there.
It's good that you're starting slowly, Aliisza sent. It won't take much before we slip into the Sha-
They were there.
It took even Pharaun, who'd had quite a bit of experience in planar travel, by surprise. As they passed from the Lake of Shadows onto the Shadow Fringe Pharaun saw what little color there was drain from the dimly lit cavern.
The movement of the ship was smooth but disturbingly random. The deck rose gently, then fell gently, then rose a little farther, then fell not as far, then rose the same amount, then fell less far. Pharaun couldn't tell if, on aggregate, they were going up, down, or staying the same. Sometimes they slipped straight to one side or rolled gently to the other. His stomach rolled with the ship, and he felt increasingly nauseous.
Don't ride it, Aliisza advised. Be it.
Pharaun concentrated on the deck, on the palms of his hands pressing against the warm, living bone. He watched random memories from the devoured souls pass across his consciousness then looked deeper into the ship itself.
Though the vessel lived, it didn't think. He felt it react to stimulus, riding the cool water of the lake into the freezing water of the Fringe. It knew it had crossed into the Plane of Shadow by feel but had no way to form the word "shadow." The ship didn't like the Shadow Fringe, it didn't fear the Shadow Fringe, and it didn't hate the Shadow Fringe. All it did was ride the water from one universe to the next at the command of the Master of Sorcere.
Pharaun's stomach felt fine.
Valas had traveled the Shadow Fringe before and was not impressed. It was a world devoid of color and warmth-two things the scout had little appreciation for anyway. Every turn in the caverns of the real Underdark had a requisite turn in the Shadow, but distance and time was distorted there, less predictable, less tangible.
The scout had been hired to guide the expedition through the Underdark, but they had left the Underdark. They were in a realm more suited to the wizard, on their way to a world only a priestess could appreciate. The time for Valas Hune to step aside was at hand.
Among the trinkets and talismans that adorned his vest was a cameo made of deep green jade that he wore upside down. He looked around, making sure that none of the others were looking at him. They were all too busy standing in awe of the difference in the air and water, obsessed with thefeel of the ship moving across the shadow-water, to notice him. Touching the cameo with one finger, the scout whispered a single word and closed his eyes while a wave of dizziness passed through him.
Having sent his message back to his superiors at Bregan D'aerthe- a simple message they would easily interpret along the lines of "I'm no longer needed here"-Valas let go of the cameoand joined the others in marveling at the sometimes subtle, sometimes extreme differences in the world around them. Bregan D'aerthe would answer in their own time.
Danifae could barely contain herself. The feel of the deck rocking beneath her was thrilling. The draining of color from the world around her wasexhilarating. The thought that they were on their way, and that thus far everything she'd planned had come to fruition excited her. The presence of the draegloth next to her reassured her.
Danifae had never felt better in her life.
"The wizard will avenge him," Jeggred grumbled in what sufficed for a whisper from the hulking half-demon.
"The wizard will do what is best for the wizard," Danifae replied.
"I don't know what you mean," said the draegloth.
Danifae could hear the frustration in his voice.
"You don't fear him," she said. "I know that. Forget the wizard. He won't put his own life at risk to defend Ryld Argith, who's dead anyway and no longer of use to anyone. Even now, if he isn't too busy piloting the ship, he's coming to the realization that the weapons master had abandoned us all-including him-anyway, so to the Hells with him."
"And to the Abyss with us," the draegloth said, "at Pharaun's mercy."
"Pharaun has no more mercy than you and I, Jeggred," said Danifae, "but he has his orders from his archmageand his own reasons for remaining with the expedition. If he puts anything at risk at any time in the Shadow Plane, the Astral, or the Abyss, he dies. Until then, I want you to leave him alone."
"But-"
"No, Jeggred," Danifae said,