The steam surrounded Max, together with a pleasant aroma of herbs and soap. The steam was hot like a sauna, and after days of living outside in cold, dry air, the hot steam was welcome, but he couldn’t enjoy it. Death on the tip of a poison dagger in the hands of an assassin was only feet away.

Max could hardly see his hand in front of his face. He was still hiding using his Sneak ability. The assassins had been in the room he had just rented for the night here in the Oak and Crown tavern in the town of White Raven, and they had his picture. Why were they looking for him? Who had sent them?

Max listened to the door for the sound of the assassins. He heard a gentle splashing noise from the room he was in. Somewhere hidden in the steam, someone was taking a bath.

Max crept silently, hidden in steam and shadows of the flickering lamplight. He saw the large wooden tub with steam rising from hot water. A system of pipes made from something akin to bamboo was steaming, the hot water being channeled through them.

He approached the tub and looked down at Anita, her hair tied up out of the water, her shoulders bare, her breasts covered in thick soapy foam. The creamy bubbles covered the surface of the tub. She washed her arms with a cloth, reaching up and letting hot soapy water run down her body. The cascade of water threatened to wash the soap foam from her breasts.

“Are you spying on her?”

Max spotted Janet standing next to him. She was glowing ghostly white, and her hair was floating up and around her. Her shimmering white appearance merging with the steam meant only the deep black outline surrounding her made her visible. She appeared to be standing right next to him.

Max jumped, partly startled, partly ashamed that he was indeed watching Anita taking her bath. He hadn’t done it deliberately. Max held his finger to his lips, not to remain hidden from Anita but from the assassins that may be just outside the door.

Max pointed to the door and walked a few steps away from the tub, lost again in the steam.

“She’s pretty,” Janet said, watching Anita. Max could just see through the steam that Anita had stood up and was washing from head to toe, but the steam made her a faint ghostly silhouette. “I can see why you like her.” Janet walked back over toward Max.

Janet’s outline stood out from the steam, making it impossible to disguise her presence, at least not from Max. No one else could see her. She stepped up next to Max and listened at the door.

“I had to warn you,” Janet said. “There is danger nearby. You have to get away.”

“I appreciate the help.” Max said.

“I am usually happy to help, but I confess to being a little selfish. If you die, I don’t know what is going to happen to me. You, my little thief, are my only hope.”

“Not a thief. Mage,” Max corrected under his breath, a little aggrieved that his past still haunted him. He was ready to move on. Would Janet ever let him?

Either way, Max wasn’t going to run, not without his party, and they were scattered around the Oak and Crown tavern. Elderon was in the tavern downstairs with the newest member of the party, the dwarf Jahrod, who was probably still trying to find a bowl of scromble. But he was here with Anita.

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Janet stepped through the door—that is, she literally stepped through the door, dissolving through the timber panels, vanishing like a ghost. She came back through a moment later.

“The corridor is clear. Go now.”

“I’m not going anywhere,” Max said.

“Who’s there?” Anita said, causing a sudden splashing of the water as she stood up.

“Don’t be so selfish,” Janet said. “If you get killed, I could be trapped here for eternity.” Janet started to fade away. “Forever and ever. I’ll go mad, and I’ll haunt you wherever you are.”

Janet vanished.

“I said who’s there?” Anita was walking across the room toward Max.

Max saw her emerge from the steam. She was completely naked, only the thick creamy soap clinging to her body hiding her fulsome yet athletic form.

“It’s me, Max,” he said, and in speaking up, his Sneak ability deactivated.

“Oh, hello, Max,” Anita said, standing there smiling, soap slowly sliding down her hot wet skin. “Do you want a bath too?” She stepped forward. “Come in! The water is so hot. The White Raven springs are really something. Hot mineral water. They say it is as soothing as it is invigorating. I made the soap myself from my own collection of herbs.” She scooped handfuls of the lather from her breasts. “Look.” She held out her hands full of soap lather to Max.

Max turned away just as Anita exposed herself from beneath the soap. He reached for a towel, blindly grasping at a shelf at the side of the steamy room. “Maybe you should cover yourself,” Max said.

Anita stood there, defiant, hand on hip, soap sliding down her body. “Maybe you shouldn’t be such a big baby. Come on, get in the bath with me. I know you could use a soak.”

“I can’t. I mean, I’d like to, but where I come from, we usually go on a few dates, more than a few dates, before . . .” He risked a glance.

Yup, she was naked.

He looked away and offered the towel, arm outstretched.

“Before what?”

“Before,” Max stammered.

“Oh,” Anita said. She took the towel from him and wrapped it around herself, barely covering her front. “You are very lovely, Max, and a girl could do a lot worse than you. You are funny and brave and clever, but I can’t be intimate with anyone. I am going to be leader of my Druid order one day, and that requires that I remain chaste and pure. So, you can stop worrying about anything like that and get in the bath with me. The water is beautifully hot.”

Max could not help thinking that Anita was beautifully hot too.

“We don’t have time for a bath now, Anita,” Max said.

At that moment, the door burst open. The steam billowed around and cleared, revealing Anita, naked except for the towel she had wrapped around her hair. Elderon stepped in and closed the door.

Max averted his eyes. Elderon walked over to Anita.

“Get dressed. We have company.”

Anita threw the towel aside. She stepped into the tub and pulled a bamboo pipe toward her. A rush of hot water showered her, rinsing the soap fully away. She jumped out and started to pull on her fighting skirt and tunic. From soapy to rinsed and dressed in a matter of seconds. From relaxed to ready for action—Max was impressed.

“What’s the trouble?” Anita asked, adjusting her tunic. “Max was just about to tell me.”

Max listened at the door and then stepped over to join Elderon and Anita in the middle of the room. He whispered,

“Assassins.”

“What shall we do, Elderon?” Anita tied on her boots.

“We leave town.”

“What about Jahrod?” Max said. He thought he was starting to like the grumpy dwarf, plus it would be good to have a fighter in the party.

“What about me?” Jahrod said as he opened the door and stepped into the bathroom.

“Good thing I’d finished my bath,” Anita said.

Jahrod wrinkled his nose. “Baths are for fish. All I need I is a rubdown with a few handfuls of sand every few days.”

“We were going to tell you,” Max said, trying to shake the thought of washing with a handful of sand. “We need to leave.”

“Why?” Jahrod demanded.

Max listened to the door again before whispering, “Assassins.”

“Oh, them,” Jahrod said. “You know about them?”

Max felt Jahrod was speaking too loudly.

“Yes, so let’s leave.”

Too late. The door burst open, and in stepped an assassin, a pair of long curved daggers in his hands, holding one point up, the other point down. Clad all in black, a hood and mask revealing only a pair of cruel, fierce blue eyes.

Behind stepped a second. They took position next to each other.

They were dangerous alright, even for a powerful party like Max’s.

Then the assassins attacked.