count toward my advance, but I didn't want to bring it up unless you did.'
'I see,' Elana said. Her anger faded, replaced by some emotion that Jack had a harder time identifying- calculation, perhaps? Suddenly, she rose in her seat and leaned across the table, reaching behind his head with one hand and kissing him hard. His whole body jolted as if he'd been shocked.
Jack recoiled in surprise, but Elana refused to release him, and after a moment he returned her kiss with a building fervor. She teased his tongue with hers, her breath soft and hot on his face. He cupped her face with one hand and boldly extended the other to caress one perfect breast protected by the leather and steel that she wore, and then she pulled away, returning to her seat while Jack strained forward to maintain the moment's contact.
Elana smirked at him and then reached into a deep pocket, pulling out a small purse that jingled when it landed on the table. 'The balance of your advance, and a hint of your bonus if you succeed,' she said sweetly. 'Now, what's your lead?'
'Iphegor the Black,' Jack said blankly. He slumped back into his seat, looking up at the ceiling to regain his composure. 'A wizard named Iphegor the Black. I believe that he acquired the book from another wizard named Durezil, who may have acquired it from Gerard's belongings when they were sold off after his disappearance.'
'Is it reliable?' she asked.
'It's guesswork, but it makes sense,' he admitted. 'I rarely have the advantage of incontrovertible evidence and confirmed sightings. My gift lies in my intuition for weaving suggestions and suppositions into facts.'
'In other words, you're a good guesser,' Elana said. She shook her head and started to stand. 'Well, I will allow you to play your hunch, Jack. That's what I hired you for, after all. If you're right, bring the book to me three nights from now.'
'Here?'
Elana snorted. 'Do you have any idea of how many people watch this place? No, I'll leave word for you. Make sure you wrap up the book or cover it somehow.'
'My lady,' Jack said in a pained voice, 'I am not unfamiliar with exchanges such as these.'
'I suppose so,' Elana said. 'Good luck tomorrow. I'll be keeping an eye on your progress.' With that, she slipped out of the privacy curtain and disappeared into the crowded tavern floor.
Absently, Jack counted the coins in the purse and picked at his dinner. To tell the truth, he would have told her anything for the kiss alone.
CHAPTER FIVE
'You have some dishonest purpose in mind,' said Tharzon, splashing through the knee-deep water of the sewer tunnel. 'I can tell, Jack Ravenwild. In all the time I have known you, you have never approached me without some perfidious scheme at hand.'
'Dishonest is a relative term,' Jack replied. He struggled to keep up with his dwarven companion. The heavy spring rains now roared through the old mason-work sewers in a loud torrent, threatening to carry him away if he stepped too far to the center of the channel. 'I have no doubt that the man I intend to rob came by his treasure in an underhanded fashion.'
Tharzon, on the other hand, seemed to have no concern for the rushing waters. Like all of his kind, the dwarf was as solid as an old anvil, with the strength of a hale human constrained in a thick frame four feet in height. He was a professional acquaintance of Jack's, a master tunneler and lockpick who made his living by burrowing in on his prizes with careful deliberation. 'So stealing from a thief is an honest act then?' The dwarf barked laughter, a sound like wet gravel sliding down a hill. 'Two wrongs make a right!'
'Today I'll choose to believe so,' Jack replied.
He frowned in distaste at his surroundings. He'd replaced the fine clothes and noble trappings of the previous few days with what he thought of as his working clothes-black leather over gray cotton, all veiled in a fine dark cloak of light wool. But his flesh crawled as he contemplated what might or might not be scurrying past him in the rainwater. Jack was more fastidious than he cared to let on, and he would never wear these clothes again without imagining a faint whiff of the sewers in the fabric, no matter how many times he cleaned them. 'Are we almost there?'
'Almost,' Tharzon replied. 'So, what's this dwarf-work mystery you wanted to ask me about?'
'Have you ever heard of Cedrizarun?'
