He understood why his parents had banned him from going anywhere near the Sledge. It wasn’t a tavern or a district of the city, it was a long warehouse stretching the length of a block. Outside the door, rough-looking people loitered and conversed. Light shone from the double doors. They had been propped open, though the sky threatened rain. The Sledge had no identifying features otherwise, just a simple square stone frame and wooden roof thatched over with hay that needed to be changed.
They saw right away there would be no place for him to wait without drawing attention. He'd have to fall back, at least to the other side of the square.
Beside him, dressed in simple dark clothing, Ursa grumbled. “More people than we thought. And a big square in front of the doors. You should wait here.”
“Once again,” he reiterated, “I strongly feel we should stick together.”
“There’s no way for you to come in. If we draw too much attention we might never make it to Cirina.”
“You come here often?” he quipped. He had never been more aware of his isolation at the top of the tower. When was the last time he had sat on something other than silk?
She chuckled, a warm sound. She was observing the square out of the corner of her eye. She wasn’t as worried as him. Ursa had always moved more easily between worlds though, and she did not look incongruous at all. She’d traded her robes for a cloak with a hood and cowl, and drawn her black hair up. The line of her jaw was visible in a way it usually wasn't when she wore her hair down.
"What are you looking at?"
Amadou flushed. "Nothing, I…I don't like this. I think we should change the plan."
"Amadou, you’re too recognizable." Ursa rolled her eyes. "There's no plan that doesn't involve me going in alone."
~*~
That stymied him, and she knew it was his only real objection. Sure, she didn't want them to have to fight their way out, but she would and could if necessary. She tapped the shield she'd charmed around her belly. It wouldn't help if she hit her head or fell, but it would block a blade.
Amadou took her arm and drew her to the side of the lane. "At least let me add something then."
From afar, they would look like sweethearts stopped by the edge of the road. She leaned forward so her hood would block his motions.
He always concentrated so beautifully on his charms. For some reason, she held her breath as he reached for her face. He brushed her ear, mumbled something, and traced the spell back to his own ear. He brushed her lips with his fingertips, then his own.
"Now I’ll hear if you call. Be careful." He locked eyes with her as he said it. The intensity of the look caught her off-guard.
Ursa broke away from him, wondering why her skin was burning where he'd touched her. When he'd looked at her with those familiar eyes, something in her had stirred.
She straightened her face with effort, and crushed down a thought that was starting to form in the back of her mind. She had work to do.
~*~
She didn't want to be flip, but she wasn't as concerned about the mission as Amadou was. While he looked grim the whole walk down, she composed herself for getting the most out of Cirina as possible. Without her, their trail would run dry. Ursa could go to Xavier herself, but she did not want to.
Xavier knew about the pregnancy, but neither of them had been particularly enamored of the idea of forming a partnership. Ursa was excited by the idea of having a child, but she could not picture a relationship with someone as ill-suited for her as Xavier. Dreaming of ideal matches. Am I becoming my mother? She almost laughed, then remembered to stay in character.
The interior of the warehouse was part market, part tavern, part public square. Cloth divided the plots, and humans and cat-shifted folk lounged or passed between on the clear paths that wound through the riotous interior.
A few queries for directions later, and she stood in front of an area that looked much like all the rest. A circle of pillows took up the front area. The rest was concealed by a large tent. A fire burned nearby, though most light came from the cheap light orbs in the ceiling.
"I'm told Cirina can help me with my business." Ursa addressed the four people lounged about.
One woman rose. She assessed Ursa with sharp eyes. Ursa wasn't sure what she saw—well-made clothing? Clean skin and hair? Hopefully whatever it was, she hoped it made her look trustworthy, and not like an easy mark.
"I'm Cirina. Come in back, and we'll see what I can do for you.”
Ursa passed under the cloth flap into Cirina's space. The large tent rose far above her head, and was divided into two sections. The stone of the Sledge building made up the back wall. She could not see into the other section.
