Murder in Cormyr - Chet Williamson [69]
"Yet when Dovo's body was found, no extinguished or burned-out lantern was found near him, only a few pieces of curved glass from a broken lantern, probably his own. But the killer did not leave the lantern with the body. Instead he took it. Why?
"The absence of that lantern is the missing piece that enables the others to fall into place. The lantern was taken because the killer didn't want us to know that Dovo had a lantern in the first place. That meant that he must have been using that lantern for something other than light. And the one who told us what that purpose was, was Elizabeth Clawthorn."
"Looney Liz?" said Rolf. "Who'd believe anything she said?"
"Jasper would. And so would I. Jasper, tell us what Mrs. Clawthorn saw."
"She followed Dovo into the swamp," I said, "to that large open area near where Darvik found Grodoveth's body and Fastred's tomb. She saw Dovo signaling with his lantern to someone across the mere. And she saw someone signal back."
"So the lantern was used for signals," Lindavar said. "Signals to someone on the other side of the Vast Swamp. Or someone who came from there through the swamp. And what lies southeast of the swamp?"
"Sembia," said Mayor Tobald. "You mean he was signaling to someone in Sembia?" The mayor thought for a moment. "There are a good number of Zhentarim agents in that country, are there not, Captain Flim?"
But Flim didn't have a chance to answer, for Lindavar spoke instantly. "There are indeed, Lord Mayor, and other villains besides. More than just Zhentarim agents have been captured near here recently."
"The Iron Throne," muttered Captain Flim.
"Precisely," said Lindavar. "The Iron Throne."
"Wait a minute," Rolf said. "You telling me a bunch of merchants killed Dovo and the envoy?"
"More than just a… bunch of merchants, lad," Benelaius said. "They are a secret and dangerous organization, headed by parties unknown but thought to have its primary backers in the land of Sembia." Benelaius patted Grimalkin on his lap and nodded. "Sembia's merchants are ruthless in their business dealings."
"Like the old saying," Lindavar added, " When you look into a Sembian's eyes, you can see coins being counted in his mind.' Sembia was built on trade, so it lives and dies by it. And when it comes to matters of life and death, people are not always scrupulous. Elduth Yarmmaster, the Overmaster of Sembia, has been a voice of reason in the past, but he grows old and may not live out his term. In the meantime, the Iron Throne has done much that the elected government would not dare to do, even if its leaders were able to overcome Elduth's sage council."
"Like what then?" asked Shortshanks.
"Assassinating their competitors, extortion, selling illegal substances, trading weapons to inhuman tribes… the list goes on and on. The difficulty is that the Iron Throne's backers are unknown. They work through lower-level thugs for the most part. But still, the behavior of their agents has become so heinous that King Azoun banned the Iron Throne from acting within Cormyr for a year. Since the balance of trade between Cormyr and other kingdoms greatly affects the manipulations of the Iron Throne and of Sembian trade, it became imperative that the Iron Throne seek out that information, but with its agents arrested as soon as they set foot into Cormyr, this became more and more difficult.
"So if the Iron Throne could not legitimately enter our country and gather trade and production information, it would have to acquire that knowledge by stealth."
"Wait a minute now," said Shortshanks impatiently. "Are you sayin' that all this killin' was just to tell a gaggle of merchants how much oats and barley was gettin' grown and comin' in and out of the country?"
"That's exactly what I'm saying," Lindavar answered, "though how you put it is too simplistic. The information needed probably covered crop output, trade routes, what was to be exported, and what would be transported to different parts of Cormyr. Since the area around Ghars is basically agrarian, that was the intelligence that would be