Silverfall: Stories of the Seven Sisters

wouldn't hurt to just look. .

Even as Mirt put his hands to an upthrust, helm-shaped clump of moss, the air around him sang in high, clear warning, and the ring that allowed him to pass wards unchallenged throbbed upon his finger.

Ah, well. Mirt shrugged, smiled, and straightened up. 'Clever bitch,' he told the dell affectionately.

When he bent again to take up a shard of armor the air around him almost screamed, but despite the danger its skirling promised, the Old Wolf stood turn shy;ing it in his hands, lost in unhurried thought for some time before he stooped to gather all of the armor plates and carefully stack them against a rock. He covered them with other stones to keep them from weathering overmuch, took a last, long look around, and started the long walk back to Waterdeep.

In a certain corner of the plains city of Scornubel, overly curious visitors can find a narrow, nameless pas shy;sage that plunges from a garbage-strewn back alley down a short and slippery way to an open cesspool. The only folk who customarily visit this noisome spot are hairy, reeking men in old carts, who come to empty bar shy;rels of night soil. Rats often scurry along the walls of the passage, but on this particular afternoon one of them was quite surprised to see the empty, dung-smeared cobbles ahead of it suddenly grow a gnarled old woman. She appeared out of empty air an inch or so above the cobbles, holding a cane. With a grunt she slammed to the ground with a clatter, and quite nearly fell over.

Reeling upright, this aged bundle of rags cast a level look around, seeking to find anyone who might have seen her arrival, then settled her cane into a bony hand. She stumped up the passage into the alley beyond, spitting thoughtfully in the rat's direction. The rodent blinked, and decided to forage elsewhere.

The old woman staggered on around the corner, making slow work of her short trip down the alley. She turned onto a street where the houses were old, cloaked with ivy, and leaned close together among their iron- barred fences and refuse-choked yards. Old and stunted trees thrust weary branches into the late afternoon sky. Many of the houses looked empty. Those who snored within them, huddled in the corners of empty rooms in clothes no better than the old woman wore, wouldn't awaken until nightfall. The old woman planned to be long gone by then.

She stopped in front of a house ringed by tall stone garden walls capped with a gleaming row of jagged bottle-shards and looked up and down the street, but it seemed empty. The gate, flanked by two squat pillars, was unlocked. The squeal of its opening roused a large black dog in the yard within into a wild fury of barking and howling. It bounded the length of its chain, teeth snapping about an arm's length short of the path that led to the house. The beast kept up its noisy and vigor shy;ous threats for the entire length of the old woman's journey to the front door. Straining as it was at the links that held it, someone watching might have been forgiven for expecting the old, moss-girt, leaning statue to which its chain was fastened to topple the rest of the way to the ground and set free one frantic canine.

The old woman knew the length of that chain, though its captive had changed since her last visit, and she didn't spare the dog a glance. Her eyes were on the pair of bored-looking warriors now rising from stools flanking the door, slapping at the hilts of their swords and dag shy;gers to ensure these were ready, and staring back at the old woman with barely concealed irritation. One door-sword prudently moved to one side-to be out of range of any spell that might smite his fellow if this old crone turned out to be some sort of sorceress-and stayed on the porch, drawing his dagger to be ready for a throw. The other guard strode forward down the path to bar the old crone's progress a good twenty paces from the porch. 'This is a private abode,' he announced briskly, 'and my master does not make welcome beggars or unso shy;licited vendors. Would you have other business here, this day?'

'Mmmnh, mmmnh,' the old woman said, as if work shy;ing long unused gums. She turned her head as slowly as any tortoise might and fixed the doorsword with an eye that was startlingly cold, keen, and blue. 'I would.'

The guard towered over her, waiting. The old woman blinked at him, and made a 'step aside' wave with her rough-knobbed cane.

He stood his ground and prompted with just a hint of testy impatience beneath his smile, 'And it would be?'

