The Alabaster Staff - Edward Bolme [91]
"An urgent meeting, tonight, at midnight. A note was left on my bed."
"We sent no note."
"It was signed with…" And only then did he realize that the Zhentarim would never sign such a note.
"With what?" growled the guard.
Ahegi's eyes narrowed. He glanced quickly back to the dock, and he thought he saw a shadow move, disappearing down an alley. He ran back down the gangplank to the alley and cast wildly around, but he saw nothing, and the pounding rain washed away all sounds. He wondered if the rain and darkness and lingering flare of the guard's lamp had played a trick on his old eyes.
Perhaps it had, but he could not take that chance. Someone had lured him out there, compromising his schemes, and he thought he knew who it was.
With a curse as black as the pits of his heart, Ahegi headed back for Wing's Reach as fast as his aging body would allow.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Though the rain continued to pour hard and chill, it could not repress Kehrsyn's mood. She smiled as she walked back to Wing's Reach, occasionally indulging in an extra skip as she skirted the larger puddles. Everything had paid off. She'd found a place to live, wrangled some coin, garnered the protection of a man who treated her like she dreamed her father would have, pulled off several daring incursions for the betterment of Unther, and tricked Ahegi into revealing himself for the traitor he was.
Arrogant ass, she thought, you're about to reap the tiger. Wait until Massedar finds out what I know. You and your slimy ways will be gone forever.
If only she could figure out whom Ahegi reminded her of, all would be right with the world.
Kehrsyn stepped into the foyer of Wing's Reach, and her irrepressible smile brought smiles to the faces of the two guards on duty. She shook out her hair and tried to dry the rain from her mouth and chin with the equally wet cuff of her blouse. Sniffing with the cold, she pulled off her cloak and shook it out, taking care to keep her back, and therefore the counterfeit wand wrapped in her sash, away from the guards' eyes.
"Need some help warming up, lass?" heckled one of the guards.
"Sure," said Kehrsyn, feeling a little saucy. Then she interrupted herself with a pout. "Ooh, but you're on guard duty. Too bad. Your loss."
"My offer is open," said the guard, with just a hint of desperation.
"Mine's not," she replied with a smile, and the other guard laughed at his companion's expense. "Have a good night, boys," Kehrsyn added, slinging her cloak over her back in such a manner that it looked casual but concealed the wand.
Just as Kehrsyn set her foot upon the first step of the stairs, the front doors burst open and an intruder flew into the room. Startled, Kehrsyn spun around, and the two guards readied weapons at the sudden disturbance.
"Halt!" yelled one guard, before he recognized the predatory snarl on Ahegi's face.
Ahegi panted, air passing almost spasmodically between his bared teeth. He'd abandoned his cloak somewhere and bared his fattened breast to the weather. His clothes sagged beneath the rain and sweat, and the concentric blue circles that adorned his forehead were smeared. Mud covered his legs past his knees and spattered his trousers and robe up to his waist.
"Where," he panted, the cold air pouring in from the open doors and making his breath steam, "is that arrogant, insolent, sanctimonious whore?"
Kehrsyn's heart stopped as Ahegi's words opened a rift in time, and she tumbled back through it to her childhood, to one of her earliest memories. She saw the door to their hut burst open, saw her mother quail in fear before those exact same words, felt the nightmare return. She wanted to run from the pain but couldn't abandon her mother. Kehrsyn wanted to help, but if she interfered, she'd only make it worse for both of them.
All her life those words had lain in her subconscious, words too complex for her young mind but whose meaning was clear by the speaker's tone. She'd never forgotten those words or that voice, and without warning the nightmare had reared its burning,