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I had toevery muscle utterly relaxed under the present circu amount of willpohen every instinct screamed at me to move It was a true battle between reflex and resolution, and though precious instinct had saved ive in to basic ied to hold quite still, inspired by the knowledge that if Azalin found out my deception he would instantly understand that I&039;d discovered his great secret And that would be very bad for me

I heard more sounds froainst the stone floor, a ghostly groan Whether it was an expression of physical or mental distress, I couldn&039;t tell Could such creatures feel bodily pain in the sa encountered such a powerful being, I did not know

After a few moments, I stirred and moaned and let my eyes flutter open in what I hoped would seem a nor my best to recreatecareful not to overplay things Whento his feet

His illusion was firloves, which were gone Probably torn or burned froht now

If I startedmental comparisons between the illusion and what I knew to be reality, it would affect ether, in all the recollections he&039;d passed to me, he hadn&039;t once dropped the least hint of his true self, and quite wisely Had I known, I would never have given him my shelter and protection and would have done my utmost to destroy him

Perhaps I wasn&039;t animate in the same way as others, but I did retain a spark of true passion withinthan to this creature Final death could still ultimately claim one such as myself, but a lich was already dead, a collection of bones existent by the foulest kind of dark ic and its own monumental determination to dwell beyond its normal span of years

While I still supped with pleasure from life&039;s table, still held s of the world, not so for a lich, who had given up all such pleasures, e death itself for continuance, empty continuance The cold revulsion Azalin inspired in all who came near hirown used to that kind of cold, successfully ignoring it The reaction I had noas not aversion to his physical foric, he as a lich was ehiain, the necessity of our having to work together That could change, though It ed already with this catastrophic failure I had to play this out very carefully and not provide him with the least suspicion that his secret was no more, that I had realized my terrible vulnerability to him His pretense must continue

Barovia was little enough, but all I had It was also ain To save her, to save that which was , even take on the perilous task of trying to destroy Azalin

But I dared not surrender to that impulse just yet This was not the time Even had I been rested and ready for just such a confrontation, i still would have been hard pressed to overco with Azalin&039;s power

I stood - h and what I was currently dealing with - and surveyed the daed chanorant of the truth I had to react as I would norh to e up inside

I fastened hie "What rong?" I whispered

His eyes glowed red, untouched by the fadingdown from the shattered"I don&039;t know yet"

"You must have some idea"

"As you must also"

"What do you mean?"

"I told you to make a severance with the land"

"You cannot blame this disaster on such a flimsy detail"

"You are the one who chose to blind himself to the facts, so yes, I may place the bla to be broken, and this more than proves e was to be the barrier that separates Barovia froinal plane That was clearly understood"

"By you alone, I gave you fair warning of the foolishness of that theory"

"You said you would co"

"Ever the lament for those who fail All this tiht!"

"Not co over the re were ae can be useful"

I choked, not needing to falsifyof h for unorant of his secret, I wouldn&039;t have been able to endure another instant of his co back upon icks - I initiated the change and athe thick air, lifting me toward the hole blasted into the roof Part of me half expected that he would try attack while I was in this small and somewhat more vulnerable form, but in my mind I was confident that he was still unaware of my realization He&039;d seenin a sudden manner Such displays weren&039;t likely to affect hi into my crystal, I&039;d seen hi before the disruption Presuain now, and he would busy hi I could assulad I&039;d left so that he could freely concentrate on the probleainstthe next ten seconds

I was tense all the sa hole I easily avoided the twists of hot lead fraht air Now did I purposely exhale, purgingtofro ht for Castle Ravenloft The land climbed to meet me as I left the manor house in the valley behind At this point it&039;s easier to go around this high spur of Baratak than over it, but I was in no erously close to its rocky shoulder to save time

The winds at this elevation are often hazardous and unpredictable, but now they seemed in accord to my will and propelled me forward until I was dizzy from the speed I rode them like a sht and holding direction In less than half the regular time it usually took to travel the distance, I reached the castle and swelled to huhtly on the ay outside ainst pursuit, but nothing marred the moon-bathed sky for miles in any direction

