getting started.'
CHAPTER 9
Drinking. Singing. Stumbling from tavern to tavern to tavern by night, then by day, then by night again. A fight. Another fight. Just like old times; Jarull by his side. Better because Starne, Baret, and Talisk were there as well.
And better because of the dark secret in his heart: Shar's favor. The Mistress of the Night's plans for him.
Variance had told him to let his spirit burn. Keph let it rage like an inferno until it seemed as if every tavern in the Stiltwaysand some beyondknew his name and face. Until even Baret, Starne, and Talisk had, one by one, dropped away, unable to keep up. Until it was just him and Jarull striding the nights once again.
'All right, tosspots, up. Up! Time to go home!'
A guard ran a stick along the bars of the cell while another unlocked the door and swung it wide.
Keph opened sticky eyes to the harmony of squealing hinges and groaning drunks. He sat up on the rough wooden bench he'd managed to claim and looked around at the disorderly cell in Yhaunn's north side guard stationa fine place to spend the night. He hauled himself to his feet and joined the other men and women the city guard had brought in during the night before as they filed out the door, then formed a queue to retrieve any possessions they had been arrested with.
There was no sign of Jarull. A hazy memory swam into Keph's mind: a dash away from the pursuing guard, an ignoble tumble as his foot landed in something wet and slippery, Jarull continuing on and vanishing into the shadows. Lucky Jarull.
The guard at the desk raised her eyebrows as he stepped up.
'Good morning again, Keph. Sleep well?' she asked.
'I think a rat crawled into my mouth while I slept, Fris. You should do something about the pests around here.'
'Well, we shove them out the door every morning, but it seems like more just crawl in every night.' She pushed Quick and a coin pouch across the desk to him. 'Twice in three days you've landed here. Let's try to get it back down to once a month like old times, eh?'
'Your concern is noted, Fris.'
Keph wiggled his fingers into his pouch. It was a flat and shriveled thing, wasted away by the past few days' activities. He found a couple of silver coins, though, and slid them back to the guard. She made them disappear as the next inmate stepped up. Keph buckled Quick back around his waist and headed for the guard station's big door.
The light of early morning hit him like a god's vengeance. He groaned and threw up a hand to shade his eyes. The air was already uncomfortably warm. It was going to be a very hot day. With luck he would be able to sleep through most of it.
It was a long, painful stagger to Fourstaves House. His head throbbed, his joints ached, and his mouth felt as if it had been stuffed with wool combed from a sheep's backside. At a public well, he stopped, drew up a bucket of water, and tried to rinse the foul taste from his mouth. The rest of the water he poured over his head until he was gasping from the cold. His hair was still dripping when he reached the doors of Fourstaves House, but at least the pain in his head had ebbed and faded.
The stone guard dogs were still as statues by daylight. Keph resisted the urge to kick them anyway and went inside. The entry hall was filled with savory odors that cut through his hangover to make his stomach growl with desire. Following his nose, he stumbled for the dining room.
Strasus, Dagnalla, Malia, Roderio, and Krin Foxrun were all seated at one end of the table. They fell silent as he walked in. He ignored them and walked straight for the covered trays and dishes set out on a sideboard. Conversation returned slowly.
'I think I've found a clue in the coins of the cache,' Krin said. 'The other artifacts may be ancient Netherese, but most of the coins are more recent and come from one of Netheril's survivor states, Anauria. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to find enough information about Anaurian rulers to date the coins accurately, but we do know Anauria fell to ores in the Year of Fallen Guards, 111 DR. No more Anaurian coins were minted after that. Of course, the coins could have been collected after the country's fall, but with so many in one place I would guess that it's more like they came directly from Anauria.'
'Good, good,' nodded Strasus. 'So we have an end date, then.' He stroked his beard. 'And more than two hundred years before the founding of Selgaunt and Saerloon. What about-?'
'a possible beginning date?' Krin sounded pleased with himself. Keph rolled his eyes in boredom as he began lifting covers and heaping a plate with grilled bread, olives, spiced chicken livers, and boiled eggs. He mouthed nonsense words along with Krin as his brother-in-law answered Strasus. 'Among the coins was a sealed pouch containing fifty new gold coins from Calimshan celebrating the ascension of Qysar Shoon III of the Shoon Imperium, an event that occurred in 107 DR, the Year of the Fledglings. The striking on the coins was still sharp. They hadn't been circulated. I think they became part of the cache soon after their minting.'
Strasus was stroking his beard so quickly Keph was surprised the whiskers weren't falling out.
'Well done, Krin,' the old man said.
'Calishite coins among artifacts from Netheril and a Netherese survivor-state,' commented Dagnalla. 'That's an odd combination. I didn't think the two civilizations had much to do with each other.'
Strasus sighed and shook his head. 'I'm certain the tiles from the cache would tell us more, if only I could translate the writing on them. They resist even magical translation.' His fingers slowed. 'A picture begins to emerge, however. On the eve of Anauria's fall, artifacts of Netherese heritage are smuggled out of the doomed nation. Those escorting the artifacts make for Calimshansome ally there has sent them Calishite coin. They travel east from their doomed nation and south, skirting the settlements growing in the Dale-lands, and head for the docks at a rough quarrying community, perhaps to seek passage across the Sea of Fallen Stars and south…'
'But why abandon their treasures?' Dagnalla asked. 'And why avoid the Dalelands?'
'If they were traveling in secret, they might have wanted to avoid anyone who could seize their treasures,' suggested Roderio. 'And when they had to meet with other people in Yhaunn, maybe they hid their treasures with the intention of retrieving them later, but were unable to go back.'
'Possibly. But why were they going to Calimshan?'
Keph dragged a chair away from the table with a loud, penetrating scrape.
'Most importantly,' Keph said, 'why bother asking?'
He set his laden plate down and dropped into the chair with a satisfied groan. Malia gave him a look of disgust.
'Some people want to know things, Keph,' she said. 'Things other than what the inside of a jail cell looks like and how much ale they can drink before they throw up.'
'Knowledge for knowledge's sake, then?' Keph asked. He impaled a liver on his fork and gestured with it. Spice-stained sauce splattered across the table. 'Nothing purely practical, like unlocking the secret of some forgotten Netherese magic, for instance?'
Strasus looked at him with a long face. 'Wouldn't that be a good thing to know?' he asked.
His voice was slow with the infuriating patience of an adult talking to a child. Keph's lips curled. He popped the liver in his mouth, and talked around it as he chewed. 'How much ale you can drink before you throw up is a good thing to know, too.'
Roderio flushed, blood showing bright red through the pale translucency of his newly healed skin. 'Charming as ever, aren't you, Keph?'
'I have to keep up with you, Rodo.'
His brother's face looked ready to bleed. Keph held back a satisfied smirk as he tucked into his breakfast. He glanced up at his family. Malia, Krin, and Roderio were staring at him. Strasus and Dagnalla were looking at each other, their old hands clasped.
'Go on,' Keph mumbled around a mouthful of food. 'Keep talking. It sounded really interesting. Hmpkno, that's
