Skavild is still chasing the Elves through the Dragontail Mountains to discover what they are up to. But so far, he has only found a trail of taunting messages in bottles. And he is not the only thing following them.
If you were wondering why the four Elves were running out of water bottles, I will tell you now that it is because they kept being dropped at evenly-spaced points on the commonly-used paths as the Alik'r desert turned into the near Dragontail Mountains. Skavild had only found two, so far, and the second one contained a note as well.
Remember Ancano? That was funny, wasn't it.
"What kind of note is that to put in a bottle?" demanded Skavild. Neither the note nor the bottle replied, and he was left to fume after the Elves in silence.
"We are almost at the shelter. It is a day's slow march through the mountains tomorrow, beginning at daybreak." said Eldaline.
Aralina became very excited. "Oh, please might I take the first watch, Second Archivist? Please say that I can! I would be so happy to be allowed!"
"Why?" said Ondolemar.
"I think you should let me." said Aranwen. "I am worried that my commander is delirious."
"I would like to volunteer to go to sleep immediately." Ondolemar said.
The sun set, and Aralina was allowed to take the first watch.
This left Aranwen with the annoyance of being woken at the coldest, dampest, foggiest part of the early sunlight.
She patrolled the mountain outside the shelter for several minutes to warm up.
It would also mean she would be responsible for losing an additional water bottle, one of the new ones Aralina had procured from the small hamlet the day before.
But the risk might be worth it, in time, she thought.
She stuck the bottle into the snow.
"No, I'm not an itinerant Priest of Arkay." said Skavild, at the gates of Heldorn Mount. "What a strange question."
"I'm furious, furious!" shouted the gate guard. "I have to wear this helmet for the next two weeks for my broken nose."
"I'm very sorry." said Skavild.
"They said they wanted to inspect my shrine to Arkay. Then they told me there were things living in it. I don't know why I put my ear to it. Nothing's ever lived in it before."
"And then what happened?" said Skavild. He looked terribly concerned, but I am afraid he was starting to enjoy the story.
"As I stood up, that's when one of them nutted me! A cowardly trick! Caught me off-guard! As I drifted off I heard their leader say they were going back to the graveyard to get a head, and then to the alchemist."
"And when I came round, they were gone, and my shrine was missing! I don't know where they've gone. There's no alchemist in Heldorn Mount!"
"Excuse me." Skavild asked of a guard who did not have a broken nose. "Where's the nearest alchemist's shop?"
The guard looked irritated. "Nowhere." he said. "The last alchemist's here has been closed since before I was born. You'll have to go to Dragonstar, or Lainlyn."
"And before I was born, and before my grandmother was born." said a passing elderly woman. "The last alchemist here closed her shop two hundred years ago. They said she ran away to the mountains to join the necromancers. The Order of the Black Worm." she added, in response to Skavild's look of incomprehension."
Skavild felt that his journey was following a pattern of sorts. He went so far as to ask at the inn for a bottle of Special Reserve. The innkeeper looked oddly at him before producing a bottle containing a very bad picture of a dragon wrapping its tail around some triangles with snow on top.
The far Dragontail Mountains were higher and colder. There were no settlements here. But there was a path, and it was strangely clear of snow and rocks.
The Elves had been walking all day and now they were searching for a rocky outcrop to use as a shelter.
They were very tired and none of them had volunteered to take any kind of watch.
They had said little since the darkness had fallen on them. Three of them occasionally thought a fifth person was walking with them. They rarely mentioned it.
But as Eldaline stepped first onto a lightly-swaying rope bridge across a deep chasm, she felt as though she was the only one there.
Of course, neither of these things were true.
There were exactly four people in their party, not more and not less.
Eldaline had brought three other Elves with her.
Four people were following the Second Archivist across the bridge.
Aralina came to an abrupt stop on the other side of the bridge and stared directly ahead. She was too cold to think clearly.
"Troll!" cried Aranwen. "Let's boil his fat to keep warm and steal his cave!"
"Good thinking." said Eldaline. "First one to the cadaver gets to keep the third eye."
"The Second Archivist's eating habits are charming and quaint." said Ondolemar.
"I would like to donate the third eye to the Second Archivist, if I win it!" said Aralina.
"Nyeh." said Aranwen. "It can go in my collection. Or you can have it, Second Archivist, if you tell us what we're looking for up here."
"None of your insolence, soldier." Eldaline said. "Enjoy your eye, and be done with it."
The shallow troll-cave provided a little shelter from the snow, which was becoming softer
and when the light began to appear over the brow of the hill, the dry chill in the air was almost bearable.
"Nearly there, now." said Eldaline. "At least by my understanding. Do you have the sword we found in the desert shrine to hand, Flopsy?"
"Yes, Madam. Will you require it immediately?" said Aralina.
"Once we get inside."
"Inside where, Second Archivist?"
Eldaline took three long strides that carried her to the top of the hill ahead of the others. "There it is. I never imagined I would see it for myself."
"There's somebody standing over there." said Aranwen, not following and looking behind.
The Second Archivist said, "Scourg Barrow."
"I'm sure that's a person." Aranwen had still not moved forward since becoming sure.
"What is a person?" said Aralina. "I can see nothing, and nobody. Ondolemar, can you see what Aranwen is looking at?"
"No." said Ondolemar.
"Over there, standing on that rock." said Aranwen. "I can see a person, as clear as day."
"Or can I?" she said. "Could just be a rock."
continues!