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wheezing, “let me sing your dance for you. There’s something in this town that we need, and your talents can get it for us.”
    “We?” said Kehrsyn, her eyes narrowing.
    The woman pursed her lips. and replied, “Why, the guild, if you must know.” She cocked her head to the other side.
    “The guild? Which guild?”
    The woman shook her head in disbelief. “Why, what guild do you think, hon?” she asked.
    “I—I don’t know,” stammered Kehrsyn.
    The woman snorted, “The thieves’ guild, of course.”
    She pulled a small, soiled kerchief from an inner pocket and blew her nose.
    “But there’s no thieves’ guild in Messemprar,” objected Kehrsyn. “They wouldn’t dare make one.”
    “If only your mind were as nimble as your vixen hands, hon,” said the sorceress with a rattling sigh of exasperation. She returned the kerchief and clasped her hands together. “You got to keep up with the times, especially here. The Northern Wizards don’t have the control everyone thinks they do. The ex-Gilgeamite priests don’t have the control they wish they had. And no one trusts the church of Tiamat, or the army, or the Banites, or—or the followers of Furifax, or anyone. So when the Mulhorandi army starts looking like a good option, well, that’s when there’s cracks large enough for a guild to move in, and with this many people packed into the streets, we got ourselves a good set of targets.”
    “Move in?” asked Kehrsyn
    “Yeah, we’ve been operating elsewhere for a while, so it’s nice to be home again.”
    Kehrsyn paused and considered what she knew. If the sorceress was powerful, she could have laid a geas uponher to do whatsoever work she had in mind. If, as the sorceress had implied, the guild was new in town, its members might not know their way around too well.
    Kehrsyn studied the gloating eyes of the sorceress for another breath and said, “Well, welcome back to Messemprar. Sorry to disappoint you, but I don’t steal. Olaré.” She tapped the guard on the shoulder with her rapier to get his attention and added, “I’m leaving now, but you’re still not alone. Good luck.”
    So saying, she started to back away. The sorceress cleared her throat again, snuffled, and spat.
    “Don’t do something you might regret, hon,” she said, waggling her fingers.
    “Life is full of regrets,” said Kehrsyn, “and mine has been full of threats far more intimidating than yours.”
    “Why, I’m not threatening you, hon,” said the woman, as more wisps of bluish energy coalesced around her hands. “I’m offering you protection. Assistance. Help, you know.”
    “Help? Sounds to me like you’re trying to bully me into doing your dirty work. Pretend I’m in danger, then offer me an imaginary way out.”
    “Imaginary? Far from it. Seems a fair trade to me: you do us a favor and we help you avoid your due punishment for killing this here guard,” said the woman, rubbing her nose with the back of her hand.
    “What?” asked Kehrsyn. “What are you talking about?”
    “I tell ya, hon,” said the woman, a catch in her throat adding gravel to her tone, “you got to keep up with the times. If you don’t keep up, it’ll do you in.” She paused to hack a few times, then spit a large wad at the ground at the guard’s feet. “That there guard, he’s a member of the Zhentarim. You heard him say that, didn’t you? Or weren’t you paying attention? Anyway, those Zhents, they look after their own. They don’t take kindly to sleek little thieves like you killing one of them.”
    “But I didn’t,” said Kehrsyn.
    “Your nut might be a little slow, but your eyes are fast enough,” the sorceress said, pointing her finger at Kehrsyn’s bag.
    Kehrsyn looked down just in time to see her dagger slide from its hiding place, a slight blue aura shining around it. She gasped in surprise and started to reach for it, but as it flew away she stayed her hand, lest she slice her own fingers off trying to