Chapter 16 #2
Carrick shifted. “I say we follow, see where the mage hides during the day, attack him, then come back tomorrow for your marks.” Carrick’s plan did not surprise her, but Tal had set her mind on action with minimal risk. She wasn’t willing to let the two men walk away again.
“We can’t engage the mages here, and I don’t like the idea of going after them without Sybil’s input.
We could be walking into a trap.” She watched the door open, and sure enough, one of her attackers, Badger, stood in the opening.
Fire burned in her chest. She gritted her teeth and took a deep breath to calm the fury making its way to the surface.
By the time the cloaked figure entered the building and the door shut behind them, her magic had calmed within its cage.
Faron chimed in, “Or we listen, Ed follows the newcomer when he leaves but doesn’t engage, and we stay. You still get revenge. Ed can get back to us when he finds the mages.”
“Two birds, one stone. I like it.” Eddard’s childlike smile returned.
“Works for me. I’ll take the first floor.” Tal couldn’t wait any longer. She hopped down from the roof onto a windowsill and into the side alley.
Faron followed behind her, close enough that the skin on her neck prickled.
Together, they ran across the street, crouching below an open window to the left of the front door.
She pressed her back to the side of the house and craned her neck to peer inside.
Two shadows crossed in her periphery. She jerked her attention in time to see Carrick and Egan find new vantage points on adjacent rooftops. Eddard remained across the street.
Every now and then a door slammed. Someone yelled at a nearby tavern. However, Tal’s focus remained on the conversation inside the house and Faron’s quiet breathing beside her.
“Yeah, yeah. I’ve seen her. I wanna see the money.
” The man’s voice set Tal on edge. Memories of that night flashed in her mind, and she recognized the voice of Gully, the taller one.
She stared at the ground in front of her and focused her hearing.
Beside her, Faron had gone still. “We heard you were payin’ Amos, and now he’s in the wind. I wanna know what’s in it for me.”
A jostled coin purse responded to Gully’s demands.
The scene of Pochette and the apparition in the alley came to mind.
If an apparition instead of a mage stood inside, its maker would be nearby.
Was he watching them right now? She realized too late that she ran into this situation without enough thought.
“What’s so special about her anyway?”
“We have business to settle. Where can we find her?” The visitor’s smooth voice held no inflection. It oozed over Tal’s ears, and she wondered if the sound carried a spell with it.
“Hells if I know. She got away. She had a buddy with her, a red swordsman.”
Tal’s gaze shot to the right, and her eyes locked with Faron’s. He rolled his eyes and mouthed, “It’s maroon.”
Tal swallowed her laughter and widened her eyes at him. Silently, she responded, “This is serious!” which earned her another eye roll.
The emotionless voice interrupted their silent conversation. “Can you describe either of them?”
“Yeah. He wore red. She wore black. Both pains in my ass.” Heatedly, he added, “Cut off two of my fingers!”
With a tilt of his head, Faron shrugged his shoulders, as if to say “He deserved it.”
She shook her head at him, but a grim satisfaction settled in her chest.
“Anything else?” the voice asked. The disconcerting lack of emotion confirmed an apparition stood inside. Tal scanned the street but saw no sign of a mage.
“She was piss drunk. I reckon she was coming from Gale’s.”
Tal swore silently. If the mage could draw any conclusions, they only had to wait at the tavern to find her. She’d have to start stocking up on ales to bring back to the tunnels.
“And you? Do you have anything to add?”
Even without seeing who the apparition addressed, she instantly recognized the short, stocky man’s voice. It grated on her ears and made her want to clear her own throat. “She could fight,” he ground out.
“Thank you for the information. It has been most… interesting.” The metallic thud of coins falling onto the wooden table interrupted the conversation. “As promised.”
Footsteps sounded, and Tal realized they were exposed.
They only had a moment before the guest reached the door.
She dove into Faron who, at the same time, grabbed her and launched the two of them around the corner of the house, turning as they went.