It h the outer doors and swept through ht to lared at the ranks of book-covered shelves They were less orderly than I liked since Azalin always plucked them down for use with abandon and rarely returned any back into place, but certain tonored, seized it, and flipped it open, heedless of the stress on its cracking pages

The chapter I sought was soh, marked by a distinctive illustration of a creature that closely resembled what I&039;d just seen in the shah, and went over the pages twice before thinking I had picked up the wrong volu the one in ht book; it had a whole section devoted to the lore surrounding liches - a section that appeared to be , but found no crude cutting away of pages He had ed, even the page numbers matched up If I hadn&039;t known it should have been there, not been purposely looking for it, I would never have noticed the alteration Quite sea all the other books of ranted that they had also been subjected to a siun the process fro this one across the rooht myself just in time and carefully slid it back into place I suhbors so all would appear to be undisturbed Azalin et absolutely no clue from me that I&039;d found him out

Should he suspect, he would probably take quick and deadly action to try to kill ht even destroy hiuarantee it

I needed to know more There was but one other unlikely source of inforht ht sanctuary in the crypts far below Here, in one of the es I had ever constructed, I kept certain i with my personal journal So far as I knew he had no idea of their existence If this lot had been tampered with I&039;ll deal with it then

My crypt, where Ithe day, was the best defended chaed countless traps and protections, ainst the kind of intenseI spentthem with lethal power The idea was to delay and drain hih to last through the longest ned with a determined assault from a lich in mind I would have to correct that

Once in the crypt I went straight to the concealed alcove built into the base holding the sarcophagus and muttered the words that would open it Thin lines appeared in the unrasp the stone plate and pull it to one side

All was as I had left it, the books, the journals; the crystal ball in its velvet casing was elsewhere I seized one of the books, a rare reference volue My h I hadn&039;t opened it in several decades I was sure there was some mention about liches within

No more It was as clean as the library collection The same went for the rest of thees were still black

Azalin had been reh And I could assue flooding through reat for the stone chaive proper vent to it, roaring and ss with abandon It was soain and could survey the situation with a soed the books, and yes, he had invaded the record of hts I&039;d have done precisely the saiven the chance He knew all there was to know about me - but only up to this point I could plan around that, compensate for it, and do it in such a way as to continue a pretense of norance Not too very difficult I&039;d had centuries of practice at disse; this would be but an extension of that useful skill I had but to give hie of liches was now li I had neverit most unlikely I would ever encounter one They tended to stay in one spot once they initiated the hideous spell work to bring about the awful change they desired

Once done it could never be revoked, and they would continue on, dead and yet not dead, but in a manner far removed from my own for, so to maintain my life as everyone else, but a lich was sustained itself by ic, by the kind of foul necromancy so filthy and black as to make my own dark deeds seem celestial by co and heartbeat, his never eating, the abnorlow of his eyes - they should have told me the truth far sooner than this Had I been so wrapped up in the preparation for escape that I had overlooked their importance? Not likely No Impossible I kne my own mind worked and this sort of mistake was quite out of the ordinary for it The only explanation was that Azalin had cast a very subtle spell uponas now painfully obvious Only when the afteruise and spell work had the truth finally dawned His cleansing of the books had been to preventaccidentally upon the subject which would likely have negated his spell The more I considered it, the more obvious it became It was the only way I could account for such a tremendous lapse of perception on my part

In some twisted way I could take it as a coer to him once I found hiainst hiht do the job, except for those with auras that repelled ht, he was ic, and I was all too vulnerable to supernatural injury fro the day On the other hand, e to engage in face-to-face physical combat, I could destroy him Or at least his outer body An important detail I recalled about liches had to do with the their life-force in so If their bodies were disposed of they could use it to ically transfer the the preferred receptacle

There were plenty of those in Castle Ravenloft But Azalin would not be like my mindless servitors with no will butfor hi their weaknesses had to do with knowing the lich&039;s true name Azalin was a mere title He had admitted as much Even in the times e had been forced to couage, he had always skirted the issue of thereat rulers But Azalin could not have been part of his name much less his entire name, and one would need that to deliver any sort of effective controlling spell He would be very careful to avoid providing me with that kind of a weapon As for a spell which would effectively control him, I knew several of that type, but whether any of them would affect him with or without the use of his nahi&039;s word had held hi as he chose to be kept

In his first weeks here he&039;d needed a protector and guide and had held back his hand, but as I paced around the outer crypt there occurred to edBarovia He needed my help in the spell work, since he see cooperation in order to raise e up to a point where I&039;d be useful to his endeavors The probleh in ainst s, he would have to kill h for that

Then there wasme would destroy Barovia, and by default, Azalin He had come to believe this as much as any of the Vistani, which had always surprised h I had used the legend to h So as I to do with this disaster awaiting a time to happen?

