Chapter 4 - Part 5

“She is good-looking,” Delegado admitted, admiring the female orc in skimpy clothing who was passed out on the floor.

“Tough, too,” Ois commented. “Took forever for the drugs in her wine to take effect.” The changeling was reverting back to her regular form now, and Delegado was surprised to see her clothing melt into studded leather armor. “It’s especially enchanted,” she told him, seeing his look.

“You got that before or after you made your genuflection?” he asked, sarcasm coming back into his voice.

“After I took my vows,” she said. “It makes infiltration easier.”

“Yeah? How many of your little flame followers are changelings?”

“Not many,” she admitted. “But then our race is few in number anyway.” She began to tie Luida’s wrists and ankles together.

“But there was always only one of you,” he said.

She turned her plain, real face towards him, but she kept her emotions off of it. She was still beautiful. “Yes, that’s true. And the one of me has found her connection to the Silver Flame. It’s also part of me.”

“You can’t spend two minutes without bringing that up!” he spat.

“Because I never gave up hoping you would accept it,” she explained. “I have had no lovers since you, Del.”

He jutted his tusks out. “Seeing you is a knife in the heart. I’m here for business. I don’t want to think any more about the lunatic, close-minded f’test that stole you from me. We talk about Shaidan or I’m going back to the Tharashk enclave.”

“Fine,” she said. “Shaidan has been making quite a name for himself, and quite a fortune, too. He’s proving most valuable to both his ogre magus master and the three sisters. He’s also letting certain other groups in, groups that the Silver Flame does not want to have free hand.”

“You mean the Dragon Below cults,” he said. “They’re not too popular here, the hags see them as a rival.”

“No,” she said. “The Lords of Dust.”

“The who?”

“An ancient evil that infiltrates and corrupts,” she told him. “They toy with even the most powerful of Khorvaire and seek to bring everything down in flames.”

“Hunh, you changelings get dangerous when you get religion, huh?” he asked her.

She gave him a pitying look. “I thought we were only discussing business?”

“Fine, whatever, get to the point.”

“The Lords of Dust are a group of fiends that seek to release their kind who have been long trapped in Khyber. Those trapped are older and more dangerous than even the ones that the Gatekeepers seek to keep sealed away. They have recruited Shaidan. About four months ago our intelligence agents here went silent. All were caught and tortured by Shaidan’s men. Despite Thrane being caught in the deadly turmoil of the war, I was dispatched to see if Shaidan can be brought to justice.”

He snorted. “I’d love to separate that scum’s head from his body, but you are in over your head, you know that? I fought him once and barely got away. He’ll kill you before you can move.”

She smiled. “He might be able to kill me. He might be able to kill you. But he cannot kill us working together.”

He suddenly realized where this was going. “You want to go to his fortress tonight, don’t you? Just like that?”

She nodded. “I have architect’s sketches of the building he works from, including where mechanical traps and alarms were placed by kobold slaves. I also know in detail of his possessions and magical devices. And you know how he fights.”

He considered it for a moment, then shook his head. “This is insane, we’ll never get past his guards, sketches or no!”

She smiled again, much more broadly. “Most are out hunting down all of those red herrings you planted. Good job on that, by the way. I wouldn’t have guessed you had the subtlety. More of them will be sent out to suppress a riot that will be starting in a half-hour. And the two gnoll swordsmen who always watch him have been given a large bribe to disappear for a little while.”

“You were going to head in without me?” he asked. “For all of your hidden daggers you have no chance against him.”

“Some of my daggers are quite extraordinary,” she told him. “And I strike with more than weapons, I strike with my faith. And…I suspected that you would join me. I remember you telling me of him as we lay in bed together.”

Delegado thought. The bounty on Shaidan’s head tempted him the most, as she knew it would. The sweet taste of victory appealed to him almost as strongly. But the strongest pull of all was the opportunity to be with her. To hear her laugh. To share her joy, her apprehension, and her goals.

“Shaidan’s father passed him a powerful legacy,” he told her. “He is fast, really fast. And he’s even stronger than he is fast. He has magical fields embedded into his body from birth. Only byeshk cuts through them cleanly, everything else is impeded. I saw a druid bring lightning down on him, fire and ice too, and Shaidan got only a few small cuts and burns. A lot of dangerous magic simply fails when it touches him. He is wholly impervious to poison, and he can summon his own evil magic at will. He sees in the dark, but is light-dazzled like a full-blooded orc. He’s smart, cunning, manipulative, and persuasive. He’s got sharp ears, and he’ll realize something is wrong when you start to move on him.”

She nodded. “He has a magical greataxe which has been dedicated to evil in bloody and dark rituals. He wears enchanted armor made out of mithril, strong enough to turn most swords, but light enough so that he can still move quickly.”

He smiled and drew his sword, letting his inspect the blade. Her eyes widened. “Yes,” he said. “Sky-metal. Adamantine.”

“I remember,” she said softly. “I’m glad that the family dispute over it was settled.”

“And while my longbow isn’t enchanted,” he continued, utterly ignoring her comment. “Its pull packs a punch. I do have a few enchanted arrows though, including one that is especially dangerous to orcs.”

She nodded again. “Yes, that is a nice bow. Composite, right? The longbow is favored by –” She caught his look. “Er, many great warriors.”

“Yeah,” he said. “I’ve brought enough money to my House that I get assigned some top of the line equipment. What else has he got?”

“A hand crossbow with an especially virulent poison,” she said. He pulled out two vials of antitoxin, drinking one and tossing the other to her. “Thank you,” she said, slugging it down. “Bleh, always hated that taste. He usually has some potions handy, most often curative in nature. I don’t know the whole inventory, though.”

Delegado nodded. “Let’s see those sketches.”