The inside of the tavern stank. A fire along one wall put out a hazy smoke that drifted into the room, and he saw men puffing the ends of rolled-up paper. Dozens of people were in here, and women moved from table to table, pausing to stop and chat with the men. Like the women in the market, most of them wore clothing that was far too revealing. Surprisingly, most looked as if they were happy to be here. None of them seemed as if they were forced.
Where had the man with the hat gone?
Daniel found a seat at an empty table and looked around.
One of the women approached, leaning toward him to reveal her cleavage. “You don’t have the look of a man from around here.”
Daniel smiled and averted his gaze. “I’m not from around here.”
“No? I’ve seen men with your eyes before. They’re a nice color.”
Daniel looked up at her. “I am looking for someone.”
“Is that right? If you’re looking for someone, you’ve come to the right place. We have plenty of someones here.”
“I saw a man—”
The woman leaned back, chuckling. “We don’t tend to get too many men like that in here. Not that I’m judging, mind you, it’s just that this isn’t the right place for you if that’s where your tastes lean. There are other places in the city I could recommend.”
Daniel flushed. This wasn’t going at all how he’d thought it might. But then, how had he expected it to go? He had no idea what he was doing here. He probably shouldn’t have come in the first place, not into this tavern and not after that man, but with no way of finding Lucy, this was the only thing he could think of.
“It’s not that. I saw a man bringing a woman in here, but…” He shook his head. “It doesn’t matter,” he muttered.
The woman took a seat across from him, fixing him with a hard stare. “What happened?”
Daniel looked up. She had deep brown eyes that matched her brown hair, and high cheekbones that were quite lovely. He tried Reading her but was unable to pick up on anything. That might’ve been because he had exerted himself already. Reading was like every other ability. It took strength and focus, and as he didn’t use it often, it would be faded.
“I lost a friend.”
“And you came here to try to forget about it?”
“No. It’s not like that.”
“You know, plenty of people lose friends. With the way things are these days, we see far too many who lose people they care about.”
He briefly wondered what she meant by that. “That’s not it. I came into the city with her, and we got separated. Someone grabbed her and pulled her away from me and—”
The woman got to her feet. “Where was this?”
Daniel shrugged and pointed toward the door. “It was out in the market earlier in the day. We had just gotten to the city, and we were making our way through when someone grabbed her.”
The woman clenched her jaw. “Is this someone important to you?”
“She’s my friend. She’s…” How was he to describe Lucy? He wanted something more with her, but she preferred her time in the forest, learning about her abilities. He’d rather stay in the palace, and in the city, biding his time until he joined the council. If it were up to his parents, he’d chase someone else, but Daniel couldn’t help the attraction he felt for Lucy—and maybe that was because she spent so much time in Trelaeavn.
“I can see that she’s something,” the woman said. “Stay here. I’ll do what I can.”
“What do you mean?”
“Let’s just say we have some experience with what happened.”
“I saw that. A man brought a woman in here. I thought I would follow her in and see if I could help her.”
“She doesn’t need help.”
“She does. She didn’t want to be with him.”
“She doesn’t need help now.”
The woman left, sweeping away and making her way through the tavern with a determined step, pausing from time to time at tables to lean in and then smile before she disappeared into the kitchen.
What was this all about? Where was she going?
If only he hadn’t expended so much strength Reading to discover where Lucy had gone, he might be able to pick up on more of what she was doing, but when he tried to Read her, he… heard dozens of voices within the tavern.
He just hadn’t been able to Read the woman.
Had she known about his ability to Read? Could she have known that he came from Elaeavn? She had mentioned that she had known men with eyes like his.
How long would she keep him waiting? He wanted answers. If she could somehow give him information about how to find Lucy, he was willing to wait, but if this was all part of some scam, he didn’t want to be a part of it.
And if she was somehow able to repel his abilities…
Daniel shifted in his seat, glancing every so often to the kitchen. He kept waiting for the woman to return, but she didn’t.
Turning his attention to the people around him, he focused on the men at the tables. Most of them were content with their drink or their dicing or even the flirtation with the women. Some, he noticed, were a little boisterous, grabbing at the women, and as he watched, he noticed the savvy way they batted hands down to their sides, maneuvering the men so that they didn’t get as grabby as they might otherwise. Some of the men got deep into drink and those were far too chatty. He wondered if they were sharing details they weren’t intended to share, but he couldn’t tell.
As he listened, Daniel realized he wasn’t able to hear anything from the women. It was as if they were all silent to him.
How was that possible?
It would take not only an ability to shut off their minds, but also concentration and focus… and they would have to know that there were Readers within the tavern. Unless they were always prepared for that possibility.
What had he come across? They were far enough outside of Elaeavn that there shouldn’t be people prepared for this.