'The master distiller of ancient Sarbreen?'
'The very one. I take that as a yes.'
'Of course!' Tharzon said. 'I've spent a human lifetime exploring old Sarbreen and studying the lore of my fathers. Cedrizarun's name is still revered among my folk.'
'Can you think of a reason why a Red Wizard-leader of an adventuring company-might become intensely interested in Cedrizarun's resting place? Specifically, a riddle or an inscription on or around the tomb?'
'Certainly. Your mage seeks the Guilder's Vault.'
Jack looked up so quickly that he knocked his head on the tunnel roof. 'The Guilder's Vault? Hold a moment, friend Tharzon, and tell me of the Guilder's Vault.'
Tharzon looked back over his broad shoulder. His eyes smoldered beneath his heavy brow, and gold bands glinted in his ringleted beard. He paused in the next intersection, a high chamber where water streamed down from the glow of daylight above, and set his lantern on a ledge high on the wall.
'What do you know of old Sarbreen, Jack?' the dwarf asked, hunkering down on a dry ledge.
'A great dwarven city, built about seven hundred years ago but destroyed soon after. Raven's Bluff sits on top of Sarbreen's ruins. Many of these sewers are old dwarf-work… as are cellars, vaults, and catacombs underneath much of the city.'
Tharzon shrugged. 'About as much as a human might be expected to know, I guess. Well, let me tell you a little more. These passageways were indeed built by master masons of the City of the Hammer, but carving stone and delving chambers is not all that there is to a city. Dozens of masters skilled in the other arts-armorers, weapon-smiths, jewelers and miners and woodcarvers and glass-blowers and all the others-ruled thousands of skillful craftsmen. That was the wonder and the strength of Sarbreen, my friend. Skill and industry, ceaseless labor in a great thriving city that shone for a brief moment as the richest of all dwarven holds.
'Everyone knows the work of the old stonecutters, but the master masons were only a part of Sarbreen's Ruling Ring. Other masters whose works do not survive today were held in high honor, too-swordsmiths whose blades are scattered from here to Waterdeep, merchants whose wealth now lies in dragon hoards or lost at the bottom of the sea, and others. They were sometimes known as Guilders, since they led guilds of craftsmen.
'Cedrizarun was the master distiller, the maker of dwarven spirits whose fire would consume any lesser mortal who dared imbibe them.' Tharzon offered a sere smile. 'My folk delight in work well done, but we also delight in strong drink, and it's said that none crafted a better spirit than Cedrizarun. He was an old and honored dwarf when Sarbreen was first built, and he wielded great influence as a Guilder.
'He died before the fall of the city and was entombed in the old manner, with his riches about him. Few of the other Guilders or the master masons received such honors. Sarbreen was sacked a short time later, and most of Cedrizarun's peers died in battle, their hoards carried off by the cursed orcs and vile drow who worked Sarbreen's doom. But Cedrizarun's tomb has not yet been found.' Tharzon fixed his eyes on Jack. 'What do you know of this mage?'
'She's found Cedrizarun's crypt. In fact, she's recorded some kind of inscription or riddle in or around the tomb.' Jack thought for a moment, and then reached into a waterproof pouch at his hip and pulled out the parchment copy of the rubbing. 'She's been trying to figure out what this means,' he said, handing it to Tharzon. 'I suspect that she knows that something of great value is hidden nearby. She is desperate to solve the riddle.'
'And you think that I can solve it for you?' the dwarf asked. 'Instead of asking me to solve the riddle so that she can loot the Guilder's Vault, I would prefer that you ask the mage where Cedrizarun's tomb lies. We can solve the riddle and respectfully remove the Guilder's wealth ourselves. My people laid it to rest; it is only fitting that I, as their heir and descendant, should bring it back into the sunlight again.'
'I doubt that the mage of whom I speak would find such a plan agreeable,' Jack said.
'Then she should not be advised of its details.'
