Azure bonds - Kate Novak [14]
Alias shoved her boot in the door before the girl could close it. "I've come to see the sage-on personal business."
"The master's very busy. Perhaps you could come-"
Alias stepped into the hall and gripped the girl's shoulder. She smacked Winefiddle's letter of introduction down on top of the pile of tapestries the servant was carrying. "Give him this. It's from the Temple of Tymora. Urgent."
"Yes, ma'am," the maid nodded, showing a little more courtesy. "Would you take a seat and wait right here, please? I'll send someone to stable your pet."
Alias squeezed the girl's shoulder firmly, and hissed with annoyance, "He's not my pet." Then she sat down on a bench against the wall. Dragonbait sat beside her.
The servant blanched, nodded, and hurried away.
While she waited, Alias scowled at the opulence of her surroundings: an estate full of servants; new, gold-threaded tapestries hung in the hall, undoubtedly replacing the older, less stylish ones carried off by the parlor maid; landscaping that required the services of four separate races; a wedding tent big enough to billet an army, and likely enough food and drink to feed them as well.
No wonder sages aren't cheap. Dimswart should be delighted to see me. How else is he going to help defray all these costs? Whatever happened to ancient, cranky, unmarried sages who preferred pursuing knowledge over wordly goods?
To keep from fidgeting, she studied Dragonbait. He waited more patiently than she did. The lizard sat with his tail over his shoulder, flicking the tip back and forth in front of his face, following it with his eyes.
What is he? she wondered with aggravation. Maybe the sage can shed some light on his origins. Not likely, though. If I've never seen anything like him in all my travels, what chance is there that he's in any of the sage's books?
Despite the obvious chaos of the household, a butler finally arrived to escort her to the sage's study.
If Alias had met Dimswart before her visit to Suzail, she might have ungenerously described his build as chunky. But compared to the innkeep of The Hidden Lady and Winefiddle, the sage appeared broad-shouldered but lean. He rose from his seat by the fire and clasped her extended hand in both his meaty paws.
"Well met, well met," he said, smiling like a halfling with an extra king in the deck. "Sit down here by the fire, and tell me what a humble book-banger can do for a warrioress."
Warrioress? Now there's a title you don't hear every day, Alias thought. It marked Dimswart as a very old-fashioned sort of sage. "It's a little complicated," Alias began.
"We should start with the essentials," Dimswart cut in. "If you will indulge me, I'd like to exercise my skill. Leah, our maid, told me I was to expect a sorceress and her familiar. But this creature-" he nodded toward Dragonbait- "is too large to be a familiar, and few sorcerers carry quite so much steel about their person."
"All I said to your maid," Alias interjected, "was that Dragonbait wasn't a pet."
"Quite," Dimswart agreed, motioning for her to have a seat opposite him. "We are very reclusive out here in the country, though, and Leah, never having seen such a creature, leaped to the conclusion that if it wasn't a pet, it must be a familiar, so you must be a sorceress. You are not. You're a hired sword. From your lack of old scars, I'd say you were either a very new one or a very good one, and you have strange tastes in traveling companions."
Dragonbait cleared his nostrils in a noticeable hwumpf, as he stood by the fire, watching the sage.
Dimswart continued. "You're a native of… let's see, brown hair with a tinge of red, hazel eyes, strong cheeks, good carriage… Westgate, I'd say, though from your fair complexion I'd guess it's been a while since you've lived there."
Alias tried to interrupt, but the smiling sage pressed on.
"Furthermore, you're not some hot-blooded youth looking for information to lead you to riches beyond belief; you have a problem, personal and immediate.