The Forgers. That had to be the reason. They had abilities much like his.
Interesting.
He sat back, watching. The more he watched, the more he realized the women moved around in some sort of elaborate game. None of them took the flirtations of the men seriously, and it seemed as if they used their dress to their advantage.
He smiled to himself. These women weren’t being used at all. They were empowered.
The kitchen door opened, and he looked up. The woman that had sat at his table returned and joined him again. “What was your friend’s name?”
“Her name’s Lucy.”
“Lucy? And what was she wearing?”
“She was dressed in a cloak similar to mine. She’s a similar height and has deep green eyes.”
“The same as yours.”
“The same as mine.”
“How long will you be in Eban?”
“I don’t intend to leave until I know what happened to her.”
“Fine. Where will you be staying in the city?”
“I don’t know.”
“Let me help you find a place. It might not be as fancy as you’re used to, but it’s a clean bed, and you don’t have to worry about someone jumping in on you.”
“Thanks?”
“Don’t thank me yet.”
“What’s your name?”
“Kasha.”
“I’m Daniel,” he said.
She waited for him to follow and guided him through the tavern. As he went, a couple of the men shot him knowing looks, and a few smiled at him. The women watched Kasha, almost as if ready to leap to her defense.
Noticing that left him wondering yet again what kind of place this was. How was it that Kasha would have so many people ready to defend her? And what was taking place within this tavern?
She led him up a flight of stairs. At the top, she pointed down the hall. “You get the room down there,” she said.
“Can I lock it?”
“The door locks like any other.” She
smiled.
“What is this place?”
“Just another tavern.”
Daniel shook his head. “I can’t say that I’ve been to too many taverns in Eban, but something tells me this isn’t just another tavern.”
“We protect our own. That involves anyone who needs help.”
“But I’m not one of your own.”
“No. You have the wrong parts.”
“You mean you protect women?”
He glanced back downstairs. A pair of lanterns glowed along the walls, giving just a soft light. The music in the tavern drifted through the doorway, muted and bassy. Voices rumbled from far below, and he couldn’t make any out. He tried to Read Kasha, but again he came up short. Whatever she was doing protected her.
“We protect women. Too many get moved through places like this, brought into slavery, forced into prostitution. It used to be bad before we organized. Now we have a way of protecting as many as we can. Some still slip through, and there are plenty of men willing to pay far too much to purchase women.” Her nose wrinkled and her jaw clenched slightly. “We do whatever we can to ensure the safety of people we have offered our protection to. And your friend got caught. I suspect it’s because she looked too exotic. There’s a market for that, and that’s where I’m sending word to look. If I hear anything, I’ll let you know. But even if we find her, getting her back won’t be easy.”
“I’m not leaving without her.”
“No? You might not have much of a choice. There’s only so much we can do to rescue women brought to certain places. But I’ll do my best. You have my word.”
“Why?”
Kasha clenched her jaw briefly. “Some of know what it’s like to be taken.”
He was silent for a moment, not sure how to answer. After losing Lucy, the last thing he had expected to find was kindness. “Thank you, Kasha.”
She shook her head. “Don’t thank me yet. We don’t know if I’ve even done anything.”
“You’ve done more than I was able to do.”
“Only because you didn’t know where to start.”
She went down the stairs, leaving Daniel watching after her. There was a confidence to her gait, but the moment she pushed open the door, everything changed about her. That confidence faded, likely suppressed, and she swayed her hips as she stepped through the doorway.
He smiled to himself. She had done none of that when it was just the two of them, which told him with even more certainty that he knew everything he needed to know about her. They protected their own. It was the same thing Daniel was willing to do for Lucy.
16
Lucy
When Lucy awoke, something felt wrong, though she wasn’t entirely sure why that should be. She opened her eyes, feeling that they were gummed closed, but saw nothing other than darkness all around her.
Panic set her heart to fluttering.
Why should there be only darkness around her?
She focused on her breathing. As she did, she tried to use her enhanced senses. Ever since the attack, since the metal had buried itself in her skull, she had known a strange increase in her abilities, but it was uncontrollable, almost overpowering. Were it not for Haern’s mother’s bracelets, she didn’t know if she would have survived it. The voices all around had been too much.
There was silence.
That troubled her.
Even with the bracelets, there wasn’t absolute silence. Some voices still filtered in, a gentle murmuring she could detect if she focused on it enough. But now, there wasn’t even that murmuring. There was nothing other than a complete silence.
She tried to Listen, but she didn’t hear anything either.
That was one of the senses that she had been happy had been augmented. She had never been a strong Listener, just enough of one that she could hear things she shouldn’t be able to otherwise.
It was how she had heard her parents talking about their plans for her and Daniel Elvraeth.
Daniel.
What must he be thinking?
