Chapter One The Pigeon Drop #3
“Here” was a dining room with six chairs and five places set on an ironed white tablecloth.
All four walls depicted a painted mural that was a full-circle view of Waterdeep, from the dawn rising over its wonders to a starry midnight on the harbor.
Beyond this room was a sitting room with scroll-armed lounges and padded brocade furniture—these two had rented a suite, rather than a private dining room.
This inn was nice—more than that, it was respectable.
What were Zhentarim doing lounging around here?
Mariel passed up a seat to lean against the wall near the door.
It wasn’t the only escape. Saeldian could run into the suite and slip out a door into the hallway. But Mariel would be waiting on the other side. Saeldian and Jubilee’s only hope of escape was playing along until they could leave and have it be Briona’s idea.
Baskets of warm, soft bread and sweet butter arrived, along with a tray of fine cheeses.
The wine Briona had poured was merely passable, but Saeldian was judging it from Waterdhavian standards.
Mariel walked over to get a slice of bread and a goblet of water before returning to stand next to the door.
Five place settings. Jubilee, Briona, and themself were only three. Two more were arriving later. Their real employers?
“I had been told that the house wine was good, but should I ask for a different bottle, Saer Charmhand?”
Shit. Saeldian kept their smile up. “It’s quite pleasant, thank you.”
“And you, Saer Righthoof?” Briona dropped Jubilee’s name like a second shoe. “A different vintage?”
Jubilee set her goblet down to answer. “This one’s fine. Think it’ll pair nicely with rosemary roasted on a leg of something.”
Jubilee was a champion, bantering with their…
benefactors? Captors? But Saeldian was cold.
The Zhents knew their names—their real names.
What had they done to attract the interest of the Black Network?
Had anyone been following them? Were they rankling the competition?
How could they get out of this without Jubilee’s parents finding out?
Bastion and Serenity were going to kill them…
Saeldian laid their hand on their breast and covered the amulet hidden under their clothes. It had thumped. That had always been a signal to choose trust. Had it been wrong?
It had never been wrong. So Saeldian drew a circle around their immaculate makeup and neatly trimmed beard. “Do you mind if I let this rest?”
“Please make yourself comfortable,” Briona said.
Saeldian altered the illusion. The beard disappeared, their jaw softened, and the silken, glossy ebon-wood hair bounced into Saeldian’s usual raven-black curls. The cosmetics Saeldian had applied for a darker brown skin than their own stayed in place.
Briona gazed at them with some interest and said, “Do you always use an illusion to make yourself less alluring?”
“You are so kind,” Saeldian said, “but yes.”
Briona laughed, and a bell sounded in the hallway. Mariel opened the door for servers with a cart. They circled the table, lining the bottom of each plate with a thick sauce and placing thin slices of roast and tiny vegetable pastries on top. The extra place settings remained empty.
“Please, enjoy.”
Saeldian picked up a hot, herb-scented towel to wash their hands before touching anything else. The servers took the cloths away and left.
“So! About this job,” Saeldian said, forcing false cheer into their voice. “I am curious to know how you decided on us.”
Jubilee shifted. “We don’t usually rate this kind of attention.”
Saeldian laughed and made it silvery. “We don’t even have company status!”
“And we’ve never shared a meal with prospective employers,” Jubilee observed. “Makes chatting a little hard to navigate.”
“I don’t need an adventuring company. I need retrieval specialists. Good ones. You fit the bill, and you’re discreet.”
Jubilee’s face fell. “We’re not criminals for hire.”
Briona laughed. “Of course not. If you were, I couldn’t use you. Relax. This isn’t a job suited to any of my associates, but I need adventurers with your skills.”
Jubilee wasn’t wholly convinced, but she nodded. “What’s the job? Expedition?”
Saeldian held their breath. If Briona said yes, they’d both say no.
“We can talk about that in more detail later, but please don’t imagine sneaking into a monster-filled lair. I’m looking for polish and quiet work.”
Monster-filled lair? Did she know—no, she couldn’t possibly. But Jubilee glanced at Saeldian. “If you’re looking for quiet, and you found us, we haven’t been quiet enough.”
“Very few people have the resources I do. No one else could have found you the way I did. Shall we move on to sparkling table conversation?”
“But how—”
“Yes,” Saeldian said. “Sparkling table conversation sounds lovely.”
“Splendid! I’m a bit of an acquisitions specialist myself. What’s your least favorite lock system on a burglary job?” Briona asked.
