They’d gathered in the large dining room that was connected to the kitchen. There was another bigger hall that held several smaller tables, but this was the only room with a table large enough to accommodate everyone at once.

  The room, like most of the complex, was sparsely decorated but the few things that were in this room were probably some of the nicest things to be found. There were four tapestries that instead of depicting a scene or a person had an intricate design patterned on them. Four tall candelabra stood in the corners, but they currently held no candles. Instead, the room was lit with the same magic lanterns as the rest of the complex.

  The table was a solid dark hardwood and so were the matching chairs. There was a long buffet against one wall that was made of a similar wood. Neither would impress a noble family, but at the same time they were a good bit fancier than most people would ever have in their home.

  The opposite wall was dominated by a long pass-through window that connected to the kitchen. The window was a large, open rectangle three feet high and six feet long. On this side it was about four feet off the ground. In the kitchen a counter sat just below it. The pass-through could be shut with two long sets of tri-fold shutters with a wooden latch to keep them closed. Currently they were open and anyone looking through could watch Baxter refilling his mug before he walked back into the room to resume his seat at the table.

  Nearly everyone else was already seated and sat chatting to those near them at the table as they waited to get started. Dade, however, was already pacing around the outside of the table as he was wont to do at meetings like this. Not currently engaged in any conversation of his own, Rori scanned the faces around the table, seeing old friends and remembering the good and bad times they’d had together. He was eventually drawn to the memory of another time when this group had sat around a similar table planning out their next steps. Of course, that time Kedra’s seat had been empty since the thing they had been planning was how to get her back from the phren.

  This time was different in another way because there was an additional person at the table. Jeremy, the cleric of Meredith who had worked with them when they were dealing with the devastating fire that had killed two clans’ worth of people at the hidden lake in the mountains, was here as well. He clearly worked a lot with Kedra, and he was there at the fire so perhaps that is why he had been asked to come. Or perhaps there was something else about him that made his presence desirable. Rori was sure Dade would let them know if they needed.

  Jeremy sat at the end of the table to Dade’s left. Kedra sat across from him on Dade’s right. Running down the table from her were Ian, Honoria, Brand and finally Wergen. Ian and Honoria were both archers, so it made sense that they spent some time together, but the truth was that it was rare to ever see the two apart. Rori would have thought there was some sort of romantic involvement between them except for three factors. The first was that they were both in the military and though he wasn’t sure about it, he suspected there were probably rules about such things occurring within a squad. The second was that while it was clear that Ian was interested in her, she always seemed to publicly rebuff any of his advances. The third was the differences in their races. Ian was human and Honoria was an elf. Relationships between the two races weren’t unheard of, but they were rare. And given the other two problems that seemed the least of the obstacles.

  As Rori was pondering the two, it occurred to him that his exposure to elves was pretty limited. So maybe a relationship between two races was more heard of than he thought. If he was being honest with himself, what he was basing his observation on was mostly from books and stories. In most of them, the elves tended to be aloof toward humans and kept to their own concerns. And he’d read one long saga that involved a tragic romance between an elf and human.

  Of course, he also had to admit that Honoria didn’t seem to be a typical elf. Sure, her archery skills and most of her features were clearly elven. But she seemed to prefer hanging out with their squad than other elves. She was also fairly tall for an elf and her hair did not seem typically elvish in color. His overall impression of elves was that their hair tended to be browns, blondes and other similar light colors. Honoria’s hair was a deep black that often seemed to have dark blue tones in it. On the other hand, Rori did know that there were many types of elves, just like there were many types of humans. So, maybe she was a mountain elf or something like that. He’d have to remember to ask her sometime.

  While he was on the topic of looks, Rori was surprised how much older Brand looked. After giving it a moment’s though he realized that it wasn’t any sort of a physical change, but more a maturing of Brand’s personality and his responsibilities. It was hard for Rori to even connect the person sitting across the table with the immature, spoiled, rich child who had first come into their squad as ‘Brandan’.

  Baxter sat in his traditional spot at the end of the table opposite Dade. Baxter remained one of the largest humans Rori had ever seen. He wasn’t large in an obese way. He wasn’t thin, but he wasn’t fat either. Instead, he was just bigger on every scale.

