“Ho, Kamran!” Xald hailed.
A man in his late fifties stepped out, dark beard streaked with grey and some impressive crow’s feet at his eyes. He looked solid, and dependable, like a stone wall. On reflection, most guard captains she had met were like this. Was it a job requirement to look unmovable, as if not even a typhoon would rock them on their heels? She had to wonder.
“Ho, Xald,” Kamran returned the greeting, the nuance as if greeting a friend rather than his superior. His eyes were taking in Sevana from head to toe, noting not only her blond hair but her foreign dress as well. He gave a slow blink and she knew in that moment he’d put together who she must be. “Greetings, Artifactor.”
Sevana grinned at him. She adored the mentally competent. “Greetings, Captain. I take it that not much goes on in this palace without you knowing about it.”
He grimaced. “I would have agreed, three weeks ago. Now?”
Yes, it was a sore point now. “I still believe you know more than you think. We need a list of everyone that had access to the princess a week before she went missing.”
Kamran went taut, becoming more alert. “You think you can track down the man that did this?”
“Or the woman. I have no way of knowing whether we’re up against a man or woman at this point. But I take your meaning. I hope to track them down. I haven’t been able to track the princess magically.” Sevana’s mouth twisted up as she said that. Gah, but those words were rotten in her mouth. It was worse than taking a bite out of decaying fish. “If I know who maybe I can figure out what.”
“I understand.” Kamran wasted no time ducking back into his claustrophobic office before coming back out. In his hands was a leather-bound log that had seen better days. He flipped through the pages rapidly before handing it over to her. “Start from this page. It goes on for three more.”
Four pages?! What sin had she committed to have to wade through all of this?
Tapping a finger against the pages, Xald asked, “Which of these people are still here?”
Kamran clapped his hands together in recognition. “Of course. The culprit would have fled after doing his evil. Here.” He snatched the log back from Sevana and ducked back into his office again, bringing out a second one and a pencil that had been chewed half to death. Flipping to the right page, he juggled them so that he could hold them side by side. “I’ll compare these two. This list is from three days ago, which was the last time I tracked down our guests. Before that…well, it became so hectic, it was hard to keep track of anyone’s movements.”
Yes, Sevana understood that precisely. They were likely scrambling an army together and sending it off to battle the Fae about that point. Sevana stepped to his side to help him compare, Kamran quickly scratching off the ones that were still here. Thankfully Kamran had kept the lists in alphabetical order, so it was simple to do. If they’d been out of order, it would have taken her a good hour to make her way through eight pages. Whittled down, there were precisely thirteen names left.
Thirteen was a much better number than before. “Make me a clean list of these names, and if you have an idea of where they might be, note that down too.”
Happy to have something constructive to do in regaining the princess, Kamran immediately obeyed. His handwriting was sloppier because of his haste, but nothing could compare to the chicken scratch that Master produced. Even better, with most of the names he jotted down a location, or someone who would know them. It gave her more of a place to start. Sevana was in desperate need of information right now, so much so that any scrap of it helped.
Armed with a list of potential suspects, she gave Kamran a bow of the head in thanks. “You’ve saved me hours, if not days of work. My thanks.”
“Please, keep me updated?” Kamran requested, mouth tugging downwards. “The little princess is a favorite of the guards. We feel we should have looked out for her better.”
“This was not a lapse on your part,” Xald objected. “It was the court magicians that should have caught this danger.”
Truly. What had they been doing, polishing their wands? But that did spark an idea. Non-magical people had no way of knowing magic was nearby unless something obvious happened. But what if she could create something that would set off an alert, so that people like these guardsmen would be aware that a magician was present? If that happened, they had a better chance of at least notifying a court magician, if nothing else. Sevana made a mental note to follow up on that. It was a narrow market, but she now knew of at least two kings that would pay a pretty penny to have his guards thus armed.
Setting the idea aside, she rolled up the list and lightly smacked Xald on the arm with it. “Let’s get to it.”
The first was a man named Bijay, supposedly a semi-regular tradesman that came into the palace twice a year to pay business taxes and trade a few select goods with the palace staff. No one, not even Xald, thought him suspicious, but Sevana had hopes of him having noticed something. He was, after all, in the courtyard that day.
Xald knew where his shop was located and they went directly there. Sevana had her eyes on Xald’s back, trying not to lose him as he weaved his way through the thick traffic on the streets, so it took her a while to notice.
Everyone was staring at her.
It wasn’t a covert thing—they were openly doing so, sometimes even following behind her for a while and talking to someone else in a tone easily overheard. It was beyond disconcerting and yet Xald didn’t react to it at all. She knew he’d noticed it—she saw him turn his head now and again to take a quick peek over his shoulder—and yet he didn’t say a word to any of them.
From the lack of reaction on his part, she assumed this was normal, and strove to ignore it.
“When we find him, you must offer a greeting before asking any questions,” Xald coached. “A blessing on his health, or his business, or his family. It doesn’t have to be elaborate. Then introduce yourself. After that, he responds, then you can ask.”
