Azure bonds - Kate Novak [89]
Lhaeo looked up and shrugged. "For a magic-user he seemed a bit impatient."
"Takes all types," Elminster commented sagely as he threw his cloak over the chair Akabar had only recently vacated. He sat down and stretched out his long legs.
"Did you discover what you needed to know?" Lhaeo asked.
"I have all the pieces of the puzzle and I have put them all together. But the picture makes no sense."
"Oh?" Lhaeo said, a little surprised.
"I may have to make that journey to the other planes after all,"
"Shall I begin packing?" Lhaeo asked.
"Not just yet," the sage replied. "There's a good chance the puzzle may just throw itself on the fire." But a rare ache crept over his bones and he knew he was wrong. "In the meantime, maybe ye'd better dig some of the old Harper scrolls out of the vault."
Lhaeo nodded and slipped out of the office jangling a set of great iron keys. Elminster retired to his study to research a single puzzle piece.
Back at The Old Skull, oblivious to the sage's concern, the four adventurers tended to their own business.
Akabar worried about the meaning of the sigil he had been unable to trace and considered how to trap Dragonbait into betraying himself.
The lizard kept his own council and told no one of his plans.
Olive counted the platinum coins four more times, finally tucking them neatly into the pockets of her backpack.
Alias slept the morning away, and when she awoke in the early afternoon on the last day of Mirtul, she felt refreshed and peaceful.
16
Run Aground
Giogioni Wyvernspur, suddenly aware of his duty to posterity, began the first entry in his journal, despite the inconvenience of the rocking boat. With a stick of soft lead he scrawled:
The last day of Mirtul has dawned fair and bright, and the Dragonmere's southern coastline is now in sight. The trip across the lake from Suzail has been a pain in the britches. The ship, on which that cad Vangerdahast has seen fit to book passage for me, is no larger than a festhall and a good deal less clean. A violent storm last night threatened to capsize this vessel, and consequently dinner was not served. But all that hardship is behind me. We will dock tonight in Teziir and proceed to Westgate in the morning, traveling along the coast, with land in sight at all times, thank Tymora.
This business of being a royal envoy might not be so bad, Giogi thought as he closed his journal. All he had to do was carry a letter from Azoun to a member of Westgate's ruling council, find out if they knew anything about this Alias person, and then keep an eye out for her in case she showed up within the next two months-all at the crown's expense.
As he stood at the upper deck's railing, the Wyvernspur noble could pick out snatches of the conversation the captain was having with Teziir's harbormaster. Something about an increase in the docking fee-another ten gold pieces was owed. A reasonable sum for making it to land, Giogi thought, but the ship's captain had another opinion.
"Outrageous! I won't suffer such extortion. I'll bring her in without your help. See if I don't!"
Somewhere astern, on the lower deck, a high-pitched voice asked another passenger, "Penurious, our captain, or merely recalcitrant?"
Giogi turned toward the sound of the voice. Funny, I didn't notice any halflings aboard before.
The passenger the halfling had addressed was a lady cloaked from head to toe. When Giogi saw her face he froze. The halfling was male, completely unfamiliar, but the woman's face-he couldn't be mistaken. It was her!
"Why, Master Phalse," the lady smiled. 'If I had known you were traveling on the same vessel, I might have forsaken dinner with the captain for your company."
"Dinner with the captain, dinner with me, while poor Zrie is left alone in Westgate. You can be so cruel, Lady Cassana. You know he falls to pieces without vou.
So, Giogi thought, Alias isn't her real