False Dawn: Ageless Mysteries - Book 2

by Vanessa Nelson

  “That would be Piet Riga, the man with a bag full of fake coins in his room?” Sutter asked, not waiting for a reply before he continued. “Too much of a coincidence, I think. Which strongly suggests that this Hand, whatever they are, are involved in the forging.”

  “Did you have any luck with the man I tagged?” Thea asked.

  “No. He’s vanished.” From his tight expression, the Senior Sergeant was not happy about that. “We’ve even tried looking for the pony, and no luck there.”

  “I’m expecting Commander Reardon in my office at some point today,” Ware added. “Some of the merchants who deliver to the Citadel have apparently been telling wild tales about entire storerooms being emptied and Archon soldiers looking for something, although no one seems sure of what.”

  The pony that Niath had seen at the Citadel. Thea’s stomach tightened. Reardon had been following up on his part of the investigation.

  Ware’s mouth twisted in a wry smile. It seemed that the Watch Captain had a sour satisfaction at the effort that Reardon had been going to.

  Thea shivered slightly. She had a moment’s impulse to tell Ware that she had seen Reardon already today, and he wasn’t in a good mood. But that would lead to a lot of questions she didn’t want to answer. So she kept quiet, wondering what Reardon might, or might not, have found in the Citadel. And, while she was speculating, she wondered what excuse, if any, he had given for missing the practice drills in the air. Somehow she did not think that any other Ageless would see his visiting an apothecary’s shop as essential business. He had risked a reprimand by visiting her mother’s shop.

  “The biggest market today is in Middlefield,” Fliss said to Thea.

  Thea blinked, and dragged herself out of idle musing and into the here and now. The dead, and the citizens of Accanter, deserved her full attention.

  “So I might find the men there? Good idea,” Thea said, glancing at Niath. “Ready to find the Hand?”

  “I am looking forward to it.” The mage’s eyes were gleaming, the faintest trace of his other aspect showing. If she had not known what he was, Thea would have missed the slight shift in colour in his eyes.

  “Before you go running off, let’s remember the armed men with magical weapons?” Ware suggested.

  Thea opened her mouth to protest. The number of people who seemed to think she was being impulsive was getting ridiculous. She closed her jaw with a snap at Ware’s raised eyebrow.

  “Sir,” she said, meekly.

  “I did some research overnight,” Niath said unexpectedly. “I think I can counter the weapon.”

  “The Ageless will be delighted to hear that,” Ware said.

  “I’m not sure the Ageless can, though. They don’t use magic the same way as mages,” Niath added.

  Thea’s interest sharpened. She had very little knowledge of how magic worked, but that made sense. The Ageless were built from magic. Mages, as she understood it, had the ability to use magic, but were otherwise normal humans. Or hiandar, in Niath’s case.

  But Niath’s mention of research had reminded her of her own late night efforts.

  “Sir,” she said, and pulled the bundle of papers out of her pocket. “I wrote up a report last night. And some notes on further enquiries. In case it’s useful.”

  “Give it to Sutter,” Ware said, a smile tugging his mouth. “He loves paperwork.”

  “Thank you,” Sutter said, taking the papers from Thea. His brows lifted as he unrolled the papers. “At least your handwriting is legible.”

  “Thank you, sir,” Thea said. “Have you come across Watchman Drew?” she asked, the question prompted by mischief.

  “Oh, yes,” Sutter said. Thea could have sworn he shuddered. “Luckily he doesn’t report directly to me.”

  “So, the two of you will go to Middlefield market and try not to get yourselves, or anyone else, killed. Sutter will arrange for a few extra Watchmen to be in the area in case you need help holding the men. Assuming you find them. I am going to wait for Commander Reardon’s visit,” Ware said.

  “And I am going to write my report. Unless Officer March wants to do that for me?” Fliss said, grinning.

  “No, thank you,” Thea said politely.

  “That should keep you all busy for a while,” Ware said. “If there’s anything else you need, Thea, let Sutter know. We’re running out of time.”

  “Yes, sir,” Thea said.

  She left the office with Niath, stomach tight, the captain’s words ringing in her head. Running out of time. And that assumed that the Ageless honoured their original four day limit.

  With the apparent disruption at the Citadel, and the Ageless readying for battle in the skies overhead, there was a strong possibility that there would be Ageless and Archon soldiers on the streets of the city before nightfall.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

  It was strange walking the streets of Middlefield, seeing everyone else going about their daily business. Unaware of time passing and the potential threat of the Ageless.

  They attracted a few sideways glances. Idle curiosity, as far as Thea could tell. Apart from Odilia, mages were an uncommon enough sight that Niath would have drawn some attention anyway. And once people realised that there was a strange mage walking with a Watch Officer, a few eyebrows lifted.

  “Do we have a plan?” Niath asked, breaking the silence between them.

  “Go to the market and look around,” Thea said promptly. “If we see the men, ask them to come to the station with us.”

  “You think that will work?”

  “No,” Thea admitted. “But I will tag them if they try to run.” She had signed out another crossbow and bolts from the station before they left.

