Dagger's Point (Shadow series) (18 page)

“The trading boat to Tilwich will leave in five days, and they want two Moons each for passage,” Tanis told her, “but they say they won’t have any space for horses. I saw the boat, and they’re right. So I agree with you that we’d be wise to buy our horses in Tilwich.” Tanis stopped there, but his eyes were twinkling so merrily that Jael knew he still had something more to tell her.

“Come on, Tanis, and tell me whatever secret’s burning the tip of your tongue,” Jael coaxed. “It must be good news, from the way your eyes are smiling.”

“It’s good news, all right,” Tanis said, grinning. “I’ve found that book for you, the Book of Whispering Serpents.”

“You’re joking!” Jael exclaimed. “Really? Here?”

“‘Here?’“ Tanis mimicked. “Where else could it have been? Remember, Karina said Duranar had taken the book south, and if he got anywhere at all with it, it would be here. Karina thought he might have gotten all the way south to the sea, and he did. When you mentioned there was a powerful mage in the city, I thought I’d do a bit of asking around. The mage isn’t Duranar, but his son, Rhadaman, and Duranar passed the Book of Whispering Serpents on to him. From what I heard, though, he doesn’t seem to be using it, since he’s not known for demonic magic. He’s renowned for his healing magic and breaking curses and the like.”

Jael sighed. “That’s too bad.”

“Too bad?” Tanis asked surprisedly. “Why?”

Jael shrugged.

“Rhadaman isn’t going to just hand the book over nicely as a gift,” she said. “Even if he wanted to sell it, which he probably doesn’t, we could never come up with enough money to pay for it. Which means we’ll have to steal the book, and I’d feel a lot better about it if this Rhadaman didn’t sound like such a nice person.”

“Whoa,” Tanis said quickly. “Now, wait, here. I’m barely out of my apprenticeship, and Baaros knows Guildmaster Aubry says most merchants have a natural talent for thievery, but I don’t think there’s a lamb’s chance in a dragon’s gullet that I could steal a book like that from an adept mage. Guildmaster Aubry wouldn’t touch a job like that. Even
Shadow
probably wouldn’t.”

“Well, what do you suggest?” Jael asked patiently. “Do you suggest we go back to Allanmere and tell Blade, ‘Oh, sorry, we were right there in the city with the book we promised you, but we knew we couldn’t get it, so we didn’t try’?”

Tanis grimaced.

“She said you could just find it, didn’t she?” he asked. “If she wants it that badly, Baaros knows she’s got a better chance of getting at it than we do. She said you could just bring her back the knowledge of what happened to it.”

“She also said it might be enough for her, and then again, she said it might not,” Jael reminded him. “Want to take a chance on her good mood if she doesn’t like what we tell her?”

Jael did not say it, but another thought had occurred to her. Blade had more than implied that this book might be the end of her career as an assassin in Allanmere. If Jael could rid Allanmere of its most notorious assassin, then she’d have done something truly marvelous—miraculous, even. And even if Jael never received credit for this wonderful deed, Jael herself would know it.

“I don’t think Blade
has
good moods,” Tanis said in answer to her question. He grimaced. “But she won’t get the book if we try to steal it and get killed, either. And I tell you, there’s no chance I’m good enough to rob a mage.”

“If he’s that good, most of his protections will be magical,” Jael argued. “And breaking magical spells is my specialty, isn’t it?”

Tanis was silent for a moment.

“All right,” he said at last. “Maybe we can agree on this.

We’ll visit this Rhadaman on some pretext—maybe to see if he can divine how to make more of your Bluebright, as you suggested. While we’re there, maybe we can find out where he hides the book and what kind of protections he has. Then again, maybe we won’t learn a thing, or maybe we’ll find out that his protections are too strong for us to even try. If that’s the case, you can go back and tell Blade truthfully that you’d heard that this Rhadaman had the book, but you couldn’t find any way to get it. And if we think we
can
get to the book, then at least we can make an informed plan of how to steal it, and before we try, we can get everything ready to go so we can leave town quickly. Agreed?”

“All right,” Jael agreed at last. What Tanis said was only reasonable. Even Blade would admit that knowledge of the book’s whereabouts was better than nothing, and nothing was what she’d get if Jael and Tanis were both killed before they could tell her where the book was.

