For what seemed like an eternity, Jerro and I stood in the stairwell staring down at the dead beholder.  In reality it had probably only been about five minutes since Pax had left for Thunder Rift with Grizzlegar (I still can’t believe he’s dead). 

 

“Do you have a dagger I can borrow?”  Jerro finally asked.

 

“Here, you can keep this one.  I never use it anymore.”  And I handed him my Dagger of Venom. 

 

The wizard descended the last few steps into the chamber, stood over the lifeless beast, then cut off one of his eyestalks.

 

“Maybe if I study this, I can figure out a way to defeat the creature faster.”

 

I nodded agreement but I certainly hoped to never need that information, and I knew Jerro was only searching for a way he could have saved Grizzlegar’s life.

 

“Let’s get out of here.”  I prodded the wizard.

 

We found Chavis and told him the beholder had been vanquished.

 

“That’s marvelous!  Once we clear and clean that chamber our part of the complex will be completely secure.  Tonight’s feast will honor our fallen brothers.    You must stay and help us celebrate their lives!”

 

That’s when we had to tell him about Grizzlegar and how we needed to get back to Rocky Harbor to escort the children back to their homes and then finally return to Thunder Rift.

 

As we left the complex, I confided to Jerro how I had wanted to visit Captain Trovebane’s grave on the other side of the island.

 

“But I guess we won’t have time.  We need to get back to Rocky Harbor as soon as possible.”

 

“Not necessarily.”  Said the wizard.  “I found this in the chamber, while I was hiding from the beholder.”

 

Jerro pulled out what looked like a blue rug.

 

“It’s a flying carpet.  With it we can travel anywhere on the island in a matter of minutes.”

 

“I don’t know Jerro.”

 

“Aw, come on,  I’ve always wanted to try one of these things.”

 

So I held my breath most of the way, as we flew to the southern end of the island.  We found the wreckage of the Crimson Hawk just as we had left it with the bodies of the creatures we had fought scattered around it. Up the beach, about a quarter mile and in a clearing, well back from the high tide mark, I located Captain Trovebane’s grave.  Jerro stood off respectfully as I looked down at the makeshift marker I had raised. 

 

In my head I carried on a conversation with the man that had taught me so much over the years.  How all my courage had fled from me on that stairwell as I stared down at the limp body of the most courageous man I had ever known, Grizzlegar.  And of course somehow Captain Trovebane found just the right words to say; at least the words I thought he would have said.

 

We went back and searched the wreckage one more time just in case we had missed something all those months ago but found nothing.  The wizard however made a disturbing discovery on the beach.

 

“My carpet, it’s gone!”

 

I realized what had happened immediately.

 

“The tide must have come in while we were gone and washed it out to sea.”

 

“Aw…Well at least we know now where to go to get put up for the night.”  The wizard brightened and indicated the familiar path we had taken to the inn called The Butchered Calf, where we first ran afoul of vampires.

 

“That won’t be necessary.”  A snarky voice said from behind us.  We turned and saw a very tall blonde woman standing there with an impatient look on her face.  She carried a light bow and a small dragonlike creature hovered above her head “I am the Lady Kahalla and Lady Serina sent me to retrieve you two hooligans.  The children are waiting and we have a schedule to keep.”

 

“How did you find us?”  I asked.

 

“That is none of your affair.  But if you must know, I’ve been following you since your party decided to go back to Stony Point.  The Lady Serina was displeased that you would desert the children for such a foolish errand.”

 

“We fought and killed a beholder and lost one of our friends in the process!”  I bristled.

 

“I am well aware of what happened and I am sorry for your loss.  I even gave you an appropriate time to grieve, but then, when I thought you were ready to return to Rocky Harbor, you take off on a flying carpet going south.  I had to dispatch Frosty here to follow you while I went around the Island in a skiff.”

 

Jerro and I looked at each other not knowing what to say.

 

“Actually The Butchered Calf is sounding better and better to me all the time.  What do you think Gerard?”

 

As much as I wanted to agree with the wizard, I knew we really needed to get back to Rocky Harbor, so we all piled into Kahalla’s skiff and headed north.

 

Although I pretended not to notice, about mid journey up the coast, I saw Frosty purloin the eyestalk from Jerro’s bag and hide it where Kahalla later retrieved it.  I was impressed by the little creature’s stealthiness and the unspoken communication between it and it’s mistress..  Jerro noticed none of this and I decided not to tell him.  The truth is I had been uncomfortable with the latent power of this object and was glad to be rid of it.  Let Kahalla deal with it if she was so inclined.

 

At Rocky Harbor, Jerro broke the news to Arty about Grizzle’s fate and gave him my Dagger of Venom.  We showed Leore the scrap of paper that seemed to indicate something was afoot on the Western Continent and after much discussion (we concluded that Redsith was the probably the culprit), it was decided that Arty would head up an expedition there, while Jerro and I would escort Serina and the children home as planned

 

While preparations were being made for both ventures, I was approached by Gurmadden Stonesinger, the bard turned King that we had met on Mantol-Derith.  He sheepishly told me that he had been among the captives we freed from the webbing at Stony Point.  I told him we would gladly drop him off at Mantol-Derith. But when he learned of the excursion to the west, he seemed oddly drawn there (I would later find out why) and decided to sign on with Arty.

 

What follows is a series of letters he sent me from the Western Expedition………………