Under Fallen Stars - Mel Odom [111]
Sabyna tugged on his arm and he went, suddenly aware how she looked leading him away. Gently, he tried to disengage himself but she kept her grip fast. Glawinn covered their backs as she led them from the tavern. She didn't stop until they were half a block away, standing at one of the railings overlooking the docks and cattle yards below.
"The man back there was lying," Jherek said.
"Aye," Sabyna answered. The wind blew her jaw-length copper tresses around her face. She had her arms crossed, standing an arm's length away from him to create distance even though they were close. "And what were you going to do? Beat it out of him with a whole room full of men watching on?"
Feeling himself willing to visit some of his anger on her, Jherek got control of himself. "Lady," he said softly, "I apologize for my behavior. You deserve my thanks. You probably saved me from making a serious mistake."
"Yes," Glawinn agreed, "she did."
Jherek looked back at the Bent Mermaid, feeling angry at the obscene sign that hung so large and proudly over the door.
"Vurgrom is inside," Sabyna asked. "He has ten men with him. They're waiting on his ship, Maelstrom, to arrive."
"How do you know that?"
The ship's mage smiled. "I asked one of the serving girls. If you want to know something, ask someone who has the most reason to tell it. The bartender's major profits are made from the pirates, but most of the girls despise Vurgrom and his ilk. None of the women work there very long. If you've been around taverns like the Bent Mermaid, you know that,"
"Aye," Jherek said, feeling chagrined. He hadn't been around taverns much, not good ones or bad ones, and not even the ones in Velen more than enough to be marginally social with Butterfly's crew. "I hadn't thought of that."
"It doesn't make it any easier," Sabyna said. "Vurgrom's on the third floor and I was told he has it sealed off. He's conducting some kind of business there."
"What business?" Glawinn asked.
"The girl I talked to didn't know."
Jherek studied the building, feeling the anger hi him dissipate as he recognized the new course of action open to him. "The building next to the tavern is as tall," he pointed out.
"You're thinking of crossing over to get Vurgrom now?" Sabyna asked.
"Aye," Jherek answered and saw Glawinn smile.
* * * * *
"Do it," he said.
Glawinn prayed to Lathander, gesturing Jherek to bend his head as well, then inscribed designs in the air. When the paladin finished, Jherek felt as though he'd suddenly gone deaf.
He looked up and tried to speak but no words came out.
The paladin shook his head and drew a hand across his throat, letting the young sailor know verbal communication was no longer possible. The spell even took away all the sounds coming from the docks, the pinging of rigging against masts, shouted commands, and the slap of the surf against the shore and pilings. Glawinn waved toward the other building.
Gathering himself, Jherek leaped across the distance from the flophouse roof to the Bent Mermaid next door. When his feet hit, there was no sound at all. He turned and watched as the paladin, then the ship's mage jumped across the distance as well. The roof trembled beneath his feet, but there was no noise.
He hunkered down and went around the roof to the harbor side. Clinging to the roof's edge, forty feet above where the ocean smashed up against the side of the Bent Mermaid, he lowered himself and peered through the windows along the wall.
A dozen men sat around tables inside the large room that ran the length of the building's harbor side. Pitchers of ale sat on tables burdened with platters of food. Jherek recognized Vurgrom at one end of the center table.
Confusion spread throughout the room as the pirates stood, each gesturing widely and trying to clear their throats. Jherek understood that