Paul Kemp - Dawn of Night

He sneered at the slaad, hoping it was Azriim, nodded agreement, and said, "It's in the breeding. Half-bloods are often a stupid lot."

* * * * *

Cale and Magadon took a different route back to the Pour House than the assassin, in case the slaadi decided to follow Riven. After the assassin arrived, all three of them met Jak. Sitting in the quiet darkness of their room, Riven explained to them what the slaad had told him. Cale took it all in, thinking.

"They want us to attack them?" Jak asked.

The halfling took a draw on his pipe and blew it out.

"Or the whole caravan," Magadon said. "Or at least to follow it out of the city."

"The latter seems the most likely to me," Cale said. "But there's no way to be certain."

"What's the play, Cale?" Riven asked, taking a draw on his own pipe.

Cale, pacing the floor with his hands clasped behind his back, spoke his thoughts aloud: "Whatever they're planning," he said, "they plan to do it around the third hour of next cycle. Agreed?"

Heads nodded agreement and Cale continued, "So, we're either part of their plan somehow or they want us well out of the way. It doesn't matter which. With Magadon's connection to the slaadi, we can figure out where they are at any time. So we observe and improvise. If they're with the caravan, fine. If they're somewhere else, that's fine too. Wherever they are, we follow them and put a stop to whatever they're planning. Then we put a stop to them."

Riven blew out a smoke ring, smiled, and said, "You seem to have grown fond of improvisation, Cale. Leads to surprises."

Cale said nothing, for there was nothing to say. Improvisation was all they had.

CHAPTER 17

HUNTING

Twice during the cycle, Cale asked Magadon to open the link between the guide and the slaad. Each time, Magadon's peculiar gaze went vacant as the psionic contact allowed him to see through the eyes of the targeted creature. Based on Magadon's description of the surroundings, the slaad appeared to be in some kind of storehouse or office with his two brethren, one in the form of a huge Amnian, the other in the form of a Sword Coast pirate. They were talking, but Magadon couldn't hear their words.

"Our slaad does all the talking," Magadon reported. "The others listen. I see the gray-eyed slaad-he's the corsair with the falchion . . . goatee. Looks a bit like Riven. The Amman's face is slack. He looks like a dullard."

Cale looked to Riven and said, "Gray-eyes is our friend from the barn outside of Selgaunt."

"I remember him," Riven said.

Jak, seated in the room's sole chair with his feet up on the small table and his hands interlaced behind his head, said, "We owe that one."

One of his hands went to his chest where the gray-eyed slaad had torn it open.

"We owe them all, little man," Cale agreed, nodding. "The Amnian I make as Dolgan. He's big and stupid no matter his form."

Twice Cale had almost killed Dolgan. He would be sure to finish the work next time they met.

Jak said, "That leaves only Azriim. We're seeing through his eyes."

Cale nodded, imagining the slaad's brown and blue orbs. He was pleased they had tagged Azriim with Magadon's power. From what he'd seen, Cale deemed Azriim the leader, the most cunning, and hence the most valuable. Whatever happened, Azriim would be at the heart of it.

Magadon sat up straight and said, "Gray-eyes is leaving."

"Without Azriim?" Cale asked.

Magadon nodded and said, "He's getting instructions."

Cale wished again that Magadon's ability allowed him to hear what the slaadi were saying.

He thought for a time, then said, "End it, Mags. We've got a connection with Azriim. We'll call on it as needed. This is too risky."

Though Azriim had shown no sign up till then of having detected Magadon's presence, Cale didn't want to press his good fortune by prolonging the connection. He would keep all the contacts short, just long enough to get a feel for the slaadi's location and activities. Tymora sometimes smiled on the foolish, he knew, but she more often favored the circumspect.

More importantly, Cale could see that maintaining the mental link for even a short time was draining to the guide. Magadon's skin was pale, his knucklebone eyes sunken, and from the way he rubbed his brow, Cale thought he probably had a severe ache in his temples. But not once did the guide complain. Cale's respect for him grew all the more.

Magadon held the connection for a moment longer, then cut off contact with an audible sigh. He blinked rapidly and his eyes came back to life.

"Check him every half hour," Cale said to the guide, patting him on the back. "The time is getting close. We don't want them to have too much of a head start."

The guide exhaled, massaging his brow, and nodded.

Geared up and ready, they continued to wait in their room, increasingly restive. Time passed, and Magadon's periodic checks revealed the two remaining slaadi doing little. Riven paced their small room like a caged animal.

"We could move on them right now," the assassin said to Cale. "You could shadowstep us to that storehouse."

Cale shook his head, not bothering to explain his reasoning.

"Delay is foolish," Riven snapped. "By the time we move, we may find them in the midst of thirty hired swords. Then what? Your decision to wait will have put us all at risk, Cale."

Cale understood that, but simply killing the slaadi was not enough. He wanted vengeance, justice, chororin. For that, he would need to find the Sojourner, who had put all of it into motion, and stop him, kill him.

Instead of arguing with the assassin, he said, "You're welcome to stay behind."

Riven stopped pacing and his eye flashed. He stared at Cale for a moment before nodding at the pocket in which Cale kept his mask, his holy symbol.

"You'd like that, wouldn't you, First of Five?" the assassin asked. "No one to vie for his favor, eh?"

Cale answered Riven's stare with one of his own.

"His favor has nothing to do with it," he replied. "His favor got me this." He held up his regenerated hand, swathed in shadows. "This is about you doing it my way or not at all. Your choice to stay, Zhent. Nobody is holding you here. You can walk away anytime."

Riven held Cale's gaze for a moment before giving a mirthless smile through his goatee.

"I think I'll stay around," said the assassin, "for now."

He started pacing anew.

Jak and Cale shared a look. Jak's green eyes said, I don't trust him. For his part, Cale attributed Riven's mood to the irritability that had plagued the assassin since arriving in Skullport, and his impatience for action. Cale too was irritable, which explained his own overly harsh response to Riven's challenge.

"They're moving," Magadon said.

Cale and Jak jumped to their feet. Riven whirled on the guide and took three steps toward him.

"Where?" all three asked in unison.

Magadon held up a hand to forestall further questions. His eyes showed only whites.

"Exiting the storehouse. I cannot tell where they are. Heading along the street... carts ... slaves ..."

"No landmarks?" Cale asked.

Magadon shook his head and replied, "Still haven't seen the harbor. I think they're in the Lower Trade Lanes, heading north or east. Lots of street traffic . . . brothels, taverns, shacks, a glassblower's workshop. . ." He was quiet for a time then said, "The buildings are getting more and more decrepit, even for Skullport."

Magadon continued to describe the surroundings, hoping that one of them would note something with which they were familiar.

"Do you see any brewer's shops?" Riven asked. "Lots of goblins? Kobolds?"

Magadon shook his head and said, "No .. . wait, yes! A lot of untapped ale casks stacked outside of several buildings. And there are more goblins than usual."