“I’m telling you, this is pointless!” Niva whined as they walked down the street. “We’ve been hopping from bar to bar all day, and nobody has given us anything on the guy. We got lucky the first time, but that’s not going to happen again.”
“And I’m telling you, we’ve got no better options,” Kel countered. “We went over this yesterday. There’s nothing we can do but keep at it and hope for another lucky break.”
“Sure there is,” Niva said. “You could let me really investigate the Tide Masters.”
“When have I ever stopped you from doing that?” Kel asked. “All I’ve done is babysit you to make sure you’re discrete about it, and that you actually ask questions instead of running off making wild accusations.”
“It’s called flushing the prey out,” Niva explained. “You’ve got to go in loud, make a racket, and force them to respond. It even worked yesterday! They got so scared that they hauled you in front of their guild master. If you’d just used the opportunity to pump him for information instead of wetting yourself in terror and running out the door the first chance you got, maybe we’d have gotten some real proof they’re guilty.”
“Sorry I bungled being captured and interrogated by Divers so badly,” Kel said while rolling her eyes. “Tell you what, next time we’ll let the Tide Masters take you instead, alone, so that we don’t get in your way. Besides, I thought you liked to fancy yourself the ‘subtle’ one.”
“And I am. There’s a time and a place for everything, Kel.”
“So you’re suddenly an expert on tracking down thieves?”
“Nope,” Niva said with a shrug. “I’m just going with the first idea that popped into my head. That’s what I’ve always done, and look how far that’s got me.”
“Where HAS it gotten you?” Kel asked with a hint of concern in her voice. “You keep dodging the question whenever I ask what you actually do here in Darazzo.”
“Oh, you know, a bit of this, a bit of that,” Niva said. “And hey! Look at that! The next place’s right up there.”
Indeed, they were coming up on a low building which was nevertheless huge, covered by a domed roof. It occupied a small city block by itself, and as they approached Kel could see that it actually straddled a canal, as the waterway emerged from one of the walls. A huge sign hung over the closest entrance, reading “The Whirlpool Races.”
There were many hundreds of people inside, perhaps over a thousand even, but the place didn’t seem overcrowded owing to its spacious layout. Coming directly through the door, Kel found herself in a reception area. Along the closer wall was a bar and, apparently, restaurant, as she saw waitresses bringing trays of food out from behind it out to the tables around the central arena. Along the far wall was a long desk where patrons were waiting in one of several long lines. Coming close, Kel saw that above the desk was a long chalkboard, on which were written the lineups for the day’s races and the odds for the various animals. That was the betting table, then, Kel surmised.
But all of that paled before the centerpiece of the whole establishment. The center of the floor was cut out, creating a great circular pit. At the pit’s bottom was a gigantic pool of water, which flowed endlessly in a rapid whirlpool. The whirlpool created a depression in the pool, such that the entire thing was slanted, the water’s surface being formed into a linear slope from the high water at the pool’s edges down to the center.
A stone spire rose up from the nadir of the whirlpool. It had several rounded sections spiraling up around its length, giving an impression as if it were formed from several cords twisted about one another. There were carvings covering its surface, symbols that Kel could not recognize. The dome of the ceiling was cut out over the pool, allowing natural light onto the whirlpool.
The walls of the pit above water level were not solid but rather opened onto a series of rooms that were stacked above one another, stretching along the entire circumference of the pit’s walls. The lowest floors were comprised of a single bare room apiece. A few people had already filtered into them, standing around chatting with one another or leaning against the railing that stood on the edges of the platform.
Most of the higher levels were filled with tables, to which the waitresses were coming and going to take orders and deliver food to guests. The highest layers were divided into private rooms rather than the open floors of the layers before them, each with much more lavish looking furniture. Across the pit, Kel could see an identical looking reception area on the other side, featuring its own counters for patrons to order drinks and place bets.
“Let’s get started,” Kel said. Together, they canvased the building, asking anyone who would listen if they recognized Kashin. Luckily, several different customers did recognize him, but few could even recall his name, much less provide anything new about him.
“Damnit!” Kel lamented, standing around near the bar and looking out over the crowd which was starting to thin as more people took their seats for the next race. “So close. We finally found somewhere he frequented but nobody he actually talked to.”
“There was the one guy who said that he was talking to a ‘dark elf,’ whatever that is,” Niva said.
“Oh, those are elves with dark gray to black skin and red eyes. Also weird hair colors. You can’t miss them,” Kel explained.
“You mean like that guy?” Niva said, pointing to a finely dressed man accompanied by a large, well muscled bald man.
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Kel immediately began making her way through what was left of the crowd, trying to catch up to the pair as they made their way towards the pit. “Hey!” she shouted out at them, only to be ignored. She wracked her brain, trying to remember the proper greeting. “Thraesa! Threasa!” she cried.
That got the dark elf’s attention, and he turned, standing in place while waiting for her to make her way to him. “Una Qualindrei vaerthin?” he asked.
