The Dream Spheres

"You don't believe this."

She shot him an incredulous look. "The servants who found them said that the bodies were in the hay, not dangling from the rafters."

"Still, is that reason to conclude that the Gundwynd family is wrong?"

"It's reassuring to know that you haven't strangled anyone lately," Arilyn said dryly. "The task demands considerable strength and will. Hard to do, when you're being distracted, and I'd say that being strangled yourself is a bit of a distraction. They could hardly manage to kill each other and die at the same time."

"They would need a bard's timing," Danilo agreed. "So the Watch is not buying the Gundwynds' story, I take it."

"They are not hearing anything but the Gundwynds' story. The servants who told me the tale were encouraged not to talk. Let's move on—there's a Watchman over there who's starting to take note of us."

As they walked, Danilo struggled to sort through this. Like Arilyn, he doubted that Belinda Gundwynd and her lover had contrived their own deaths.

Then who? The Gundwynd family, motivated by the nobility's bias against alliances with elves? If that were so, then Danilo had lived his entire life among creatures more vicious than tren.

"They eat their own," he murmured. "It's a matter of honor."

Arilyn sent him a sharp, concerned look. "Do you really think that's what happened?"

"The possibility is hard to ignore. If I can suspect my own family of attempting to rid itself of elven alliances, why not the Gundwynds?"

"That doesn't account for Oth," Arilyn pointed out.

"No. No, it doesn't, and this will only deepen the scandal regarding Gundwynd and the elven folk. This could mean the end of the Gundwynd fortunes." Danilo stopped short as his mind replayed the angry confrontation between Lord Gundwynd and Lady Cassandra.

"It could mean the end of the Gundwynd fortune," he repeated. "The death of Belinda and her elven love gives substance to every rumor spoken against the family. Who would have reason to do such a thing?"

"One name comes to mind," Arilyn said. "Someone who saw elves die in the ambush and who might want Gundwynd to suffer for it."

Danilo shook his head. "Not Elaith," he insisted. "It simply does not make sense."

"It might not need to," she pointed out. "Remember, he may have the Mhaorkiira. In the past, those who fell under the dark gem's power acted in twisted ways that made sense to no one but themselves."

"It's possible," he allowed. "Certainly some people will believe it to be true, but Lord Gundwynd will not. He will look elsewhere for blame."

"Oh?" she said cautiously.

"Tha

Arilyn nodded slowly, following his reasoning. "If so, none of these recent wounds are self-inflicted."

"If so," he added, "then the time of the Guild Wars could soon be upon us once again."

* * * * *

Arilyn considered Danilo's words for a long time as they left the Gundwynd villa behind. "If you are right, I suspect that this will be a very different type of war," she said at last. "No armies, no open bloodshed in the streets. As Cassandra pointed out, the noble families are very mindful of those times and are not eager to see them return. Any clan that came out in open aggression would be swiftly quelled."

Danilo considered this, then nodded his agreement. He had sat through enough meetings of Waterdeep's secret Lords to see the truth in it. The Lords had been chosen from every corner of the city, every strata of society. As a result, very little happened in the city that did not reach the ears of the hidden rulers. Their decisions were enforced by the Watch as well as a small standing army of guardsmen and some of the most powerful wizards in the Northlands. The days when wholesale war could rage within the city walls were over.

"So what, then?"

The half-elf sent him a measuring look. "You play chess, I suppose."

"When I ca

"It is possible. Waterdeep is a large city, with thousands of games played out on every street. Who notices the loss of a single pawn on a single board? Even Oth Eltorchul's death could be explained in that light. He had ties to the caravan. He arranged to have his dream spheres quietly shipped into the city."

"A plan that Gundwynd carried out, against Lady Cassandra's strong objections and despite an agreement the families had made," Danilo concluded. He sighed and cast a sidelong glance at Arilyn. "In that case, what was Belinda's death? A warning?"

"The Gundwynd clan will probably think so."

"I ca

Arilyn was silent for several moments. "You've just answered your own question."

He lifted one brow in a supercilious arch. "I did? Perhaps I should start listening more closely to myself."

"Let me put it this way: You've heard the old saying about honor among thieves. I wouldn't go that far, but there is definitely a code. The same could be said of assassins. If someone starts getting too greedy or too careless, the others pull him back or do away with him. They can't afford to have too much attention focused on their activities, you see."

"I do indeed, but how does that signify? We are talking about some of the most respected noble houses in Waterdeep!"

"We are talking about merchants," she said bluntly. "None of them wanted to get behind Oth's dream spheres because they knew the sort of attention these would bring. The wizards would have opposed them even before they found out about the disruption of magic, and they would have ferreted out everything there was to know about the trade. Who knows what might have been uncovered in the process?"

Danilo did not answer at once. He sidestepped a pair of street urchins who thundered past in a race as old as Waterdeep itself. The boys rolled a pair of old barrel hoops down the street, sticks in their hands and grins on their dirty faces. Their carefree i

"Your words are hard to accept," he murmured.

"I could be wrong," Arilyn said. She hesitated, then added, "It would explain why your mother was so concerned when Lilly was linked back to the Tha

It occurred to Danilo that perhaps Cassandra had fallen short of the full truth. "Lilly was linked to the Tha

"Yes, but Lilly evidently saw the danger coming. Why else would she go to your father, when she had never made any claim on him before? Until that time, none of you knew her as family."

"Someone else did. Someone she knew well, confided in."

They considered this in silence. "I have been thinking about the ma

His lips thi

"What if the killer wasn't a tren? What if he only appeared to be, and took this guise either to displace suspicion, or from twisted sport?"