Murder in Halruaa

by Richard Meyers

  The mongrelman finally nodded.

  “Are you the one who dragged me here? Are you the one who carried me to safety?”

  The mongrelman looked up with something approaching hope, then nodded more energetically.

  Pryce looked toward the others. “He was concealing me as well. But why? What does he know that we don’t?”

  Suddenly Devolawk started to speak. “Heeeee knewwwww you. Darliiiiington Blade! Only you … can heeeeelp us!” The mongrelman nodded again, even more vigorously.

  Pryce felt a sudden pang of hopelessness. Now a trio of monsters were looking to him for help, a responsibility Pryce Covington from Merrickarta would have rejected as absurd and impossible from every standpoint.

  “Pleeeease!” Devolawk screeched piteously. “I want to flyyyyyy. I want to sleeeeep! I want to beeeee freeeee!”

  Pryce moved quickly to his feet and put his hands on what served as the broken one’s shoulders. “Easy, Devolawk. Calm yourself.” He found himself standing in the middle of a monster triangle. They hemmed him in from every side.

  “Devolawk sleeps in misery,” said Cunningham, “in various dark recesses of the tunnels. Geoffrey guards. What, I do not know.”

  Covington’s mind reeled. “It must have been powerful magic indeed to create this poor broken one.…” And what was the single most important magical consideration in Lallor at this moment? “Fullmer!” Pryce cried suddenly. His mind had finally cleared enough to remember who he had been supposed to meet when he was knocked out.

  “I beg your pardon, sir?” Cunningham inquired. “Is that some sort of magical incantation?”

  “In a manner of speaking,” Pryce replied. “He’s a captain of industry on the pirate seas, remember?”

  “The chin-spiked one? But what does he have to do with—”

  “Just enough, apparently. He’s looking for what everyone around here seems to be looking for.”

  Cunningham shrugged. “And what would that be, sir?”

  Pryce’s pointed at the mongrelman. “Unless I miss my guess, it’s what he’s guarding.” The other two monsters looked at the master of concealment.

  “Geeeee-off-freeeee!” Devolawk whistled. “Show usssss!”

  “Show us what the humans are after,” Cunningham repeated urgently. “Now!”

  The section of wall the mongrelman led them to was not very impressive in and of itself. In fact, it looked just like any other part of the cave until Pryce noticed a bulge near the floor and another just below the stone ceiling. Covington looked at the mongrelman, who was jabbing his finger repeatedly at a place high on the wall. Cunningham and Devolawk looked at each other in confusion, then looked to Pryce expectantly. The human had no intention of disappointing them.

  He stepped up onto the bottom protuberance, which was effectively a cleverly sculpted step designed to appear as a natural part of the rock. Pryce grabbed the top protrusion, which had been chiseled into a seemingly natural rock shape, but was actually a rung that could be held onto easily.

  Slowly and carefully Pryce pulled himself up the length of the wall until he found himself looking down a cunningly camouflaged hole cut through the rock. Looking up from the cave floor, it would have been invisible, because its lower lip was carved upward, like a tankard set high in the wall. Until someone looked down at it, there was no hint that the opening was even there. Pryce stared down into the hole until he could see no farther.

  He looked down at the mongrelman. “Is this your doing?” The beast shook its hoary head from side to side in reply. Pryce turned to look back down the tube-shaped hole. It couldn’t have been more than three inches in circumference and had to be at least three feet deep. Pryce placed his eye directly against the opening.

  Pryce could just make out the other side of the tube. It ended inside a larger enclosure, one that did not have a rock floor, but Pryce couldn’t tell for sure what it was. He couldn’t make out the details because something was obscuring his vision partway down the rock pipe. There was some sort of grating in the way.

  “Cunningham?” Pryce said, lowering himself carefully down to the rock floor. “I wonder if you would do me a small favor.”

  “Yes, sir, of course. How can I be of service?”

  Pryce smiled tightly. “I need you to use your full jackal night vision, but without developing an overwhelming urge to open any of my arteries. Do you think you could do that?”

