"Nazix! Wait!" I grabbed the drow by his robe and yanked him back into the doorway of the Jade Tiger.
"Take your horrible hands off me!" Nazix dusted off his sleeve. "For the hate of Innoruuk, what is it now? I suppose you're too cowardly to go with us?"
I sighed. "No. You're visible. The guards will eat you for lunch."
"Oh." Nazix relaxed a bit. "I hope you will be able to remedy that situation. By Innoruuk's eyes! I came in here visible. I was so flustered from all that fighting, I do believe it escaped my attention."
I concentrated on Nazix until he vanished. "There we go," I said. "Hmm. But now I can't see you. Let me have a look through my spellbook, I think I've got something --"
"I certainly hope so," Nazix's voice said. "We're going to lose the others, and I don't imagine, with your inferior surface elf abilities, you can follow me by my scent."
I sniffed close to where I guessed he was standing. He was right; all I could smell was the beer-tinged air of the bar. Ignoring Nazix's periodic huffs and sighs, I leafed through my spellbook. Some of the pages were getting loose, and I noticed a couple of unscribed scrolls tucked in near the back. I'd been in a hurry to use my last batch of spells, so I hadn't paid much attention while scribing them into the book.
"Really!" Nazix said after a moment, "I thought it might come to this. Honestly, some people don't understand the value of organization. Of course, I won a prize from my guildmaster for the neatness of --"
"Wait!" There it was, partially obscured by a doodle of an angry orc. "Think thou on these words and thou may see what cannot be seen..." I read the passage over a couple of times to memorize it, then stood up, hoping it would work. Taking a deep breath, I muttered the spell as quickly as I could. Nothing. I tried again. Nothing! I wished I had trained more in Divination.
"Must I stand here in this horrid sun all day?" Nazix sounded peevish. I was worried that his camouflage would break before I could get my spell cast. He was distracting me, I decided. Turning away from his voice, I concentrated as hard as I could.
My eyes tingled. I turned to see Nazix standing there, still in the doorway, tapping his foot impatiently. I clapped my hands. "Thank the Mother, it worked!"
"Not so loud!" Nazix frowned, pointing to a guard at the other end of the square. "I don't want THEM to notice. And we really MUST go. I'm afraid Bankerra will have injured many of the innocent by now. This way."
"Wait," I said, invoking the spirit of the wolf for Nazix. I did the same for myself. "Now we'll get there faster," I grinned.
"We'll just have to hope that Wrixlan isn't singing that ridiculous song about running like the wind," Nazix said, dashing away.
No one stepped aside for the necromancer as he dodged through the streets. Of course he was invisible, but I had the feeling he wouldn't attract too much attention even if he could be seen. Unlike Bankerra, with her jabbing elbows and stomping boots, Nazix wove in and out of the crowd, darting nimbly around corners, his black robe flowing silently behind him.
For all his stories, Father never told me how much the drow had to hide from other races. I knew most wood elves feared them, avoiding the rare dark elf who wandered near the edges of Greater Faydark. The Heartwood Master himself had told me the drow were not to be trusted, for they killed each other as calmly as wood elves ate cabbage. Tinna was a bit frightening, I had to admit, but I wasn't at all scared of Nazix. If a dragon had him in her claws, Nazix would complain that she was wrinkling his clothes. I began to wonder how much anyone really knew about races not his own.
Outside the West Gate of Freeport, I spotted Wrixlan, chasing after the charging Bankerra. "We really should wait for the others," I heard him shout.
"Wrixlan!" Nazix shouted. The bard turned, looking around him for the source of the voice. "I'm standing right here," Nazix said as I reached the pair. "Honestly, some people are so oblivious."
"He's invisible," I explained. "Where are we going?"
"Hello, Gwion." Wrixlan's voice was muffled by his visor. "We have about an hour's run from here across the East Commonlands, to the spot where we put up our camp last night."
Nazix abruptly became visible again. He pointed to the receding figure of Bankerra. "Did she hurt anyone?"
"No. She knocked over a rack of Boomba the Big's dwarf pickles, but we outran him. I think we'd better follow as quickly as we can, or she'll just run right into the camp and attack."
I invoked the Spirit of the Wolf for Wrixlan, despite his protests that he could sing a song that would make us all run faster. I didn't see how he could sing and run at the same time and do well at both.
We followed Bankerra's distant form over hills dryer and browner than any I'd ever seen. I thought it must never rain in this part of the world. A few parched-looking skeletons wandered about, ignoring us. Enormous beetles clacked across our path, and a bear lumbered by, searching for food among the sparse vegetation. The sun drummed relentlessly on my head. It seemed the very grass cried out for water.
At last, Bankerra stopped. Sunlight glanced off her sword as she waved it at us.
"There's the camp," Wrixlan puffed. "I think she'll wait. I hope so. I don't know about the rest of you, but I'd like to sit down for a minute."
"Out of this bloody sun, I should think," Nazix muttered. "I must say, I rather wish I'd stayed in Neriak, where people are reasonable about how much light they let into their surroundings."
I was missing Kelethin myself. Whomever these Dervish Cutthroats were, I hoped we could vanquish them quickly. I wanted to see the forest again.