Cirina turned and lit a cigarillo. Calm, thought Ursa. We are in her territory, that's for sure.
"What can I help you with?" Cirina asked. Her voice had a rough edge, but she wasn't outright aggressive. She was open to a sale.
"A mutual friend informed me you were the one to talk to about getting goods in. Without involving the big crews.”
This was the story she had worked out with Amadou.
“It’s like creating a new spell,” she’d said. “We know our end goal, and we know some of the pieces. Now we need to prompt our connections to fill in the rest.” This was how she crafted. When she’d wanted to make the moving embroidered flowers, she’d shifted through numerous spells for how to make wind, examined the composition of stalks of wildflowers on the prairie, and read a whole text on thread alone. Slowly, the components of the spell fell into place.
Cirina smoked. "Why don’t you want to involve the big crews?”
"If you’d like to make an introduction, I have no qualms. But my friend informed me you took the most care, and had access to the best stuff," Ursa said. "Is that not true? I've yet to see any proof."
"Where's your proof, stranger? Did you say who your employer was?"
Ursa untied the small bag at her hip, and enjoyed the drama of letting the bag land on the small wooden desk to their left. The strings loosened, and four pearls rolled out. The rest remained in the bag.
She assumed this was Cirina’s real meaning when she said “proof.”
Cirina grunted appreciatively. "From Thassalo?”
"Of course. Only the best."
“Do you have a line on more of these?”
"If you show me you have high-quality goods. Specifically, I need weaponry."
Amadou did not think the Hji were smuggling in weapons. But she thought this made the most sense to ask Cirina about. It was a broad enough category that did not reveal too much magical knowledge.
Cirina ground out her cigarillo and left the end in an ashtray. She went to the low desk, and knelt behind it.
Ursa hooked a finger through a belt loop and kept her stance nonchalant. Cirina had gotten right down to business, and she was still looking for an opening to ask about smuggling and the Hji. Not that this low-level underworld merchant would know anything about the Hji. Maybe there was another direction they could look. There were the larger, established smuggling crews. Arrow-something. They could infiltrate them. Or maybe she should just get over herself and talk to Xavier directly—
"Here."
Cirina held out a wooden tab, thin as a bookmark and tied at the top with a faded ribbon. Ursa reached for the tab, then froze at the sight of the script inked in rows. She paled.
"By the Great Eye. Where did you get this."
Her tone tipped off the woman. Cirina's eyes narrowed.
"None of your business. It seems you should go."
She made to stow the tab in a pocket of her ragged clothes.
Ursa lunged forward. She snatched for the wooden tab but Cirina had a blade out in no time, and she slashed at Ursa's arm before she could draw back. Ursa cried out, and Cirina made a dash for the tent flap.
"Stop!" Ursa commanded in the language of the djinn.
The air in the tent flexed with power. Cirina froze in her tracks. When Ursa came about to face her,
the woman's eyes roved wildly in her head. Ursa plucked the tab from Cirina’s fingers.
A glance over her shoulder told her no one was coming to help Cirina. The tent had a silence charm cast over it. A fight could take place in here and no one would hear. But that was the only magic Ursa had detected, so there was nothing to stop anyone from bursting in.
"Where did you get this?" Ursa asked through gritted teeth. Blood ran down her hand and dripped to the floor.
"A dealer in Saccharine." Cirina did not look pleased at having been bested. "You're a priestess or a sorceress."
"I'm protecting the city." Ursa waved the wooden tab. "This in the wrong hands would destroy us all, Carnate and Hji. What is Saccharine?"
Cirina glowered.
"Speak or be made to speak," Ursa hissed. She didn't have any truth serums on her, but Cirina's imagination could probably work up a frightening alternative.
"A trade town. Just a bunch of tents in the middle of nowhere. Neutral territory. They come there, sell to us and the Hji, to the highest bidder. I picked this up cheap, since no one knew what it was. I've been shopping it around, calling it a weapon."
