Erin Evans - The God Catcher

"So you," Nazra Mrays said, "are the infamous Tennora Hedare."

"Infamous?" Tennora asked.

"A great deal of misfortune seems to have gone on around your person," Nazra said. "A great deal of good fortune too. I thank you for saving my son. We will, of course, keep it quiet."

"Thank you… lord."

Nazra held a hand up. "Not out loud, my dear. I like to pretend that's a secret I still keep."

"My apologies." Tennora wet her lips. "And it's Nestrix you should thank."

Nazra fell silent and regarded Tennora as if she were being intentionally difficult. Tennora returned the gaze with a firm, placid expression. She wasn't going to ignore the thorny issue of Nestrix.

"I am beginning to suspect," Nazra said eventually, "that we should reexamine whether Ahghairon's dragonward is still functional at all. She is a dragon as well?"

"Of sorts," Tennora said carefully. "She is plaguechanged, it seems, and unable to return to her original form. It is why she came to Waterdeep. But I must say, saer, that not only did she save my life and your son's, but it was she who comforted him in Dareun's captivity. She is, one could say, reformed."

"Yet it seems she has quite an effect on you, lady," Nazra said.

"Please don't call me that," Tennora interjected. "I make a terrible noblewoman."

"Yes, I'd noticed that as well."

Tennora bit her lip as Nazra continued.

"Two priceless artifacts-albeit one from that villain's hoard-stolen from two relatively secure buildings in as many days. Property damage. Trespassing in the sewers." She wrinkled her nose. "How did you find your way down there?"

"Luck," Tennora said truthfully, "and, to a very minor degree, a very dull conversation with a young guardsman."

"You hoodwinked a member of the guard?"

"Oh, nothing of the sort. It was his attempt at gaining my attention. One of my aunt's garden parties. While that certainly did not give me a map, the perils of the sewers are not… completely localized."

A smile crept over Nazra's mouth. "So will you return to that now?" she asked, lightly. "Engaging in conversations with young men who bore you?" She leaned forward. "How would you like to try something else?"

Tennora swallowed. "That depends entirely on what you have in mind."

"After so many stories-a wizard, a thief, a cohort of dragons and uprooter of gangs-I am impressed to see that your fledgling reputation is as deserved as it is unknown. I want you to work for me. Not in an official capacity, of course-people will talk if I pay wages to a noble girl. We'll probably say I am teaching you to invest your inheritance. But I would very much like someone with a sharp mind, an innocent face, and a younger body than mine to assist me in… matters of importance to the city. And to me." She looked down at her sleeping son. "I love this city almost as much as I love this boy. No one must ever exploit that again."

"What would I do?"

"Whatever I and Waterdeep need," Nazra answered. "It would be… a more unusual job than most. But one I suspect you are eminently suited to."

Tennora flushed with pleasure. It would certainly be better than returning home or begging for a new tutor or trying to make a living thieving Her smile fell. "Oh. But there's the Watch. Do you suppose they'll let me go?"

Nazra waved her hand, as if Tennora's worries were but a gnat. "To begin, I won't report you to the Watch. We'll give the gorget back to the House of Wonder with the usual explanations-you saved it from the collapsing tower and were then robbed. And we point them to the seed hoard of Andareunarthex if they start to complain. Give them their choice of anything enchanted."

"Will that work?"

"Of course! Even wizards are greedy, my dear. The rest… well, it's not as if a dragon can press charges, and we shall simply accept that these were necessary crimes committed in the greater effort of saving the city. I doubt anyone will even notice you were in the sewers unescorted." She stroked her son's hair. "We are not a tyranny after all. It might be easier to determine black from white, but the gray middle ground has its purposes."

Tennora frowned. "Is that a common position for a lord of Waterdeep?"

Nazra smiled. "Take the job and you'll find out."

The gray-gowned woman came in again, followed by two of the Watch holding tightly to the red-haired half-elf who Tennora had knocked to the ground. She looked tired and despondent, but hale.

"Ah," Nazra said, looking up. Her gray eyes were suddenly hard. "I see my next appointment has arrived. Agnea, you can take Antoum to my bedroom now. Do excuse me, Tennora. I have many questions to be answered."

Nestrix woke in a strange room and a strange bed, her thoughts muzzy and disjointed. The sun had come out, and it poured through a window onto a heavily patterned rug that made her eyes swim. Her throat was raw and achy, her skin bruised and abraded. The blue cloak had been folded neatly at the foot of the bed, despite the fact that it was now tattered as a rag. The pouch containing her eggshell lay on top of it.

"Are you well?" Veron said. Opposite her cot, he was in a similar state, sitting with his splinted and bandaged leg stretched out beside him. His ribs had been wrapped as well, and the side of his face was noticeably puffy.

"Well enough," Nestrix said, though her voice wheezed. "And you? He put a great deal of poison in you. Enough to kill a lesser dokaal."

Veron stared at her and didn't answer. Tired and sore, Nestrix ignored his silence and lay back against the pillows once more. After several breaths, he spoke.

"I've spent more than a year," he said, "trying to get as close as I am now. If I don't take you in, everything I've built for myself is worthless. A bounty hunter is only as good as his reputation-and mine's nowhere near good enough to fail like this." He looked down at his leg. "Why did you save me?"

"Tennora would have been angry," she lied, shutting her eyes.

"You could have let the dragon have me," he said, "and been done with all our business."

"If you'd rather be eaten by a dragon, I can point you to some who might like the taste of overthinking hunter."

"Nestrix," he said, so sternly that she opened her eyes again. "Truly."

She met his gaze for a long moment. "I am not like him."

He didn't look away. "But you are a dragon."

"Not anymore." Nestrix looked away, down at her hands. The truth of it burned. "And I suppose that means I have to follow your laws."

He looked sullen.

"Cheer up, hunter," she said. "It means you don't have to worry about your reputation."

"It means you have to worry about your neck," he said. "You didn't have to stop him." "Veron," she said wearily, "you will bait me until I say it, won't you? I didn't want you to die, all right?"

His cheeks flushed. "Tennora said… she said you had a reason. Why did you kill the wizard?"

She shrugged. "Why kill anyone? He threatened me. Does it matter?"

"Yes," he said. "I think it does. You're not a monster, whatever anyone else thinks. We're more kin than I expected."

She laughed. "That is where you are mistaken. They may look at you and see a monster, but you're more of a dokaal and a better man than most. They look at me and see a human, a woman. But inside, I'm still the Terror of the Calim."

"And the savior of Waterdeep," he added.

There was a knock on the door, and Tennora poked her head inside. "You're awake!" she said, entering the room.

"You're alive," Nestrix said, though she felt flooded with relief.

Tennora smirked and sat at the foot of the bed. "I outlasted the both of you." She told the story of the battle in the garden. "The Watch are roused and they and the guard are on lookout, but he seems to have fled altogether."

"Jumped on his back?" Nestrix shook her head.