'Go and bring Quentin Bodeau,' Entreri instructed.
'He will not appreciate becoming involved.'
'He already is,' Entreri assured the wizard. 'Now he must choose.'
'Between you and …?' LaValle asked.
'The rest of them,' Entreri replied calmly.
LaValle tilted his head curiously. 'You mean to do battle with all of Calimport then?' he asked skeptically.
'With all in Calimport who oppose me,' Entreri said, again with the utmost calm.
LaValle shook his head, not knowing what to make of it all. He trusted Entreri's judgment-never had the wizard met a more cunning and controlled man-but the assassin spoke foolishness, it seemed, if he honestly believed he could stand alone against the likes of the Basadonis, let alone the rest of Calimport's street powers.
But still…
'Shall I bring Chalsee Anguaine, as well?' the wizard asked, standing and heading for the door.
'Chalsee has already been shown the futility of resistance,' Entreri replied.
LaValle stopped abruptly, turning on the assassin as if betrayed.
'I knew you would go along,' Entreri explained. 'For you have come to know and love me as a brother. The lieutenant's mind-set, however, remained a mystery. He had to be convinced, or removed.'
LaValle just stared at him, awaiting the verdict.
'He is convinced,' Entreri remarked, moving to fall comfortably into LaValle's comfortable chair. 'Very much so.
'And so,' he continued as the wizard again started for the door, 'will you find Bodeau.'
LaValle turned on him again.
'He will make the right choice,' Entreri assured the man.
'Will he have a choice?' LaValle dared to ask.
'Of course not.'
Indeed, when LaValle found Bodeau in his private quarters and informed him that Artemis Entreri had come again the guildmaster blanched white and trembled so violently that LaValle feared he would simply fall over dead on the floor.
'You have spoken with Chalsee then?' LaValle asked.
'Evil days,' Bodeau replied, and moving as if he had to battle mind with muscle through every pained step, he headed for the corridor.
'Evil days?' LaValle echoed incredulously under his breath. What in all the Realms could prompt the master of a murderous guild to make such a statement? Suddenly taking Entreri's claims more seriously, the wizard fell into step behind Bodeau. He noted, his intrigue mounting ever higher, that the guildmaster ordered no soldiers to follow or even to flank.
Bodeau stopped outside the wizard's door, letting LaValle assume the lead into the room. There in the study sat Entreri, exactly as the wizard had left him. The assassin appeared totally unprepared had Bodeau decided to attack instead of parlay, as if he had known without doubt that Bodeau wouldn't dare oppose him.
'What do you demand of me?' Bodeau asked before LaValle could find any opening to the obviously awkward situation.
'I have decided to begin with the Basadonis,' Entreri calmly replied. 'For they, after all, started this fight. You, then, must locate all of their soldiers, all of their fronts, and a complete layout of their operation, not including the guild house.'
'I offer to tell no one that you came here and to promise that my soldiers will not interfere,' Bodeau countered.
'Your soldiers could not interfere,' Entreri shot back, a flash of anger crossing his black eyes.
LaValle watched in continued amazement as Quentin Bodeau fought so very hard to control his shaking.
'And we will not,' the guildmaster offered.
'I have told you the terms of your survival,' Entreri said, a coldness creeping into his voice that made LaValle believe that Bodeau and all the guild would be murdered that very night if the guildmaster didn't agree. 'What say you?'
'I will consider-'
'Now.'
Bodeau glared at LaValle, as if blaming the wizard for ever allowing Artemis Entreri into his life, a sentiment that LaValle, as unnerved as Bodeau, could surely understand.
'You ask me to go against the most powerful pashas of the streets,' Bodeau said, trying hard to find some courage.
'Choose,' Entreri said.
A long, uncomfortable moment slipped past. 'I will see what my soldiers may discern,' Bodeau promised. 'Very wise,' said Entreri. 'Now leave us. I wish a word with LaValle.'
More than happy to be away from the man, Bodeau turned on his heel and after another hateful glare at LaValle, swiftly exited the room.
'I do not begin to guess what tricks you have brought with you,' LaValle said to Entreri.
'I have been to Menzoberranzan,' Entreri admitted. 'The city of the drow.'
LaValle's eyes widened, his mouth drooping open. 'I returned with more than trinkets.' 'You have allied with …'
'You are the only one I have told and the only one I shall tell,' Entreri announced. 'Understand the
responsibility that goes with such knowledge. It is one that I shan't take lightly.'
'But Chalsee Anguaine?' LaValle asked. 'You said he had been convinced.'
'A friend found his mind and there put images too horrible for him to resist,' Entreri explained. 'Chalsee knows not the truth, only that to resist would bring about a fate too terrible to consider. When he reported to Bodeau his terror was sincere.'
'And where do I stand in your grand plans?' the wizard asked, trying very hard not to sound sarcastic. 'If Bodeau fails you, then what of LaValle?'
'I will show you a way out should that come to pass,' Entreri promised, walking over to the desk. 'I owe you that much at least.' He picked up a small dagger LaValle had set there to cut seals on parchments or to prick a finger when a spell called for a component of blood.
LaValle understood then that Entreri was being pragmatic, not merciful. If the wizard was indeed spared should Bodeau fail the assassin, it would only be because Entreri had some use for him.
'You are surprised that the guildmaster so readily complied,' Entreri said evenly. 'You must understand his choice: to risk that I will fail and the Basadonis will win out and then exact revenge on my allies. . or to die now, this very night, and horribly, I assure you.'
LaValle forced an expressionless set to his visage, playing the role of complete neutrality, even detachment.
'You have much work ahead of you, I assume,' Entreri said, and he flicked his wrist, sending the dagger soaring past the wizard to knock heavily into the outside wall. 'I take my leave.'
Indeed, as the signal knock against the wall sounded, Kimmuriel Oblodra went into his contemplation again and brought up another dimensional pathway for the assassin to make his exit.
LaValle saw the portal open and thought for a moment out of sheer curiosity to leap through it beside Entreri to unmask this great mystery.
Good sense overruled curiosity.
And then the wizard was alone and very glad of it.
'I do not understand,' Rai'gy Bondalek said when Entreri rejoined him, Jarlaxle, and Kimmuriel in the complex of tunnels beneath the city that the drow had made their own. He remembered then to speak more slowly, for Entreri, while fairly proficient in the drow language, was not completely fluent, and the wizard-priest didn't want to bother with the human tongue at all, either by learning it or by wasting the energy necessary to enact a spell that would allow them all to understand each other, whatever language each of them chose to speak.
