28. Tye
Thank the gods that damn Fae prince was so memorable. I slipped the picture of him into my jacket and walked toward the shop district. It had taken two days of hard riding and checking each port along the coast, but I”d finally found a lead.
It turned out Kaiya and Jaiel had left the Capital on a Fae trader ship, and when the vessel had arrived at port here yesterday, they were no longer aboard.
Luckily, one dockhand drunkenly claimed a ”cursed Fae prince” and his lover were thrown overboard. Not likely true, but it was better than nothing.
A salty waitress at breakfast had added to the picture, saying she”d heard the prince had fallen in love with some princess, but the woman was betrothed to another. So, the two had left the ship via dingy, sailing for Bieysbane.
Once I knew what to ask, the rumors were plentiful — so long as sufficient coin was offered, of course.
But all that truly mattered were three consistent details. Jaiel and the witch had not arrived at port this morning with the ship. The trade ship was missing one of its dinghies when it arrived. And the ship”s course had taken them very close to the Forsaken Isle.
My skin hummed with excitement.
I knew she”d eventually return to her people! I could almost feel the proof coalescing there, waiting for me to take it back to King Torsten.
It was said a legendary guardian creature killed anyone attempting to sneak in. But over the years, I”d met a handful of agents whose missions had taken them there. While they didn”t mention specifics, they strongly implied the Guardian rumors were exaggerated, and that there were ways past it.
It took some time, but when I”d started guessing at the witch”s origins, I”d tracked down a rumor regarding a potion that could get you past the creature safely.
It was expensive, had terrible side-effects, and wasn”t even intended for that purpose … but it worked.
And what could be worse than whatever that Witch had done to me? I constantly felt like I was crawling out of my skin, and I was sick of it.
Gritting my teeth, I stepped up to a streetlamp and pulled a torn napkin from my pocket, checking the words the waitress had scrawled on it against the street signs.
This was the intersection, but where was the alchemist?
I turned slowly, trying to get my bearings among all the gray stone buildings. Dimly lit stores lined both sides of the streets, broken by winding alleys I could only assume hid seedy black-market dealings.
The lyphos streetlamp flickered above me, and I winced. I hated those things. Not the creatures, but the lamps themselves — a prison for living creatures who should be free in the wild, but were forced to light our dirty streets.
How anyone could see it as anything but abuse was beyond me.
If I had my way, every city in the Empire would be using steam lamps like in the Capital. They were far more effective, and they didn”t give off that sad orange glow.
Hopping up on a nearby waste bin, I withdrew a few chunks of bread from my pack and stood on my toes to pull out the lamp”s feeding tray at the base of the glass cage. The bread would be a veritable feast for the creature.
The orange glow brightened immediately, and I closed the tray, then hopped down. Hopefully, the creature didn”t know it should be unhappy with its life. That little cage was probably all it had ever known, after all, and it was hard to be sad about a life or world you never knew existed.
Heavy lurching steps echoed behind me, and I turned to see a cloaked man emerge from an alley nearby. He tucked a paper bag into a leather satchel, then hurried down the street away from me.
I stared after him, instincts prickling. I”d hunted many uncollared mages in my time, and that man had all the signs.
But I wasn”t here for him tonight.
That bag, though, was exactly what I was looking for. There was a chance it was just his dinner or something similarly innocuous, but in this area, it was likely something more.
Excited, I walked over and checked down the alley he”d come from. Sure enough, light spilled from a square window in one of the buildings, and a sign with the word ”Aelchaemy” hung neatly beside a nearby door.
Kings be blessed.
I was due for some luck.
I made my way to the door, pausing outside to straighten my coat and smooth my hair. My size had always put people on edge, but since the witch cursed me, it was an even bigger issue. And looking disheveled seemed to make it worse.
Bells tinkled sharply overhead as I pushed the door open and stepped inside.
The pungent scents of hundreds of herbs assaulted me like a punch to the face.
What fresh kind of forsaken hell was this? I lifted my arm to my nose and looked around.
Shelves lined every wall, covered in amber colored glass carafes, baskets of herbs, and trays with what seemed like hundreds of vials.
”Can I help you, Sir?” a tall man with a full gray beard asked from behind the counter opposite me.
He measured out a pile of herbs and placed them into slim vials.
I tried to drop my arm, but my head pounded with all the conflicting scents, and my throat and nose burned as though they were on fire.
”Oh, I see. Sorry about that,” the man said, eyes wide. ”We don”t see many of your kind around here. Let me light a damper real quick.”
I stared, confused, as he lit a red candle on the shelf behind him and wafted the smoke in my direction with his hand.
The overwhelming smells immediately faded until they were almost imperceptible.
My jaw dropped. ”What kind of candle is that?” I stepped closer. ”And where can I get one?”
He chuckled, the sound rumbling in his wide chest. ”It”s a damper, of course. Surely you”ve used one before. Your kind have them everywhere — when they deign to be around us non-magic folk, that is.”
