F O U R (36 page)

The hulking goblinoids just looked at himylla Nathos.",  as did several others creatures. Ascaly

,  naked little kobold tittered crazily.Som

ething was wrong, and the Master  of Melee-Magthere didn't know what.

He felt a sudden tension and exhaled  it away. Looking nervous was a bad idea.

"Isn't  this Smylla's  house?" he asked.

The shorter bugbear, who still loomed nsaid, "No, not no m           early as huge as an ogre, laughed and

ore, but she still live here . . . kind of."

"Can we see her?" said Ryld.

The weapons m"What for?" asked the bugbear with the severed goblin hand.aster hesitated. He'dwished to consult Smylla in her professional capacity as a trader in informintended to say that he and Pharaun ation.

It was essentially the truth, though that didn't matter.  What did was that  he hadn'texpected it to provoke a hostile response.

Pharaun stepped up beside him." S

mylla  sold  our  sister  Iggra the secret  of  how to  break into  a merchant's  strong

room ",  the  wizard  said  in  a  creditably  surly  Orcish  rasp  "H.  ow  to  get  around  all

the traps. . . . Only she left one out, see?  It squirted acid on Sis and burned her to death. Slow. Alm

ost got us too. It's  Smylla's  fault, and we come  to 'talk'  to her

about it."

The smaller bugbear nodded. "You ain't the  only ones wantin'  that kind of talk.

Us, too, but we can't  get at the bitch."Pharaun cocked his head. "How come?"

"A couple tendays ago," said the bugbear with the severed hand necklace, "wedecided we was tired of her bossing us and her lamps hurting our eyes. W

e

jumped her,  hit her,  but she chucked one of those stones that makes a flash oflight. It blinded us, and she run up to her room." He nodded t

oward the head

of a twisting staircase. "We can't  get through the door. She lockor somethin' "                     ed it with magic

.

Pharaun snorted. "Ain't  no door my brother and me can't  bust through."

The bugbears exchanged glances. The smaller one, who, Ryld noticed, wasmissing several of his lower teeth, shrugged.

"You can try," the larger one said. "Only,  Smylla belongs to us, too. Hit her,

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bleed her,  slice off a piece of her and eat it, but you can't keep her all to

yourself.""It's a deal," Pharaun said.

"Come on, then."

they still had to pick their way through lounging paupers. Partway uThe bugbears led them through the crowded room and onto the stairs, where p, the brutewearing the decaying hand put it in his mouth and began sl

urping and suckin

on it.                                 g

rounded top. TAt the top of the steps were a small landing and a limestone door with a wmuzzle, sat on the floor looking bored.o sentries, an ore and a canine-faced gnoll with sores on his

The disguised teachers made a show of examining the door.

"When the bugbears couldn'"Can you knock it down?" Pharaun whispered.t? Don't count on it. Can you open it with magic?""Probably

.  It's  magically sealed, so a counter spell should suffice, but I don't

want our friends to observe me casting it. That really would compromise  m

disguise. Stand where you obstruct their view and do something distracting."  y

the two bugbears. "W"Right." Ryld positioned himself in the appropriate spot and glowered up at The lar      e can open it. What loot is inside?"

ger bugbear scowled and, the odious object in his mouth garbling hisspeech a little, said, "We made a deal. It didn'

"Smylla took Sis's treasure," R      t say nothing about no loot."yld replied. "We want it back, and extra too,  for

wergild."

"Hell with that."

The bugbear with the missing teeth reached for the knife tucked thrbelt. R                             ough his

yld could see it was a butcher's  tool, not a proper fighting blade,  but  nodoubt it served in the latter capacity well enough.

Ryld rested his hand on the hilt of his  short sword, the weapon of choice for

these  tight  quarters,  and  said  "Y,  ou  want  to  fight,  we'll  fight.  I'll  slice  your  face

off your skull and wear it like a breechcloth, but my  brother  and I came to kill

Sm

"Open," Pharaun said.ylla, not you. Let's talk. If you never get the door—"ld'

s  back, ma

warrior whirled and scramWhite light shone at Ryb      king the bugbears wince. Squinting, the

"Hey!" yelped the smaller bugbearled for the opening..R

yld felt a big hand fumble at his shoulder,  trying to grab him,  but it was an instant too slow. He followed Pharaun over the threshold and sl

ammed the

door.

