From: Mike Whitaker <MIKEW@SDL.MDCBBS.COM>
Subject: STORY: Midnight's Bane - part 14
Followup-To: rec.games.frp.misc
Date: Thu, 15 Oct 1992 21:46:14 GMT

	In the early hours of the morning, the four gathered in the temple
courtyard, huddled in warm cloaks. It was bitterly cold, more cold than it had
any right to be. Cherri greeted them with forced cheerfulness, and led them
though the doors of the great library and temple to Tal and out the back to its
huge coutyard. The High Priestess had a haggard look, and the air of one who
had not slept since last they saw her.
	In the courtyard stood five snow-white pegasi, almost ghostly in their
beauty in the pre-dawn light. Waiting with them were six people, all wrapped up
in sky-blue cloaks save for the lissom figure of Raverna, whose one concession
to the weather was a grey cloak, beneath which the brief leathers she had worn
the previous day were visible. The raven-haired half-elf was listening to the
animated conversation of one of the other five, a young woman in her early
twenties in the uniform of a paladin of Tal, fair-haired and suprisingly cheery
given the hour of the morning. The High Priestess indicated the girl with a
motion of one hand.
	"This is Robyn - she's flown over Andor in the past couple of days, and
has a piece of intelligence for you." From Cherri's tone it was apparent that
Robyn's recent flight was not something she entirely approved of. The blonde
girl, undaunted, smiled at them.
	"The banner of Heslor is flying over Alcar." She paused, then grinned
defiantly at Cherri. "It wasn't last time I flew over." In the background,
Raverna sighed softly.
	"Alcar?" queried Anya.
 	"That's where the high temple to Heslor is..."
	"Thank you, Robyn," said Cherri firmly, continuing the introductions by
turning to a tall olive-skinned man who flashed them all a smile.
	"This is Nasreen - he's also recently overflown Andor." The big man
bowed.
	"Greetings." His accent was markedly Tabalin. "May I introduce my
comrades? Robyn you have met." He indicated a fair-haired youth with the air of
a half-elf about him. "Dalarr; and these two are Cerwyn and Anwyn." The other
two nodded simultaneously. Red haired and of medium height and build, the two
were clearly identical twins.
	"This is the map I promised you," said Cherri, handing Drax an ivory
scroll-case. "And these," she said, handing Angron a small box which she opened
quickly to display two labelled vials of an orange liquid, "might come in
useful. If you're ready?" The foursome mounted up, one behind each paladin,
with Raverna behind Robyn. The five winged steeds stretched their
ivory-feathered wings, and with two or three strong beats they were airborne.

	The morning air above the domes and spires of Sasarka was cold, and
tendrils of cloud swirled around them as they flew roughly eastward, inland
from Sasarka. For lunch, they set down on the outskirts of the city of Tabal,
and dined as guests of the temple of Heslor, at which Nasreen appeared to have
a brother. By mid afternoon, it had warmed up a little, and the five winged
steeds skirted the northern edge of the Tabal desert until it touched the Grey
Mountains that form the spine of Altrion, and then turned a little south. The
sun was setting, an angry red glow over the desert, as they landed in a small
bowl-shaped valley, sheltered from the chill breeze which had got up over the
last hour. Cerwyn and Anwyn busied themselves with a fire and some food, while
the three other paladins tended to the mounts. In response to a query from
Angron about where exactly they were, Raverna crouched down and sketched a very
rough map in the dirt with the tip of her dagger.

	* Sasarka				/\ Athlor	    Alcar
	|		        *   /\/\/\....../\		      *
	|		    Tabal/\/\/\.........x/\/\/\/\/\	    Black
Meral	|		  /\/\...................... /\             Plain
 Sea	|		   /\........................../\
	|		   /\.........Desert............ /\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\*/\
	/		    /\../\..................	/\	    Irongate
       | 		      /\..............		/\

	"We will make slower progress tomorrow," remarked Nasreen, returning
from feeding the pegasi with the others. "We will be flying over the Grey
Mountains for most of the way, and the air currents will be hard on the pegasi.
I expect to reach our destination around nightfall, Tal willing."	
Everyone gathered close around the fire to eat, all save for Dalarr who kept a
solitary watch atop the lip of the valley. After supper, once Nasreen had
sorted out a watch rota, Robyn turned to Raverna.

