Night Study (26 page)

“We let the kids name him,” he explained.

Better than Beach Bunny. Leif unhitched the wagon while keeping contact with the horse so it wouldn’t spook again. Then he removed the harness. It was slow and tedious work, but eventually, he freed Doggie. Leif led the horse to a nearby tree, then covered Doggie with his cloak to keep him warm until they could walk him to cool off. He returned to help the man free his children.

They lifted the broken wooden bed and four figures scrambled out as they righted the wagon.

Leif turned. “Is everyone all right? I’ve bandages and...” The kids were much taller than he’d expected, and the father pointed a loaded crossbow at Leif’s chest. Unease swirled into alarm.

Stupid.

“And?” the armed man prompted.

“And I just aided in my own ambush. Didn’t I?” Idiotic.

“You’re quick. It took that Hale fellow ages to understand.”

They have Hale? Why didn’t Irys tell me?
He swallowed his fear and concentrated on the five assembled before him. No emotions emanated except from the “father.” The others must be wearing null shields. “Why go to all this trouble? You outnumber me.”

“Where’s the fun in that? Besides, if you caught a whiff of an ambush, you’d have been long gone.”

If it’s fun you want...let’s see how fun it is when your clothes are on fire.
Leif concentrated.

“Oh, no, you don’t. Frent.”

A puff sounded right before a prick of pain burned on Leif’s neck. He yanked the dart from his skin, but knew it was too late. “Rusalka, go home!”

She galloped by as the woods spun around him. Sinking to his knees, his last thought before the darkness rushed in was of Mara. Their reunion would have to wait. He hoped.

19

YELENA

F
ive steps. Turn. Five more steps. Turn. I paced along the twenty-seven iron bars of my cell. Even though I had used all my skills as the Liaison and convinced the Sitian Council I hadn’t been involved in espionage, treason or conspiring with the enemy, they still required my brother’s testimony in order to release us.

Five days. We’d been locked in here for one, two, three, four, five and turn, days. Leif had better hurry.

“You’re going to wear a hole in the soles of your boots,” Ari said.

I glared at him. He’d taken a philosophical view of the entire endeavor, using the time to rest. He’d claimed we’d need our energy for our eventual escape, which we’d already planned in detail so we could bolt at a moment’s notice. Of course it helped his calm attitude that Irys had smuggled in a couple of swords for him and Janco, just in case The Mosquito tried to take advantage of my incarceration.

“Yeah, better to do something constructive with your time,” Janco said.

Janco exercised by grasping the highest crossbar with both hands and pulling his body up off the floor. He’d taken his shirt off, exposing long, lean muscles rippling with the effort. Scars crisscrossing his back, arms and chest resembled a street map of a dense city. And he’d named each scar in remembrance of where and when he’d sustained the injury. The healed gash on his stomach and the matching mark on his back, he’d named “Yelena,” for the time he’d been run through with a sword and almost died. Janco swore I’d healed him.

“Pacing is also a form of burning off excess energy,” I said to Janco.

“I’m not burning. I’m keeping in shape. While Ari’s muscles turn to fat, mine will remain strong and ready for action.”

Ari shot to his feet. “I’ll show you ready for action.” He reached through the bars and clamped his huge hands around Janco’s narrow waist. With one yank, Ari pulled Janco off the bars and held him suspended over the floor.

Janco sputtered and tried to break his partner’s hold.
Tried
being the key word. Without warning, Ari released him. Janco landed with an
oomph
. He recovered, but before he could squawk in protest, a clang echoed.

We turned to the main entrance of the jail. Irys strode in with two guards on her heels. One glance at her pale face and her fingers fretting at her sleeves, and I braced for bad news.

“Unlock the doors, now,” Irys ordered the guards.

They moved to obey, starting with Janco’s.

Perhaps
bad
was an understatement. I gripped the bars. “What happened?”

“Rusalka showed up at the Citadel without Leif,” she said.

I pressed my forehead against the cool metal. Concentrating on not panicking, I drew in a few steadying breaths. “My father? Is he missing, too?”

“No. He remained behind to finish his investigation.”

One good thing. I focused on the positive. “What’s being done to find Leif?”

“As soon as I heard, I gathered Kiki and your other horses, along with Rusalka. They’re waiting for you. Rusalka’ll guide you back to where she...lost Leif. Janco, you will be able to track him, right?” The desperate hope in her voice almost cracked my composure.