  Baxter and Wergen were another ‘pair’ that existed within the group. Though this time it was more like the two were brothers. Of course, since Wergen was a dwarf that made that impossible, but it was true just the same. It also made sense since they had both known each other long before either of them had ever met anyone else at the table.

  On this side of the table to Rori’s left were Trill and L’nova. Since he seemed to be making pairs out of the people at the table, Rori supposed they could be lumped together as the combat spell-casters in the group. Kedra and Jeremy could also cast plenty of magic, but Kedra was more transportation-based magic and Jeremy, as a cleric of Meredith, was a pacifist. In a fight if you wanted magic to take out the enemy you need look no further than L’nova and Trill.

  Though, truth be told, it wasn’t a great pairing because their magic had little in common. L’nova’s magic took the form of fire shooting from her hands and electricity arcing across the battlefield. Trill’s druidic magic was more apt to have him turn into a bear to take out his opponents with massive claws.

  Finally, to Rori’s right, between him and Jeremy, was Sean. When they’d first met Rori would have paired Sean with Ian. Though unrelated, the two looked like brothers if not twins. But if he paired Ian with Honoria that would only leave either Brand or himself to pair up with Sean.

  Though both Ian and Sean were quite the jokesters, Sean seemed much more knowledgeable of the two when it came to esoteric knowledge and random facts from books. Rori supposed in that way he was a bit like Brand. Of course, he hadn’t actually paired Dade up with anyone either. Perhaps Dade stood alone as leader of the group or maybe he should have paired Dade with Kedra. But then that left Jeremy now without a match.

  Rori started to go around the table again when Dade cleared his throat as a signal that he was going to begin.

  “Thank everyone for coming. I realize some of you had no choice since I’m in charge and essentially ordered you to be here, but I thank you just the same. Some of you were not present at the meeting we had a few weeks ago, but I believe you have all been brought up to date on the situation. If that’s not true or anyone has questions or any other input, as always feel free to interrupt.

  “I think we’ll start with a brief summary of some of the dead ends we’ve encountered. I would love it if someone had new information on any one of these.

  “The first is the poison used on Kedra. Brand believes it was black asphodel. Assuming that is true, we know the major creators of that poison are the phren. So that is not surprising given that they wanted her captured.”

  “Why?” said Nolan.

  “Why what?” asked Dade.

  “Why did they want her captured?”

  “Because they knew it would be sufficient leverage to get us to go and get the sword,” said Sean. “I thought that was understood.”

  “Yes, but why? Or more specifically, why us? We are assuming they didn’t go themselves because, being rat people, they wouldn’t be welcome on Aziria and would stick out even more than other outsiders. But then why didn’t they just hire groups of adventurers to go fetch the sword for them? Most would probably have died trying but eventually someone would have succeeded.”

  “True,” said Brand. “But how many attempts would they get to make before the Azirites were alerted and had the cave and everywhere around it filled with squads of troops? Also, by having leverage against us, they knew we wouldn’t get the sword and run away. A squad of adventurers might have decided to forgo the reward and keep the sword. We wanted Kedra back, so we weren’t going to keep the sword.”

  “Good points,” said Nolan, “except that just brings us back to my question. Why us? Why did the phren decide that we were the ones who could do it? No offense to all of our egos, but there are some much more talented squads out there in the world who probably would have had a greater chance of succeeding and surely the phren could have figured out ways of twisting their arms such that they were guaranteed to give up the sword. So why us?”

  After several moments of quiet musings by all at the table, Baxter said, “So, for some reason we’re special?”

  “Hmm,” said Sean, “it would appear so. Either as a group or perhaps just certain individuals.”

  “Dade has a reputation for always accomplishing his missions,” said Ian. “And not to stroke his ego, but his fighting prowess is top tier as well.”

  “True,” said Sean, “but his reputation is for military strategy and assignments, not for retrieving swords from caves. Which, as I understand it, did involve some fighting, but was more of a challenge in other ways.”

  After another long pause and some quiet whispers Dade spoke up again.

