He died soon after, and then the show ended. People began to huddle out of the square, most nodding and smiling, excitedly talking about today's wonderful display at Jharkheld.

That's all Ntreili needs to hear.

He moved from shadow to shadow, following the officials down the short walkway that led from the back of the plaza to a tower. The tower houses the quarters and offices of the officials involved in the Carnival of prisoners, as well as the dungeons for prisoners who are about to face public torture.

He pondered his good fortune at the Morrick orb, as it would provide him with some protection from any mercenary mages involved in guarding the Tower. As a result, he was left with only a few sentry posts and mechanical traps to deal with in his way.

Neither posed the slightest threat to Artemis Ntreili.

As the sun disappeared into the western sky, he walked through the tower.

*****

"They have a lot of allies." Leckie insisted.

"They'll disappear without a sound," Jalaso replied with a smile on his face, "and they'll just disappear." ”

Leckie shook his head, and Kim Murray walked across the room and sat down comfortably in a plush chair, put one leg on the padded armrest, and rolled his eyes as he looked up at the ceiling.

"You're still suspicious of me?" Jalaso asked, his voice soft and harmless, not threatening, "Think of all this we've done in Port Carlin and across the surface. We have agents in many major cities, even Waterdeep. ”

"We've found a lot of agents in other cities," Leckie corrected, "and everyone is working hard for us, except for one, the thief from Luskan." He paused to glance at his fellow psychic and laughed. Maybe so. ”

The thought that their second agent, who had not yet known that the human had left Port Carlin, was now toiling at Luskan made it impossible for Murray to burst into laughter.

"Everyone else is still in its infancy," the mage continued, "some of them are promising, others are not, but none of them have yet been worthy of the title of agent. ”

"Well, it's going to be soon." Jalaso said, walking straight to his comfortable seat, "Very fast!" They'll be profitable partners, or we'll have to find something else - it's not too much of a problem among greedy humans. And what happened here in Port Carlin...... Take a look around. Can you doubt the cleverness of our approach? Jewels and jade are flowing into our pockets, a smooth path for the Zhuo people to expand their territory beyond the limited wealth of Morsoblem. ”

"If the supreme family of Ched Nassar City didn't think it was cutting off their wealth, we would be lucky enough." Leki, from the other Drow cities, commented bitterly.

The mercenary leader only laughed at this.

"I don't deny the profitability of Port Carlin." The Mage Adjutant continued, "When we first planned our journey to the surface, we were all on the lookout that it would be immediate and lucrative. In the same way, we have all agreed that this is likely to be only a short period of time, and that after the initial gains we should take a good position and probably withdraw from our territory, leaving only the most profitable trade and agents. ”

"So now we should reconsider, and I've done that." "It seems clear that we are underestimating the potential of this surface operation. Dilate! I propose, expand. ”

Kim Murray looked frustrated again. He still looked at the ceiling, as if as a pitiful objection to the mercenary leader's suggestion.

"The plainclothes want us to limit our trading to this area." "However, the artisans who can provide more exotic goods—those that are likely to be very popular in Morsoblay—are outside of our current control. ”

"Then we're going to make a deal with them and get those people to get a piece of the pie in this new and profitable market that they haven't been involved in before." Leckie proposes a historically brilliant and perfectly plausible proposal based on the history of the Dayette Independent Mercenary Regiment, a mercenary and opportunistic group that has always sought to make "mutual benefit" their business credo.

"They don't have to worry about it." Jalaso replied, holding out his thumb and forefinger into the air in front of him and squeezing them together, as if squeezing out a small unnecessary blemish, "They're just going to simply disappear." ”

"It's not as simple a task as you might think." A coquettish voice came from the door, and the three drows glanced at it and saw Charlotta Vespa walking into the room in a robe with a high slit that showed a curvy thigh. "Plainclothes people have always prided themselves on the depth and breadth of their networks. You can't destroy all their institutions and all of their known agents, and even all the people who have dealings with their agents, there will always be a lot of witnesses left. ”

"Who would do that?" Jalaso asked, still smiling, and even patting his chair for Charlotta to come over and sit with him, and the woman did, curling up intimately beside him. The sight caused Leckie to glance at Kim Murray again. Both of them knew that Jalaso had the human woman, who was the most powerful survivor of the old Basadoni union along with Ntreili, as their bedmate, and neither of them liked to see such a development. Charlotta is a cunning person, almost as far as humans are concerned, so cunning that they can even be accepted by Drow society. She has mastered the language of Drow and can now communicate with the silent, complex gestures of the Dark Elves. Leckie was disgusted with her, and Kim Murray, though he found the woman exotic, did not like her sneaking dangerous advice in Jarasso's ear.

