Tolan paused a moment to listen, but it didn't seem like anyone else was coming down the stairs. Well, that must be the end of the flow of Outworlders, then.Indicating the small hoard of weapons they had confiscated, he said to the guards, who he had somehow managed to fool this entire time, "I want these weapons safely locked away. Put them in a cell-" he faltered suddenly when he realized a possible glitch in his makeshift, on-the-fly plan.
But Echlar had already thought of that. "Put them in the same cell that the other Outworlders' weapons were locked in," he suggested with perfectly feigned innocence.
Tolan breathed a small sigh of relief as Echlar's absolutely straight face told him everything he needed to know. The old wizard had even thought of the missing weapons when he had re-cast an illusion of the escaped prisoners. Lady Luck, you are too kind this morning...
"Now then," Tolan continued. "Since we seem to have all the Outworlders rounded up, I should like to have a word with them." As he started into the hall of cells, the sound of someone else coming down the stairs stopped him. With a fatalistic shrug, he said with mock-exasperation, "Just how many more of them ARE there, anyway?"
However, the sight of the next prisoner instantly wiped the smile off his face.
