Chapter 8: Share and Share Alike

The two men crawled, sopping wet but in good spirits, up the ladder of one of the many piers clustered along the riverbank opposite the Thieves’ Manor. The trap had done most of the work getting them across the wide dark river that flowed sluggishly south. Luckily, being the crack of dawn, river traffic was light, though they had nearly landed on a barge stacked high with great slabs of white marble. The large man had had to bop a few overly-curious gator rats on the nose, but other than that, it had been a fairly uneventful swim.

“Well good sir, I thank you… surely, without your aid I would not have escaped that devilish house,” the small man said as he wrung out his cloak.

“Indeed, you have my thanks. You are a good man to have at one’s back,” said the larger man as he ruffled the water out of his hair with his hands. “It was a goodly adventure, if not a profitable one,” he sighed. “My goal had been to liberate the Eye of Borgoth from the Guild’s clutches. My employer had been most specific in his instructions, but naught was there but this.”

From the back of his broad belt, he produced a small glass vial capped by a large black pearl and sealed with silver. Inside, inky globules pulsed with arcane energy drifting like molten wax.

Upon seeing it, the small man looked to the heavens and began to laugh.

“You laugh at my misfortune?” bristled the larger man.

“Because, oh fortunate one, the gods smile on us both! For I was sent to liberate, as you say, the Phial of Kazzak,” the small man inclined his head toward the larger mans hand. “Yet, I too came away with nought but this…” He drew forth from one of his belt pouches a marble, the interior of which roiled with dark storm clouds. On it, in gold, was a trace work that formed an iris with a triangular pupil.

The larger man took one look at it, threw back his head and barked out a laugh. “Hah! I feel more than the gods at work here,” he said offering the vial he held to the smaller man.

“Agreed,” the little man tossed the eye to the larger man, snatching away the vial. “I think you are correct and that our ‘employers’ perhaps owe us an explanation, yes?”

“Indeed,” the big man said as he deftly caught the eye and tucked it into a pouch at his waist. “But first, let us dry off, and perhaps get something to eat. All that running has made me hungry.” He turned to walk down the pier towards the city proper.

The small man paused briefly to look back through the fog towards the manor. A smile touched the corners of his mouth as he heard what he thought was a familiar screech. “But what of that wheel of cheese you ate?” he called as he trotted to catch up with the larger man.

“That was but a snack. Come, I know of a place on Grackle Street where they know how to properly feed a man of my constitution.” They had reached the end of the long pier and the large man came to a sudden stop.