Masquerades - Kate Novak [65]
The swordswoman paused by a jewelry stall. As she lingered over a large display of silver and gold earrings, she began wondering what she would wear for the Dhostar boat party. She traveled light, and she suspected that nothing in her backpack would be suitable. She'd brought plenty of money to buy something, but there wasn't time to have anything sewn.
Lost in her own thoughts, it was a few moments before Alias noticed the stall's saleswoman, a southerner who, being quite tall and dressed in a gown splatter-dyed with every imaginable color, was hard to miss. Yet while the woman watched Alias curiously, she kept a respectful distance, allowing the swordswoman to browse without pestering her.
Alias examined three sets of earrings. The first was a pair of tiny daggers with blue stones in the pommels. The daggers were beautifully crafted, but Alias decided they were too fierce. The second set of earrings was a moon engraved with Selune's face, matched with a dangling set of tears-the shards that followed the moon across the
sky. The moon and tears, while clever, reminded her uneasily of the arguments she'd had with Finder Wyvernspur over his song The Tears of Selune. The third pair, a set of interlocking stars, reminded her of the stars in the Dhostar trading badge. Victor, she thought, would appreciate the connection. She held out the earrings to the saleswoman asking, "How much?"
"No charge," the large woman said, shaking her head, "I recognize you. You're Alias."
"I couldn't do that," Alias replied with a smile as she reached for her purse.
The saleswoman's face clouded for a moment with hurt, "Please, take them," she insisted. "You have done so much good. Consider them a gift on behalf of all of Westgate."
Alias chuckled, "The last time I received a gift on behalf of a whole town, I'd just killed a kalmari. I haven't done that much yet, here."
"Hmmph," the woman said dismissively. "Kalmaris are nothing. Night Masks, they're trouble. You take those. Don't feel bad. Once I tell people Alias-Who-Unmasks-the-Night wears my jewelry, I'll sell it all." She smiled broadly, revealing two rows of perfect white teeth.
Alias grinned at the woman's sales acumen and nodded in agreement. As the merchant held up a mirror of polished steel, Alias pulled out and pocketed the emerald studs she normally wore and slid in the silver wires attached to the stars. She shook her head and smiled with satisfaction. She could hear the small, interlocked stars jingling softly, and they twinkled in the light. Now all I need is an outfit to go with my jewelry, she thought. Bidding the merchant farewell, she strolled deeper into the heart of the market, toward the Tower.
The Tower was a circular stone keep five stories high situated on a low hillock in the center of the market. The hillock, Alias suspected, was artificial, built up to cover not only the tower's foundation wall but the first level of dungeons beneath. Two later additions abutted the east side, made of similar though not perfectly matched stone. The larger addition held rooms for public business: the registry offices for imports, exports, and other licenses
and the courtroom. The smaller addition was a guarded entrance into the tower itself. Within the Tower the city kept its counting house and treasury, the nobles kept offices and meeting rooms, and the watch kept its armory and some barracks. Beneath the tower, an unspecified number of subterranean levels served as jails and dungeons.
Outside the entrance hall flew the banners of those in residence at the moment: the watch, Durgar, several other noble lords, and the croamarkh. The doorway of the entrance was a stone oval, which could be barred by an iron portcullis, which hung overhead, a security design repeated at the other end of the hall-at the entrance to the tower itself. There wasn't a speck of rust on the heavy gates, and the chains that operated them were dust free and gleamed with oil. Durgar, Alias realized, must run a tight ship