The Dream Spheres - Elaine Cunningham [139]
"Trying to clean up after your friend?" she croaked at Dan.
He and Arilyn exchanged a puzzled glance. "I don't understand," he said.
"Elaith poisoned me. I'm sure of it! I have had dealings with him of late," Myrna admitted, her voice growing stronger. "Some openly, some hidden. Payment for some of the information came in the form of elven coin," she said defensively.
"What reason would he have to do such a thing?" Danilo demanded.
The woman sniffed. "You are a fool," she said. "Do you know nothing of what goes on around you?"
Arilyn's face clouded and she seemed about to speak, but Danilo made a subtle gesture warning her to silence.
The gossipmonger's words were too close to his own thoughts for comfort. What she had to say, he needed to hear. He took a small purse of gold from his bag and set it on the table.
"Go on," he said evenly.
For once the sight of gain had no effect on Myrna. She caught up the bag and threw it back at him. "This I will do gladly," she said vindictively. "Lady Cassandra did well to keep you from the family business-you, who dance attendance to the archmage and play about with Harpers! What would you do, Harper, if you knew that the days of the Thann family's presence in illegal trade were far from over? Your duty?" she mocked him.
"Be careful what rumors you repeat," Arilyn said softly.
"Rumors?" The woman laughed scornfully. "Half the bards in Waterdeep speak of him as a Harper. As to his family, he believes me. I see it in his face!"
"Not just Thann," Dan said slowly. "There is much trade between Waterdeep and Skullport. It stands to reason that someone oversees that trade, someone who has the resources and the power to impose order on what would otherwise be lawless chaos."
"Huzzah!" Myrna applauded him mockingly. "He realized that his clan is not all powerful! Of course it's not just Thann. There are seven families, each with interests that are clearly defined and viciously protected. I will not name them, but surely you could come up with at least two of them."
"Eltorchul," Arilyn guessed, seeing Oth's death in this new light.
"Those potion-mixers and tinkers? Hardly!" Myrna cocked her bright head as she considered this. "Nonetheless, I would not rule out the possibility. The current struggle might make room for new faces-provided, of course, that those faces are not surmounted by pointed ears!" she added viciously.
Danilo began to follow her reasoning. "Elaith Craulnober has many concerns in this city, both above and below the streets."
"Huzzah again!" the woman said. "He is getting too ambitious, too powerful. The families have agreed to oust the elf lord."
"Yet you have had dealings with him," Arilyn pointed out.
Myrna smiled coyly. "Who is to say that I might not be behind some of these attempts?"
For a long moment no one answered. Arilyn stooped and picked up the empty vial. "To think I wasted a perfectly good antidote."
The noblewoman's face turned livid. "Mark me, you will not escape this. Do you think that the families are pleased with Dan's relationship with Khelben Arunsun? With the Harpers? With a half-elf?"
She stopped and made a visible effort to calm herself. "I have said too much, and I will no doubt pay for it. But every word of it is truth. If you ask my opinion-and many people in this city do-you're both in deep and wild water, and neither of you will swim to shore."
Seventeen
By unspoken agreement, Danilo and Arilyn sought out the beauty and solitude of his elven garden. They did not speak until they stood at the edge of the serene pool, and for a long time they stared into the water as if it were a scrying bowl that could show them their next course.
Danilo was of no mind for conversation. He still reeled from this revelation, which explained much, if not all, of the mystery surrounding recent events.
"Myrna Cassalanter is a spiteful woman," Arilyn said at last.
"I will not argue with that, but I daresay there is as much truth in her