The Mysterious Coin

by James E. Wisher

  Moz gave an encouraging nod.

  “Yes, Sergeant, everything’s fine.”

  Moz listened as Gort’s clomping tread retreated. When the sergeant was gone he said, “You were saying?”

  “Crow’s real name is Alexander Corvine. He moves around a lot. I don’t know where to find him because he’s never in the same place for more than a few hours. I’ve never met anyone so paranoid. You’d think he wasn’t the most powerful man in the city.”

  “I’m sure the lord mayor would question that.”

  “Don’t be too sure.” Pierremont shifted so he could lock gazes with Moz. “I’m not certain you fully understand just what you’re dealing with. I’ve been working for the sages for over two decades and even I don’t know just how deep their influence runs. You can be sure that if it happens in this city, Crow knows about it.”

  “Fine, where does Crow conduct his business in this part of the city?”

  “I don’t know. I swear, my job is to keep things quiet and my eyes shut where Crow’s concerned. My advice is to forget whatever business you have with Crow and get out of Blinder today. I doubt anyone will come after you if you drop your investigation now.”

  Moz thought of Ariel and shook his head. “I can’t do that. You’re going to have a nap and when you wake up, I suggest forgetting all about this conversation. You seem to have a selective memory so it shouldn’t be a problem.”

  He shifted around behind Pierremont and wrapped an arm around his neck. Moz squeezed until he stopped moving. Two fingers pressed to his neck found a strong pulse. Hopefully the good captain would follow Moz’s advice.

  A quick look outside the office showed an empty hall. Moz slipped silently out and walked easily back the way he’d come. Sergeant Gort was still on door duty.

  “Finished your talk?” Gort asked.

  “Yes, the captain was most helpful. I need to get going.” Moz gave the closed door a meaningful look.

  Gorn grunted, unbolted the lock, and pushed the door open. Moz left the fortress and quick marched toward his inn. He’d learned a great deal today and now he needed a drink. He’d figure out what to do about the Dark Sages in the morning.

  Chapter 7

  A map of the northwest forest sat on the desk in front of Leonidas Black. The map didn’t show much beyond a vast stretch of green. Explorers had been trying to penetrate its secrets for centuries. Few returned and those that did told tales that struck most as little more than fever dreams. Leonidas wasn’t so foolish as to dismiss the tales out of hand. There were too many similarities spread out across too much time for there not to be at least a kernel of truth hidden in them.

  He had returned to the Dark Sage’s fortress after overseeing the successful sale of the slaves they collected in Dragonspire Valley. Though he disliked the scheming and backbiting, Leonidas didn’t dare stay away for too long lest one of the others get too ambitious. The sale had refilled his war chest and the flying ships were once more hidden in the capital ruins.

  It felt good to be back and away from Korbin Breaker. The slavemaster was a useful ally, but hard to take in long stretches. He rubbed his tired eyes, rose, and crossed the room to pour a glass of port. The sweet wine soothed his building headache. Leonidas paced silently across the carpeted floor.

  As hard as planning and executing that mission had been, his task only grew more difficult from here. There were no slaves to be had at the remaining sites, so the Chain Society would have no interest in lending manpower. The dragon worshippers had made it clear that the only reason they agreed to help this time was to free what they saw as enslaved dragons. So it came down to Leonidas, his cadre, and whatever mercenaries they hired.

  He took his wine back to the desk and slumped in his chair. So much to do and he wasn’t getting any younger. Someone knocked and he quickly straightened, banishing all signs of exhaustion from his face.

  “Enter.”

  The door opened and a timid wisp of a girl stuck her head in. “Two messages for you, Most High.”

  “Where from?”

  “The City of Bells post and the Blinder post.”

  Leonidas waved her in and accepted a pair of tiny scrolls banded with gold rings from her trembling hand. “Wait outside for my replies.”

