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Authors: Tanya Huff

Scholar of Decay

BOOK: Scholar of Decay
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A Scheming Family.
A Devastating City.
A Terrible Revenge.

“I don’t know why she hides what she is,” he said instead. “Her family is so strong here it couldn’t possibly make any difference. But then, her kind enjoy dark and labyrinthine games, so perhaps that’s sufficient explanation. I’m sure it amuses them to mingle with the citizens of the cities.”

His voice trailed off as he remembered another time power had called to power and his beloved Natalia had paid the price of the visit. Finally he regained control and continued. “It’s time for me to go, Lia.” Swallowing his grief, he cupped both hands around the statue without actually touching it. “I love you,” he whispered past the constriction in his throat. “I promise you, I’ll find a way.”

Face twisted with painful memories, he returned to his bedchamber, pulling the study door closed softly behind him. As he looked into his mirror, he froze. The laughing face of the wild-haired man filled the glass. His lips writhed with the force of his amusement. His eyes, locked on Aurek’s, were dark with gleeful hate.

To your victory!
jeered the apparition.

From the award-winning author of the
Blood Books
comes
Scholar of Decay
,
the story of a man who learns that being a scholar does not protect one from the ravages of magic and the schemes of a powerful family bent on evil
.

RavenLoft
®
The Covenant

Death of a Darklord
LAURELL K. HAMILTON

Vampire of the Mists
CHRISTIE GOLDEN

I, Strahd:
The Memoirs of a Vampire
P. N. ELROD

To Sleep With Evil
ANDRIA CARDARELLE

Tapestry of Dark Souls
ELAINE BERGSTROM

Scholar of Decay
TANYA HUFF

SCHOLAR OF DECAY
The Covenant
©1995 TSR, Inc.
©2007 Wizards of the Coast LLC.

This book is protected under the copyright laws of the United States of America. Any reproduction or unauthorized use of the material or artwork contained herein is prohibited without the express written permission of Wizards of the Coast LLC.

Published by Wizards of the Coast LLC.
Represented by Hasbro Europe, 2 Roundwood Ave, Stockley Park, Uxbridge, Middlesex, UB11 1AZ, UK
.

RAVENLOFT, Dungeons & Dragons, D&D, Wizards of the Coast, all other Wizards of the Coast product names, and their respective logos are trademarks of Wizards of the Coast LLC in the USA and other countries.

All characters in this book are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental. All Wizards of the Coast characters and their distinctive likenesses are property of Wizards of the Coast LLC.

Cover art by: Erik M. Gist
First Printing: December 1995

eISBN: 978-0-7869-6473-4
640A5187000001 EN

For customer service, contact:

U.S., Canada, Asia Pacific, & Latin America: Wizards of the Coast LLC, P.O. Box 707, Renton, WA 98057-0707, +1-800-324-6496,
www.wizards.com/customerservice

U.K., Eire, & South Africa: Wizards of the Coast LLC, c/o Hasbro UK Ltd., P.O. Box 43, Newport, NP19 4YD, UK, Tel: +08457 12 55 99, Email:
[email protected]

All other countries: Wizards of the Coast p/a Hasbro Belgium NV/SA, Industrialaan 1, 1702 Groot-Bijgaarden, Belgium, Tel: +32.70.233.277, Email:
[email protected]

Visit our websites at
www.wizards.com
www.DungeonsandDragons.com

v3.1

For Carrie and Dave
and a hundred afternoons
spent rolling ten-sided dice
.

“Aurek?” Taking the Heavy Tray from the Kitchen
maid, Natalia Nuikin smilingly dismissed the girl and pushed open the narrow door to her husband’s study. It would have been locked to anyone else. That it opened to her touch was a measure of the depths of her husband’s love. His study was his sanctuary, his alone until his marriage had opened more than just his heart. “Aurek?”

He was standing in the center of the book-lined room, one hand holding a huge, red, leather-bound volume, the other lifted to shoulder height, ink-stained fingers spread wide. Facing him was a creature out of nightmare. The crest of its misshapen head brushed against the beams in the ceiling. Its skin was gray and pebbled. Its eyes, all three of them, were amber. Two rows of pointed teeth were clearly visible as it opened an enormous mouth and roared.

Natalia screamed. The tray and its contents smashed against the floor.

