"I purchased some new gear for us," Magadon said, still in that same thoughtful tone. "New cloaks, boots, road tack. . .."
Riven ignored all that and said, "You enter Skullport knowing what you want. You get it, then you leave. As fast as possible. And no one crosses the Skulls. I've seen what they can do."
Jak blew a cloud of smoke up into Riven's face and grumbled, "I said I understood."
Riven inhaled Jak's exhaled smoke and blew it back at the halfling.
"Good," the assassin replied. "If things go ugly there because you can't keep your conscience in your-"
"Enough," Cale said, standing and interposing himself between Jak and Riven. "We know what we want in Skullport. We're hunting slaadi. The question is, how do we get there?"
Cale knew that Skullport was somewhere below Waterdeep, Faerun's largest city, over half a continent away.
Jak shrugged, drew in some smoke, then said, "Magic?"
Riven scoffed and took out his borrowed pipe.
"You have something better to offer?" the halfling asked.
Riven lit, inhaled, then replied, "No. The way we-the way I used before won't be available. We need another way."
Magadon used one of his own tindertwigs to light the wick of the oil lamp on the table. Shadows sprung up on the walls. Cale realized then how cognizant he had become of the presence or absence of darkness and shadows. He also knew that in darkness he could use his own power to instantaneously transport himself, and possibly his comrades, from the shadows in Starmantle to the shadows in Skullport. Not shadowstepping, but teleporting. Still, something caused him to hesitate. He remembered: Long ago, he had overheard something about the dangers of teleporting into and out of the Underdark. Stories of men materializing half in and half out of solid rock, screaming in agony for the last few heartbeats of their lives. He didn't want to risk that with his comrades. If there was no other way, he could go alone. . . .
"I know a way," Magadon said. His pale eyes glowed in the lamplight. "But it's four days away, even moving quickly."
Cale barely acknowledged the relief he felt at Mogadon's pronouncement.
"Four days is too much time," he said. "But I may be able to get us there sooner. What's your way?"
Magadon looked at Cale with raised eyebrows and asked, "How can you get us there sooner?"
Cale indicated his skin, the shadows leaking from his fingertips, and said, "With this. I can teleport us there if you can describe the location to me."
Magadon nodded and said, "I can do better."
Before Cale could ask what he meant, Riven asked, "Then why not teleport us all the way to Skullport?"
"Something I heard once," Cale replied. "I think teleporting that deep underground is dangerous."
"I've heard that too," Jak said, nodding and blowing a smoke ring.
Riven seemed to accept that. No doubt he'd heard something similar.
Magadon said, "The way I know is dangerous too."
Shaking his head, Cale replied, "Not as much."
He said it as a statement, but there was enough of a question in it that Magadon smiled.
"We'll see," the guide said. "The guardian can send us anywhere we want to go, provided there's water at the destination."
All of them knew that Skullport sat on the shore of an underground harbor.
"Guardian?" Jak said from around his pipe stem.
"Describe your route, Mags," Cale said.
"A Crossroads," Magadon said, as though that explained it all.
Cale had no idea what the guide meant.
"Explain," said Riven, echoing Cale's thoughts.
The guide shrugged and frowned, seemingly surprised that none of his three comrades showed any recognition.
"Faerun is crosshatched with secret ways," he said. "Druids call them the Hidden Paths, but most know them as Crossroads and Backroads. They are not quite portals, they're more like ... folds in the world. A tunnel of one step that carries you through a space of a hundred leagues. Take a step onto a Backroad in Selgaunt and instantly find yourself outside of Arabel. Does that make sense?"
Riven's narrowed eye and furrowed brow said, "No."
Cale wasn't quite sure he understood either.
"So you're saying these Crossroads are all over?" Jak asked. "Only, we can't see them?"
Magadon smiled and said, "Not quite, Jak. The Backroads are everywhere, or at least most everywhere. The Crossroads are the access points, where the Backroads intersect our perception of the world. It is there that we can enter the Backroads. And no, most people don't see them."
Jak shook his head, obviously still confused.
Cale too was uncertain. He had never in all his travels heard of anything resembling the phenomenon Magadon was describing. Perhaps comprehending the nature of the Hidden Paths had something to do with Magadon's psionic abilities. He suspected Magadon's careful choice of the phrase, "our perception of the world," went to the core of the issue.
"Where do they come from?" Cale asked.
The guide scratched his nose and shook his head.
"The Hidden Paths are part of the nature of creation, Erevis. They did not come from anything. They just are and have always been."
Cale digested that.
"And one leads to Skullport?" he asked at last.
Magadon nodded and said, "They lead everywhere."
Riven took a long draw on his pipe.
"How did you come to know about these things?" the assassin asked.
Magadon gave his best Drasek Riven sneer and tapped his temple.