Elminster's Daughter - Ed Greenwood [19]
At the end of the dock a quiet company of men was standing, eyeing her steadily. All of them wore dark leathers, and some held blades and capture-nets ready in their hands, others hand crossbows of the sort Narnra had seen all too many of in Waterdeep. Still others held delicate sticks of wood: wands!
It had been a wave of one of the wands that had rolled back a thick bank of mist to reveal these men-and women, too, Narnra noticed-and now they were starting purposefully forward, keeping together in a menacing band.
From behind her came more laughter, new splashings-and a shout of alarm.
There was a clang of steel aboard a drifting barge, the ring of blades crossed in anger, and a sudden cry: "Betrayed! The War Wizards are here!" That shout ended in an ugly, wet gurgle, which was followed by another clash of swords-and a scream.
One of the men striding along the dock toward Narnra had his head cocked to one side, as though listening to someone who wasn't there, and was muttering a steady stream of orders as he came.
"Horngentle, Lord Blackwinter's been seen here: arrest him. Th-oaburr: one of us, the novice Beltrar Morgrin-yes, a War Wizard, everyone; keep clear!-has turned traitor and is still down-cellar… he mustn't live to see the morning, but take him quietly. Constal? Constal, it seems the Regal Lady Mistwind turned her nightly manhunt hither. Put a scare into her, but let her win free. Bereldyn, I'll need you to find me that wizard someone saw arriving-Khornadar of Westgate, he's calling himself, but Laspeera thinks he may be someone more powerful posing as an ambitious lackspell. He's…"
This flood of-gods, they looked like Harpers, and. yes! That one was wearing a little silver harp pin at his throat, and that one sported an identical pin on an eyepatch-grim folk was only paces away, now, and Narnra was standing right in their path. It just wasn't possible that they'd failed to see her, though as yet no one had aimed a handbow or drawn back a blade in menace.
The Silken Shadow stood stock-still. Whirling and running now would probably earn her swift death in a volley of quarrels. "The Cormaerils all seem to be here," she announced calmly. "Beware also Mathanter of Sembia."
She wouldn't know a Cormaeril if she fell over one, and she'd never seen or heard of this Mathanter before tonight-but he'd brought along more than a dozen fully armored bodyguards and impressed her.
The nearest Harper gave her a sharp look and without turning his head or taking his eyes off her asked, "Armeld?"
The man snapping orders swivelled an eye to scrutinize the masked Silken Shadow as he strode past-they were all streaming past her now, on both sides, save for the one Harper facing her-and replied, "Never seen her before. Not one of yours?"
"Remember," an earnest man in dark robes was saying on Narnra's other side to an elderly man holding two wands, "some we arrest, some we slay as quietly as possible, and some we just scare-so don't go blasting anyone you see! For once? Please?"
"No," the Harper said slowly, shaking his head and raising his blade. Its blackened point hung just below her breasts. Narnra swallowed and tried not to look at it again.
"I am not," she told him almost severely, "a member of this 'Rightful Conspiracy.' I abhor conspiracies." She'd heard an old, wrinkled noble matriarch dressing down a captain of the Watch once, and she tried to make her voice.sound just like that old, highborn Waterdhavian's: imperious, disgusted, and somehow pitying.
The Harper's eyes flickered, and he asked quietly, "Caladnei?"
"No," Narnra told him in the same tones, not knowing what else to say, "I am not she."
"That's good," said a dry voice from behind the Harper, "considering that the last time I looked at myself in a mirror, I remained fairly certain that I was Caladnei."
A wryly smiling, dusky face came into view behind the Harper's shoulder. Dark eyes surveyed Narnra coolly