My brows knit together. Those candles did resemble the ones some mages carried. ”Wait, what do you mean, my … kind? What exactly are you implying?”
”I — well,” he stammered. He looked me up and down as his round cheeks turned a deeper shade of red. ”I apologize, Sir. I must be mistaken. I thought you were part of the uh — well —”
Heat burned in my abdomen, and my skin started with that now-familiar prickle. I should let go of trying to discover whatever he was about to say and focus on getting the potion … but my damn nerves wouldn”t let me.
”Well? Out with it.” I snarled, leaning forward so my hands rested atop the counter, growl rumbling in my chest.
Swallowing hard, he took a step back. ”Look. It”s not my place to say anything. I”m nothing but an old fool. Obviously, you came in for a reason, and my inane assumptions distracted you from that. Let”s —”
My nail beds itched and burned as my irritation boiled over. I leaned closer, and the man shrank further back.
”Finish what you were saying. NOW.” I slammed my hands onto the wooden countertop. The glass vials teetered, and several fell to the ground.
The man lifted his hands as if to ward me off. ”A body mage. Okay? I thought you were a body mage.”
All the tension in my shoulders and back released, and a laugh exploded from deep in my belly. ”A mage? That”s all? And a body mage at that.”
I might be cursed by some dark spell, but there was no way the witch, or anyone for that matter, could change a person”s korra. You either were a mage, or you weren”t. And after twenty years of testing by Imperial Seekers, I was certain which side I was on.
”You have it backward, Sir.” I smiled. ”I”m an investigator for the Empire. I hunt mages.”
The man”s eyes widened, and cheeks paled. ”Y — yes. What a laughable m-m-mistake. Some Forsaken are sensitive to scent, you see. And with your — well.” He motioned to my eyes, then my arms. ”— attributes, I thought you might be one. Idiocy. Many apologies for the mistake, Investigator!”
I grinned wolfishly. ”Well, good sir, no harm done.”
He forced out an affirmative sound and a nod, but his cheeks were still pale and his eyes wide with fear.
Oh well. Let him believe what he wanted. Kings will be gods, and faithless will be fools.
”So, ah.” He swallowed audibly. ”How may I help you this fine evening?” Adjusting his collar, he bent to collect the broken vials.
”I”m looking for a potion that would let me reach the Forsaken Isle.”
He stumbled and dropped the broken pieces he”d been collecting, then lifted his head to study me like some problem he couldn”t quite solve. ”You”ve heard the island is unreachable by non-mages?”
That was close enough to what I”d heard. I nodded for him to continue.
”So you need a potion to get there … because you are not a mage … but you are hunting one?”
I nodded again. Why did he still sound uncertain? Hadn”t we already gone over this? Crossing my arms, I glared down at him.
He looked me over once more, then shrugged. ”Who am I to argue with an investigator?”
Shaking his head, he stepped over the broken glass behind the counter and walked to a wall lined with hundreds of small bottles containing various liquids, powders, and objects.
As a man of logic and science, I”d hazard a guess that most of what he sold was rubbish — an easy way to make money off desperate fools. But I had to believe this was different.
It had to be.
He moved a few bottles aside, shook his head, then climbed a small ladder and tugged down a slim wooden box. Lifting the lid, he peeked inside and nodded, looking from it to me, eyes tight. ”You know, I sell these potions, but I don”t make this elixir myself. So I”m not liable if it doesn”t work?”
I nodded.
”And you understand there will be side-effects?”
I nodded again.
”Okay. But I can”t go around selling things like this to strangers who —”
”Just give me the potion.” I growled.
He winced and pulled out a bottle, then replaced the box before climbing down. Reluctantly, he dropped the little bottle of yellow liquid into my outstretched hand, and I slipped it into my satchel.
”How much do I owe you?”
He looked between me, the candle, the broken vials, and the small potion. ”Nothing. Just take it and go.”
A growl rumbled in my throat, but I forced it down. I hated when people tried to force charity. That was the last thing I needed.
”The cost.” I leaned in.
He shook his head and held his hands up. ”Fine. I normally charge 100 pounds.”
It was expensive, but not as much as I”d feared. Pulling out the money, I placed it on the counter.
He ignored the coins and looked me up and down. ”A suggestion for you, as you set out on your journey?”
”Huh?” I asked, already turning toward the door.
He stroked his beard for a moment before speaking. ”You may wanna keep an open mind as you head to that place. My gut tells me things aren”t going to turn out how you”d like.”
First the charity and now useless advice? That drivel didn”t even deserve a response. Shaking my head, I turned on my heel and walked out.
He was damn lucky this wasn”t the Capital, and I wasn”t on duty. I”d have him arrested and imprisoned for consorting with Forsaken before the sun was up.
But he was someone else”s problem.
Tonight, I was hunting my own prey.