unusual companion you keep,” Dahlia went on. “A drow and a dwarf, side by side.”
“We are anything but common,” Jarlaxle assured her. He grinned again, thinking of another pair he knew, drow and dwarf, who had forged an amazing friendship over many decades. “But yes, Athrogate is an unusual creature, to be sure. Perhaps that is why I find him interesting, even endearing.”
“His words do not match the cut of his clothing.”
“If one can call ‘bwahaha’ words” Jarlaxle replied. “Trust me when I tell you that I have civilized him beyond my wildest expectations. Less spit and more polish.”
“But have you tamed him?”
“Impossible,” Jarlaxle assured her. “That one could fight a titan.”
“We’ll need that.”
“So Athrogate has told me, as he told me that you’ve found a place of great dwarven treasures, an ancient homeland.”
“You sound skeptical.”
“Why would you come to me? Why would an elf seek the alliance of a drow?”
“Because I need allies in this endeavor. It’s a dangerous road, and underground at that. As I’ve considered the powers that be in Luskan, it seems that the dark elves are more reliable than the High Captains, or the pirates, and that leaves me with … you.”
Jarlaxle’s expression remained unconvinced.
“Because the place is thick with dwarf ghosts,” Dahlia admitted.
“Ah,” said the drow. “You need a dwarf most of all. One who can speak to his ancestors and keep the hordes at bay.”
The elf shrugged, not denying it.
“I’m offering you fifty percent of the take,” she said, “and I expect that take to be considerable.”
“Which fifty?”
It was Dahlia’s turn to wear a puzzled expression.
“You take the mithral and I get a mound of copper coins?” Jarlaxle explained. “I’ll take fifty, but my preferred fifty.”
“One to one,” Dahlia argued, meaning alternating picks on the booty.
“And I pick first.”
“And I, second and third.”
“Second and fourth.”
“Second and third!” Dahlia demanded.
“Have a fine journey,” Jarlaxle replied, and he tipped his hat and started away.
“Second and fourth, then,” the elf agreed before he’d gone three steps.
“Yes, I need you,” she admitted as the drow turned back to regard her. “I’ve spent months uncovering this place, and tendays more narrowing down my first choice as guide.”
“First choice?” Jarlaxle said.
“First choice,” Dahlia replied, and again the drow wore that doubting expression.
“Not Borlann the Crow?” Jarlaxle asked with a derisive snort. “Do you truly believe that one as striking as you can move about the city unseen?”
“Borlann served in the search, but was never the goal of it,” Dahlia replied. “I’d sooner take the drunks down the street with me.” She returned the drow’s sly grin. “He doesn’t think much of you, by the way, or of your many black-skinned comrades. He takes great pride in having driven you from the City of Sails.”
“Is that what you believe?”
The elf didn’t answer.
“That I am driven from the very city I now stand within?” Jarlaxle elaborated. “Or that my … associates would fear the wrath of Borlann the Crow, or any of the High Captains—or all of the High Captains should they band together against us? Which they would never do, of course. It would not take much of a bribe to turn two of them against the other three, or three of them against the other two, or four of them against Borlann, if that was the course we wished. Do you, who claim to have learned the secrets of power in Luskan, doubt that?”
Dahlia considered his claims for a moment then replied, “And yet, by all accounts, drow are more scarce in the city of late.”
“Because we’ve used it up. We’ve long ago emptied Luskan of all the treasures that interested us. We remain in the shadows, for the city remains a marginally useful source of information. Some ships still dock here, and from every port on the Sword Coast.”
“And so Borlann the Crow and the other High Captains are the true power after all.”
“If it serves us for them to believe so, then let it be so.”
That reply had Dahlia shifting uncomfortably for the first time, Jarlaxle noted, though she did well to hide it. He would have to play his hand carefully with her. She had ulterior motives, and he didn’t want to scare her off by making her fear that she would be getting herself in too far over her head with him. Still, the elf intrigued him, and the mere fact that she had so beautifully and thoughtfully engaged Athrogate to get to him showed him that she was not ill-prepared—in anything she did, he