  “And then we will need to chase them,” Niath said. He sounded quite pleased at the prospect. Perhaps he was feeling as frustrated as Thea at the lack of progress they were making. Or perhaps he had some other reason. He was hiandar, after all. And from what little Thea knew of that particular sort of night kind, they liked to hunt.

  They arrived at the market to find it bustling with people, despite the relatively early hour. The babble of noise made Thea pause in her tracks until she managed to adjust. Middlefield market was set in a tight square among tall buildings, so the sound was more concentrated than the other markets she had visited.

  The stalls near them were piled high with fresh vegetables, the stall holders haggling with customers, the mingled scents of green leaves and the damp earth still clinging to the root vegetables teasing her nose.

  She began making her way along the outside of the market, having to pause frequently as people jostled her, her skin prickling with unease at the close confines.

  Niath had no such issue, she saw. Either he had magic built into his robes, or all the market-goers recognised a mage’s robes and managed to avoid him.

  Even as one more person bumped into her side, she felt something brush against her other side. She reached out, catching a slender, bony wrist in a firm grip.

  The owner of the wrist, a boy, gave a yelp of surprise, and glared up at her. He was almost painfully thin, eyes looking too large in a face smudged with dirt. His clothes were threadbare and full of holes. There was an orphanage not that far away, Thea remembered. She had never been there, but had seen plenty of children with this same half-starved look. The city was unforgiving to those who could not look after themselves.

  “You leave the Watch alone, young man. Or haven’t your masters taught you anything?” she asked, voice sharper than she had intended.

  “Don’t scare me,” the boy said, in a singsong voice that grated Thea’s nerves.

  “Well, I should,” she told him, annoyed with herself for rising to his taunting and sounding like a bully. She was still carrying the hurt and anger from Reardon’s visit. “You need to be more careful.”

  “Can’t catch me,” the boy said, and wriggled free. Or tried to. Thea had a good hold on him. He glared up at her again. “What do you want?” he snapped.
>
  “Have you seen this man?” Niath asked, holding out a piece of parchment with the group leader’s face on it.

  The boy turned pale and shook his head. Frightened.

  “Is he in the market just now?” Thea asked the boy.

  The boy shook his head again, even more vigorously. Thea did not believe him.

  “You stay clear of him,” she told the boy. “And don’t steal anything or the Watch will catch you.”

  She let the boy go and watched him disappear into the crowd.

  “He was lying,” Niath said.

  “I know. But he was too frightened to talk,” Thea said, and glanced across. “If adults are frightened of these men, I can only imagine how children feel.”

  “True.” Niath folded the parchment away.

  “I should have thought to bring copies,” Thea said, annoyed with herself. She had been expecting to find the men almost immediately, she realised.

  “It’s no difficulty. I made copies last night,” he said. “I thought they might be useful.”

  “They are. Thank you.” She took a few paces towards the edge of the market and found a relatively quiet spot to stand in, eyes scanning the crowd again. A sea of faces, features blurring together. There were a few stall holders and merchants that she recognised. They had pitches at a few different markets around the city, following the market days in each district.

  On the surface, it looked like any other market day.

  Except that the laughter sounded a little forced to Thea’s ears. And a few of the stall holders were sending furtive glances to one side of the market. Not relaxed at all. Expecting some kind of trouble.

  “Should we show the images?” Niath asked, when she had been silent for a few moments.

  “No need. The men are over there somewhere,” Thea said, tilting her chin in the direction that the stall holders were avoiding.

  She set off again, determined to find the men before they could disappear, Niath with her.

  Either some of Niath’s magic had transferred to her, or she looked stern enough that no one wanted to cross paths with her, as she found the crowds parting before her, letting her through.

  This side of the market should have been as busy as the rest. But there was a pool of stillness and quiet, and a few vacant stalls.

  In the middle of the empty space were four familiar figures.

  “Well, well, well,” the lead man said, grinning as Thea approached. “If it isn’t our favourite Watch Officer.”

  He was speaking to her as if they were friends.

  A spark of anger lit in Thea’s chest as she stopped a few paces from him.

  “Jirkar, isn’t it? I have questions for you,” she said, as blunt as Dina. Not the best way to get co-operation. She found she didn’t care.

  “Oh, indeed? We’re always happy to help the Watch.”

  “Are you?” Thea asked. “That’s good to know. You can tell me what you know about the poisoned bliss that’s been killing people across the city.”

  It was clearly not the question that he had been expecting.

  “What are you talking about?” he asked, shaking his head slightly. “Look, if some poor souls have overdosed, don’t blame me. We don’t deal in the stuff.”

  “No?” Thea asked, hearing a hard edge to her voice. “Nine people are dead. And they didn’t overdose. Your drug killed them.”

  “Not me, missy,” Jirkar said, his genial tone vanishing, replaced by the underlying cruelty Thea had sensed was there all along. “You’d best be moving along.”

  “I don’t believe him. Do you?” Thea asked Niath.

  “No. I don’t believe him either,” the mage said.

  Thea was watching the men, not Niath, so did not know what was on the mage’s face to make them all take a half step back. It was an involuntary, instinctive move. Edging away from a predator. Slowly and carefully.