  “Our second set of dead ends are the Cunāe questions. Who was likely to show up in the valley next that would have come across the aftermath of the fire and the two dead clans? Was the valley used by clans in the conspiracy only or by everyone? Who was in charge of the conspiracy, is it still operating and what are or were their goals?

  “Before anyone says it, I realize we are waiting for the Cunāe conclave to answer those questions, but I was hoping someone might have something?”

  “I did ask Jaelle if she knew whether the valley was used solely by clans in the conspiracy or by everyone,” said Rori. “She said that years ago it was a common place for everyone to meet. She listed out all of the clans that she could remember having either encountered there herself or having heard someone else encountering there. Nearly all were clans that we could confirm were a part of the conspiracy. There were a handful we were unsure of, but it seems like it has become a meeting place for conspirators. Of course, Jaelle’s recollection isn’t conclusive proof.”

  “Still, good information to have,” said Dade. “Anyone else?” When it was clear nobody was going to speak up, Dade moved on. “Next up is Manda. Who was she really? And where is she now?”

  “I have something on that issue,” said Trill. “But before I offer up my information, I wondered if anyone else has uncovered anything?”

  There were a variety of no’s and mumbles around the table but no new information.

  “I suspected as much,” said Trill, “but it isn’t surprising given what I believe I’ve determined.”

  “’What I believe I’ve determined’ doesn’t sound too confident,” said Brand.

  “Admittedly, my information comes from the spells I’ve cast during the time I spent with Rori at his clan. But I think I have interpreted the information correctly. Let me present it and you be the judge.

  “To be honest, I fiddled around with some minor auguries and such at first because I thought this was not going to pan out. But once I started working at it, some of my early discoveries started to intrigue me. I started making more direct and specific inquiries. In particular, I used a spell that allows the caster to ask questions and get direct answers. However, the questions must be answerable by a ‘yes’ or a ‘no’. Though sometimes you get a third answer of ‘unknown’. This setup can lead to its own challenges, but it is useful.

  “One of the first questions I asked that got meaningful results was simply, ‘Was Manda working for Cinder Black?’ The answer was ‘no’.”

  “That’s a relief,” said Wergen. “I didn’t like to think that little one was involved with that snake.”

  “Not so fast,” said Trill with a smile. “If you’ve got the questions to spare, when casting this particular spell, it’s often useful to ask the question a second time in the reverse.”

  “Wait? What?” said Rori. “Please explain why asking questions in reverse is useful?”

  “Here’s a good example,” said Trill. “Let’s say you are looking for a certain treasure chest and that you suspect you know the building the chest is being stored in.”

  “Okay,” said Rori.

  “Using the spell you ask, ‘Is the chest in that house over there?’ The answer you get is ‘no’. You then ask, ‘Is the chest outside of that house over there?’ The answer you get is ‘no’.”

  “How can the chest not be in the house or outside of the house?” asked Baxter.

  “Because it could have been destroyed. If the chest no longer exists, then it is not inside or outside of the house,” replied Jeremy. After he got a few quizzical looks he added, “I’ve dealt with this type of logic before. Clerics have similar spells.”

  “Exactly,” said Trill. “So, when I asked several variations on the question, ‘Was Manda not working with Cinder Black,’ ‘Was Manda not affiliated with Black’ or even ‘Was Manda working against Black,’ the answers were also ‘no’.”

  After a pause Rori said, “So Manda was neither working for or against Black? How does that work out?”

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  “It gets weirder. I also asked if Manda was dead. The answer was ‘no’. I asked if she was alive. The answer is also ‘no’.”

  “Did you ask any questions that you got clear answers to?” asked Ian.

  “Yes. I asked if she was a Cunāe. The answer was again ‘no.’ I asked if she was something other than Cunāe and the answer was ‘yes’.”

  “So, what does it all add up to?” asked Ian.

  “I have one more set of questions and answers to add,” said Trill. “I also asked if Manda had gone to the valley to wait for someone. The answer was ‘no.’ I then asked if Manda was hiding in the wagon waiting on someone. The answer was ‘yes’. I then asked if she hid in the wagon to specifically wait for us. The answer was ‘yes.”