"Y

"I can'ou need to hold it shut," the wizard said.t  do it for long."

Leaning  forward  Ryld  planted  his  hands  on  the  limestone  slab  and  braced

him       ,self.

The door bucked inward. For a split second, the dark elf's feet slid on thecalcite floor, then they caught, and he held the barrier in place. Barely

.

Meanwhile, Pharaun was peering about. He  gave a little cry of satisfaction,

picked  up  a  small  iron  bar,  and  set  it  so  it  overlapped  the  edge  of  the  door and the jamb  about halfway up. When he took his hand away, the ch

arm remained

in place."This is quite a clever little device," the wizard said. "Oh, and you can l

et go

now." Pharaun turned the mechanical locks  his spell of opening had disengaged,

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had up to then kept the goblinoids out, but he thought he and Rsnapping each shut in its turn. It was actually the enchanted length of iron that yld mibe as secure as possible. It also seem               ght as well

His hostess, however, didn't seem  to appreciate the gesture.ed the courteous thing to do.

The m"Get out!" she croaked. "Get out, or I'll slay you with my  sorcery!"asters turned. Smylla Nathos had lit her sparsely furnished room  with  a

pair of slender brass rods, the tips of  which emitted a steady magical  glow.  Theprotruded from  the necks of wax-encrusted                y

candelabra, which they perhaps were m   wine bottles like tapers sitting in eant to resemble. Maybe Smylla missedthe spell caster's traditional mode of illumi

nation but couldn't obtain it anymore.

She herself lay at the limit  of the light,  on a cot in the shadows at the far end of the room. Pharaun could just barely m

ake her out.

"Good afternoon, my  lady," the wizard said, bowing. "It shames me  beyond

measure to ignore your request. Yet should this gentlema

your door a second time, the bugbears and their ilk will rush in,n and I pass through and that,is the very eventuality you sought to forestall."             I think,

"Who are you? You don't talk like an ore.""My lady is a m

arvel of perspicacity. We  are in fact drow lords come  to consult

you on a matter of some  im"Why are you disguised?"portance."

"The usual reason: To  confound our enemies. May we approach? It's  tedious

trying to converse across the length of the room."Smylla hesitated, then said, "Come."

Pharaun and Ryld started forward. Behind them, the bugbears were cursing,

shouting threats  and questions,  and  pounding on the  far side  of the  door.

After four paces, the wizard's stomach tuhumid and gangrenous. He'd  half expected somrned at yet another stench, this one

ething of the sort, but that didn't

make it any easier to bear. Even the phlegmatic Ryld looked discomfited for an

instant.

He had no desire to com"Close enough," Smylla said, and Pharaun supposed it was.e                with its boils and

pustules, even though the enchantm any nearer to that wasted forments bound into his mantle and Ryld's  cloakand dwarven arm

or would probably protect them  from  infection.

"Can you help us?" asked Ryld.The sick wom

an leered. "Will you pay me  with the magnificent great-sword

you wear across your back?"Pharaun was som

ewhat im

shrouding his friend m  pressed. The illusion of pig-faced orcishnessade Splitter look like a battle-axe, but Smylla'srheum

When he recovered fromy, sunken eyes had pierced that aspect of the deception.

you the sword. I worked too hard to get it, his surprise, Ryld shook his head. "No, I won't give and I need it to stwant I can use it to clear away the goblinoids outside. My comay alive, but if you

rade and I are also

carrying a fair amHer dry white hair spread about her ount of gold."   head, Smylla lay propped against a mound

of stained, musty pillows. She struggled to hitch herself up straighterabandoned the effort. Apparently it was beyond her s          , then

trength.

"Gold?" she said. "Do you know who  I am, swordsman? Do you know mhistory?"                               y

"I do," Pharaun said. "The gist of it, anyway. It happened after I more or  less withdrew from  participation in the affairs of the great Houses."

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"What do you know?" she asked."An expedition from  House Faen Tlabbar

into the Lands of Light to hunt and plunder, " the wizard replied, "ventured up .  When they returned, a lovelhuman sorceress and clairvoyant accom                 y