The eaves vibrated beneath Baylee's feet as the creature dropped onto the awning. The doppleganger with the boat hook followed along on the street below.
Baylee ran, quickly as he could, leaping over the open gaps between the awnings. A handful of shopkeepers and their patrons came out to watch, not daring to get too close. But Baylee knew the watch would be called, and with them would be Cordyan Tsald.
The line of buildings ended only a short distance ahead, leaving only the street or the alley behind the buildings. Baylee vaulted the low roof overhang of a leather-worker's business and ran for the back of the building.
At the end of the roof, he took one glance down and spotted the trash heap behind the seamstress's shop. He dropped into discarded fabric, breaking his fall, then clawed his way out. The footsteps on the roof above crashed, sounding close. With its greater stride, the doppleganger pursuing him across the rooftops gained ground.
Further down the alley, a young man swabbed out the back of a butcher's shop, the door wide open behind him. He looked up as Baylee approached, freezing into place.
The ranger eyed the handle of the mop. It looked good and strong, the grain showing that the cut had been made with it instead of against it. A thud sounded behind Baylee, and he guessed that the eight-foot tall doppleganger had dropped down.
The youth mopping out the butcher's shop stared past Baylee with wide eyes. The ranger reached out for the mop, snatching it from the youth's hand. 'Excuse me. I need this.' He turned to face his pursuer.
The doppleganger was almost on top of him. He couldn't have outrun it any longer. The creature's borrowed face split in a huge grin. 'You're going to fight me with a mop?'
'If you're not too cowardly,' Baylee replied, holding the mop defensively before him. 'After all, we are alone. Your kind generally prefers to outnumber an opponent. And I am a fair hand with a mop.' He breathed fast, trying to keep his breath regular after the exertion. Even fighting for his life as he was, part of his mind was occupied with what might be on the elven ship.
The doppleganger waved the cutlass with certain menace. With its enhanced height, the heavy-bladed weapon looked small.
Baylee shoved the youth back into the butcher's shop, out of the way of the confrontation. He ducked under the doppleganger's first slash. Instead of striking back as he stood and moved back from his taller foe, he put the wet end of the mop on the ground, then stomped the handle just behind it. The oak handle broke in a jagged arc. He side-stepped the next thrust.
The other one is coming, Xuxa warned.
I know. Baylee took another step back, giving ground, getting the feel of the changed weight of the mop handle. It was too short to be a true staff, but in his hands it was a dangerous weapon.
The doppleganger swung another cut at him, stepping forward in anticipation of Baylee moving back again.
Baylee deflected the blow, stopping enough of the sword before deflecting it to ensure the doppleganger's hand would ache from the impact. Caught off guard, the creature was unprepared for Baylee's reversal of the mop handle, or the swing that connected with his face.
The doppleganger roared with rage and pain, struggling to get the cutlass up.
Baylee ducked to the side, reversing the mop handle again and striking the doppleganger on the side of the knee with a meaty smack. The leg trembled and almost went out from under the creature.
Trying to recover, the doppleganger aimed a backhanded blow at the ranger. Baylee parried the cut and came across the top of the cutlass, ramming the rounded end of the mop into the creature's forehead hard enough to jerk its head back.
The doppleganger stumbled back, a worm of blood already threading down its face. The creature howled with rage and threw itself at its opponent.
Baylee whirled away, catching sight of movement behind the first doppleganger. Xuxa tried to intercept the second doppleganger, but managed only to narrowly escape the boat hook. Keeping his attention on his first foe, the ranger slid the handle through his hands and swung it hard.
The heavy oak caught the doppleganger on the foot, breaking bone. The creature hobbled, trying to stay upright on its injured foot.
Swinging again, Baylee connected with the doppleganger's head, knocking it to the ground. Before it could rise, he ran the sharp end of the handle into its throat, up into the brain. The doppleganger ceased its struggles, shivered convulsively, and died.
Baylee turned, the handle in his hands, and watched as the second doppleganger came to a halt only a short distance away.
The creature's eyes widened in fear, but anger shaped the features. 'You killed Zyzll.' The doppleganger raised the boat hook.
'Choose well,' Baylee said, 'your next move. It could well be your last.'
“Take him,' the drow woman's voice spoke from thin air. 'I know you, Tweent. If he doesn't kill you, know that I will.'
The doppleganger screamed and came at Baylee with the upraised boat hook.
Baylee blocked the hook and avoided his foe's charge. Stepping to the side, he slipped the handle under the other doppleganger's cutlass and flipped it into the air, making it come back toward him. With a skill that would have caused a carnival knife artist envy, the ranger caught the cutlass by the haft. As the doppleganger tried coming back around to get at him again, Baylee swung the cutlass at the juncture of head and neck.
The cutlass's keen edge separated tissue, muscle, and bone in an explosion of power. The doppleganger's head leaped from its shoulders.
Baylee looked down at the creature, feeling a little remorse. There had been too much death already in the pursuit of whatever prize Golsway had learned of. Talking to Golsway's pseudo-shade had brought all that home to him.
'He was fairly warned and fairly fought,' a deep voice thundered. 'There's no need for reconsideration here.'
Baylee looked up, spotting Ciwa Cthulad ahorse at the other end of the alley.
The justifier slid his own sword back into its scabbard. His horse shifted under him, its hooves ringing against the flagstones. 'I'm sure the watch has been called. Do you want them to catch up to you?'
Baylee tossed the cutlass away. Xuxa landed on a support strut beside the ranger and hung upside down, folding her wings around herself. 'What are you doing here?' the ranger asked.
'Following you, of course.'
'I never saw you back there,' Baylee said. How did you miss him?
I don't know, Xuxa answered honestly, sounding surprised herself. But then, a bat flying through Waterdeep in midday has to keep a low profile herself in order not to attract a lot of attention. Or become a cat's dinner.
'You were never intended to see me.' Cthulad urged his mount forward. 'I've been at your heels since you left your mentor's home. I should imagine Junior Civilar Tsald is vexed at both of us.'
'They have no place in this,' Baylee said. 'The people that are responsible for Golsway's death aren't from Waterdeep. The answers to their identities aren't even in Waterdeep.'
'You talk as though you've found out some things.'
'Yes.'
'Perhaps you'd care to elaborate,' Cthulad suggested.
Baylee shook his head. 'Not now. We're being scried upon at this moment.'
A small smiled twisted the corners of the warrior's face. 'Then I suggest we attend to that first. I have a friend who can expedite matters.'
'So do I,' Baylee replied. 'And he can be trusted to keep his mouth shut.' He paused, studying the justifier. 'If you were so close to me, why were you so far away when these dopplegangers attacked?'
'I saw you take the flask from the fountain,' Cthulad said. 'I guessed that it might be from your mentor. While you were in Nalkie's, I thought it would be better if you had some time to yourself to sort things out. By the time I saw what was going on, it was over.'
Baylee nodded, satisfied with the answer. From start to finish, the battle with the dopplegangers had lasted
