D& D - Greyhawk - Night Watch by Robin Wayne Bailey Page B

nodded without saying anything. She glanced at all their faces again, as if searching for some cue to the proper responses.
    “I’m also told,” Garett continued, “that you’re a fake.” He studied her expression for some reaction. “Are you?”
    Again she studied all their faces. Slowly, she nodded. Then she sipped quickly from the cup, as if she expected the wine to be taken from her as punishment.
    Garett didn’t want to frighten her. She had a precious quality, something that reached out to him and touched him somehow. He had seen street waifs in many cities and many lands. He knew how hard a life it was, especially for a female. His heart went out to this one. Yet he still needed answers. “Which is it, Duncan?” he persisted quietly. “Can you see the future? Or are you a fake?”
    She hung her head, and tears welled up in her eyes. “You are going to arrest me,” she whispered.
    Garett took the cup of cinnamon wine from her hand, refilled it, and offered it to her again, ignoring the look of consternation on Soja’s face. “I’m not going to arrest you,” he assured her. “If you wish to, you may walk out of here right now.”
    Duncan rolled moist eyes up at him. “I can go?” she said with a mixture of hope and surprise.
    Garett nodded, looking at the others, who moved away from the door at his silent command.
    Her way out was unobstructed, but she hesitated. “It is very difficult,” she said at last, clinging to the small cup as if it were a lifeline. “Sometimes, I can see true visions. But sometimes, I must lie or go hungry.” She looked up at Garett again, and though there was shame in her face, there was also determination. “I don’t like to go hungry,” she told him.
    Burge came closer to the desk. “How do you do it, girl?” he inquired. “What method?”
    Setting aside the cup, Duncan reached down the front of her blouse and pulled a small leather purse from her cleavage. Carefully, she loosened the purse strings and turned it upside down over her hand. Five glimmering amethysts tumbled into her palm, each cut into the shape of an octahedron.
    “They’re beautiful!” Kael exclaimed, coming closer to see the stones. “She couldn’t afford those! She must have stolen them!”
    Duncan recoiled, clutching the amethysts to her breasts with both hands. “I didn’t,” she whispered tensely. “They’re mine! My father gave them to me!”
    Kael snorted derisively. “Father! She probably doesn’t even know who he was! ”
    Garett whirled on the young officer. “Get out!” he ordered savagely. “You found her, and I’m grateful. But my gratitude has its limits, and so does my patience!”
    Anger and hurt flared in Kael’s eyes for an instant. Then he saluted smartly, turned, and exited the office. The noise from the outer area surged in for a brief moment before the door slammed shut again.
    Garett turned back to the cowering young woman in the chair. “It’s all right, Duncan,” he told her. “It’s all right.” He got up and paced back and forth before the desk. Burge went to lean against the door. Soja moved into a corner near his liquor cabinet, out of the way.
    Duncan relaxed a bit. After a moment, she leaned forward and took up the cup of cinnamon wine and sipped it again. She opened her left fist slowly, and the amethysts gently slid onto the desk. The lamplight glittered and glimmered upon them. Splinters of purple lanced across the desktop.
    “How do they work?” Garett asked, stopping to stare at the stones. They were no bigger than dice, but with eight smooth sides.
    Duncan leaned over them. Setting her cup down again, she set her hands on either side of the dice, swept them together, and covered them with her cupped palms. “These are amethysts,” she began with greater enthusiasm. “If they were garnets, then my visions would always be true, and they would come easier, for garnets are my birthstone.” She took her hands away, and the lamplight