gold, exactly the same size and shape and color as those he’d seen in the earthmote!
The Merciful Maiden waved it away. “No need,” she said. “We can afford to extend a little charity.”
As the priestess carried the boy into the temple, Torrin caught Eralynn’s eye. “Where did you get that?” he asked, nodding at the pouch.
Eralynn, he noticed, had taken a step back from him, probably uncomfortable with the fact that he’d just wrestled with someone who had the stoneplague. “Why do you ask?” she said.
She sounded evasive. Torrin could guess why. She’d obviously explored the earthmote herself and found the gold. Just as he had, she’d kept quiet about it, not even telling her best friend. Instead, she’d taken the gold for herself. And Torrin would be left, cap in hand, begging for a portion of what they might instead have shared equally, if only he’d told Eralynn about his find.
“Did you take all of it?” he asked in a defeated voice.
“All of what?” Eralynn asked. “The rope?”
“What rope?” he asked.
One of Eralynn’s eyebrows rose. “Are we talking about the same thing?”
“The earthmote,” Torrin said. “You found it, right?”
“What earthmote?”
Torrin felt his eyes widen. “The… Ah…”
Eralynn waited, tapping her foot. “What earthmote?” she repeated. “Or is that some secret delve of yours you’re not going to tell me about?”
“Not my delve-Kier’s,” Torrin replied.
“ What? ” Eralynn hissed.
Dropping his voice to a whisper, Torrin quickly told her the story of Kier’s flight to the earthmote, and what they’d found inside. He didn’t get far, however, before she halted him.
“Oh, Torrin,” she said. “You didn’t hear. The Peacehammers found your gold yesterday. Uncle Baelar said they claimed it for the city coffers, in the name of the Lord Scepter. It’s helping to pay for the cleansings.”
Torrin opened and closed his mouth, unable to speak. “It’s… gone? All of it?”
“Why didn’t you tell me about it sooner?” Eralynn asked.
“It… I…” He hung his head and gave a rueful sigh. “Greed. And now the gods have punished me for it.”
She stared at him in silence for several moments. Then she surprised him by laughing. “I’d have done the same.”
“Really?” he asked, meeting her eye.
“Really. That much gold would tempt anyone.”
“So… where did you get that gold bar?”
“I got it in change, when I purchased the rope we used to descend to Wyrmtrap portal. Mercuria said he didn’t have any gold coins, and he gave me the gold bar instead.”
“Mercuria?” Torrin echoed. “You bought that rope at Mercuria’s store?”
“Now just a moment,” Eralynn retorted. “Don’t go lecturing me about dealing with a tiefling. I know full well where his merchandise comes from, and I don’t care. He’s got the best prices in town. All of the Delvers buy from him.” She glanced down at the gold bar. “But you’re right. I should have been more cautious. The exchange rate was a little too favorable.”
She glanced up again as she continued. “I wasn’t a complete babe in the wolf’s den, however. I figured the talismonger might be trying to pass off gilt over dross. But when I scratched the bar with a nail, it was soft as butter-solid gold, all right. Or at least, I think it was.”
She stared down into the pouch. “You’re going to tell me this is really lead, aren’t you?” she said. “That Mercuria used magic to trick me.”
“Let me see it,” Torrin said. Keeping the gold bar inside the pouch, where it wouldn’t attract so much attention, he examined it. He spotted something amiss right away. “See this rune, next to the purity stamp?”
She peered at it. “What of it?”
“It’s been carelessly done,” he replied. “One of the lines in the ‘one hundred’ rune is shorter than the others. And the horns on the crescent that marks it as being from the Waterdeep mint have the wrong curve. This might be gold, but the minter’s mark is a forgery. I’ll bet someone shaved the original bar down, then recast it with just enough of another metal in the mix that a casual observer wouldn’t be able to tell the difference.”
Eralynn raised an eyebrow. “How do you know so much about currency?”
“I used to help my human parents tend the store, remember?” Torrin replied. “We had to be careful what we took in trade.” He yanked the pouch’s drawstrings tight. “The real question is, how did one of the bars from the earthmote wind up in Mercuria’s possession?”
“That’s easy enough,” Eralynn said. “You said yourself how alluring gold can be. One of the skyriders pocketed it, then used it to buy something at Mercuria’s shop.”
“No skyrider would do such a thing!” Torrin said in protest.
Eralynn shook her head. “You may be a dwarf at heart, Torrin, but there’s much you’ve yet to learn about the hearts of dwarves.”
Torrin tried to hand the pouch back to her, but Eralynn refused it. “Keep it,” she said.
“But it’s valuable!” he said.
“You need to pay for your cleansing,” she replied as she shook her head. “If your mother had given me a chance, I would have left the gold with her to pass along to you. But she wasn’t very polite.” She glanced down at her hands and sighed. “Not that I’m unused to that.”
“It wasn’t your hands,” Torrin told her. “She just… has a bit of trouble talking to dwarves, sometimes. She blames the stout folk for… Well, for this.” He gestured at his beard.
“Ah,” Eralynn said, looking somewhat mollified. “Still, even if the bar isn’t full value, it’s enough to pay your tithe. So keep it.”
Torrin opened his mouth to thank Eralynn, but his eyes fell, just then, on the Merciful Maiden who had just appeared at the entrance. Maliira. Torrin held up his left hand to display the ribbons, and waved. Maliira nodded back at him. Was she smiling? He couldn’t tell. She crooked a finger, beckoning him closer.
“You know her?” Eralynn said.
“A little. Not as well as I’d like,” he replied.
Eralynn suddenly turned and walked away.
Torrin was taken aback by her abrupt departure. “Wait!” he called after her. “I wanted to thank…”
But Eralynn had turned the corner. Torrin scratched his head. If he hadn’t known better, he might have guessed that she felt affection for him. But she’d made it clear many times in the past that they were just friends. Fellow Delvers, nothing more.
He shrugged, then strode to the spot where Maliira stood. “You wanted to talk to me?” he asked her.
“It’s your turn for a cleansing, it would seem,” Maliira told him. “Since you’re the only one left in line.”
Torrin smiled. “Will you administer the blessing?”
“No,” she replied, waving a hand at the people who were starting to venture-albeit timidly-back to the street in front of the temple. The line was beginning to reform. “I’m needed here, to keep order until the Steel Shields arrive. Some idiot, apparently, accused someone else in line of having the stoneplague, and nearly started a riot.”
Torrin was thankful his beard hid the flush of his cheeks. “Ah. Yes. Stupid thing to do,” he said.
“What he should have done was quietly pull the afflicted person aside and bring him to the front of the line, so we could heal him,” Maliira continued.
“Yes, yes, of course. That’s exactly what he should have done,” Torrin agreed.
Was it just his imagination, or was she giving him an accusing look?
He needed to change the subject. “This time, I’ll be able to pay my tithe,” he said. He lifted the pouch Eralynn had given him and opened it with a flourish, drawing out the gold bar.
Maliira took it from him and stared at it thoughtfully. For a moment, Torrin thought she was going to reject it as payment. She further alarmed him by glancing around somewhat furtively, and drawing her dagger.
“What’s wrong?” he asked. “Is my tithe… insulting in some way?”
“Quite the contrary,” she said. “It’s very generous. Now hold out your left hand.”
Torrin did as he was bid.
