The Abduction Read Online Free PDF

to prevent the signing of the pact—prevent it or control it. I personally suspect the Master Mariners above all others.”
    Piergeiron regarded the youth keenly. “Even if there weren’t shapeshifters running amok,” he said, “I would have had to be very selective in whom I put my trust. Out of all Waterdeep, I have selected you three, and Khelben”
    “But any of us could be…” Noph began. He broke off with the shaking of Captain Rulathon’s head.
    “Be assured we are not, son,” said the watch captain. “Be assured and be glad. Our forms may not have been stolen from us yet, but watch out! I imagine that before the night is through, we will be running into ourselves walking down the hall, or fighting ourselves on some stair somewhere.”
    Noph swallowed loudly, simultaneously relieved and dismayed.
    Piergeiron picked up the thread of the discussion. “I need each of you, my ears and eyes where I cannot be. Rulathon, first and foremost, you must guard my bride and see that no harm comes to her. Noph, you must watch the guests for telltale signs of treason. Madieron, of course, will be watching me. Khelben is already at work, scanning the crowd. All of you have been doing these things. Now I make your commissions official.”
    The Open Lord paused. A wave of exhaustion, unexpected, swept over him”Friends, this is a maze from which Eidola and I cannot escape alone. With plots upon plots upon plots, perhaps we will not survive, even withyour aid.”
    “So you will still marry Eidola tonight?” Captain Rulathon asked.
    “I will,” Piergeiron replied, resolute. “Whatever these plots, they are wrapped up in the wedding and in this trade route. The conspirators’ work would already be done if I cancelled the ceremony now.”
    “I imagine your bride is of like mind,” said the captain. He turned. “Perhaps I should make certain of it,” Bowing once in farewell, he headed away, toward Eidola‘s chambers.
    “I go to watch”
     
    “Good,” Piergeiron said. His very serious gaze spoke a silent thanks to the tall warrior.
    Then Piergeiron turned those same eyes—those that had gazed into the abyss of Undermountain and across at the glorious panoply of Waterdeep—upon Noph. “Rulathon’s work is begun—and Madieron’s and Knelben’s, also. I count on yours, too. If you help Eidola and me win our way out of these traps, the whole of Waterdeep will owe you a debt of gratitude.”
    The lad nodded seriously. In respectful imitation of Rulathon, he said, “I go to watch.” Noph turned and slipped away down the hall, toward the sounds of dancing.
     
    *****
    “Your autographs here. Gentles” said the Open Lord of Waterdeep.
    He leaned over his large mahogany desk and placed the much-signed trade pact before the last holdout delegates: the Boarskyrs.
    The two red-faced and burly brothers, Becil and Bullaid, had inherited title and lands from a great-great-great-greatgrandfather Boarskyr—the man who’d built the first Boarskyr bridge. Each succeeding generation that descended from this extraordinary man, though, had lost another “great” Becil and Bullard were the inevitable result. They could not be truthfully called good, let atone great
    The brothers had not inherited their ancestor’s enterprising spirit or even his common sense. Uneducated and mired in penury, Becil and Billiard could use the opportunity and money the trade route would bring them. Unfortunately, they liked their backward backwater and wanted to keep it as it was. Perhaps it was the only place they truly fit in,
    Here, in Piergeiron’s cherry wood-panelled study, the two looked and smelled as out of place and nervous as sheepdogs caught in me slaughter chute.
    Their mood was not helped by Madieron’s looming presence and his unscheduled groans of disapproval.
    “Look here. Your Fecundity, Laird Pallid.” began Becil, the slightly redder, burlier, and more verbal of the brothers,
    “Lord Paladinson will suffice,” corrected the