the two. He glanced around, raised a hand, and both looked and pointed to his
left. He saw the man and the hooded and veiled woman look at the table he
indicated, at the wall; saw the man look questioningly at her. The hood nodded.
Perhaps she said something. Without uncloaking, they descended the step and
moved to the table Ahdio indicated.
She was in charge, Ahdio noted immediately. The man was her servant or
bodyguard, then. He caught Throde’s eye, indicated a table of empty cups, and
headed for the new arrivals.
“Welcome to Sly’s Place, my lady; sir. I am Ahdio and, yes, this is a real
chain-coat. What would you like?”
“Your best wine for milady; your better beer for me,” Wints said.
Ahdio knew that she had told her escort what to order; he was not to be
privileged to hear her voice in addition to seeing no glimpse of her face, then.
The point was, what in the name of the Shadowy One was she doing here? While her
retention of her hooded cloak along with the veil attracted attention just
because others wondered what she was hiding, he hoped she kept both in place.
Just the presence of a woman of quality here in Sly’s was enough to touch off
trouble from some of these jackasses. If she happened to be well-favored behind
the veil, and shapely within her doubtless expensive and fashionable attire, he
might well need Sweetboy’s aid!
Ouleh jiggled over while he poured qualis into a nice cup and was about to turn
to Maeder’s Better True Brew, which Maeder identified with a blue MB on the
barrel. She leaned across the bar to give Ahdio a high-eyebrowed look.