The old "fake delivery" trick

"We don't even know if we can reach the warehouse from that room," Teysa pointed out. "But those dwarves probably took their barrels straight in. Look, that big guy on the door looks like he forgets his own name three times a day. We just convince him that he forgot our delivery and take it straight back."

Aliara pursed her lips for a moment, then nodded. "I suppose that might work. But what do we deliver?"

Teysa threw her arms open wide. "Look around, Li! It could be anything! What do these people want, hm? Food? Wine? Entertainment?"

"****?" Aliara asked. "Hey, we know they have some. That's what we've been sent to burn, after all."

Teysa didn't like it, but she had to admit that Aliara had a point. "Ok. So how do we get some?"

Aliara shook her head. "No. Listen, I think I have a plan..."

As the bells pealed for the fifth and final time, Teysa and Aliara paused a few dozen yards short of the door. The stony giant was still standing there with his arms crossed. He looked as though he had been there forever and the market had grown up around him. He stared out at the market with the bored expression of one who knew that his job was, basically, to fill space, and who had no intention of doing more than that unless necessary.

Teysa looked down at herself. She wore trousers and a comfortable tunic under a leather vest and carried a leather satchel. Aliara was in overalls and held a large clay pot in both hands. The two of them looked just like the merchants who thronged the market-- working women in simple, hard-wearing clothes, unarmed and no threat to anyone. At least, she hoped so.

She shared a quick look with Aliara, nodded, and set off towards the door. The giant watched them approach. If he recognized them from earlier, he didn't mention it, but nor did he moved to allow them entrance.

"Private party," he said. He stared down at Teysa and Aliara as though they were something he had scraped off his shoe. "You on da list?"

"Oh, no sir," Teysa said. "We're just here to drop off some... uh, supplies. Your master in there ordered them."

The giant's brow furrowed. "No one tell me about order."

"Well, they wouldn't, would they?" Teysa asked. She leaned in conspiratorially and raised her eyebrows. "This is Amberhaze. Finest in the Underneath." She lifted the edge of the satchel just a fraction, allowing the giant a peek at its contents. A few russet stalks of what looked like wheat were visible for a moment before she snapped it shut.

The giant was silent for a moment, as if considering this. Then he rumbled again: "Not on da list, you don't get in."

Teysa fumed. For a moment, she had been sure she'd had him. "Then is there somewhere else we can take these to drop them off?" she asked. She tried to keep frustration out of her voice. It wasn't in character.

The giant shrugged. "Not my problem," he said. "Not my business."

"If our delivery doesn't get through, your master will be furious!" Teysa warned. "Do you want to explain to him why you turned away his resupply?"

"You're not gettin' in," the giant repeated. "Not on da list, you don't get in."

Aliara burst into tears. "Please, sir!" she said. "Please, we're just messengers, if we don't make this dropoff our master will beat us most ferociously! We were told to bring you our wares, and we have! Why are you being so mean?"

The giant opened his mouth, probably to repeat one of the few sentences he seemed to know. Before he could a small figure darted out from between his legs. It was a gnome, dressed in a cotton tunic with an eye emblazoned on the front. His face was pinched and angry, framed by a mop of coal-black curls. He looked from Teysa to Aliara and then up at the guard. His brow beetled. "What's all this commotion out here, Rouf?" he snapped. "You women, what are you doing here?"

Aliara's chest hitched as she sobbed. Teysa took that as her cue. "Please, sir, we're just delivery girls. We come from Mirren across the way. He sent us with amberhaze and... other party favors." She opened her satchel again and held it low so he could look inside. The gnome stared at her for a moment, then at the crying Aliara, then at the giant guard. He seemed to come to a conclusion. "Rouf! You idiot!" he shouted. "You send deliveries to the side door. Remember? Side door." He stretched out the last two words as if talking to a small child. One finger pointed at the door that Teysa had seen the dwarves using earlier. "You two go in there. Hand your parcels off to the guards and be on your way." Without another word he turned and vanished back into the room.

Aliara's tears cleared up almost he instant he left. Rouf the guard looked down at them impassively and raised one massive, stony finger to point where the gnome had indicated. Teysa bit back a scathing remark and just nodded her head instead. "Thank you," she said. "You've been very helpful."

The two of them made their way to the neighboring door. Based on the facade, Teysa had expected an office or guardroom, but it turned out to lead to a long, broad corridor with no visible doors or side hallways. Torches marched away along each wall. Just inside the entrance was a slightly wider vestibule, where two bored-looking humans lounged against the walls. When they saw Teysa and Aliara, they scrambled to attention. Each carried a polearm, which they crossed to block the women's passage.

"Halt!" said one. "What's the... uh, who goes there? What's in the satchel?"

"Amberhaze," Teysa said. "A gnome told us to make deliveries here? For the party?"

The guard looked at each other. "Did he have dark hair? Curly?"

"Yeah," said Aliara. "And an eye on his chest." She tapped her own in demonstration. Both guards' eyes lingered for a moment. Teysa felt a stirring of jealousy, but **** it down. She had to admit, Aliara knew how to get what she wanted.

"Uh, back there," one of the guards said, pointing with a thumb. "Just stay on straight ahead."