"This isn't a weapon," Ursa said darkly. “The rest of it. It’s at Saccharine?”
“Yes. I didn’t move it into the city until I had a buyer at the highest price. Let me go!”
“This no longer belongs to you. I will go to Saccharine to collect it myself.”
“Like hell you will.”
Ursa harrumphed. “Are you listening to me? This is more dangerous than you understand. We can’t let it fall into the wrong hands.”
Her words fell on deaf ears. From the set of her mouth, Ursa could tell Cirina had no intention of helping her.
“Fine, I’ll just get to it before you can tip anyone off.”
Ursa drew up her hood, grabbed her pearls, and exited the tent.
~*~
Amadou tapped his foot nervously. He’d spent some time in cat form, but didn’t linger in it. Sometimes djinn-blood could tell he wasn’t a true shifter. Their senses were powerful. He did not know if they scented it, or if they could just sense he didn’t belong.
So he was in human form again, tapping his foot and touching his fingers to his ear every so often. The charm he’d placed on Ursa would not transmit unless she activated it. He wished he’d chosen something else, or had her activate it before she left.
Activity by the door caught his eye. Amadou straightened up. There. A black-cloaked woman was walking toward him hastily, her head bowed. She was all but running, and then…
“Her!” Someone cried out from inside the Sledge.
Ursa did not hesitate. She broke into a run just as people spilled from the warehouse.
Amadou jerked away from the wall and broke into a run. He reached Ursa and grabbed her hand, turning them to the left. “This way!” Her hand was wet with blood.
“We’re not going to make it; we’re going to have to fight!” Ursa kept pace with him, but threw looks over her shoulder.
“Not yet,” Amadou said. A djinn word of power sent a burst of magic into the clouds. The burgeoning storm needed no more encouragement. The clouds broke open, sending rain pouring down.
They peeled out of the square into the dark underbelly of Carnate.
~*~
Ursa was huffing for air by the time they took shelter in a doorway. They were far from the Sledge now, and they’d lost their pursuers. She’d been talking the whole time they’d been running, but Amadou had naturally been distracted.
“We should be safe to take a moment.” The rain, once it started, had only increased, until it was driving down on them. The streets were empty, and the rain was washing out anything in its path. The ditches overran with water.
Under the wide stone doorway of a watchmaker, he moved aside her sleeve to see the wound beneath. Luckily, it had stopped bleeding, though it pained her.
Amadou grumbled.
“What was that?” she asked sweetly, but he didn’t repeat himself. They both knew why he was annoyed.
He fussed over her wound, and she watched him wipe her arm and bind it with her torn sleeve.
“Watch for pursuers,” he chided when he noticed her watching.
“Sorry. Has anyone ever told you you’re a bit of a mother hen?”
He glared. “I know you all call me that.”
She giggled, biting her lip and tucking a strand of wet hair behind one ear.
Dammit, Ursa, what are you doing?
But she couldn’t rein herself in. Now that her mind had wandered down that path – a path she hadn’t considered before – she couldn’t help but notice Amadou’s strong hands as he fixed up her arm. His funny responses when she teased him. The look in his eyes when he’d told her to be careful.
“How does it feel now?”
“Fine, really. I swear she only grazed me.”
“Tell me the whole thing again. What did she have? What was the weapon?”
Now that they weren’t running, she reached into a pocket and produced the tab.
Amadou stilled. He took the tab from her, turned it over in his fingers.
“Someone found a demon.”
~*~
He hadn’t been expecting that. A demon. The temple dealt in such things, and he had crossed paths with one. More than most common folk would meet in their lives. Each time, the destruction the demon had wrought had been terrible. In the wrong hands, a demon could level Carnate. Thinking that something like that was bound up in some tent town so near his city…it meant the Hji were no longer the most dangerous things just outside the walls.