“How long ago did Rusalka arrive?” Janco asked her.

“This morning. About three hours ago.”

“Then we need to hurry.” Janco grabbed his hidden sword from under the metal cot.

We joined Irys in the corridor. If the guards were surprised by the sudden appearance of the weapons, they didn’t show it.

“Do you think the Cartel has him?” I asked her.

“I suspect they’re behind it, but I’ve no proof.”

Sprinting after Irys, we exited the building. Bain Bloodgood argued with a handful of Councilors at the base of the steps. A few shouted at us to stop, but we ignored them and mounted our horses.

“Let’s go,” I said.

Rusalka turned. We followed. The loud clatter of hooves over cobblestones vibrated in my ears. I let the sound drown out the voice in my head. Being very familiar with that voice, I knew it would list all the horrors that might have befallen my brother, remark on the slim chance of successfully finding him alive and comment on every other terrible scenario. That voice was rather creative when stressed and worried.

After a day and a half of hard riding, we reached the location of Leif’s disappearance. A few hours of daylight remained.

Janco dismounted and examined the ground. Ari and I allowed him to do his tracking mojo while we walked the horses. They had set the brutal pace. Patches of sweat stained their coats. Their nostrils flared as they caught their breaths. Once their breathing smoothed, we watered and fed them. By this time, Janco had finished his investigation. He stood in the middle of a number of scuff marks on the right side of the road, scowling.

“What did you discover?” Ari asked him.

“It wasn’t a typical ambush.” Janco pointed to clumps of grass and dirt between two trees. “Somebody went to considerable trouble to stage an accident. They overturned a wagon and made it appear as if it was stuck.” He strode closer and crouched down. “And here’s evidence of a freaked-out horse.” Janco straightened. “They knew their mark.”

“Janco,” Ari warned.

“I’m trying to be dispassionate. Leif’s my friend, too.”

I concentrated on the information and ignored my emotions, which threatened to let that voice of doom speak. “Why do you think it was set specifically for Leif?”

“’Cause of the elaborate setup. Being a Sandseed horse, Rusalka would have alerted him of people hiding in the woods.”

“Unless they were waiting downwind,” Ari added.

“Not this time of year. The prevailing wind direction is from the west.”

Ari and I exchanged a glance. Impressive.

Janco huffed. “Ya know, it’s not all...tracker mojo. There’s a lot that goes into it. And there’s some good news.”

My heart jumped. “You know where he is?”

“I wish. They headed west, but the road’s surface is too hard packed and well traveled to distinguish their tracks from all the others.”

“The
good
news,” Ari prompted.

“There’s no blood.”

“That makes sense if he was taken by the Cartel. They wouldn’t want to harm him until he refused to join them.” And my stubborn brother would probably never agree to work for them. Which meant we had a limited amount of time to find and rescue him before The Mosquito bit.

“Another thing about the setup is they knew Leif would be on this road at a particular time,” Janco said. “Who else knew his location, other than Master Irys?”

“Bain and the Councilors, who might have informed their aides,” I said. Plus all the people who bribed the aides for intel. In other words, too many.

“Janco said they continued west. We didn’t pass them on the road, or else Rusalka would have smelled Leif. Is there another road that branches off this one?” Ari asked.

I considered. “There’s a shortcut about a day west of here that leads to the main southern road. That route follows the western edge of the Avibian Plains, but they could have veered off into Stormdance or Greenblade lands. And they have a three-day head start.” Frustration welled.

“That’s also the way to the Jewelrose lands,” Ari said.

“
If
Bruns Jewelrose is dumb enough to amass his magician army in his own backyard,” Janco added. “I doubt he’s that stupid.”

“What’s our next move?” Ari asked.

Guessing would get us nowhere; we needed reliable information. I stifled a groan. My earlier mistake—the one that had led to us sitting in a cell wasting time for five days—returned for another kick of recriminations. “Fisk.”

“But if he knows where Leif and the others are, why doesn’t he tell the Council?” Ari asked.

“For the same reason we don’t trust the Council,” Janco said.

“And the reason is?”

“They’re ineffective idiots!”

