Page 73 of Sea of Stars

That was easy, she thought. After years of practice, Isolda had become quite adept at spotting the guards that Garrion sent to protect her whenever she left the castle. They always wore cheap hooded cloaks to try to blend in, but to her trained eye, that only made them stand out. She had confronted Garrion about it once, but he just feigned ignorance. After that, she had made a point to lose the guards whenever possible, whether she was having a clandestine meeting with Tobias or merely enjoying a morning stroll.

Before the guards could return, Isolda ducked into the third alley on the left and went through the second door on her right. It was immediately clear to her that the room hadn't been occupied for years, not since the gold mine went dry and practically turned Arwin's Gate into a ghost town overnight. The only part of the room not covered with a thick layer of dust was a vanity in the corner of the room stocked with make-up, a wig, and a neatly folded pile of clothes.

Isolda's transformation began by exchanging her shimmering golden dress for a pair of black pants, a dark grey corset, high-heeled leather boots that reached to mid-thigh, and long leather gloves to match. She wiped off her usual bright red lipstick in favor of a more subtle pink. A bit of powder on her cheeks quickly removed her tan glow. The last order of business - and probably most important - was her hair. Isolda removed her black ironwood hairpin, bein

g careful not to poke herself with the razor sharp point. It had been a gift from her father before he sent her up north to find a husband. "As long as you have this, you'll always be safe," he had told her. His promise hadn't been entirely true, as the hairpin had done little to protect her from being imprisoned at the end of the Wizard's War, but at least it had kept her alive. She tucked the pin into the front of her corset before securing her long golden braids underneath a curly black wig. A pair of odd little spectacles and a long brown cloak finished her transformation from Lady Isolda Hornbolt, Duchess of the Shield, to Lady Marsilia, the most notorious crime lord in Arwin's Gate.

Isolda had no trouble spotting Tobias on the crowded market street. His short stature would generally make him difficult to locate, but his tan top hat was more than tall enough to make him appear at least a normal height, if not taller. Tobias adjusted his glasses as he inspected the offerings of an ink merchant. As soon as Isolda caught his gaze, he finished his purchase of a new quill and walked in the opposite direction.

Isolda followed behind him. It probably wasn't necessary to keep such a distance, but she could never be too cautious. Her husband already had an innate distrust of anyone from the godless city of Techence. Rumors of Tobias being mixed up with Lady Marsilia would only deepen that distrust.

At first Isolda wasn't sure which of her establishments Tobias was heading towards, but as they continued, it became clear that he was taking her to their newest venture, the Razortooth Tavern.

The mud brick walls, thatched roof, and arched windows of the tavern matched the rest of the buildings in the city, but that was only because they weren't finished with the details yet. Craftsmen were hard at work fitting iron grates to the windows and chiseling away at a larger-than-life statue of a razortooth tiger standing guard at the entrance. Isolda waited a few minutes and then followed Tobias through the doors.

"Welcome to the Razortooth Tavern, Lady Marsilia," said Tobias with a grin. "What do you think?" He gestured around the tavern. The tables were all new, the seats looked as comfortable as you could expect at a tavern, and the bar was well stocked with everything from Fjorking ale to Barcovan wine.

"Everything looks just as it should," said Isolda. "But I assume you haven't brought me here to impress me with..." Isolda picked up one of the bottles she didn't recognize and read the label, "...Kraken Tooth rum."

Tobias adjusted his glasses and looked down. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean..."

"I'm not upset, Tobias. I just want to know what was so urgent."

"Of course you do. I would have just sent a letter about it, but I wasn't sure...well, you should just come look." Tobias led Isolda upstairs and ushered her into room 17, which turned out to be a secret passage to an entirely separate part of the tavern where patrons could purchase services that weren't entirely legal. After navigating a maze of hallways and staircases, Isolda arrived in a cavernous room bigger than the grand hall of Vulture Keep. Most of the foliage that would soon decorate the room was still in enormous crates and barrels, but it was doing its best to break free. Vines and leaves poked through every available hole or crack in the containers, and when their containers had no more cracks, the wild plants made their own. Soon they would be free to grow wild, blossoming into flowers the size of a man and climbing up the pillars to drink up as much sunlight as they could from the windows in the domed ceiling. Isolda wanted to open the crates and inspect the exotic plants, to get a taste of the poison jungles far to the south that only the bravest men in the kingdom would dare visit, but for now, she was content to follow Tobias to a small room off to the side that apparently held the mystery of why he had called on her for this meeting.

The room had been furnished with a tan carpet, an overstuffed sofa, and a lush bed, but they were all askew. It looked like the table setting a few years ago after Terric had attempted the old jesters’ trick of pulling the tablecloth off the table without disturbing any plates or cups. They had all gone crashing to the floor in a heap, just the way the furniture had been sucked into a sinkhole in the corner of this room.

"What am I looking at?" asked Isolda.

Tobias pointed into the pit. "There was a collapse this morning."

"I can see that. Was anyone hurt?"

"Only one. But the reason that we're really here is what they found in the pit."

"Which is?"

Tobias grabbed a lantern off the wall and handed it to her. "Take a look."

She bent over the edge and peered into the pit. Through the darkness, all she could discern was the faint glimmer of gold behind a pile of rocks.

"Leftover gold from the old mine?" asked Isolda.

"Can you not see it?" Tobias shook his head. "More rocks must have come loose. I'll call for Owen to clear the path."

"No need," said Isolda. She handed the lantern back to Tobias, slipped out of her boots, and began climbing into the pit.

Tobias let out a little gasp. "My lady, are you sure that's safe?" Beads of sweat began forming under the brim of his hat.

"No, but I hope it is." When she reached the bottom, she turned back to Tobias. "Are you coming?"

"I, uh," started Tobias. "Climbing isn't really..."

"Then at least hand me the lantern so I can see."

Tobias refused. She insisted. He refused again. Eventually he found a rope and used it to lower the lantern to her. With the cavern now lit, Isolda picked her way through the rocks until she was face to face with a yellowed corpse dressed in golden armor.

She gasped. Not because it was a corpse. She had seen plenty of corpses during her time in the dungeons of Icehaven in the final months of the Wizard's War. No, she gasped because of which corpse it was. The body of Arwin.

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