I wanted to scream.
I checked behind me and saw Fallon rise into the air. She flew a few hundred yards away from me, but my eyes were sharp, or maybe the Alula aided my vision, and I saw that her expression probably matched mine.
Had Dust ducked into another building? No, it was unlikely. Restina's property was the largest within two hundred yards, and the man wouldn't have been able to pull the rickshaw that far through the crowded streets. He had to be here somewhere.
I was missing a detail. There was a clue somewhere that I had overlooked.
I studied the first cart again. It didn't have Restina's logo on the wooden panels, and the man pulling it was not Dust, but it was the only one with contents covered by a bunch of cloth that I hadn't investigated. The other carts had coverings to protect their inventory from the rays of the suns, but I took account of their contents when I flew close enough. I gestured across the sky to Fallon, and then floated down toward the driver of the cart.
"I need to inspect your cart," I told the driver as I landed in a crouch in front of him.
"My cart?" The man seemed confused. He was older, with a wide hat, long thin beard, and endless wrinkles across the bottom of his leathery face.
He squatted and let go of the steering poles of the rickshaw. They bent slightly when they took on the full weight of his cargo, and I wondered how a man that old was able to pull the heavy cart. Fallon's shadow passed above me, and I saw the elderly man squint into the sky.
His eyes were a light brown-gold color.
"You are under arrest, Dust," I said as I pulled my rapier clear of my sheath. The old man jumped in surprise when my blade made the slick metal sound, and I almost wondered if I'd made a mistake.
"Huh? What did I do, Potentia?" his voice quavered the question.
"Murder, theft of merchandise from Restina Brewery, and attempted murder of a Potentia."
"Murder of a Potentia? I don't understand."
"At Rafa Manus' tavern, you attempted to murder me in the cellar. Kneel on the ground. Now," I ordered as I pushed the tip of my sword gently against his chest.
He laughed, and in the blink of an eye it wasn't a bent old man standing before me. His shoulders pulled back, his posture became strong, and the wrinkles seemed to fade from his face as if I had imagined them. I blinked twenty times in a row and still couldn't understand the transformation that had taken place before me. It hadn't seemed like magic, but Dust had completely altered his persona in less than a second by making just a few changes to his posture and facial expression.
The handsome man glanced down at my blade and then sighed.
"Looks like I underestimated you." A half smile was left over on his face after his chuckle.
"That seems to be a common theme between you and your brother. Kneel. I won't tell you again."
"Oh? You know my brother? Did he tell you where to find me? What a dastardly move," Dust let out a long sigh and then made a slow movement to kneel on the ground.
"No. He told me nothing about you, but I'm doing my job. Turn around so that your back faces me, and then set your right arm behind your back so I can cuff you."
"Why bother? Just kill me. It is what your kind do."
"Shut up, idiot." Fallon had noticed me pull my rapier and landed beside me in time to hear the man speak. "All you criminal scum and your death wishes. We have trials and processes. Arm back."
She yanked Dust's right arm and secured it in one of the cuffs. The man grunted with pain and then growled lightly when she yanked the left one. Once both cuffs were on him, she pulled him to his feet. She nodded to me when she secured her joint lock on his arms, and I put my rapier back in its sheath.
"All this over some beer? There are easier ways to make coins," Fallon said.
"You both know I'm not stealing beer."
"Looks like crates of beer to me," I said as I moved to the cart and pulled the burlap tarp off the stolen merchandise.
"And you think I am the idiot," Dust sighed.
"My wingmate thinks you are Dust, but I have doubts," Fallon chuckled.
"Doesn't matter," the man said as he shrugged his shoulders. His eyes focused on me. "Don't open those crates here."
"Why not?" Fallon asked. There was a group of guards patrolling, and she beckoned to them.
"You wouldn't want people getting drunk in the morning, would you?" He shook his head with a sad laugh.
"We will return the merchandise to Restina. Where is Fontyana Veer?" I asked him as I covered up the crates again.
"That is what everyone wants to know." Dust shook his head. "How did you escape from Manus' cellar?"
"Manus' cellar?" Fallon turned to me with a raised eyebrow.
"I'll talk to you about it later," I said to my wingmate, and she nodded.
"Or we can talk about it now. I tried to kill her, but she escaped. I'm conflicted about the result," Dust said.
"You aren't making your defense any easier, fool. We already have you for murder," Fallon said as the guards arrived.
"Take him to the nest and put him in a holding cell. Alone. You," she pointed at the largest man in the group, "grab this cart. We are taking it back to Restina."
The guards saluted and moved to follow Fallon's orders.
"Wait," Dust said as the guards grabbed him.
"What?" I asked.
"What is your name?" His gold-colored eyes bore into mine.
"She is Potentia Anelia. I am Potentia Fallon. You are under arrest, and if you are Dust, then you should pray that the Priestesses grant you a quick execution."
"Oh, they will. I have no doubt of that," the man said as the guards pulled him away from us.
Chapter 18
"Explain what that man said about Manus' cellar," Fallon said as we walked behind the cart that the guard pulled.
