Chapter 9 – Part 6

Aruunis’ companion alerted first, well before the elf heard anyone at the door. A moment later, the large brass handles turned, and a well-muscled half-elf in a chain shirt shoved them both open.

Aruunis eyed the half-blood across the length of the library. Tables and movable shelves had been pushed to the side, to make the forty feet or so between the library’s main entrance and the chair upon which the elven druid sat bare of any furnishings. Even the rugs had been removed, leaving a cold, wooden floor.

The druid had cast a fire-resisting spell on the floor, placed several potted plants near the doorway and along the walls, and banked the fireplace to blazing. He’d also cast several defensive spells on his person. There were several ways that this could end, and Aruunis had calculated only a one in five chance that he and Parnain would not come to blows.

The half-blood picked his head up, the proud face staring from a tangle of blonde hair, the icy blue eyes clearly meant to intimidate. But Aruunis could tell it was half bravado, or at least half.

He hadn’t even been sure that the Medani would come. There was no profit in it, at least no profit that the half-elf was yet aware of.

“Won’t you come in, Master Parnain?” he asked pleasantly. “There is mead and water, should you be thirsty.”

Parnain smirked, but did not answer. He stepped into the library and let the doors fall shut behind him. The half-blood tipped his head to the side slightly and studied the elven Gatekeeper.

“What do you want?” Aruunis finally asked, after a half-minute of silence.

“Shouldn’t that be my question?” Parnain chuckled. To Aruunis it sounded forced, but the half-blood’s walk was casual as he walked forward and held his hands out to the fire’s warmth. “You sent out a call for me, but wouldn’t say why.”

“And you came, without me paying off the bookkeepers of your House,” Aruunis said. “Quite against protocol. But you came anyway, before a contract was negotiated. So you want something. And you think I can give it.”

Parnain snorted. “You tickled my fancy, dirt-worshipper, nothing more. I was here anyway, so I decided to see what there was to see.”

“Parnain d’Medani,” Aruunis said. “His father was Medani, his mother was not, he rose quickly through the ranks after his parents were killed during a naval engagement between Cyrans and Lhazaar pirates that caught many civilians in the crossfire. Infiltrated a cult worshipping the Mockery, and some say he learned their faith with their tactics.”

“Aruunis, son of the tapestry makers,” Parnain countered. “Liquidated his family’s assets after he was the sole survivor of a political purge, which publicly was blamed on fanatical Silver Flame worshippers. Supposedly wrote off Karrnath, couldn’t stand the undead, and became a druid. Married into an Aundair family, a wealthy one, but didn’t advertise it to his fellow druids. You’ve spent decades if not centuries being low-key, but in the past few weeks you’ve been spending money like water. For some reason Vadalis is giving you succor.”

“Breland hired your services over two months ago when they decided to bolster the Eldeen with their troops,” Aruunis returned. “You were given carte blanche to do your favorite thing, kill changelings. Theoretically you only go after changelings who are Aundairian spies, but with no one else possessing you uncanny ability to find shapeshifters, you’re able to kill who you want and claim that it’s part of the job.” The elf grimaced. “Not even our deathless-worshipping ancestors bathed in so much blood.”

“Your ancestors, you mean,” sneered Parnain. “I’ve heard of your distaste for the Khorvar, watering down the blood they say.”

“In your case even more so,” Aruunis said. Then the elf cast a spell.

Parnain was quick, but the humanoid form that stepped out of the fireplace was quicker. It was a fire elemental, rough in form at first, merely a walking blob of flame some six feet tall. But as it placed itself between the druid and the assassin, it began to take on sharper detail.

“I do not fear your summoned playthings,” Parnain snarled, drawing a dagger in one hand and a longsword in his other.

“No, of course not,” Aruunis said, as he gripped a bunch of holly and mistletoe. The potted plants came alive, and their long branches and vines whipped out, trying to ensnare the Medani.

“So you called me here to kill me, is that it?” spat Parnain. “Better that you have tried!”

“Medani prides itself on detecting threats,” Aruunis said. “Information is key.” He twisted his hand, and the plants moved in, catching ankles and wrists. Parnain slashed at them, severing branches, but they kept him occupied. “But the smallest bits of knowledge lie in the oddest places.”

Aruunis gestured again, and the fire elemental finished its shape. It now resembled a glowing red half-elf, not too different in features from Parnain, carrying a flame version of a heavy pick. The weapon that Parnain’s father used.

Parnain growled a curse, and severed one of the plants. Another swing went towards the center of the fire elemental, but it dodged. “Going to kill me or talk me to death?” the half-blood growled.

“Making sure I have your attention,” Aruunis said. “And keeping you too busy to study me for a death attack, as the Mockery’s cultists taught you.” He spoke a word in Ignan, and the fire elemental lost its fine detail, becoming a humanoid blob again. “Some years ago I was talking to some fish in the Scions Sound,” he said casually. Parnain and the plants continued their battle, while the fire elemental made lunges at the half-blood designed solely to keep him off-balance. “Some think talking to fish is a silly waste of magical power, but it is a wonderful way to gather information, especially about shipwrecks.”

Parnain spun, uprooting an entire plant with his blades. “I will kill you druid, for this attack on my person!”

“You’ll not,” Aruunis said, casting another spell. Poisonous snakes formed from the magical energy of the natural world, and surrounded the half-blood, fangs glistening. Parnain gritted his teeth and whirled, trying to avoid vine, fang, and fire. If they’d been doing more than merely trying to keep him off-balance, he would soon take serious injury. “Instead you will dance with my creations and hear my story. And try no to take it personally, because you likely would have attacked me anyway.”

