Chapter 3
FIFTEEN MAGIC LANTERNS
Iwas pretty shocked that Dutch knew about the Black Market. He’d made his mark by training hard and playing by the rules. The Black Market was anything but ‘by the rules’. It was a treasure trove of banned products and illicitly-obtained goods.
You know what, Dutch was right. If someone was trying to hide, as it seemed Ren was, he wouldn’t shop at a place like Miss Christie’s Magical Curiosities, out in the open for all to see. He would shop at the Black Market.
I should have thought of it sooner. Dutch was so much smarter than people gave him credit for.
The merchants at the Black Market were paranoid. You had to be when you dealt in illegal goods. The market moved every day to keep ahead of the Watchers. I didn’t have a clue where it was happening today.
That’s where Marlow came in. Officially, Marlow was a Scavenger.
The Government sent the Scavengers out into the World That Was, the forsaken lands beyond the town walls where the Cursed Ones roamed and the treasures of a forgotten era lay buried in the rubble of our fallen civilization.
The Scavengers collected those treasures and brought them back to the Government to be recycled, reused, and repurposed for the new age.
Being a Scavenger was the most dangerous job a human on Gaia could do.
The ruins where the treasures lay were unstable and overrun with Cursed Ones, beings who had once been human.
You wouldn’t know it by looking at the Cursed Ones now.
Once the Curse took them, they became savage, primitive creatures hell-bent on biting and infecting all who crossed their path. There was no humanity left in them.
No one wanted to be a Scavenger, but as with most things in our world, people rarely got a choice in the matter.
Marlow had made the best of his fate. He led and protected teams of Scavengers, bringing back truckloads full of treasures for the Government.
More treasures than they could possibly count.
And the fact was the Government didn’t count them, or at least not too carefully.
That’s how Marlow managed to set aside a few useful items for the people.
He traded them with the other merchants at the Black Market—or just gave them away.
Like me, he couldn’t help himself. He was compelled to help people. It was simply who he was.
“Thanks, Marlow.”
“No, thank you, Savannah. I owe you for saving me from those commandos.”
Marlow, Marlow’s dog Wolf, and I were walking under the drizzling tree canopy. The rain showers had come on suddenly this afternoon, but they’d since slowed to a gentle trickle. Thankfully for us. The Black Market wasn’t inside today, and we had a long way to walk.
“Marlow, you’d still be helping me, even if I hadn’t saved you.”
Wolf barked in agreement.
Marlow looked at his dog. “Of course you would agree with her. But you know as much as I do that I most certainly would not be helping her if I knew what was good for me. I really don’t want to get on Alara’s bad side.”
Wolf side-eyed him. I guess that was her way of telling him to take the melodrama down a notch.
“My mom shops at the Black Market, Marlow,” I said. “She’s not going to get mad at you because you brought me here too.”
“Of course she will. You don’t bring minors to illegal markets. Alara already thinks I’m a bad influence on you.”
I frowned. “She does? She hasn’t said anything about it to me.”
“It’s not so much about what she’s saying. It’s more about what she’s doing.”
“Which is?”
“Ghosting me.”
“She’s not talking to you?” I glanced at Wolf, who sighed. “Really?”
“I haven’t heard from her in over a week. She hasn’t answered any of my messages. And I left a lot of them.”
“Like how many?” I asked.
“Twenty…or more.” Marlow gave me a sheepish look.
“You left my mom more than twenty messages in a week?”
“More or less. But definitely more.”
I couldn’t help it. I laughed. Wolf buried her face in her paws. She was clearly embarrassed by her human’s lack of subtlety.
“I was worried about her.” Marlow was blushing now. It was so adorable. His worrying was even more endearing than his embarrassment.
I smiled at him. “Mom’s not ghosting you. She’s busy with some work thing in Paradise. I haven’t heard from her lately either.”
The worry lines marring Marlow’s forehead softened. His mouth contemplated a smile. “Well, then, in that case, let’s get down to business.”
We’d reached the Black Market. Today, it was hidden inside Killfield’s bushland, just past what remained of a formerly posh public garden.
Feral, unchecked nature had taken over the garden.
Nowadays, it could almost be called a jungle.
It was nearly as wild as the neighboring wilderness.
The Cutters didn’t come here to prune and pluck away at the disorder.
There were too few of them to go around—and way too much disorder.
The perfect hiding spot for the Black Market.
Marlow took the lead, and I was happy to let him do it. The Black Market merchants trusted Marlow. He helped them. He traded with them. He was one of them.
The same couldn’t be said of me. Here, I was an outsider.
Worse yet, I was an outsider affiliated with the Knights, who were commanded by the General.
Most people revered the Knights, but they didn’t have much love for the Government.
As far as everyone around here was concerned, the General equaled the Government, and for all intents and purposes, they were right.
“Why did you bring her along, Marlow? Don’t you know who she is?”
