What the Stone Cost

Rishi woke a few hours later to a quiet knock.

Sunlight had crossed the study floor. Lysaerra sat near the low table with a blanket around her shoulders. Maeril lay on her side, one hand beneath her cheek and the other touching the wrapped staff.

Mereth opened the door. Vajra Safahr followed her, carrying the Blackstaff.

Maeril sat up before either woman spoke.

“Remain where you are,” Vajra said. “Mereth has told me enough about your night.”

Rishi pushed himself upright. His thigh had stiffened while he slept.

Beside him, Maeril reached into her pack and drew out Manshoon’s mask. “Then this will save some explanation.”

Vajra took it. She turned the metal face toward the window, then laid it on the table. “The Order has secured the towers. Gondafrey delivered the records and warned us about the spellbook. The surviving prisoners are under guard.”

“And she is free to leave?” Rishi asked.

“She is helping identify the rooms that may still kill someone. She has agreed to remain while that work continues.”

Maeril drew her boots closer.

Vajra glanced at the long shape beside Maeril’s pallet. “I will need Manshoon’s staff as well.”

“It has been a very short acquaintance.”

“It can kill you before it becomes a longer one.”

Maeril’s hand rested on the wrapping. Before she could answer, footsteps stopped outside the door.

Hazarak stood behind Mereth. Sewer water marked his cloak, and pale dust had dried between the scales along his jaw. He carried a small bundle against his chest.

Rishi rose. “Where are the others?”

The dragonborn looked past him at Maeril. She had stopped with one boot in her hands.

“Firemind was turned to stone,” Hazarak said. “Elisa went through a magic door. Chime followed her.”

Rishi reached the doorway and looked beyond him. Marienth stood alone in the corridor.

“Where did the door take them?” Rishi asked.

“I could not see through it.”

Maeril put the boot down. “Tell us what happened.”

Hazarak entered and set the bundle beside Manshoon’s mask. He kept one hand on it. “We reached the fish. Elisa tried to protect its bowl when the fighting came close. The drow caught her foot with magic. I saw him move his hand. She fell into the glass.”

Rishi remembered Elisa checking the chain of her holy symbol beneath the darkened cloth. She had asked him to bring Lysaerra somewhere with windows.

“The fish died,” Hazarak continued. “Xanathar turned on her. Then on its own guards. The rays went through people and walls. The Stone was there. I took it while Elisa and Firemind fought them, and started back toward the door.”

“The drow,” Vajra said. “Describe him.”

“White hair pulled back. A black clasp. Tall staff, blue marks cut like hooks. He stayed behind the others.”

Vajra’s fingers tightened around the edge of the mask. “Nar’l Xibrindas.”

“That was the name Xanathar shouted.”

Maeril repeated it very quietly.

“How did Firemind open the door?” Rishi asked.

“He took a short wand from the wizard. Worked it while Xanathar killed the guards. He pushed Elisa through. Chime went after her. Then he broke the wand.”

“So nothing could follow,” Maeril said.

Hazarak nodded. “He was still beside the broken pieces when the ray reached him.”

Rishi gripped the back of the nearest chair. The wood pressed into his bandaged palm. “Can that be undone?”

“Petrification can be reversed,” Vajra said. “We need to reach him.”

“I tried,” Hazarak said. “Another ray cut the floor between us. I had the Stone. I could carry that out.”

He took his hand from the bundle. His claws had left small holes in its wrapping.

“The wand was separate from the Dream Nullifier?” Maeril asked.

“Small enough for one hand. Firemind took it from Nar’l.”

“And the machine?”

“I do not know what it was doing when I left.”

Maeril lowered her head. One loose braid fell over her burned cheek. She pushed it back and reached for her other boot.

“You brought us what he saved,” Rishi told Hazarak.

The dragonborn’s jaw moved once. He stepped away from the table.

Mereth drew out a chair for him. He sat without taking off his cloak.

For a while, the only sound was the leather fastening beneath Maeril’s fingers. She pulled it through the buckle, missed the hole, and tried again.

A cup touched the table.

Lysaerra had set down her water. She was looking at the bundle. “Is that what took it?”

Vajra turned toward her. “The Stone of Golorr. Yes.”

She waited until Lysaerra looked up. “I may be able to restore the memory it removed. I would like to examine the wound first. You can refuse.”

Lysaerra drew the blanket closer. “Will I know where the money is?”

“That knowledge may return with the rest. If you wish, I can separate the route and hold it in a crystal. You would not have to keep it.”

“And they could not pull it out of me again?”

“It would no longer be there to take.”

Rishi moved his chair nearer, leaving room between them.

Lysaerra looked from him to Mereth and finally to Vajra. “Give me back what is mine. Put the road somewhere else.”

Vajra inclined her head. She opened the wrapping just far enough to expose the green-gray Stone. Three round hollows broke its uneven surface. Rishi looked away when the grooves between them began to resemble writing.

The air smelled suddenly of deep, still water.

Lysaerra pressed her hands against her knees. Vajra stood beside her, keeping the Blackstaff angled clear of the chair, and began a fine working around her brow.

At first nothing changed. Then Lysaerra’s shoulders rose and her eyes fixed on a point beyond the room.

Rishi leaned into her sight. “You are here with us. Keep looking at me if it helps.”

“There was a stair.”

Her voice broke.

He kept his hands open on his knees. “You do not have to go down it now.”

She found his face again.

The floor shifted beneath his feet.

Water jumped from Lysaerra’s cup. The window rattled, and somewhere beyond the study a heavy object fell. Rishi caught the table before it struck her chair.

Vajra did not look away from the working. “Mereth, stay with her. I cannot leave this open.”

A shout came from the corridor. Mereth took Rishi’s place beside Lysaerra. “I am here. Let them see what has happened.”

