Contents

Lisa Smedman…Trial by Ordeal

Jess Lebow…Assassin’s Shadow

Paul S. Kemp…Too Long in the Dark

Troy Denning…Darksword

Jessica Beaven…Liar’s Game

R.A.Salvatore…That Curious Sword

Elaine Cunningham…A Little Knowledge

Philip Athans….Astride the Wind

Murray J.D. Leeder…The Fallen Lands

Ed Greenwood…When Shadow Come Seeking a Throne

Richard Lee Byers…King Shadow

Peter Archer…The Shifting Sands

Netheril Year 3389 (The Year of Perdition's Flame, — 470 DR)

Hands clasped behind his back, Andoris Derathar stared out the warded window at the drifting clouds that veiled the farmland so far below. The city was currently floating over a lush checkerboard of leaf-greens, wheat-yellows and loamy browns, but in the distance he could see a ridge of sun-bleached white that should not have been there: the low dunes of the encroaching desert.

He had just come from the Hall of Judgment and was still wearing his robes of office: a starched and pleated black kilt that hung to the floor and a long-sleeved black shirt with a pair of scales, embroidered in gold thread, on its left breast. A gold cord was knotted around his waist. Suspended from it was a mask-a smooth circle of ivory with holes for eyes and nostrils, and a slit for the mouth. Its color matched that of Andoris's white-blond hair, which was receding on either side of a high-swept forehead. The face of the mask was as bland as Andoris's own; his beardless cheeks were smooth-unmarred by lines of age or worry.