Easy Betrayals Read Online Free PDF Page A

asked.
    “Thirty four. I guess all the time I spent at sea’s been good for my health. I’d probably be dead by now if I’d stayed at home.”
    “Tyr has the power to heal—” the paladin began.
    “Not this,” Belgin interrupted. “It’s a curse, a magical curse. Believe me, plenty of our priests have tried to undo the bloodforge’s effects. I don’t know of any who have succeeded.”
    “Tyr grant that Kern destroys that infernal device. And any others that remain in the Utter East, for that matter. Nothing could be worth that cost.” Miltiades stood, his face set in a stonelike expression. “Can you continue?”
    “I’ll live. For now, anyway,” Belgin said with a grimace of false bravado. Although his hands trembled with the palsy of an old man, the sharper pushed himself to his feet and retrieved his satchel. “Don’t worry, Miltiades—I mean to make sure the doppelganger doesn’t outlive me. Lead the way.”
    Moving slowly now, the two warriors and the two pirates sallied from the old temple into the stone city. As Belgin feared, the howling wind erased tracks almost as soon as they were made; Eidola’s trail was nonexistent. They circled the ancient shrine, searching the buildings nearby to no effect. Again Belgin felt a cold tone in the wind, a hint of malice and solidity that plucked at his cloak like a living thing, but it vanished before he could even say a word of warning to the others. What kind of guardians watched the crypt we disturbed? he thought. Could they still be here?
    The outer buildings seemed more intact than the central temple. Smaller and sturdier, some even retained their roofs. Beyond the ring of buildings there was a large open space and a crumbling wall that seemed to circle the whole set of ruins. Broken and buried in drifting sand, nothing but desolate sand and flat sheets of rock stretched out beyond the walls. After one deliberate circuit, they paused in the lee of the outer wall, considering their next move. “This place isn’t a city,” Rings observed. “There aren’t enough dwellings or private buildings.”
    “A temple complex or holy city, then,” Miltiades said. “Deliberately removed from the mundane world, isolated as a retreat for worship and ceremony.”
    “It would be appropriate for a city of the dead,” the dwarf added. “The builders interred their kings and nobles in a sacred city far from the common folk. They could hide the tombs anywhere in Faerun with those magical gates.”
    “Who would go to that much trouble?” Jacob asked.
    “I can think of someone,” Belgin said. “The mage lords of ancient Netheril.”
    “Netheril?” Jacob guffawed. “Tell me another tale, charlatan.”
    “The statues in the tomb we found were carved in the mode of ancient Netherese dress,” Belgin said, tugging at his ear. “The runes and hieroglyphs marking the portal, they were Netherese as well. And I’ve seen a few faint traces of more hieroglyphs in walls sheltered from the wind. Besides… we’re sitting in the middle of a desert. If these are Netherese ruins, I’d expect we’re somewhere in Anauroch.”
    Rings stared at Belgin. “What’s a Netherese? And where in the Five Kingdoms is Anauroch?”
    The sharper shrugged. “I’m no expert, Rings. I’m just guessing. But Netheril was once a great empire ruled by mighty wizards, far to the northwest of the Five Kingdoms… fairly close to the homeland of these gentlemen, in fact,” he said, nodding at Miltiades and Jacob. “A long time ago, the Netherese brought some kind of awful magical doom down on their heads, and their kingdom fell, only to be buried by the sand and rock of the desert called Anauroch.”
    “I’ve traveled Anauroch before,” Miltiades said. “I’ve never seen this particular place, but it feels right. How did you learn of these things, Belgin?”
    “I was given an unusual education.” Belgin spread his hands with a disarming gesture. “I’ve read a hundred books and