Yoshimo handed the key to her. "Here. I'll move into position."
He moved the table to the back of the room, climbed atop of it, and started loosening wooden slats from the ceiling. They easily came undone.
"You spoke of trouble earlier?" Anomen said, turning to Lidia.
"Lehtinan keeps slaves," she replied. "Some of them fight in the rings here. We're going to start a distraction and get them out."
"This place is thick with guards," he said. "Do you intend to take them all on?"
"Not if I can help it. Stick with Minsc and me."
Jaheira slipped out of the group, into the crowd, and went down the stairs. The rest of Gorion's Company left the meeting rooms and went towards the growing noise, the polished balcony, and the arenas.
As they got closer to the edge of the balcony, they got a better view of the ring itself. The ceiling was propped up by rafters, like a wooden skeleton keeping watch over the death that took place. The fighting rings themselves were dug into the earth, with only a set of stairs in each ring to allow entrances and exits. Long spikes bristled from the pits' sides, so that anything tossed or thrown against the wall stood a good chance of being impaled. Each of the pits seemed to have been coated with a new layer of sawdust, but Lidia still smelled a faint whiff of blood, mostly masked by the smell of tobacco smoke and that torporifying floral scent - the torchlight was softened by faint fog.
Around the balcony, there were few places to sit, but the crowd, rich and poor and in between, was thronging together, jockeying for open space along the railing. Everywhere money was passing from hand to hand, anticipation measured by the rising pitch of excited conversation.
Much of the chatter revolved around the slaves. Hendak was mentioned again and again, though there were disappointed-sounding rumors that he had been pulled from today's lineup. The gambling tables evidently weren't doing as well as they might, because the odds they were naming weren't as good: three-to-one on the bear, five-to-one on the dwarf.
Towards the opposite side of the balcony, in a small, fenced-off box, a man with a bright green hat cleared his throat. A hush rose over the crowd like a wave.
He removed a small ball from his pocket and muttered something. Soon it was floating in front of him, glowing with a blue light. His voice boomed louder than that of any mortal man. "If I may have your attention once again, gentlefolk of Athkatla! Lehtinan is proud to provide for your amusement once again! Bring your attention to the pit as we see a combatant fighting for his very life!"
In the side of the room, a small door opened. A dwarf, stripped to the waist, hands manacled, and carrying only a dagger, was shoved across the room by guards and forced into the ring. He stumbled to one side, narrowly avoiding the spikes.
The crowd cheered and jeered, but the dwarf quickly rose to his feet, a look of defiance burning behind his wild, yellow-red hair and beard. From here, all could see a long, ragged scar raked from his shoulder to his collarbone.
The dwarf shouted: "I will not fight! This is inhuman! How can you suffer this to continue? How can you - "
"You have no choice!" the announcer shouted. "Refuse and be devoured for the entertainment of our guests!"
A hail of boos descended from the crowd.
The announcer continued, his amplified voice cutting through the noise: "I trust all bets have been placed! Begin!"
Five guards appeared from a side hallway, bringing in a brown bear by several chains. The audience cheered when it was brought out. Lidia overheard someone nearby: "My, that one looks strong. A step up from those pitiful creatures they usually bring forth."
And in fact this bear was a massive, its shoulder the same height as its handlers. It looked as though it had stumbled into town from the wilderness, with its glossy coat; its wildness seemed impossible to contain; it was all the guards could do to keep it pinned down. It lurched and strained against the chain, pressed forward with jabs from the guards' spears, and so was led down into the pit. As soon as the bear had finished descending the stairs, the guards half climbed, half leapt back up them again. A guard pushed a button near the edge of the pit, and the stairway retreated. The bear and the dwarf now had no escape. They began to circle each other.
Lidia looked up to the rafters. A small flash of silver caught the light and met her eye.
"Let's go," she whispered to the others.
"Justice is called for here! We cannot allow this to continue," Anomen said, earning him some stares from the people crowded around him.
She couldn't impress her point upon him without giving the game away, and in any case there was little time for that. Luckily, she'd discovered that the best strategy for managing an adventuring party, most of the time, was to keep things moving. They usually followed out of curiosity if nothing else.
She turned on her heel, choosing the easiest path through the crowd. She tugged on Minsc's arm, and he followed, with Anomen behind them. The crowd parted in front of the three of them and instantly filled the empty spot on the balcony.
They moved against the crowd flowing forward. A raucous cheer spread around the amphitheater, punctuated with shouts: "Hit 'em again!"
Lidia traced a path towards the back, where the large wooden door led to the kitchen. Celyce was slipping several wooden trays through a small slot. Through the slot, Dibbler's voice crowed an order laced with obscenities. Clearly, Lehtinan's dressing-down from the other day hadn't improved his mood. Celyce seemed more beaten down than usual, wiping her eye as she turned away.
"Good to see you. I brought friends," Lidia said.
The girl gave Minsc an uncertain look.
"It's all right," Lidia said. "His sword is strictly for evildoers."
"Who is shouting so?" Minsc said. "We shall teach them a thing or three about decency, respect, and making little girls cry!"
Celyce looked a bit insulted at being called a "little girl," but gave Lidia a quick nod and broke out into her brisk walk. She pushed aside the nearest wall tapestry to reveal another wooden door. "Here," she whispered, nudging aside a small metal bolt.
They slipped through the door and found themselves in total darkness.
Celyce pulled out a small gem from her pocket, which instantly bathed the hallway in a faint trace of moonlight and made the girl's small, thin, pale hand seem almost translucent. This place strongly resembled the hallway that Lidia had taken the other day, and it seemed to branch off into two directions about ten feet ahead. A faint glow flashed, then dimmed from the left side; she guessed that it came from the kitchen.
"It's far past time we received an explanation," Anomen said, now sounding mildly put out.
As if on cue, a shout issued from the crowd, muffled by the wooden door. But this time, the shouts were filled with panic.
"That's our distraction," Lidia said.
"And our role is…?"
"Insurance. Celyce, lead the way."
They turned to the right and came to the same door to the cells. To Lidia's surprise, the guards were absent. Celyce stepped forward and rapped five times on the wood.
Almost immediately the lock opened. The silver in Sebire's hair gleamed in the white light. She furiously gestured with their hand. "Quick and quiet, now."
They all filed into the prison. The inmates, fifteen in all, were all on their feet, their meager possessions all piled into their hands or into makeshift cloth pack. They waited expectantly, blinking in the light from the torch that Hendak carried. None made a sound.
Lidia produced the key that Yoshimo had given her. "Do you need this?"
"It'll make things a mite faster," she said, her large, grayish hand closing over the key. She handed it to the girl. "Celyce, unlock the cell doors. I'll get these poor souls on their feet."
Lidia shut and bolted the door, then turned to Minsc and Anomen. "Until they're ready to leave, we hold this room."
The sound of metal on metal, raised voices, and heavy footfalls suddenly grew louder.