Masquerades - Kate Novak [52]
The pair of adventurers followed Fritz from the bar. Edna began going through the unconscious Night Masks pockets, pulling out the money pouches of all the other businesses Littleboy had terrorized tonight. There would be enough, Edna noted, to buy a new bar, maybe even an inn.
Just then, the red-headed warrior woman poked her head back through the door and said, "Edna, my friend wants me to remind you that everyone else Littleboy shook down was hurting like you, and could really use their money back. Since you know the neighborhood businesses, could you please see to getting the money back to the right people?"
Big Edna nodded wordlessly. The adventuress left again. Big Edna stared longingly at the pouches of gold. With a long sigh, she began making a list of the other neighborhood businesses she knew had been paying protection to Littleboy.
*****
By the time Alias woke up the next morning, Dragonbait was gone. By nature, the saurial was most active at dawn and dusk, and he never seemed to need much sleep in the warm season. Alias, on the other hand, felt most active after dark and would sleep the morning away
whenever she had an excuse. She wondered which of her creators had established this pattern in her. Finder, as an entertainer, would have kept the same sort of hours, but so would the Fire Knives, who had expected her to become an assassin like them.
Alias rolled over and sat up. Someone had set breakfast on the table. The swordswoman vaguely recalled having heard a knock on the door and Mercy's voice earlier in the morning. The young half-elf must have lost her fear of the saurial. Alias padded over to the table. Once again breakfast consisted of tea, fresh-baked muffins, and fruit, but today she had time to admire the details she'd missed yesterday. The china teapot and teacup were nearly translucent and gleamed like mother-of-pearl; the butter-was molded into clamshell shapes; decorating the bowl of berries were pieces of melon cut and shaped like dragonflies. There was a fresh-cut red rose in a bud vase of frosted glass. Alias could see why this particular inn did not advertise among adventurers; they generally wolfed down food without looking at it and were notoriously hard on china and glassware.
Alias sat down to eat, musing over yesterday afternoon's events, starting with the meeting she and Dragonbait had had with Mintassan. The experience had tested her patience and her conversational skills to their limits. They'd started with the requested conversation about saurials. The sage had asked Dragonbait so many questions, even Alias had learned things about saurials she hadn't known before. When, after at least an hour, Mintassan had shifted the topic to Alias's background, she'd turned the tables and started grilling him about his theory on the transmutation of creatures into other creatures. Finally, when she felt she'd learned enough about the beasts of the Prime Material and Outer Planes to qualify as a sage's apprentice and had Mintassan at ease, she'd shifted to the topic of the Night Masks.
To her disappointment, it soon became evident that Mintassan, like most sages, lived in his own little world. His understanding of the city's problems came to him secondhand. "Mostly," so he said, "from Jamal." Although
he confirmed Durgar's claim that the Night Masters and the Faceless could not be located with magic, he did not concur with the priest that they did not exist. His reasoning, though, had more to do with Jamal's certainty that they did than with any firsthand experience. Jamal, Alias realized, was the "sage" she needed to consult to learn more about the Night Masks.
Mintassan had walked them back to Blais House for dinner. They'd ordered the recommended pan-fried prawns, which were indeed excellent. Mintassan was also a gourmand, and during their discussion of Westgate eating establishments he revealed one useful piece of information. He'd mentioned the extortionist Littleboy,