private reprieve.
With a glance around, Arunika entered through a little-used side door. Then she waited, in the dark room.
A short while later, Brother Anthus entered. He carried a single burning candle and moved toward the large candelabra near the altar at the front of the room.
“Had I known you meant to walk the city avenues backward to get home from the meeting, I would have eaten my dinner before coming here,” Arunika said.
Brother Anthus barely halted in his walk, as if to prove that he was not surprised to find her here-and why would he be, given the gravity of that particular meeting? He took his time in lighting all the arms of the candelabra, bathing the room in a soft glow, then turned to regard Arunika.
“You knew this would happen,” he said.
“I did not expect that Herzgo Alegni would help the city of Neverwinter out of any sense of charity or beneficence, true.”
“He moved quickly,” Brother Anthus replied. “Quicker than I had expected.”
“He believes that the Thayans are in disarray. Given that possibility, their threat will fast diminish. By moving to secure his power now, he can continue to use the threat of Szass Tam as a bludgeon against those who would disagree.” She paused and tilted her head, a wry grin on her face, and asked, “Are the Thayans in disarray?”
“Sylora Salm is dead.”
“I know that!”
Brother Anthus took a deep breath and moved to sit on the bench opposite Arunika. “Valindra Shadowmantle is no minor power,” he explained.
“When the insane lich is not confusing herself with her own babbling,” said Arunika, and Brother Anthus nodded and shifted… uncomfortably, Arunika noted.
“The ambassador has helped her tremendously,” Arunika prompted, referring to their contact emissary within the Abolethic Sovereignty, itself an aboleth, a fishlike mind-bending creature of great psionic power. She paused for a few heartbeats and continued to read Brother Anthus’s discomfort. “But then,” she added, “anything the ambassador bestows, the ambassador can take back, no doubt.”
“I had thought that the Sovereignty wished to use the Thayans as foil to the Netherese, and the other way around,” Brother Anthus said.
“Reasonable,” Arunika agreed. “That, too, was my understanding. But who can tell with these strange creatures?”
“Brilliant creatures!” Brother Anthus corrected.
Arunika nodded, conceding the point. She wasn’t in a mood to argue with the zealot.
“Do you think the ambassador will allow the Thayan threat to unravel now that Sylora Salm is dead?” Brother Anthus asked. “Will the creature bring Valindra Shadowmantle back into a state of confusion?”
“Or will the ambassador continue to twist Valindra’s thoughts to the benefit of the Sovereignty?” Arunika wondered aloud, and she nodded, as that sounded plausible to her. “As long as Herzgo Alegni remains a threat, I would expect that the ambassador will keep Valindra lucid enough that her forces will cause him trouble.”
“But the aboleths will never allow her the degree of lucidity to break free of their power,” Brother Anthus said, completing the thought.
“Go to our fishlike friend,” Arunika bade the monk. “Inform the Sovereignty of Herzgo Alegni’s claim of lordship over Neverwinter. The ambassador will know how to best use Valindra to counter Alegni.”
“Should the Thayans attack again?” Brother Anthus asked. “Is that your recommendation?”
Arunika considered it for a moment, then shook her head. “Alegni’s forces are not so strong,” she explained. “With Sylora Salm dead, I expect that he will have little leverage to garner more soldiers from his Netherese masters in the Shadowfell. Let us keep it that way. There is more afoot than the Thayans or the Netherese, and it will be interesting to see how it plays out.”
Brother Anthus looked at her curiously, but Arunika let the tease stand, deciding not to tell him about the trio who had killed Sylora, and about where that dangerous group was likely to turn their blades next.
“Promise the ambassador that we will inform the Sovereignty as events unfold,” she said.
“Perhaps you should travel with me.”
“Nay. Herzgo Alegni suspects that I am compromised,” she replied, not mentioning that Alegni knew her true devilish identity, of course, since Anthus remained oblivious to that little detail. “I would not risk leading him to the ambassador. Besides, I have other issues pressing.” It occurred to Arunika that a visit to Valindra Shadowmantle might be overdue.
The light snow continued to fall, though it seemed as if it could not touch the brooding and hulking dark figure that was Herzgo Alegni as he stood on his namesake bridge in the heart of darkened Neverwinter. This was his favorite place now, a symbol of his successes, and here he believed he was invincible. Here, he was truly Lord Alegni.
“I would express surprise in seeing you,” he said as a tall and broad tiefling warrior approached. “Of course, it would be feigned, for you always seem to appear where you are least wanted.”
“You have not seen me in more than a decade,” came a sarcastic reply. “Not long enough.”
“My Lord Alegni, I never go where I’m not invited,” Jermander replied. “Indeed,
I never go where I’m not paid to go.”
Alegni looked past him, to the smaller form, that of Effron.
“You know why they have come,” Effron answered his questioning look.
“The Bounty Hirelings of Cavus Dun are more effective in dealing with such… problems as those which we seem to now have before us.”
Alegni had been asking for more soldiers for a long while, but this group was surely not what he had in mind. For this mercenary band owed fealty to the person with the purse, and since Alegni had not invited them or hired them, that meant someone other than himself. It wasn’t hard for him to figure out who that person might be.
“I am here in support of your mission,” Effron said with a bow, conceding the point before Alegni could even make it.
“But not to follow my commands, it would seem.”
“Draygo Quick suggested Cavus Dun,” Effron retorted, once more pulling rank by invoking his powerful mentor, who was one of the few Netherese lords Herzgo Alegni feared.
Alegni moved to the rail, his customary spot, and stared out at the dark river and the distant sea. “If you get in my way, I will kill you, Jermander,” he said matter-of-factly. “Do not doubt that.”
“I would expect…” Effron started to interject, but Alegni fixed him with a threatening stare.
“You do not hate her more than I do,” the twisted warlock remarked, then he spun on his heel and shuffled away.
Alegni shifted his gaze to Jermander, who did not shy from it.
“There are many moving parts,” the mercenary said. “Neverwinter is akin to a gnomish contraption.”
“Too many moving parts, perhaps,” Alegni agreed. “And you are but one more.”
With that, Jermander grinned, bowed, and walked off after Effron.
Alegni stayed on the bridge for quite a while longer, wondering how he could parlay all of this to an even greater advantage. He didn’t like having Cavus Dun around, for they were too much of a wild card, but he had to admit-to himself, of course, for he would never speak aloud any such thing! — that there were indeed a very troubling number of moving parts. Dahlia was formidable, and much more so, apparently, with this drow companion fighting beside her. And Barrabus?
He put his hand on the pommel of his great blade, taking comfort in its obvious energy. Claw reassured him. The sword remained alert. Barrabus the Gray remained Claw’s to command.
Still, too many moving parts spun like a giant gear works above him.
He thought of the clever Arunika, his lover, his ally with the foolish settlers, and likely his enemy. Whenever he thought of the night he had spent with the woman, and the many more he intended to spend lying beside her, he had to remind himself that she was much more than she seemed, that she, this supposedly innocent woman, was also friend to Valindra Shadowmantle, and was actually helping the lich clear her jumbled mind.
With Sylora dead, Valindra seemed to stand as Alegni’s greatest rival.
What did that make Arunika?