However, on this particular matter, it seemed to both of them that Charlotta was on the same page as they were, so they did not try to thwart her, as they had done in the past.

"Those witnesses will tell every remaining union," Charlotta explained, "and they will also inform the higher authorities in Callinsan." The destruction of the plainclothes union suggests that a truly powerful force has already secretly settled in Port Carlin. ”

"That's exactly what we did." Jalaso said with a toothy grin.

"And the power of this force is based on keeping it secret." The woman replied.

Jalaso pushed her off his lap in the chair, and the woman had to hurry to lower her long, well-proportioned legs to prevent her from falling to the ground in embarrassment.

Then the mercenary leader, who was interested in profit, also stood up and walked past Charlotta, as if her opinion did not matter at all, and approached the lieutenants who were more important to him. "I've positioned the role of the Dayette Independent Mercenaries on the surface as importers and exporters," he explained, "and we've done that easily. Now I have seen the true face of this human-dominated society, and that reveals the truth about its weaknesses. We can go further – we have to. ”

"To conquer?" Leckie asked sharply and bitterly.

"It's different from the Banrui family's plans for the Mithril Hall." Jalaso eagerly explained, "It's not just absorption. An evil smile appeared on his face again. For those who are going to be involved in this program. ”

"And those who won't simply disappear?" Leckie asked, but it seemed that Jalaso was unmoved by his sarcasm, just smiling more and more heartily.

"Didn't you kill a plainclothes spy yourself just the other day?" Jalaso asked.

"There's a big difference between keeping secrets and expanding your sphere of influence." The mage replied.

"That's true from a semantic point of view." The mercenary leader laughed and said, "It's just semantics. ”

Behind him, Charlotta Vespa bit her lower lip and shook her head, fearing that her newfound supporter would make a huge and extremely dangerous mistake.

*****

In an alley not far away, Entreili listened intently to the shouts and commotion coming from the tower. When entering the tower, he first went downstairs to free an obnoxious prisoner. After pointing out the relatively safe open tunnel at the back of the dungeon, he made his way up the stairs back to the first floor, then continued upward, deliberately moving quietly down the shady hallway with torches.

Finding Jharkheld's room was a breeze.

The door wasn't even locked.

Had it not been for the fact that he had witnessed what the official had done at the Prisoners' Carnival, Artemis Ntreuri might have persuaded him about Morrick. Now Morrick's path to completing his quest and providing the gem is clear.

Ndrielly wondered if the escaped prisoner—the apparent murderer of dastardly Jharkheld—had been found in the labyrinth of the tunnels. What a tragic prospect that that person will face. A twisted smile unconsciously appeared on the killer's face, as he didn't feel the slightest guilt that he had taken advantage of that unfortunate man for his own self-interest. After all, that idiot should have been more conscious. Why would anyone come to his rescue without warning and with an obvious personal destination? Why didn't Ntreuri ask the killer when he released him from his shackles? Why, if he was smart enough to live, didn't he try to catch the killer and shackle this unsolicited nameless rescuer to take his place in the executioners? There are so many prisoners coming and going in the dungeon that the guards probably won't even notice the small change.

So, he fully deserved it, and in Ntreuri's view, this fate was also due to what he had done. Of course, the killer will claim that someone else helped him escape, and then arrange all of this to make the murder look like he did it. The Carnival of Prisoners does not care at all about such a defense. Nor is Artemis Ntrili.

He swept all these thoughts out of his mind, looked around alertly to make sure he was alone, and placed the magic anti-spell orb on the side of the alley. He walked to the other side of the alley and blew the magic whistle. At this point, the killer wondered how this thing would work. Of course, the magic was necessary to get him back to Port Carlin, but how would it all work if he had to go on the road with the ball? Will the spell attached to it simply disarm the teleportation?

A curtain of blue light appeared beside him. It was a magic door, not made by Leckie, but by Kim Murray. So that's the answer, he mused. Maybe this orb can't compete with psychic abilities.

Or maybe it could, the thought of walking over and picking it up made the killer feel deeply uneasy. What would happen if the orb was able to affect Kim Mure's dimensional warp for some unknown reason? Maybe he'll be teleported to the wrong place - or even some other plane that really exists?

Ntrili shook his head and pushed the thought out of his mind. Whether or not it has anything to do with Drow or the magic ball, life is always accompanied by crises. He carefully kept the ball in his pocket, so that it would take a while for any MONOCULUS to see what was going on in the alley. Then he strode quickly towards the entrance, and after a simple deep breath, he walked through the door.

The killer reappeared in the secret magic hall of the union building in Port Carlin, thousands of miles away, dizzy, struggling to keep his balance.

Kim Murray and Leckie stood there, staring at him harshly.

...