Masquerades - Kate Novak [55]
"Dragonbait says, 'No, thank you,' Alias replied.
"Well, then, that's settled. I'll send my carriage tomorrow around sunset. Dress is semiformal. No need for armor. Weapons must be peace-bonded. I'm afraid I won't see you again before the party. I have several pressing duties."
"I understand. I'll look forward to tomorrow night," Alias replied, offering him her hand.
Victor took up her hand and bowed low over it. Alias could feel his breath on her wrist. He stood again, but seemed reluctant to release her hand.
"Until tomorrow evening," the swordswoman replied, drawing her hand away ever so gently.
"Until tomorrow evening," the noble replied. He spun about and waded away through the crowd.
Dragonbait studied the swordswoman. For the first time since he'd known her, Alias seemed oblivious to her surroundings. He might have taken the opportunity to remind her they were in the heart of Westgate, a town whose hobby was crime, home of the deadly Night Masks, but he didn't have the heart to spoil her moment of bbss.
On stage, the halfling song was winding down with one final verse:
"The Thalavars are nettled By nasty Night Mask boasters They need to get an Alias Just like the lucky Dhostars!"
Alias went red, hearing the lyrics, while the crowd applauded and stomped feet.
"Let's get nearer the stage," the swordswoman said. "I want to make sure Jamal got Mintassan's message that we wanted to talk to her. We need to find out how she knows so much about the city and the Night Masks. And watch your purse in this crowd. Night Masks work the day shift, too."
Dragonbait chuckled and nodded.
Nine
Parries and Ripostes
"So you want to know how I know so much about the Night Masks," Jamal said as she turned over the cool, wet cloth covering her swollen ankle. "It's not that complicated, really." The thes-pian paused, assuring herself that she held her audience's complete attention. Dragonbait leaned forward on his stool. Alias fidgeted impatiently, hating Jamal's theatrics. Although the actress had refused to let Dragonbait heal her injury, she had accepted the adventurers' help back to Mintassan's. Now they were seated once again in the mismatched chairs around the heavy table in the sage's cluttered workroom. "I have the sense the gods gave geese," Jamal said. Mintassan, who hovered in the doorway of the side alcove waiting for the tea water to boil, called out, "Are those the geese that walk barefoot in burning buildings and then jump out of crow's nests for the amusement of the rabble?"
Jamal shot an annoyed glance at the sage. She turned back to the swordswoman and the paladin. She motioned them to lean closer, and when they had, she whispered, "I listen carefully, and I know how to put two and two together."
Alias leaned back and sighed. "Could you maybe give us an example of putting two and two together?" she requested.
"First I consider my source of information. Take the halflings. They have it in for the Night Masks, and not just because the Masks exclude them from their guild. It
goes back to a blood feud started when the Masks first sprang up in this town. Now while halflings aren't always reliable reporters, they aren't going to lie on behalf of the Masks. So if a halfling who works for Lady Nettel Thalavar tells me Her Ladyship won't pay protection to the Night Masks, I'm inclined to believe him. If all the halflings working for Lady Nettel confirm his story, I'm going to accept it as fact.
Then when a halfling tells me a certain type of misfortune strikes the Thalavar trading house, I consider who would benefit from such misfortune. If a Thalavar ship laden with goods sinks in the harbor, I suspect the Faceless's wrathful hand. If the ship sinks but it was emptied out first, I suspect that another merchant family hired the Night Masks to pick up the goods for them. The merchants hate waste, even if it benefits them, with the exception, in my opinion, of Family Urdo. The year of the summer