Aurek whirled around to face her.

The monster vanished.

“Natalia?” Aurek set the book on its pedestal and quickly crossed the room to take both her hands in his. “What’s the matter?”

Trembling, she clung to him. “There was … I saw … It was …”

“Illusion. Only illusion.” Lightly grasping her chin, he lifted her face until their eyes met. “Don’t you remember how I promised you that I would never bring danger into this house?”

Unable to decide if she should be feeling fear or anger and finally letting go of both, Natalia found a shaky smile. “I remember. It just seemed so real.” Pulling free of his grasp, she knelt to scoop up the fallen food and bits of broken crockery. “I thought you might want something to eat. You’ve been in here all day.”

He knelt beside her. “I’ve finally deciphered that last bit on the scroll, Lia.”

“And you’ve added it to the book?”

“I was just about to.”

She took a thick piece of buttered bread out of his hand just before he could bite into it and put it back on the tray. “You can’t eat that, Aurek. It’s been on the floor.”

“Then I shall have to eat this instead.” Lifting the inside of her wrist to his mouth, he nibbled lightly on the soft flesh.

Natalia giggled. She tried not to; it wasn’t the sort of thing matrons of good Borcan families did, but she couldn’t help herself. “Aurek!”

“Natalia!” Her name emerged considerably muffled as he’d pushed up the full embroidered sleeve of her shirt and was now chewing on the crook of her elbow.

Pulling her arm free, she pushed him playfully away. “Not here and not now,” she admonished. “What would the servants think?”

“The servants can’t get in,” he reminded her with a smile, but he stood and extended a hand to help her to her feet. “I tell you what, give me another hour and I’ll be finished for the afternoon. Then
I’ll come out and have something to eat in the dining room, like a civilized human being.”

“You promise?”

“I promise.”

She stood on her toes and pressed a kiss against his mouth to seal the pledge. With the tray balanced against her hip and one hand on the door, she paused and glanced nervously over at the book. Even she, with no magic of her own, could feel the power contained between those red leather covers. “I’m not sure you should be adding to it.”

“It’s perfectly safe, Lia. I have protections …”

“Around the book and around the study and around the entire house,” Lia said, completing his oft-repeated assurance. “I know.” She kissed him again. “You’ve got an hour, no more; then I’m coming back to drag you out into the sunshine—by your ears if I have to.”

As the door closed behind her, she heard the sound of the chair being pulled up to his desk. It was very likely that she’d have to make good her threat. It wouldn’t be the first time.

Brows drawn pensively, she carried the wrecked luncheon back to the kitchens. Illusionary monsters aside, she found her husband’s research more frustrating than frightening. Aurek believed in knowledge for the sake of knowledge. As he kept reminding her, he was a scholar, nothing more. He thought knowledge was the only thing in the world that was pure and untainted. It never seemed to occur to him that it could actually be used for something.

There was so much good he could do with the knowledge he’d acquired over his years of scholarship—if only she could convince him to do so. She smiled as she thought of him—arrogant and brilliant, inkstained and rumpled—striding out into the world to save it from itself.

Well, maybe not, she decided, setting the tray on one end of the huge old table and nodding at the cook. She’d brought most of the servants with her when she’d come here from her mother’s house. Before their marriage, Aurek had been living alone on the Nuikin family’s old country estate with only a single manservant. Personally, Natalia thought that Edik, the servant, deserved a medal for enduring the situation.

The sight of a horse galloping past the kitchen windows drew her out into the gardens in time to see Aurek’s brother, Dmitri, ride into the stableyard. When he saw her, he spurred his mount toward the house.

He was a handsome, athletic young man—a boy, really, she amended, for there had been fifteen years and four sisters between his birth and Aurek’s. Although Natalia saw very little of the rest of Aurek’s family—they foolishly preferred town and the court of Ivana Boritsi to country life—Dmitri occasionally made an effort to break into Aurek’s self-imposed isolation. Desperate for acceptance by the older brother held up as a paragon of virtue by their sisters, Dmitri had no idea of how to go about gaining Aurek’s approbation and no intention of admitting such a need to anyone, even himself. Natalia liked her young brother-in-law and wished Aurek were more welcoming.

BOOK: Scholar of Decay
12.74Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

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