Magadon said, "Simple really. I transferred a memory of something that I had seen to you, as though you had seen it. That can go both ways. I can use a modified mind-link to take something that you've seen, or even to see through your eyes."
"That's why no one likes you, Mags," Riven said.
Cale gave a half smile, feeling a strange sense of having done that all before.
"Didn't you already tell me that?" he asked Magadon.
The guide looked at him curiously, started to speak, stopped, then said, "I don't... I don't think so."
Cale shook his head, meanwhile storing what Magadon had told him in the back of his mind.
"Ready yourselves," he said to all of them.
With an exercise of will, Cale drew the shadows about the boat until darkness cloaked them like a shroud.
"I can't see," Jak said, and his voice was small in the darkness.
Cale pictured the location in his mind and transported them from the darkness of Starmantle's bay to the darkness of the Wet River canyon. He didn't feel any sensation of motion, though he heard Jak gasp.
When he let the shadows begin to dissipate, it was plain that they were elsewhere. Sound filled their ears: the slow croak of frogs, the chirps of crickets and cicadas, and the steady rush of the river. Maples loomed over them, blotting out the stars. Behind the maples rose the steep, boulder-strewn sides of a rocky canyon. The boat was moving, careening sideways in a moderate current.
"Help me get it to shore!" Magadon shouted. "The current gets fast very quickly."
While the guide skillfully plied the oars, Cale, Jak, and Riven used their hands to help paddle. Together, they pulled the craft out of the current and steered it into the shallows. There, Magadon hopped out and pulled the craft onto a stony beach.
Breathing hard, they all exited the boat and sank to the ground.
When he'd caught his breath, Magadon said to Cale, "We covered over twenty leagues in a heartbeat. Well done."
Cale caught Riven's frown, but chose to ignore it.
"We'll camp here," Magadon said, indicating a knoll under the leaves of a maple. "With the dawn, we start downriver for the Dragon's Jaws."
Jak and Riven stared at the guide.
"The falls are called the Dragon's Jaws," Magadon explained. He cocked his head. "If you listen with care, you can hear them even from here."
With his darkness-enhanced senses, Cale could hear them quite clearly. In the distance sounded the dull roar and boom of thundering water. In his mind's eye, he could see the falls: a raging river cutting a jagged gash in the wall of a high cliff. The gash looked vaguely like jaws snapping shut.
Magadon looked at Riven and Jak and said, "The falls at the Jaws descend two bowshots or more before crashing into the Dragonmere. The mist is as thick as an autumn fog; the roar as loud as the bellows of a hundred ogres. It's wondrous to see."
"Wondrous?" Jak said, while he stuffed his pipe. "Trickster's toes! Two bowshots is a long drop, Magadon."
Riven said nothing.
"The Jaws are the location of the Crossroad," the guide said. "More precisely, the Jaws are the Crossroad."
When Cale and Jak looked a question at him, Magadon said, "You'll see tomorrow. Save your questions until then. I need to prepare tonight."
Since Magadon seemed disinclined to speak further about it, Cale let it drop.
After they had pitched their tents and Magadon had gotten a campfire going, Cale volunteered to take the first watch. He would need to pray to the Shadowlord at midnight anyway.
"There is no need for that here," Magadon said, and nodded up at the maples. "This place is already being watched."
Cale followed Magadon's glance to the canopy above. He saw nothing there and heard only the wind through the leaves, the rush of the river, and the distant boom of the Dragon's Jaws. Still, he took the guide at his word, shrugged, and lay down to sleep.
He awakened at midnight, as always. Sitting up from his bedroll, he saw Magadon sitting near the river, keeping vigil and whispering to its waters. The guide's words were lost to the rush of the current and the song of the crickets.
Cale looked to the other side of the fire and saw that Riven was not in his tent. He sat up fully and scanned the campsite. His vision allowed him to see clearly in the darkness and he spotted Riven right away. The assassin sat in the deeper darkness against the bole of one of the maples. He had his legs partially drawn up and rested the back of his palms on his knees. His eyes were closed.
He was praying, Cale realized, and the understanding made him uncomfortable.
With effort, he put it out of his mind. So as not to disturb either Magadon or Riven, Cale quietly donned his mask and prayed to the Shadowlord. His patron answered; power filled his brain, the words to prayers that would unlock magic.
Afterward, he lay back down to sleep. By then, Riven was back in his bedroll, sleeping.
Magadon awakened him just as the false dawn began to lighten the sky above the canyon. Together, they roused Jak and Riven. Jak lit his pipe; Riven's coughs sounded loud off the canyon's rocks.
While they gathered their gear, Magadon explained the situation: "The guardian is a river fey, and will only appear if we brave the current near the Jaws while the sun is rising. I had hoped to win his favor last night. He did not answer, but we shall soon see if I succeeded."
"Near the Jaws," Jak muttered, and lost his pipe from between his teeth. "Dark," he said, retrieving it and dusting the dirt from the stem.
"You're right to be concerned," the guide said. "Once in that current, there is no getting out. We must convince the guardian to allow us passage, or we'll go over the falls."
Between his coughs, Riven managed a hard laugh. Cale and Jak shared a look.
"How do we do that?" Cale asked, his voice and mood serious.
Magadon shrugged, and as he finished loading his pack he said, "Fey are fickle. Some days, one thing will work, someday another. But something will work. We need only find what it is."
Cale wondered if he should reconsider his decision not to transport them all directly to Skullport.
Magadon must have sensed his hesitation.
"All we can do is try, Erevis."
"Try and die," Riven said, as he pulled on his pack.
"Maybe," Magadon acknowledged.
Jak pocketed his pipe and threw his pack in the boat.
"You've got nothing better, Zhent," the halfling said to Riven. "I trust Magadon's judgment."
Riven glared at Jak then turned back to the guide.