"Milady," Djaffar said with a tip of his open-faced helm, glinting in the torchlight.
"What is the hour?" she asked.
"Several before the dawn."
"Then what do you want?" Shoudra asked.
"I am surprised that you retired, milady," Djaffar said innocently. "It was not so long ago that I saw you, quite awake and standing on your balcony."
It all began to make sense to Shoudra then, as she came fully awake and remembered all that she had seen that far from ordinary night.
"I retired soon after."
"With many questions on your pretty mind, no doubt,"
"That is my business, Djaffar." Shoudra made sure that she injected a bit of anger into her tone, wanting to put the too confident man on the defensive. "Is there a reason you disturb my slumber? Is there some emergency concerning the marchion? Because, if there is not. ."
"We must discuss that which you witnessed from your balcony, milady," Djaffar said coolly, and if he was the slightest bit intimidated by Shoudra's powerful tone he did not show it.
"Who is to say that I witnessed anything at all?"
"Exactly, and you would do well to remember that."
Shoudra's blue eyes opened wide. "My dear Djaffar, are you threatening the Sceptrana of Mirabar?"
"I am asking you to do what is right," the Hammer replied without backing down. "It was under the orders of the marchion himself that the traitor Torgar was arrested."
"Brutally. ."
"Not so. He surrendered to the lawful authority without a fight," Djaffar argued.
Shoudra didn't believe a word of it. She knew Djaffar and the rest of the four Hammers well enough to know that they loved a fight when the odds were stacked in their favor.
"He was brought back to Mirabar under the cover of darkness for a reason, milady. Surely you can understand and appreciate that this is a sensitive matter."
"Because the dwarves of Mirabar, even those who disagree with Torgar, would not be pleased to learn that he was dragged into the city in chains," Shoudra replied.
Though there was a substantial amount of sarcasm in her voice, Djaffar ignored it completely and merely replied, "Exactly."
The Hammer gave a wry smile.
"We could have left him dead in the wilderness, buried in a place where none would ever find him. You do understand that, of course, as you understand that your silence in this matter is of prime importance?"
"Could you have done all of that? In good conscience?"
"I am a warrior, milady, and sworn to the protection of the marchion," Djaffar answered with that same grin. "I trust in your silence here."
Shoudra just stared at him hard. Finally recognizing that he wasn't going to get any more of an answer than that, Djaffar tipped his helm again and walked away down the corridor.
Shoudra Stargleam shut her door, then turned her back and leaned against it. She rubbed her eyes and considered the very unusual night.
"What are you doing, Elastul?" she asked herself quietly.
In the room next to Shoudra's, another was asking himself that very same question. Nanfoodle the alchemist had been in Mirabar for several years but had tried very hard to keep away from the politics of the place. He was an alchemist, a scholar, and a gnome with a bit of talent in illusion magic, but that was all. This latest debacle, concerning the arrival of the legendary King of Mithral Hall, whom Nanfoodle had dearly wanted to go and meet, had him more than a bit concerned, however.
He had heard the loud knock, and thinking it was on his own door, had scrambled from his bed and rushed to answer. When he had arrived there, though, he already heard the voices, Shoudra and Djaffar, and recognized that the man had come to speak with her and not him.
Nanfoodle had heard every word. Torgar Hammerstriker, one of the most respected dwarves in Mirabar, whose family had been in service to the various marchions for centuries, had been beaten on the road and dragged back, secretly, in chains.
A shiver ran up Nanfoodle's spine. The whole episode, from the time they had learned that Bruenor Battlehammer was knocking on their gate, had him quite unhinged.
He knew that it would all come to no good.
And though the gnome had long before decided to remain neutral on anything politic, to do his experiments and take his rewards, he found himself at the house of a friend the next day.
Councilor Agrathan Hardhammer was not pleased by the gnome's revelations. Not at all.
"I know," Agrathan said to Shoudra as soon as she opened her door that next morning, the dwarf having gone straight from his meeting with Nanfoodle to the sceptrana's apartment.
"You know what?"
"What you know, about the treatment and return of a certain disgruntled dwarf. Torgar was dragged in by the Hammers last night, in chains."
"By one Hammer, at least,"
"Djaffar, curse his name!" said Agrathan.
The dwarf's ire toward Djaffar surprised Shoudra, for she had never heard Agrathan speak of any of the individual Hammers at all before.
"Elastul Raurym is the source of the decision, not Djaffar or any of the other Hammers," she reminded.
Agrathan banged his head on the door jamb. "He is blowing the embers hot in a room full of smokepowder," the dwarf said.
Shoudra did not disagree—to a point. She understood Agrathan's frustration and fears, but she also had to admit that she understood Elastul's reluctance in letting the dwarf walk away. Agrathan knew Mirabar's defenses as well as any and knew their production capacities and the state of their various ore veins as well. The sceptrana didn't honestly believe that it would ever come to war between Mithral Hall and Mirabar, but if it did….
"T believe that Elastul felt he had no choice," Shoudra replied. "At least they did not murder the wayward dwarf on the road."
That statement didn't have the effect Shoudra had hoped for. Instead of calming Agrathan, the mere mention of that diabolical possibility had the dwarf's eyes going wide, and his jaw clenching tightly. He calmed quickly, though, and took a deep, steadying breath.
"It might have been the smarter thing for him to do," he said quietly, and it was Shoudra's turn to open her eyes wide. "When the dwarfs of Mirabar learn that Torgar's a prisoner in his own town, they're not to be a happy bunch—and they will learn of it, do not doubt." "Do you know where they're keeping him?" "I was hoping that you'd be telling me that very thing." Shoudra shrugged.
"Might be time for us two to go and talk to Elastul." Shoudra Stargleam did not disagree, though she understood better than Agrathan, apparently, that the meeting would do little to resolve the present problem. In Elastul's eyes, obviously, Torgar Hammerstriker had committed an act of betrayal, of treason even, and Shoudra doubted that the unfortunate dwarf would be seeing the world outside his prison cell anytime soon.
She did go with Agrathan to the marehion's palace, though, and the two were ushered in to Elastul's audience chamber forthwith. Shoudra noted that all of the normal guards and attendants in the room were absent, other than the four Hammers, who stood in their typical position behind the marchion. She also noted the look that Djaffar shot her way, one suggestive and uncomfortable, one that made her want to pull her robe tighter about her.
"What is the urgency?" the marchion asked at once, before any formal greetings. "I have much to attend this day."
"The urgency is that you've put Torgar Hammerstriker in prison, Marchion," Agrathan bluntly replied, and he added with great emphasis, "Torgar Delzoun Hammerstriker."
"He is not being mistreated," Elastul replied, and he added, "As long as he does not resist," when he took note of Shoudra's doubtful look.
"I have asked for, and expect, discretion on this matter," the marchion went on, obviously aiming this remark at Shoudra.