	"I've never heard you sing. Will you?" The half-elf smiled, and
unpacked a small lute, the head inlaid with a motif of leaves and a rose, from
one of Robyn's spacious saddlebags. She strummed an experimental chord, pulled
a face and adjusted a string, then launched without introduction into a
familiar ballad with a rousing chorus. Anya watched entranced for a moment or
two, then slipped away and returned with her lyre, at which Raverna caught her
eye and nodded encouragingly. The next hour passed pleasantly, the two bards
playing alternately and together, until Raverna damped a final chord.
	"We should rest."
	"One more?" asked Robyn, her blue eyes pleading. Raverna swept her hair
back from her face and smiled at the eager girl.
	"One more, and only one." She strummed a bare, sad, chord. "This was
for your mother." A pattern of four softly picked chords. "Or rather, a friend
of hers, and mine." The same four rippling chords, then she began to sing:

	"Fire across the water, silence on the wind.
	Oak leaves now are falling, winter soon begins.
	Now I wish I'd taken time to tell you everything
	But it's far too late to say the things I wanted to.

	"Ripples on the water, winter in the air.
	Rowan tree is fading, its branches dead and bare.
	Maybe we were both afraid of feelings that we shared
	But it's far too late to share the love I had for you.

	"Shadows on the water, dark clouds in the sky.
	Wild rose by your graveside, comrade's last goodbye.
	All that's left are memories of a love I tried to hide:
	I love you...
	But it's far too late - there's nothing I can do..."


	Dawn broke, and the huddled bodies by the campfires embers were woken
by a cheery shout of "Breakfast!" from Robyn, tending a fire with Nasreen. Once
they'd shocked themselves into full wakefulnes with a splash of icy water from
the little stream that floweed through the valley, they broke their fast, and
remounted the snow-white steeds. Below them as they flew now were the
forbidding peaks of the Grey Mountains, to their right still the Tabal desert
and to their left, once the winged horses had gained enough height for it to be
visible, the wilderness of Athlor. As Nasreen had predicted, their progress was
somewhat slower, and it was also significantly colder and windier. After a
snatched meal break, sheltering from the worst of the winds behind a rocky
ridge high up in the mountains, they flew on, just below the clouds, the
wilderness on their left now replaced by a mostly featureless black ash plain,
and on their right the bleak scrublands of Zagarash, until, still a couple of
hours before sunset, Raverna tapped Robyn on the shoulder and shouted something
in her ear, pointing down. The wind whipped away her words before they reached
the others, but Robyn put her mount into a steep dive, followed by the rest,
and then flew low between the rocky hills, following her pasenger's
directions.
	They landed, after Robyn had circled it cautiously, in a narrow rocky
valley, suprisingly similar to Raverna's illusion of it, and apparently
uninhabited. The party dismounted, Hawk moving rapidly to a defensive position,
and collected the remainder of their possessions from saddlebags. Nasreen
saluted them gravely.
	"Good fortune, my friends, till we meet again." Raverna nodded.
	"The entrance is beyond that large bouder. Best get out of sight, in
case we were seen. Take care." Nasreen raised a hand, and the five pegasi took
to the air and were soon lost in the low cloud. Drax shouldered his pack then
turned to address his companions.
	"Well, I suppose we should find a spot to make camp for the night. I
thought I saw an overhang about fifty yards from here as we were landing."  His
last words came out somewhat hushed as he belatedly realized that his voice
seemed unnaturally loud in the quiet, rocky vale. Hawk returnws from his
investigation of the vale, and nodded at Drax's proposed campsite.
	"I don't think it would be wise to start a campfire tonight, so our
cloaks will have to keep us warm." Looking over at Anya Hawk continued, "And
even though I could do with hearing one of your beautiful songs this night of
all nights, I don't think it would be wise. Music travels much further on the
air than talk, and many creatures can pick it up and track us based purely on
it alone." The tall priest nodded.
	"I agree - still, if we are lucky, we will be able to hear you and
Raverna together again when we return. A well shielded cooking fire should be
safe if we start it well before dark and keep it smoke free."
	After they had set up camp, Drax produced a few spices to make their
plain rations somewhat more tasty. Once they had eaten, conversation turned to
what had brought them here. Discussion between Angron and Drax became briefly
rather heated, but no lasting harm was done. After a while, the party turned in
for the night, except for the priest and the mage, who talked on in low voices
for a time, until, shortly after it was fully dark, the moon rose, and Angron
spent a few moments in silent prayer before taking to his bedroll, with a
request to be woken for the last watch.
--
This story is a compilation of a PBeM campaign, by:

	Mark Little ...................	Hawk
	Janet Huss .................... Anya
	Rob Holden .................... Drax
	Alan Braggins ................. Angron

	Mike Whitaker ................. GM and local colour
	Anne Rundle ................... Raverna

The song Raverna sings is "Lament for Gwydion". Words and Music (C) Mike
Whitaker 1987 (and available on the filk tape "The Oak, the Rowan and the Wild
Rose" - details from me or from WailSongs (1-800-TON-WAIL) in the States)

Back episodes of Midnight's Bane are available by anonymous ftp from:
Machine name: 		quayle.mu.wvnet.edu	
Internet address:  	129.71.32.151