Masquerades - Kate Novak [53]
Alias began dressing, reflecting on her progress against the Night Masks. They'd come across the midden man and several muggers and purse snatchers, thanks to Dragonbait's shensight. Without the paladin, Littleboy might have been her only coup, and if the extortionist hadn't been such a fool to use a poison ring, the watch might not have arrested him. She needed more informants.
She also needed to start watching her back. So far, she and Dragonbait hadn't challenged anyone with a stomach for fighting, let alone any real skill with a weapon. That was bound to change soon, she realized. Even if it meant bringing in hired help, the Night Masks would find ways to protect their operatives and try to stop the swordswoman and her companion.
Alias was brushing her hair when Dragonbait finally turned up. The vanilla scent of amusement wafted off his body, and he made a strange clicking noise that Alias recognized as chuckling.
"Well?" Alias said, fastening the longer strands of hair at the nape of her neck with a ribbon. "Are you going to let me in on it?"
"I was checking on Jamal's troupe's new play. Come
down and see." Although the paladin tried to sound casual, Alias could tell he was itching for her to come.
Alias sighed. "You always did have this childlike fondness for puppet shows." She buckled on her scabbard, and grabbed the last muffin to munch while she watched the show.
They did not have to go far. Jamal's troupe had set up stage on the foundation of the burned down warehouse only three blocks from Blais House. A large crowd had gathered in the empty lot around the razed building.
A halfling with a gigantic green plume in his hat was juggling eggs. A green feather, Alias recalled, was the trading badge for the Thalavar family. Jamal must have good relations with the halflings of this town, Alias realized. Usually halflings" wouldn't participate in human theatrics, and human producers cast children with brushes tied to their feet in the roles of the smaller people.
Behind the stage bobbed the cutout of a ship. The crow's nest, though, was real, and from it the Faceless looked down at the halfling. After a moment, the Faceless tossed an egg at the halfling, which the halfling skillfully added to the three it was juggling. The Faceless added a fifth and then a sixth egg, which the halfling also juggled smoothly. Frustrated by the halfling's dexterity, the Faceless threw a seventh egg stage left. The egg splattered against a great wagon wheel decorated with golden stars-house Dhostar's trading badge. The wheel began spinning and moved toward the juggling halfling with a menacing growl. The halfling alternated between alarmed looks in the wheel's direction and tucking eggs in his pockets even as he juggled them. Before he could dispose of the last three eggs, the wagon wheel rolled into him, forcing him off the stage. The eggs hit the stage, plop, plop, plop, and then there was a splash of water up onto the stage.
The actress playing Alias leaped onto the stage. She waggled her finger at the Dhostar wheel. The wheel whined like a shamed puppy. The heroine pulled out a stage axe and began hacking at the mast holding the Faceless's crow's nest. One by one, the Night Masks
began to attack her, but, one by one, she knocked them out with a quick bonk on their heads with the side of her axe.
"Now," Dragonbait said excitedly, tugging on her sleeve.
Rising out of the water beside the ship came the halfling, pulled by someone in a costume that looked as if it had been put together from the parts of two other costumes, one the body of a crocodile, the other the head of a horse (now painted green). Alias laughed out loud. It was nothing like Dragonbait, but it could be no one else. She shot a look at her companion, who looked as proud as a new father.
The halfling was really damp, and he carried