Chapter 16: Skin Deep
"I hate this," Jaheira growled as she attempted to clamber up the stairs to the back rooms of the Copper Coronet, an exceedingly difficult manoeuvre in the clothes she was wearing, and whilst Khalid was hovering around to catch her in case she fell, she wasn't too comfortable about him being that close when so much of her was on display. "Why did I have to do it?"
"I c-couldn't exactly d-do it, c-could I?" Khalid pointed out, trying to be ready to maintain the druid's balance if needed whilst not allowing his eyes to linger anywhere Jaheira wouldn't appreciate them resting.
"Yes, but as a damned courtesan? What do Gorion and Darial think they're playing at?" she hissed as they reached the top of the stairs, and she made a valiant effort to tug the flimsy clothing around her so it gave the imagination a bit more of a workout.
"J-just play along. And t-try to stay in character; we d-don't want t-to attract too m-much unwanted attention," he replied, pushing the door open and leading the way in to the back rooms, which all looked fairly innocent enough save the collection of scantily-clad ladies lingering by most of the doorways, a handful of less virtuous characters lurking about them.
The two Harpers did their best to not look too taken aback by the view, and strode down to the end of the corridor – as well as Jaheira could stride, that is, with the skirt and the shoes – where a woman who was, as Belgrade had put it when they were discussing the plan, 'built like a galleon' waited authoritatively.
Khalid pasted a smile onto his face as they approached. "You would b-be M-Madame Nimes?" he asked as politely as possible, ignoring the waves of the other courtesans lurking around.
The woman raised an eyebrow and looked him up and down, smirking a little as the young half-elf turned bright red. "Aye, that would be me. You'd be the two that blonde-haired noble talked about?" He nodded slowly. "Aye, you would be. Fine looking man, that one was… couldn't quite say no…"
As Madame Nimes mumbled for a few seconds about how delectable Belgrade apparently was, Khalid glanced back at Jaheira, and fortunately managed to stifle a grin at the druid's expression. Whilst her automatic response was to be angry and vaguely possessive, the brain kicked in and she managed to appear fairly impassive, but the moment of conflict was vaguely amusing.
"So you will help us?" Jaheira prompted, glaring a little.
Madame Nimes finally acknowledged the druid's existence and threw her an evaluating glance, one which was semi-approving. "Aye, of course. Got the money, shall do as you ask. When the baron's men come along, I'll push you in their direction. Not a hardship."
Jaheira sagged with relief as Khalid turned to her. "Then I s-suppose you j-just have to survive about an h-hour here until P-Ployer's men t-turn up… fending off any l-low life that m-makes an advance. I should g-get g-going myself," he told her, before heading off down the corridor out the way they'd come.
Jaheira frowned after him. "Fending off any low life…?" she mumbled, then paused as she spotted someone approaching her out of the corner of her eye. She shifted a little to give the short, fairly bloated man an evil glare. "Don't even think about it," she snapped, enhancing the glare until he hurried off towards a slightly more willing courtesan. The druid sighed. It was going to be a long night.
* *
Xanthus collapsed onto the hard bed with a sigh of vague delight, luxurious as this low-grade servants' room was in comparison to his cell. There was… a mattress! And not a sign of any rats anywhere. A shame he'd only be able to enjoy this room for a few minutes, though he supposed he was supposed to be enjoying it immensely.
A light tap at the door shifted him into action, and he sat up briskly, unnecessarily taut in preparation of any possible dangers that could suddenly appear. He shook his head and cleared his throat. "Yes?"
The door swung open, and in strode a fairly bulky guard of Ployer's, followed by a lithe woman with delicately pointed ears dressed in what Xanthus vaguely recognised as a courtesan's attire.
The guard raised an eyebrow obtusely as he looked at the Rashemani gladiator. "Here's your fun. You got ten minutes," he barked shortly, gesturing vaguely at the half-elf as he shrugged.
As he turned to go, the courtesan raised a hand briefly. "One thing, though…" The guard paused, and looked inquisitively at her… in time to receive a fist smashing him in the nose from a courtesan who was distinctly stronger and more violent than he had exactly anticipated.
The guard staggered back, crashing into the wall, and was about to struggle to regain his balance when Xanthus leapt upon him, cracking the guard's skull against the wall and allowing him to slide limply to the floor, unconscious.
Xanthus glanced briefly at the courtesan, looking pleasantly surprised. "They said that a courtesan would be telling me what to do when she arrived. I had not expected anything quite this… active. I am Aergoth Xanthus."
The courtesan nodded. "I know who you are. You may call me Jaheira." The half-elf shuffled about the guard's person, pulling out a short sword, which she passed over to Xanthus, and a smaller dagger on the belt which she used to cut a slit on the side of her dress, allowing her distinctly freer movement.
She straightened up and glanced at the gladiator. "There were very few guards from here to the main entrance. I suppose they didn't exactly expect a courtesan to attack them." Jaheira smiled wryly. "If we can get to the servant's entrance near the kitchen, which is only around the corner from here, there are a group of Harpers we can let in, and they'll take over from there. Do you know where Ployer is."