  “Okay, let me see if I can summarize,” said Sean, “because it is starting to make my head hurt. We know that Manda was not Cunāe. We know she was both hiding in the wagon waiting for us to find her and not waiting for us to find her, and she was neither working for Cinder Black nor against him nor apart from him. Of course, all that is unimportant because Manda at this point is neither alive nor dead. Did you ask if she was ever alive? Maybe we imagined her.”

  “You’ve gotten part of it wrong,” said Brand. “Trill asked if she went to the valley to wait for us and was told ‘no’. But she was waiting for us later. That just means that she went there for some other purpose, but then when she knew we were coming she hid waiting for us.”

  “That’s what I believe as well,” said Trill.

  “But the child would have had to have hid once the valley was already ablaze. She would have had to have seen the attack and survived. Which would have to make her at least an ally of Cinder Black. Would it not?” asked Honoria.

  “That would make sense,” admitted Brand. “Can anyone think of a way in which someone can be neither an ally nor an enemy of someone, at the same time they are also not neutral to that person?”

  “What if Cinder Black had no knowledge of her?” asked Dade. “If he didn’t know she was there then it would fit, wouldn’t it?”

  “Could be,” said Trill. “Is Manda some sort of third-party independent actor, who just happened to be in the right place at the right time?”

  “But you’re forgetting that she is also not alive or dead. How does that work?” said Sean.

  “There are spells that can sort of freeze a person in time,” said L’nova. “You might then be considered neither alive nor dead.”

  “I thought of that,” said Trill. “I asked about temporal stasis and anything like that in general terms and specifically by name. I do not believe that is the answer.”

  “What if Manda wasn’t actually her name?” asked Brand. “If I told you my name was Cedric, and you later asked the spell if Cedric was alive. Would it say ‘no’ even though Brand was still alive?”

  “It would depend in part on how you asked it,” said Jeremy. “Though this isn’t the exact wording we’ve used so far, these two examples should help you see. First, we could ask, ‘Is Cedric somewhere on the planet right now?’ Assuming you were not currently pretending to be Cedric, the answer could be ‘no’. However, ‘is the person that I know as Cedric still alive?’ The answer is ‘yes’.”

  “Okay, so what you are saying is that Trill’s spell was useless?” said Ian in frustration.

  “I’d like to think not,” said Trill. “But I did make the caveat from the beginning that spells like this are often confusing. It’s just a matter of finding the right set of facts that make all of the answers fit.”

  “Anybody have something like that?” asked Dade.

  “I don’t have anything on that, but I do have a separate idea,” said Rori. “What if Manda wasn’t a child? What if she was older than she looked? Whenever we are in Lycea, Nolan is often followed by this halfling that disguises himself by looking like a child. The first time I saw him I thought he was a child. But being a halfling, he clearly must be much older. What if Manda wasn’t a young girl?”

  “It would make her being a spy seem much more plausible,” said Brand. “She’s somehow in the valley. She either arrives after the fire has started or manages to stay hidden while whatever it was that happened happens. She then sees that we are arriving and so she hides somewhere. Maybe she has fire resistance spells or items to protect her from the fire in case we are too slow. Then she makes just enough noise so that she gets found. She’s a young girl, so we automatically go into protect the innocent mode and she’s infiltrated us without even trying.”

  “I’ve got two problems with that,” said Dade. “The first is that we still don’t know why she was there. It would make sense if she was working for Cinder Black. Then she is setting herself up to get found so that she can assist in kidnapping Kedra. But Trill’s spell tells us she is not working for Black.

  “My second problem is that it means that we all got duped and that includes Nolan. I don’t like that, because the list of people who can successfully tell one lie to Nolan without him noticing is pretty short, never mind spend days stringing lies together without it getting noticed.”

  “She could . . .” started Nolan who then trailed off into silence clearly lost in his own train of logic.

  Dade waited a moment to see if Nolan would continue, but when he didn’t, he continued on his own. “Anyone else have a comment?”

  “Don’t forget it also means that Brand’s shining moment was a set-up and a sham,” said Ian with a grin.

  “That’s where you’re wrong,” said Brand without a pause. “I wasn’t even there. You forget, that was some loser named Brandan.”

