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<\/p>\nDag watched Gulum-Ei scurry down the road out of Solitude.\u00a0 His pace, and the stiff way that he held himself and glanced to either side of the road from time to time, told her that he was nervous and wary of being followed.<\/p>\n
And so he was.\u00a0 This was going to be a real test of her ability to hide, to blend into the shadows, and to move silently.\u00a0 She\u2019d always been fairly good at these things, but not overly serious about perfecting them.\u00a0 Now it was not just some game she was playing to fool Coyle and Doran on the docks, but a necessity.\u00a0 It was even possible that her life depended on it, for she had no idea what she was walking into.<\/p>\n
Gulum-Ei turned left onto the road that led toward the Solitude docks, and disappeared from Dagnell\u2019s sight.\u00a0 She frowned.\u00a0 Before her was a pair of guards at the outer gates; beyond them the stables and the carriage driver waiting for his next fare.\u00a0 There was almost no possibility that she could get past all of those people without being seen. \u00a0To her left, though, were the outermost reaches of the stone arch that held Solitude proper.\u00a0 She decided to chance that as an approach.<\/p>\n
It was oddly easy to find a climbing route up the rocks and over the ridgeline, and once she had dropped over it the only creatures that had sightlines to her were the gulls flying overhead.\u00a0 She worked her way forward, toward the water, and reached a ledge that offered a full view of the area.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Solitude sat at the mouth of the great tidal basin where the Karth River met the sea, the same tidal basin that fed the enormous salt marshes of the Morthal region.\u00a0 Its great depth and open access to the sea made it as perfect a harbor as could be imagined, a port that made Solitude the wealthy city that it was.\u00a0 Dag closed her eyes and breathed deeply for just a moment.\u00a0 Salt air.\u00a0 Cold, crisp, full of the tang of fish and brine, the calls of seabirds, and the distant clang of buoy bells.\u00a0 Aside from the temperature, it felt like home to her.\u00a0 It was a poignant, dreadful mixture of delight and sorrow, but she savored it as long as she dared.\u00a0 Then she opened her eyes and scanned the area again.<\/p>\n
Below her was the road that Gulum-Ei had taken; it hugged the bottom of Solitude\u2019s supporting archway and then followed the shoreline to the north and east.\u00a0 Movement caught her eye. Gulum-Ei was just coming into view; she dropped as low as she could and stayed motionless while he passed beneath her.\u00a0 Edging forward, she watched as he turned onto the wooden ramps that led down to the wharves.\u00a0 Once his head dipped below her line of sight, she dropped down off her perch and skittered across the road.\u00a0 Just to the left of the wooden rampway was an area of rocks that looked reasonably navigable and would give her access to the docks. This kind of terrain was home to her; she\u2019d spent her entire youth scrambling up and down rocky areas slick with sea mist. She slid down behind the largest of the boulders, trying to move only when city guards were looking the other way, and worked her way down to just above the nearest dock.\u00a0 Waiting as deeply huddled in the shadows as she could get, she watched until Gulum-Ei passed her, opening a small door at the left end of the dock and slipping inside the East Empire Shipping Company\u2019s warehouse.<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n
It was nothing if not impressive.\u00a0 A truly enormous pair of doors just above the waterline closed off what must be a natural waterway under Solitude. \u00a0Above it was a constructed stone arch that carried Solitude\u2019s shoreline road over the warehouse entrance.\u00a0 It was an ingenious design that would allow for all but the tallest shipping vessels to enter the area behind those huge doors, while keeping their contents secure.<\/p>\n
Dag had no idea what was in there, but that was where she needed to go next.<\/p>\n
She waited until the lone guard walking patrol had passed her, then jumped down onto the dock and made her way to the door Gulum-Ei had used.\u00a0 It was locked, but not a difficult lock to pick, for which she was truly grateful.\u00a0 It clicked open just as the guard was reaching the far end of his patrol route, and she slipped inside. There was a small entry room with a table and chair, but beyond them the space opened into the gigantic, water-filled cavern she had expected to find.<\/p>\n
Wooden wharves and ramps, as well as shelving as tall as most houses, ran around the perimeter of the cavern in a great horseshoe shape. Most of these were piled high with goods of all kinds, or stacked with chests that held things she couldn\u2019t see but would give an arm to look into. In several spots, natural ledges higher up had been used to place small buildings, probably an office or two, overlooking the entirety. There were, as she had expected, a number of good-sized shipping vessels docked on either side of the water.\u00a0 The place was full of enough wealth to keep most of Skyrim fed and clothed for years on end.<\/p>\n
And it was crawling with guards.<\/p>\n