I had no doubt that I could keep up norance about his true nature It was necessary to h I could press forward on o much faster with his contribution Because of his labors I had seen a glih to it I needed hihly delicate balance of power to be sure, based on e courtesy, but I could live with it I had to live with it For like it or not, he was hts passed and I heard nothing fros by means of my crystal He was busy with repairs to the tower, and it seemed to take the whole of his tiood, for I had need to make a quiet and unobserved journey from the castle

Once I had ascertained that Azalin was fully occupied at his tasks, I went to the library and began a special casting By the time I&039;d finished, an exact double ofover a book, lost in study It was detailed enough to accurately reflect candlelight and even turn pages on a regular basis The illusion would not stand up to a close inspection, but I illing to risk that Azalin, hatever Sight spell he favored, was not likely to doin place, I donned a thin gold chain fro a special amulet that would coht spells which I had seen hih and would rouse his suspicion, hence the necessity of having a double where I ht up in his repairs to even bother to look, but I had never regretted being overly cautious When it came to a foe like this lich, there was no such concept

All things ready and s spell One instant I was injust outside the circle of Vistani wagons by the Tser Pool, the night arm upon my face

The air carried the scent of s who set up an immediate row in reaction, as did their other ani&039;s meal stopped abruptly Children fled to theirabout - alert, their hands going to the big knives which they carried in their broad sashes The focus of their attention eventually caed froht

"Madaht hesitation on their part Perhaps I had startled them for once; they certainly acted like it One of the older ave a short nod and snapped an order to the others There was no relaxation of their fear, but at least they were no longer frozen in place by it

I was given a loose escort to Ilka&039;s vardo - nobody wanted to venture too close toa faint reply from within He opened it and a look of shock crossed his features as I took to the narrow steps and boosted myself inside without further invitation My errand wasthe ridiculous courtesies surrounding the entry of a gentle of my appetite I&039;d found countless woes of dishabille; they could hold few surprises for me now, and Ilka proved to be no exception She was seated in her pillow-padded chair as before, the beginnings of a tarokka reading spread in front of her on the table Once again I was struck at her remarkable rese mild amusement, and jerked her chin in the direction of a small stool, probably the same one I had used on my previous visit

"Welcome, Lord Strahd Sit and take your ease"

I left the door open The men outside ithin earshot, but I cared not

Before the night ended they would all hear of what I wanted frohout Barovia

I tookIt was the Darklord

"It see and shuffling the lot into a neat pile

"Do you knohy I have come?"

"The cards have only hinted, and my dreams have not been so clear I know it has to do with the Necro look I heard the fast, light beating of her ancient heart drue and I could smell her fear "Does the war come now?"

"I hope not, for I aht - "

"Were he a mere necroin for I would kill him - but he is more than you or I ever expected"

"What is it you say?"

I told her - in detail - and watched all color drain fro stink of her fear now filled the cra it, was et the proled to hold e and ainst me I plucked out the phrase "protect us" from her soft floords "Such dark creatures are not meant for this world," she said aloud after some moments "He ht"

"Is the Lord Strahd afraid of him?"

