Telgarth Boarblade knew the reward Caladanter intended him to receive upon his return wasn't the usual satchel of gold coins but a hail of arrows from a dozen waiting archers, whose work would leave no one alive who knew of Rhallogant Caladanter's treasonous intentions but Caladanter himself.

"And you would trust such a fool as yourself?" Boarblade murmured, in mild rebuke. "The rest of us are not the gaps in your armor, Lord."

Rhallogant Caladanter blinked at his bodyguard in disbelief. "Hey? Quoth you-?"

"Lord Caladanter," Boarblade said firmly, "the time has come for you to know one of my secrets."

The young nobleman was staring at him as if he had several heads, and he was going pale. Good.

"I am a wizard," the Zhent announced in a low voice, taking a step closer to Caladanter-who flinched as if his bodyguard had drawn a sword with a menacing flourish, instead of spreading his empty hands reassuringly, " but not a war wizard. Rather, I spy on the Wizards of War for the royal family. I serve the Obarskyrs."

Boarblade held up one hand in a "bide easy" gesture and added, "Yet the king does not hold your little plot against you. Rather, he sees it as your love of our fair land and anger at what is being done to it goading you into trying to do something to aid Cormyr. The king is saddened that like so many highborn of your age, you have been so misled by the villainous Vangerdahast as to think the royal family of Cormyr your foe. Not at all! The Obarskyrs consider themselves the prisoners of the Royal Magician and his sinister Wizards of War and want to make common cause with dissatisfied nobles against the scheming mages who have ruled the Forest Kingdom for far too long. The king has need of you, Lord Rhallogant Caladanter, and intends you for high rank at Court and much wealth and power, when the fell power of Vangerdahast is broken!"