Parnain’s inarticulate growl was an acknowledgement of this, as the half-blood severed one of the summoned vipers with one blow.

“Anyway,” the druid continued, after summoning two more vipers to keep the half-blood dancing. “I found the ship at the bottom of the sound. The bodies were mostly devoured by crabs, but the skeletons were still fairly recognizable. Many human, some hobgoblin, and some half-elf. But no half-elf females. No elf-shaped skulls on bodies with large pelvic bones.”

Parnain got a wild look in his eyes as he slashed at the fire elemental. It responded by singeing his shoulder with a hard punch.

“But there was one body, female, with long, rubbery bones. A changeling.”

The fire elemental took detail again, this time of a half-elven woman, a wedding band on one hand, and a Medani sigil on her gown. Parnain howled with rage, and slashed at the fire elemental. He grazed it, but a vine tripped him, and a newly summoned large monkey landed on his back and began pummeling his head.

Aruunis cast another spell, this one boosted by a dragonshard, and an air elemental formed. The summoned elemental picked Parnain up, monkey and all, and flew high into the ceiling, slamming the half-blood’s head on a rafter, before dropping him to the floor with a crash. The snakes bit, but at the bidding of their master, did not inject venom. The vines wrapped around Parnain’s wrist, taking advantage of the stunned killer’s weak grip.

“It took me a long while to put all the pieces together,” Aruunis said, gesturing again. The firey half-elven woman’s face ran together like wax, and a changeling’s face showed. “Even then it was speculation. I shelved it, concentrating on other things.”

Parnain staggered to his feet and slashed again, then again, and then again, killing plants, snakes, and monkey. He then stood with his back to a bookshelf, his chest heaving. “Call them off and we talk,” Parnain said.

“Put your weapons away,” Aruunis said. Parnain hesitated. “Half-breed, if I had wanted you dead, you would be dead,” snapped Aruunis. “I thought I proved that. Now put your blades away.”

Parnain hesitated, then did so. Aruunis gestured, and the elementals took a step back. “You called me here to tell me you claim my mother was a changeling?” Parnain scoffed. “More original lies have been told.”

“No, I called you here to let you know that a cleric used a speak with dead spell to discover that her own son had killed her,” Aruunis said. “Her last words to you were ‘Parnain, understand, understand that I never meant to lie.’”

The blonde half-elf’s face contorted with rage, and he threw two daggers through the air. The air elemental flew upwards and caught them with its body, spinning them to the floor. The fire elemental, its body a humanoid blob once again, stepped forward, its limbs reaching forward. The books behind Parnain began to smell of smoke, and the half-blood’s skin began to sear.

“Get control of yourself,” Aruunis said. “You cannot defeat a druid who is prepared, and you cannot get out of the Eldeen alive if the entire House Vadalis is looking for you. I do not want to fight you, and I do not want to blackmail you, and the cleric in question didn’t know the significance of what I had paid him for. Not to mention that this was almost ten years ago and he died shortly thereafter while trying to direct some ghouls against a Talenta tribe. The dinosaurs ate ghouls faster than the ghouls could paralyze the dinosaurs’ handlers.”

Parnain forced himself to be calm. “Fine. Make them stand back.”

“I’ll do better,” Aruunis said, waving his hand. Both the fire elemental and the air elemental unfolded and winked out. “But come no closer, I can bring them back faster than you can act.”

Parnain took a step away from the bookshelves, and quickly drank a potion to caused the majority of his bruises and burns to fade. “Even if what you said about my mother is true, what’s the point of all of this?”

“You’re here,” Aruunis said. “I’m taking advantage of that. I didn’t plan it.”

“You want me to do something for you or you tell everyone this lie about me,” Parnain spat.

“You spot liars better than you like yourself,” Aruunis said. “But no, I’m not going to try to blackmail you. Nor will I try to buy you, I don’t think I could afford it, not with the money I’m spending, anyway. I want to trade with you.”

“You’re going to produce some potions for me?” snorted the half-blood.

“I’m going to give you a line on one of the highest-ranking agents in Thrane intelligence,” Aruunis said. He smiled, hoping that the potions of glibness that he’d purchased worked as advertised. If not, at least this would be a test run. He only had one more left, and he’d be needing it more than he needed the one running through him now. “The changeling paladin of the Silver Flame? The one reputedly in Droaam?”

“She’s out of service now, vanished months ago,” Parnain said dubiously. Aruunis could tell that the half-blood believed him, even if the Medani’s words were still skeptical.

“Let’s jump past the dickering,” Aruunis said. “You’re going to slip into Aundair’s main camp on their western front, just across the river and to the north, I’ll tell you where. There’s a half-elven commander named Hackkim. I need him killed, and a book bound in black lizardskin, maybe dragonskin, stolen. It’s heavily trapped, but you should be able to bypass the traps with your training. It’s a book of ciphers. I need to see it, then you can sell it to the Reachers, or the Brelish, or whoever you want. And then, I tell you how to find a woman named Ois Silva.” He gave a grim smile. “And you get to take down a changeling that has a huge price on her head in certain quarters. And ah, any speculation I have about your mother stays with me.”

Parnain stared at him for a moment. “This doesn’t mean I won’t kill you someday.”

“You have two sunrises from the one occurring now to kill Hackkim and bring me the book,” Aruunis said. “Otherwise I’ll go through other channels to achieve the same result. Not to mention that my intel on Ois won’t stay fresh for long.”

Parnain snorted. “We have a deal, druid, but after Hackkim, and after Ois, comes you.”

Only after the half-elf stormed out and slammed the doors behind him did Aruunis allow himself to exhale noisily.