Temple Hill - Drew Karpyshyn [44]
Fendel, who Corin suspected was more familiar with the true worth of Lhasha's cache, was too stunned to even speak. All he could manage was a tiny whistle of amazement. Slowly he approached the table and picked up one of the ghttering rocks.
"It looks genuine," he said after a few seconds of careful study.
"Of course it is," Lhasha said, slightly annoyed. "You know I could spot any fake even while blindfolded and drunk on Cormyrian wine. They're all real. If this job was a set-up, why would my contact have given me all this up front? Is luring me into a trap really worth this much money to the Purple Masks? To anyone?"
Neither Corin nor Fendel provided an answer.
"Besides," Lhasha added, "Corin will be with me."
"How much is all this worth?" Corin finally managed to ask.
"Enough to pay Fendel for whatever items he can give us," Lhasha said with a smile. "And I imagine we'll still have enough left over for a healthy down payment on your prosthetic arm."
Corin glanced briefly at his stump, then looked up at Lhasha again.
"We should use this to finance our trip to Cormyr. We need to buy supplies, we might need disguises, we might need to bribe some of the Teziir officials, we'll have to hire a ship to cross the Dragonmere…"
"We'll have enough," Lhasha assured him. "This is just a down payment. Once I deliver the package, we'll get the rest. More than enough to cover the trip to Cormyr. And believe me, we'll travel in style!"
After a few more seconds of marveling at the wealth on the table, Fendel at last turned his attention from the stones.
"We may not like this, Corin," he said to the soldier, "but we're not going to talk her out of it. So let's get down to the nuts and bolts and make sure this job is done right."
He carefully moved the gems aside, and unrolled a set of blueprints-building plans for a large warehouse. "This is pretty much your standard Caravan district warehouse," he explained. "You'll have to get past the city patrols assigned to watch the perimeter of the Caravan district. Shouldn't be too hard. Elversult doesn't pay its civil servants that well, and these guys don't have the pride and prestige that goes with being a Mace. Half the time they're asleep at their posts.
"But if this package is as important as your client seems to think, there'll be private mercenaries hired for extra security around the warehouse. Most likely they'll have guards watching the loading bays, and guards at all the exits. So you'll have to go in through the roof."
"That'll be a neat trick," Corin said. "What are we supposed to do? Scale the wall?"
"That won't be a problem," Lhasha assured him. "I can climb up there without even breaking a sweat."
"But if the warehouse is patrolled, you'll need me inside in case you run into any of the guards," Corin reminded her. "Maybe you can make the climb, but I can't. I doubt I could have made it even when I had two good hands."
"I've got that covered," Fendel said, a hint of excitement in his voice. "A new invention of mine."
"I hope it works better than that stupid farmer thing," Corin muttered as the gnome went over to a bench on the far side of his workshop and began to rummage through the clutter on top.
Fendel returned with a half dozen long metal poles. The poles were rectangular in shape, two fingers width on each side.
The collapsible ladder," he said triumphantly.
Corin grunted.
The last thing I want in a ladder is a tendency to collapse."
Fendel gave him a sour look.
"It won't collapse while you're on it. Guaranteed to hold the weight of an oversized ogre with a belly full of kobold stew."
Lhasha picked up one of the square poles. Watching her, Corin noticed that one end of each pole was hollow, the other slightly tapered.
"So how does it work?"
"Glad you asked, Lhasha, glad you asked." Fendel grabbed a pole in each hand. He slipped the tapered end of the first into the hollow end of the second and pushed. "Just slip them together like so," he said. "Keep adding another piece until