Sevana made note of that and nodded.
“Don’t be surprised if he’ll ask you questions in return,” Xald tacked on. A general hand wave in her direction indicated her appearance as a whole. “It’s not often that we get people here who are so obviously foreign. He’ll be very curious about you and ask you just as many questions as you ask him.”
Now that was strange. They didn’t get a lot of foreign traffic through Windamere either, but Sevana had never felt the urge to stop a stranger and ask them a slew of questions. Was this a cultural quirk of Sa Kao? Must be.
Xald stopped abruptly. “Here’s his shop.” As he stepped through the door, he called out, “Bijay! A blessing upon your house and kin!”
Oh? That’s all he meant by a blessing as a greeting? Well even she could do that.
It took a second for her eyes to adjust. The interior of any building in this country was always much dimmer than the outside just because the sun was brutal here. The place felt blessedly cool and smelled spicy. It also smelled strangely of beeswax. As her sight cleared, she found that the walls were filled with different types of cleaning supplies, all in clear glass bottles with labels glued to them. There was a counter that ran the length of the building on the right side where he obviously took in orders, but the rest of the shop had nothing but shelves of products. There was a refreshing scent and she took in a lungful, enjoying it.
From a back room, a man entered that looked as if he had been left to dry in the sun too long. His skin was almost black, it was that dark, eyes a golden brown in the darkness of his skin. He was in the traditional dress of his people with a white turban wrapped around his head and a light khaki shirt wrapped tightly at the waist. He greeted Xald with a polite, “Blessings on you, Master Xald.”
Remembering the instructions from earlier, she stepped up and gave him her best business expression. “Blessings on your house, Master Bijay. My name is Sevana Warran and I am an Artifactor.”
Bijay gravitated to her like he was steel and
she a lodestone. “An Artifactor? Isn’t that the type of magician that makes the tools for all of the other magicians?”
“Well, yes, that’s one way of putting it.”
“Where are you from? What town?”
Xald hadn’t been kidding that he would ask a lot of questions, had he? “I’m from a mountain, actually. In Windamere. Master Bijay, I came to ask—”
Bijay ran right over her. “A mountain? Is it a magical mountain? Do your parents live there with you? Are you married?”
Sevana stared at him, nonplussed. Why did the man even care? She glanced at Xald, seeing if she really had to answer all of this to be polite, and he gave a nod of encouragement. Really had to, huh. Puffing out a breath, she answered, “Yes it is, no they don’t, and no I’m not.”
“Is it strange that your parents don’t live with you, or is that common in your culture? And I would think a woman of your age would be married. Do you have a suitor? How old are you? You look to be of an age with my daughter.”
Was he really keeping track of these questions he was asking? Just to test it, she didn’t elaborate but gave simple answers. “Yes, no, nineteen.”
“No suitor is very strange at your age. Do you have siblings? Is it common to be an Artifactor at such a young age? Were you not allowed to get married while you were training?”
Sevana levelled a look at Xald. She had no intention of standing here answering question after question until this man’s curiosity was satisfied. It was ridiculous, the amount of personal questions he was asking. And what was the point? It wasn’t like he could do anything with the information later.
Xald read her face very well and cleared his throat, doing a sidestep to force Bijay to take a step back. “Master Bijay, we can’t stay long. We’re searching for the princess.”
The man blinked at him, reacting as if it had just occurred to him that they were of course out on official business and didn’t have hours to stand around and chat. “Oh, oh of course. My apologies. What do you wish to know?”
Really, what was wrong with these people…. Clearing her throat, she went through the mental questions she had prepared. “Master Bijay, you were in the small court on the day of the princess’s disappearance. Did you see her in the courtyard?”
“Playing in the fountain,” he confirmed with a bob of the head. “She and several of her playmates. They were singing and splashing and making everyone watching laugh.”
“Did you see her disappear?”
“No, I was only in the court for about twenty minutes. She was still splashing around when I entered the palace.” Bijay’s head canted to the side. “There was someone that came out with a packed lunch for all of the children, I passed them going in.”
Sevana caught Xald’s eye and he gave a single nod. So, he’d known that already. In that case, this man’s information was largely useless as he had obviously been there in the morning, and the princess had disappeared in the afternoon. It tossed out most of her questions and left just one. “One final question. Was there anyone there in the courtyard that you didn’t recognize?”
“A few—other tradesmen like myself, a few artists vying for the open court position, but most of them I knew.”
“Can you describe any of them?”
Bijay splayed his hands helplessly. “I didn’t pay them much attention.”
It had been a waste of time in more ways than one, but Sevana didn’t let that show on her face. “Thank you for your time.”
Xald gracefully got them out of there before Bijay thought of more questions to ask. Sevana waited until they were several feet away from the business before levelling a look at him. “Some questions, eh?”
“Curiosity is part of our culture,” he said with a blasé shrug. “You’ll get used to it. Next time, answer his questions fully, as it’s rude not to.”
