Free Sapphire Crescent by Thomas M. Reid Page A

courtyard continued to show Captain Dressus and his men milling about, discussing what to do with the bodies lying there. The original plan had been for them to haul the pair to the nearest guard station in the city and deposit them there, but it was obvious by then that the Waukeenar lieutenant’s words had unnerved them, and they were uncertain what to do any longer.
    “Oh, just run!” Grozier growled from behind Bartimus. He was beginning to pace. “Is there no way to talk to them through this damned mirror?”
    Bartimus cringed as he said, “Unfortunately, no. It really only works one way. I could see if I have some other means of communicating with them, perhaps a scroll in my collection.” He started to rise, completely enraptured at the thought of looking through some of his papers. “I think I might have just the thing,” he muttered half-aloud, moving toward a distant shelf, “a little spell I acquired from a man I met in Cormyr several years ago. Let’s see, I think I put those papers—”
    “No, don’t waste the effort,” Grozier snapped, standing still and watching the scene again. “By the time you find something, it’ll be too late. Besides, they’ve gone and mucked the whole plan up completely already.”
    Bartimus shrugged and sat back down as his counterpart sighed in exasperation.
    “Dressus is an idiot,” Grozier continued. “He should have just sent the Matrell boy away and cleared out of there. He got baited into that, you know.”
    Bartimus nodded, though he didn’t, in fact, know that until just then, and he wondered how Grozier had come to that conclusion.
    “Now,” Grozier continued, “the city watch is concerned about our two dead victims, and Dressus is under suspicion. If not by the other guards, then at the very least, by the mercenary and his sister. We’re going to have to take care of this ourselves.”
    He began to pace again.
    Bartimus nodded, though he had no idea what his employer meant, and no desire to take the initiative to suggest some things until he knew more. He sat and waited while Grozier stewed.
    Finally, the other man stopped his repetitive motion and said, “We’re going to have to clean this up completely, you know.”
    Bartimus risked a glance over his shoulder at the other man, the head of House Talricci, to be sure he understood correctly.
    “You want me to find someone?” the mage asked.
    “No,” Grozier replied, tapping the wizard on the shoulder. “You’re going to have to do this yourself. I don’t want to put it into anyone else’s hands.”
    Bartimus swallowed hard.
    “Me?” he asked, sounding more timid than he had intended, though he certainly felt a little intimidated at what his employer was asking him to do. “How would you like it handled?” he quickly added, hoping to cover his earlier hesitation.
    “I don’t know,” Grozier growled. “You’re the house wizard. You cook something up. But make sure you get rid of all the loose ends. And I mean all of them. I don’t doubt for a minute that the mercenary is going to start sniffing around, trying to find out what happened tonight. I can just feel it.”
    He turned to go, then stopped and looked back at Bartimus through the gloom of hisroom.
    “And make it clever,” Grozier added. “Something really good. Come find me and run it by me before you begin, though. I’ll expect a first idea from you within an hour.”
    Bartimus nodded, inwardly sighing. Knowing Grozier, he was going to have to stay up half the night concocting something suitable to solve the problem.
    J

CHAPTER THREE
    you’re treating me like I’m five!” Emriana shouted at her uncle. She was slumped in one of the ornately
    carved high-backed suthwood chairs, with its claw-shaped feet and similarly formed arms, that surrounded the huge dining room table where the Matrell family was gathered. The seat was solidly padded, but that made it no more comfortable. The girl wanted more than anything to stand and