"Hah!" Victor laughed, and there was a bully-like tone to his amusement. "Imagine how they'll all look when they discover that their very own croamarkh is the leader of the Night Masks." Olive almost gasped with surprise. "It should leave them in a decided quandary, sir," Kimbel replied as calmly as if he and the merchant lord were discussing the price increase of Selgaunt marble. Victor laughed the same unpleasant laugh again.

"They'll be no better off than the rabble they consider their inferiors. The only way they'll manage to hold on to their power is by choosing a popular candidate-the one wearing the token of Alias of the Inner Sea-the woman who freed them from the yoke of the Night Masks." Victor took a small c^se from his tunic, opened it, and displayed the braid of hair that Alias had cut off and given him. It was now,fastened to a pin. "If the nobles are frightened enough by the Faceless's plot to destroy them all, they may evenЪе convinced that it is time to restore a monarchy, return Westgate to the status of a kingdom." "Is it certain then that the croamarkh will be revealed as the Faceless?" Kimbel asked. "Alias and her companions stumbled upon me investigating the Faceless's lair. I got in with this key," Victor said, holding up the key he'd shown Olive earlier. "Unfortunately, like a fool, I touched off a water trap and we were all washed out to the sewer, where we barely escaped the quelzam. I had to admit to Alias that I found the key in my father's desk. She has given me time to ask him to explain the key. I do not think he will do so." "No," Kimbel agreed.

"Alias should be with Durgar now, planning to check out this lair at the next low tide. In the meantime, you and I both have lots to do," the noble said, rising to his t: feet. "Come along."

Victor strode to the door. He passed so close to the mounted displacer beast Olive hid behind that the halfling could feel the breeze of his passing. Olive held her breath as the nobleman exited the room. Kimbel paused for a moment by the doorway, and the former assassin's eyes narrowed, much the same way, Olive thought, as Dragonbait's did when the paladin was using his sken sight. Kimbel stared directly at the displacer beast. Olive knew he could not possibly see into the dark shadows of the ill-lit room, but she grew acutely aware of the sound of her heart pounding in her chest, and if she could have stopped it from beating at that moment, she would have. Her fingers tightened about the hilt of her sword, prepared to draw it in a hurry.

"Kimbel!" Victor called from down the hall. "We haven't got time to waste!"

The geased servant's head snapped back at an unnatural angle as if against his will. He turned to the door and exited the room without looking back.

Olive breathed as silently as she could. She did not move from her hiding place until the sound of Kimbel's footsteps had faded into nothingness.

When Alias and Dragonbait returned to the Tower, Durgar was still out sifting through the ashes of Mel-man's home, no doubt making sure the treasure found in the basement was thoroughly catalogued before it could be looted. The two adventurers left a message for the priest and hurried to Mintassan's.

There they found Jamal in the middle of a lesson with Kel. The boy seemed much more subdued. Apparently the young Night Mask had gotten a look at Melman's branded face when he had brought the former Night Master his lunch, and now he was seriously rethinking his original career choice.

Mintassan sent Kel off to study on his own. Once the boy was gone. Alias told the actress and the sage of the afternoon's adventure just as she intended to relate it to Durgar-not mentioning Victor's second key. She felt just a hint of guilt deceiving Jamal, but the alternative, she knew, was to have the key and the croamarkh's reputation called into question in Jamal's very next street performance.

Mintassan, eager to get a glimpse of the quelzarn, asked if he could join the next party down to the lair.

"You're on," Alias agreed. She'd been secretly hoping the sage might be enticed into lending his expertise to the expedition. "I was hoping we might make it down there again before high tide."

Then we'd better not waste any time," the sage replied. "Jamal, you game? We'll take a shortcut." He took up Jamal's hand in his right hand and Alias's in his left hand. Jamal snagged Dragonbait's arm. "Silver path, Thunn Bridge," the sage intoned.

Alias felt a buzz in her ears, and a moment later she, Jamal, Dragonbait, and Mintassan all stood in the center of the bridge over the River Thunn. Although she realized Mintassan must possess far more powerful spells than teleportation, the swordswoman was a little taken aback by how casually he used it. "A little showy, aren't you?" she teased the "age.

"Just lazy," Mintassan retorted with a grin. He moved over to the edge of the bridge and peered at the riverbank through the fog. "Where's this door?" the sage asked.

"It's hidden from the view of the bridge by some rocks," Alias explained. The fog was no thicker than it had been this morning, but Alias was unsuccessful in locating the rocks. The rocks, along with the sandbank, were already under water. "It could be tricky getting back in. We'll have to do some wading."

"In the Thunn's current, with a sea serpent in the water!" Jamal exclaimed. "Better count me out." "Which way does the door open?" Mintassan asked.

"Out," Alias explained, realizing with disappointment that the water would make the door very difficult if not impossible to budge.

"I could pass us though the door with a dimensional portal," the sage suggested.

"Most unwise," a voice said from behind them, and out from the mists stepped Durgar, flanked by a large contingent of the watch. "But then you were always a bit reckless, weren't you, Mintassan?" "Not everyone wants to live to be as old as you, Durgar,"

Mintassan taunted.

Durgar smiled coolly at the sage. He held up the note Alias had left for him at the tower. "This door is the entrance to the alleged Faceless's lair?" he asked Alias.

The swordswoman nodded. "I obtained this key from a Night Mask," she explained, handing over the magical key that Melman had given her. Briefly she described how she, Dragonbait, Olive, and Victor had explored and then been expelled from the Faceless's lair. Just as she had before, she omitted any mention that Victor had also had a key and had been in the Faceless's lair before she'd arrived.

"This site is now under the jurisdiction of the watch," the priest declared. "As such, you may not explore it without an official escort. And since I neither expect nor will allow any of my own people to attempt any magical entry that might endanger their health, we will wait until low tide, when the door can again be opened."

"That won't be until hours after midnight," Mintassan growled.

"We can't get in, they can't get in," Durgar pointed out. "I plan to station men in hiding about the bridge and the shore. Perhaps we will catch some Night Masks attempting to enter."

"I don't think that's likely," Alias argued. "As elaborate as the water trap was, I can't imagine that it didn't also include an alarm to warn the Faceless, wherever he might have been at the time."

"Well, we shall see," Durgar said. "If, a half hour after low ebb, no one.has appeared, then I shall go in with my men. I'd appreciate your presence at that time as guides," he said, addressing both Alias and Dragonbait.

"And can I come, too?" Mintassan asked, imitating a schoolboy begging a favor of an adult.

"If you choose to bring another advisor," the priest said to Alias, eyeing Mintassan somewhat disapprovingly, "that's your business. You, though, woman," he addressed Jamal, "have no business here."