“Who are you?” Saeldian finally asked. “Who is Saer Longsmile? What is this?”
“In order, then.” The woman quickened her pace. “I’m Briona. She’s Mariel. Saer Longsmile isn’t real. This is a rescue from the mistake that would have had you fleeing Waterdeep for cheaper pastures, but that’s a fortunate accident. It’s actually a job offer.”
“What kind of a job?” Jubilee asked, as Saeldian asked, “What mistake?”
“One that will pay better than whatever hundred-dragon scheme you were about to pull. That man your partner was reeling in is the eldest brother of Lord Talmost’s bride, and he’s one mistake away from defaulting on all the debts he’d leveraged trying to go into business.”
Saeldian sighed. “The right lamb, but too late.”
Jubilee knocked her knuckles into Saeldian’s arm. “Sheld. They’re Zhents.”
“What?” Saeldian looked at Briona again. Her plain clothes didn’t have any embellishments, but the ring on her finger bore a winged serpent chasing a coin. That was the sign of the Zhentarim crime syndicate, and Saeldian hadn’t noticed. Briona shrugged and smiled like she didn’t mind.
“It’s just dinner in a really nice inn,” Briona said. “Hear us out.”
“And what if we don’t?” Jubilee asked. Her voice went a little high with fear.
“There’s no need to dwell on the unpleasant,” Mariel answered. “Is there?”
Why had the amulet thumped for these two? Saeldian was supposed to trust operatives from the most notorious black-market traders in Faerûn? But it had never been wrong. Saeldian couldn’t distrust it now.
“No need,” Saeldian said. “We’ll hear you out.”
Jubilee gave them a long stare but let Briona lead the march.
The Golden Rosehad been made by revitalizing an old villa, and the sight of it made Saeldian glance at Jubilee, who was sizing up every detail already. They passed through the gates, where a weary adventurer could hand over their mount to rest in a long, clean stable if they turned left, or enter a bathhouse that lent a scent of clean mineral water to the air if they took a path to the right. An outdoor courtyard held tables so patrons could enjoy a gorgeous, fairy-wild garden that already blossomed with spring flowers. Tall shade trees sporting new spring green as proudly as a young man’s first whiskers would make the stone drive cool when summer paid Waterdeep a well-celebrated visit. It was everything Righthoof Manor hadn’t yet achieved.
“Nice place,” Saeldian said. “The Yawning Portal’s complete opposite.”
“They’ve done an amazing job with this. Look.” Jubilee nodded at the bathhouse. “See those chimneys?”
Saeldian looked. “Those short metal pipes?”
“Correct. They have those heated rooms the northerners like. With the hot rock stove they sit around and half cook themselves in before jumping into a snowdrift, you know?”
“It’s invigorating.”
“There are nicer ways to get a little excitement,” Jubilee said with a scoff. “But look. They paid to replace the whole roof formaximum rain collection. All the roof troughs empty into those pipes. I bet there’s an underground cistern.”
Jubilee had been helping with the repair of her family home since she was old enough to fetch tools. She would tell Saeldian about every single renovation choice she saw if they didn’t keep moving. Briona and Mariel had slowed to a sightseeing pace as Jubilee pointed out the details of the Golden Rose’s improvements.
“Underground?”
“Keeps it cool, simpler to keep clean. And from there you can use it for whatever you design.”
Knowing buildings from the outside in was core knowledge for a burglar, so Saeldian listened every time Jubilee told them something about this building or another. “That’s clever.”
Jubilee grunted. “Whoever spent their big score here had a lot of gold.”
Gold that Jubilee’s father hadn’t had when he accepted Righthoof Manor as a gift—ha! A pig in a poke, more like. But seeing the clean stone and the sturdy, expertly replaced windows of the Golden Rose showed what Bastion dreamed of Righthoof Manor becoming. Anyone else would have tried to get rid of it. But Bastion Righthoof didn’t abandon anything for being too difficult, and Jubilee was cut from the same loyal cloth.
The nine-foot-high doors opened as soon as Briona climbed the long, gentle ramp to the entrance. The main tavern floor, divided by a flowered carpet that climbed a wide set of stairs to private rooms, had a jovial side for post-adventure carousing and a quiet side for pre-adventure job negotiations. Casually dressed patrons talked and laughed while a beautiful halfling woman played a complicated, fast-fingering melody on a double-stringed lute. The quiet side was empty.
Jubilee whispered, “All this wood’s restored. They must have sanded it for a year! Look at the windows—”
Saeldian grinned, but they kept an eye on their hosts.
No one even glanced at their group, despite their bootheels thumping on the floor as they entered. But Saeldian knew the sun-kissed faces and confident manner of professionaladventurers. No armor, no weapons—slouching adventurers just enjoying music? They felt safe here. Saeldian could trust that, even if their nerves had tuned themselves too sharp.