“He probably doesn’t have any proof,” I said. “These are wealthy businesspeople who have a great deal of influence and power. Fisk has probably cobbled together bits of information from his sources and determined what’s going on.” At least I fervently hoped so. “We need to talk to him. Let’s go.” I stepped toward Kiki, who grazed nearby.

Ari grabbed my shoulder, halting me. “No.”

“But time—”

“We haven’t slept in over a day.”

“We’ve been resting for five days.”

“A few hours is all we need.”

“Leif—”

“Leif’s clever. He’ll play along, knowing we’ll come rescue him. But you won’t be able to help your brother if you’re exhausted.”

I peered at him. He’d gone from using
we
to
you
, meaning
me
. “Let me guess. Valek—”

“Doesn’t have to order us to protect you. You are family. That goes beyond orders.”

* * *

When we reached the Citadel two days later, we split up, just in case the guards at the gate had been ordered to look for groups of three. Janco circled around to the southern gate with Rusalka, while Ari and I headed for the eastern entrance. We merged with the early-morning traffic and sidled behind a large caravan of wagons. The guards didn’t even glance at us as we passed through.

While the benefit of having busy streets helped us enter unnoticed, the crowded roads slowed our pace. It’d been six days since Leif had been taken, and the desire to scream at all these obstructions clawed at my throat. Then the need to ensure no one followed us to Fisk’s headquarters delayed us further as we snaked through the streets.

Fisk’s building resided in one of the outer factory loops southwest of the market. By the time we rendezvoused with Janco near the narrow alley that led to the door, all of my pent-up frustration and worry pressed on my skin from the inside. If Fisk couldn’t help, I’d explode. His Helper’s Guild members would be cleaning Yelena bits off their ceiling, walls and floor for days.

“Any trouble?” Ari asked his partner.

“None.” Janco scrunched up his nose.

“Then what’s wrong?” I asked.

“Yet another stinkin’ alley. The smell is bad enough, but the place is also reeking with magic. I thought Fisk was a regular kid.”

“He is.” Although I wouldn’t call a seventeen-year-old a kid. “He probably hired a magician to hide the guild’s entrance with an illusion.”

“Why?” Ari asked.

“Problems with the criminal element. Their cheap labor force, also known as the homeless children and the desperate, have been too busy working and earning money by being a part of Fisk’s guild, so the crime bosses have been making it difficult for the helpers. Leif offered to help, but Fisk insisted he’d handle it on his own. The young man’s a bit stubborn.”

“Stub...born?” Janco sounded out each syllable as if saying the word for the first time. “Gee, I don’t know anyone who is stub...born.” He stared at me.

“Just for that, you get to go into the stinkin’ alley first,” I said.

“Yay for me.” He rubbed his right ear. “What about the horses?”

“Ari, can you stay with them until we find the door?” I asked.

“What if it’s a trap?”

“I’ll scream really loud and you run and get backup,” Janco said.

“It’s not a trap. It’s Fisk.” I dismounted.

“Yeah, well, Fisk is a businessman, and I’m sure he has other clients who will pay—”

“No. Not Fisk.” I kept my tone even despite my anger. “Before you remind me of my...inability to wield magic and how I have to be paranoid and trust no one, it’s
Fisk
. Got it?”

“Yes, sir.” The big man set his jaw.

“While I’ll agree that Fisk wouldn’t ever betray or harm you for money, Yelena—” Janco swung down from The Madam’s saddle “—I also think Ari has a point, even though he didn’t communicate it well. Everyone is vulnerable. If I was a ne’er-do-well, I’d find a person’s weakness and exploit it in my favor. Like when Owen found your weakness by kidnapping Leif and forcing you to steal the Ice Moon. Fisk is no exception.”

“You’re right.” Before Janco could gloat, I added, “Ari didn’t express it well. My apologies, Ari.”

“Just be extra careful,” he said. “Janco, if you sense any magic inside Fisk’s headquarters—”

“We’ll make a super-quick exit.” He handed The Madam’s and Rusalka’s reins to Ari.

Janco entered the alley and I stayed a step behind him. The rank smell of urine and rotted garbage stung the inside of my nostrils, causing nausea to roll in my stomach. Our boots crunched on broken glass. Fist-sized spiders skittered behind heaps of trash. All, I hoped, part of the magical illusion. I kept my hand close to my switchblade just in case.