“Meantime, I got seven Suns for the second bundle of furs,” Tanis told her. “I wish I’d known about this Lezlas before I sold the other stuff. So we’ve got a total of around twenty Suns’ worth of coin. It’s probably enough to buy horses and a good quantity of supplies, but not much more.”

“That hardly matters,” Jael said. “Once we leave Tilwich, we probably won’t run into any other towns large enough to buy supplies anyway.”

Tanis laughed.

“Jaellyn, what about coming back? We’ll have to go back through all those villages and towns and cities again. Even if there isn’t so much as a farm for days in any direction, there’s no reason to be stranded penniless in the vast unexplored wilderness, is there? Not when another few days in the market might solve the problem. Beside, we’ve already paid for our room for four nights, and the boat for Tilwich won’t leave for four more days.”

Four days! This morning the idea of being stranded in Zaravelle for four more days would have been almost intolerable; now, however, four days seemed far too short. Jael wasn’t a thief, but she’d spent enough time around her friends in the Guild to realize that less than four days to plan a theft from an adept mage was a pitifully short time. And Tanis would have to spend a good part of that time in the market, too, trying to fill their purse. Unless Jael could find another horse dealer with a fetter-spell problem, she’d be all but useless.

After they finished their dinner, Jael took Tanis to Barend, Serji, and Roa’s shop and introduced him to her new friends. To her surprise, the three elves seemed very much taken aback to see that Jael’s friend and companion was a human. Of course, the eastern elves were very aloof, Tanis had once told her, compared to the merry folk of the Heartwood, and there was no intermarrying of the races as in Allanmere. To these elves, Jael had fallen in their esteem to the level of someone with very questionable personal habits.

Nonetheless, years of living among humans had obviously rendered these elves somewhat more cosmopolitan than most, and when they had recovered from their surprise, Barend, Serji, and Roa were gracious and polite, if not as openly friendly as they’d been with Jael at first.

Tanis thanked them for their recommendation of the furrier Lezlas.

“I wish I’d waited before I sold the first bundle of our furs,” he said wryly. “But Jael told me you also knew a good mage here in town. Mind, I’m not saying we’ve had a curse of bad fortune cast on us, but what harm could there be in making sure?”

“Rhadaman is the mage, son of Duranar,” Roa told him. “He has a house at the west edge of town, on West Gate Road, and a small shop built beside it. Be warned, though, that his prices are high, as he’s the only adept mage in Zaravelle. There are a few minimally skilled amateurs of questionable repute, but only Rhadaman is worthy of recommendation.”

After a pleasant hour chatting with the elves, Tanis returned to the market, and after a moment’s hesitation, Jael decided to go back and purchase the supplies she’d selected. Whether or not they got the book, they would need the supplies, and it would be likely cheaper to buy here than in Tilwich.

There might be few mages in Zaravelle, but there was no lack of thieves; Jael found it interesting just to find a good vantage point on the roof of a shop and watch them work. Some operated in pairs or teams, one or more jostling or otherwise distracting the mark while another took the purse. Others worked alone, relying on wits, quick fingers, and a delicate touch. Still others blindly cut purse strings and ran, using quick feet and dense crowds to dodge their indignant pursuers. Jael became fascinated by the various approaches, criticizing each while admitting to herself that even the rankest apprentice cutpurse could do what she could not.

To Jael’s delight, she eventually spotted Tanis, and then winced—he was following his mark, an elderly nobleman clad in hideously bright colors and gaudy jewelry, much too closely, and the nobleman himself was so eye-catching as to endanger any would-be thief who might be noticed nearby. If there were any of the City Guard nearby, they’d take Tanis into some alleyway and thrash him soundly just on suspicion.

At that moment, however, Tanis turned away from his mark. Jael watched puzzledly, wondering what in the world Tanis was doing. Then her eyes widened in realization as a nearby perfume vendor reached for his purse and cried out in amazed anger. All eyes had been on the elderly nobleman, of course, and Tanis had used that distraction to his advantage. Aubry’d been right; although Tanis had spent most of his life as an acolyte to the Temple of Baaros, he had been born to a merchant house, and merchants seemingly
were
born thieves.

