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Sylora’s only comfort then was her deep-rooted belief that Dahlia was far too young and inexperienced, and far too dedicated, to succeed in the facilitation of the needed catastrophe The wizard horded the very real possibility, indeed the probability, that she would have to rescue Szass Tam’s victory in the west Then, she hoped, the archlich would come to see the true limitations of that wretched elf

"Borboy, really?" Athrogate asked with a snicker for the tenth tih Captain Borlann’s keep The slim stone tower, known as Crow’s Nest, had been only recently erected on Luskan’s Closeguard Island where the River Mirar spilled out into the Trackless Sea

Jarlaxle continued his aatory nicknah Captain Borlann He possessed his father’s title, and the randfather Kensidan But there, at least according to the old seadogs haunting Luskan’s allies, the reseate remarked

"As was Kensidan," Jarlaxle replied "But possessed of a presence that could fill a rooh old bird Bwahaha! Bird, eh?"

"I understood you"

"Then why ain’t ye laughing?"

"Figure it out"

The dwarf shook his head anda companion with a sense of huate asked after a while

"Dahlia uses every weapon to her advantage, of that I am certain"

"But for that one? Borboy?"

"Surely you’re not jealous over an elf," Jarlaxle remarked with eyebrows raised

"Bah!" the dwarf snorted "Ain’t nothing like that, ye fool" He paused and put his hands on his hips as he looked at a candlelithigh up the h "Though I’d have to be a dead dwarf not to see the fight’n’fun in that one"

Jarlaxle gave a wry little grin but let it go at that Like the dwarf, he stood staring at the keep Nothing see while, but then from thecaiant crow Both dwarf and drow ca ht was snuffed all at once Men began rushing around the co with a blue-white flicker fro bolt

Then cahter flash, and a report of thunder that shook the ground beneath their feet Theexploded outward, glass shattering and flying, and along with it … black feathers

Athrogate e sound then blew it out with a "Bwahaha!" Across the way, a giant black bird dived out the , opened wide its wings, and floated across the coht in front of Jarlaxle and Athrogate

Before either dwarf or drow could say a word, the crow disguise flipped back into a fine, glossy cloak, to reveal its nener

"Let us be quick," Dahlia said to the pair, walking past and fiddling with one of the two earrings in her right ear as she did "Borlann was a "

"Be quick for … where?" Athrogate asked, but Dahlia didn’t slow

"Illusk," Jarlaxle answered before she could, and with one glance back at the co beside hiate led, before finally reht!"

Korvin Dor’crae paced about Valindra Shadowe lass, trying to use those memories of his past life as a distraction

It didn’t work

He thought of Dahlia again soon enough, waiting for her to return with Jarlaxle and the dwarf She had gone to see Borlann the Crow--her newest diamond, her newest lover Surely Dor’crae wasn’t jealous of that He cared not at all for such petty issues as sex, but there remained implications for him in the elf’s proh his black hair, and could clearly picture the lass showed no ie Borlann was Dahlia’s tenth lover--ten he knew about, anyway--and all ten were accounted for, two on her right ear, Borlann and Dor’crae, and eight on her left Aivento a certain species of spider known for h not all of those diamonds on Dahlia’s left ear represented males

Dahlia didn’t ed theht then utterly destroyed them When Dor’crae had entered his tryst with the elf, he’d known that, and was confident in his power to defeat her, should it come to that In fact, he’d entertained the notion of not only defeating her, but had fantasized about converting her into a servile vampire

But he had coht with Dahlia in hiswith Kozah’s Needle, and had witnessed two of the fights with her former lovers And more than that, he had co

He couldn’t beat her, and he knew it When Dahlia had had her fill of hi, for expediency, to make a point to Szass Tam, or for simple boredom or whiain," Valindra said, drawing Dor’crae frohts

He turned and looked at the doorway, expecting the lich referred to Dahlia But seeing nothing there, he glanced back at Valindra, who redirected his attention to the eem, her own phylactery, which had come to serve Dor’crae in an entirely different elanced back at the door, and if he had any breath, he would have held it

"She coem, "with our allies for the journey to the source of power"

The skull gem’s eyes flared "Szass Tam watches," a woh the ical conduit "He would not have this opportunity pass us by"

"I understand," Dor’crae assured her