center of the bridge over the River Thunn. Although she realized Mintassan must possess far more powerful spells than teleportation, the swordswoman was a little taken aback by how casually he used it. 'A little showy, aren't you?' she teased the 'age.
'Just lazy,' Mintassan retorted with a grin. He moved over to the edge of the bridge and peered at the riverbank through the fog. 'Where's this door?' the sage asked.
'It's hidden from the view of the bridge by some rocks,' Alias explained. The fog was no thicker than it had been this morning, but Alias was unsuccessful in locating the rocks. The rocks, along with the sandbank, were already under water. 'It could be tricky getting back in. We'll have to do some wading.'
'In the Thunn's current, with a sea serpent in the water!' Jamal exclaimed. 'Better count me out.' 'Which way does the door open?' Mintassan asked.
'Out,' Alias explained, realizing with disappointment that the water would make the door very difficult if not impossible to budge.
'I could pass us though the door with a dimensional portal,' the sage suggested.
'Most unwise,' a voice said from behind them, and out from the mists stepped Durgar, flanked by a large contingent of the watch. 'But then you were always a bit reckless, weren't you, Mintassan?' 'Not everyone wants to live to be as old as you, Durgar,'
Mintassan taunted.
Durgar smiled coolly at the sage. He held up the note Alias had left for him at the tower. 'This door is the entrance to the alleged Faceless's lair?' he asked Alias.
The swordswoman nodded. 'I obtained this key from a Night Mask,' she explained, handing over the magical key that Melman had given her. Briefly she described how she, Dragonbait, Olive, and Victor had explored and then been expelled from the Faceless's lair. Just as she had before, she omitted any mention that Victor had also had a key and had been in the Faceless's lair before she'd arrived.
'This site is now under the jurisdiction of the watch,' the priest declared. 'As such, you may not explore it without an official escort. And since I neither expect nor will allow any of my own people to attempt any magical entry that might endanger their health, we will wait until low tide, when the door can again be opened.'
'That won't be until hours after midnight,' Mintassan growled.
'We can't get in, they can't get in,' Durgar pointed out. 'I plan to station men in hiding about the bridge and the shore. Perhaps we will catch some Night Masks attempting to enter.'
'I don't think that's likely,' Alias argued. 'As elaborate as the water trap was, I can't imagine that it didn't also include an alarm to warn the Faceless, wherever he might have been at the time.'
'Well, we shall see,' Durgar said. 'If, a half hour after low ebb, no one.has appeared, then I shall go in with my men. I'd appreciate your presence at that time as guides,' he said, addressing both Alias and Dragonbait.
'And can I come, too?' Mintassan asked, imitating a schoolboy begging a favor of an adult.
'If you choose to bring another advisor,' the priest said to Alias, eyeing Mintassan somewhat disapprovingly, 'that's your business. You, though, woman,' he addressed Jamal, 'have no business here.'
'Jamal's advice, Your Reverence, has been crucial in helping me locate this lair,' Alias argued.
'That may be,' Durgar replied, 'but, as she is not known for her discretion, she is not welcome. As you will recall from your discussion yesterday with the croa-markh, your employer, there are more serious aspects to these investigations than feeding the curiosity of theatrical vagrants.'
'Theatrical vagrant. I like the sound of that,' Jamal said with mock indignation. 'Certainly a step up from being a lackey to the likes of Hazfar Urdo.' She sneered.
Durgar's eyes narrowed, but he did not reply to the actress's implied insult.
'We'll be back at low tide,' Alias said. Mintassan reached for her hand, no doubt prepared to whisk the two women and the saurial away with magic, but Alias said, 'I'd like to walk.' She proceeded down the bridge with Jamal at her side.'
'Very well,' the sage sighed, and took a position alongside Dragonbait, following the two women.
As they strode through the streets, Mintassan began expounding on the varying legends about quelzarns. Dragonbait listened intently, eager to learn all he could about a creature he might battle again, but Alias drifted back a few paces to apologize to Jamal for Durgar's insistence that she be left out.
