“Aye, that I was,” the old man said with a grin.
“But you went down with the Mary Eileen,” she said accusingly. “Oros… er, Captain Avaril told me all hands were lost. Only he survived.”
“I was lost,” the old man said, his voice far away and his eye staring into the stew. “Lost for years.” He shook his head as though refusing to remember. He looked up, a tear in his eye.
“I was taken aboard the minotaur galley, as were others from the Mary Eileen, as your Avaril well knows. I was chained to an oar three benches away from him. It grated him to be a galley slave, no better than the men he once commanded, though even then we looked to him to lead us to freedom. He was our captain still.
“He seemed to believe his responsibilities to us ended when the Mary Eileen foundered. He made a private deal with the minotaur captain-Kolav was his name-and got himself released from the oar chain. What he traded, I do not know. Likely it was information. We began to raid the northern coast of Solamnia, striking unprotected villages. They had great success, seeming always to hit just after a patrol of Knights of Solamnia had left the villages.”
“But then their luck eventually ran out. They were surprised by a fleet of the Knights of Takhisis. The galley was rammed and sunk. Your future husband surrendered, and because he was once a Knight, they didn’t execute him.”
“Avaril was never a Knight!” Alynthia exclaimed.
“Aye, he was a Knight of the Rose at one time, my dear,” the old man said. “That’s something very few people know. He was shamed for some reason or other, probably cowardice or betrayal, if I know him at all. If not for his family’s influence, he’d probably have been hunted down and executed with his own sword.
“He let his men die aboard that pirate galley, while he saved himself. I’d been working for months on loosening my chain’s staple, and when the ship began to sink, her hull staved in by the Knights’ ram, I escaped. Fear lent me strength. I couldn’t save the others. I couldn’t free the others,” he cried. “They called my name, begging me to rescue them, but they cursed the name of Avaril. But I was not strong enough to free them, and he abandoned us all.
“When the battle was over, I found myself adrift atop a bit of flotsam, while the Knight’s fleet sailed away. Eventually, I washed up on an island in the Blood Sea, and there I lived a haunted life, always in fear, always running. The island was home to shadow wights. Finally, I was rescued, and from there I was able to follow Avaril’s career by talking with sailors, pirates, smugglers and the like. They say he purchased his and the minotaur captain’s lives by revealing the locations of the treasures they had buried during the months of raiding the coast.
“The Knights put them off in Palanthas, penniless and destitute. He was disgraced as a merchant captain, and no ship’s master would trust him. For a while, he made a living as a street illusionist, pulling coins from people’s ears and throwing his voice to amaze the ignorant, all the while hating the people he entertained. Eventually, Avaril joined the Thieves’ Guild, it is said, and his minotaur companion served as his loyal body- guard. What keeps the two together I’ll never understand. I think Avaril never purchased the minotaur’s freedom. I think the Knights of Takhisis released the brute to be a constant reminder of his treachery. ’Tisn’t loyalty that drives Captain Kolav Ru-Marn. Because of Avaril, he survived the sinking of his ship and disgraced himself. He can never return to the minotaur homeland.”
Alynthia stared blankly at the table, slowly shaking her head. “It can’t be true,” she muttered. “It’s too much to believe.”
“Think about it Alynthia,” Cael said. “Because you helped me, he has declared you kidnapped. He has betrayed you as well.”
“I, would have done the same thing to him to protect the It was I who betrayed him by failing,” she argued.
“No, you wouldn’t have betrayed him,” Cael said. “You haven’t betrayed the Guild. You would have done whatever it took to free your husband. Even now, you protect him.”
“It was Mulciber’s decision,” Alynthia said. “Oros is only following Mulciber’s orders.”
Slowly, Cael nodded. “Yes, I see that now,” he said.
“What do you mean?” Alynthia sharply demanded.
“He was only following Mulciber’s orders. He isn’t the Guildmaster. Mulciber is,” he said.
“That’s right,” Alynthia said. “We all follow Mulciber’s orders.”
“Who is Mulciber?” Cael asked.
“She is the true leader of the Guild.”
“From where did she come?”
“No one knows. She first appeared and reformed the Guild after the Night of Black Hammers, recruiting first my husband and then the others to her cause.”
“I see,” Cael said.
“What do you see?” Alynthia barked.
“The truth,” he answered.
“Good. So now you see Oros can’t have betrayed me. If he really wanted to kill us, don’t you think we’d be dead by now? No, he has only been giving us time to redeem ourselves,” she declared. “The gods only know what risks he has taken protecting us.”
“Alynthia, my dear sweet Alynthia,” Old Knodsen said in a husky voice. “Do you believe that Old Knodsen would lie to you?”
She stared at the old sailor as though he had struck her across the face. Fresh tears trickled down her cheeks. “No,” she whispered.
“Listen to your friend,” the old man encouraged. “Oros betrayed the crew of the Mary Eileen, as he will betray you now.”
She looked at Cael. Slowly, her head sank to her chest. “Very well,” she sobbed.
“If I were you,” the old man said, “I’d leave the city. I am ship’s cook aboard the Albatross. She sails with tomorrow evening’s tide for Kalaman. My captain is a goodly woman. She’ll take the both of you upon my word.”
“I thank you,” Cael said. “We’ll be there. Can you take a third, a young girl-”
“No!” Alynthia snapped. “Before I go, I must hear all this from his lips. He owes me that much.”
“It is too risky,” Cael said. “We dare not confront him. If we are captured-”
“I must do it,” she said. “With or without your help. I know his habits like no other. Every night after he dines, he spends several hours in his private library. We’ll lie in wait for him there, and question him without his lackeys about. If what you say is true, dear Knodsen, then we can use that information against him to clear our names and regain our places in the Guild.”
“Don’t be a fool, Alynthia. After what we have heard this night, Oros will try to have us and your friend Knodsen here killed at the first opportunity. As long as we live, we are a threat to him,” Cael admonished. “Better he never knows what we have learned about him.”
“I will hear the truth from him, come what may!” Alynthia declared. “If it is true that he intends to betray the Guild, we must stop him.”
Cael opened his mouth to protest, but the old sailor cut him off. “It’s no use arguing with her once she’s made up her mind. I should know,” he said with a laugh, turning to Alynthia. “Once you’ve had your say, my dear, come with all speed to the Merchant Harbor, Where my ship is waiting. Bring your other young friend, if she is also in danger.”
“Dear old Knodsen,” she smiled. “Beyond hope I’ve found you again. Thank you.”
“You can thank me best by sailing away with me,” he said.
“If there is no other way,” Alynthia said, rising, “I promise.” She pushed Cael from the booth. “We will be there.”
The elf pulled a few wet coins from his pocket and tossed them on the table to pay for the brandy and the stew no one had even tasted.
“Come on,” Alynthia said to the elf. “It’s late. We must enter his library before Oros retires for the night.” Together, they bowed once to the old sailor and exited the inn.
Old Knodsen bent over the no longer steaming bowl of stew and shoveled a spoonful into his toothless mouth. He contentedly gummed the meal, chuckling occasionally to himself, while from one of the other tables rose a squat figure cloaked in black, his back bent and bearing a large misshapen hump beneath his filthy robes. Limping grotesquely, he followed Cael and Alynthia through the door and into the dark streets of Palanthas.