  She bowed and silently withdrew. Leonidas took out a magnifying glass set in a silver handle and spread the first message out on top of the map. Someone had shown up in the City of Bells trying to sell a coin they claimed to have found in Dragonspire Valley. It was only a matter of time before someone wandered into the empty village, but he’d hoped to have a little more time. The overseer wanted instructions on how to deal with the people asking.

  He pulled out a little scroll of his own and a fine-point quill. He needed more information about whoever they were and instructed the overseer to get it however she deemed best. If they were simply looters, no problem, but if they were something else, they needed to be gotten rid of. Either way, he made it clear they weren’t to leave the city. Once the ink had dried on his reply he rolled up the scroll and slipped the City of Bells band on it.

  Next, he unrolled the second message. He’d barely started reading and a deep frown was already forming. The ranger Rondo mentioned had arrived in town and started asking questions. He’d already found the Bright Moon Inn, though didn’t yet appear to know about the Dark Sages.

  This was a trickier problem. The Alteran Rangers were national heroes in Rend. Murdering one would lead to an investigation that might end up revealing more than the ranger could learn on his own.

  Leonidas dipped the pen and told the overseer to keep an eye on the ranger but to make no move unless absolutely necessary. If he became too much of a nuisance he was to be captured, not killed. Easier said than done, but that’s what had to happen, at least until Leonidas secured all the towers and the girl. Once that was complete, they could do anything they wanted without fear of what the local governments thought.

  He finished securing his second rely and said, “You may take my replies.”

  The girl entered and accepted the little scrolls. “I’ll get these out right away, Most High.”

  Leonidas waved her off and a moment later the door clunked shut. He needed to move things along. The clock was running and he doubted he had a lot of time to waste.

  Chapter 8

  Silas slipped out of their inn just as dawn was coloring the horizon. Yaz and Brigid were still in their room, so he figured he had time enough to run down to Carnack’s place. The old man deserved an explanation at the very least. Silas didn’t especially like the coin merchant, but he was a good buyer and Silas didn’t want to burn any bridges. When this business was over, he’d still need to make a living.

  The city was slowly coming alive around him as he walked. In the pouch at his side Wicked thumped against his thigh. The little undead was getting tired of living in the sack. Silas made sure to let him out at night, but that didn’t seem to be enough to satisfy him. Once they were on the road again, he’d let his familiar fly around, until then he’d just have to be patient.

  Silas passed a bakery and breathed deep of the delicious, yeasty smell wafting out. Maybe he’d stop on the way back and buy something to share with his companions. Hopefully it would cheer Brigid up. She’d been in a sour mood since they left the academy. Probably didn’t appreciate Yaz paying so much attention to the lovely professor. Not that he’d done anything inappropriate and no man could help looking at a woman as beautiful as Anna-Maria. It just wasn’t possible not to.

  The moment he turned onto Carnack’s block Silas froze. At the far end a pair of city guards stood at alert right outside the coin shop. Something was going on down there.

  Given his status with the law, Silas had no desire to get directly involved with the guards, but he needed to know what had happened. Focusing on his new catalyst, he murmured the words of a whispering wind spell.

  Holding his ring to his ear, Silas guided the spell down the street, stopping besid
e the shop door. Two men were speaking, neither of them familiar to Silas. One spoke with a tone of authority, probably a watch officer. The other was polite, but distant. A witness most likely.

  “Walk me through it again,” the officer said.

  “I came in to work this morning, the same as I always do, and found him lying there. I assume he was killed last night since Master Carnack never came downstairs this early.”

  “And what exactly do you do here?” the officer asked.

  “I’m Carnack’s security guard. Basically, I sit in a dark corner and watch the customers to make sure no one steals anything or tries anything violent. On a good day, no one ever knows I’m there. I arrive at sunup and work until we close when I lock up. Everything was fine when I left last night.”

  Silas had never even been aware that Carnack kept a guard in the shop, though given the value of his merchandise he shouldn’t have been surprised.

