of a century
Akar Kessell let go of the dagger and backed away from his master, horrified that theHe ran out of distance for his retreat, stu into the rear wall of the siven as temporary quarters by the host city of Easthaven Kessell trerizzly consequences he would face in light of the growing possibility that the e had found a way to defeat even death itself
What terrible fate would his ical torments could a true and powerful wizard such as Morkai conjure that would outdo the hout the land?
The old ht began to fade fro eyes He didn’t ask why, he didn’t even outwardly question Kessell about the possible ain of poas involved somewhere; he knew - that was always the case in such betrayals What confused him was the instru apprentice whose stuttering lips could barely call out the simplest of cantrips, possibly hope to profit from the death of the only man who had ever shown him more than basic, polite consideration?
Morkai the Red fell dead It was one of the few questions he had never found the answer to
Kessell reible support, and continued to shake for long minutes Gradually, the confidence that had put hiain within him He was the boss now - Eldeluc, Dendybar the Mottled, and the other wizards who had one, he, Akar Kessell, would be rightfully awarded his own meditation chamber and alchemy lab in the Hosttower of the Arcane in Luskan
Eldeluc, Dendybar the Mottled, and the others had said so
"It is done, then?" the burly nated as the erly "The red-robed wizard of Luskan shan’t cast again!" he proclaimed too loudly for the likes of his fellow conspirators
"Speak quietly, fool," Dendybar the Mottled, a frail-looking man tucked defensively within the alleyway’s shadows demanded in the same monotonous voice that he always used Dendybar rarely spoke at all and never displayed any semblance of passion when he did Ever was he hidden beneath the low-pulled cowl of his robe There was so coldblooded about Dendybar that unnerved h the wizard was physically the s man on the merchant caravan that had made the four-hundred mile journey to the frontier settlement of Ten-Towns, Kessell feared him more than any of the others
"Morkai the Red, my former master, is dead," Kessell reiterated softly "Akar Kessell, this day forward known as Kessell the Red, is now appointed to the Wizard’s Guild of Luskan!"
"Easy, friend," said Eldeluc, putting a co shoulder "There will be time for a proper coronation e return to the city" He smiled and winked at Dendybar fro, lost in a daydrea appointain would he be taunted by the other apprentices, boys uild step by tedious step They would show him some respect now, for he would leap beyond even those who had passed him by in the earliest days of his apprenticeship, into the honorable position of wizard
As his thoughts probed every detail of the corayed over He turned sharply on the h he had discovered a terrible error Eldeluc and several of the others in the alley became uneasy They all fully understood the consequences if the arche of the Hosttower of the Arcane ever learned of their murderous deed
"The robe?" Kessell asked "Should I have brought the red robe?"