I smiled at the merchant, the tenth we’d talked to at the Black Market. He didn’t smile back. Yep, I was definitely feeling some hostility there.
“Of course I know who she is,” Marlow replied. “And so do you, Tak. That’s Savannah Winters, the girl who saved the Spirit Trees. If it weren’t for her, you’d be forever trapped here, cut off from your family in the Many Realms.”
Tak was a supernatural—an Alchemist, based on the eclectic clothing he was wearing and the assortment of enchanted goods scattered around his stall.
Not many supernaturals stopped by the Black Market, let alone set up shop there.
For most of them, it was simply too risky.
As Marlow had said earlier, this was an illegal market.
If the Government caught any supernatural visitors hanging around here, they would deport them in a heartbeat.
Since I’d arrived at the Fortress a few weeks ago, I’d gotten to know a few people from other realms. Most of them had come here for a fresh start.
Many of them were hiding from the problems in their past. They couldn’t risk being sent home.
So they put on their best behavior and tried to blend in.
“She certainly is a busy little thing.” Tak looked me up and down very, very thoroughly. Then he pulled a pair of enormous metal-framed goggles out of his jacket and repeated the movement. “My dear, you sparkle more than anyone I’ve ever seen.”
I wasn’t sure what to say to that unusual comment.
“Uh…thank you.”
That’s the best I could manage. Savannah Winters: master orator and all-around sparkly gal.
Tak put away his goggles, muttering to himself. “People aren’t meant to sparkle so much.”
I set my hands on my hips and so-very-subtly shook my arms. To my great disappointment, no sparkles rained down. Marlow snickered at me.
Real slick, Savannah. Real slick.
I could have sworn I heard Wolf laugh. I stared at her, and she stared back, not the least bit contrite.
Marlow chatted some more with Tak. They talked about dogs.
Apparently, Tak had a dog too. He showed us a picture.
What I saw in that photo was not so much a dog as a hell beast. Gold eyes, burning with fire.
Black fur, burning with fire. A big mouth of scary pointed teeth, burning with fire.
A shiny spiked collar, burning with fire… I was sensing a theme here.
Finally, Marlow circled the conversation around to our missing person.
“Yeah, I saw him. He stopped by the Black Market the other day. He bought a few things from some of the merchants.”
I grew very, very still, hardly daring to breathe, like the slightest whisper of my breath would blow away the first wisp of a lead that we’d found.
“What did he buy?” Marlow asked.
“Contraband.”
Oh, boy.
“But he wasn’t going by the name Ren. He said his name was…was…” Tak tapped the photograph a few times. “Oh, what was it again?”
I felt my body lean forward, my toes kissing the tips of my shoes.
“Christopher.” Tak snapped his fingers. “That’s right. He said his name was Christopher.”
Simple, understated, blend-into-the-background Christopher. Ren was definitely hiding from something. Or someone. But what? Or who?
He might be a criminal. His purchase of contraband certainly supported that theory. Yes, he had to be a criminal, and Christopher was just his latest alias.
“What kind of contraband did he buy from you, Tak?” Marlow asked.
The Alchemist checked to make sure no one else was listening, then bent over, voice lowered. “Magic lanterns.”
I’d heard about magic lanterns. They came with a built-in overload switch, which effectively turned them into magic-powered bombs. Invisible bombs. From the outside, they looked like boring, mundane, magic-less lanterns, the kind you’d use to light your way in the dark.
“Don’t look at me like that, missy.” Tak’s eyes narrowed on me. “Magic lanterns aren’t inherently bad. They have many legitimate, innocuous uses. They can be used as power generators. They’re very handy in smithing and brewing. And they’re powerful light sources, of course.”
I could see it in Tak’s eyes. He didn’t think Ren was interested in the lanterns for their many legitimate, innocuous uses.
“Can I see one?” I asked him.
“See what?”
“One of these magic lanterns.”
“Hush, girl, don’t go telling people that I have them,” Tak said, his laugh uneven.
“Apologies. Far be it from me to drum up business for you,” I said drily.
“You’re clever.” His eyes narrowed for a moment, and he shook himself, making a harsh, sudden sound, like a horse snorting. “It must be the sparkles.”
“The magic lantern, please.” I smiled, holding out my hand.
He just stared at it. “Sorry, I can’t help you. I don’t have any left. He bought them all.”
“Ren…Christopher bought all of your magic lanterns?”
“Yes.”
“How many are we talking about?”
“Fifteen.”
I did my best not to grit my teeth. I didn’t know how much damage someone could do with fifteen magic lanterns, but I did know it wasn’t insignificant.
This was not good. Oh, no, not good at all.
We had to find Ren, and not just because I’d promised Yara that I would.
I had to find him before his fifteen highly-explosive magic lanterns blew up… and took a big chunk of Gaia with them.