  “Can you tell me anything else that might be of value in our investigation?” the officer asked.

  “I don’t know how useful it might be, but we had a trio of customers stop in yesterday and they had a heated discussion about the value of a coin they wanted to sell. There was no confrontation or anything, but they said they’d be back today.”

  “I’ll leave a guard here to question them when they return. Can you provide a description?”

  As the shop guard was describing Silas and the others, he ended the spell. Carnack was dead and someone clearly wanted to pin the murder on Silas, Yaz, and Brigid. It had to be on account of the coin. Even if it was rare, there was nothing strange about trying to sell it to Carnack. Something struck Silas as off, but he couldn’t say exactly what.

  He needed to get back to the inn and warn the others. If they wanted to get out, they needed to do it before their description went out to every guard in the city.

  Yaz woke up, yawned, and rolled over on his side. Brigid was sitting on the edge of her bed staring at him. All she had on was a white tunic that left her long legs bare. He flinched and sat up. Sunlight poked through the room’s single window, but not with any strength. What time was it? Too early for sure.

  “Are you staring at me for any special reason?”

  “Just thinking, trying to figure things out.”

  “What things?” He swung his legs over the edge of the bed and sat facing her.

  “Why you don’t look at me like you did Professor Anna-Maria. Is it because she’s shorter than me, smarter, older? I don’t get it.”

  It was awfully early for such a serious discussion, but Yaz used one of the mental tricks the sages had taught him to clear his thoughts. “How do you think I looked at her?”

  “Like Rum looks at an especially meaty lamb shank.”

  He smiled at the image. “If I did, it was entirely unconscious. We needed information and getting on her good side was the best way to get it. I don’t believe I did or said anything that you could consider inappropriate. I’m not going to sit here and say I didn’t think she was beautiful; a blind man could see she was. And so are you. The only thing Anna-Maria has that you don’t is that she’s safe.”

  “Safe?”

  Yaz grimaced and tried to think how best to explain. “I don’t need to worry about what she thinks about my intentions because I’ll never see her again. I have to be careful with you because we’re traveling together. I depend on you to watch my back in a fight. We have a mission: Find our parents and everyone else that disappeared. I can’t think about anything that might get in the way of that. Whatever our future holds, and I do hope we’ll have a future together, as friends at a minimum and hopefully more, I can’t focus on it now. Does that make sense?”

  She nodded but didn’t seem especially happy. “I understand. And I do trust you, you know. Maybe it seems like I don’t, but I do. I…care about you.”

  For a moment he thought she was going to say love and his heart skipped a beat. That was exactly the sort of thing he couldn’t think about now. He stood, crossed the short distance that separated them and sat beside her.

  “I care about you too. Don’t ever think otherwise.” He put his arm around her and she rested her head on his shoulder. “We will find our families. Then we can figure out what’s next, okay?”

  Before she could answer someone pounded heavily on the door. “Are you guys up and decent? We’ve got a serious problem.”

  Yaz groaned, stood, pulled his pants on, and opened the door. “What?”

  Silas looked back over his shoulder. “Mind if I come in?”

  Yaz checked and found Brigid had slipped her bare legs under the covers. He moved aside and Silas bustled in. Yaz closed the door and gestured at his bed.

  Silas ignored the offer and stalked around like a caged wolf. “Carnack is dead and his guard suggested to the officer investigating that we might have been involved. They left someone watching the shop and I suspect if we showed up, we’d be in for a one-way trip to a cell.”

  “But we didn’t do anything,” Brigid said. “Surely we could clear this all up easily enough.”

  “Under ordinary circumstances, I’d agree with you,” Silas said. “But remember, we’re all still wanted for murder. When there’s already a bounty on you, it’s easier for the guards to imagine you might have killed someone else.”

  “And even if we succeeded in convincing them that we did nothing to Carnack,” Yaz said, “they’d still hold us for the outstanding bounties. I fear clearing this up through official channels isn’t possible.”

