"Kate Novak - Finders Stone 1 - Azure Bonds" - читать интересную книгу автора (Novak Kate)

alleyway empty. The short-haired dog yipped at her feet, rising on its hind
legs
and placing its front paws halfway up her boots
"I don't suppose you know anything about this?" she asked the dog. The puppy
merely wagged its tail and whimpered.
Alias picked up the small creature, petted it briery, then dropped it outside
the window. The beast barked at her a few times, then began sniffing the
rubbish.
*****
"The lady has risen from the dead!" shouted the barkeep in a merry voice as
Alias entered the common room. She did not know this particular barkeep, but
knew others just like him who ran inns from the Living City to Water-deep. He
was a loud, boisterous man, full of "hail-fellow-well-met" attitudes, favoring
adventurers in his trade because the additional gold they usually carried made
up for the damage their barroom arguments caused.
A few heads turned to look at her, but there were no familiar faces among
them.
Alias had decided to wear her armor plate after all. She looked more suited
for
battle than for a few drinks, but many of the merchants, mercenaries, and
townsfolk were similarly armed and armored, so she fit in. Like most of those
in
the room, Alias wore her weapon at her side. Like all of those doing so, she
had
the blade's grip tied to its sheath by white cord, fashioned in "peace knot."
She took a table near an interior wall, away from any windows, where she could
keep an eye on both doors to the common area, and the barkeep as well. He was
a
portly, balding man, obviously guilty of sampling his own stock. He took her
attention as a request for service, and after a few obligatory passes with a
rag
over the bar, he filled a large mug from the tap and brought it over to her
table. Foam ran down the mug's sides, and beads of water condensed where the
rivulets did not run.
"Hair o' the dog what bit you?" offered the barkeep.
"On the house?" asked Alias.
"On the bill," the barkeep replied. "I like to keep things on a cash-and-carry
basis. Don't worry, you're still covered."
For the moment Alias was more interested in the blank spaces in her memory
than
in who was covering her tab. "I was here last night?" she asked.
"Yes, lady."
"Doing?" Alias raised an eyebrow.
"Why, sleeping it off. And it must have been a Hades raising drunk indeed, for
it is the seventh day o' Mirtul." When Alias stared at him blankly, lie
explained, 'You been here since the evening o' the fourth, done nothing but
sleep the whole while."
"Did I come alone?"
"Yes. Well, maybe not. May I?" He pointed to the empty seat at the table.
Alias