“Ot,” she replied, shaking her head. “Only a few phrases I remember from seminary.” She approached and shook his hand. “My name is Dame Keloran Beriss. Would you be willing to speak with me for a moment?”
The dark elf seemed to breifly consider. “Very well,” he finally said. “But come with me. I was delayed in getting here, and we’ll have to hurry to catch the first race.”
“Of course! Niva, let’s…” Kel said as she turned to address her companion, only to discover that she was missing. Kel bit her lip in consternation. Surely Niva couldn’t get up to too much trouble in the time it took for a brief conversation, right?
She consoled herself with that thought as she turned back to the dark elf man and followed him.
Kel was surprised to find that he stopped on the second level, inviting her into a private room. They sat side by side at a table, while the bald man, who was evidently some kind of bodyguard, stayed standing by the door.
Frustratingly, it seemed that the dark elf, who the waitress she found waiting for them addressed as Mr. Ithirin, had a very different idea of what it meant to “hurry” than Kel did, one involving a great deal of flirting with the waitress and double checking the bets he had registered on a small card.
Only after the roast duck had arrived did he finally come around to acknowledging Kel’s presence. “My apologies for having you wait, but I am a man who likes his routines.”
“No trouble at all, Mr. Ithirin.” Kel said.
“Please, call me Darlav,” he said with a smile. “I was surprised to find myself accosted by someone who spoke our tongue. You said you learned it in a seminary?”
“Yes, a basic smattering of every language they can get instructions for is standard. It’s hopefully enough to get by in emergencies but not much else. There are more advanced classes for the acolytes going into the missionary orders when they manage to find a teacher.”
“Ah, so that explains it,” Darlav said between bites. “I’ve never been one who cared much for temples or priests. They could all speak nothing but Qualindrei their entire lives, and I’d have still never heard a word of it here. So tell me, Dame Beriss…”
“Keloran is fine.”
“Keloran, what does a priest want with me?”
“A knight, technically, and I was told that a man named Kashin Qadullah had been speaking to a dark elf here. I assume that was you.”
“Ahh, say no more. I thought Kashin had done something stupid. You see…”
A horn sounded, and Darlav’s head whipped around towards the pool.
“You’ll have to forgive me. Let me watch the race,” he said, eyes glued to the starting line.
There were seven racers arrayed over the whirlpool, each floating in a spherical bubble of water that hovered above the water’s surface. Each one rode a different aquatic creature as a mount, of some strange magical breed that was large and docile enough to admit a rider onto them. In order from closest to the spire, the mounts consisted of a seahorse, a shark, an eel, a seal, a crocodile, an octopus, and a jellyfish.
The horn sounded twice more, and at the final blow the bubbles simultaneously popped, plunging the racers into the whirlpool.
Kel could tell there must have been some strategy behind the thing, seeming to revolve around which part of the whirlpool each one used. The racers were swimming against the direction the water swirled, and it seemed as though the current was strongest right next to the spire, which would have otherwise been the shortest path. The racers bobbed and weaved across the length of the pool, trying to cut each other off or even slamming bodily into each other to force them into a faster or slower current within the pool.
At the start of the third lap, the crocodile was in the lead, with the octopus just behind. As the octopus inched closer, it wrapped a tentacle around the crocodile’s tail. It pulled the crocodile backward, earning a bite on its tentacle for the trouble, but nonetheless managing to wrap a couple more around the other animal. It then lifted the crocodile fully out of the pool and flung it straight into the spire with a sickening crunch.
Kel was sure the thing was done for, but surprisingly it made a recovery within a few seconds, though now it was at the back of the pack. Unfortunately, the attack seemed to have driven the thing into a frenzy, and it turned around, swimming with the current in order to meet the octopus head on while its rider futility tried to regain control of his mount.
The octopus managed to dodge the oncoming attacker, but the whirlpool swiftly brought it around again for another try. The repeated distractions caused the octopus’s lead to slip, and by the end of the 10th lap the shark was at the head of the pack as they crossed the finish line.
“Damn!” Darlav yelled, tearing his card apart and then flinging himself back in his seat. “Lost every bet! I thought I could at least count on the crocodile to come in above fourth.” He rested his head in his hand, looking over at Kel again for the first time since the race had begun. “What were we talking about?”
“Kashin.”
“Ah, yes. Well, I can’t tell you much about him. Just that he was a heavy gambler and a poor one at that. He owed me quite a bit of money, and I was starting to become cross about his lack of payments. Then, three weeks ago, he comes up and pays me in full, right out of the blue. I’m no genius, but I hardly thought a rich uncle left him an inheritance. He at least wasn’t stupid enough to tell me where he got the money, and it wasn’t my business to ask. That’s all I can tell you.”
“Thank you for the information,” Kel said as she stood up from her chair. “You’ve been a great help.” He halfheartedly waved at her as she went off out the door.
Now she just had to find Niva before she did anything stupid.