She remembered very little. They had been in the city, and then someone had grabbed her. There had been a sharp pain, and within moments, fatigue had overwhelmed her, dropping her into a quiet oblivion. As much as she had tried to fight it, struggled to stay awake, she had failed. She’d even tried to remove the bracelets, thinking that she should be able to Slide to safety, but she didn’t think she had managed to do that in time.
Unless she had, and then had lost them.
If she had lost the bracelets, then the absence of sound within her head was even more worrisome.
Her mind worked, so she felt intact, but anytime she tried to focus on one of her Great Watcher-given abilities, she failed.
Odd.
It should be more worrisome, but all she could think about was how odd it was.
With everything she had been through lately, it seemed as if a great many odd things had been happening.
The only thing she could think of was that they had administered some medicine that took away her abilities. She had never heard of anything like that, and the idea that something like that even existed troubled her, but no other explanation came to her.
If that was the case, she had to wait for it to wear off.
Her mouth was dry, and she worked her tongue around the inside of it, trying to moisten her lips. She jerked on her arms and legs but felt pain in her wrists and ankles.
She was bound.
Once again, panic started to set in. Why would someone have captured her?
Better yet, who had captured her?
This far outside of Elaeavn, she had no idea what the people would try to do to her. Perhaps they would attempt to use her; she’d heard stories of how women outside of Elaeavn were used.
And here she’d thought leaving the city would be some sort of an adventure. Some adventure it was. It was nothing but terrifying.
She lay there, losing track of time as she tried to focus on each of her abilities. If she could Read, she might learn where she was and what they intended to do with her. She didn’t even hear any voices around her. It was as if everything was muted.
If she could See through the darkness, she might be able to figure out what sort of room they kept her in, but even that was difficult.
Resigned to her fate, Lucy drifted in and out of sleep, until the sound of voices came to her.
There were several, and it took her a moment to realize that she was Reading them.
Her abilities were starting to come back.
How long had she been here?
And what had Daniel done in the meantime?
She could imagine that he was panicked, searching for her, or maybe he had decided to return to the city, get help, and come back looking for her. She had a hard time believing that anyone would be willing to come with him in search of her, but perhaps within the forest, he might find someone.
Then again, this was Daniel Elvraeth, and she doubted that he would even venture into the forest for help. More likely than not, he would go to the palace, and to the tchalit, which meant that no help would come.
When will he be coming?
Soon.
I grow tired of waiting.
I’m sure you do.
We can’t keep this up for much longer. They will discover the truth.
There were other voices mixed in, but those thoughts came the loudest.
Were they even thoughts? Usually when she was Reading, the voices were more complex, other things mingled within them, and it took great effort to ignore all of the background noise and concentrate on the foremost thought.
There was another with her.
The female will do.
I thought he wanted mostly men for his plan.
He does, but there is something about her that I think he will approve of.
What?
She has something different. Not ours.
They have been studying our techniques.
It seems as if they have ex
panded on them.
He will be displeased.
Not when he sees that it has been effective.
Has it?
I can Read…
Great Watcher.
They would be aware of what she was doing. They had to be, and still her abilities were too diminished. She could Read, but not how she normally could. And without her normal abilities, she might not even be able to Slide from here.
She had to try.
Normally, she needed movement in order to Slide. That was part of how she’d learned to control it, but the guild had been working with her. Rsiran had proven that there was a way to Slide without taking a step, though he did it through a unique combination of his abilities, anchoring to lorcith and using that to draw him forward. She had no such connection to the metal.
At the same time, with her enhancement, it seemed as if she should be able to use that, and perhaps she would be able to find some way of Sliding.
She had to push away the sound of voices within her mind. It was difficult, but if she allowed those voices to intrude, she wouldn’t be able to concentrate on what she needed to do.
Footsteps thudded along the floorboards, and Lucy knew that her time was limited.
It wouldn’t be long before whoever had captured her came into the room. Once they knew that she was awake—and that her abilities were returning—they would administer whatever they had the first time and eliminate her ability to escape.
Worse, someone had mentioned that they had Read her.
That suggested that they had abilities of Elaeavn.
Who from Elaeavn would betray their own kind like that?
Unless it wasn’t anyone from Elaeavn. The Forgers had unique abilities, and it wouldn’t surprise her to learn that they were capable of Reading. But if so, why wouldn’t Rsiran have mentioned it?
She had only seen him a few times during his visits, but she had spent considerable time within the forest hoping to catch a glimpse of him, wanting to learn what he knew, hoping perhaps he’d be willing to teach her a little more about how to Slide and to control that ability. If she could uncover even a little bit more knowledge, she thought she could use it to help her do the one thing she had long wanted to do—leave the city.
The Elder Stones Saga Boxset: Books 1-3 Page 20