[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
own right shoulder to try to see what Julius was looking at.
"To the Abyss with 'em all, my big, giant friend. They busted me, d'you believe that? They busted me to footman,"
the young guard said.
"Julius," Jaheira said, having to just hope he could understand her. "The guard at the palace told us Eltan is dying.
What's been going on here?"
"Eltan Schmeltan . . ." Julius murmured. "He can kiss my "
"Julius," Abdel said roughly, and the young guard laughed sloppily and tried to sock Abdel in the arm playfully but
just waved impotently in the air.
"Yeah ... yeah ... Eltan," Julius said around sudden, violent hiccups. "He's taken . .. he's taken .. . he's taken . .."
"Ill?" Jaheira provided.
"Yes," Julius said, scratching at his hair like a dog. "That too."
"Julius," Abdel said, but the young guard didn't look up, he just snored loudly. "Julius!" Abdel shouted, and the
sailors all looked at him. The dancing woman sat down and sighed.
"Hey, swabby," one of the sailors called, "keep it down."
Abdel ignored the sailor and shook Julius awake.
The guard smiled and said, "They busted me to footman, so now I gotta wear this damned ring mail. I hate ring mail.
It "
The door to the street burst open, and an enormously fat woman surged into the tavern, panting and sweating.
"Whoa," Julius said and nearly fell off his chair. The woman crossed to the bartender and told him something Abdel
couldn't hear, though the woman's face told him the news was urgent and grave. Even the sailors were looking at the
bartender in anticipation.
"Hey up!" the bartender shouted, sliding to the center of the long bar. "Hey up!"
Even some of the passed-out drunks, whose eyes were growing red and puffy, looked up at the bartender.
"Dawn breaks over a sad city," the bartender said, his voice gravelly and loud, "for Grand Duke Eltan is dead!"
The woman who'd been dancing for the sailors gasped and began to cry. The sailors regarded her for a few seconds,
some seeming legitimately worried, then they all shrugged in turn and started talking about what a bastard their first
mate was.
Abdel turned to look at Jaheira. Her face was a stone mask as hopeless as he'd ever seen her.
"Angelo," Julius murmured. "I have to take orders from Angelo."
"Angelo?" Abdel asked, "The half-elf?"
Julius nodded loosely and said, "Aye, sir. He's taken over the Flaming Fist. Now there'll be nobody to stop the ducal
election from going to whatsisname."
"Who?" Jaheira asked.
"Sarevok," Julius said sluggishly. "It'll be Grand Duke Sarevok."
* * * * *
Abdel was hesitant to follow Julius's stammered, mumbled directions, but had little choice. As another day dawned
over Baldur's Gate, Abdel and Jaheira stole cloaks off a wash line and went through the waking streets with hoods
drawn over their faces. They kept to opposite sides of the street, assuming the guards would be looking for a couple,
but kept each other in the corner of their vision all the way.
They followed Julius's directions and came around the back of the ducal palace, keeping to the still shadowy alley
facing the rear gate from which Julius claimed the ducal healer would eventually emerge. There was something about
the healer Kendal was his name that Abdel didn't like the first time they'd met him. Now they had this strange
eastern woman tell them there was something amiss with the healer the very night that Eltan, under Kendal's care, died
of some mysterious ailment. Abdel only hoped Julius, who was passed out in the Blushing Mermaid when they left
him, wouldn't remember telling them where to go, or even remember meeting them at all, and tell his superiors.
Abdel forced himself not to think about what else Julius had to say. If it was true that his half brother Sarevok was
here in Baldur's Gate, was Reiltar's man on the Sword Coast, was responsible for the whole bloody mess, what was he
going to do? If Sarevok became grand duke, if Eltan was dead and even Tethtoril had turned against him, what could
the two of them do against
[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]