I bit my lip and debated telling Fallon the full story. I knew that she would be angry, and her opinion of me might revert, but keeping secrets from her wasn't sitting well with me. Wingmates needed to be able to trust each other completely. The woman admitted her own fears to me over breakfast; I could honor her by being truthful to her.
"After you left me at the barn, I told you that I decided to visit Rafa's widow."
"Yes, I recall."
"I asked her about the names I had found in Aetius Colo's ledger. They were the names of people who had received orders of his glassware."
"Ahh, yes. The list I told you was useless." Fallon frowned, and looked as she was about to apologize again, but I shook my head and smiled at the blonde woman.
"She didn't know the names, but I got her to admit that Rafa was running an illegal moonshine operation. She took me to the cellar and asked me to enter first. Once I walked down the stairs, she shut the door and trapped me. I felt like a fool, but she screamed that her late husband had told her that anyone coming in to ask her about Dust was probably an enemy. She said she would go get him, and the man would dispose of my body."
"We need to arrest the widow," Fallon growled.
"Agreed, but I don't know if she has anything to do with these murders, or Fontyane Veer. Besides, we can get more info out of Dust once we question him."
"How did you escape?"
"I found a secret sliding wall. Behind it was Rafa's distillery equipment. There was an exhaust shaft that led up to his cooking stove, but the shaft also went down. As soon as I found the tunnel, I heard Dust and his men start to open the door. I crawled inside the chute and then slowly crawled down. They didn't know I was there, but they dropped some moonshine and a lamp down to set me on fire. By that time, I'd reached a large open chamber deep under the city, and I avoided the fire."
The woman looked at me and raised an eyebrow.
"I know it sounds farfetched, but the next part is even stranger. I didn't want to tell you because I doubted that you would believe me." We had reached the Restina property again, and our nest's guards had closed off the compound from the crowd on the street. The workers were
all being detained in a corner of the warehouse, and I saw one of the guard inspectors walk toward us.
"Okay, let's get Mitar's report and then talk about it."
"Potentia Fallon. Potentia Anelia," Mitar said as he nodded to both of us. He was a middle-aged man with gray hair at his temples. The population that each nest covered was too large for the small number of Potentia to manage, so crime investigations were often turned over to higher-ranking guards.
"Greetings Mitar, what is the news?" Fallon asked.
"I just arrived. Captain said you two had taken the day off."
"We were on scene for the robbery and witnessed the murder of Restina's shipping manager. The criminal is in custody right now and being escorted back to the nest."
"Good. We've got the employees held. Do you want us to question them?"
"Yes, ask if any of them know Fontyane Veer," Fallon said.
"I will. I heard about that this morning when the captain briefed us. It is insane. I've had a beer with the man many times. I never guessed that he was committing such horrible acts in his home."
"You said you drank beer with him? How often, and where?" I asked.
"There is a place near the nest, Tangled Tree is the name."
"Popular tavern for us. We think someone working at Restina might be involved with Veer. We are going to search the corner office. Come to us if you find anything."
"Understood." The man saluted and walked to the other guards so he could relay our instructions.
"I'm feeling as if we are grasping at shadows now," I said as we walked through the warehouse toward Karmane's office.
"Maybe we are, but my gut is telling me that something is going on here. You were right about all the beer in Fontyane's place. I also felt as if Karmane knew something. She might be connected to all this. Then there is Dust. We've heard about him for years, but none of the nests have been able to apprehend him or any of his organization."
"They didn't speak at all about him in training. What can you tell me?" I asked as we walked into the office.
"There is a huge file at the nest. I'll give it to you to study. When I say huge, I also mean that it is devoid of much useful information. Just rumors and leads that never came to fruition."
"Ahh," I replied.
"I'll search this cabinet. You take that one." She gestured to the opposite side of the office. The place was surprisingly organized, and it looked as if every surface had been cleaned recently. "And please continue your story while we look."
"I will, but before I do, I want to admit that I am hesitant to tell you this next part."
"Oh?" Her blue eyes narrowed at me a bit.
"I want to be honest with you, but I feel as if you won't believe me. I don't want our relationship to backslide." My heart hammered in my chest as I admitted my fears.
"Just tell the story. It can't be that fantastic."
"In this open chamber in the deep parts of the city, I found thousands of strange bones. They looked as if they belonged to some giant lizard creatures."
"Giant lizard creatures?" Fallon looked up from her papers with disbelief.
"Yes, I found a stack of large eggs, and they hatched. They were like flying maggots, and I narrowly escaped them by flying up into the chute. Then I found another tunnel. I eventually made it to the mines on the first level of the city."
I told the blonde woman the rest of the story. About how I found Ash by smelling the magic, about overhearing him talk at the blacksmith's shop, capturing him, and his escape. I began to speak about the conversation I had with the man in the tavern, but then Mitar knocked on the office door.
"Found something." His eyes sparkled, and we followed him out of the office.
"What did you find?" I asked. The man was almost jogging across the warehouse floor.