He landed on top of her, and they stared at each other.
Tal prayed to the gods they wouldn’t be noticed even with their feet sticking out past the side of the house.
The door opened and closed. She held her breath and focused on Faron’s determined expression, as if he willed them to become invisible.
Finally, the crackling of footsteps on the gravel street faded. The entangled pair breathed a sigh of relief. Tal’s thoughts returned to the woods when Faron didn’t move. Instead, he quirked his lips.
“We really must stop meeting like this. It’s not good for my reputation,” he whispered.
Tal rolled her eyes. Faron’s breath caressed her face, sending chills throughout her body. She felt herself blush. It should have been too dark to see the pink color of her cheeks, but his smile grew larger.
“If I didn’t know any better, I’d say the fearsome bounty hunter has grown shy,” he added.
“If I didn’t know any better, I’d say your dagger is digging into me,” she whispered back.
“Are you sure that’s my dagger?”
Tal scoffed and pushed him off her. A large shadow fell by her head, and Carrick crouched beside them.
“Not to interrupt, but are we still going after the two lowlifes who live here, or are we going to let them disappear?”
Tal jumped to her feet and swore at the sight of her two targets sauntering down the street. “How did they get by us?!” she hissed.
“You looked a little distracted.” Carrick’s response was short, clipped. While he’d gotten used to Tal’s drunken carelessness long ago, alcohol had no part in her more recent mistakes.
She glared at Faron and wanted to wipe the smirk off his face. “Don’t look at me like that.” She smacked his arm. “Come on. We’re going after them.” She stalked in the direction the criminals disappeared without waiting for her companions.
They caught up to her, each at her shoulder. She eyed the rooftops to her left and saw Egan’s form leaping from building to building as he overtook the trio.
She gazed down the street and knew the men’s destination.
They were beef-witted louts with unexpected coin.
They were likely headed to the nearest shady tavern.
While they wasted their reward on a few pints, Talwyn would convince Carrick and Faron to drag the bastards to the kiln.
Forget the chair this time. I'll let them try to fight back.
“Eddard’s following the apparition.” Carrick tried to get her attention. “We should wait until he’s confirmed the mage’s location before we take action.”
She stopped in the middle of the street and rounded on Carrick. “You want me to just let them go? Do you know what they tried to do to me?” The logical part of her brain abandoned her. She told herself torturing them was a means to gain information, but her fury demanded revenge.
“I want them to suffer just as much as you, but these mages are dangerous. And they want you. These guys could be our way of tracking all of them down before they get to you.”
Faron cut in, “He has a point, princess—”
“Don’t start with me,” Tal shot back. She pointed at the noble who held both hands in the air.
“You were the one who said we would let the visit take place, and then I could take them out.” She gestured down the street.
“If we let them go, they could just as easily attack someone who can’t defend themselves, and that would be on me, because I didn’t stop them. ”
Eddard came jogging back, briefly interrupting the conversation. “The apparition disappeared a hundred paces down. I see no evidence of the mage.”
Silence hung between them as the new information sank in.
Carrick’s gentle voice cut through Tal’s thoughts. “They won’t be able to attack anyone because we’ll be watching.” He had always been her voice of reason and talked her down from the edge countless times. It infuriated her as much as it helped her.
"Jens will help with shifts," Eddard offered.
Faron leaned closer. "We won't let them get away."
Tal said nothing for three breaths while her eyes wandered the street, and she deliberated. Finally, she sighed and gritted her teeth. “Fine. But once we find out what we need, they're dead.”
“Agreed,” said the two men in unison. Eddard simply grinned.
“And a tail on them at all times.”
“Of course," Carrick said.
At the same time, Faron replied, “Obviously.”
Tal shot a pointed glare at Faron for the slight attitude. “We’ll monitor. If there is any sign of the mage or its apparition, we consult with Sybil. If she says to attack, we don’t hesitate.”