by Billy Wong
"Evan," Victor replied simply. "You were the last ones seen with him in Nacin, and I'm wondering if you know where he's gone."
Remembering the prophet who had foretold the doom her children would bring to the world and yet saved them when she hadn't been there to do so, Rose knew he could only want one thing from Evan. The power of foresight. But the jaded seer had given up looking into the future, and in doing so escaped a life of seclusion on his tiny island to explore the world. "He doesn't do what you want him for, anymore."
"I'm sure I could persuade him to change his mind," the prince said in a cool voice. "What good person wouldn't want to work for the benefit of the world as he could?"
Someone who didn't believe in the value of prophecies anymore, perhaps. "There's no real fate but the one we make ourselves, even if other forces play their part."
Victor chuckled. "I like your idea, Rose. Maybe you could become a philosopher in addition to being warrior, mage, and teacher. But it doesn't change the fact that knowing something of what the future holds would help one make their fate. So tell me where he went."
"He didn't tell us." And if he had, they wouldn't betray him. They owed him that much and more, for risking his own life for their children's sake.
Victor's response made Rose's heart skip a beat, and she heard Finn's angry grunt beside her. "I know what you did."
He didn't need to clarify the threat he made, and she saw Justin's eyes widen curiously next to him. Damn! He'd surely be eager to learn any secret that could incriminate her, and now that he'd heard Victor hint at her terrible deed...
"We don't know where he is, Prince. Truly."
His disappointed expression seemed to indicate he believed her. But they had apparently somehow angered him, perhaps through their very ignorance, and instead of letting it go he said harshly, "Then you'll find him."
"What?" Finn roared, anger bursting free. "You can't order us around like slaves!"
"My authority comes from the king—or at least, the man filling in for him." He laughed. "So I expect you to treat me with the same respect you would my dear dead brother King Benedict. Otherwise..."
Taking her husband's hand, Rose shook her head, urging him not to do something he might regret. "Fine, we'll do it." They had little choice but to go along for now. Once Victor learned Evan's gift only worked on his island, he'd hopefully give up the idea he must entertain of keeping him as a sort of slave. And if not, they'd think of something.
"Justin, you've done a fine job with these two. Go with them, and make sure they actually try to find the prophet. Don't let them waste my time by purposefully delaying."
The look on Justin's face asked, Why me? but he replied with a swallow, "Yes, Your Highness." Rose sighed. How much longer could the three of them stay together before something gave?
#
"I'm sorry," Rose said as she watched Justin dejectedly guide his horse onward, downcast eyes barely watching the road. "For everything."
"I don't want your apology," he snarled. "So where is this Evan?"
She shrugged. "I really don't know. That's why we're going to Nacin to ask." Though they might not learn anything useful there, considering Evan might not have gotten to know anybody and looked rather nondescript...
A prosperous port twenty miles south of Gustrone, Nacin had a bustling fabric and spice market, and was where Rose and Finn had dropped Evan off when they parted ways upon the prophet's arrival in Kayland. Upon recognizing the famous warriors, many of the residents greeted them with praise and cheers. Rose's conscience pained her to know that their reputations had benefited from the tragedy of the royal guard, due to the lie they and Lawrence had concocted together to hide the truth.
"Maybe your friend is still living here, and we'll be able to wrap this up soon," Justin said.
It was wishful thinking, but Rose would like their search to be over as quickly as possible too, if Evan didn't wind up suffering for it. It alarmed her that someone as outwardly respectable as Leland Gallard would partake in the kind of acts he had, and she'd rather spend her time getting to the bottom of this evil than working to satisfy Victor's selfish whims. To be completely honest, though, "I doubt he'll be here. He said he wanted to see the world."
They made their way first to the dockside inn, where they asked about Evan. But the employees and patrons alike had nothing for them; the prophet would have been no more than a common traveler in the eyes of those who saw him, and quickly forgotten in the months since. They didn't even keep a guest log that went back that far, and if they had, Rose figured Evan might have used a false name to cover his trail. A man seeking a new life would hardly want to be found by folks interested in his old one.