Maeril was already at the door with the wrapped staff. Rishi followed her, Hazarak close behind.

Outside the Spires, a horse struggled against a cart whose rear wheels had dropped below the street.

The paving had sunk along a jagged line. Water poured from a broken pipe into the lower section, carrying straw and loose stones beneath a tilted shopfront. A Watch officer pulled people away from its doorway. “Keep back from the wall! Come toward the temple!” the officer shouted.

Rishi caught the horse’s bridle while the officer cut a fouled trace. Hazarak braced a shoulder against the cart until the animal could back clear. The cart fell sideways behind them, spilling sacks into the running water.

Maeril took a child’s hand and guided her across the steps to the woman calling for her. Dust fell from the shop’s upper window.

“Has everyone come out?” Rishi asked.

“Two upstairs,” the officer said. “We are bringing a ladder round the other side.”

A priest ran past with a coil of rope. Rishi moved toward the broken edge, but Hazarak caught his sleeve. “Listen beneath the water.”

Something scraped under the street. Rishi felt it through his feet before another strip of paving tilted into the break.

“That is still moving,” Maeril said.

Hazarak released him. Across the street, people began stepping aside.

The unicorn came between them with its head high. Rishi knew the silver mane before the light caught its horn. For a moment he heard leaves instead of running water, and remembered the forest in Tethyr passing beneath its hooves.

The creature stopped in front of Maeril.

She stared at it, then put her palm against its neck. The hand shook once before it settled in the white hair. “You have come a long way to find a very poor morning.”

The unicorn lowered its head until its horn passed beside her shoulder. She leaned toward it, her good eye closed.

“Your forest god has sent help,” Hazarak said.

Maeril opened her eye. “She usually sends work with it.”

A crack sounded beneath the damaged shop. The officer shouted to the men carrying the ladder, and Maeril’s fingers closed in the mane.

Rishi looked back at the temple. “Vajra needs to hear this.”

Maeril took her hand away reluctantly. The unicorn followed them as far as the steps and waited there while they went inside.

Vajra had finished the working. Lysaerra sat on the pallet with Mereth beside her, the blanket slipping from one shoulder. She lifted her head when Rishi entered.

He crouched in front of her. “Do you still see the stair?”

She searched his face, then shook her head. “I remember being asked. I cannot remember the way.”

Vajra held up a small blue crystal. Pale light moved within it. “The route is here. She has the rest.”

Mereth drew the blanket back over Lysaerra’s shoulder. The Stone lay wrapped at one end of the table. A folded city map filled the space beside it, and Manshoon’s mask held down several hastily written messages.

“The Watch has sent from three wards,” Mereth said. “These came while you were outside. Streets have fallen, and they are hearing movement below others.”

“The street outside the Spires has split,” Rishi said. “We heard something scraping underneath.”

Maeril set the staff across an empty chair. “It is still opening. The buildings beside it have begun to move.”

Vajra marked the reported failures on the map. The pencil stopped at the last message. She placed her other hand beside a point already marked farther south. “The Vault is under this area. That much I took from the memory before sealing it away.”

Maeril bent over the map. “The breaks are advancing toward it.”

“The newest reports are closer. There may be others we have not received.”

Hazarak stood at the table’s end. “Xanathar was cutting through its own halls when I left. Stone vanished in front of the eyes. Nothing above it had anything left to stand on.”

Vajra looked from him to the marks. “Then that is who we should expect beneath these streets.”

“Can the Watch clear the buildings ahead of it?” Rishi asked.

“They are trying,” Mereth said. “Some of the people being brought here cannot walk.”

“We must stop the advance,” Vajra said. “Emptying one street only leaves it the next foundation. If it keeps cutting toward the Vault, it will bring Waterdeep down over it.”

Rishi looked at the patch of map beneath her hand. Above the buried chamber were streets full of people who had woken expecting an ordinary day. “We need a way ahead of it.”

“Erik knows the service passages,” Maeril said. “He can tell us which might reach that ground.”

“Find him,” Vajra said. “I will bring Force Grey and the spellguards. The Watch needs evacuation orders while we gather.”

“Firemind is still below,” Rishi said.

Vajra met his eyes. “I know.”

“And Elisa and Chime are somewhere that broken wand reached,” Maeril said. “Nar’l may know where.”

“We will need the lair secured and anything left of the device recovered,” Vajra said. “First we keep the city standing above it.”

Rishi turned toward Hazarak. “You can lead us back to Firemind?”

The dragonborn had one claw on the table beside the messages. “I know where I left him.”

Mereth rose. “Help my people while Vajra gathers hers. We need to bring the wounded in from the street.”

Hazarak looked toward the door, where hurried feet passed without stopping. “I will help. Then I go with the Blackstaff.”

Vajra folded the map to the streets around the Vault and gave it to Rishi with the crystal. “Show Erik the marked area. Leave word with the Watch at the entrance he finds. I will follow.”

Rishi secured the crystal beneath his robes and put the map inside the dry fold of his healer’s satchel.

Maeril reached for the Stone, then stopped short of touching its wrapping. “Does this stay with you?”

“Take it. The knowledge Neverember concealed was held between the Stone and Lysaerra’s memory. We may need both at the Vault.”

Maeril checked the cord around the bundle before putting it into her satchel.

Vajra’s gaze moved to the staff on the chair. “Keep that as well. For now.”

Maeril took it and began loosening the outer cloth. Her hands had steadied. “The unicorn is outside. We can move faster than anyone on foot.”

“Then go.”

Rishi returned to Lysaerra before following her. The woman looked up from beneath the blanket. “Mereth will stay with you,” he told her.

“I would like to stay here.”

“You shall,” Mereth said.

Rishi nodded to her. Then he joined Maeril at the door, carrying the route she no longer had to remember.