Page 33 of The Study of Fire
“Yes. But for the life of me, I can’t remember his name.” Inrick slapped his forehead. “Sorry.”
“Describe him.”
“He wore a merchant uniform. He’s around fifty years old. About six feet tall. In good shape. I’m sure I’ve seen him, but I can’t place him.”
“It’ll come to you eventually. How long did he stay?”
“An hour or so. Not long. I followed him when he left. He stopped in the Black Cat Tavern. I waited a few minutes before going in, and I discovered something very interesting.” Inrick leaned back with a cat-that-caught-the-mouse expression.
“Go on,” Valek urged.
“The man was sitting and talking with our infamous food taster, Star.”
It hit Valek like a bolt of lightning. Star! Or rather STaR, Inc., Secure, Trustworthy, and Reliable, Incorporated. He smiled. It was four days before the cold season, and he’d won the bet. Then he sobered. It shouldn’t have taken him that long to make the connection. He blamed it on lack of sleep.
Nothing happened of note the following two days. But on the day before the start of the cold season, Valek’s midnight vigils paid off. Deep in the night, two men entered Peach Alley. They knocked lightly on number forty-three.
The door opened and two people joined the men. By their silhouettes, Valek guessed the slight and shorter figure was the young girl he had seen inside. Beside her was another man, but it was too dark to discern any facial features.
All four exited the alley and headed south. Valek followed. They kept to the shadows for the most part and avoided the patrols. However, they couldn’t avoid all the streetlamps. When they crossed a puddle of light, he caught a glimpse of the men. Two he didn’t recognize, but the man from the house was Porter. The Commander’s kennel master, and the person Inrick couldn’t name.
That was a surprise and yet not. Porter had some magical ability, and it was obvious he was helping this new magician escape Ixia. Valek knew Porter had helped others in the past, but he hadn’t interfered. In fact, he had been glad. Had shutting down Star’s operations effected Porter’s efforts? Was that why they had to keep moving the young girl to different houses throughout Castletown?
Valek continued to trail them. They reached the edge of the Snake Forest and stopped. Inching closer, Valek stayed in the shadows. Porter handed the one man a pouch. It jingled with coins. Then he gave another pouch to the young girl.
Porter crouched down to her eye level. “Message me when you get to Sitia. You can send letters with the trade caravans going to Ixia. That’s not illegal. Okay?”
“I will,” she said. “I know I caused you and all those poor people so much trouble.” She lunged into his arms. “Thank you so very much.”
He hugged her back. “You can thank me by learning how to control your magic and living a happy life in Sitia.”
They said goodbye. The girl accompanied the men into the forest, and Porter headed north, presumably to the castle. Valek could find the kennel master at any time, so he followed the group into the dark woods. The moon was barely a sliver, but he noticed there was a narrow path. Probably an old smuggler’s route.
After a hundred feet or so, they lit a small bullseye lantern and shone the thin beam of light onto the ground. It was risky. The light could be spotted by the border patrol, but they avoided tripping over roots or walking into trees. Besides, the patrols stayed near the border. And it would take a good eight hours to walk that far.
Valek decided he’d ensure the young girl reached Sitia. He would distract the border guards if they spotted the smugglers. In his opinion, the Commander’s view on magicians was overly harsh, and Valek had helped quite a number of new ones escape Ixia.
The group trekked until dawn. Then they rested as they ate breakfast. Valek’s stomach grumbled. He’d left his pack at the safe house, but he had a few sticks of beef jerky tucked into his pockets. They resumed their walk and reached the border with Sitia a few hours later.
The Snake Forest undulated like a snake from the Soul Mountains in the east to the Sunset Ocean in the west. It was the official border between Ixia and Sitia. The Commander had cleared the last hundred feet of the forest to make it harder for people to enter or exit Ixia illegally. Of course, people found ways to cross. Nighttime was the easiest. The sheer length of the border made it impossible to cover every mile. If a person was patient and waited for a patrol to move through an area, they could cross in the daylight without worry.
That was what the men did. Finding hiding spots, they hunkered down in the forest. Wearing dark gray cloaks, they blended in. A few hours later, a patrol came through. Valek watched the unit. The team did a decent job of searching for intruders, but they missed checking some obvious spots. Valek remembered the exercise he had done with Trevar, Adrik, Ari, Janco, and the others. Adrik had told his teammates to poke at large shadows with a stick. It had been a good idea and could be used even in the daylight to poke dense spots of greenery or, for the cold season, the dead spots. Perhaps Valek would assign Ari and Janco to give the patrols a refresher course.
The trio waited another hour before leaving their hiding spots and crossing the clearing into Sitia. Valek stopped at the edge of the forest, watching. Would the two men abandon the young girl as soon as they crossed into Sitia? However, it appeared they planned to stay with her until they reached a town. Probably Robin’s Nest in the Featherstone Clan’s lands, but he wasn’t quite sure how far west they had drifted. Sitia had eleven official clans, and one illegal clan that called themselves the Daviians because they hid in the Daviian Plateau.
Alea had been from that clan. Ferde had been another Daviian, but he was defeated by Yelena before he could finish the Efe ritual and was currently in jail. Valek hoped the Sitian Council had executed him by now, but he doubted it. They ruled by committee, and it took them ages to make decisions.
Tired, hungry, and thirsty, Valek trudged back to Castletown, arriving at the safe house a few hours after dinner. Inrick waited inside.
“Phew,” Inrick said. “We were worried.” He held up a hand. “Yeah, I know we’re not supposed to be, but I sat outside that house all day and I just knew it was empty.”
“Where’s Hildred?”
“She relieved me at dinner. We didn’t want to take eyes off that place just in case.”
Valek explained about the nighttime escape. However, he didn’t tell Inrick about Porter. Either his agent would recognize him or not. Porter had one of those average faces that was forgettable. Plus, he kept to himself and most of Valek’s agents didn’t use dogs for their missions.
“So, Star’s getting back into smuggling,” Inrick said.