Xanthus nodded, looking a little stunned from Jaheira's sudden arrival, action, and spouting of information. "Down in the cells. He's with Skorrid and Warner – they're looking at some of the fighters, trying to come up with something interesting when the Copper Coronet's fights start next week. They should be at it most of the night – they usually are."
Jaheira nodded curtly. "Good… it's not too far from the kitchen to the back staircase to the cells… Fewer guards to deal with. Once we get to Ployer, we can bring in the Athkatlan guards, and it'll all be over from there."
The gladiator raised a hand slowly. "One step at a time. First, we get your friends inside, and let them take care of it. There are only two of us, and if we attract attention, it will all be over very quickly. You seem a very competent woman, and I can handle myself in a fight, but Ployer has many guards – has to, to keep his slaves in line. We can't fight all of them."
She nodded again. "I know. Which is why we must be careful." She paused, and glanced at him briefly. "I assume you have some spells prepared? A magic missile could be a good, quick way to take down an individual guard if the need arises."
Xanthus shrugged as he inspected the sword she had given him. "I'm prepared. You may think all gladiators just mess around fighting slowly for the display, I do know the quickest way to kill somebody." He paused and grimaced as he said that, but passed no comment. "Anyway, we should get going, before someone starts to wonder where he is," he continued, nodding at the unconscious guard. He paused. "How do you know where the kitchen is, and everything?"
"Hmm? Oh, took a look at the plans to Ployer's house," Jaheira replied, peeking cautiously out of the door to ensure that no guards were in sight. "It's clear. Let's go," she finished, leading the way out.
The two of them moved as silently down the corridor as possible, heading for the kitchen. This late in the evening, most of the guards were approaching the ends of their shifts, and so weren't particularly inclined to investigate an odd noise, or an erratic shadow down the end of the corridor. After all, the next guy could take care of it. So the gladiator and the Harper reached the kitchen without incident… nearly.
Xanthus almost ran into Jaheira's back as the druid skidded to a halt before a corner, just around which was the door that led to the kitchen. The Rashemani swore in his native tongue under his breath, and threw her a slightly exasperated glance. "What?"
Jaheira glared at him. "There's a guard blocking our path. He's standing right in front of the door to the kitchen."
Xanthus paused, peeking around the corner briefly. Indeed, there was a guard lounged against the wall next to the kitchen door, and it didn't look as if he was going to kindly walk off for no apparent reason either. He swore again, then glanced at Jaheira. "Can you distract him?"
"Me? What? How?"
The gladiator rolled his eyes. "A scantily clad woman walks up to him, he's going to be distracted. Can you just get him so he has his back to me? I can zap him there. But I don't think he's going to kindly let me walk around the corner and do a bit of chanting until I throw a magic missile at him."
Jaheira glared at him, her mind obviously working in a hunt for a suitable alternative, but coming up blank. She swore at him, grimacing, then nodded slowly. "Very well. But tell nobody of this," she growled, shifting her clothes so they were a little more revealing once again, then swaggered around the corner.
The fairly Neanderthal-like guard spotted some movement out of the corner of his eye, and perked up immediately, lifting his halberd swiftly yet a little clumsily. "Halt! Who… ooh…" The attentive expression increased tenfold, even though his eyes glazed over a touch as he saw the scantily-clad half-elf approaching him with a very willing expression on her face.
Jaheira tried not to grit her teeth as she sauntered up to the guard, looking slightly hopeful and lost. "Could you perhaps help me?" she asked lightly, trying to drive any semblance of intelligence out of her voice as she spoke. "I was supposed to come here… for the gladiator… but I appear to have become lost…"
The guard smiled brightly, but after a few seconds a slightly suspicious expression crossed his face. "Weren't you supposed to be escorted to the chambers?" he asked dubiously, raising a bushy eyebrow.
Jaheira managed not to swear as she traced a hand lightly along the guard's upper arm. "Yes, but… these things… so easy to avoid," she declared loftily, slowly circling the guard, who did his best to keep track of her, until he was facing the kitchen door. Jaheira finally came to a halt and looked straight on. "It must be a very tiresome job, this," she murmured, silently willing Xanthus to move.
The guard, who was visibly torn between two forms of action, shifted uncomfortably. "Well… urk…"
Although such a monosyllabic answer as 'urk' was not too unexpected, coming from someone of his limited brain capacity, it was, in all fairness, not entirely his fault as pair of small red glowing arcane spheres thudded into his back and he collapsed to the floor.
Xanthus meandered forwards, pulling his sword back out from where he'd shoved it in his belt, and looked inquisitively at the druid. "Nice performance," he commented quietly, smirking a little in a distinctly uncharacteristic way, the adrenaline of this escape summoning up a slightly euphoric feeling he was quite unused to.
Jaheira nodded as she checked to see if the guard was still alive. He was breathing irregularly, but he was breathing. She too could feel her heart racing as she straightened up, the rush of action from this first assignment stimulating her in a mixture of nervousness and delight. "Shut up," she mumbled to the gladiator, shaking her head, then glanced sideways. "Well… let us continue, and pass the torch of this quest on to someone else," the druid continued, nodding at the door to the kitchen.
"Aye… I'm following," Xanthus replied casually as they stepped inside.