"Any idea where you think he might have wanted to go?" Justin asked.
Rose really had no idea, but Finn said proudly, "Anybody who hasn't been to Kayland before would come to see our magic center. I mean, where else can you find practicing mages in this day and age?"
She gave him a dubious look. "I don't think he'd go there when he had the chance to come with us and turned it down, and it would draw suspicion to him. So how about no."
"Relax! Just promoting ourselves a bit."
"To Justin?"
"What, he might want to learn magic..."
Rose and Justin sighed at the same time. "Let's move on," she said. "Where else might a tourist go?"
They rattled off a short list of names, and Rose had to admit their homeland wasn't much of a vacation destination. Sure it had its great ports, like Efierd on the other side of the country and Nacin itself, and large inland cities such as Gustrone and Dunwal, but she didn't think any of them would have great appeal for visitors. Though, maybe it was just familiarity with Kayland which blinded her to the exotic charm it might hold to foreigners, or she'd been jaded by the much more lavish cities she'd seen in other lands. Whatever the case, she was having a tough time figuring out where to look for Evan, and could tell by their dumbfounded faces that Finn and Justin didn't fare much better.
"Justin," she suggested, "how about we investigate your tutor first, and just hope we find some clues to Evan's whereabouts along the way?"
"But I'm supposed to be making sure you look for Evan, and don't want to get in trouble for straying from my directions."
"Yeah, but we don't even know where to start looking for him. So instead of blindly picking a place at random, let's go where you think we can find out about Leland's involvement with those murderers, and continue our search for Evan there as well."
Slowly, Justin nodded. "We can't go back and talk to him. That would evoke too much suspicion on Victor's part. But he does have an estate five miles west of Gustrone, where we might be able to learn who his friends were."
A country estate wasn't exactly a likely place to find information about Evan, but Rose didn't care much for forcing her friend to see some selfish prince. "Okay, let's go there. I imagine his servants would know something about his secret life."
#
The "estate" was more of a cottage with a fair-sized lawn than some huge manor, the inviting homeliness of which was an ill fit with the cruelty she knew to be in the owner. She also worried a little that there wouldn't be any servants to question, but hopefully there'd be documents to look at. She knocked on the plain wood door, which a thin, stringy-haired woman of similar age to Leland opened. "Who are you? Are you here to arrest me?" Obviously, she knew something of his crimes.
"No, we're just here to talk." For now. "Are you his maid?"
She straightened herself up. "No, his wife. My name is Anna."
"Your husband's an insane murderer," Finn spat before Rose could speak again. "You'd better tell us all you know about that."
Anna's lips parted—then she swooned, and Rose caught her in big arms. "That was a bit hasty," she said to Finn. "Well, at least we know she probably isn't complicit."
They took the woman inside and set her down in a chair, where she eventually recovered. When her eyes refocus
ed on the warriors, she breathed, "I knew there was something wrong, but not that it was that bad. He made a lot of strange trips, that his work didn't explain..."
"We'd like to take a look through your husband's belongings." Justin's tone was more that of a command than a request.
Anna paled further with fright, and Rose didn't approve so much of the men's aggressiveness towards her. She was as disturbed by Leland's atrocities as anyone, but they didn't make his loved ones guilty by association. "As you please," Anna said.
"It's cramped in here," Finn grumbled as the three squeezed into the cozy study—cozy for one, downright suffocating for three, and two of them huge.
Stepping over Justin who crouched before a bookcase while she reached for an eye-catching dark blue book—the same color as Leland's tattoo—in the corner, Rose heard him mutter, "You stink."
It had been meant as an insult, but she rolled with it. "We all do. When was the last time any of us took a bath?" She removed the book from its niche. "Path of the Lost. Any guesses as to what's inside?"
"It's a political handbook?" Justin suggested.
Finn shook his head. "More like some demon cult's holy book."
