Chapter 2: Part 7 - Two Rich Idiots

After a full day in Divinity’s Reach, Erin knew she was trying to do the impossible. There were traces of Taria Valpari everywhere she looked, but setting up a meeting with her people in the city was about as easy as climbing an ice cliff with carrots instead of picks. In other words, frustrating, glacially slow, and ultimately pointless.

But what else was she supposed to do? Oska and Auri and Caolinn were gone, taking Ruby with them, but the trail in the Grove had already gone cold. The only lead Erin found was a disgruntled innkeeper who suggested her guild members left voluntarily ‒ but the trashed state of their suite spoke otherwise. Whatever had happened in those rooms, it hadn’t been out of choice.

Which meant Erin had to make a decision. She could comb the Grove from one end to the other, searching for some sign of her guild mates. She could return to Lion’s Arch and round up the remaining members of Light’s Memory, but the trail would be even colder by the time they reconvened.

Or she could take drastic action.

It was what Amber would do, Erin knew. It was, in fact, what Amber had been doing. Rather than accompany them to the Grove, she’d chosen to stay in Divinity’s Reach and follow a trail of a different kind ‒ that of Taria Valpari.

Which would have been extremely useful, except Amber was nowhere to be found and nor was the Valpari matriarch. Erin had first visited the Valpari family home ‒ empty, save for a bevy of servants who refused to talk ‒ and then every tavern in the area. No-one had been able to tell her anything remotely useful.

Which meant she was coming round to an even more drastic course of action. If she couldn’t make contact with Taria’s people, she’d go to the lady herself.

That was easier said than done, though. Marching up to the manor house in the middle of the day was likely to get her peppered with arrows; Taria seemed to like her privacy. But Oska had described some kind of high-class gambling den underneath the house…

Erin wasn’t much of a gambler. She was terrible at bluffing and she found card games tedious. What was the point of all that secrecy, all those lies, when you could instead meet an opponent head-on with a sword?

Think like a thief, she told herself, as she stepped out of a tailor’s shop with a new set of fashionable ‒ and highly impractical ‒ silk clothes. Think like a thief, she repeated, as she deposited her beloved greatsword in her bank account, with a silent vow that she’d return for it as soon as possible. Think like a thief was the mantra that tumbled through her head as she trudged through the city, searching for a tavern that was both salubrious and seedy ‒ and ran straight into Amber.

The asura was leaning against the exterior wall of a tavern with no name, only a sign bearing the crest of two crossed daggers and a crown. It looked like the sort of place wealthy nobles would spend an evening if they were willing to go home without most of their valuables, but with plenty of outrageous stories to tell their friends the next day.

At least, if Amber was already there, Erin could be sure she’d chosen correctly.

“Well, look at you.” Amber grinned at her. The thief was wearing a brand-new tunic of black leather, with red stitching around the edges. She looked like a noble playing at being a thief ‒ and, more importantly, she looked like she had money. Lots of money. “Glad we both came to the same conclusion.”

“That the only way to get inside Taria Valpari’s mansion is to dress like a rich idiot?”

“Exactly.” Amber’s smile showed too many teeth. “Two rich idiots, looking for a night at the card tables.”

“You think Taria will fall for it?”

Amber pushed herself away from the wall. “She doesn’t have to. The only ones we need to impress are her servants and I’ve done that already. You’re lucky, though. I would have gone inside sooner, but I didn’t want to look too eager. Come on.”

She led the way into the tavern, which was growing busy as the afternoon waned. There was a knot of rowdy nobles at the bar, a few old men beside the fire, and a scattering of other figures around the room. Erin’s gaze skipped over those, before she realised they were the most important occupants of all. They didn’t look like they were together, but each wore a gold pin discreetly at their collar ‒ and all of them seemed to be waiting.

Amber headed straight for a human woman at the end of the bar, who wore her gold pin tucked into a silk scarf. The woman cast a curious look at Erin, then nodded to Amber and led them through the back door without a word being spoken. A carriage waited in the narrow street beyond, into which Amber and Erin were ushered. Erin ducked her head under the uncomfortably low roof and tried to tuck her legs in as the carriage began to move.

“Couldn’t we have walked?” she grumbled.

Amber, with ample room on her own bench, leaned back comfortably. “No. We have to look the part, which means arriving in style.”

“This isn’t stylish.”

“It is if you’re a human noble. Taria’s servants make contact with everyone wealthy and powerful enough to visit her gambling den, then round them up as the sun sets. Personal service, you know. Makes the suckers feel important before they’re parted from their money.”

“You think Taria’s only doing this to get rich?”

Amber shrugged. “I think she’s already rich, but wars cost money ‒ and you know what they say. The house always wins.”

Erin sniffed. Secrets and money and card games ‒ she was so far out of her depth, she might as well be in the middle of the Sea of Sorrows. “How did you get invited?” she asked, as the carriage rattled up a hill and Erin slid painfully against the door.

“I’m important, aren’t I?” Amber grinned. “And I’m good at looking like I’m rich. What about you? How are things in the Grove? Judging by the fact that you’re here alone, I’m going to say… terrible.”

“You’d be right,” Erin said grimly. “The others are missing. I’m hoping Taria can enlighten me.”

“You think she took them?”

“No ‒ but Ruby’s with them and Taria’s bound to be keeping an eye on her.”

“Meaning you expect her to cooperate.”

Erin rubbed wearily at her temples. “Have you got a better idea? I don’t think Taria wants Artair to win any more than we do ‒ and I’ve got a bone to pick with her, anyway. I suppose you’ve heard from Darr.”

Amber’s humour fell away. “The guild hall. I doubt Taria lit the match herself…”

“But she’s still responsible. I want to know why.”

“Good luck with that,” Amber muttered, but the carriage jerked to a stop before Erin could reply. It would take luck to get them an audience with Taria Valpari, and to get answers out of her, and for them to leave her manor house with their heads still attached ‒ but luck, right now, was about all they had to rely on.

Erin didn’t see the servant who opened the door of the carriage. They’d pulled up beside Blackthorn Manor, next to a flight of stone steps that led down into the ground. A pair of double doors at the bottom stood ajar and the sound of music drifted out.

“Into the belly of the beast,” Erin murmured, at which Amber shot her a look.

“You’re supposed to be excited to be here,” she whispered back.

Erin pasted on a smile, then followed Amber down the stairs.

The gambling hall beyond was already busy. Erin suspected, if she’d known anything about the nobility of Divinity’s Reach, she’d have been able to recognise half the faces in the room. Instead, all she could see were cheeks flushed with drink, silk jackets in a hundred colours, and table after table strewn with cards and gaming pieces.

“Shame we’re here on business,” Amber said, surveying the hall with narrowed eyes. “I could fleece everyone in this room and they’d be too drunk to notice.”

“Focus, Amber,” Erin said, but it was too late. Not because Amber had rushed off to make a fortune ‒ but because someone seemed to have been expecting them.

The room was swarming with guards as well as servants and every single one of them seemed to be converging on the doors. Doors which, when Erin glanced over her shoulder, had been shut behind her.

“Looks like we got her attention,” Amber said, with a hint of satisfaction in her voice.

Because, in the middle of the guards, holding a cane she didn’t seem to need, was a straight-backed, grey-haired figure who could only be Taria Valpari.