Read Farthest Reach for Free Online Page A

outcasts from the Nine Hells, mercenaries and marauders who have no loyalty to the rest of their kind.”
    “So they would have us believe,” Alysir volunteered boldly. “How can we know they are speaking the truth?”
    Sarya stalked close to Alysir, and lowered her voice to a menacing hiss. “I have investigated the matter, Lady Alysir. Do you think I have allowed myself to be deceived?”
    Alysir Ursequarra paled slightly, but held her ground. “No, Lady Sarya.”
    Were her fey’ri not irreplaceably rare, Sarya would have killed Alysir Ursequarra on the spot. But each fey’ri warrior was worth twenty orcs or five ogres. She could not be careless of their lives. Sarya smiled coldly. “You forget, Alysir, that the devils are bound to this city, and we are not. Spells anchored to the mythal by human wizards twenty years ago trap the devils within Myth Drannor. I can alter the mythal to allow some, all, or none of them to escape from this place, or call them back and confine them any time I wish—but I will exact fealty from each devil I allow to leave. The devils cannot escape unless I help them, and I will not help them unless I am certain of their loyalty. They will serve in our armies alongside the demons and yugoloths we summon to serve us. Does that meet with your approval, Lady Ursequarra?”
    Alysir Ursequarra offered a deep bow. “I am sworn to serve you, my lady. I do not question your commands.”
    “Good. It would go poorly for you if I thought you did.” Sarya wheeled away, her tail lashing like a whip. “We hide, we wait, we grow strong, and we marshal the devils of this city to our service,” she said. “Does anyone disagree?” None of the fey’ri spoke. Sarya nodded, and looked to a gaunt fey’ri sorcerer who stood a little apart from the other House lords. “Very well. In that case … Lord Aelorothi, please describe for your peers the shape of the human lands that have grown up around Myth Drannor. These will be our foes someday, but not until we are ready for them.”
    The captains and lords turned their eyes on the sorcererlord. Aelorothi was a descendant House, and Vesryn Aelorothi had traveled widely all across Faerun for many years. He affected a gracious and courteous manner, but Sarya knew him to be capable of exquisite cruelties. A tenday ago she had named the gaunt fey’ri sorcerer her new spymaster, and set him to the task of insinuating daemonfey gold, assassins, and sorcery into the halls of power in every nearby land.
    “It would be my pleasure, Lady Sarya,” he purred.
    “Listen carefully to Vesryn, my children,” she told the fey’ri lords. “Many of you will be traveling these lands in the coming months, spying out their strengths and their weaknesses.”
    She motioned for the sorcerer to continue, and left her assembled captains behind her.
    Vesryn stepped forward as she left, and moving very deliberately—Vesryn was nothing if not cautious—he wove his hands together and muttered the words of a spell of illusion, conjuring in midair the image of a great map.
    “This,” he began, “is the forest of Cormanthor …”
     
    *****
     
    Araevin left the House of Cedars in the morning after his conversation with the Nightstar. He followed rarely traveled paths into the wild pine forests and hills overlooking the sea, drinking deeply of the scent of the trees and the cool spring rain. Early in the afternoon he reached a worn old portal glade, a small clearing around a weathered stone marker that had stood in that spot for thousands of years.
    Most of Evermeet’s portals were closed forever, deliberately sealed in the past few decades to guard the island from any possible attack through the magical gateways, but a few still existed—some well guarded, others only one-way portals that allowed travelers to depart from Evermeet but not return, some so old or uncertain in their working that they were risky to use. Araevin had always been fascinated by portals, and he had spent