Masquerades - Kate Novak [18]
"I would like it plain, please," the saurial replied.
Alias translated, "He'll have it straight up."
"Please," Dragonbait repeated.
Alias sighed. "Please," she translated.
Mintassan smiled as he handed the paladin the mug of tea. "So it's true what Grypht wrote-Alias does understand Saurial. I always wondered if a human could ever master it."
"I can hardly claim to have mastered it even though I've lived with the saurials for eight years," Alias protested. "Their language is a mixture of sounds, scents, and postures. A tonguesspell with a permanencycast on it enables me to hear the sounds and understand them, and I can smell their scents even better and interpret the emotions they convey, but I'm not very good with the postures. I can speak the sound part as well, but I can't put out the scents, and since I can't do the postures, Dragonbait says, I'm sort of a monotone speaker, and there are levels of subtlety I just don't get. Fortunately, Dragonbait understands my tongue better than I do his. I think other saurials still find it easier to speak with other dragonish and lizardish creatures than with me."
"Perhaps their tongue is related to Auld Wyrmish, or the ancestral dragon languages. Saurials and dragons could share the same ancestors," Mintassan suggested.
"I think not," Dragonbait retorted, emitting a fishy smell that just hinted at how insulting he found the suggestion. Alias translated the words and the emotion.
Mintassan chuckled. "That's the same reaction I got from Grypht."
"Who is this Grypht?" asked Jamal, tearing her attention away from her spiked tea.
"A fellow blood," Mintassan replied.
"A what?" Alias asked.
"Blood," Jamal said. "That's plane-hopper slang for professional traveler."
"Grypht sent Alias and Dragonbait down to Westgate to make an exchange of magic," Mintassan explained. "He and his people are exiles from their own plane and live up north now. He's a saurial like Dragonbait here."
"Except he's ten feet tall and has horns all over his head," Alias corrected.
"He'll always be little Grypht to me," Mintassan said, with a chuckle. "Now, down to business," the sage said rubbing his hands together. "Show me, please, what you've brought for me."
Dragonbait set the staff down on the table before the sage.
Mintassan ran his fingertips along the staff. He sighted down its length. Peered into the little mouse skulls dangling from the top. Sniffed at the orange feather. Rapped it sharply against the floor. Squinted at the runes that spiraled down from the top to the bottom. "Definitely Netheril," he declared. "Beautiful workman-ship. A staff of the undead. What can you tell me of its provenance and pedigree? Did it come from the Great Desert?"
"From Anauroch, yes," Alias answered. "A saurial exploration party came across the slaughtered bodies of a Zhentarim patrol decaying in the dunes. The staff was among the corpses.
"That fits, too," the sage said, nodding. "The Black Network has stooped to tomb-robbing ever since their precious city was smashed. Well, I am quite satisfied." He pulled a small box out from under the table and set it down in front of Alias. He turned the handle on the top and the sides fell away.
A perfect blue crystal sphere glowed before Alias, bathing her in a blue light. The sphere floated and spun ever so slightly an inch above a base of white jade carved in the shape of a twisting dragon.
Alias shot a glance at Jamal, but the woman did not seem interested in the magic crystal sphere. The swordswoman looked over at Dragonbait, who squinted at the magic ball with his shensight. "Nothing malefic," the paladin reported.
"I think that Grypht will be happy with this crystal ball," Mintassan said. "It can find anyone in the Realms."
With no magical abilities of her own, Alias was unableto test the sphere's reputed ability, but since Grypht had said all his dealings with Mintassan had been honorable ones and Dragonbait confirmed the magic was not evil, she gave a short nod. "We accept