Page 47 of Truth's Blade

“It looks as if he’s set it up to give him a warning every time someone comes down the road. Kandra Gus must set it off each time.” Melodie put her hands on the fence, looking back at the web, and Theo boosted her over it.

She sent him a quick look he found difficult to read, and then he vaulted over the fence to join her on the road.

“Gus said it takes Marchant about half an hour to get to the meeting place after he rings the bell, but either it takes longer than that, because instead of coming when he hears the bell, he leaves as soon as Gus activates the warning web, or it doesn’t take Marchant long to get there, but he doesn’t show himself immediately, and lies in wait to make sure Gus hasn’t double-crossed him.” Theo stared at the road, seeing nothing, although he did notice both poles holding the magical web were new. That was something to look out for. Marchant maintained what was useful to him, but left everything else. The new poles were stark against the rotting wood of the others.

“He’s cautious,” Melodie said. “Almost paranoid.”

“This is a man who turned me into a goat rather than juggle me and the children.” Theo shook his head. “Cautious doesn’t begin to describe it.”

“He’s afraid.” Melodie crouched down, although she didn’t get any closer to the web, and looked from one side of the road to the other. “He eliminates all risk to himself, as much as possible. He’s a coward.”

That rang true. The problem was, cowards were usually the most dangerous adversaries, in Theo’s experience.

“What are you looking for?” Theo couldn’t see anything at all, and he felt on edge. Every rustle of the bushes that lined the road, every bird call, suddenly seemed full of menace.

“I’m trying to see how he’s alerted when the web is broken.” She moved to the middle of the road and looked over her shoulder at him, then crouched down again, lay on her back, head toward the invisible web, and wriggled toward it.

Her hair caught under her, and she stopped, grabbed it in a hand, twisted it and lay it over her shoulder, then carefully continued moving back.

He said nothing, leaving her to concentrate, but he drew his sword. He could do nothing to help her, but he could make sure she was safe.

After a few minutes, she wiggled back, and her shirt road up on her stomach, showing him a smooth, bared midriff.

He slid his sword back in its scabbard and extended his hand. She reached up to him so he could lift her back to her feet. “What did you find?”

She made a sound of exasperation as she tucked her shirt back in. “I didn’t find anything. Maybe there’s a second item linked to this trap that he keeps close. It could react in some way when the web is touched. I can’t see anything that would fly or travel to warn him.”

“He has a lot of tricks,” Theo said. “The rope to turn me into a goat. The net he gave to Gus. This web. The spell in the forest.”

“If what Kandra Gus says is true, he collects things.” She stopped suddenly. “Like me.”

“What have you collected?” Theo frowned.

“Lots of things, through the years. If they’re dangerous, I burn them. And the benign magical items I find, I put in the hands of people I think can best use them. But there are a few I’ve kept. A protection bead that I worked into this ring.”

She held it up. “It’s how I was able to break free from the confusion trap in the forest yesterday, at least enough to go looking for it.”

Theo took her hand, studied the ring. It was made of rose gold and the design was a simple flower, with rose gold petals and a smooth, pink quartz bead in the middle. It looked inexpensive, but if this ring could warn its wearer of danger, he knew it was worth a fortune.

“I’m glad you had it,” he said. He and Melodie would most likely also be prisoners without it.

“I have a silver brooch, too. But the magic in that is weak, and I can’t see what it does. It may be the magic is so depleted, it isn’t possible to tell, so I’ve kept it to be cautious. And I have a book of health remedies. I only found it last month, and I haven’t found the right person to give it to,” she said. Then she lifted a shoulder. “I also have a handkerchief that has protective magic woven into it, but it’s for a very specific person, so it is useless to anyone else. It reminds me of someone who saved me long ago, so I’ve kept it for sentimental reasons.”

“So this man can see spell work like you, do you think?” Theo said. “And has chosen to make it his livelihood?”

“If he’d stuck to items, that would be one thing, although it seems he has dealt in very dark work. But he’s taken people.” Melodie drew in a breath. “People like himself. Like me.” She shook her head. “My father’s greatest fear was that someone would discover my ability and take me. People come to Grimwalt if they think their child has any magical talent because they think they’ll be safer here, but this manlivesin Grimwalt.”

“And he was trawling for victims in Kassia and Cervantes.” Theo wondered if he’d already cleared out the victims he could find around where he lived.

It was not a good thought.

“Do you think he took the children because they’re magical, or because they had some magical items with them?” She frowned.

“He said to me . . .” Theo realized he had not told her exactly what had happened. Most of it had come back to him in short flashes, but since this morning, he thought he remembered everything. “He said I shone with talent, just like the children. He also appeared out of nowhere, so we need to understand he may well have a cloak of invisibility. And his hand . . .” He remembered the hand flung out at him, and couldn’t remember whether Marchant held anything in it. But as he’d swung his sword, that hand seemed to flick something at him and all the air had been pulled from his lungs.

“What about his hand?” Melodie’s own hand was still resting lightly in his from his inspection of her ring, and she turned it, grasping his hand to comfort him.

“He gestured to me and it felt like ice against my skin. Suddenly, I couldn’t breathe.”

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