'Don't give it a second thought. I certainly haven't,' the actress reassured her. 'Besides, I'll squeeze the story of your expedition out of you later.'
Alias felt another twinge of guilt, reminded of how she'd kept secret the croamarkh's key. The loyalty she felt she owed Luer Dhostar as an employer remained intact only because she hoped, for Victor's sake, that the croamarkh had a good reason for possessing the key to the Night Masters' lair. She felt a stronger loyalty, though, to Jamal, and not just for all the advice the woman had given her. She was still haunted by the phantom memories of a mother who looked just like the actress. In addition, the connection Jamal had to Finder Wyvernspur made Alias feel a certain warmth for her. She wanted something to make up for the key that stood between them.
'Lord Victor's invited me to a masquerade ball tomorrow night,' she confided. 'Dragonbait and I.'
'My goodness, how egalitarian,' Jamal said with a grin. 'I wonder what he's playing at?'
Alias shook her head. 'He's not playing at anything. He just likes my company.'
'A likely story,' Jamal retorted, her tone laced with dramatic suspicion.
'I suspect I'll need a fancier gown from all Victor said about this event.'
'Definitely,' Jamal agreed. 'Fortunately, I know a dressmaker who owes me several favors. Why don't we just pop into her shop now?'
The two women excused themselves from the company of the sage and the saurial and made their way down a side street.
Jamal's dressmaker was an elven woman called Dawn, who greeted Jamal with a suspicious look. She broke into a string of expletives when the actress explained Alias's needs and time constraints. Jamal insisted that a designer of her talents was surely up to the challenge.
The elf eyed Alias critically for several moments. Finally she said, 'The shoulders. None of these Westgate witches can compete there. Lady Nettel forty years ago, but none of the wilting lilies of this generation. We'll leave the shoulders bare.' 'How will the dress stay up?' Alias asked. 'Elven magic,' Jamal chuckled.
For the next half hour the swordswoman fidgeted through measurements, pinnings, and some rather rude appraisals of her features. At last Dawn announced that Alias was free to go. Providing the swordswoman came by tomorrow for a final fitting before noon, the gown would be ready an hour before the ball.
'Her scabbard belt will spoil the gown's lines. She'll need a baldric for her sword,' Jamal informed the elf. 'You were planning to wear your sword, weren't you?'
'In this city, I wear it everywhere,' Alias confirmed as she studied the dozens of masks that lined the walls of the shop. For Dragonbait she picked out a half-mask covered in feathers and for herself a simple full face done in glazed porcelain. The mask's arched eyebrows seemed to express exactly how she was beginning to feel about all the twists and turns her visit to this city had taken.
'This is actually getting exciting,' Jamal laughed as she and Alias left the shop and made their way through Westgate's fog-bound streets. 'It reminds me of a song Nameless sang about the Westgate nobs-something about battles at the balls.'
'Their battles are fought at the ball,' Alias corrected, in measured rhythm. She knew the song perfectly well, though she had never known before that Finder had sung it about Westgate. She turned to Jamal and spoke as openly as she dared. 'I'm so glad we've met. I'm glad Finder knew you, glad that I got to know you, too. I'm going to bring down the Faceless for you, Jamal. I promise.'
The actress looked taken aback for a moment, but then she smiled and draped her arm around the swordswoman's shoulders. 'I appreciate that,' she said, giving Alias's shoulders a friendly squeeze. 'I think, though, that you look exhausted. You should get some rest before you throw yourself back into the fray.'
Back at Blais House, Alias found she could hardly keep her eyes open as she took her leave of the actress. Leaving Mercy with instructions to wake her at midnight, the swordswoman retired to her room to nap. Dragonbait was already there sleeping.
By the time the sandbar was uncovered again, the fog had cleared. The crescent moon shone brightly on the untrampled approach to the Night Masters' lair. It was the perfect secret entrance, Alias thought. The tide washed away all signs of the Night Masters passing after every meeting.
There had been no sign of any Night Masters approaching the site, despite the fact that, according to
