Stardeep_ The Dungeons - Bruce R. Cordell [10]
The thief dashed forward and caught the body before it crashed onto the desk. He lowered the still-twitching form to mud-smeared floorboards. He retrieved his dagger and cleaned it on the man's pants. Poor bastard. He told the glazing eyes, "You asked for it, working for Sathra. I'm sure you've done far worse in your time."
He stood, sheathing his knife. Gage checked the hallway to see if he'd roused any activity, then pulled back, closing the door. Returning to the desk, he skimmed through the papers scattered across it. He discovered the man he'd just knifed was a mid-level functionary, captain of the muscle upstairs and another group on this floor. Not part of Sathra's personal force, then; the captain apparently didn't measure up enough to be counted among the so-called "Shadow Cadre." Gage hated that name. According to a rough floor plan he found, the cadre was housed on the ground floor. He kept reading.
He found documents describing traffic in hellborn drugs, a protection racket broader than he'd imagined the Shadow Tongue could engineer, the outline of a scheme to blackmail the ruling council of Laothkund by implicating them in a made-up alliance with Thay, illicit slave trade in children… things that would curdle the stomachs of any moral person.
But Gage wasn't here to right wrongs. He looked for a clue, any clue to the singular article he sought.
Was this it? A note about a detachment of Sathta's cadre deployed to retrieve an item, unnamed. Whatever it was, Sathra had issued specific instructions-the item was not to be fenced under pain of death to her underlings. She wanted it returned directly to her, in this building, as her prize.
That had to be it! For Sathra to name something as a trophy instead of metely selling it, an item had to be particularly special. As he knew it to be. Gage had never seen anything quite so beautiful, and no trinket had befote awoken his acquisitive nature so surely. If he could, he'd keep it for a prize, too…
Gage shook his head. He couldn't let his covetousness overmaster him-the object wasn't for himself.
When Sathra's people stole it from under his nose, Gage was furious. He was here to steal it back.
He quit the chambei. Back in the empty hall, he didn't bother to check the temaining two doots. He made directly fot the door at the end of the hallway. No mote distractions. He glanced at a document he'd snatched from the desk: a map of Sathra's base.
He was close to retrieving his prize.
He was close to claiming Angul, the Blade Cerulean.
The door at the hall's end opened on a wide warehouse. Wooden crates of various sizes were piled everywhere in haphazard stacks. Dangling lanterns from above provided weak light. The smell of wet stone was strong in the chamber. Gage crept along the outer wall, ready to fight or flee should he be discovered. Voices in the central portion of the room banteted back and fotth. Were they members of Sathra's Shadow Cadre, or merely brute laborers?
A man's rough voice echoed, "Didn't listen, did ye? Didn't listen when old Bendar told ye not to take that snake charmer's coin. Oh, no! And now look what ye got!" A laugh.
A different voice answered, this one slurred with drink or disfigurement. "Damned hedge wizard. How'd I know he could make good on his promise to curse me? I had to slit his throat, though. Passing phantom coin just ain't good business. He had it coming. I don't deserve what I got in return, I'll tell ye that."
"Snakes keep finding ye, eh? Even in winter's cold. Gotta watch whete ye step, eh?"
A grunt in return.
"Ha! Old Bendartoldye!"
Gage left behind the bantering voices as he slipped into a side passage. He caught his breath-a huge form was propped on a stool too small for it, blocking most of the cotridor. An ogre! Tattooed and pierced, Gage recognized it as one of Sathra's trained guardians. The figure shifted and loosed a hooting snore. Not trained well enough.
He eased past the creature and tiptoed to the passage's