Watching the woman, Baylee tried to figure out what she was after. He'd questioned people himself in his own line of work, and he could tell she was closing in on a thread she pursued. 'Yes.'
She glanced at him, handing the book back. She appeared threatening in no way, merely interested in his journalizing. 'You must fill up a lot of books like these.'
'Three or four a year,' Baylee admitted. 'Sometimes more. It depends. When I worked some of the sites Golsway and I discovered, we sometimes filled up a half-dozen such journals each.'
'What do you do with them when you fill one?' she asked. 'I notice you keep a light pack.'
Then Baylee realized what she was after. Evidently no one had found journals like his in Golsway's house. 'I have a place that keeps them for me.'
'What place?'
'Candlekeep. Perhaps you've heard of it.'
'I've heard of it,' Cordyan said. 'You've been there?'
'Yes.'
'I'm told the price of admission is quite high,' the watch lieutenant said. 'Usually a book of some sort, and worth no less than ten thousand gold pieces. К your journals are kept there, they must be highly regarded.'
'I have a friend there,' Baylee said. 'Brother Qinzl, who claims to entertain a certain vicarious thrill of exploration when he reads one of my journals.'
'I thought you would have kept your journals with Golsway's.'
'No,' Baylee said. 'Not since Golsway deemed that my writing was strong enough to stand on its own.'
'When was that?'
'When I was fourteen,' Baylee answered.
'You've written journals at fourteen that are in Candlekeep?' She seemed amazed.
Baylee shook his head. 'You have to think about the time period. During those years, Golsway was much more active than he has been of late. That was one of the things we argued over. I was still willing to go rushing after the vaguest whisper, while he was more content these days to look for a big strike. When he was younger, they were all big strikes, some just bigger than others. Those early journals detailed what members of the Explorer's Society deemed important finds.'
'But they were still good enough to stand on their own?'
Baylee looked into the woman's copper eyes. 'If you're asking if Golsway's journals are there, the answer is no.'
'Why?'
'Because Golsway didn't want to chance a loss of the information we've discovered. If Candlekeep burned down, which won't happen because the magic wards within it prevent paper catching fire within their walls, then both sets of our works wouldn't be lost.'
'Where did Golsway keep his journals?'
Baylee shook his head. 'I don't know.'
Her copper hued gaze remained on him, weighing the answer she'd received.
'Wherever they are,' Baylee said, 'You can be assured that it's a matter of record.'
'Why wouldn't Golsway have told you?'
'It wasn't a matter of him not telling me,' Baylee said. 'I never asked. At that time, I knew everything he did. He had no secret considerations about things we'd found that he didn't share with me.'
'It sounds like the two of you were very close,' Cordyan said.
'Maybe too close,' Baylee agreed. 'If there had been space allowed somewhere along the way, maybe I would have been there when he needed me.'
If Golsway could not take care of himself at the time, Xuxa interposed, you would only have died with him.
'Do you know what he was working on?' Cordyan asked.
'No. Did anyone find a journal like this one?'
Cordyan shook her head. 'Not yet. A team was still investigating the premises when I was told to find you. Maybe they've found it in my absence.'
Behind her, Cthulad and Calebaan broke up the conversation after the meal. The members of the Waterdhavian watch group gathered their traveling packs once again.
'Looks like we're about to get back onto the path,' Baylee said.
Cordyan nodded. 'I'm sorry to have interrupted your work time.'
'No need,' Baylee replied. 'It was an enjoyable talk. I look forward to another.'
The watch lieutenant walked away.
Baylee watched her, admiring the sleek roll of hips beneath the tunic's edge. She didn't walk like someone deliberately drawing attention to herself. The swaying gait was a natural part of the woman.
She turned abruptly. 'Where did Golsway keep his journal at his home?'
The question almost caught Baylee off guard. He never let his features change. 'There's a desk in his study. Did anyone check there?'
'I'll ask when we get back.'
Baylee watched her go again. She's good, he told Xuxa. We'll have to be careful around her.
Shell only find out about Golsway's hidden precaution if you let it slip. Xuxa paused. You don't have to worry about that because I won't allow it to happen.
16
'Do you trust him?'
Cordyan Tsald glanced at Piergeiron, who stood in the wreckage of Fannt Golsway's house beside her. She had seen the Commander of the Watch on a number of occasions, and talked with him at times as well, but he still made her feel like a green recruit.
'No,' she replied. 'Baylee Arnvold holds to his own agenda of things.' She shifted her gaze back up the stairs to the men under her command who were shifting debris again, taking out things Baylee said meant nothing to their investigation. 'I would stake my life that he had nothing to do with his mentor's death. However, he will tell us only what he wants us to know.'
Piergeiron shook his head. 'That is all Golsway's doing. The old mage had a certain way of looking at social responsibility.'
'Such as waiting until he was finished thinking over whatever he wanted to think over, then deciding what the best course of action was? For everyone involved.'
'Exactly. Golsway was never one to be an oarsman, unless he was pulling his own boat.' Piergeiron shifted irritably, anxious to be on with other things.
Cordyan didn't want to mention to her commander that she could handle things at the house quite easily. She covered a yawn with one hand. The last week had been spent nearly nonstop traveling to the warded area in the Dragonspine Mountains where they had used the gateway there to make the jump back to Water-deep. The gateway was a closely guarded secret of Piergeiron's, and the command word they had been given only worked once each way to cut down on the months of travel that would have otherwise been necessary.
'What do you think he knows?' Piergeiron asked.
'He knows where Golsway's journal is,' Cordyan replied.
'You're certain?'
'I know what I believe,' she answered. 'But what I can prove is entirely another matter. What have you found out about Ciwa Cthulad?'
'The man has an excellent reputation,' the Commander of the Watch replied. 'From all accounts, you have nothing to fear where he is concerned.'
'I was worried about him when he volunteered to come with us.'
'Cthulad is the type of man who would volunteer immediately after such an event.' Piergeiron glanced at the man that appeared in the doorway. 'I've got to go to another meeting. If there's anything I need to know, get word
