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.Lucia could hardly admit she did not have this knowledge, so she'd compiled a short list for Garnet: Khelben Arunsun, Larissa Neathal, the moneylender Mirt, Durnan, and Texter the Paladin.These names were whispered in every tavern of Waterdeep, and they would suffice for now Lucia knew she would have to do better, and soon.The-noblewoman flung aside the covers and left the bedchamber.If Caladorn did have connections to the Lords of Waterdeep, she would find no evidence of it here.She made her way down the spiral stairs to the next level, which held the bathing area and dressing rooms.One room was filled with chests and wardrobes, and it seemed like a good place to begin her search.Moving quietly so as not to alert Caladorn's manservant, Lucia systematically went through each chest and every drawer, looking for anything that might link Caladorn to the Lords of Waterdeep.For almost an hour she combed the room, to no avail.Frustrated but determined to persist, Lucia headed for her own closet.She planned to search the townhouse to the last nail and tile, but she could hardly do so clad in a diaphanous nightdress.Caladorn, who was in all things attentive and romantic, had filled a closet with several changes of clothing for such mornings, all of them in Lucia's trademark purple.With a deep sigh, Lucia drew a lavender robe from the closet.Perhaps, after a bath and a change of clothes—Her thoughts came to an abrupt stop.For no reason that she could ascertain, the hem of the robe was stuck to the back of the wooden wardrobe.She gave the garment a sharp tug, but it held fast She dropped to her knees for a closer look.The grain of the wood around the trapped fabric was even and uninterrupted, and when she ran her fingers over the smooth panel, she felt no ridge or gap.It was as if the lavender silk grew directly out of the wood.Excited now, Lucia pushed the other garments aside and began to search the inside of the wardrobe.After several minutes, her seeking fingers found a tiny button hidden in the swirling pattern of the wood.She pressed it, and a small door on the back panel slid silently open, releasing the robe and revealing a hidden shelf.Lucia reached inside and drew out a black helmet covered with a thick veil.She slipped the helm over her head and spun to view her reflection in a standing mirror.Though she could see with perfect clarity, her features were completely obscured by the veil.She sang a few notes of a Tethyrian folk song, and the voice was not recognizably her own.In fact, it was not recognizably anything.The voice could have been male or female, old or young.A peal of exultant laughter burst from her, and it, too, was magically disguised by the helm of a Lord of Waterdeep.So! Her young lover actually held the place she had long pretended to! Caladorn could deny her nothing, and with knowledge gleaned from him she could easily placate Garnet A smile curved her lips, and the burden of worry fell from her narrow shoulders.Lucia removed the helm and replaced it in the cabinet.Before she shut the door, she carefully placed the hem of the lavender robe where it would again be caught in the hidden door.She arranged the other garments as she had found them, making it appear that the wardrobe had not been disturbed, and she dressed herself in the clothes she had worn the night before.When the room was in order, she sauntered out of Caladorn's home in the direction of Mother Tathlorn's House of Pleasure and Healing.With the morning's success behind her, she felt well justified in treating herself to a massage, a manicure, and perhaps a little something more.Chapter FiveTaskerleigh lay two days' travel behind him, but Danilo had yet to come up with an explanation for his current predicament.By Dan's reckoning, Elaith Craulnober would rather wed a troll than travel in his company, yet here they were.Danilo had ruefully dubbed their combined forces "Music and Mayhem," and the name stuck.That was not, in his opinion, a good omen.Theirs was beyond doubt the most uneasy alliance the Harper had ever encountered.The elf held all the prejudices of his race and had no love of dwarves, but to Dan's surprise Elaith treated Wyn Ashgrove no better than he did Morgalla.The elven minstrel was spared the sharp edge of Elaith's tongue, but he pointedly ignored Wyn's presence among the travelers.Several times, though, Eighth's eyes rested on the gold elf, and the pure hatred in their amber depths chilled Danilo.For his part, Wyn treated everyone with the same distant courtesy, and he seemed to take no notice of his fellow elf's bad manners.If there was a common thread weaving together the disparate adventurers, it was Vartain.The riddlemaster seemed to annoy everyone in equal measure.But Elaith's mercenaries, especially the huge black-bearded man known as Balindar, were quite taken with the dwarf maid.When they learned that Morgalla was a veteran of the Alliance War, the men plied her with eager questions.Waterdeep had not sent an army to help turn back the barbarian invaders, and many sell-swords of the Northlands felt they'd missed out on the greatest, most glorious adventure of their lifetimes.The dwarf was hesitant at first, but she warmed to their interest, and by midmorning of the second day, she was helping to pass the tedium of travel with one-well-told tale after another.Dan listened to snatches of their conversations, enjoying the dwarfs mellow voice and skilled storytelling.He remembered Morgalla's gruff rejection of the title "dwarven bard," but to his ears, she deserved to be accounted so even if there was no music in her soul.And that lack, he doubted.Every night since they'd left Waterdeep, Morgalla had persuaded him to play his lute and sing.Never would she join him, but she listened to every air and ballad with a rapt expression of mingled joy and longing on her broad face.Danilo glanced over at Elaith, who was riding apart from the others, as alert and wary as the silver fox he resembled.He could not imagine what treasure induced the elf to take to the road
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