  There was a bit of chuckling and an elbow in Brand’s ribs, but everyone fell quiet pretty quickly.

  “No offense to Trill,” said Sean. “But how reliable is your spell? Is it possible the answers are wrong or maybe confused? If so, it would explain a lot.”

  “Yeah,” added Rori. “Could Manda wear some kind of ring like I’ve got to make the truth about her unfindable?”

  “The ring wouldn’t do it,” said Kedra, “or at least not all of it. Nondetection prevents people from finding you, but it can’t hide facts about you. I suppose if you asked if Manda was currently alive, it might confuse the answer. Jeremy or Trill can confirm this, but I believe if that were the case, the answer you would have gotten would have been ‘unknown’ and not ‘no.’ The ring would have had no effect on the questions about her intentions or who she was working for. Those facts and those events are in the past. If someone tried to find Rori right now, they would get nothing. If someone asked if Rori had been in Lycea last month, they would get a ‘yes’.”

  “Also, the spell is pretty infallible,” said Trill. “The questions are essentially asked directly to your deity. I’d like to think that Eleros doesn’t get that confused.”

  “Wait,” said Ian, “every time you cast that spell you are directly asking a god ‘yes’ ‘no’ questions? Doesn’t that get annoying for them? ‘Hey god, did I leave my boots in the bedroom?’ ‘Hey god, is it going to rain tomorrow?’ They must be going crazy!”

  “I don’t believe the god actually has to spare any thought to answering the questions. Also, it is not a spell that a novice could cast,” answered Trill, “and it costs 500 gold every time you cast it.”

  “Five Hundred Gold!” cried Ian. “You said you cast it numerous times. You said you had ‘questions to spare’. How much money did you spend! Never mind, don’t tell me. I don’t want to know.”

  “All knowledge has a cost. It just happens that this knowledge costs gold. Fortunately, it is Lorenthian gold,” said Trill with a shrug. “Like many divination spells, the problems arise because you do not fully realize the full meaning of the questions you ask.”

  “And we thank you for it Trill,” said Dade. “As I said before, even confusing answers are better than nothing at this point. And it does give us all something to work on. Okay, now let’s focus on something new. It seems that somebody wants Rori dead and is willing to pay quite a lot to get it done.

  “Most of the attempts so far have come from one assassin. Though just recently there was an attempt made by some Azirites.”

  “I’m sorry,” said Trill. “I was under the impression the assassin girl was involved in this latest attempt as well.”

  “No, it was three Azirites,” said Sean. “One cleric and two thugs.”

  “But were there not blowgun darts involved in this attack as well?” asked Trill.

  “Were there?” asked Wergen.

  “Then maybe she was involved,” said Ian.

  “Maybe,” said Dade in a loud voice drowning out the others’ chatter. “Maybe we should ask Rori since he was there.”

  “Good point,” said Trill in the sudden quiet.

  “There were three Azirites just as Sean said,” said Rori, “but there were also blowgun darts. The Azirite cleric was using a spell to cause lightning to strike wherever he pointed. He blew the wagon I was on to smithereens and took several potshots at me while I was hiding in the tall grass. I charged them and they were subdued in the ensuing fight.”

  “How was a blowgun involved?” asked Kedra.

  “When I was on top of the wagon, before it got destroyed, there were two darts shot at me. The first flew over my head. The second ended up hitting the side of the wagon.”

  “Did you inspect it afterwards?” asked Nolan.

  “It didn’t even occur to me. And after the wagon exploded, I’m not sure there would have been anything left of it to find. We started searching for anything salvageable in the wreckage, but almost immediately gave it up as hopeless. We ended up just leaving the entire wreck sitting there.”

  “Could you find your way back to the spot? I think I’d like to have a look.”

  “Maybe. But even if I can’t, I’m sure one of the Cunāe from my clan could.”

  “I could easily find it,” said Trill. “I’ll take you there whenever you’d like.”

  “Why do you think it is the same assassin? Why couldn’t it have been the Azirites?” asked L’nova.

  “They didn’t have a blowgun in their stuff,” said Rori.

  “Also, blowguns are not particularly accurate weapons at long range,” said Ian.