There still being a good three hours before dusk, Jael wandered to the west side of the city to see if she could find Rhadaman’s house and shop. She had, in fact, no trouble at all; the other houses on West Gate Road were all simple, if spacious, residences, and Rhadaman’s was the only shop on the street. Jael did not want to enter the shop this soon, and without Tanis, lest Rhadaman recognize her later—she was, of course, very memorable indeed in appearance—but when she’d lingered outside for over an hour without seeing the legendary mage himself, Jael could no longer resist the temptation to have just a peek. She waited until she was certain there were several customers inside, then slipped quietly through the open doorway.

The shop reminded Jael immediately of the herbal shop that Argent’s sister Elaria ran. Flasks, jars, vials, and bottles lined shelves that crossed the room, and these containers were filled with unusual and, for Jael, unidentifiable substances labeled neatly in Zaravelli. Jael breathed in the pungent fragrances until her nose ran freely, then followed a small group of buyers to the weighing counter. Gods, the place was fairly overflowing with magic; she’d have to leave as quickly as she could. Still, she wanted to have a look at Rhadaman.

Rhadaman was there, if the tall, pale, emaciated man in mage’s robes was indeed Rhadaman. Despite his cadaverous appearance, the mage was quietly cheerful, speaking kindly to his customers, appearing to know each one by name and apparently conversant with the problems that brought them to his shop. Jael leaned against the far end of the counter, careful not to brush against his delicate scales, while the mage mixed a potion for a young woman’s cough. To Jael’s surprise and admiration, Rhadaman did not sell her the potion and send her home; although Rhadaman spoke in Zaravelli and Jael could not understand a word, it was obvious that he was showing her how many drops to mix in a goblet of wine, mixing a goblet and having her drink it, and instructing her to wait in the shop long enough to be sure that the potion was efficacious. He showed the same concern for the elderly man who had come for a salve for his aching hands, applying the salve to the gnarled joints himself and waiting until the old man’s delighted smile showed that the salve relieved the pain. Only once did Rhadaman glance in Jael’s direction, but although he raised his eyebrows briefly in mild curiosity, he quickly returned his attention to his other customers.

Jael’s attention was also abruptly distracted, although not by anyone in the shop. Behind the weighing counter were several shelves of books, and one of them, a large volume bound in leather, had two silver serpents climbing the spine, just as Blade had described. Surely that had to be the Book of Whispering Serpents, even though it was stacked among the other books with no more ceremony than an ordinary herbal.

The more Jael saw, however, the less she liked the necessity of stealing a precious volume of magic from this man. If he was using the Book of Whispering Serpents himself, he was using it for a kindly purpose. This city needed Rhadaman and his magic, and who was Jael to take away a book he might well need in his work?

Still, what was she to do? She’d given her word to Blade, and the favor Blade had asked of her was honestly owed and no more than a fair price for the vital answers she had once given Jael. True, Jael could go home and tell Blade that she’d been unable to take the book, but then Blade would more than likely come here to get it herself, and Blade’s talent was not thievery, but murder. Jael didn’t want to be responsible, however indirectly, for this mage’s death, especially the horrible death Blade usually dealt anyone who crossed her. Jael didn’t long consider the possibility of lying and saying she’d heard nothing of the book, either. Aunt Shadow was the only person Jael had ever heard of who’d escaped Blade’s attack; no one had ever tried to deceive or cheat Blade and lived. No, they’d just have to find a way to get the book. Even if the theft diminished Rhadaman’s power, such an injury was still better than death.

Her decision made, Jael took a final critical look around the shop and returned to the market to look for Tanis. She quickly located him enjoying a mug of ale in the shade of a wagon full of woven baskets, and when he saw Jael, he waved her over to join him.

“It’s been a good day in the market,” he told her. “So good, in fact, that I shouldn’t take anything tomorrow, or I may annoy some of the local Guild members. Wait till you see what I got early this afternoon.”

“You mean the perfumer?” Jael asked, grinning at the look of astonishment on Tanis’s face.

“How did you know about that?” Tanis demanded.

“I saw you take it,” Jael said, chuckling. “Well, I didn’t see you
take
it, but I saw
when
you took it. Don’t worry, though; if anybody else saw you around, they’d have thought you were after that noble, the one in the ugly jewelry.”