'Friend or foe?' Passepout asked in a quivering whisper.
'I don't know,' Volo answered, 'but we'll find out soon enough. Whoever they are they're coming closer.'
Volo looked in the direction that he and his friend had come from, and saw the beginnings of a torch's glow entering the chamber in which they now sat, soon followed by the silhouette of either their savior or the latest threat to their existence.
'Well, it's about time I found you two,' Chesslyn said, a bit of good-natured impatience in her voice. 'Breakfast is almost stone cold.'
The Harper secret agent reached into her pack, and handed the two travelers breakfast buns. Passepout devoured his immediately, and looked longingly at Volo's. The master traveler gladly offered it to his friend, who gratefully accepted.
Volo stood up, and hugged their savior.
'What took you so long?' he said happily.
'I'm a good tracker,' she replied, 'but not that good. Honor sent a message instructing me that what had transpired over the past few days had never taken place, and that it was only because I had been his favorite student that he knew that I would understand. He then made mention of his being grateful for my part in the beginnings of the restoration of Mulmaster to its former glory. That was it.'
'I see.' said Volo cautiously.
'Since he never mentioned you or Passepout, I naturally assumed something had happened,' she explained, 'and since you still owe me that chance to get to know you better, I decided to trace your steps from where I left you the other night and, voila, here I am.'
'In the nick of time, I might add,' Passepout interjected. 'I had despaired of ever eating again.'
Chesslyn handed him another breakfast bun and turned her attention back to Volo. 'Do you think it's safe for us to return with you to Mulmaster?' the master traveler asked guardedly.
'I think so,' Chesslyn answered. 'Though Honor might allow you to disappear without a trace, I don't think he would actually lift a hand to have you removed, given the current business in court. It might attract too much unwanted attention. You should be safe around town for at least the next few days.'
'Just enough time for us to get further acquainted,' the master traveler offered.
'My thoughts exactly,' she agreed with a smile.
The two held romantic eye contact in the shadowy subterranean chamber, until Passepout once again injected himself into their conversation.
'Do you think you can show us the way out of here?' he asked.
'Certainly,' she replied, handing him the last of the buns, 'just let me rearrange my pack and we can be on our way.'
'Wonderful!' the chubby thespian replied.
As the Harper secret agent attended to her preparations, Passepout turned to his traveling companion and whispered assuredly, 'See, I told you she liked me.'
'Indeed,' the master traveler replied, giving his friend a good-natured pat on the back. 'Indeed.'
'Wonderful!'
Epilogue
Over the previous few days Mulmaster was a flurry of activities. Two different executions were held with the normal accompaniment of festive fanfare.
Former captain of the Hawks Sir Melker Rickman was executed for conspiracy to incite treason. He was hung from the scaffold in front of the keep that had housed his offices. The customary last words of the accused were dispensed with as the prisoner's tongue had been removed immediately upon his incarceration. His lifeless corpse was allowed to hang in state for a full day before the annoyance and public health concerns necessitated it be removed.
Farther down the road, and a day later, the Thayan embassy added to the festivities when the Tharchioness hosted an execution of her own as former ambassador and envoy, Joechairo Lawre, a wormlike politician of the worst sort, was publicly incinerated at the stake by a fireball cast by the First Princess herself. The crowd that gathered was quite impressed since nary a cry of mercy or anguish escaped the Red Wizard's lips as the flames engulfed him, the crowd being quite ignorant that his tongue, also, had been removed upon his arrest. As he was a Thayan national, he was thus executed by a duly empowered representative of Thay, and it was not necessary for him to be charged, or the execution justified. Among the members of the court, there was rumor that the charge was similar to that of Rickman; or perhaps it was just, according to those who knew the ambassador, simple incompetence. The Mulman mob didn't really care about justifications or the whys and wherefores-they just turned out for an afternoon's entertainment.
Curiously enough, the High Blade and his bride presided over both occasions.
The crowds interpreted this as further evidence of the diplomatic alliance that began with their nuptials, a sense of mutuality of their governmental responsibilities, and the development of a further closeness between the leaders whose marriage of diplomatic advantage may have evolved into something deeper between the two individuals. Rumors abounded among the mob that they had mutually agreed that the time had come for them to assume the responsibilities of parenthood.
Those closer to the respective thrones thought otherwise. The paradoxically amorous/antagonistic dynamic that had existed between the two had seemed to vanish overnight, and with its departure came several noticeable changes in their retinues. In addition to the arrests of Rickman and Lawre, both entourages underwent a change in personnel. A blind old swordmaster and former Hawk by the name of Fullstaff was appointed as chief advisor to the High Blade, and an equally geriatric mage by the name of McKern was appointed first consul, much to the chagrin of Senior Cloak Thurndan Tallwand. The overnight ascension of these two former retirees was looked upon with some amazement by the High Blade's court, particularly since both individuals, though officially still citizens of Mulmaster, had had next to no involvement in the government for more years than anyone seemed able to remember.
The changes to the First Princess's party were mostly in the form of deletions. Mischa Tam, as well as several ministers who had formerly been considered among the First Princess's inner circle, were noticeably absent. The ministers had evidently opted to return to Eltabbar at very short notice, while the Tharchioness's half sister felt the need to avoid that domain and seek the counsel of the great Szass Tam instead, a move that those in the know realized to be tantamount to choosing between the lady and the tiger. A new ambassador of obviously weak character had made an appearance, and the lower level Thayan functionaries were already taking bets on his life expectancy.
The third day of festivities was brought to a close by a public address by the High Blade himself in which he swore to return Mulmaster to its former days of glory. He then went on to announce that due to the priority of accelerating the rebuilding of the navy, the city would be unable to offer any financial assistance to Eltabbar during their recovery from their devastating earthquake. The needs, security, and goals of Mulmaster were always to be the first concern, and it was his intention that nothing was to get in its way on its chosen path to become the power center of the entire Moonsea region.
The crowd cheered, failing to notice the icy glare that the Tharchioness cast in her husband's direction.
He then went on to declare that the First Princess would indeed be cutting her conjugal visit short so that she could attend to her own matters of state back in Thay. He pointed out that it was important that all realize that matters of state must come first, and that in all things the glory of Mulmaster was to be his number one concern.
Fullstaff and McKern exchanged a secret wink and a conspiratorial grin between themselves as they saw their long-term goals and wishes finally coming to fruition.
The crowd cheered again, and no one noticed that the Tharchioness and her aides had quietly left the stand and were probably already on their way back to Mulmaster. Over the past few nights the First Princess had had more than enough time to pack, as the High Blade had chosen his private quarters to spend his nights in solitude.
Though Selfaril had commanded the respect of the mob on numerous occasions, no one could recall a time