"Thank you!" said Aliara sweetly. She hefted her pot in both hands and practically skipped down the corridor. Teysa followed at a more sedate pace. She could feel the guards' eyes on her back as she passed them. One of them said something she couldn't hear, and they both sniggered. Her hands tightened on the straps of her satchel, but she said nothing.

The corridor bored directly into the stone wall of the cave. After about a hundred feet it turned sharply right. The walls here were raw stone, the sconces simple iron baskets held in place with heavy bolts. Up ahead Teysa could see a heavy iron door, featureless but for a small barred window at eye level. She rapped on it with her knuckles: bong, bong, bong.

There was a scuffle of feet on stone and then a face appeared at the window. It was a leathery-skinned woman with an expression like someone who had just bitten into a lemon. She squinted suspiciously at them between the bars. "Who're you?" she demanded.

Teysa held up her satchel to the window. "Deliveries, ma'am. Amberhaze and lightwater." She prodded Aliara, who held up her pot for inspection. The woman snorted. "We're not expecting any deliveries. Go away."

"Please, ma'am, the gnome sent us," Teysa said. "Curly black hair? I don't know, Mirren just told us he had a rush order and we were to deliver it at once." She hoped that the woman didn't have a way to verify that; Mirren was just a name that the Eel's majordomo Kohaar had given her.

"He's a small timer," the drow had insisted. "But with... aspirations. I'm sure he's supplying that party. They certainly haven't been paying the Mistress." He'd snorted, too, as if such bad taste appalled him.

The woman still looked suspicious, but Teysa heard the scrape of bolts and the door swung back on its hinges. Inside, the woman stood scowling at them. She was flanked on either side by guards that looked rather more attentive than the two out front. They carried spears and small round shields, and wore half-helms with a stylized eye emblazoned on the forehead. The woman bore the symbol as a tattoo on one cheek. She looked to be in early middle age, but it was hard to tell-- her skin was worn and lined from hard living, and she had the wasted look of a habitual user. "Amberhaze, eh?" she croaked. "Let me take a look. Mirren's been shorting us lately."

"Certainly," said Teysa. Her heart raced. She could sense it coming, the critical moment. There was always one: that moment when a bluff was called, or tension hit the breaking point, when **** went from a threat to an inevitability. She **** her breathing to slow and popped the clasp on her satchel. The top peeled back to reveal a bundle of loose sheaves. The smell that wafted off them was familiar. Even in its raw form, it stirred something inside Teysa, a feeling of warmth and comfort. She pushed it down. She could ill afford the transaction.

The scent was having an effect on the others, too. The woman leaned over, an avid expression creasing her face. The guards, too, leaned in. Teysa plunged one hand into the satchel as if grabbing a handful to hold out for presentation. Her fingers closed around the haft of her mace, concealed under the thin layer of amberhaze the Eel had given them. Unnoticed, Aliara had set down her clay pot and pulled off the lid. Her daggers had been strapped just inside the pot's mouth.

Teysa dropped the satchel at the same moment as she pulled her arm out. She turned the motion into an upward swing with the mace. Its broad head caught the woman under the jaw with a loud crack. She stumbled backward with an expression of disbelief on her face, clutching with both hands at her jaw, then collapsed backward. The guards reacted quicker than Teysa would have hoped. The first one darted at her with his spear held out before him, and she barely spun out of the way. The second was already moving to box her in with his shield held up high. Teysa tried a swing, but the guard batted it effortlessly out of the way. He drew his spear back for a thrust and froze. A stricken expression crossed his face and his legs went out from under him. Aliara rose up behind him with blood dripping from one of her daggers.

The other guard took a step backward. Suddenly he was facing two opponents at once. He opened his mouth to call out and Teysa bulled into him. The impact of her shoulder knocked the wind out of him and he staggered, eyes wide, mouth opening and closing like a fish. Teysa swung her mace in a lateral arc and he barely got his shield up in time. Her backswing caught him on the side of the head and he went over.

She stood there for a moment, breathing hard. The whole episode had taken less than thirty seconds, but she was winded from the intensity. She looked around while she got her breath back. The warehouse proper was an enormous, low-ceilinged room. Near the door was a small marble table with a quill and inkpot and a stack of papers. Torches were set at wide intervals around the room-- not enough to brighten it, just enough to navigate by. Most of the floor space was taken up by rows and rows of crates and barrels, each labeled with a heavy black stencil. Teysa squinted into the darkness, trying to make out the dim shapes at the far end of the room, while Aliara grabbed a torch off the wall. "Come on!" the half-elf hissed. "We've gotta do this! Now or never, Tey, they'll be getting suspicious in a moment!" She made to run for the nearest row of barrels. Teysa barely caught her in time. She grabbed Aliara's elbow with one hand, spinning her around.

"Wait!" Teysa wheezed. She swallowed, took a deep breath, and stood upright. "Li, look at the size of this place. We can't just drop a torch and run. We have to find what we're looking for. Otherwise this was all for nothing." She pointed at the table. "Look, there's inventory there. We can spare a moment to check it, then we set the fire and get out of here."

Aliara bit her lips. She danced nervously from foot to foot. "Come on, come on, Tey, I get that you like to be careful, but we don't have time! They'll be here any second!"