  “There is no possible way those Azirites were firing the darts. The distance was much too far,” said Trill.

  “If they were not the ones, it does not mean the assassin was,” said Honoria. “Could it not have been another Azirite?”

  “Possibly, but blowguns are not a commonly used weapon,” said Nolan. “That’s one of the reasons I want to get one of those darts. I’m assuming you or Ian will be able to compare it to the previous ones.”

  “Of course.”

  “It doesn’t make a lot of sense,” said Brand.

  “What doesn’t?” asked Rori.

  “The assassin attacking you there with a blowgun.”

  “The whole thing doesn’t make sense,” said Nolan. “But you explain what you mean and then I’ll add what I’ve got to it.”

  “Why did she try to attack there? You were lying on top of the wagon. It would have been tough to get a good angle to attack you from the ground. The wagons pass through wooded areas all of the time. Why not wait until then and shoot you from above in the trees.

  “She also would have to have been pretty close to you. And yet you didn’t see her. Why not? I’m going to guess she was invisible. If that is true, why not jump onto the wagon and get you? Or again sit unseen in a tree as you ride under it?”

  “Maybe she knew what the Azirites were doing and was trying to beat them to the kill,” said Sean. “No offense, Rori.”

  “None taken,” said Rori. “But if that was the case, why not just let them kill me? She would have been much closer. She could have snatched up my dead body and gotten away long before they would have gotten close.”

  “Any chance they were working together?” asked Baxter.

  “Doubtful,” said Dade. “Azirites don’t do ‘work together’. Also, don’t forget the assassin is either an elf or a half-elf, which makes doing anything with the Azirites unlikely.”

  “It’s actually a good thing that she did attack first,” said Rori, “It was only because she missed the first time that I even woke up in time to avoid getting struck.”

  “What do you mean,” asked Sean.

  “There was something wrong with the darts she was using. The first one buzzed so loudly as it flew by it woke me up. The second one did the same thing. I’m assuming there was something wrong with the fletching on both.”

  “Bad fletching does not make a loud buzz,” said Ian. “Bad fletching makes the arrow or dart fall short or pull off course.”

  “He’s right,” said Honoria.

  “Of course I am right,” said Ian. “Why wouldn’t I be right?”

  “I never said you would not be,” said Honoria with a confused look on her face. “Nobody doubted you.”

  “Then why did you say I was right?”

  “Because you were.”

  “Is it that I don’t understand women or that I don’t understand elves that you confuse me so?” asked Ian, but before anyone could answer he went on. “As I was saying, that wasn’t a mistake. If the blowgun darts were buzzing loudly, it was intentional. I have arrows that do similar things. They are used to alert people and as signals and such.”

  “Also true,” said Honoria.

  Ian started to protest again but Wergen interrupted him by saying, “Don’t fight it, son. The truth is you don’t understand women. But don’t feel bad, there are few men who do. Of course, you don’t understand elves either.”

  “Thanks,” said Ian.

  “Why would she fire darts like that?” asked Rori.

  “Obviously to wake you up,” said Brand. “To get you off the wagon so that you didn’t get killed.”

  “So now she’s trying to protect me?”

  “In all likelihood, only so that she can kill you herself,” said Nolan. “That’s what I was referring to earlier. Killing somebody with lightning strikes from a distance is a pretty dumb way to try an assassinate someone. It doesn’t make a lot of sense, unless you don’t actually need the body. Which if you go back to the first attempt at the cattle auction, makes a lot of sense. If she had hit Rori then, how would she have picked up the body and gotten away in the middle of that crowded courtyard?”

  “If you don’t have the body, how do you collect the reward?” asked Baxter.

  “Magic, of course,” said Nolan. “The person who is offering the reward has some magical means of not only verifying that the target is dead, but also of who it was that did the killing. If that is true, then it makes sense that she stopped the Azirites from killing you because she wouldn’t get the credit.

  “It also makes sense why the Azirites would try to do it from a long distance away. Most people would not survive a single strike of lightning. They could hit you once, jump on their horses and ride away and nobody would be the wiser. It’s possible the Cunāe wouldn’t even realize it wasn’t anything more than natural, random lightning.”

