fight.'
'Worth a shot,' he said. 'Where'd you get it?'
'You probably don't really want to know,' said Kehrsyn with an uncomfortable smile.
Demok nodded and led the way outside to where his horse waited. The two mounted up, Kehrsyn sitting behind Demok, and the grim guard reined the horse around to head back to the Chariot Memorial.
As they approached the great statue, they saw a wagon waiting in the lee of the huge pedestal. Demok steered the horse for it.
'Art thou ready?' came a familiar voice.
'Always,' Demok replied. He halted the horse next to the wagon. 'More bodies for the Zhents?' he asked.
'It seemeth to me that none should question one bearing more fodder,' Massedar explained. 'Ensure thou that such a fate befalleth not me.'
'Lead on,' said Demok.
The wagon lurched forward in the rain, the horses eager to finish their task and return home. Demok and Kehrsyn fell in behind.
Kehrsyn leaned close to Demok's ear and said, 'Good thing you like to kill.'
'1 don't,' said Demok.
'But-'
'It's what I do, and I'm good at it, but killing I do not enjoy,' he said over his shoulder. 'Killing is wasteful. Combat I love. Pitting my skill and wits against another with the ultimate stakes. There is no purer test.' He turned his head to face forward again, nodding to himself. 'I'd wager that's what you find addictive about theft,' he added. 'Not stealing, but testing your skills in dangerous situations.'
Kehrsyn cocked her head and furrowed her eyes as she considered that.
'Got incredible skills,' Demok continued after a moment, interrupting her thoughts. 'Good heart, too. Question is, can you find a way to use those skills that doesn't break your heart? If you can, you've got it made.'
A gust of wind ripped through the street, whipping their cloaks. Kehrsyn pulled hers back around her and tried to huddle down as small as possible behind the shield of Demok's shoulders.
'You did that,' said Kehrsyn, finally understanding the source of Demok's quiet self-assurance. 'So how did you answer the question?' she asked.
'Killing is a by-product. Didn't want it to be a waste, so I dedicated my life to the destruction of the Zhentarim and the church of Bane. If I found someone else who needed killing in the meantime, I didn't have a problem with that, either.' He reached for something beneath his cloak, and after a moment's fumbling reached over his shoulder to hand something to his companion. 'Know what this is?' he asked.
Kehrsyn took the item and studied it, holding it very close to her eyes in the dim light.
'It looks like a pin in the shape of a harp,' she answered. 'What does it mean?'
'I'm a Harper.'
'So what does that mean?'
Demok paused a moment, then explained, 'We protect civilization. Fight the tyrant gods and their followers, strike down those who need it. I came here when I heard Bane was moving on Messemprar. Wing's Reach seemed a likely target. Other Harpers are elsewhere in the city.'
'What, right now?'
Demok nodded and said, 'We need them. Dark times are coming.'
'So why'd you join the Harpers in particular?'
'May not be a home, but it's a family,' he said.
Kehrsyn handed the pin back to him. He took it and replaced it somewhere inside his cloak.
After a pause, he spoke one last time. 'Consider that an offer,' he said.
Massedar's wagon led them to the Temple of Gilgeam. During the rule of the god-king, who had taken the throne in the stead of his father Enlil some two millennia before, it had been the centerpiece of all life in Messemprar, where the god-king basked in the worship of the lesser beings of his empire. Everything had changed when Tiamat slew Gilgeam, and even after fifteen years the pillars and capitals of the temple still showed some of the blackened smears from the oily fires that had devoured the lives of so many priests. Ever since the excitement of those first heady days had waned, the occasional new graffito still gouged its way into the pillars and walls.
The great pedestal out front was, of course, still empty.
'I hope we never see Bane's likeness erected on Gilgeam's pedestal,' Kehrsyn murmured.
'One way or another,' replied Demok, 'we won't.'
After Gilgeam fell, no one really knew what to do with the massive building. No one remotely associated with the priesthood wanted it. The army used it for a while, hoping the tradition of power that emanated from the building would help them maintain control, but even the soldiers didn't want to be there. As the Northern Wizards consolidated their power, they avoided the issue. In the end, the edifice ended up being used for two purposes: barracking foreign mercenaries, as their very presence would further despoil Gilgeam's memory, and executing criminals, as that activity remained very much in line with the building's original purpose.
The foreigners were left to argue among themselves how best to divide the space, so it was easy to understand how the Zhentarim could appropriate some of the subterranean levels for their own nefarious activities.
The wagon rolled around the great, empty pedestal and pulled up at the base of the grand staircase. The massive marble steps stretched almost the entire width of the building and were carved both tall and deep, specifically designed to make even the tallest visitor walk up the steps in the manner of a child.
At the top of the steps, a group of three or four figures stirred. Kehrsyn could see the telltale glow of a shuttered lantern in their hands.
Massedar got down from the wagon and directed Demok to pick up the larger of the bodies. That he did, working the corpse over his shoulders. The other corpse remained in the wagon as Massedar led Demok and Kehrsyn up the steps. Though clouds were scudding in, no rain was falling at the moment Massedar removed his heavy cloak just as a gust of fierce wind blew through, and the sheer drama of the movement made Kehrsyn's heart thrill.
At the sudden motion, the figures at the head of the stairs flicked one of the lanterns open and shone it fully on Massedar. Kehrsyn saw the Massedar was dressed in priestly Banite raiment, no doubt the robe worn by Ekur himself. The long gown was full and black, with green rays and mystic sigils showing in the lantern light. Massedar had thrown the hooded cowl over his head, and he held his rain cloak out in one arm for Kehrsyn to take. As she stepped up to take it, she saw that he had shaved his beard to better match Ekur's clean-shaven face, and, thanks to the wind, she saw that Massedar had padded out his normally trim form beneath the garment, the better to emulate Ekur's bulky build.
As Kehrsyn took the proffered cloak in her arms, the light flocked off, shuttered once more within the glassy confines of the lantern.
As they reached the top of the stairs, Demok jerked his head back toward the wagon below.
'Once more,' he grunted.
Two of the sentries moved quickly down the steps to unload the other corpse as Massedar, Demok, and Kehrsyn entered the Temple of Gilgeam.
Kehrsyn's heart fluttered with fear. She had not set foot inside so much as a Gilgeamite shrine since the day Ekur had killed her mother. Even in the high holy days, when the troops searched the city for stragglers and the impertinent, she had risked her life rather than bow a knee to the despotic thearchy that had taken her parents from her. In a bizarre way, she almost felt that trying to stop the Banites in their plot would be defending Gilgeam's memory, but that thought made her so angry that she shelved it far away, to be dealth with later.
Massedar led the way through the temple, his accursed Banite gown billowing as he walked. Demok moved behind, carrying the heavy corpse over one shoulder. Despite the bulk of the body, and despite the sweat that trickled down his temples and the breath that labored in his lungs, Demok's face was calm and placid. Kehrsyn trailed, holding Massedar's rain cloak. As she passed a convenient lantern alcove, she quickly stuffed it in the nook. She needed her hands free to do her job, and if they were to pass that way again, they'd either have time to search for the cloak or they'd have concerns far more urgent than getting wet.
In the distance, the reflected light of fires danced along the walls like will-o'-wisps. They heard the sounds of