  Cunningham found himself staring at Pryce’s neck much the same way he would look at a succulent roast. He grew noticeably pale. Then he swallowed. He looked to the other monsters for support. “I shall endeavor to do my utmost,” he promised shakily.

  Pryce was fascinated by the change that came over the man-beast after he had lifted himself up to the hole in the wall. Suddenly his skin sprouted red, orange, and black hair, which mingled into a mat of fur from his upper lip to his forehead. His left eye changed with it, turning from a human sphere to an animal’s black orb. Its center seemed to glow yellow, and he … it … snarled menacingly.

  Pryce stepped back nervously, but when the jackalwere dropped lightly to his feet and turned to face him, his face had transformed back to the innocuous features of the impoverished but cultured traveler. “Most unusual,” he commented.

  “Yes?”

  “There is indeed a chamber of some sort on the other side of the rock tube.”

  “Yes?”

  “But there is also a grating of some sort.”

  “So far we’re in perfect agreement,” Pryce said impatiently, “but I thought it was worth risking unleashing your animal side for corroboration.” Cunningham looked at him with one eyebrow raised before Pryce exclaimed, “Details, man, details! What does the grating look like?”

  “Well, actually, it looks like letters.”

  Pryce turned to the others. “Now we’re getting somewhere. Which letters?”

  “They are oddly shaped, sir, like some sort of artistic script. I could make out a U with a line over it … an underlined V … the top half of an O, … and a W with rounded bottoms.”

  “U-V-O-W,” Pryce repeated the letters aloud. “ ‘You vow’? You vow to do what?”

  “Whatever vow it is, sir,” interrupted Cunningham, “it certainly seems to be a code of some sort.”

  “Or a lock …” Pryce mused, fingering his cloak clasp. “Of course!” he realized. “A key!” He looked down at the clasp, seeing the letters D and B upside down and backward. “In a city of wizards, what sort of entry would you devise to protect your most valuable possessions?”

  “One a sorcerer could not circumvent,” Cunningham said. “A magical lock.”

  “Not magical,” Pryce insisted, realizing the clasp did not glow as it neared the opening. “No matter how great a magician you are, there will always be a greater one. No, to truly protect your valuables from sorcerers, the lock needs to be mechanical!”

  “Mechanical?” Cunningham repeated as if the word was distasteful. “Can you open it, sir?”

  Pryce held the cloak clasp between his thumb and index finger. He twisted it this way and that. “Not yet. I don’t have all the letters yet. But I think I will, very soon.” He turned to the misshapen ones. “I promise,” he said, “to do everything in my power to free you from your bondage. You have the word of Darlington Blade.” He marveled at the way it was becoming steadily easier to pass himself off as Blade.

  The mongrelman tried to smile, his grotesque lips twisting and spasming. The broken one, however, fell to the joints that served as his knees, tumbling off-balance to lean heavily against the cave wall. “The skyyyyy,” it choked out. “The eeeeearth … to be reeeeeleeeeased …”

  “But I need you to help me,” Pryce insisted, cutting off the creature’s agonized longing. “Keep our meeting secret from anyone, or anything, you make contact with. Continue to guard this antechamber, but not from me. Can you do that?” The two creatures nodded. “Good. Now, Geoffrey, show me where you found me.”

  The m
ongrelman lurched down the cavern, and the others followed.

  CHAPTER NINE

  Lay Down Your Blade

  Pryce Covington wasn’t particularly surprised when they returned to the very rock in the wall that had moved just prior to his being knocked unconscious behind Schreders’s restaurant It turned out that the flattened rock was a cleverly designed opening to a cave that ran from behind Schreders At Your Service to a patch of earth between the Lallor Wall and the Mark of the Question.

  With a push from the other side, the mongrelman opened the partition, showing Pryce that the flat portal section of the rock was attached to the rest of the stone wall by two cunningly designed hinges, made to look like elongated pebbles. There was just enough room for Pryce to wriggle out.

  Pryce quickly surveyed the small area behind the eating and drinking establishment, making sure it was empty and no kitchen staff member was watching before he hastily returned to the small tunnel opening. “I’ll be back,” he quietly assured Devolawk and the mongrelman. “Don’t lose hope. Now, quickly, hide yourselves and let me speak to the Jackal.”

