Black Wizards
Authors: Douglas Niles
N
A
RMY OF
B
HAAL
An army of zombies and ogres, guided by Bhaal, god of death and destruction, threatens the peace of the Moonshae Isles. Once again Tristan Kendrick, prince of Moonshae, struggles to earn his birthright.
Now back in print, this is the second volume of Douglas Niles’s acclaimed Moonshae Trilogy.
Books by Douglas Niles
F
ORGOTTEN
R
EALMS
®
The
Moonshae Trilogy
Darkwalker on Moonshae
Black Wizards
Darkwel
l
D
RAGONLANCE
®
The
Icewall Trilogy
The Messenger
The Golden Orb
Winterheim
Wizards’ Conclave
The Puppet King
The Moonshae Trilogy • Book Two
B
LACK
W
IZARDS
©2004 Wizards of the Coast LLC
All characters in this book are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead is purely coincidental.
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.
Forgotten Realms, Wizards of the Coast, their respective logos and Dragonlance are trademarks of Wizards of the Coast LLC in the U.S.A. and other countries.
All Wizards of the Coast characters and their distinctive likenesses are property of Wizards of the Coast LLC.
Cover art by J.P. Targete
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 2004106772
eISBN: 978-0-7869-5970-9
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v3.1
For my mother and father
What has gone before.…
King Kendrick of Corwell was one of the four kings of the Ffolk who dwelled upon the Moonshae Islands. Corwell, along with the Kingdoms of Moray and Snowdown, owed fealty to Callidyrr, for Callidyrr was home to the king of Callidyrr, who was the titular High King of all the Ffolk.
Tristan Kendrick, Prince of Corwell, had studied some of the arts of kingship very diligently, swordfighting and military science in particular. However, he was less interested in the more mundane aspects of rulership, such as economics and agriculture.
Robyn, the king’s ward, had been raised as his own daughter, but her interests lay beyond the castle. She showed a proclivity toward the woodlands and all things natural.
In the twentieth year of the prince’s life, Kazgoroth the Beast rose from its fetid bog to threaten the kingdom of Corwell. Walking the land in a number of guises, it recruited allies and sought its one goal: the disruption of the Balance so crucial to the Ffolk—and the very isles themselves.
Forced into battle, Robyn found herself wielding potent druidic magic—earthmagic that was the legacy of the mother she had never known. Tristan fought the Beast and created an army to defeat Kazgoroth’s minions. In the process, he found the Sword of Cymrych Hugh. This legendary weapon, lost for centuries, allowed him to slay the Beast and served as a symbol of the lost unity of his people.
At the same time, Tristan and Robyn found their relationship changing, growing as a long-dormant love for each other awakened inside them.
But Robyn could not ignore her legacy, and so she went to study under her aunt, Genna Moonsinger, the Great Druid of all the Moonshaes. Tristan remained in Corwell, enjoying the accolades of victory, and swiftly growing bored.
We resume their story one year after the death of the Beast.…
he plane of Gehenna was a bleak and oppressive realm, hostile to mortal life. It was a world built upon a vast, unending mountainside, sloping steeply always, never reaching a bottom or a summit. Gouts of steam erupted from the mountainside, and rivers of lava flowed across it, sizzling through long cataracts, collecting in bubbling pools
.
Such was the domain of Bhaal, murderous god of death
.
A seething, angry god, Bhaal thrived on bloody, violent acts. He grew in strength as his worshippers spread across the worlds, slaying in his horrible name
.
Bhaal sought vengeance
.
A minion of the god had been killed nearly one mortal year ago, but an eyeblink to the god. Kazgoroth was neither Bhaal’s most powerful servant, nor his most favored. But he was slain by a mortal, and the man who dared strike a minion of Bhaal’s might as well strike at the god himself
.
The bloodlust of the god began as a simple hatred—a desire to see this mortal, and those who aided the man, slain. Bhaal anticipated their deaths with grisly pleasure
.
But the man was a prince. And he was the beloved of a druid. His woman carried her own power, and she served a goddess who was foreign—and thus, hateful—to Bhaal
.
And so Bhaal’s need for vengeance evolved and grew into something far more terrible than any plot for murder. The prince was a leader of his land, and the druid was a caretaker of that land. It seemed fitting to Bhaal that not only the mortals, but their land itself, should die
.
The god had a powerful tool for wreaking this vengeance. Bhaal’s minion, Kazgoroth
,
though slain, was not entirely gone. One fragment of the Beast—its heart—remained, clutched desperately by one of its former servants. Bhaal took careful note of the Heart of Kazgoroth. He would have a use for it soon
.
Yes, he decided. The land of these mortals would become a land of death—a nation ruled by the dead, over the dead. No living thing would mar it
.
Thus was dealt the vengeance of Bhaal
.