"Afraid?" I arched on eyebrow Under different circuered at her presu the subject of our discussion, I let it pass "I fear no one in h to discern the necessity of caution One misstep could prove fatal I certainly intend to kill him, but only in my own time"

She cocked her head to one side "You have a use for his to be otherwise, but yes, I do It is necessary for hi; once it is successfully coainst him Until then I have need of the Vistani as well"

"We are already your eyes and ears throughout the land"

"In general What I need are watchers to specifically spy on him He is in his own house now, il over hi the day"

"We dare not cohts and kill us"

"I don&039;t require your people to rounds and tellunusual that happens I particularly want news of any who visit him, be they peasant or noble He may try to make allies; if that happens I need to know of it"

"Better to kill hiht be able to kill the dead," I returned dryly "Perhaps your dreaainst hiic as well"

"Alas, Vistani dreaic"

Which was probably just as well "You will tell your people what I require of theifts for seeing the truth past an illusionthem, for this necromancer can conceal much when the need suits hiather them They will be rewarded well for this service; you have , loosened the cord, and let the coins within tulint came to her eyes as they all but fed upon the treasure The Vistani were as fond of the brightness of gold as any e this watch, and see to it that those chosen for duty are subtle about it so that they are not caught There are fates far worse than , and the necroree to stand watch"

My sudden rage filled the vardo like a blood-red cloud She flinched as I fought to hold it in check When it was under control, I continued,whisper "In this they have no choice Your people may risk death in my service or have it as an utter certainty in his Are you willing to be the one to break the agreement Madam Eva and I made?"

She licked her lips, and her hand covered the tarokka deck Muttering again she turned the top card over It was The Horse moment with a stricken face The Horseman was feared by all for its portent of calaave a short hopeless laugh, then pushed the cards toward

I cut the deck and chose It was easy enough to deduce her questions: What will befall the Vistani if we do nothing? And: What awaits us to follow Lord Strahd? To answer the last question I placed the card face up between us on the table and waited for her reaction This tiood card for its uncertainties, but better than the previous draw

She h she hadn&039;t seen it before, though the custom was for each Vistana seer toimpatient

She briefly bowed her head "All will be as you command, Lord Strahd The Vistani will be your faithful servants in this war"

And not beforetime I touched the amulet on my breast "Do you knohat this is?"

She peered closely at it, then held her hand up, palhtly touch it So that was there and yet not quite real "It is a charic that no one may find you," she pronounced

"Correct I have prepared many of these for just this ti "Each person who takes up the watch against the Necromancer ical Sight, but they must take care he does not see theood"

"We shall be like ghosts," she prohosts are the dead and this lich knows their ways"

Again the warding gesture

"Is all this clear to you? Must I remain to make the rest understand the i it seeht the hint "No, Lord Strahd need not trouble himself I will see to all But"

"What?"

"The others ant to know - how long ers brush against the two cards, one the unknown, the other certain disaster

"For as long as it takes?"

"For as long as it takes"

547 Barovian Calendar, Barovia "The wench will still be there a few days from now Your presence is required to carry out these duties before I can move on to the next phase of work"

Even after five years Azalin had not tired of testingto spare hi at the base of h by mere rumor to risk all chance of escape,"

he continued

I had long grown used to his inore it This was one such time

"What you want done is not beyond your scope; you can accoh"

"My efforts are better concentrated in the preparation for larger things," he said loftily

"What would that be, running errands best left to your servitors?"

He&039;d made the trip from his manor house to Castle Ravenloft himself to present another order for new laboratory equip here, but I illing to put up with it if it expedited his project

"I want no more mistakes; that&039;s why I oods you sent holly unsuitable for use"

"Not s exactly as you ordered"

"They failed," he stated flatly "If you would let me deal with them directly there would be no uilds You have already killed two of their most skilled workers for iven them the chance to do so"

"They were incompetent idiots"

"Because of your lapse it could take decades of training before the next generation coe in the expertise required I relorious Oerth with an infinite number of replacements for the casualties of your temper"

"You can spare yourself the effort; I am only too well aware of the limitations of this miserable land"

"Excellent For a e to ithin those liuilds as before"

"You could be gone for ht I&039;h in my library for that ti but disdain for anything s in soht put him in a better hu of the idea I had raised in him He could be wonderfully predictable

Certainly he&039;d want tiain, but while I ay he would probably use the opportunity to avail hihregular entries in it - relegating hts and observations in another to any reference to es in this now false journal contained occasional mentions of h not too iven situation In essence I si notation of a willing patience to wait until the time came for the facts to reveal themselves to my inquisitive mind

How that would amuse him It certainly amused me Now

"You are still needed here to execute certain is," he said in a somewhat more coer to see one

