Azure bonds - Kate Novak [84]
"Ahem," Olive coughed politely.
The small, seated figure looked up. An inhumanly wide grin spread across his childish face. He was a male halfling dressed in the robes of a southerner.
"Excellent," her guest said. "I wondered how long it would be before you stopped taking bows and decided to retire for the evening."
"An artist never tires of her audience," Olive replied as she entered the room, scanning it for other intruders. There was no one else. "Though, alas, the opposite is often true," she added.
"But there are audiences, and there are audiences."
"True enough. But that is a discussion for another day. Who now graces my presence with this display of breaking and entering?"
The little figure slid from the chair and took a moment to smooth his robes. Then, he thrust out a hand and said, "Call me Phalse."
Olive closed the door behind her and stepped forward. She gave Phalse's hand a single, brief squeeze, as was the custom among halflings. "False what?" she asked.
"Just Phalse will suffice for now," the intruder answered, smiling smugly.
He had the most peculiar eyes, Olive noted. Dark blue where the whites should have been, sky blue irises and pupils the blue-white of hot iron. It must be some trick of the candlelight, she decided.
"You are Olive Ruskettle, companion to the warrior Alias?"
"We're traveling in the same direction," Olive corrected, hoisting herself onto the mattress and perching on the edge. Phalse hopped back into the chair and leaned back against the cushions with his legs stretched out across the seat.
"And your destination is…?"
"I'll know when I get there," Olive replied. "Bards need to travel, to gain information, pass on tales."
"I see," Phalse said. "I think i have a tale for you." Carefully, he pushed a single stack of coins across the tea table in Olive's direction.
The bard kept her eves on the coins. From the bed, she could see they were not silver, but platinum. Keeping her voice as level as she could, she said, "I'm always interested in tales."
"I thought you might be," said the other halfling, flashing another wide grin, a grin too wide for a human and almost too wide for a halfling. "It's a tale about two people who were traveling in the same direction. One was a woman, the other a human female."
"Is this woman a bard?" Olive asked.
"If it makes a suitable story," Phalse replied, pushing another stack of coins toward Olive.
"This human female had done something horrible. She was a very sick human female-she carried a curse, you see, a curse which could not easily be removed. Fortunately, certain powers were seeking to capture and imprison her until such time as a cure might be found for her.
"Unfortunately, part of this human female's curse was that she deliberately avoided these powers. As a matter of fact, this human female killed all the agents sent to bring her back to those who would help her. Of course, the woman who was a bard knew nothing of this; she did not realize what peril she was in."
A third stack of platinum joined the first two.
"Horrors," Olive said, her voice still even, her eyes still glued to the money on the tea table. "What could this woman who was a bard possibly do when she found out these things? I take it this human female was much, much bigger and stronger than the woman who was a bard?"
"True," Phalse said, "but according to the tale a helpful stranger approached the woman and offered her a ring set with a yellow stone." He twisted his wrist and revealed a golden band set with a large, jagged crystal.
"Nice palm," Olive complimented. "I almost didn't see it. What does this tale say is the ring's power? '
"The tale doesn't say, exactly. Only that