  “And since it is the phren who have put out the contract on you,” said L’nova, “it makes sense that they would verify it magically. The phren don’t put their shirts on without magic if they can help it.”

  “And are we sure that the phren are behind the attacks?” asked Jeremy.

  “As sure as we can be,” said Nolan.

  “No, we’re as sure as Eleros can be,” said Trill. “I had some extra questions, remember.”

  “Please don’t remind me,” said Ian with a groan. “Did you find your missing boot as well?”

  “If we can move past that,” said Dade interrupting with a smile, “let’s see if anyone has anything to contribute to our final topic. Which is ‘why?’ Why do the phren want Rori dead?”

  “I suppose the obvious answer is that he’s connected to Meredith. He’s the first new member of Meri’s Monks that has been seen in ages. So, he’s special,” said Jeremy.

  “There are lots of special people in the world,” said Nolan. “No offense, Rori.”

  “None taken,” said Rori.

  “I mean, it is possible that has something to do with it,” said Nolan, “but it implies a lot of knowledge on their part and seems a bit of an extreme solution to something that largely wouldn’t affect them.”

  “I just assumed it was somehow connected to your getting the sword and freeing me,” said Kedra. “They were sore about Rori snatching me away and they are getting revenge.”

  “Also a possibility,” said Nolan, “but again half a million gold is a pretty large amount of angry. If the phren were willing to pay half a million gold to kill anyone who ever pissed them off, they would have to have more gold than the dwarves.”

  “Let’s not be silly,” said Wergen.

  “That’s just my point,” said Nolan. “They don’t have that much gold.”

  “I think the answer is the same as the answer to one of our first questions,” said Brand.

  There was a moment while everyone tried to remember what exactly Brand was referring to, then Baxter said, “I have no idea what that was. And my brain is too tired to want to puzzle it out. Please just tell me.”

  “The question was ‘why us?’ Why did the phren get us to go get the sword? The answer is simply that Rori is special. We can extend it to other things as well. Why did Meredith choose him? Why didn’t Dade kill him at the outset? Why was he able to actually get the sword when many others had tried and failed? And other questions too. I think the answer is that Rori is somehow significant.”

  Rori sat in uncomfortable silence as the others all stared at him and thought Brand’s statements through.

  “I don’t suppose you have anything to back that up?” asked Nolan.

  Brand’s only reply was a shrug.

  “Well, it’s a nice theory, but you have to be careful not to apply significance to coincidence. Or to confuse causality with correlation. Meredith may have chosen Rori because he was significant to her. But the answer to why he could get the sword is that he was chosen by Meredith. Dade didn’t kill him because he begged for mercy and Dade is a decent human being. And who knows, maybe because Meredith had chosen him. And the phren probably chose us because even without Rori this company has done and can do impressive things. Add Rori in and we are that much more impressive. I think the reason must be something more than that.”

  “Well unless somebody else has a theory, I think we are done with the discussion. Now it’s time for Dade to tell us what we are doing next,” said Sean.

  “Trill, Kedra can take you and Nolan back to the site of the Azirite attack. Once that is done, feel free to continue trying to find answers with your magic. Try to not let the sound of Ian’s groaning over the cost interfere.”

  “Everyone else has the same instructions as before. Find out more about any or all of the topics we’ve discussed today. Find out about Manda. Find out about the assassin. Find out about phren. Find out about the Cunāe and about the attack on the mountain retreat. Find out something. Yes, the Cunāe conclave will hopefully give us some of these answers, but we still have a lot of time before that, and I would like to know as much as we can before it begins.

  “Kedra and Jeremy’s magic is keeping this place shrouded in secrecy right now, but they can’t keep that up forever. Tomorrow their spells will wear off and then we only have equipment to keep Rori and two others from being magically spied on. Who those two people are will rotate as needed. If anyone has a reason to stay or go let me know before morning.

  “I’d like for Brand to come with Trill and I,” said Nolan. “And I’d like for him to help me with some things after that.”

  Brand gave Nolan a questioning look, but Nolan ignored it.

  “Done,” said Dade. “Then if there isn’t anything else, Kedra can bring some people back tonight and the rest will head out in the morning.”