by Edun, Terah
He cocked his head and looked over at one of his men off to the right who wore a curious set of arm braces, one on each forearm. The braces were silver and extended from his elbow to his wrist. They had curious openings along the middle and straps along the inside of each arm. When he fisted his hands and turned them so that she could see the back of his arms, she paled. Those braces were loaded with black arrows. Short and small but lethal, and each hand had a trigger mechanism in the palm.
“Enough,” rat man said shortly. “Why do you ask? Do you need a dragon mercenary?”
“We’re in the market.”
“Going to cost you.”
“We can pay,” Thanar said.
“I’ll need more than your assurances.”
Sebastian threw a gold purse at the man’s feet. A few coins spilled out, gleaming delightfully in the mud. Ciardis heard anxious groans from the old men hovering over the cast iron barrels. But not one of them moved toward the coins. They wouldn’t dare.
The thin man drew a finger across his mouth in thought.
“That was a good start,” he said, “but I need more exotic payment, shall we say. I can get gold from anywhere. But mages of your caliber, well...that only comes along once in a blue moon.”
This time Sebastian spoke. “We don’t trade services with your kind.”
“My kind?” said the thin man with harsh laughter. “My kind purveys goods from across the high seas. Often going places your whey-faced merchants can’t or won’t go.”
Thanar stepped forward. “Sucher have always been such a touchy lot. Especially during the Initiate Wars.”
“We had a damn right to be,” the thin man said, spitting to the side. “We got all the goods those blasted mages wanted. The Sucher guild did more for them during the war than any other. What did we get in the end? Shafted.”
“And a lot of gold,” Thanar said dryly.
The man grimaced. “We were promised a whole city. Instead we got a shithole on the edge of the western empire. Damn Algardis emperors went back on their word.”
“I very much doubt that,” said Sebastian.
“What do you know, boy? You weren’t there,” the rat man hissed.
Sebastian blinked, but he apparently decided that he didn’t want to debate historical accuracies at the moment.
“The gold now,” Sebastian said, “and another item of your choice once the contact is made.”
“Which item?” the rat man said, rubbing his chin.
“Feathers,” Thanar said shortly. “My feathers.”
The rat man’s eyes widened in glee that he didn’t try to hide. She realized he wasn’t as oblivious as he seemed. He clearly knew what sort of kith Thanar was.
“And in exchange?”
Ciardis smiled in anticipation, “Everything you know about the under-dragon hired by the princess heir.”
“That sort of information ain’t cheap,” complained the rat man.
“Neither are my feathers.”
The rat man cursed and spit over his shoulder. Ciardis guessed that was his way of agreeing and displaying his displeasure at the same time.
Ciardis looked over at Thanar in confusion. His wings were as smooth as silken leather. Not a feather in sight. More directly she said to Thanar, “What feathers? And what’s so special about them?”
“You don’t want to know,” Thanar said.
“No, really, I do.” Thanar clammed up.
She turned to Sebastian. He gave a brief shrug. “Later.”
Irritated, she turned back to the rat man. “So I take it you agree. We’ll have that contact now.”
He shrugged, picked up the gold, and pointed a finger at the mercenary with a bow and arrow set grafted to each arm. “You’ll want to talk to Shiv—he’s our resident dragon-hunter.”
Ciardis crossed her arms. “And I suppose that’s included in the price?”
“Of course, my lady,” the man said greasily. “Wouldn’t consider otherwise.”
They turned to Shiv but stopped when the rat man continued, “I’ll be taking that daemoni’s payment before you get your information, though. You understand, right?”
“You’ll get it after,” said Sebastian curtly. “And only if we deem the information worth our time.”
“Now that’s not fair,” the rat man whined.
“What’s not fair is that I’m giving you two of my feathers at all. They’re worth a lot more on the open market,” said Thanar. “So shut your mouth or I’ll curse them, as well.”
The man paled but he quickly stopped talking. From the look on his face, the threat to curse the feathers wasn’t to be taken lightly. It made Ciardis want to see them that much more.