  “We’re not going to answer your questions,” the man said, turning his attention back to Thea.

  He was afraid of Niath.

  He was not afraid of her.

  His mistake.

  “Yes, you are. We’ll start with the bliss, and then you can tell me what you’ve done to the market traders across the city to make them so afraid of you,” she said.

  “I don’t think so.” He turned on his heel, presenting his back to her.

  She had the crossbow in her hand before he had moved more than a pace away.

  “Stop in the name of the Watch,” she called.

  “You don’t have any authority over me, little girl,” he said over his shoulder.

  She was getting heartily tired of being called a girl.

  She fired.

  The brilliant yellow paint splattered across his back.

  Thea reloaded the crossbow and fired again. Three more times. All the men were tagged.

  They did not run, instead turning back to her, with varying expressions of anger on their faces.

  “That was a stupid thing to do, stupid girl,” the younger man said. Linus. His hands were curling into fists. “We don’t answer to you.”

  “You are within the city of Accanter. You will answer to the Watch,” she told him, stowing the crossbow away. She didn’t need it anymore, and she had the feeling she was going to need her hands free.

  “We don’t,” Linus said again. “We only answer to the goddess.”

  “Oh, really? And is your goddess a resident of the city?” Thea asked brightly.

  “You mock her at your peril,” Jirkar said. He had produced a weapon from somewhere. A short, serviceable sword. The kind that could be concealed under a long over-tunic, like the one he was wearing. He raised it, holding it as if it were an extension of his arm.

  Not just a bully. But a trained swordsman. Like the two men who had taken the pony.

  He rushed Thea, perhaps thinking an unarmed Watch Officer would be easy prey. Thea avoided him with ease, putting the nearest empty stall between them, moving on the balls of her feet, watching as he approached again.

  There were four of them, though, and they were circling her.

  “Here,” Niath said, from just behind her. He pressed something into her hand. It felt familiar.

  A sword. The sword she had used before.

  She met Jirkar’s attack with a block from her sword, ducked under his blade and kicked him in the ribs. A dirty trick that was one of many her mother had taught her over the years.

  He dropped his sword, wind knocked out of him, and fell backwards.

  Leaving her with three more attackers to deal with.

  “May I?” Niath asked.

  “By all means,” she said, taking a step back so that she was beside him, keeping watch on the three men.

  He murmured a few words and flicked the fingers of one hand out. The men froze where they stood, as if they were unable to move their feet.

  “That’s a useful spell,” Thea said, going toward Jirkar, who was still on the ground. She had some rope on her. More than enough to tie him.

  Before she got there, he pulled something out of his belt. It looked very similar to the whistles that the Watch used. He blew it and a shrill sound emerged. Different to a Watch whistle, but equally penetrating.

  The man grinned at her.

  “Best run, girl,” he said, wheezing as he was still struggling to breathe. “We’ve got more people than you.”

  Thea reached for her own whistle on instinct and sent out a call for aid. She wasn’t sure whether she believed him or not, but the market was crowded with folk who had absolutely nothing to do with whatever the gang was involved in. She did not want them hurt.

  The men that Niath had frozen in place were trembling, as if struggling to break free from whatever spell he had put on them.

  A chill wind drifted across the market, carrying the smell of something dead and rotten with it. It raised the hairs on Thea’s body. She wondered just who, or what, the man had summoned with his whistle.

  “How long will tha
t hold them?” Thea asked, taking a step closer to Niath.

  “It should hold them until I release them,” he told her. He was staring at the men, a deep crease between his brows. “Except that they seem to have some resistance to magic.”

  “How is that possible?” Thea asked.

  “It normally isn’t. It’s difficult to use magic against another mage. But they aren’t mages.” Niath raised his hand, as if he would throw another spell.

  “Save your strength. Something else is coming,” Thea said, raising her sword into a guard position.

  She was paying attention to their surroundings and couldn’t see Niath’s expression, but the mage stopped whatever spell he had been considering.

  The shoppers and stall holders nearby were casting uneasy glances towards them, a few of them making a sign with their fingers that Thea had not seen for a long time. An old ward against evil. She had only ever seen it used by people who had moved to the city from the depths of one of the forests. It was supposed to protect the person making the sign from the attention of one of the forest giants.

  Thea did not believe in forest giants. Or that signs against them would be effective, even if they existed.

  She did believe in the power of cold, hard steel, the weight of the sword in her hand reassuring as another waft of chill air with the rotting stench in it brushed across her face.

  There was sound with it this time. Heavy, dragging footsteps, as though something dead had pulled itself out of its grave and was crossing the city streets.

  The screaming started a moment later.

  There was a gap between the buildings close by, and the people who had been gathered there, wanting to see how the confrontation between the Watch and the gang played out, started running. Dropping whatever they had been carrying and fleeing as if something evil was after them.

  The footsteps were louder now, and a great shadow appeared between the buildings.

  “What in the name of reason?” Thea said, jaw dropping.

  The thing that stood there was almost as tall as the building next to it. Three storeys in height. It was shaped like a man, with long, matted hair across its entire body, longer hair around its head.