Sevana really wanted to explain that asking a complete stranger what her age was and why wasn’t she married was more rude. But she had a feeling that in Sa Kao, it wasn’t, and it was she that was out of line. It was probably for the best that Morgan was the one that did all business with Sa Kao. She’d be tempted to whack people within a day. It was taking considerable restraint just to do this investigation. Maybe she should rethink her line of approach on this.
“Xald, on the list, who is it that we’re just asking for information and who do we suspect?”
“There’s a mix of the two.” He paused and stepped to the side of the street, allowing people to freely pass by him so that he could pull out their list and check through it. “I would say, seven people are going to be simply informants. The others are potential suspects.”
“Let’s track down the suspects first,” she suggested. “We’ll potentially save time that way.”
“Agreed.” Flicking his eyes back over the list, he suggested, “Gautum next, then.”
“Why him?”
“I haven’t yet proved that he’s a thief.”
That was an interesting answer. A smile took over Sevana’s face. “Yet, eh? I doubt a thief would’ve been able to pull anything like this off.”
“No, but a thief notices more things than the regular man. He has to. His life depends on his observation skills. So I think we should talk to him first. He might narrow the list for us even further.”
The logic was sound on that. Although Sevana had this feeling that what he really wanted was to catch the man at something so he could finally get his thieving hands off the streets. Either way, she didn’t have a problem trying him next. “So where do you find a not-yet-convicted-thief?”
“He’s in one of two places at this time of day. He’s either at a certain bar I know, getting other people drunk and pumping them for information, or he’s skulking around the main market looking for purses to lift.”
Sevana studied him from the corner of her eye as they moved off. “If you know that much, then why…?”
“I’ve helped to track him down a few times,” Xald’s mouth twisted up in a bitter grimace, “but every time he was clean. There wasn’t anything on him.”
“So you know he’s a thief because things suspiciously disappear when he’s in the area?”
“That’s it.” Xald cracked his knuckles into one hand. “It would be nice if today I can catch him.”
One of those grievances, eh? Well, she didn’t mind doing double duty.
Xald led her through several streets and into the seedier section of town. Sevana started keeping a better watch on her pockets as she was absolutely sure that there were pickpockets around every corner. It was that sort of area. Fortunately they didn’t stay on the streets for long and entered a dim bar that had definitely seen better days. The walls were peeling, the wooden beams inside looked black with smoke and age, and the place smelled distinctly of that strange beer they drank in this country.
Xald paused, blinked to let his eyes adjust, then scanned the area with a quick sweep of his head. A silence descended immediately upon his entrance as every man there recognized him. If it wasn’t for the traffic on the street pouring through the open doorway, it would have been a graveyard silence.
Xald pointed an imperative finger. “Gautum.”
A thin looking man in his forties leapt to his feet and bolted for the back. Swearing, Xald took off in high pursuit. Sevana, startled by this immediate scene of chase, was two beats behind. Unfortunately it put her at a severe disadvantage as both men were faster runners than she was and it proved impossible to catch up. By the time she slapped through the back door and into the alley, they were at the mouth of the alley and turning into the street.
Well, if Xald thought that she would just run after him all day thief catching, he could think again. He might want her to think like a thief-catcher, but she was an Artifactor, and if there was no reason to do things the hard way, she wouldn’t. Pulling out a wand, she cast a levitation spell on herself and floated up above the rooftops. From that vantage, she could easily see where the men were running, and she fl
ew their direction, looking about for a good place to land. Levitation spells were taxing and she didn’t want to do it for long.
Ah, there. That rooftop was nice and flat. She landed without even a bump and ended the spell. In the next moment, she cast it again, neatly ensnaring the thief who was running vigorously for the bridge. His feet lifted into the air, but he kept moving arms and legs, windmilling in place as if sheer effort could propel him forward.
“They always do that,” she noted to herself, amused. “I wonder why.”
Below the building, Xald skidded to a halt, eyes bugging out of his head to see his quarry hovering in mid-air. Then he must have realized who was responsible as his head came around, searching for her.
“Up here!” she called down to him.
Xald’s head jerked up, following the sound of her voice. “Artifactor! You’re doing this?”
That was rather obvious, so she ignored the question. “Get a firm grip on him. I’ll release the spell after you do.”
Flicking a hand up in acknowledgement, Xald moved forward and grabbed both of Gautam’s arms. Secured, Sevana let the spell end and watched as Xald promptly threw the man onto the ground and wrenched his arms behind his back, ensuring he couldn’t somehow wiggle free.
Sevana cast the levitation spell on herself again just long enough to get her feet back on the street. Then she strolled casually to the two men. “For your information, I do not run after criminals.”
“I’m no criminal!” Gautum whined into the pavement. He was stoutly ignored.
“I see that,” Xald acknowledged, amused. He shifted both of Gautum’s arms to a one-handed grip so he could grab a length of twine out of a pocket, and then started tying the man securely. “But Artifactor, I have to say, if you ever tire of your profession you’d make a marvelous thief-taker.”
The Scofflaw Magician (The Artifactor Book 3) Page 5