They turned to Shiv and the men surrounding them melted into the night. Only the old men surrounding the fire canisters and the thin man remained.
Shiv came forward from the darkness, the scruff of a new growth beard darkening his cheeks and chin while his bald head gleamed in firelight. He grunted at them, “What kind of under-dragon you need? Alive or dead?”
Thanar shook his head impatiently. “We don’t want one. Just want to know who hired you to find one.”
“Don’t know the details on the buyer,” said Shiv with a shrug. “Even Haden over there doesn’t know. Do know about the under-dragon, though. It was a vile creature, like all of them. Didn’t talk...at all. Even the trainer barely got two words out of it.”
They exchanged glances. Ciardis said, “Well, it died yesterday and we need to know what the original buyer was doing with it.”
Shiv stroked his beard. “Yesterday?”
The thin man intervened, “We can’t help you with that.”
“Can you at least confirm who the first buyer was?” said Sebastian.
Shiv and the mercenary wrangler exchanged hard glances. The thin man said, “You be understanding it’s a sensitive topic...can’t be getting out that we rat on our clients. Besides, don’t know nothing about the buyer. Do know the handler we gave it to, though.”
“Yes, of course,” said Thanar. “We have no interest in tattling on you. The handler—what more do you know of them?”
“Short. Young. Dark as they come,” said Shiv.
A shiver went down Ciardis’s back.
“Can you describe him more?” said Sebastian with impatience.
“Nah,” said Shiv. “Kept the hood up the whole time. But was male. That I know. And always twitching. Slow with the words, too.”
“Great,” muttered Thanar. “That narrows it down.”
Shiv gave him a sharp look. “Was good and fast with the payment for assignments, too. Quick with the first. Hadn’t heard back about the second yet.”
“Assignments?” echoed Sebastian sharply, “Tell us about them.”
“Sent him to meet the under-dragon in the dark forest up north.”
“Ameles?” murmured Thanar.
“Yeah, that was it,” said Shiv, “Slim pickings there. No rich holdings or an easy road. No idea why’d you go up there, but that’s where the original buyer wanted them sent.”
Sebastian and Thanar exchanged glances. They were all thinking the same thing. They’d found the princess heir’s trail.
“And the second time?” asked Ciardis.
“Different buyer. They wanted the under-dragon to attack some city manor. No survivors,” said Shiv gruffly.
Ciardis sucked in a sharp breath. “Who hired the under-dragon this time?”
“New people. Don’t know who they were. I just make sure the under-dragon and the handler know their orders.”
Sebastian turned to the thin man.
“Don’t ask me. The bastards are as shifty as eels. Notes sent by a different messenger each time. Burns to a crisp within a few seconds of reading it.”
Frustrated, Sebastian said, “You must have some way of contacting them to let them know you’ll take the job.”
The thin man shrugged in the cold wind. “I put out a lantern saying ‘message r
eceived,’ and the next morning a sack of gold was on my windowsill. That was that.”
Thanar cursed a blue streak.
“Well,” said the thin man, “that’s all we know. Now payment, if you please.”
He held out his hand.
Thanar glared at him. Ciardis was half afraid he’d kill the man on the spot.
Instead he called in his power to form dark mist in the palm of his hand. As the mist solidified two black ebony feathers appeared in their place. They were straight and sharp like black daggers.
Ciardis watched them in awe.
The thin man grinned in appreciation, pulled out a dirt-caked handkerchief from his pocket, and carefully picked up the two feathers from Thanar’s hand. They were sharp enough to cut his palm. Ciardis could see that from where she stood.
With no more information forthcoming Ciardis, Sebastian and Thanar turned to leave.
As they walked up the docks Shiv called out, “One more thing.”
They turned slightly to hear him out. As he faded into the darkness with his master, he said, “The boy. The handler, that is. He had a stutter. A big one.”
As darkness loomed above them, the old men surrounding them cackled in the moonlight and Ciardis shivered in understanding.
Chapter 13
“Not a word until we get out of here,” Sebastian commanded softly.
