Dissolution

TEN

Cloaked in the semblance of a squat, leathery-ski

«By the Demonweb!» he exclaimed. «What?» Ryld replied. The weapons master too appeared to be a scurvy broken-down orc in grubby rags. Unbelievably, he was devouring his vile repast without any overt show of repugnance. «What?»

The Master of Sorcere brandished his sausage. «This travesty. This abomination.»

He headed for the culprit's kiosk, a sad little construction of bone poles and sheets of hide, taking care not to walk too quickly. His veil of illusion would make it look as if he were limping, but it wouldn't conceal the anomaly of a lame orc covering ground as quickly as one with two good legs. The long-armed, flat-faced goblin proprietor produced a cudgel from beneath the counter. Perhaps he was used to complaints. Pharaun raised a hand and said, «I mean no harm. In fact, I want to help.» The goblin's eyes narrowed. «Help?» «Yes. I'll even pay another pe

«You were amusing yourself, and it was idiotic. You take the trouble to disguise us, then risk revealing your true identity by playing the gourmet.» «I doubt one small lapse will prove our undoing. It's unlikely that any of our ill-wishers will interview that particular street vendor any time soon or ask the right questions if they do. Remember, we're well disguised. Who would imagine this lurching, misshapen creature could possibly be my handsome, elegant self? Though I must admit, your metamorphosis wasn't quite so much of a stretch.» Ryld scowled, then wolfed down his last bite of sausage and bread. «Why didn't you disguise us from the moment we left Tier Breche?» he asked.

«Never mind, I think I know. A fencer doesn't reveal all his capabilities in the initial moments of the bout.» «Something like that. Greya

Pharaun had never had occasion to walk incognito among the lower orders. It felt odd weaving, pausing, and twisting to avoid bumps and jostles. Had they known his true identity, his fellow pedestrians would have scurried out of his way. As the two drow reached the periphery of the crowd, Ryld pivoted and struck a short straight blow with his fist. A hunchbacked, piebald creature—the product of a mating of goblin and orc perhaps—stumbled backward and fell on his rump. «Cutpurse,» the warrior explained. «I hate this place.» «No pangs of nostalgia?» Ryld glowered. «That isn't fu

«I'm no metaphysician,» said Ryld. «All I know is that somebody should clear the scavengers out of here.» Pharaun chuckled. «What if said clearing had occurred when you were a tyke?» «I don't mean exterminate them—except for the hopeless cases—but why just let them squat here in their dirt like a festering chancre on the city? Why not find something useful for them to do?» «Ah, but they're already useful. Status is all, is it not? Does it not follow, then, that no Menzoberranyr can find contentment without someone upon whom she can look down.» «We have slaves.» «They won't do. Predicate your claim to self-respect on their existence and you tacitly acknowledge you're only slightly better than a thrall yourself. Happily, here in the Stench streets, we find a populace starving, filthy, pe

«It's a different mark,» said Ryld. «Hobgoblin maybe, though I couldn't tell you the tribe.»

«Don't be intentionally dim. It's the same peculiar, reckless, pointless crime.»

«Fair enough, and it's still irrelevant to our endeavors.» «It's a dull mind that never transcends pragmatics. Two signs, representing two races, implying two specimens of the lesser races demented in precisely the same way? Unlikely, yet why would a single artist daub an emblem not his own?» «Coincidence?» «I doubt it, but as yet I can't provide a better answer.» «It's a puzzle for another day, remember?» «Indeed.» The masters walked on. «Still,» pressed Pharaun, «don't you wonder how many scrawled signs we passed without noticing and exactly what form they took?» Ignoring the question, Ryld pointed and said, «That's our destination.»

The house's limestone door stood open, most likely for ventilation, for the interior radiated a perceptible warmth, the product of a multitude of tenants crammed in together. It also emitted a muddled drone and a thick stink considerably fouler than the unpleasant smell that clung to the Braeryn as a whole. Ryld had been born in a similar warren, had fought like a demon to escape it, and he felt a strange reluctance to venture in, as if squalor wouldn't let him escape a second time. Unwilling to appear timid and foolish in the eyes of his friend, he hid the feeling behind an impassive warrior's countenance. Pharaun, however, freely demonstrated his own distaste. The porcine eyes in his illusory orc face watered, and he swallowed, no doubt trying to quell a surge of queasiness. «Get used to it,» said Ryld. «I'll be all right. I've visited the Braeryn frequently enough to have some notion of what these little hells are like, though I confess I never entered one.» «Then stick close and let me do the talking. Don't stare at anybody, or look anyone in the eye. They're likely to take it as an insult or challenge. Don't touch anyone or anything if you can avoid it. Half the residents are sick and probably contagious.» «Really? And their palace gives off such a salubrious air! Ah, well, lead on.» Ryld did as his friend had asked. Beyond the threshold was the claustrophobic nightmare he remembered. Kobolds, goblins, orcs, gnolls, bugbears, hobgoblins, and a sprinkling of less common creatures squeezed into every available space. Some, the warrior knew, were runaway slaves. Others had entered the service of Menzoberranyr travelers who picked them up in far corners of the world, took them back to the city, and dismissed them without any means of making their way home. The rest were descendants of unfortunate souls in the first two categories. Wherever they came from, the paupers were trapped in the Braeryn, begging, stealing, scavenging, preying on one another—often in the most literal sense—and hiring on for any dangerous, filthy job anyone cared to give them. It was the only way they could survive. This particular lot had likewise learned to live packed into the common space without the slightest vestige of privacy. Undercreatures babbled, cooked, ate, drank, tended a still, brawled, twitched and moaned in the throes of sickness, shook and cuffed their shrieking infants, threw dice, fornicated, relieved themselves, and, amazingly, slept, all in plain view of anyone with the ill luck to look in their direction.