  The misshapen creatures moved back, and—eventually, reluctantly—Cunningham appeared at the portal and gazed out at the moonlight of Lallor. Cunningham reacted like an animal seeing the sky for the very first time. “Are—are you mad?” he gasped. “I cannot accept this! The longing!” There was wonder in his expression and tone, but also agony, since he now finally saw the comfort and serenity he had been missing in all his years of wandering and slaughter.

  Pryce pushed his head halfway into the opening to block the torturing view. “Be strong, my dangerous aide,” he contended. “And above all, don’t unleash you magical gaze.”

  “It … would … serve … you … right,” the jackalwere grunted angrily, only just managing to avoid adding “sir.”

  “Listen, Cunningham, what I’m about to say is important to us both,” Pryce said urgently. He waited until the jackalwere stopped hugging himself and averting his gaze. The half-man, half-beast blinked rapidly, then looked soulfully at Covington. “You may be a monster,” Pryce continued evenly, “but what you are doing for those other two is not monstrous.”

  The jackalwere reacted with surprise and backed away. But he did not run. Instead, he stood in the shadows, halfway between the bowels of the earth and the clear Lallor sky, for quite some time before Covington heard his next quiet words.

  “It is my curse to be given human consciousness, sir, a curse my children are blessed with not having. My animal nature needs to feed, and through it I only know the hunger of my body. But my human nature can feel pity and even empathy. Through it, I know the hunger of my mind … and perhaps my soul.”

  “I have been told that jackalweres have no soul,” Pryce said softly.

  “Who told you that?”

  “Wizards,” Pryce said diffidently.

  Cunningham’s sarcasm had the lightness of morning dew. “Well, then,” he said, “if the wizards say so, it must be true.” He was quiet for several moments more. Then: “In the misshapen ones, I see myself. But unlike me, one was not born this way. He was created by human monsters who could pervade this planet … and that makes me feel rage.”

  Suddenly his face was back into the moonlight, no more than an inch from Covington’s own. But it was not Cunningham’s face. It was the face of the orange and black jackal, its eyes burning like the sun. It took everything Pryce was not to hurl himself back from those blazing, but purposefully nonhypnotic, eyes.

  “I can do nothing for these creatures,” growled the beast, “who are so wretched that even a monster such as I can care for them. But perhaps you can. And for that, and that alone, I will not kill you. I will not feast on your blood. I will not tear you limb from limb and feed you to my cherished children.” He suddenly turned away. “Now I, too, must go. My nostrils begin to fill with the stench of Lallor wizards. And if I can smell them …”

  The words were already diminishing in the distance, but there were three more to come, which Pryce heard distinctly on the wind: “Remember your promise!”

  Pryce slowly closed the rock opening of the tunnel wall. He stood between the wall and the back door of the restaurant, his profile toward both. The throbbing in his head reminded him that, by rights, his attacker should have killed him. Why else would he take the trouble to so crudely strike Pryce on the head? Covington touched the healing lump on his head lightly, and the only real explanation occurred to him.

  “By thunder,” he whispered in the Lallor night. “I’ve got it!”

  Pryce Covington was awestruck. Later he couldn’t recall how long he had stood there thinking. He may have even mumbled. “But it can’t be. Not that. No.” But every piece he mentally placed into the puzzle fit. The only problem was that there were still several pieces he didn’t have yet.

  Pryce moved quickly toward the narrow alley opening that led to the street beyond. He now knew he had to move very quickly, or all might be lost. With a rustle of Darlington Blade’s cloak, he was gone into the night.

  Gheevy Wotfirr leaned contentedly back in his soft, comfortable chair, his hands warm around a steaming cup of aromatic Toussaintie brew. It had been sweetened by a few drops of Marriss insect secretions and was delightfully soothing after a long day of testing and storing liquor in the grotto.

  Earlier Matthaunin Witterstaet had stopped by the halfling’s burrow in the hill between Azzo’s restaurant and the Ambersong residence for what had become their custom: a cup of Toussaintie and a friendly game of Eckhearts. The stooped, sagging old man followed the same routine each night before he retired to his cottage in the northeast shadow of the Lallor Wall.

