Baldur's Gate by Philip Athans Read Free Book Online

could hear them. This made Abdel smile.
    “Someone is deliberately sabotaging the iron supply at Nashkel and other mines,” Jaheira pressed, though something in her tone made it clear she’d say a little more, then let it rest until at least the next day. They were still more than half a tenday north of Nashkel.
    Montaron stopped and, smiling, turned around. “An” what o’ that, fair Jaheira,” the halfling asked. “Let ‘em sabotage away, I say, an’ when we get there, we’ll find the culprit an’ turn ‘im in fer a great, ‘uge reward.”
    Jaheira didn’t even acknowledge Montaron as she passed.
    “Reward?” Abdel asked.
    “Sure, lad,” Montaron said, clapping the big sellsword on the forearm, “what’d ye think we were walkin’ fer a tenday an’ three fer, justice?”
    Jaheira spun on the halfling and spat, “What would you know of justice, thief?”
    Montaron’s eyes hardened for just a fraction of a second, and Jaheira took a step back. As if sensing the confrontation, Khalid stopped and turned but made no move to approach. Abdel kept his eyes on the halfling.
    “Easy, lass,” Montaron said, chuckling. “It’s all just business, ain’t it?”
    “And what business are you in, Montaron?” she asked.
    “If ye’re talkin’ about those purses at the Friendly Arms,” he said jovially, “maybe ye should thank me fer gettin’ the boy out o’ there.”
    “Getting the boy out o’ there?” Khalid asked, his voice nearly lost to the breeze and a squawking crow.
    Montaron looked at him and smiled.
    “Sure,” he said, “an’ us all.”
    “Sleep lightning,” Xzar suddenly shouted, “lightning sleep.”
    Abdel, Montaron, Jaheira, and Khalid all looked in the direction of the babbling mage. Xzar was nearly fifty yards ahead of them now, obviously oblivious to the conversation. Abdel laughed first and Montaron, then Khalid joined him, but a silent Jaheira was the first to march off after Xzar.
    “Thank you for that, by the way,” Abdel said to Montaron.
    “Not at all, kid,” Montaron said, “ye’ll repay me, I’m sure.

    They’d passed through Beregost on their way from the Friendly Arms, even slept in real beds at an inn Montaron insisted on paying for. Their stay there seemed all too short, even for Abdel, who was as used to sleeping under the stars as inside, and it was a relief for all of them when they finally entered the mining town of Nashkel.
    Abdel didn’t know if it was good luck or bad that there seemed to be some kind of festival going on in a fallow field outside town. On their way south he’d heard nothing but bad news from Jaheira and Khalid — even from Montaron — that made him think Nashkel would have been some kind of ghost town by the time they got there. The image he’d formed of it in his mind had been one of desperate miners begging on the street, shops and other businesses closed, families loading carts to head for greener pastures, and the sort of morose drunkenness he’d seen in too many Sword Coast taverns.
    Instead the small town was alive with color. Carts were set up in every available space, and traveling merchants were showing their wares. Three men in parti-colored clothes were juggling flaming torches, a gnome was playing a rousing tune on what looked like a cross between bagpipes and a caravan wagon, and healthy children were running everywhere, apparently no worse for wear. There were soldiers in the street, dressed in the colors of Amn.
    Montaron nudged Abdel and drew the sellsword’s attention to a small group of young women the halfling apparently found attractive.
    “I’d like to investigate their mines, eh kid?” the halfling joked, then nearly doubled over laughing.
    Abdel was pretty sure he knew what the little thief meant, but he didn’t reply.
    Jaheira grunted and said to the halfling, “When this town is overrun by soldiers, women like that will be very busy.”
    “Women like that,” Montaron said, “are always