only sounds.
'So remind me again why we're not out having a fine evening entertaining our new companions?' Vharem asked.
'I'm having fun,' Meloon said.
'How many times do we have to tell you?' Laraelra said. 'Meloon and I heard someone being tortured somewhere beneath this area. We just couldn't get to her.'
'So why don't we use the way you two came before?' Faxhal asked.
'We couldn't reach it before,' said Laraelra. 'The guild should already be at work repairing that breach. Besides, I don't want word to reach my father that I'm-'
'Fraternizing with the high and mighty oppressors of us all?' Renaer smirked, his tone rising to a rough voice with a nasal high pitch.
Laraelra's jaw dropped and she said, 'By the gods, that's a pitch-perfect impression of him! I didn't think you'd met him that often.'
'Once was enough, I'm afraid,' Renaer said. 'Your father's rants disrupted a rather pleasant party I attended at the Jhoniron Club last summer down in Castle Ward. As for the impression, my apologies. I don't always realize when I'm mimicking someone's accent.'
'You should hear him do Watch Aumarr Krothyn Slakepike!' Vharem said. 'His impression's so good, he can get the Watch to abandon their posts by shouting orders in his voice.'
'True enough, but now there's enough of us to get caught,' Faxhal replied. 'It's easier to rat-scamper or avoid being seen with only two or three. This mob's too easily caught, especially the big guy there. I doubt he can move his monstrous feet fast enough to run.'
'Don't mind him, Meloon,' Vharem said, as he drove an elbow into Faxhal's stomach. 'He's just jealous he's the least handsome and shortest one here. He's always been one to pick fights with the biggest guy in the room.'
Faxhal spat loudly, landing a gobbet right in front of Vharem's boot. 'So how do you know something is amiss? Other than those two strangers heard screaming. Bells of Belshaba, I hear screaming in half the taverns every night!'
'Not like this, little man,' Meloon muttered, his voice low and serious.
'If you'd heard it, you'd know someone was being tortured,' Laraelra said. 'Last time I checked, torture was still a severe offense in the city.'
Renaer said, 'We also saw the Blackstaff and Ten-Rings working together. Willingly. What does that tell you?'
'They're up to something magical?' Faxhal asked.
'Probably,' Renaer replied, 'but let's look a little beyond the obvious. They acted like old allies, when in fact-'
'Those two can't stand one another!' Vharem said.
'And so?' Renaer spun his questioning eyes toward Faxhal.
Faxhal shrugged. 'I don't know. You know full well I'm going to ignore local politics unless it involves pretty women. I make it a point to ignore wizards always, even when it does involve pretty women.'
Renaer rolled his eyes and said, 'One of them wasn't who he seemed to be. Perhaps both of them weren't who they claimed, and they're trying to point blame at targets that no one dares accuse. In any case, the Watch won't believe our word against the supposed Blackstaff, so if anyone is going to do anything to stop them or at least save that woman, it's going to have to be us.'
During their conversation, the five of them had inched their way across the creaking and dangerously sagging wooden floor to the cellar door. The floor was stone in the back third of the building where it met the walls and doors. The kitchen yawned off to the right, an icy draft coming down the chimney and stirring the cobwebs at the long-cold fireplace. The party chose the door opposite, leading to the cellars.
Renaer opened the door with some difficulty, its boards having warped over time. He stepped into the stairwell that led down to a small landing before turning into the main part of the cellar. He descended to the landing but stopped and turned to stare up at the rest of them on the stairs.
'Everybody needs to move past me on the stairs. Vharem, bring that lantern closer. Elra, help me look for that trigger.' Renaer knelt down on the slab and began scraping at the edge of the upper stairs as the others walked past him.
Faxhal nudged Meloon. 'Elra? Have they been getting chummy all afternoon? They've got pet names for each other.'
Meloon smiled. 'She asks her friends to call her that. Why? You jealous? I'll give you a pet name if you-'
'Will you two please be quiet?' Laraelra said as she knelt next to Renaer. 'When we find the door to these tunnels, we don't want you two yammering away and giving our foes warning.'
'I don't think there's much chance of that,' Renaer said. 'There are at least three sets of tunnels and chambers we'll pass through to get beneath Roarke House.'
'So what're they there for?' Vharem asked. 'Your forebears smugglers or something, Ren?'
'Or something. The tunnels were either built by or expanded upon by three or four different ancestors.' He pulled off his gloves for a better sense of touch along the wall and step. 'One of them was among the earliest guildmasters of the Cellarers' Guild, which explains how they all managed to bypass any mention on official or unofficial maps.'
Faxhal, irritated and impatient, asked, 'Why are they here?'
'Imagine my surprise to find that my great-great-grand-uncle was none other than Kulzar Brandarth.'
'The old pirate?' Vharem asked.
Renaer nodded. 'Kulzar had been disowned by the family and wasn't allowed to use his family name, but they granted him a house that used to be here. He buried his final treasures somewhere around here, but no one's ever found them in the two centuries since. Of course, the family reclaimed the deeds after his passing, just in case.'
Renaer beamed as he and Laraelra both found bricks in the walls alongside the third stepface that each tipped inward.
Faxhal gasped. 'We're going after pirates' treasure?'
'Unlikely,' Renaer said. 'The tunnels were built during the Guildwars for the resistance against the guildmasters' rule of the city. I suspect someone's found part of the tunnels and is using them for a foul purpose.'
'Kulzar's treasure might explain the involvement of those wizards,' Laraelra said, 'but I think the woman they were torturing might be able to tell us what they wanted. If she's still alive.'
She and Renaer reached into the hidden trigger points and pressed the stone buttons set into the side of the third step. The upper stairs began sliding silently and swiftly downward, stranding them on the landing but reforming as a new stairwell leading deeper than the Gildenfires' cellar.
'So far as we know, no one's used these tunnels since before any of us were born.' Renaer unfurled a parchment from his sleeve, showing a map. 'Some of the tunnels shifted or melted together during the Spellplague. They may not be as they're marked. In any case, I'll want to keep the maps of these tunnels current. Vharem, you've got the rope, if we meet any drops?'
Vharem nodded, shrugging his cloak aside to reveal the rope looped around his torso.
Renaer led the way down the stairs, but slowed his pace as the steps grew taller and more difficult to descend. He noticed the tunnel shrank as they descended, and soon all but Laraelra had to shuffle sideways, as the corridor wasn't wide enough for their shoulders. The third landing, which turned them to the right one more time, was partially melted, and the direction the tunnel turned was all a smooth stone ramp.
Vharem unfurled the rope, handing one end to Meloon and the other to Faxhal. Renaer cleared his throat and raised an eyebrow in question. Vharem usually deferred to Renaer's decisions, but he looked him right in the eye and bypassed him, giving Faxhal the rope.
Faxhal clapped Renaer on the shoulder and said, 'He wants me going first in case there's trouble, Renaer. No offense, but I'm a little better in a fight than you are. If we meet someone who wants to talk, you're our fellow.'
Renaer rolled his eyes but motioned them to continue.
