D& D - Greyhawk - Night Watch Read Free Page B

His violet eyes, which betrayed his elven blood, were dulled with boredom, as was his entire expression.
    “Welcome home, Burge,” Garett answered, not because his friend had been on any trip. It was their not-so-private joke that the Citadel was really the only home either of them had ever known. They frequently greeted each other so at the beginning of a shift.
    Burge rose, stretched his lanky form, and took a new seat on the corner of Garett’s desk. Garett turned to refill the first of his five precious lamps. “Anything interesting on our docket tonight?” he asked. Burge was always the first night-shifter to arrive, and he always had the day’s gossip for his captain.
    “The day’s been reasonably quiet,” Burge reported as he picked up a stylus and began to play with it. “No leads yet on the dock robberies. Korbian says he’ll try to get to it just as soon as the new mayor and magister are installed in office.”
    Garett looked up briefly from his refilling and mentally counted the days until the summer solstice. On that day, Ellon Thigpen would be made mayor by the Directorate. In turn, Thigpen would invest Kentellen Mar, his personal choice for magister, to run the city’s judiciary.
    “Has Kentellen returned yet?” Garett asked offhandedly as he returned to his task. The soon-to-be magister had decided to take a vacation before assuming his new duties. Rumor put him somewhere in the north of Furyondy.
    “Not yet,” Burge answered. The half-elf crossed his long legs, leaned back on the desk, and studied the ceiling. It was then that Garett realized his friend’s boredom was only an act. Well, he’d just laid it on too thickly.
    “You’re holding something back,” Garett said, setting his pot down, turning to face Burge. “You want to tell me, or you want to walk double-shift with Blossom?”
    Burge leaped up in mock alarm and held his hands out before him pleadingly. “No, Cap’n, sir. Please not that, sir.” The half-elf put on quite a show, pretending to swallow hard as he wrung his hands. Then he dropped the act and turned serious again. “The day watch found another body floatin’ in the stream down by the Old Town wall this mornin’.”
    Garett frowned as he bent over his desk. That made five in the last two weeks. “Same as the others?” he asked.
    Burge leaned against the wall and picked at a nail as he nodded. “Not a pretty sight at all. A woman this time. Nice lookin’, too. And there’s been reports of several more disappearances in the Slum Quarter.”
    Garett pulled out his chair and sat down, digesting the information. A piece of his dream fluttered through his brain again, but it was gone as soon as he tried to grasp it. For some reason, he thought of the birds he’d seen above the High Market Square.
    “Was it a patrol that found her?” he asked sternly.
    Burge shook his head, and a flicker of irritation showed on his face. “A couple of merchants on their way to set up shop in the Petit Bazaar. You can’t keep this quiet, sir. Rumors are already beginnin’ to spread. People in the lower quarters are gettin’ nervous.”
    “Exactly what we don’t need with a big citywide celebration coming up,” Garett said, his mind working. “Double the patrols in the Artisans’ Quarter, the Slum Quarter, and the River Quarter. The Foreign Quarter, too. And alert all the watch houses to keep a sharp eye out.” He leaned back in his chair, put his feet up on his desk as he thought, and turned his gaze up to the ceiling. “I’ve got this strange feeling.”
    “A woman would take care of that,” Burge quipped, rolling his eyes. “I’ve told you, a night down on the Strip is what you need. I could show you some places that would straighten your chest hair.”
    Before Garett could make his usual excuse, his door opened. Blossom ducked her head as she passed under the jamb, and a cascade of blond hair spilled forward. The woman stood nearly seven feet tall. That was the