“We have to get to it.”
“We should inform Hestia and get a contingent of guards.”
He rubbed his face. He was tired and cold. But this could not wait. They had to beat Cirina, or whatever method she used to communicate. He wondered if Xavier had known what he’d led them to.
“We should wait out the rain.” Ursa was watching him. “At least ten minutes.”
She breathed evenly now, but ten minutes wouldn’t make a difference. Plus, she was wounded and pregnant. “Yes, let’s rest a moment longer.”
Blue light rose from between Ursa’s fingers. A charm for warmth. She let it dissipate into the air around them. He felt better already – and then she stepped near. She wrapped an arm around him.
Amadou went rigid. Yes, they were friends. Yes, the closer they were, the better the spell would work. But this felt different. Or maybe he was imagining things?
“Relax, Ama,” she said. “We’re safe now, no one’s followed us.”
He forced himself to relax, and put an arm around her too.
~*~
They arrived at the window of his workroom in raven form. Amadou shifted back to human form first. He was just shedding his wet cloak when he registered sounds from the main room, even though it was well past midnight.
He traded a look with Ursa, before they both rushed to the door.
Thisbe, Obiad, Khalil, and Isis were all already there, along with four guard.
“What is it?” Ursa asked.
Khalil stepped forward. “Thank the tower you’re back. The Hji are attacking.”
Gawin
The gate shut behind them.
Gawin always paused whenever he was outside the walls. He was born and raised in Carnate, and had only traveled far from the city once or twice.
But for most of his life, the great gates of the city stood propped open at all hours, and he had come and gone from them to surrounding villages or towns, or even just to walk or ride.
It hadn't felt revolutionary at the time, but now the gates had been shut for almost a year. On the flat ground to the south of the city, the Hji had made their camp in a crescent moon of tents. They barricaded the roads, had sentries in all directions...even when they weren't right at the walls, they had a chokehold on Carnate.
But to the north, the land was rocky. Steep ravines and sheer walls protected Carnate's back.
It was impossible for the Hji to effectively encircle the city. They had tried in the beginning. They had wanted to use the high ground to their advantage. But eventually they had given up that plan and settled into their current camp. The land was too difficult to travel across.
"Gawin!"
He stopped wondering if the air was fresher out here, or if he was just imagining, and followed his small crew. Their greatest enemy at this moment were the Carnate guards. They did not want to be spotted and pursued, and potentially caught and jailed.
He had come with Talia, Millie, and Viveka. A solid crew. Much as Renat wanted to get them out of the city, he couldn't spare too many of his best. Gawin still had to get back tonight and help out with some of the deliveries. They would have to be efficient.
The four shifted into cat form and hugged the wall until they were able to slip behind a spar of rock. From there, they could move north without drawing attention from the wall. They remained in shifted form until they arrived at a small clearing. Fully blocked from the wall, and with a good view of the surrounding area, the clearing had become their standard rendezvous.
Millie shifted to human form and fell onto her back with her arms spread. She liked being out of the city best. Talia kept her leopard form. She leapt to the top of a sun-soaked boulder and settled in to keep watch.
Viveka unloaded her pack of maps while Gawin made a quick sweep of the area to make sure no one had been here recently. He couldn't smell anything, not wolves or cats. He shifted back and settled by Viveka.
"Here's where I'm thinking."
She'd drawn a series of maps tracking their previous attempts to find a path through the northern region. Unfortunately, they suffered from the same problems the Hji had experienced. It was simple enough for someone in cat form to traverse the uneven ground or jump across gulleys, but that wasn't Renat's plan. They wanted to start new lives in a new place, which meant remaining in human form to carry wagonloads of possessions, old and young family members, and likewise keep everyone protected from extreme heat or rain. And, of course, there were the Hji around every damn corner. They hadn't yet found a route that satisfied all their requirements.
Fall of the Tower 2 Page 4