  “My thoughts exactly,” Silas said. “We need to get our stuff together, put our mercenary gear on, and get out of here before the gate guards have our descriptions.”

  Silas stopped pacing and looked at Yaz who looked back. “We can’t get ready with you here.”

  “Right! Sorry. I’ll meet you downstairs. Sorry if I interrupted anything.” Silas rushed out as quickly as he entered.

  Yaz opened the trunk at the end of his bed and pulled out his armor. He glanced at Brigid who was doing the same. She must have been worried because she didn’t offer a word of complaint about putting the smelly leathers back on. He turned his back to offer her what privacy he could and donned the first layer of his armor.

  Ten minutes later they joined Silas downstairs, looking every bit the rough mercenary pair. With the bulky armor and her hair tucked up under her helmet, no one would guess Brigid was a woman, much less that she was the one that visited Carnack’s shop.

  “Finally!” Silas waved toward the door. “I’ve settled our bill. Let’s go. What took you so long anyway?”

  Once they were outside and quick marching toward the stables Yaz said, “I thought we were pretty fast considering we had to put all this crap on and pack our stuff.”

  “Yeah, sorry. It’s just I’ve gotten a taste of freedom and I’m not anxious to be a prisoner again.”

  “Neither am I,” Brigid said, her voice muffled by the helmet.

  On their way to the stable they passed a few early morning shoppers but no guards. When they arrived, the stablehands were just putting hay in the animal’s stalls.

  Silas rushed ahead, shouting for the stablemaster.

  “Is he jumpier than usual?” Brigid asked.

  “Definitely. I wonder if something happened that he didn’t tell us.”

  After considerable verbal encouragement, Silas returned with their horses and Thunder who was fully loaded. They mounted up and directed their horses toward the main gate.

  “Should we grab our spears?” Brigid asked.

  “No,” Yaz said. “If the only way out is to fight, we’re doomed.”

  “I’m forced to agree,” Silas said. “If the guards are on alert, they’ll have archers on the wall ready to feather anyone that raises a weapon. Dressed like this we should be able to bluff our way through.”

  No one troubled them as they drew ever closer to the gate. Yaz found himself clutching the reins so hard the leather bit into his hand. He forced himself t
o relax only through sheer force of will. Surely they must be due for a break.

  A hundred yards from the gate Silas cursed and reined in. A force of ten guards, including four archers, was stationed in front of the lowered portcullis. They were questioning a group of merchants. One of the women was forced to remove her bonnet and show her dark hair before the portcullis went up and they were waved through.

  So much for bluffing their way past. The moment Brigid removed her helmet and that blond hair spilled out they were done.

  “We’ll have to find another way,” Yaz said. He just wished he had an idea where to start looking.

  When they’d put a couple streets between them and the gate Yaz found he could breathe easily again. He still wasn’t sure how they were going to escape the city, but at least he could consider the problem with a clear head. His first thought was that they could sneak over the wall that night, but even if it worked, they’d be on foot again with minimal supplies. Fort Kane waited a good ten days’ ride east, on foot you were looking at two weeks at least and probably more. Every day that went by made it that much more difficult to find their families.

  Yaz did his best to keep his worry from showing on his face. Instead he turned inward and searched his mental library. After a few seconds he found the old atlas. A third of the way through was the entry on the city. The founders built it on the site of an old imperial city that had been mostly destroyed during the Day of Mad Dragons. There was no mention of its former name, only that the dragons razed it to the foundations.

  All imperial cities of any size had a sewer system. Assuming it survived, that might be their way out. Further assuming they could find some way to access it and that it exited beyond the wall. That was a lot of assumptions and did nothing to help them get their horses out. No way could they lead them through narrow, underground tunnels.

  “Yaz!”

  He gave a shudder and returned his focus to the real world. From her annoyed tone he suspected Brigid had been trying to get his attention for a while. “Yeah?”