  Yes, Gheevy thought, all in all, a delightful evening of charming companionship and homespun stories.

  Gheevy let his eyes roam contentedly about his burrow as he sipped the brew. The burrow’s furniture was designed not for fashion but for comfort. Although Wotfirr’s hairy bare feet now rested easily on a plush ottoman, his toes tingled with the expectation of eventually placing them on the plush multicolored carpets that covered the floor.

  His eyes traveled over the rainbow of colors and shapes that made up his precious collection of liquids from all over Toril. They covered most of the wall space in the burrow and gave it the look of a shimmering glass museum. He had carefully designed the illumination so the soft light refracted comforting colors from the bottles across the entire space.

  Yes, the halfling thought, looking down at his soft lounging pants, brocaded vest, mock turtleneck sweater, and plush slippers, it was a wonderful life he had made for himself here in Lallor. One in which comfort was everything and nothing could possibly go wrong …

  There was an ominous knock on the door. Gheevy looked up in surprise, wondering who it could be at this time of night. Well, there were only two ways to find out. “Who is it?” he called, eliminating one of the ways.

  There was no answer.

  Just when he thought he might have imagined the knock, it was repeated, catching the halfling in the middle of turning away. Gheevy whirled around to face the door once more, nearly spilling his brew. “Yes?” he said shakily. There was still no reply.

  Wotfirr considered not answering the summons, but his curiosity got the better of him. Besides, Matthaunin might have fallen and hurt himself and was too breathless to reply. The halfling screwed up his courage and crept forward. He gripped the door latch tightly and put his ear against the wood. “Hello?” he inquired.

  The third knock made him jerk his head back, causing his hand to spasm and make the latch click up. Holding his breath, he opened the door an inch and carefully moved his head to the opening to peer out cautiously.

  A blade shot between the door and the wall, narrowly missing his eye.

  Before he could cry out, the door was forced open, a muscular hand was clamped across his lips, and Gheevy was catapulted back into his easy chair.

  He landed with a thud, clawing and screeching. But a heavy wei
ght on his legs kept him from escaping, and the hand remained firmly on his jaw, muffling his cries. To his horror, Gheevy heard the front door of his burrow click shut, cutting off any chance of escape.

  The halfling’s bulging eyes peered over the silencing hand at the face of his attacker … only to see Pryce Covington sitting on his legs, with the forefinger of his other hand against his lips “Shhhhh,” he whispered.

  “You—” he started to exclaim, only to have Covington grimace, press his hand more tightly on Gheevy’s lips, and jerk his head toward the door.

  The halfling’s eyes rolled in that direction in time to see Dearlyn Ambersong—dressed in a tight dark sweater, leggings, and boots beneath her Ambersong cloak—turn toward them, clutching her dangerous garden tool in her hands.

  “Door secured,” she whispered. “All clear.”

  The halfling finally realized that it had been her stick that shot at his face, keeping him from slamming the door. But as for the rest, he still couldn’t make hide nor horsehair of it. He wrenched his eyes back toward Pryce, who leaned down until his face was no more than an inch from the halfling’s.

  “Take it easy, my friend,” Covington whispered. “I couldn’t afford to alert Matthaunin Witterstaet as to our presence. He might ask questions I don’t want to even try answering at this juncture. Besides,” he said with a shrug, “at this point we really can’t trust anyone, so.…” He leaned back, cocked his head, and waited until the halfling nodded. Only then did Pryce remove his hand from Gheevy’s mouth.

  “So you thought you’d give me a heart attack?” Wotfirr sputtered.

  Pryce stood up quickly and stepped over the halfling’s previously pinioned legs. “I apologize profusely, my dear Gheevy, I truly do,” Pryce said, “but time is of the essence.”

  Wotfirr watched in wonder as Pryce moved to the side of the mage’s daughter. The sight of the two working together and the urgency of Covington’s words effectively eliminated any anger the halfling still felt. It did not, however, eradicate the remainder of his fear. In fact, a new concern was beginning to grow in him, a concern that made him wonder if there would be more murder to be found in the night. “What are you doing here?” he asked urgently.