Rose liked his idea, but brought up a third possibility. "Or some secret society's code?" She decided to open it to find out. "Even if I'm right, it doesn't necessarily mean you guys are wrong. It could still be a demon-worshiping secret political society's code." After flipping through a few pages, she groaned. "It's hard to make sense of—the language isn't very layperson-friendly—but this book seems to propose that the universe is unfair because some suffer more undeservedly than others... and in order to make it fair, everybody else must suffer as well. I'd wager this is the ideology that organization lives by."
Justin swallowed. "That explains a lot, but why would Leland subscribe to it? He has a wife, a good career..."
"Who knows?" Rose said softly. "It's hard to see into the hearts of people who aren't you. The important thing is finding the rest of this society, and stopping them before they do any more."
"Well, does it say who the members are?"
"No... but if we can find out where this book was produced, we should make some good progress towards finding the people whose minds spawned it."
"You really think this thing would've been made by a standard bookbinder?" Finn asked. "I would've assumed that dark societies would be a little more secretive."
Rose chortled. "So would I, normally. Except there's a bookbinder's seal on the inner cover!"
Justin laughed too. "That's a lucky break if there ever was one! Do you know what bookbinder it belongs to?"
"Do I look like an expert on bookbinding? Five years ago, I wouldn't even have recognized it as a seal! But I know who can tell us."
"Derrick?" Finn asked.
"Exactly."
They returned to Gustrone, and Derrick greeted the couple with open arms after shooting Justin a suspicious glance. Rose had come to think of him as the real master of the center after all the times she and Finn had left it in his care to pursue adventure and battle. "Hey, I didn't think you'd be back so quickly. You had enough of visiting your mom already?"
"No," she said as they hugged, "but we got caught up in something. You recognize this bookbinder's seal?" She showed him the mark.
"Do I! That's only the seal of the biggest bookbinder in Kayland, Kelman Books in Dunwal."
Even Rose had heard of that literary guild. This had been a real oversight by the "secret" society. "By the way, have you heard any news about Evan? We're trying to find him too."
"No, nothing. Hope you can get everything you need to done soon so you can come back and help with the center!"
"Can't make any promises, but we'll try. Sorry about making you so work hard. How about when we're finished, I bring my mom to visit so she can cook some of those fresh biscuits you like so much?"
#
The scholarly center of Kayland and also a strong riverside trade city, Dunwal was far away even on horseback, but not such an unlikely place for Evan to go either. They made it there without incident save for easily dispatching a bandit gang they found attacking a caravan along the way. Brushing her pauldron where a crossbow bolt had snapped against it, Rose mused, "Good thing we bring our armor even to visit my mom, huh? Always be prepared, because you don't know when trouble will find you."
"You seem slower than normal, letting that solitary bolt hit you," Finn said. "Is something wrong?"
She understood the reason for his concern; she'd suffered injuries beyond counting, and already suffered immense recurring pain in every part of her body. It might only be a matter of time before the damage began to impair her fighting abilities. But she had a great ability to ignore said pain, and didn't think she faded that badly yet. She was only twenty-four... "No, I'm okay. I don't hurt any worse than I'm used to. I didn't try that hard to avoid the bolt completely since I figured it would glance off the plate, which it did."
"Seems like just yesterday you would dodge it easily without even trying hard, though. I worry so much about you," he whispered.
"Don't. I'm an indestructible freak, remember?"
Arriving in Dunwal, they passed a streetside science festival while they headed for Kelman Books. Rose and Finn stopped to check out the more unusual exhibits, which after a moment of hesitation Justin took an interest in as well. They were all intrigued to watch a sort of kite-like glider being launched via catapult with a man inside, only to be disappointed when it crashed into the side of a tall tenement and plummeted to the ground. Somehow the pilot survived, though surely not without his share of broken bones.