Dag spotted Gulum-Ei making his way through the labyrinth of shelving units, and a guard heading toward her but still not close enough to have spotted her. She looked around for options; the first was to get into the water and hope she could swim, unnoticed, to wherever Gulum-Ei ended up.\u00a0 But that water was frigid, and Dag knew how well she dealt with cold. Just ahead was one of the building-height shelving sections, with a ramp placed for access to its upper levels.\u00a0 She bolted for that and darted up it into the shadows just before the guard turned a corner and passed beneath her perch.<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n
There were planks laid across between shelving units here, making for a crude pathway nearly all the way around the left side of the cavern.\u00a0 If she was extremely careful and stayed out of the light, Dag could probably follow Gulum-Ei without encountering any guards.\u00a0 She hoped.\u00a0 Once the guard beneath her had turned back to resume his patrol route, she crept along behind and above him.<\/p>\n
Her path led her up another ramp, to one of the natural ledges.\u00a0 She froze at the top of the ramp as the sound of snoring alerted her to a man sound asleep at the foot of another rack of chests and boxes.\u00a0 She held her breath for what felt like a lifetime, but he never so much as twitched. \u00a0What a target he would make for an assassin, just lying there with no protection like that, she thought with a grin.\u00a0 She crept past him and along a narrow plank ledge.\u00a0 It ended abruptly, but she was able to drop down onto a natural outcropping and behind an overturned table.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat was that?\u201d came from just ahead of her, from one of the guards.<\/p>\n
\u201cIs anybody there?\u201d from another, a woman this time.<\/p>\n
Damn, she thought. They heard me. It had been a long shot, the idea that she could drop from that height without making at least some noise. Now what?\u00a0 She reached for her swords but thought better of it; the sound of them sliding out of the scabbards would surely give her away, no matter how carefully she did it. The only thing she could do was sit tight and try not to breathe until they gave up looking.\u00a0 But what about following Gulum-Ei?\u00a0 It didn\u2019t matter; if she moved they were going to see her, and she was fairly sure she would then be dead.<\/p>\n
It felt like a long, healthy lifetime before the guards stopped calling out for each other and looking for her, but at last they gave up and went back to their patrols.\u00a0 She stood slowly, and scanned the area for Gulum-Ei.<\/p>\n
Inexplicably, he was still visible a good way ahead of her.\u00a0 She had no idea what he\u2019d been doing while she was hiding, but she watched in amazement as he walked down a set of wooden stairs into the water and then seemed to disappear.\u00a0 Doesn\u2019t matter what he was doing, she thought.\u00a0 I know where he went.<\/p>\n
She was going to have to drop down onto the main level in order to get to her destination, and timing that was tricky.\u00a0 There was a guard on one of the boats, facing her, and another walking patrol along the stretch just beneath her.\u00a0 She had to wait until the guard on the boat turned to look across the water, and the patrol guard was walking away from her, to let herself down and slither behind some shelves into the shadows.\u00a0 Slinking around the far end of a boat and behind more racks, she finally reached the stairway down which Gulum-Ei had disappeared.\u00a0 Beside them were more stairs leading to a large ramp up.\u00a0 Dag followed the path with her eyes; it led up along the walls of the cavern and then doubled back to one of the offices she\u2019d seen from the Warehouse\u2019s entrance.<\/p>\n
\u201cWell I\u2019m not going to get a chance to pick through this warehouse,\u201d she thought.\u00a0 \u201cBut by Stendarr, I\u2019m going to see what\u2019s in that office.\u201d\u00a0 She waited until the guards were looking the other way, then dashed up the ramp and back down the path to the office.<\/p>\n
Once she was inside, Dag stood and released the deep breath she\u2019d been holding.\u00a0 A moment to regroup was a very valuable thing indeed; and so had this side trip been.\u00a0 The room was full of pelts, coin purses, clothing, books, jewels, and any number of things that looked worthy of lifting.\u00a0 She decided to grab just the coin and the jewels; but made an exception for the East Empire Company shipping routes map lying on a table. \u201cI\u2019ll bet Delvin could make really good use of this,\u201d she murmured, rolling it up and tucking it into her pack.<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n
Making her way back down to the stairway, she slipped out of her pack and held it on her shoulder while she waded into the frigid water where Gulum-Ei had gone.\u00a0 There was a ramp up, closer to the cavern wall, cleverly placed so as to be inaccessible except from this spot in the water, under the main walkway. She waded around pillars until finding the base of the ramp.\u00a0 Just as she emerged from the water and was slipping her pack back on, she heard \u201cYou\u2019re not supposed to be here!\u201d<\/p>\n
Dag ran forward, around a set of shelves.\u00a0 She could hear footsteps behind her.\u00a0 Damn, I\u2019m going to die now, she thought.\u00a0 But as she rounded the corner she spotted a door.\u00a0 Without a clue what she was going to find behind it, she bolted through it.<\/p>\n
Dag watched Gulum-Ei scurry down the road out of Solitude.\u00a0 His pace, and the stiff way that he held himself and glanced to either side of the road from time to time, told her that he was nervous and wary of being followed. And so he was.\u00a0 This was going to be a real test … <\/p>\n