The Fallen Fortress - By R. A. Salvatore Page 0,58

his sleepy eyes and nodded.

He reached over his shoulder to grab Danica's hand, pulled her around to sit next to him, close to him.

"I have rested," he assured her. Danica had taught Cad-derly several rejuvenating meditation techniques, and she did not dispute the claim.

"The road has been more difficult than you expected," Danica said quietly, a trace of trepidation evident in her normally solid voice. "And with perhaps the most difficult obstacle yet ahead of us."

The young priest understood her reasoning. He, too, believed that the fury they had witnessed battering the slopes of Nightglow had been a calling card from Aballister. And he, too, was afraid. They had survived many brutal ordeals in the last year and over the last few days on the trail, but if that storm was any indication, their greatest trials were yet ahead of them, waiting for them in Castle Trinity. Since the manticore and chimera attack, Cadderly had known that Aballister was on to them, but he had not imagined the great strength of the wizard.

An image of the landslide and the tornado assaulted his thoughts. Cadderly had enacted great magics of his own recently, but that display was far beyond his powers, he believed, far beyond his imagination!

The young priest, trying to hold fast to his resolve, closed his eyes and sighed. "I did not expect so many troubles," he admitted.

"Even a dragon," Danica remarked. "I still cannot believe ..." Her voice trailed off into an incredulous sigh.

"I knew that dealing with old Fyren would not be an easy task," Cadderly agreed.

"Did we have to go there?" There remained no trace of anger in Danica's soft tones.

Cadderly nodded. "The world is a better place with the Ghearufu destroyed - and with Fyrentennimar destroyed, though I did not foresee that as a probability, even as a possibility. Of all that I have accomplished in my lifeline destruction of the Ghearufu might be the most important*

A wistful smile crossed Danica's face as she caught the glimmer in Cadderly's barely open, but surely smiling, gray eyes.

"But not the most important of all you mean to do," the monk said coyly.

Cadderly's eyes widened, and he regarded Danica with sincere admiration. How well she knew him! He had just been thinking of the many deeds that were sorting themselves out before him, of the many demands his special relationship with his god Deneir would make on him. Danica had seen it, had looked into his eyes, and had known exactly the tone of his thoughts, if not the specifics.

"I see a course before me," he admitted to her, his voice subdued, but firm with resolve. "A dangerous and difficult course, I do not doubt" Cadderly chuckled at the irony, and Danica looked at him quizzically, not understanding.

"Even after what we witnessed before setting our camp, I fear that the most difficult of my future obstacles will be the ones brought on by friends," he explained.

Danica stiffened and shifted away.

"Not from you," Cadderly quickly assured her. "I foresee changes at the Edificant Library, drastic changes that will not be met with approval from those who have the most to lose."

"Dean Thobicus?"

Cadderly nodded, his expression grim. "And the headmasters," he added. The hierarchy has evolved away from the spirit of Deneir, has become something perpetuated by false traditions and piles of worthless paper." He chuckled again, but there was something sad in his voice. *Do you understand what I did to Thobicus for him to allow us to come out here?" he asked.

"You tricked him," Danica replied.

"I dominated him," Cadderly corrected. "I entered his mind and bent his will. I might well have killed him in the attempt, and the effects of the assault could remain with him for the rest of his years."

An expression of confusion came over Danica, confusion fast turning to horror. "Hypnosis?"

"Far beyond hypnosis," Cadderly replied gravely. "In hypnosis, I might have convinced Thobicus to change his thoughts." Cadderly looked away, seeming ashamed. "I did not convince Thobicus. I evoked the change against his will, and then I entered his mind once more and modified his memory so that there would be no repercussions when ... if, we return to the library."

Danica's almond eyes were wide with shock. She had known that Cadderly was uncomfortable with what he had done to Thobicus, but she had assumed that her love had exacted some charm spell over the dean. What Cadderly was talking about now, though the results had been similar to a charm, seemed somehow more