do not even know if the treasure will be found," Cadderly reminded them. "The storm that Aballister threw at Nightglow Mountain likely sealed many caves."
"So you wish to go back to see if the treasure might be recovered," Danica reasoned.
"Recovered when the weather is more agreeable," said Cadderly. "And so we need not all make the journey to the mountain."
"What do you propose?" Danica asked, and she already knew the lines that Cadderly would draw.
"I will return to the mountain," the young priest answered, "along with Ivan and Pikel, if they are agreeable. I had hoped that you would come along as well," he said to Vander.
"Part of the way," the red-bearded giant promised. "But I am anxious ..."
Cadderly cut him short with an upraised hand. He understood the firbolg's feelings and would not ask Vander, who had been so long from home, so long tormented by the assassin, Ghost, to delay any longer. "Any step you take beside us will be welcomed," Cadderly insisted, and Vander nodded.
Cadderly turned back to the three women. "I know you must get back to Shilmista," he said to Shayleigh. "King Elbereth will need a full report on the happenings at Castle Trinity, so that he might stand down the elven guard. The fastest route for you would be south past Carradoon, then along the more traveled trails west from the library."
Shayleigh nodded.
"And I am to accompany Dorigen back," Danica reasoned.
Cadderly nodded. "You are not of either host order," he explained, "thus, Dorigen will be your prisoner and not under the jurisdiction of the headmasters."
"Whom you do not trust," Dorigen added slyly.
Cadderly didn't bother to respond. "If all goes well at Nightglow, the dwarves and I should come to the library no more than a few days after you."
"But since I came in alone, Dorigen will remain my prisoner," Danica reasoned, and she smiled despite the fact that she did not wish to miss the adventure at Night-glow, and did not want to be apart from Cadderly at all.
"Your judgment will be more fair, I am sure," Cadderly said with a wink. "And it shall be easier for me to convince the headmasters to accept that judgment than to get them to pass a fair punishment of their own."
It was a solid plan, Danica knew, one that would likely spare Dorigen from a hangman's noose.
Dorigen's smile showed that she understood the plan's merits as well. "Again you have my gratitude," she offered. "I only wish that I believed myself worthy of it"
Cadderly and Danica exchanged a knowing look, and neither was the least bit worried about splitting the party with a prisoner in tow. Dorigen was a powerful wizard, and if she had wanted to escape, she certainly could have done so by now. Over the weeks, she had not been bound in any way, and only in the first few days had she even been guarded. Never was there a more willing prisoner, and
Cadderly was confident that Dorigen would not try to escape- Even more than that, Cadderty was convinced that Dorigen would use her powers to aid Danica and Shay-leigh if they got into trouble on the way to the library.
It was settled then, with no disagreements. Ivan and Pikel rubbed their hands together often and slapped each other on the back so many times that they sounded like a gallery at a fine performance. Nothing could set a dwarf to hopping like the promise of an unguarded dragon's hoard.
Danica found Cadderly alone later that morning, while the others busied themselves for the journey. The young priest hardly noticed her approach, just stood on a clear patch of stone outside the cave, staring into the towering Snowflake Mountains.
Danica moved up and hooked her arm under Cad-derly's, offering him the support she thought he needed. To her thinking, Cadderly wasn't ready to return to the library. No doubt, he was still in turmoil over the last incident with Dean Thobicus, when he had forcefully bent the dean's mind to his bidding. Beyond that, with all that had happened - the deaths of Avery and Perte-lope and the revelation that the evil wizard Aballister was, in truth, Cadderly's own father - the young priest's world had been turned upside down. Cadderly had questioned his faith and his home for some time, and though he had finally come to terms with his loyalty to Deneir, Danica wondered if he still had a hard time thinking of the Edificant Library as his home.
They remained silent for