his unique jeweled dagger, a weapon well known in the alleys and shadows of Calimport.
Had he been foolish in showing that weapon? Entreri wondered as he walked away. He hadn't any intention of revealing himself when he came to this place, but also, he had no intention of not revealing himself. The question and the worry, like his musing on the fate of Pook's house, found no hold in his wandering thoughts. Perhaps he had erred. Perhaps he had shown the dagger in a desperate bid for some excitement. And perhaps the man had recognized it as the mark of Entreri, or possibly he had noticed it only because it was indeed a truly beautiful weapon.
It didn't matter.
LaValle worked very hard to keep his breathing steady and to ignore the murmurs of those nervous associates beside him as he peered deeply into the crystal ball later that same night. The agitated sentry had reported the incident outside, a gift of a strange coin from a man walking with the quiet and confident gait of a warrior and wearing a dagger
befitting the captain of a king's guard.
The description of that dagger had sent the more veteran members of the house, the wizard LaValle included, into a frenzy. Now LaValle, a longtime associate of the deadly Artemis Entreri, who had seen that dagger many times and uncomfortably close far too often had used that prior knowledge and his crystal ball to seek out the stranger. His magical eyes combed the streets of Calimport, sifting from shadow to shadow, and then he felt the growing image and knew indeed that the dagger, Entreri's dagger, was back in the city. Now as the image began to take shape, the wizard and those standing beside him, a very nervous Quentin Bodeau and two younger cocky killers, would learn if it was indeed the deadliest of assassins who carried it.
A small bedroom drifted into focus.
'That is Tomnoddy's Inn,' explained Dog Perry, who called himself Dog Perry the Heart because of his practice of cutting out a victim's heart fast enough that the dying man could witness its last beats (though none other than Dog Perry himself had ever actually seen this feat performed).
LaValle held up a hand to silence the man as the image became sharper, focusing on the belt looped over the bottom post of the bed, a belt that included the telltale dagger.
'It is Entreri's,' Quentin Bodeau said with a groan.
A man walked past the belt, stripped to the waist, revealing a body honed by years and years of hard practice, muscles twitching with every movement.
Quentin put on a quizzical expression, studying the man, the long hair, the goatee and scratchy, unkempt beard. He had always known Entreri to be meticulous in every detail, a perfectionist to the extreme. He looked to LaValle for an answer.
'It is he,' the wizard, who knew Artemis Entreri perhaps better than anyone else in all the city, answered grimly.
'What does that mean?' Quentin asked. 'Has he returned as friend or foe?'
'Indifferent, more likely,' LaValle replied. 'Artemis Entreri has always been a free spirit, never showing allegiance too greatly to any particular guild. He wanders through the treasuries of each, hiring to the highest bidder for his exemplary services.' As he spoke, the wizard glanced over at the two younger killers, neither of whom knew Entreri other than by reputation. Chalsee Anguaine, the younger, tittered nervously-and wisely, LaValle knew-but Dog Perry squinted his eyes as he considered the man in the crystal ball. He was jealous, LaValle understood, for Dog Perry wanted, above all else, that which Entreri possessed: the supreme reputation as the deadliest of assassins.
'Perhaps we should find a need for his services quickly,' Quentin Bodeau reasoned, obviously trying hard not to sound nervous, for in the dangerous world of Calimport's thieving guilds, nervousness equalled weakness. 'In that way we might better learn the man's intentions and purpose in returning to Calimport.'
'Or we could just kill him,' Dog Perry put in, and LaValle bit back a chuckle at the so-predictable viewpoint and also at his knowledge that Dog Perry simply did not
understand the truth of Artemis Entreri. No friend or fan of the brash young thug, LaValle almost hoped that Quentin would give Dog Perry his wish and send him right out after Entreri.
But Quentin, though he had never dealt with Entreri personally, remembered well the many, many stories of the assassin's handiwork, and the expression the guildmaster directed at Dog Perry was purely incredulous.
'Hire him if you need him,' said LaValle. 'Or if not, then merely watch him without threat.'
'He is one man, and we are a guild of a hundred,' Dog Perry protested, but no one was listening to him anymore.
Quentin started to reply, but stopped short, though his expression told LaValle exactly what he was thinking. He feared that Entreri had come back to take the guild, obviously, and not without some rationale. Certainly the deadliest of assassins still had many powerful connections within the city, enough for Entreri, with his own amazing skills, to topple the likes of Quentin Bodeau. But LaValle did not think Quentin's fears well-founded, for the wizard understood Entreri enough to realize that the man had never craved such a position of responsibility. Entreri was a loner, not a guildmaster. After he had deposed the halfling Regis from his short rein as guildmaster, the place had been Entreri's for the taking, and yet he had walked away, just walked out of Calimport altogether, leaving all of the others to fight it out.
No, LaValle did not believe that Entreri had come back to take this guild or any other, and he did well to silently convey that to the nervous Quentin. 'Whatever our ultimate choices, it seems obvious to me that we should first merely observe our dangerous friend,' the wizard said, for the benefit of the two younger lieutenants, 'to learn if he is friend, foe, or indifferent. It makes no sense to go against one as strong as Entreri until we have determined that we must, and that, I do not believe to be the case.'
Quentin nodded, happy to hear the confirmation, and with a bow LaValle took his leave, the others following suit.
'If Entreri is a threat, then Entreri should be eliminated,' Dog Perry said to the wizard, catching up to him in the corridor outside his room. 'Master Bodeau would have seen that truth had your advice been different.'
LaValle stared long and hard at the upstart, not appreciating being talked to in that manner from one half his age and with so little experience in such matters, for LaValle had been dealing with dangerous killers such as Artemis Entreri before Dog Perry was even born. 'I'll not say that I disagree with you,' he said to the man.
'Then why your counsel to Bodeau?'
'If Entreri has come into Calimport at the request of another guild, then any move by Master Bodeau could bring dire consequences to our guild,' the wizard replied, improvising as he went, for he didn't believe a word of what he was saying. 'You know that Artemis Entreri learned his trade under Pasha Basadoni himself, of course.'
'Of course,' Dog Perry lied.
LaValle struck a pensive pose, tapping one finger across his pursed lips. 'It may prove to be no problem at all to
us,' he explained. 'Surely when news of Entreri's return-an older and slower Entreri, you see, and one, perhaps, with few connections left within the city-spreads across the streets, the dangerous man will himself be marked.'
'He has made many enemies,' Dog Perry reasoned eagerly, seeming quite intrigued by LaValle's words and tone.
LaValle shook his head. 'Most enemies of the Artemis Entreri who left Calimport those years ago are dead,' the wizard explained. 'No, not enemies, but rivals. How many young and cunning assassins crave the power that they might find with a single stroke of the blade?'
Dog Perry narrowed his eyes, just beginning to catch on.
'One who kills Entreri, in essence, claims credit for killing all of those whom Entreri killed,' LaValle went on. 'With a single stroke of the blade might such a reputation be earned. The killer of Entreri will almost instantly become the highest priced assassin in all the city.' He shrugged and held up his hands, then pushed through his door, leaving an obviously intrigued Dog Perry standing in the hallway with the echoes of his words.
In truth, LaValle hardly cared whether the young troublemaker took those words to heart or not, but he was indeed concerned about the return of the assassin. Entreri unnerved the wizard, more so than all the other dangerous characters that LaValle had worked beside over the many years. LaValle had survived by posing a
