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.He turned back to Ivan and Pikel, his face screwed up curiously.“They’re locked,” he said, and it was the first time Cadderly had ever known the doors to the Edificant Library to be locked.Ivan’s tremendous axe came sweeping off his shoulder; Pikel lowered his club into battering ram position and began scraping the ground with one foot, like a bull about to charge.Both relaxed and straightened unexpectedly when they saw the doors open behind Cadderly.“Ye’re sure about that?” Ivan asked the young priest.Cadderly turned and eyed the opening skeptically.“Swollen from the heat of the fire,” he decided, and with Ivan and Pikel beside him, the young priest entered the library.All the silent cries that he should flee flew from Cadderly the moment he crossed the threshold.He took this as a good sign, a confirmation that he had overreacted, but, in truth, Cadderly had crossed into Rufo’s place, where Deneir could no longer warn him.The foyer was not badly damaged, though the scent of soot was nearly overwhelming.To the left sat the small chapel, obviously where the fire had been most intense.The place’s heavy door was apparently closed, though the friends could not see it, for a thick tapestry had been draped over itCadderly eyed that tapestry for a long while.It showed elves, dark elves.Cadderly knew how valuable that tapestry was, among the finest artwork in all the library.It had belonged to Pertelope; Ivan had used its Depictions to fashion the small hand-crossbow that Cadderly now wore on his belt.What was it doing here? the young priest wondered.Who would think to use such a precious piece of irreplaceable art as a blockade against soot?“Seems like the fire was contained,” Ivan offered.Of course it had been contained, both dwarves and Cadderly realized when they took a moment to think about it.The library was more stone than wood, and there really was very little to burn in the place.What, then, had caused so intense a fire?Ivan started right, Pikel bobbing after, for the kitchen, but Cadderly caught him by the arm and swung him and his ducking brother about.“I want to check the main chapel,” the young priest stated, his voice detached.Ivan and Pikel looked to each other, shrugged, then turned curious gazes at Cadderly, who stood still for a long while, his eyes closed.He couldn’t hear the song of Deneir, he realized.And he could no longer hear Chaunticleer’s singing, though the priest was likely closer now than when they were in the mountains.It seemed as if Deneir had flown from this place.“What are ye thinking?” the always impatient Ivan asked.Cadderly opened his gray eyes and looked at the dwarf.“Well?” Ivan prompted.“What are ye thinking?”“This place has been desecrated,” Cadderly replied, and it wasn’t until he had spoken the words that he understood what he was saying.“Been burned,” Ivan corrected, looking to the tapestry, not understanding what Cadderly was talking about.“Desecrated!” Cadderly yelled, the word echoing off the stone walls and filtering up the stairway.The significance of the word, and the weight with which Cadderly had shouted it sent shivers coursing through both brothers.“What are ye talking about?” Ivan asked quietly.Cadderly just shook his head vigorously and spun off, making all speed for the main chapel, the holiest place in this holy place.He expected he would find priests there, brothers of both host orders, praying to their respective gods, fighting to bring Deneir and Oghma back to this library.The chapel was empty.Thick soot covered the intricate designs on the massive, arching pillars closest to the doors, but little else seemed out of place.The altar across the way seemed intact, all the items, the bells, the single chalice, and the twin scepters atop it exactly where they belonged.Their footsteps resounding, the three huddled close together and made their way toward the front.Ivan saw the body first, and pulled up to a quick stop, holding out a strong arm that bent Cadderly over at the waist and forced him to hold as well.Pikel continued forward a step, came around when he realized that the others were not following, and used their stunned expressions to guide his own eyes.“Oooo,” the green-bearded dwarf muttered.“Banner,” Cadderly explained, recognizing the burned corpse, though its skin hung in flaps away from the bone, and its face was half skull and half blackened skin.The eyes rotated in their sockets, settling on Cadderly, and a grotesque smile erupted, the remaining flaps of the body’s lips going wide.“Cadderly!” Banner cried excitedly, and he catapulted to a standing position, bones rattling, arms bouncing wildly, and head bobbing about.“Oh, Cadderly, how good of you to return!”Ivan and Pikel gasped in unison and fell back.They had fought undead monsters before, alongside Cadderly in the catacombs of this very building.Now they looked to the young priest for support for this was his place, his chapel.Cadderly, stunned, overwhelmed, fell back, too, and grabbed his hat and, more particularly, the holy symbol set in its front.“I knew-I simply knew!-that you’d come back,” the grotesque Banner rambled on.He clapped his hands, and one of his fingers, held by a mere thread of ligament, fell from the others and dangled in midair several inches from his hand.“I keep doing that!” the exasperated thing wailed, and he began reeling in his dropped digit as though it were some empty fishhook.Cadderly wanted to talk to Banner, to ask some questions, to get some answers.But where to begin? This was too crazy, too out of place.This was the Edificant Library, the sanctuary of Deneir and Oghma! This was a place of prayer and reverence, and yet, standing here before Cadderly was a creature that mocked that reverence, that made all the prayers sound like pretty words strung together for no particular purpose.For Banner had been a priest, a well-respected and high-ranking priest of Cadderly’s own god! Where was Deneir now? Cadderly had to wonder.How had Deneir allowed this grim fate to befall one so loyal?“Not to worry,” Banner assured the three, as if they were concerned about his finger.“Not to worry.I’ve become quite good at putting the pieces back together since the fire, actually [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]