“Let’s go somewhere private. We need to talk,” agreed Thanar.
Ciardis said, “No, we need to get back to the mansion. If what he said is true, Thomas is a threat. A threat that is sleeping in our home with my mother and my brother at this very moment.”
“And Vana,” responded Sebastian, reminding her of the member of their group most able to combat a threat.
“Two Weathervanes and a trigger-happy assassin, then,” snapped Ciardis.
“Lest you forget, Ciardis,” said Thanar, “your mother and brother are more than capable of taking care of themselves.”
Ciardis looked them both in the eye firmly. “Thanar, we have no idea what Thomas is capable of. And we shouldn’t assume that he can be neutralized without casualties.”
“It was fairly easily before,” he shot back.
“And if he was playing us?” she said, “To get into our good graces and close enough to lure the under-dragon into our home?”
“I agree that we don’t know what threat he poses. But for once let’s think our actions through. Then move in on the target,” said Sebastian.
She folded her arms crossly. Impatient to be on the move. But she could see that it was the practical move to plan this through.
Reluctantly she said, “If he hasn’t attacked us personally yet, then he might be waiting on something.
“Or someone,” Thanar said.
“Either way, against all of us he doesn’t stand a chance,” said Sebastian.
She nodded. Then shouting interrupted their conversation.
Looking up they saw it came from the shipyard offices. It was a rickety wooden building set up high on stilts over the sea. Built to withstand ten-foot waves, the building look like a multi-legged stork from down on the pier.
Shading their eyes with their hands, they saw a man standing on the veranda outside the building. He appeared to be rapidly backing away from a woman in a skin-tight leather suit with dark brunette hair pulled into a knot at the base of her head. A thin man next to him was scrambling to get away, as well. He managed to rush past the fat gentleman as he sprinted ahead, but at the last second the fat gentleman wrapped a hand tightly around the fleeing man’s suspenders.
“What in the world?” said Ciardis.
“Whatever it is, it has nothing to do with us,” said Thanar.
And yet she couldn’t take her eyes off the brunette woman high above.
As she stalked forward the two men kept moving back. Finally they hit a corner and the fat man wedged himself against the bannister with both hands held up in front of him as if to push her back. The other man began to look around frantically for a way out or perhaps a weapon. The brunette’s face was obstructed from view because her body stood at an angle. When she turned to face the fat man wedged into a corner, her features became clear. It was Vana.
“I’d say it just became our problem,” said Ciardis.
She heard Sebastian cursing beside her, “What does she think she’s doing?”
The fat man was still waving his hands about energetically. Whatever he was saying must not have satisfied Vana, because she heaved him up by the front of his jacket and tossed him over the shipyard ledge. They all watched, astonished, as he flailed and dropped screaming into the ocean below. And then Vana turned to face the thin man. He dispelled all pretenses of mounting a defense and dropped to his knees as he frantically pointed down at the pier. Straight at the three of them waiting below.
Vana turned a cautious head to where he was telling to her look and she smiled when she saw their little group down below. Stepping away from the kneeling men, she turned and ran down the long ramp to the shipyard pier as they watched the thin man sit back on his heels and sob, presumably in relief.
When Vana arrived, she said tersely to Ciardis, “Something arrived for you today.”
The three looked at each other as they said, “What?”
“Something important.”
“You came all the way down to the docks to look for us because a package arrived for me?” said Ciardis.
Vana leveled a glare at her and Ciardis nervously remembered that the woman was a walking knife collection.
“A package from an imperial messenger with the seal of the late princess heir on it,” said Vana slowly. As if they were the idiots for not being able to read her mind.
“Oh,” said Ciardis. “Yes, well, that could be important.”
“But something else has taken precedence,” said Sebastian.
Vana raised a questioning eyebrow.
Ciardis startled when Thanar raised his hand and snapped his fingers sharply at the loitering stable boy. With a hand gesture he motioned for the boy to bring their saddled stallion.
“Nervous?” said Vana with a sharp eye to Ciardis’s reactions.