Another interesting invention was a long hollow tube which blew sparks out one end and a tiny metal pellet out the other, which could penetrate most forms of armor but discharged without much accuracy or reliability. Rose remembered getting shot through the skull by a similar attack, though that had been a larger pellet propelled faster than sound from a monster's body, and shuddered. Her head had hurt for months! Actually she still had headaches now, but didn't know how much they should be attributed to the "slug" as the inventor called it in her brain, and how much to all the other assorted blows she'd taken to her poor head. Either way, she respected the weapon; such projectiles were hard to dodge.
Moving on, they reached Kelman Books, and found the building surprisingly small. Maybe they had another place where they made books, and just sold them here. A balding clerk greeted them when they entered the store. "Are you here to buy a book, or have one bound?"
"Neither," Finn said, "we want to know who made this book."
"Oh, Path of the Lost! A very popular text. Submitted for binding and reproduction by one Jack Slant, thirteen years and eight months ago."
Rose's shoulders slumped. Maybe the book's readership wasn't exclusively organization members after all, and knowing who authored it might not lead straight to them. But then, its author might have contact with those who took his words especially to heart... "Thanks. Do you know where Jack Slant is now?"
"No, but curiously, there is someone who reguarly has copies of the book sent to an address here in Dunwal."
"And the address is?"
He started to open his mouth and hesitated, seeming to finally realize he might be acting too loose with his tongue. "That's not exactly public information."
"I work for Prince Victor," Justin said, showing him a badge. "You'd do best to cooperate, I think."
The shopkeeper gave up his secrets after that. Upon finding the address to be located in a filthy alley, Rose felt the need for caution. She knocked on the door, backed up and rested her hand on her sword hilt after doing so. Seeing her demeanor, Finn and Justin also prepared to draw weapons...
A pale, scrawny man opened the door. "Here for the book?"
Not expecting that, Rose couldn't think of how to respond before Finn did. "What, you just sell it?"
"Huh? No, you don't have to pay. I give it out for free to anyone Lord Steel sends here. Bu
t wait, he didn't tell me you were coming..."
Lord Steel could be the leader of the dark society. On the other hand, he could be an innocent man in deed, who just approved of or even merely found interesting a questionable philosophy. "So where can we find this Lord Steel?" Rose asked.
"I don't know. He just tells me when somebody's about to pick up a book by bird message. I have no idea where he is himself."
"So how does he pay you?"
"Pay me? I'm not paid. I help him solely for the love of a great piece of literature."
Dammit. Bird-delivered messages would be hard to trace, to say the least. "Have you ever delivered a book yourself, instead of waiting for someone to pick it up?"
The man paused nervously before saying, "No..." and Rose and Finn recognized the lie. As Finn grabbed the man and threw him inside, Rose followed them in, closing the door behind them.
The threat of a beating from Finn made their informant reveal that he had once hand-delivered a copy of Path of the Lost to the manor of Duke Frederic of Gelby, and Justin sighed as he reminded them Gelby was almost one hundred miles south of Dunwal. "We're being led around like dogs here," the soldier complained, "and if Frederic does turn out to be involved, he's a duke! It might be tough to make him talk."
"He'll talk," Finn promised. "One way or another."
Though her husband was normally quicker to resort to violence than her, Rose didn't disapprove; seeing the secret society's recent actions had driven away all thoughts of mercy. "Duke or not, he's going to pay if he's in cahoots with those fiends."
Justin nodded, but then said, "I'm in the employ of the government. If I act against such a high-ranking noble-"
"Then stay out of it! We'll take care of Frederic, whatever that entails, and you can wait here in Dunwal for us. If anyone asks, we snuck away while you were sleeping."
"I'd still get in trouble." But he raised no further protest as Rose and Finn left.
#
Evan squeezed his way through the crowd of other blue-armored men, heart pounding like a drum in his chest as he listened to their apparent leader's speech. He wondered how he'd ended up trying to be a hero so soon after venturing into the outside world. Had he been inspired by Rose and Finn's example? But he felt more than a bit of fear; there were scores of men here in the basement, and if any of them figured out he didn't belong...