"How could you possibly—?" Abdel started. "I suggested this place for a reason, my friend Abdel," Yoshimo interrupted. "This man is Gaelan Bayle, and there is little that might go on in—or under—this city that escapes his notice. He demands a stiff price, because his information is always correct." Abdel glowered at Yoshimo and said, "I'm no fool, Kozakuran. What's going on here?"

"Yoshy-boy brought you here because he knows I know what's going on around here, Abdel Adrian, Son of Bhaal, Savior of Baldur's Gate, friend of the missing Imoen who was taken by Shadow Thieves who were none too happy about your late half-brother's bandying their not-so-good name about the Gate … oh," he said, "does that sound like I might know what I'm—"

Abdel was over the bar and standing in front of the barkeep in less than the time it took for Yoshimo to blink. Abdel's hand was coming up toward the startled man's face, and before Gaelan could duck, Abdel pulled the punch short.

"You can tell me who you are now and what you want from me," Abdel snarled, "or I'll do something I've been trying not to do so much of lately."

Gaelan just nodded. "Listen," he said, "I'm just a guy who keeps his ears open and knows people who know people who know people. I can tell you where she is, not because I'm a swell guy but because you're going to pay me ten trade bars—fifty thousand gold pieces—for the information."

Abdel had to laugh, but the force of it made his already aching head sting. "Look at me," he said, "and ask yourself if you think I have that kind of treasure at my disposal, you gutter wretch."

"Hey," Gaelan said, smiling nervously, "you seem capable enough. Your little miss is alive and will be for long enough that an enterprising young man like yourself could scrape up the coin."

"But fifty thousand. ." Abdel said. "I could buy a ship for that."

"Just what I had in mind myself, truth be told," Gaelan admitted.

"It does seem a bit much, Master Bayle," Yoshimo offered.

"Who asked you?" Gaelan grunted, then turned back to Abdel and said, "Take it or leave it, son."

"Holy snakes and eggs!" a woman's voice exclaimed.

Before Abdel could even glance at her, he blushed and tried to turn around and cover himself. This made the bartender laugh even harder, and a red-faced Abdel hoped the man would choke.

"I think she saw everything, Boo," Minsc muttered. "Not that it's hard to—"

"Minsc!" Abdel roared.

"What are you boys. .?" the woman asked. Abdel heard her soft footsteps approaching. She'd come in from behind a curtain that led into a dark storeroom in the back of the bar. The bartender's laughing was beginning to settle down, and the old drunk was in the process of passing out. "What kind of place do you think this is?"

"Boy says he was robbed, Bodhi," the bartender said, rubbing his pink, watering eyes.

"Were you now?" she asked Abdel's back.

"Yes, ma'am," Abdel answered quickly. "I need clothes, food and water, and word sent to Captain Orhotek. Please."

"I'll give you some of Gaelan's clothes," the woman said, ignoring the beginnings of a protest from the barkeep. "You can work for some food, but I doubt Captain Orhotek himself will be coming to your rescue. Maybe you just need to sleep it off tonight?"

"I need to speak with someone," Abdel insisted, "there are Shadow Thieves about."

The bartender Gaelan chuckled at this and said, "No foolin'?"

"That'll do, Gaelan," Bodhi said. "Go get him some clothes."

"Like this one, eh, girl?" Gaelan grumbled as he passed through the grease-stained curtain into the room behind the bar.

"I must go," Yoshimo said suddenly. Abdel looked at him, but the Kozakuran wouldn't return his gaze. "I will find you if you need me, my friend. Best of luck."

"Boo says to ask if I can work for some food too," Minsc said.

Abdel said, "Minsc. ." but stopped when he wasn't sure how to chastise the madman. When he turned back to where Yoshimo had been standing, the Kozakuran was gone.

"What have you got there?" the woman asked and stepped forward toward Minsc. Abdel caught a glimpse of her before he turned away again to keep his back to her. She was a tall, thin young woman with a serious face that clashed with her revealing, almost silly dress. Her pale face and flaxen hair were clean, and Abdel couldn't help thinking she was older than she was trying to look.

"This is Boo," Minsc told her. "He helps me."

"Does he now," she cooed, humoring him. "Is he a mouse?"

"Boo is a hamster," Minsc said. Abdel sighed at having at least one question answered.

"Where did you find him?" Bodhi asked.

"Oh, Boo found me. Didn't you, Boo?" Minsc answered.

"He comes from space. His kind are actually quite large, but he is smaller than most."

"Space?" the woman asked, obviously never having heard the word before.

"The place of the crystal spheres," Minsc explained conversationally, "up in the air beyond the heavens."

Bodhi laughed lightly and said, "Well, Boo, so you're a miniature giant space.. ?"

"Hamster," Minsc provided.

"A miniature giant space hamster," she said, "and a cute one at that."

"Boo likes you," Minsc said dully. "Can we work here for food and stuff?"

"Oh, for—" Abdel started to say, but stopped in order to spend all his energy trying to turn around. Bodhi had stepped in front of him. Her eyes were cast down, and a knowing smile curved her lips.

"Well, now …" she whispered.

"Excuse me," Gaelan said. Abdel hadn't heard him come back behind the bar. He tossed Abdel some dirty, ragged clothes, which the sellsword caught happily.

"We could use a busboy," Bodhi said.

"I can't stay here," Abdel told her, ripping his way into the too-tight trousers. "I left someone behind. I need to—"

"I wasn't talking to you," Bodhi said.

Abdel looked up at her, and she nodded to Minsc.

"Oh, come now, Bodhi," Gaelan objected, but she cut him short with a disapproving glare. "Fine, then, he can start by throwing out the captain."

"The captain?" Abdel asked, for some reason thinking Gaelan was referring to him.

Gaelan tipped his head to the old drunk and said, "Captain Bavarian."

"One of the more notorious pirates of the Sword Coast," Bodhi said with a laugh in her voice.

Two men stepped through the door and paused at the scene in front of them. Abdel was dressed now, though he was still hardly an ordinary sight. Minsc was cradling Boo in one hand and reaching for the now loudly snoring pirate with the other.

"Evening, good sirs," Gaelan said to the newcomers, "step right in."

The men moved to the bar, and Abdel turned to watch Minsc trying to pull the deadweight old man out of his chair with one hand.

"You'd make a better bouncer," Bodhi said to Abdel.

The sellsword looked at her, forced a smile, and said, "I'm not mad."

"I know," she told him, and he believed her, which surprised and worried him. Any normal person would have thought him mad.

Irenicus let the smile drop off his face and slid his iron-cold gaze along the length of steel chain that strung him to the prisoner in front of him. The chain was attached to a heavy manacle around his left ankle. The manacle around his right ankle held a chain that strung back along the floor like a coiling snake, ending at the ankle of another prisoner. Behind him was a third, then a fourth, a fifth, and a sixth.

Irenicus shuffled along with the rest of them and kept silent. He didn't give the guards an excuse to strike him. If he had given them an excuse, and they had struck him, he would have had no choice but to destroy them in a blaze of power and indignation that would have revealed him too early and thrown his plan, at least temporarily, awry. Still, part of him hoped it would go that way, hoped he could just start killing and not stop until they were all dead. That would be satisfying on some level—on some level important to who Irenicus was—but it would have only brought him farther away from what he really wanted. Irenicus didn't always remain focused, but this time he forced himself.