Song of the Saurials - Kate Novak [15]
Alias looked back at the Turmishman. "Don't be a fool, Akabar," she pleaded.
"You've done more than your share. You should never have married this priestess.
She doesn't care about you. She's only interested in what you can do for the glory of her goddess."
Akabar's jaw trembled and his face went livid. Instinctively Alias backed her chair away from him. Zhara laid one of her slender hands on her husband's arm and said something in Turmish that Alias didn't understand. Akabar closed his eyes and calmed his temper with several long, slow breaths.
Beneath the table, Dragonbait's tail slapped warningly at Alias's knee. The swordswoman shot an angry glance at the paladin. Dragonbait was rubbing his chin. He was asking her to apologize to Zhara, but Alias remained adamant. She didn't care how Akabar felt about Zhara. Zhara was obviously using him.
A youth dressed in a page's uniform, his hair dripping wet from the rain falling outside the inn, interrupted the uneasy silence that had settled over the table.
"Excuse me, lady," the boy said timidly.
Alias looked up. She knew the boy. His name was Heth, and he was one of Lord Mourngrym's pages. She smiled to put the boy at ease. "Yes? What is it, Heth?"
"Alias of Westgate, the tribunal of Harpers requests that you come come before them," Heth said formally.
Alias started. For a short while, she'd forgotten her anxiety about Nameless.
Now it returned with double force. Her face went pale and her lips trembled.
Nameless's fate was in her hands. If she said or did the wrong thing, they would exile him again, send him away from the Realms, away from her.
"What tribunal?"'Akabar asked.
"The Harper tribunal that is rehearing Nameless's case," Alias said, rising to her feet. "I asked to speak to them on his behalf."
Despite his offended pride and the insult she had just delivered to his wife, Akabar couldn't help but feel sympathy for the warrior woman. Alias had always had difficulty trusting other people and growing intimate with them, but she had accepted Nameless as her father. Akabar didn't like to think of the grief she would suffer should the Harpers be so merciless as to recondemn the bard.
"I would have thought the Harpers had taken care of that last year," Akabar said. "What's taken them so long?"
"It took Elminster all last year to convince them that they should rehear the case," Alias explained. "Now I have to go."
Akabar stood up in front of the sell-sword. "I'll go with you," he said. "I, too, will speak on his behalf, for he saved my life."
The page looked confused for a moment, uncertain how to respond to this stranger.
"Heth," Alias explained to the page, "this is my friend, Akabar bel Akash. He knows all about Nameless. May he come with me?"
"He is welcome to accompany you, lady," Heth replied, "but I do not know if the tribunal will hear him."
"Then I shall speak very loudly," Akabar said.
Alias looked up at Akabar with a grateful smile. At least Zhara's influence was not so complete that the Turmishman could not spare time from his insane quest to help a friend.
Dragonbait chirped, and Alias turned her head to watch him sign. "Dragonbait says he'll look after Zhara for you," she explained to Akabar. Though I'm sure the shrew can handle herself, she thought, but she managed to resist saying so aloud. She wished the paladin would come along with her instead of remaining with Zhara, but she didn't want to argue with him in front of Akabar.
Akabar motioned for the page to go ahead. Alias went to speak to Jhaele for a moment, then grabbed her cloak from a hook and joined Akabar and Heth at the door. The swords-woman and the