"No doubt the boredo to you," I said "But I recall when I had a turn at it last time that you were less than pleased with the results, so you would be wise not to shirk such details If you looked after them personally then you&039;ll have only yourself to blalowed all the hotter for his obvious anger, yet the late summer air in my study went icy cold Our most recent attempt to escape last solstice had been a miserable disappointment, and he&039;d decided that the fault was mine

He had no real proof on which to base this belief; it was dueelse

"We have months yet to prepare for the next try," I continued, "but what I must do now cannot wait"

He snorted in conteain I ignored hi, I kneas in the right He could not wait to get rid of me

By now he&039;d learned of how I had lost ain, all the while pretending that it was news to hiether I had allowed him to worm the story out of me My purpose was to reinforce what he&039;d already read in my journals and to let him know the importance of my occasional absences He knew that I was ever on the lookout for her return, so he always reacted to with boundless scorn

Because of his nature, Azalin was bereft of any tender eer feel love or appreciate a physical pleasure that was not an illusion,it is toward that sweet girl Keeping to norance, I simply continued blindly on in my quest as I would were he a normal man It was a risk that this would soive open challenge, but I illing to take it So long as Azalin thought hie about the contents of my journals and still needed me to do the spells he could not cast, he would continue to hold hier had co Tatyana who resided in a village by the southern border not twenty five miles distant As it was all the way on the other side of Mount Ghakis as well as beyond a spur of Mount Sawtooth, I had a considerable journey ahead of e several days to reach er than necessary lest soht ti would preventher out, not even if Azalin planned an escape atteht and certainly not for such routine spells as he had into see how much influence he could exert over me Only as much as I allowed him And when it came to Tatyana, he had no influence at all

I had one other investigation to ht rest, normally quite tranquil, had been disturbed by soh that was not quite the word for it It was ence intruding uponat a distant door and then entering before I could respond to it Upon awakening I thought ithad a plurality to it and was not all that powerful

I realized that there was a direction to it as Iready to depart Both the ru" seeet my full attention

I swept to the ay, lifted le backward glance

The village of Hoessla was part of the loose curve ofcommunities that dotted the foothills of Mount Sawtooth on the southern border of Barovia, beginning with I at Cuzau in the west Over the years the peasants, under the direction of the local boyars, patiently tunneled into Sawtooth&039;s flanks, drawing forth iron, copper, tin, and old and precious stones

It took ht to reach Hoessla, which was hardly a mile from the Misty border Because of the commerce, there were several hostels to serve theon the inforest, the Pick and Ladder Inn, made a discreet entry into its cellars, and spent the day hidden froht finally caain to resuates of the courtyard

The young fellohose job was to lock things up for the night was no ot all aboutdarkness, but also the nourishing contribution he e in an e the animals with my presence, but was in and out with the body before they could h row to cause notice

The inn itself was a vast (J-shaped structure Soft, golden light shone through the futile protection of iron-barred s, indicating business was excellent tonight I crossed the courtyard to the sound of fiddle, fife, drupipe It was Vistani music Perhaps my informant had been part of the hired entertainment I pulled open the door

Doubtless the people inside were expecting the faure of a tall, for black cloak Theas ripples of awareness spread from those nearest the door to the furthest corners of the room I let , the style identifying me as nobility The innkeeper, a short, stout man apparently arrested in ether and hastened toward me, an uncertain expression on his red face

"Welcome to you, m&039;lord How may I be of service?"

I ordered a seat in the common room, ostensibly to listen to the music The Vistani musicians stared at me, but unlike the rest of the people obviously knehy I was here if they dispatched one of their own to apprise me of the news of Tatyana The keeper hastened to set a table for lass of his best wine

"Does your lordship desire anything to eat?"

"I&039;ve already dined, thank you"

There were so with open curiosity and suspicion Any stranger co in after sunset was subject to a certain a inally relaxed The htly tune, but few paid much attention to it as the patrons leaned close across their tables to talk My hearing plucked out enough from the various conversations to inform me that I was the main topic, not that it was much of a surprise I would have known that froaze wander over the roo a roof withthem as local petty officers of my exchequer, so apart from the rest They seeed enough to be beggars