Azure bonds - Kate Novak [93]
Alias nodded and pulled out a chair for her companion.
"I understand your meeting with the wise Elminster kept you out all night," she said. "How'd it go?"
Akabar smiled weakly. "It was all right, I suppose."
"And?" Alias prompted. "What did he have to say?"
"Say?" Akabar echoed.
Something in his manner made Alias suspicious. "Something bad?" she whispered after Jhaele had laid out extra tableware for Akabar and left.
Akabar shook his head. "I waited half the night to see him, and I came away with nothing more than what we learned from Dimswart back in Suzail."
"Did he mention the lay of Zrie Prakis and Cassana?"
Akabar made a noncommittal noise as he poured syrup over some waffles.
"Did he?" Alias asked, taking the syrup from him.
"Did he what?" Akabar grumbled, feigning listlessness.
"Did he tell you about the lay of Zrie Prakis and Cassana?"
"No, he didn't," Akabar answered and promptly stuffed his mouth, with waffles to give himself time to think. What was he going to do? So far, all his answers had been the truth. He had waited half the night for Elminster and longer. He had not learned anything new, and Elminster had not told him about any lay. He could not keep up the ambiguous and vague answers much longer, though. He would either have to admit his failure or lie to her.
He had thought that, when the time came, one action or the other would come easily to him, but they did not. He had been little help protecting Alias, rather the reverse, needing her to irescue him from the kalmari. Now his role as information-gatherer had completely collapsed. His pride could not cope with the admission of his own uselessness.
Yet, surprisingly, the alternative-lying to her-did not come any easier. In his dealings as a merchant, Akabar could stretch the truth with a skill that would make Olive Ruskettle's head swim, but that skill did not extend to deceiving women. He had never been able to lie to his wives either, even though it might have made some of his nights a little less tumultuous.
"What's the lay of Zrie Prakis and Cassana?" a shrill voice chirped. Olive climbed into a chair and promptly popped one of Alias's strawberries into her mouth.
"Apparently," Alias explained, "they were lovers before they went at each other in the duel that killed Zrie Prakis."
"Ooo, You humans are such fascinating people. Did Cassana throw herself off a cliff in remorse?" Olive asked, using an extra fork to swipe a large piece of one of Alias's waffles.
Alias shook her head. "No. She did keep his bones, though. By her bedside as a keepsake."
"Yuck," the halfling muttered as she chewed.
"Definitely. I'm surprised Elminster didn't mention it. It's supposed to be a common story up north. There's even supposed to be an opera about it."
"Perhaps Elminster is not a big opera-lover," Akabar sniffed and stuffed more waffle into his mouth.
"I don't blame him," the bard said. "I've heard that people commit murders at operas, and no one notices because everyone on stage is bellowing at the top of his lungs."
"I don't see how this story about the mages helps us any," Akabar said.
"It doesn't, really," Alias admitted, "but I just wanted to show that you're not the only one able to get information. I pick up bits here and there."
Inwardly injured by the swordswoman's remark and encouraged by the presence of the halfling, Akabar somehow found the strength to invent a meeting with Elminster.
"I got nothing from this supposedly renowned sage but the standard material we already know. He might have looked it all up in the same book Dimswart used. He had no idea what the last sigil was, either. His reputation is overrated. It must be based on past victories. I only hope when I'm that decrepit and befuddled, I'll have a profitable business in the hands of my daughters and not have to rely on gulling foolish adventurers."
"Elminster was decrepit and befuddled?" Alias asked, remembering Mourngrym's description of the sage as the wisest in the Realms. Still, perhaps Mourngrym's standards weren't up