Elfsong - Elaine Cunningham [100]
This state of affairs changed as Garnet turned onto Rivon Street. She saw a crowd of people gathered around the House of Song, a large complex that served as guild headquarters for the Council of Musicians, Instrument-makers, and Choristers. Her brow furrowed in puzzlement and she absently tucked a strand of drab brown hair behind one slightly pointed ear.
Garnet urged her magic steed closer. There was an inn across the way, and she tied the asperii's reins to the rail outside so that she might pass on foot through the crowd that surrounded the guildhall.
This proved to be more difficult than the bard had anticipated, for what she first took to be a crowd was in effect a small army. The distinctive green and black uniforms of the city guard first caught her eye. She estimated nearly a full battalion. The guard was augmented by several dozen sell-swords, including a detachment of lizard men-very rare in the city and highly regarded as fierce mercenaries. One of the creatures, a seven-foot lizard armed with a spiked mace, returned her glare with incurious golden eyes. Its tongue flicked out as if to taste her scent, and she turned away with a shudder. There were several men and women garbed in street clothes, unarmed but for the occasional staff or wand. Wizards! The guild hall was well and thoroughly guarded. Someone had funded an impressive amount of magic and muscle. Well, so be it. She was not without resources of her own.
Head held high, she marched toward the broad double doors of the guildhouse entrance. A pair of crossed pikes barred the way.
"The guild hall is closed."
"On Midsummer Eve? I highly doubt that." She sniffed and walked around the two guards. Again her path was blocked, this time by a well-muscled, ruddy woman who wore the insignia of a guard captain.
"No one may pass," she said firmly. "We have our orders."
"Oh? From whence came these 'orders'?" Garnet's noble birth and her upbringing in the courts of Sespech lent her tones and her face a degree of patronizing disdain that could not be learned under lesser circumstances.
The captain was not suitably quelled, although she did bow before answering. "By order of the guildmaster, Kriios Halambar, and the Lords of Waterdeep."
Anger coursed through Garnet like a dark tide. She spun and stalked back to her asperii. Mounting the horse, she sped toward the west.
"A bard down on her luck, looking for a free place to stay," opined the guard captain. "Crazy, maybe, but no harm in her." A murmur of agreement came from the other guards.
From the vantage point of his window in the inn across from the guild hall, Vartain had to disagree with this assessment of the matter. In many ways, the woman did not fit the template he had fashioned, yet he had little doubt that she was indeed the author of the scroll he carried.
The riddlemaster's fingers sought the parchment roll tucked into his belt. He had stolen it from Danilo just before he'd left the Harper outside Blackstaff Tower. Vartain did not like to remember his ignoble past and he was loathe to use the skills he'd learned as a child on the streets of Calimport. It was, however, the only way he could think of to ensure that no one found the sorceress but himself.
This plot had been formulating in his mind for some time. He'd deliberately disavowed knowledge of the barding college in Waterdeep, and Danilo Thann apparently held the