Saeldian lifted their goblet in approval. “It’s even more awkward now, somehow.”
Briona chuckled. “I’m actually terrible at not talking shop.”
“Come on, we’re all professionals here.” Jubilee lifted her cup in echo. “My least favorite are quickened barrel tumblers.”
“What’s your best technique for those?”
“Steal the key,” Saeldian and Jubilee said together.
“Fair enough. Second-best?”
“You only get one try, so use your lightest fingers,” Jubilee said. “You have to be as quick as a key if you use the picks. Most won’t even take the chance.”
“But not you.”
Jubilee shrugged. “Under perfect conditions? Sure.”
“So are you looking for burglars for this job, then?” Saeldian asked.
Briona gave them a patient smile. “What do you think of the flavor balance with the wine?”
They were going to be civilized about it, then? “The pepper grain on the roast does something interesting with how the minerality develops. I confess I thought this vintage to be a little ordinary, but now I see that it’s a sturdy partner to the meal.”
“Knowing your wine is quite an asset in your part of the job, I imagine?”
So this wasn’t really conversation about food and drink either.
Saeldian had a casual sip, even though they regretted it a moment later.
Briona didn’t just know of Saeldian and Jubilee.
She had studied them both, but Saeldian especially.
While Saeldian had become an irregular customer at some of the better wine shops in Waterdeep, that had been for personal enjoyment only.
They hadn’t deceived a mark with their knowledge of the finer things in years.
But they had, once upon a time, and Briona’s casual conversation about Saeldian’s wine expertise proved that she had drawn a line between Saeldian Charmhand and the Silver Cat of Baldur’s Gate. That should have been impossible. But she knew. How?
“It helps that I like wine,” Saeldian said. “I’ve learned enough to get by.”
“That’s putting it modestly.” Briona patted her mouth with her napkin and sat back.
“You’re very good. Disguise, acting, research—you could walk out of here in rags and convince everyone that you were an abducted house lord before you reached the corner.
Paired with the right lockpick and pickpocket, you’re set to lighten every pocket in Waterdeep. ”
Jubilee clamped her mouth shut, so Saeldian delivered the rebuke for her. “Sometimes picking the right lock is a good deed.”
“Oh, the moral path!” Briona said. “That explains why you were pulling a pigeon drop job on a stranger. It makes so much sense.”
Saeldian bit back a retort. They had been doing that.
And Saeldian had been sloppy, defending their actions for Jubilee’s sake.
All they were trying to do was make sure they could walk out of this expensive suite in this expensive inn without causing a fuss that would reveal that someone was offering a high-risk heist to Bastion Righthoof’s daughter.
Briona rang a bell and waited until the door closed once more before standing to pour a taste of a different wine in each cup. “Now that we all understand each other, let’s get to it. The job has a generous payment in gold dragons. I think you’ll be amused to see these.”
Briona set keys on the table. Jubilee leaned closer at the sight of them.
“Quickened barrel tumblers,” she said. “Eleven teeth. You don’t want us to rob a bank, do you?”
“Oh no, those are holder’s keys,” Briona said. “You can walk right in and they’ll escort you directly to your vault.”
“So much gold you need a vault to hold it,” Saeldian said. “The risk is reflected in the payment, I take it?”
“An excellent question. The payment is high because it is crucial that nothing else at the location be stolen, and because if you can actually manage the job, it’ll be a miracle.”
Jubilee angled her head and tried to look only vaguely interested. “A miracle.”
Shit. Jubilee was a sucker for a challenge. Briona knew it too, because she looked way too casual now. “It’s difficult. It’s a rush job.”
That was exactly what to say to Jubilee to make her interested. “Rushing costs extra.”
Briona snorted. “That’s funny. You need money, and you need it now.”
Saeldian lifted their chin and shrugged. “A vault could have a single nib in it, once we got it open.”
“Luckily for you, I have a deposit receipt. Compare it against your key’s stamp.” Briona pulled a folded square of paper from her sleeve. “This sum is behind each vault key.”
Saeldian unfolded the paper and forgave themself for losing control of their eyebrows.
“How much?” Jubilee asked.
Saeldian didn’t answer. They kept their focus pointed on the deposit slip, the embossed paper, but they were concentrating on what they could see at the corner of their vision: the edges of Briona’s shadow had moved in a way that Briona did not.
Jubilee leaned closer. “Sheld! How much?”