The Mage in the Iron Mask - Brian Thomsen [23]
Rassendyll helped the old and now obviously infirm dwarf over to the tunnel, through which the visitor quickly scurried. The masked prisoner had no sooner replaced the stone to its proper location, when a light was flashed through the small window in the cell's door.
"You there," a stern voice bellowed, "take your plate or go hungry, madman. Whatever you choose doesn't matter to me."
The light remained in the window, while Rassendyll crawled on hands and knees to the door. A plate had been placed at its base, and the young mage was barely able to reach it through a narrow slot in the door. The guard moved on as he began to eat. The food was rancid, and probably the most inedible sustenance that he ever encountered in his entire cloistered life, but as it had been over two days since he had last eaten, he managed to choke it all down.
Once his meal was over he replaced the plate through the slot at the base of the door and looked back at the stone that he had just recently put in place in hopes that the jolly gentleman with the long white beard would return as he had promised.
* * * * *
In the Captain's Quarters in Southroad Keep:
Rickman was not amused.
"Blough, what do you mean that itinerant thespian has disappeared?" he shouted.
The fearful Hawk maintained his composure, even though he knew that he had just told his commanding officer information contradictory to what he wanted to hear, and repeated his report.
"The thespian, a certain Passepout, son of Idle and Catinflas, was bailed out yesterday by person or persons unknown. After leaving the custody of the keep, he apparently disappeared. The city watch at the gate has no record of his having left Mulmaster in the past twenty-four hours, and he is not on the registry of any of the local inns. A drunkard matching his description may or may not have been at the Wave and Wink last night, but other than that we have no leads."
"Did you check the most recent roundup of vagrants that were picked up after tavern closing last night?"
"Yes, sir," the efficient Hawk replied. "I even checked with the officer on duty for last night's round up. According to him, Lieutenant Boston, the streets were free of human debris before sunrise. If he had passed out, he would have been found, sir."
Rickman made a minor adjustment of his eye-patch as he was wont to do while thinking. The thespian was obviously in hiding, but why? Surely he didn't have an inkling that his presence among the living was no longer desired by the Mulmaster powers that be. Where could he be?
"When he arrived in Mulmaster was he alone, or with someone?" the one-eyed Hawk captain inquired.
"According to the city watch officer who was on duty at the gate at that time," Blough answered, "he was alone."
Rickman readjusted his eye-patch once again. Tension usually brought on a certain degree of discomfort in his now vacant eye socket, as if the missing eye had somehow returned with an exceptionally annoying feeling of irritation and itchiness.
No stone must go unturned, the captain of the Hawks thought to himself, or the High Blade will have my head.
"Are there any other aliens who have arrived in Mulmaster within the last three days?" he demanded.
"I assume you mean above and beyond the normal merchants who travel in and out of the city like clockwork, paying the necessary duties as they sign in and out on schedule."
The captain of the Hawks answered with a quick nod.
"Well, there is the entire entourage of the First Princess of Thay," Blough answered, adding, "and because of their diplomatic immunity, none of them had to register…"
Great, Rickman thought to himself, the High Blade will have my head for sure.
"… and there is one other," the efficient Hawk added, "a travel writer by the name of Volothamp Geddarm. According to the city