"Let him come," said Andeth.
The servant withdrew. With a wicked smile, the Hulorn slipped a wand from his sleeve and shook it three times at the door.
In rapid succession, three small brown clouds appeared, each punctuated by a nasty, wet popping sound. The smoke dissipated to reveal a trio of huge rats. Their eyes burned with infernal light, and their slavering lips trembled and dripped steaming spittle. As one, they looked to their summoner.
Andeth waved once to either side of the door, and the abyssal vermin skittered out of sight just as the visitor arrived.
Drakkar strode purposefully through the door. Chaney thought the tension in his neat jaw was obvious, but the man's expression did nothing to dim the Hulorn's mischievous smile. As he came near the Hulorn, Drakkar looked up and saw the man's mirth-too late. Andeth snapped his fingers and beckoned his rats.
"Beggar!" spat Drakkar.
He whirled to face the vermin, his long dark fingers plucking a thorn from his staff. He hurled it at the rats.
As it left the wizard's fingers, the thorn turned into a burning black spot of energy. It sizzled and split into five individual points, three of which shot into the body of the nearest rat. The creature's momentum hurled the three messy pieces of its body to flop at Drakkar's feet.
The remaining missiles diverged, each striking one of the other attackers. One of the rats screeched like a crow and veered away. The other fearlessly charged Drakkar and climbed straight up his cloak toward his face.
"Dark!" cursed the wizard, beating at the rat with his thorny staff.
"Serves you right," laughed the Hulorn. "No direct spells. You know the rules."
His face twisted in revulsion, Drakkar seized the dire rat with his free hand. The creature sank its teeth into the man's wrist, evoking a shout before Drakkar flung it away.
"Mad Andy!" he shouted. "The children are right to call you that, you barking lunatic. Enough of these ludicrous games!"
Andeth clucked his tongue and held the surviving rats at bay with a gesture.
"Such rough words to a patron who has shielded you from so much harm," said the Hulorn. "If I were truly deranged, would you dare to speak in such a manner?"
Drakkar clenched his teeth so hard that Chaney could see the muscles working beneath his narrow beard.
"If I practice an antic disposition, my friend, you know the reason. Those who think me mad think me harmless, and you of all people should know that I am not in the least fraction harmless."
A tic leaped beneath Drakkar's right eye, then leaped again as he relaxed his expression with a supreme effort.
"You hardly need practice this facade," said Drakkar. "You have well mastered it."
Andeth's laugh was full of friendly warmth. "Bravo! Do you see? Even you can be subtle in insult. That was far more civilized, especially for one whose natural charms are so limited by drow blood."
Drakkar betrayed the truth of the Hulorn's accusation, for his arched brows appeared distinctly elven in their vexation. Other than his fine cheekbones and jaw, nothing else betrayed his mixed parentage.
"What do you know?" Chaney remarked, as much to himself as Radu.
The assassin remained undetectable in his silence, though Chaney knew he couldn't have roamed far without tugging at his ghost.
"Now, finish the game," commanded Andeth, "and to business."
Drakkar pulled another thorn from his staff, wetted it on his tongue, and threw it to the ground. He grasped a small pouch at his belt and shouted a quick barrage of arcane syllables.
A pool of fire opened like an eye on the floor before Drakkar, its glow making a demonic mask of the wizard's face. From the flames, a massive black form slowly rose until, blowing and stamping, a huge black stallion appeared. Its mane was a fiery bough, its tail a river of fire.
Drakkar pointed at the rats, which squealed in terror, and said, "Kill them."
The nightmare danced forward and stamped one of the rats into a bloody stain. It tossed its head and threw the other rat high into the air. As the vermin fell, the nightmare caught it in its teeth, gnashed them thrice, and swallowed.
Sneering over his easy victory, Drakkar turned to Andeth. The Hulorn scowled back at him.
"Get it out of here," Andeth said, slapping at the thick, choking smoke. "It stinks of brimstone."
Drakkar intoned the words, performed the gestures, and sent the nightmare back to the Abyss before he turned to smile triumphantly at the Hulorn.
"Very poor form," admonished lord mayor. "That was your problem last year as well. You must learn to employ the razor, not the club."
"As you say, my lord," said Drakkar, sounding anything but chastised.
Andeth sighed again. "Well?"
Momentarily confused, Drakkar stared blankly before he remembered his business.
"I have instructed the guards to behave as we discussed," he reported. "Your visit to the cell was well done, but I still believe we should have employed actors as the guards."
Andeth shook his head. "Too much chance the brother would have known one of them."
"Still, it is crucial that the boy be convinced."
"That will not take much doing," said Andeth. "He is a conceited lush. We might as well have given him a puppet show."
"I am less concerned about him than his retainers," said Drakkar. "Should Larajin become-"
"Spare me," said Andeth, strolling toward the balcony. "Your infatuation with that serving wench is unseemly in a man of your station."
Drakkar followed the Hulorn, and Chaney followed them both, hoping Radu was doing the same.
The wizards stood side by side with their hands on the marble rail, gazing out over the thousand lights of Selgaunt. Chaney leaned back on the rail between them, smiling as he poked his fingers into their eyes. As expected, neither of them noticed, but he kept at it, hoping for at least a blink.
"She is more powerful than you acknowledge," ventured Drakkar.
"I shall consider your warning, my friend."
"And do not underestimate the brother," said Drakkar. "You should allow me to teach you the silverbonds spell."
Andeth shot Drakkar an irritated glance and said, "It does not interest me."
"I realize it is a difficult enchantment to master, but-"
"Enough of that," said Andeth. "Do not practice too many subtle insults in one evening. Not on me."
"My lord," said Drakkar, "speaking as your friend, I encourage you to rely less on those wands and more upon your own ability. One day you may face an opponent who…"
The Hulorn gazed at Drakkar through cool, hooded eyes. His expression was enough to put an end to the topic.
"Here," said Andeth, twisting the big green emerald from his finger. "Find a convincing place to return this."
"Simplicity itself," said Drakkar, taking the ring and securing it in a pouch. "A simple suggestion spell, and Presker's butler will discover where his master dropped his favorite jewel while visiting Old High Hall yesterday, but if Thamalon the Lesser is as stupid as you believe…"
"Then we will have someone give him a suggestion as well, shall we not? If not empowered by magic like yours, it should be no less effective," the Hulorn said. "Speaking of which, it is time I recovered our little gift from Stormweather Towers. By now our friend should have removed it from the library."
"Who is it?" asked Drakkar in the crooning voice of a child who had been denied a secret.
"The last person he would suspect," replied Andeth. He wiped his eye with his little finger. Emboldened, Chaney poked at him again, to no effect. "But we cannot allow any single element of our scheme to be crucial. Should one action fail, we must have an alternative."
There was an inquiry in Andeth's tone, and Drakkar heard it.
"I have found the assassin we heard of," he said. "His services are dear, but his power seems genuine."