'The emperor will keep the bloodforge well guarded and near him,' Entreri said. 'If Noph's memory of the palace serves, beyond the great hall is a wide, crescent-shaped corridor that connects all the ceremonial spaces. The high double doors at the center of the crescent give into the audience chamber. Beyond it lies the mage-king's personal quarters-his tank. The bloodforge must be there.'
'But I told you,' Noph said, 'there's no way to get at the mage-king through the audience chamber. The tank takes up one whole wall. The glass is impervious to all attacks, magical or mundane. The water is poisonous. And even if the glass could be broken and the water were safe, you'd still be swept away and drowned.'
'Impervious is an overrated word. The bloodforge is in there with him; I'm sure of it. If we have to drain the tank and beach the big fish, then we have to. Besides, I have ways of breaching the unbreachable wall and surviving the flood and the poison. I have this.' Entreri twirled a flat silver plate in his fingertips.
'What is it?' Shar asked, leaning close against him.
'A little thieving device-the fellow selling them came from a place call Sigil. Stick this on a wall or window, and it creates a gate to the other side. The thief can stick a hand through and snatch whatever he can reach. Of course an assassin such as myself might be more likely to throw a dagger through-'
'You're going to throw a dagger at a fifty-foot-tall squid-man?' Noph interrupted.
'Something a little more subtle,' Entreri assured him.
'First we have to reach the chamber-have to get past an army of guards between here and there,' Belgin groused. The sharper's face was looking more drawn and sickly than usual. 'There's probably two outside the great hall, four outside the audience chamber, eight outside the mage-king's tank, and between sixteen and thirty-two guarding the bloodforge.'
'Perhaps now, but not in a few moments from now,' Entreri said. 'I've planned a diversion.' He nodded toward the doors of the great hall. As if on cue, shouts rose outside.
'Fire! Fire in the treasury!'
The pirates and Noph cast unbelieving glances at Entreri. He shrugged. 'It isn't really the treasury, but the gift room beside the treasury. And it isn't really a fire, but a certain present from Neverwinter, one that emits a sleep-inducing smoke. The guards will rush to the treasury only to lie down and nap.'
A murmur of mirth passed among the crew as they listened to the growing sounds of mayhem. The shouts and stamping feet died away to silence.
'Follow me. Swords out.'
They did, their steps confident behind their ingenious leader. He had thought of everything.
Noph reached his free hand toward Shar, but she moved away, approaching Entreri. Her own free hand grasped the assassin's, and his fingers squeezed.
Congratulations, Entreri, you damned skunk, Noph thought.
Behind him, Ingrar tripped on a chair leg. Noph glanced back at the blind young man: he looked white-faced and shaky.
'Let me guide you along,' Noph suggested, hand grasping his.
Ingrar nodded and gripped Noph's hand tightly.
'Bring him up here,' Entreri hissed. He and Shar stood at the two grand double doors-white, with gold leaf on a filigree trim.
'The master summons,' Noph told Ingrar, though the blind man was already hurrying toward the voice. In a panting moment more, the two reached the double doors.
'Give it a sniff,' Entreri said. 'Is anybody out there?' Ingrar drew a deep breath through the door space.
Conflicting emotions crossed his face. At last, he released the air in a whisper. 'One guard remaining. He's young. He's standing against the wall to the right side.'
'Good enough for me,' Entreri said noncommittally, kicking the right door outward.
Wood and iron thumped against a soft bulk. It groaned once and slid. A young guard slumped from behind the door. His face was ringed with the downy curls of an early beard.
Entreri glanced at the blind man. 'You couldn't smell the beard?'
Without further comment, he and Shar shoved past the half-open door and the unconscious guard and stalked down the curving hallway. A wave of Shar's hand hastened Noph and Ingrar forward.
'Anyone up here?' Entreri asked.
Panting as he and Noph caught up, Ingrar replied, 'Used to be. The smell is cold, stale. They're gone. Wait. There's one at the head of the audience chamber. On the right. Just ahead, around the bend.'
'Young? A beard?' teased Shar.
Ingrar shrugged. 'I'd say, yes.'
Entreri drew a dagger from his belt and skulked forward. 'Lucky for him you did.' He slightly modified his grip on the dagger before hurling it.
The blade flashed through the air, slipped past the white belly of the wall, and struck the young guard in the head. He convulsed once before collapsing, bloodless, to the ground.
'Excellent aim,' Shar commented.
'I didn't have to hit him with the handle, you know,' Entreri said coldly. 'Noph, keep the Seer close at hand.'
Following the assassin's lead, the pirates dashed to the gilded double doors of the audience chamber. Entreri shoved the unconscious man out of the way, retrieved his dagger, and threw back the doors. Cold, humid air rolled over the group.
Ingrar gasped a breath. 'Not in there, Master Entreri. Not in there. We're not going in there.' 'What? What is it?'
'Death,' said Ingrar. 'Our deaths. All of our deaths. The deaths of every creature on this cursed coast.'
Entreri looked at the rest of his party, their faces white and wary. 'See? I told you the bloodforge was in here,' he said flatly. With that, the assassin strode into the audience chamber of King Aetheric III.
Noph tugged a reluctant Ingrar. 'Let's go. We've signed on this far.' Stepping past the fallen guard, they entered the chamber.
We should have heeded their presence. We should have known this assassin could slay even us. But with fiends flooding the city, bloodforge armies appearing against them, and the smell of death so strong in our gills… with the apocalypse descending around us, Artemis Entreri and his band were no more than cuttlefish splashing in tidal pools.
We should have known they could slay even us. But we could not have stopped them, anyway-not and fought the fiends.
The audience chamber of the mage-king was dank, cavernous, and black. The air was heavy. At the far end of the lightless chamber hung thick ebony curtains. The empty darkness in front of the drapes seemed to be swimming with phantasms-tiny crayfish and sea sprites and spineless creatures floating in air. A deep, quiet rumble filled the chamber, and minute water sounds-eddies, waves, vague liquid voices.
…
Entreri wasted no time. He rushed with Shar to the curtain and drew back one small edge of it to reveal a triangle of thick glass beyond. He stuck his silvered plate to the glass.
Within the tank, something enormous stirred. It moved with silent, slippery ease. A broad circle of deeper darkness appeared at the top of the triangle of glass. It descended within the tank and hovered beside the curtain's edge.
'What is it?' Shar asked, gazing at the circle of night.
Digging in one of his many pockets, the assassin said, 'It doesn't matter. The mage-king can't reach through. His poison can't come through. I placed the portal, and I command it.'
'It's an eye,' Shar whispered in realization. She stared at the huge spot. 'That's what it is. A wide-open eye.'
Noph led a trembling Ingrar up beside them. 'I hope you've got something superterrific up your sleeve, boss.'
Entreri nodded. He extended a clenched hand, and then opened his fingers to reveal a palmful of white pills. 'One's enough to purify a lake. Twenty-five will make this tank taste like a mountain spring.'
The others looked confused.
The assassin tossed the handful of pills into the silver plate. They soundlessly disappeared into it. On the far