"A hidden cache of brewing equipment behind the corner office," he explained as he led us into the large closed-off room on the other side of the building. "One of the brewers said that Veer had been coming in here with the assistant brewmaster for the last few months." The investigator pointed to the far wall of the office. A fake wall had been pulled away to reveal a small room that was maybe five feet wide and ten feet long. A half dozen fermenting jugs were positioned there. The containers were filled with amber liquid and plugged with cork stoppers. Some of the bottles were empty, and I wondered why they had been left in the space.
The secret cubbyhole carried a strange scent. It smelled like beer, yeast, grain mash, and fermentation, but there was tar-like scent that hung in the air. The strange smell reminded me of the coating that they would paint onto the bottoms of boats. The small room also seemed to carry the scent of stagnant algae, and that could have been why I was thinking of boats.
"Let's question the assistant brewmaster," I asked.
"Can't. He hasn't come to work in two weeks. Stopped coming in the same time that Veer stopped showing up at the nest."
"What is the man's name?" Fallon asked.
"Pruet Carna," Mitar said.
"That was a name on my list from Aetius Colo," I said to Fallon.
"Maybe Fontyane killed him?" my wingmate asked.
"Or maybe Pruet is the killer? I find it hard to believe that Fontyane is responsible for all these murders. He was heavily vetted before he got hired," the tall man shrugged his shoulders.
"Do you have an address for us?" I asked.
"Yep, he lives on the twenty-third level. Do you need us to come with you?" The man held up a piece of paper, and my wingmate took it from his fingers.
"We can get there faster. This is a good three miles from here," Fallon said as she checked the writing. "We'll look for a patrol on the way there. Keep searching this warehouse for anything that might have hinted at what Veer and Carna were planning."
"Be safe," Mitar saluted and then stood away from the door of the brewery office so that we could pass.
The interior of the warehouse was filled with guards now, and they searched every nook, shelf, and corner like a swarm of ants looking for a meal. Fallon and I passed a small group of nicely dressed citizens being questioned by guards. I guessed that it was the Restina family, and one of the women waved frantically at us.
"Looks like she wants to speak," I said.
"She wants to complain. I've had it happen a hundred times. The upper families always feel slighted when we have to search their property. It is ridiculous. They don't own anything. It is just rented from the Priestesses, and they should count their blessings that they have been favored," my partner said with a huff.
"You don't think she'll have information about the case?" I asked.
"No, but we'll return here once we investigate Carna's house. I'll let you question her." Fallon smirked and let out a short chuckle.
"Oh, thanks," I laughed back. Maybe I should have been feeling other emotions now, but I felt as alive and blessed as I had when the Priestesses first gifted me with the Alula. I'd told Fallon my story, and she hadn't dismissed it. Now we were on the brink of catching the serial murderer, and the woman was committed to a friendship.
The rickshaw that Dust had used to steal the crates sat unattended in the shipping yard. The sides of the cart were bare of markings. I wondered again how the man had been able to change his appearance so quickly and to remove the brewery's logo. I almost thought about walking over to the small wagon so that I might study it more, but I heard Fallon take to the air behind me. We had a serial murderer to catch and a good lead. Inspecting the cart could wait until I returned.
I used Fallon's improved Alula technique to climb and quickly caught up with the blonde woman. She turned her head, nodded at me with a smile, and then pointed to a group of homes far below us. I angled behind her as she dove through the late morning sky. From up here, the sounds of the city were just a soft murmur, but the wind had its own voice, and it shouted joyfully in my ears when I dived through the air.
"He's in apartment 3C," Fallon said as she landed on the ground in front of
the building.
"I think that is on the rear side," I said as I studied the tall adobe and bamboo structure. It was an older building, and it looked dangerously tall for its age.
"Only one entrance at the top of the stairs. Looks too tight to fly into," Fallon remarked.
We walked toward the bamboo staircase that clung to the adobe like a spider's corpse caught in webbing. The first few steps we took on the structure made a sickening creaking sound, and we retreated from the stairs.
"I'm going to get this place condemned. I'm surprised no one has reported it yet," my wingmate sighed.
"I'll go first. It probably can't support two people at once," I said as I took the first careful step on the creaking platform.
"Be careful."
"If it breaks, I'll just float down," I smiled at her and then winced as the next step seemed to make the whole contraption shudder.
"Maybe. There is plenty of bamboo still above you. Might catch your Alula and pin you."
"Seems like only the bottom steps were bad," I said as I climbed past the second floor. I made it to the top and stepped onto the adobe part of the building. There was a break in the balcony flooring here, and I wondered if there had once been a mud-brick staircase that had been replaced by the bamboo one.
Fallon cursed her way up the stairs and then sighed with relief when she joined me at the top. The hallway that led into the building was narrow, so she pulled her knife, and gestured for me to do the same. When I reached for my short blade, my fingers slid across the handle of the pistol that Dust had 'given' me. I wished that I had powder on me so that I could finish loading the thing. I should have grabbed it from the man when we arrested him, but that might have been unprofessional.
Fallon took the lead, and I walked silently behind her. There was absolutely no sound coming from the doors that we passed, but I wasn't surprised. Most people would be working during the mid-morning hours. It would have been stranger to find Pruet Carna at home at this time.
Wings of Justice (City of Light Book 1) Page 17