'Best conducted inside,' the old woman rasped point shy;edly, taking a step forward.

The doorsword stood his ground, clapping a hand to the hilt of his sword. 'That's something we'd best dis shy;cuss,' he snapped. 'My master has given me very specific instructions as to who should be allowed to disturb him,'

'Lean closer, young bladesman,' the stooped woman replied. 'I'm supposed to whisper one o' them secret passwords to ye now, see?'

Warily, the doorsword drew his blade, held it like a barrier between them, and leaned forward, eyes nar shy;rowed. 'Spit at me,' he remarked almost pleasantly, 'and die.'

'Kiss me,' the old woman replied, 'and be surprised.' She was smiling as the guard's startled eyes met hers and he almost drew away. The smile was almost kindly though, and the old woman did have both of hands clearly in view, clasped on the cane at her hip, bony fingers laced together.

She leaned a little closer and whispered hoarsely, 'Firebones three.'

The guard straightened, astonishment flashing across his face for a long moment before he gulped, became impassive, and said, 'Pray forgive the delay I've caused you, lady, and come this way. The house of Blaskar Toldovar welcomes thee.'

'Mmmnh, mmmnh,' the old woman agreed, setting herself once more into motion. 'Thought it would, I did. Thought it would.'

She toiled up the steps with some purpose, and smiled and nodded like an indulgent duchess at the two doorswords as they ushered her within. The house hadn't changed much, though the servant who led her up the long stair flanked with blood-red hangings was a burly warrior now, and not the young lady clad only in chains that she recalled from earlier visits.

He left her in a chair in the usual shabbily genteel, dim room, where she sat in silence, knowing she was being watched through spy holes. It wasn't long before a voice that rasped even more than her own asked out of the darkness behind her chair, 'Well?'

''Blaskar,' the old woman said, 'I need to ask you something, and get an honest answer. I'll need to cast a spell on you, to know that it's truth-and that you're indeed Blaskar Toldovar.'

'What? Who are you?' The balding man came around the chair in his usual worn and dirty clothes, adjusting an oversized monocle she didn't remember seeing him with before. He leveled his cane at her-the cane that held a mageslaying dart of silver-coated, magic-dead metal in its end-and snapped, 'Answer me!'

'You grow short-tempered, old Toldove. Not a good habit, for one of your profession,' the old woman observed calmly.

Blaskar Toldovar came to a halt beside a bookcase that faced the old woman's chair; a large and heavy bookcase with a bellpull beside it … a bellpull the old woman knew summoned no servant, but caused the bookcase to topple forward. The case was hinged in the middle, to bow forward as it emptied its load of ledgers and surely crush anyone sitting in the chair. Blaskar hooked his fingers securely around the bellpull and glared at his visitor.

'Your ledgers won't be improved by getting my old blood all over them,' the old woman said, 'and I'm not here to harm you. Sit down, be at ease, and pour me a drink, Blaskar-the good stuff, not the rubytart with slavesleep in it.'

Blaskar Toldovar stared at the old woman for a moment, breathing heavily, then collapsed onto his desk stool, sending up a cloud of dust that made him sneeze helplessly. When he could see again, he wiped his eyes, settled his monocle into place, and peered at his visitor through it hard and long, thrusting himself forward until he almost fell off the stool.

'No, I don't recognize you,' he said at last, with a weary sigh, 'but you must know me. I ask again: who are you?'

'I'd prefer not to give you my name,' the old woman said tartly, 'especially with your man listening behind yon door. Send him away-and not into the spy pas shy;sage.'

Blaskar sighed, went to the door, flung it wide, and jerked his head toward the stairs. The impassive ser shy;vant who'd been listening at the door nodded calmly and strode away.

They listened to his boots descending the steps before Blaskar closed the door again, turned, and said, 'I'm a busy man, and you did disturb me at a very delicate task. I must ask you to identify yourself forthwith.'