Easy Betrayals by Richard Baker Page B

didn’t know that at the time. That pup Noph joined us, and we lost him beneath the mage-king’s palace. Rings and I followed Miltiades and Jacob after Eidola… then we lost Rings and Jacob in the city… then Jacob found us, and left us again, as we found Aleena… and now, finally, Jacob is dead and Rings is here again. He rubbed his eyes, realizing suddenly that he couldn’t remember the last time he had slept.
    “I hope Eidola’s having the kind of day I am,” he snorted.
    “If Tyr smiles on us, hers will turn out much worse,” Miltiades said. He attempted to smile, but it came out poorly. Haggard with exhaustion, still pained by the wound Jacob had given him, even Miltiades was near the end of his strength. The paladin grimaced and spoke to Marks. “Well, where is it? We must be on top of the Unseen by now.”
    The small fence scowled angrily. “We’re here. You want that warehouse.” At Belgin’s doubtful expression, Marks sighed and went on. “We don’t have a headquarters or a fortress, you idiots. We don’t need much more than a few safehouses and meeting places. You’ll want the side door; the front door leads to nothing but an empty storage room.”
    “Is Eidola there?” Rings asked.
    “There’s a good chance of it,” Marks said. “It’s about the best place for her to go to get out of sight and rest for a time.”
    The four interlopers withdrew to the shadows of a dismal alley across the street from the ramshackle structure Marks had indicated. It seemed innocuous enough, one more disused old building in a town full of them. Miltiades frowned, thinking. “Anything else we should expect?”
    “There’s a second structure inside the first. In the space between the buildings there are two leucrotta, unchained to roam the building. They’ll attack any who don’t respond with the correct password. The inner door is marked by a very dangerous glyph, and the room beyond is guarded, usually by four or five doppelgangers in human guise.” Marks winced and muttered, trying to resist the rope’s compulsion, but he continued despite his efforts. “If there’s anyone important here, expect more guards.”
    “Tell us the password and the name of the glyph,” Aleena said.
    ” ‘Derzhim haalva,’” Marks replied. “The glyph is cirr.”
    The sorceress nodded.”I have no further use for this one, Miltiades.”
    Without ceremony, the paladin sapped the villain with a short-hafted swing of his warhammer. Marks groaned and sank to the ground. Belgin released the magical lasso from the small man and coiled it at his belt. “What happens if Eidola isn’t here?” he asked quietly.
    “We’ll keep looking,” Miltiades answered. “Come on.” The paladin led them across the street and into the opposite alleyway, pausing at the door Marks had indicated. He glanced back once to make sure everyone was ready and then pulled the door open and stepped inside.
    The interior of the warehouse was nearly pitch-black, littered with casks and crates stacked at odd angles. A rank, rotten smell permeated the building. Aleena quietly produced a slender wand from her sleeve and spoke a word that woke it to soft incandescence. The place was a mazelike tangle of bales and boxes, stacked to create a winding labyrinth. “The room we seek must be hidden deeper inside,” she observed.
    “Agreed,” said Miltiades. He led the way into the rickety mass, threading between leaning stacks of barrels and kegs. Somewhere off in the darkness, beyond their soft globe of light, something large snorted and moved. “The leucrotta,” whispered the paladin.
    From the darkness, a high, piping voice whispered, “What do we see, eh?”
    “Humans. Delicious, delectable humans,” answered a second piping voice from the other side of the chamber. “Oh, how fortunate we are today!”
    “Now, now, we must first see if we may devour them. They may be friends.”
    “Perhaps. But who would know if we didn’t tell, eh?