Shadowbane

He’d been looking for a way in for hours, but every wall and watchpost was well covered. They changed guard on a random basis, as though dictated by the toss of dice-which, knowing Tymorans, was likely their method. Watchers were also stationed outside the walls, in the surrounding buildings. It was an easy matter to duck them during surveillance, but it would be much harder when the time came to break in. Even when dawn broke, security did not waver.

All told, he could find no means of entry-none short of killing a good number of men and women with whom he had no quarrel.

The old Kalen-Little Dren-wouldn’t have hesitated.

A twinge in his leg drew Kalen’s attention to his bandaged thigh. Mostly, he couldn’t feel the wound-he had barely felt it even when the Shou blade had dealt it-but it had needed tending. Good thing Cellica had taught him to bind wounds. He had to remember not to rely too heavily on that side.

He found it unsettling, to be a stranger in his own body.

“Hail, Little Dren,” a voice said behind him.

“That was impressive,” Kalen said. “I didn’t hear you until you gained the roof.”

“Aye, then,” said Toytere. “You didn’t think I meant to steal upon you, no? I’d hate to have you think of me that way.”

“You could dress better.”

“I rather doubt it.” The halfling smirked. “How’s the leg, incidentally?”

“How’s the wrist?”

The halfling sneered. “Aye, you be right. I didn’t care.” The halfling stepped up to Kalen’s side and peered out over the compound. “So that’s where you’d go.”

“Aye,” Kalen said. “That’s what the Dragon said: ‘the turncloak priest.’ Do you know any other priests in Luskan?”

Toytere shrugged. “Sithe told me you got old Lord Ever-Be-Wary to see you,” he said. “And also that he be dead.”

“Yes.” Kalen nodded at the Coin-Spinner complex. “Well?”

Toytere squinted at their target. “Not easy, that be the truth. But we can do it.”

Kalen regarded him skeptically. “We?”

Toytere nodded. “Why not? If it gets you gone from me city.”

“That it will.”

“Right then.” He smiled. “Maybe we resolve our business first, no?” He trailed off and chuckled-a sound that involved clicking his filed teeth.

Kalen reached for Vindicator under his cloak. The halfling’s eye twitched repeatedly and his lips seemed wet as though he hungered for a conflict. There was an air about him that spoke of battle-one he sought and one Kalen would gladly give him. He would rather fight a duel in the open than fear a knife in the dark.

“Eh, maybe later.” Toytere coughed.

Whatever was wrong with the halfling, it hadn’t overcome his reason-he knew when he was overmatched. It was a tribute to how confused the halfling must be that he had even considered fighting Shadowbane blade to blade.

“While we just be brooding here for the moment,” the halfling said. “You want me to tell your fortune?”

“Why not?” Kalen said.

The halfling took his hand and stared into it, his eyes glossing over like fogged glass. He hummed a tune under his breath to unlock the Sight. For a moment, he stared right through Kalen. Finally, he shivered. “Ay, this be good.”

“Oh?” Kalen raised an eyebrow.

“You retire a crippled old man outside a town called Shadowdale,” Toytere said, “where you spend your time offering bad advice to younglings and tupping goats. Oh”-Toytere smirked at him-“and you be ugly, but I don’t be needing the Sight for that.”

“Well,” Kalen said. “At least I’m alive.”

The halfling’s smile widened. “True that be.”

The spark of mirth fell away. They stared out at the temple.

“I loved her, you know,” Kalen said. “Like my sister.”

“And she was me sister,” Toytere said. “That don’t change a thing between us.”

He wiped his nose with his sleeve and Kalen caught him nibbling at his wrist. He squinted, trying to make out a bandage, but the halfling scoffed.

“Enough of this,” Toytere said. “We go now.”

“King’s parley,” Toytere said to the guards at the gate.

The two men-armed with heavy crossbows and swords, gold coins on leather thongs around their necks- looked at one another, then back down at the halfling, then up at Kalen.

“Who’s this?”

“Me bodyguard,” Toytere said.

“And why you need a bodyguard when you come to parley?”

“Oh, I don’t fear the honorable Coin Priest,” the halfling said. “But the streets to this place, they not be so safe, no? These streets be full of cutthroats, it’s said, that sooner cut out your tongue than bid you well met. I can ill parley without a tongue, methinks.”

The men seemed a touch confused by Toytere’s speech, but they caught the drift. “ ’Ware the Lady’s snares,” one of them said as he pushed open the door. “If Tymora favors you-”

“Oh aye,” said Toytere. “I do remember.”

“Snares?” Kalen asked.

They entered a great worship hall cleared of chairs or benches for supplicants. In the center stood an altar shaped like a coin, shadowed by a carved statue of the goddess Tymora. Kalen remembered that the statue’s shadow marked the hour of the day-or night, were the moon bright enough. A dim light flickered across the shadow-dappled hall.

“Watch your step,” Toytere said. “Me Lady Coin, she be fond of her tricks ’n’ traps. She only meets with those Tymora favors-others, well, they don’t make it.”

Somehow, the concept didn’t surprise Kalen-it even seemed familiar, never knowing if death or pain would strike in any heartbeat. He pointed out a tripwire, which they stepped over cautiously. Toytere was smiling like a madman.

“Lady Coin?” Kalen asked. “The Coin Priest is a woman?”

Toytere laughed uproariously at the question, then caught himself and scowled. “So say her face, but faces they do deceive.”

“As do words.”

“It be a good tenday to be a lass in Luskan, it seems,” Toytere said. “Two of five Captains be ladies now. There goes the city, no?”

“Three,” Kalen said, “if that Dragonblood Kasi becomes queen of the Shou.”

Toytere looked at him blankly, then grinned. “Aye,” he said. “I do be forgetting.”

Kalen wondered if he had truly forgotten the Dragonbloods, or if he’d included Kasi in his count and “forgotten” to include Myrin as the head of the Dead Rats. What was his game?

Kalen gestured to a rusty blade hung precariously from the ceiling. “A messy deterrent to unwise guests.”

“Such be luck,” Toytere said. “Perhaps it best you not touch nothing in this place-unless you know the Lady loves you and be watching.”

Kalen knew he’d not die-not until he resolved this mess and got Myrin out of Luskan.

They made their way cautiously across the chamber, avoiding tripwires, wolf irons, and pressure plates at random intervals. When they reached the center, Kalen paused for a moment.

“What?” Toytere said irritably.

“Well, at least some things stay the same.” Kalen pointed upward.