Ciardis twitched but didn’t say anything.
“This time she has a right to be,” Thanar said, “We spoke with a mercenary handler. Found out that the boy, Thomas, is more than he seems—much more. He might have been behind the attacks.”
“Of course he was,” said Vana mildly. “But I take it from your tone he was involved in more than just the Inga incident?”
“Yes,” said Ciardis with a sigh. “We think he was responsible for the under-dragon, as well.”
Darkness flashed through Vana’s eyes. “And you’re still here because?”
Ciardis placed impatient hands on her waist. “Because these two idiots wanted to discuss how we would go about restraining and capturing him.”
Vana looked at Sebastian and Thanar in disgust, “Restraining? We kill him—simple as that.”
“Well,” Ciardis said, “I, too, was hoping we could at least try to capture him.”
“We could learn vital information from him, not the least of which is what he was doing with the princess heir and an under-dragon in the Ameles Forest,” said Sebastian.
“Not if he’s been fooling us this whole time,” Vana said flatly. “I was willing to give him the benefit of the doubt before—an innocent boy who just stumbled into his talents as a mind mage. Now I know what he is: a cold-blooded assassin.”
She smiled a cold smile. “And the only assassin I like is me.”
Vana turned, whistled, and her roan mare galloped up to where she stood.
“Get back to the manor as soon as you can,” she said as she swung up to the saddle.
As she raced off, leaving them in the dust, they had no choice. Thanar took to the skies while Ciardis and Sebastian mounted up on the stallion.
It took them less than fifteen minutes to get back across town. When they arrived at the mansio
n they were met with the pleasant gazes of servants who offered to take their cloaks and prepare a light supper in the atrium, since the library had been completely demolished the night before. They all brusquely declined as they hurried inside and up the stairs to the residential suites. If Thomas was anywhere in the mansion it would be near the remaining members of the group.
Ciardis ran ahead and practically threw open the doors of the sitting room adjacent to her mother’s suite. Lillian whirled with a bow and arrow in her hand, she took in her out of breath daughter, the dark prince beside her, and the determined prince heir with sword drawn.
Looking around frantically, Ciardis didn’t see anyone else. Just all of their weapons lined up on a table.
“Mother, what’s going on? Where is he?”
Lillian frowned and lowered the weapon, “I was cleaning the weapons. And where is who?”
“Thomas,” said Sebastian as he came forward. Thanar proceeded to prowl about the room. “We believe he’s the threat. The one who was controlling the under-dragon’s actions.”
“That boy controlling the under-dragon?” said Lillian. “Preposterous. No human can control a dragon.”
“This one was his handler, giving him orders and gold in exchange for obedience,” said Thanar in irritation.
Lillian stood. “But why? Do you think he’s a member of the Shadow Council?”
“We have to find out,” Sebastian grimly.
“Now where is he, Mother?” Ciardis said as she quickly grabbed her glaive from the table.
At last Lillian replied, worry lines lacing her forehead, “He went to the eternity pool in the gardens with your brother. Caemon thought he could do with some fresh air.” Unfortunately Lillian couldn’t venture out to the grounds, as she was bound to the house by the shackle on her ankle.
Cursing Ciardis turned to rush down the stairs. She noted as she raced down the steps, the two males flying past her, that Vana wasn’t even in the manor. Which meant she had gone straight to the gardens.
“How did Vana know where to go?” she said.
“I don’t know,” said Sebastian grimly.
They exited out of the courtyard and Ciardis growled in frustration at the pretty topiary in front of her. It was deliberately constructed as a beautiful and intricate maze. Too intricate to get through as quickly as she needed. But Thanar didn’t hesitate; he was taking the more direct route. Grabbing her up in a hurry, he ran straight toward the iron metalwork that marked the garden entrance. Sebastian, too, was in no mood for a maze. He called upon his land powers and desolated the topiary that stood in his way for a straight run to the eternity pool. Jumping into the sky with Ciardis in his arms, Thanar crossed the distance in seconds.