"Brian Thomsen - The Nobles 04 - The Mage in the Iron Mask" - читать интересную книгу автора (Thomsen Brian M)

scratched his chin, and added inquisitively, "But somehow you knew that, or else how would
you have known to leave a message for me about your predicament. How did you know that
I would be staying there?"
The thespian beamed proudly, and answered, "One thing I certainly learned from our trip
was that the legendary Volothamp Geddarm always travels in style, and only favors the most
noble of establish-ments with his presence."
The greatest traveler of Faerun shook his head in gentle amusement, and conceded, "But
of course. And the Traveler's Cloak Inn is indeed the best place in Mulmaster. At fifteen gold
pieces a night, it better be. But this still doesn't explain how you knew that I would be in
Mulmaster."
"Well," the portly actor explained, his voice drop-ping markedly as a pair of soldiers
passed them going in the opposite direction along the avenue, "while I was enjoying the free
and easy life on the road, I came across a leaflet that mentioned that a local bookseller was
having a reception for a cook-book author who was on tour, and that the reception was
being sponsored by the firm of Tyme Waterdeep, Limited, who I remembered as your
publisher. Since it was a cookbook author, I naturally figured that there would be plenty of
food there, so I decided to crash."
"Crash?"
"Attend without an invitation."
"Oh," Volo replied, "and they just let you in?"
 "Well, not until I mentioned your name, of course."
"Of course."
"The food wasn't very good anyway, low-fat fungus flambe, and such, but I ran into a guy
named Pig who claimed he knew you."
"Imagine that," Volo mused.
"Now call me suspicious, but I am not inclined to take a person at their word, particularly
when they make claims of greatness."
"Like knowing Volothamp Geddarm?"
"Of course," Passepout asserted. "No telling what a rogue might claim these days."
"No one would know better than you."
"Of course," the actor conceded. "Anyway, he claimed that you and he had made a
journey through the Underdark together, and that that trip had been the inspiration for the
book. When I asked him where you were, he said that you were probably working on your
guide to the Moonsea, and so, voila, we make contact."
Volo chuckled to himself. Imagine, he thought, my two most reluctant traveling
companions running into each other. I can't wait to hear Percival Woode-haus's version of
the story. He then said aloud to his friend, "Well its just lucky for you that Mulmaster was my
next stop. Originally it wasn't, and I wouldn't have gotten here for a month or more."
"I shudder to think of it," the portly thespian replied. "More than a night in that hellhole
would surely have been the death of me."
"What did they arrest you for anyway?"
"Acting, without an official permit."
Volo nodded in agreement, and said, "And of course in order to get the official permit,
you would have had to pay the theater tax, which, of course, you couldn't afford."
"Exactly."
"Sometimes I think that Mulmaster should be called the City of Taxes instead of the City
of Dan-ger," the great traveler declared, a bit too loudly for his paranoid companion who
was overly conscious of the excessive number of city guards that seemed to be out on the
streets. Volo, noticing the uneasiness of Passepout, quickly changed the subject.
Turning his attention back to his boon companion he said, "Enough of this idle chatter. On