Page 29 of The Spy

“Master Ama,” Leslie and Will replied, Will slurring through a mouthful of food.

“How are you this morning?”Leslie asked after giving Will a dark look.“What would you like for breakfast?”

“Whatever you’re making will be delicious, I’m sure,” Ama replied, settling onto the kitchen stool next to Will.“Anything I should know about for today?”

“Nothing unusual,” Leslie replied, plating eggs for him as she spoke.“I’m expecting the normal courier from the palace with today’s work for Master Karl any minute, and the shipment of baking equipment is supposed to arrive today at some point too.As soon as Master Karl returns from the bakery, I’m sure there will be far too much work for him again.”

“He must really love baking,” Will said.He was using his toast to push more eggs onto his fork, ignoring the knife at his place setting.

Shan laughed as he walked into the room.He didn’t handle breakfast for the household.He and Leslie worked lunch together, and then he took over the kitchen for dinner while she rested.Lyric would still be asleep for at least another couple hours, but that didn’t stop Shan from coming down most mornings to have breakfast with everyone else.

“He and I are Musens.You have to have cooking coursing through your veins to be a Musen, you know.Char wouldn’t have been allowed to adopt us into the family if we didn’t.From what I understand, at least.From living with Char for so long, I can tell you Karl’s pretty normal in comparison to the rest of the Musen clan.”

Ama would have read some negative subtext about Shan talking about himself, if he didn’t know Shan was just as nuts about cooking and quite happy with running Karl’s kitchen.Instead he tucked into the plate of food Leslie delivered.

“I’m just glad someone’s using that old bakery where Master Karl goes every morning,” Leslie said as she returned to the stove to start plating Shan’s portion.“Since the old lady who owned it died six months back, the place has been sitting empty.Kind of sad, really.”

“Empty?”Ama said, slowly lowering his fork to place it on the table, worry starting to churn in his gut.“What do you mean, empty?”

“Yeah, who’s the old lady we got hired to rough up then?”Will added, looking confused.

Hired by someone Braxton hadn’t been able to track down, Ama added, mentally connecting some dots as panic began to set in.Ama tried to keep himself calm by telling himself Karl had been going to that bakery every morning for the last week by himself with no issues.There was no reason to believe today would be any different.

But, if Ama were trying to lay a trap designed to capture Karl, putting an old lady in trouble and a failing bakery in Karl’s path was exactly what Ama would have done.Since a week had gone by, Ama hoped the enemy were still setting up their plot; there could still be time to save Karl.Or, they were waiting for another chance to grab both Karl and Ama at the same time.They knew Ama had joined Karl at the bakery once, when they were still laying the foundation of their trap, so maybe they were waiting for Ama to appear again?

“We have to go get him!”Shan gasped, standing so quickly his stool went tumbling back.“We should gather the guards and storm the building!”

“I’ll grab everyone!”Will added, sending his own stool flying as he headed for the door.

Ama reached out and grabbed Will by the shoulder, holding his other hand up to stop Shan.

“Wait.Wait,” Ama said slowly as his thoughts solidified.“This is definitely a trap, most likely laid by Yaroi to punish us all.Lyric is here, and if Karl escapes he’ll run here, so we have to defend this as our base.Shan, I need you and Lyric stationed here with most of the guards.I’ll take some of the hidden guards with me, so this place will still look fully defended.Will, I need you to get to the palace and alert Prince Braxton and get us some more backup.”

Ama looked around the room, catching everyone’s eyes.“Let’s go.”

Everyone scattered, Ama checking all his weapons were in place, desperately hoping he would make it in time.

Chapter Eighteen

“IS THAT ALLmixed?”Mama Poma asked, glancing over Karl’s shoulder at the bowl where he had just finished incorporating the dry ingredients into the wet.She took the spatula out of Karl’s hand and gave the bowl a stir, nodding when she didn’t see any clumps of flour.“Good.I’ll go oil the loaf pan.You mix those apple chunks in.We’ll get this in the oven, and then you can start on the bread while it bakes.Eating it will be a good reward for all our efforts this last week.”She smirked at him, then turned away to dig through the cabinet with all the bakeware.

Karl left her to it, bringing the bowl over to the cutting board where she had left the apples in even-sized, small chunks.Her knife skills were remarkable.Karl picked up a handful of apples and moved to toss them into the bowl, when his magic suddenly pinged.

Karl didn’t need to focus on his magic while working.It was always there, passively in the background where he could forget about it, though he did use it to be a better baker on occasion.Red magic might be death magic, but that didn’t mean he only had to use it to hurt or kill.He was particularly good at using it to keep yeast healthy and ready to bloom.However, having red magic wasn’t something he was ready to advertise.Outside of missions for Braxton, Karl generally pretended he didn’t have magic at all.That didn’t mean the magic forgot about him though.

Karl let his magic play out as it wanted, turning his body so he was between the red glow and where Mama Poma stood digging through the cabinet, muttering angrily to herself.His magic settled onto the apples, digging through their components.Apple, some of the magic used in the drying process, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger.For a moment, his magic fluttered around the hint of the wine used to rehydrate the apples, wanting to decay the alcohol, but then something else caught its attention.Astringent, like the cleansing solution healers liked to use, and bitter like arugula.Definitely not something that should be mixed in with apples.

Karl glanced over his shoulder at Mama Poma, who had a stack of baking trays and cake pans on the floor next to her as she dug for the loaf pan.She wasn’t looking in his direction.Karl tightened his grip on his magic, focusing it from simple pinging to directed discovery.After a moment, Karl was certain.A sleeping potion had been poured over the apples, one that would resist the heat of the oven.One bite of the bread when Mama Poma served it, and he would sleep until someone administered the counterspell.

Decaying the potion would be simple for him, but Karl hesitated, glancing over his shoulder again.The pile of sheet trays had grown, but no bread tin had apparently been located.Mama Poma swore softly as she dug some more.

Where had she gotten the apples?Were they lost in the pantry like she claimed, or was this instead another ploy by a different set of thugs to force her into selling the bakery?All they had to do was wait for her to taste a baked good made from the apples, and they could kidnap her easily.

Karl opened his mouth to warn her, but she swore again and then let out an angry, animalistic snort, and he snapped his mouth shut.That hadn’t sounded human.In all the time Karl had been around her, he’d never caught her scenting the air or tilting her head to hear better, or any other traits that indicated half of her was some sort of animal.But then, a spy would be trained not to give something so obvious away, particularly a Yarokian spy.

The potion might be aimed at kidnapping him instead.Karl frowned in thought, then blasted the apples.The potion immediately decayed down to nothing, and so did the alcohol.The apples had, luckily, already been dried and were therefore much more resistant to decay.They lost some of the plumpness from rehydration and the edges turned brown, but the potion was destroyed before the apples were harmed too much.Karl stopped his magic and finished scooping the apples into the batter, carefully mixing them all together.

“Damned thing had fallen behind the shelf,” Mama Poma snarled out, thrusting the loaf pan at him.“Oil that, pour the batter in, and dust the top with some sugar, then shove it in the oven.I’ll clean up the mess I just made.”She returned to the cabinet, which looked empty inside since all the bakeware was scattered on the floor around it.

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