Ebudae (18 page)

“Hmm?” Gorman looked around. “No. No, this
is for another case I’m working on. I have an agent coming in to
help with finding your father . . . and here he is.”

A short man dressed in black slipped in
behind them. Even Sir Imbra seemed surprised by the sudden
appearance. “Hello Gorman,” the man said in tones as oily as his
dark hair. “You said it was urgent? . . .” He flicked a glance at
Pelya.

“Very urgent. You’ve probably heard of
Pelya.” Gorman gestured toward her.

“Yes. I’ve heard of all of them. Are you
going to introduce us?” the agent asked with a raised eyebrow.
Pelya didn’t trust him. He kept his grey eyes partially shut as
though refusing to let anyone see them. Even though he was standing
nearby, the man acted as though he was hiding.

“No. I’m not going to introduce you,” Gorman
said. “But we need information. Pelya’s father is missing and I
need to know where he might have gone.”

“I’m guessing you’re going to have him try
to find Frath?” Bava asked. Pelya could see that she didn’t trust
the man either.

Gorman shook his head and leaned against the
one of the tables. “No. I had him follow Frath a while back because
I worry about him when he disappears.” He looked seriously at
Pelya. “Your father is my best friend in this world. He never tells
me where he goes, so I took precautions.”

“Alright.” Pelya didn’t like it, but she
did
understand it. At that moment, she was thankful for his
foresight.

Gorman turned back to the agent. “So where
does he go?”

The man looked nervous. He bit his lip and
remained silent.

“Where does he go?” Gorman asked again. He
frowned and moved forward from the table. “When you followed him,
where did he go?”

“I . . . I don’t know.” He guiltily looked
at his feet. It was an expression that seemed out of place on the
otherwise confident man.

“What do you mean you don’t know?!” Gorman
sputtered and grabbed the man by the shoulders. “He’s missing! We
need to find him and you said you know where he went.” The man said
nothing, continuing to stare at his feet instead. Pelya could see
that his face was pale. Gorman threw his hands in the air. “You
did
follow him, didn’t you?”

“Well, yeah. I mean I
tried
to follow
him.” The man put his arms out to the sides helplessly.

“Tried? You’re the best. Frath is tall and
broad, not the hardest sort of target to keep track of.” Gorman
leaned back against the table again and crossed his arms. “So what
happened?”

“Well, I thought it would be easy. Like you
said, he’s easy to see.” The man walked over to a large map of
Dralin on the wall and pointed. “Here’s the Guard District. If he’s
not spending time with Pelya after his shift, he goes out for a
walk, leaving through a different gate each time.”

“I’ve noticed that too,” Pelya said. “I’ve
asked him about it and he told me that life should be explored in
every direction.” She shrugged. “He says a lot of stuff like that.
Daddy’s weird, but he’s very wise.” She gave everyone a challenging
look in case they considered disagreeing. Luckily, none of them was
so foolish.

The agent stared at her for a minute before
shaking his head and turning back to the map. “Right. Now it varies
as to where he goes. Sometimes he’ll sit at an inn for hours just
staring at people. Other times he’ll go to one of the main highways
coming into the city and he’ll stare at people.”

“Yeah, yeah. He likes to stare at people,”
Gorman said, waving for him to get to the point. “It’s creepy, but
we all know he does it.”

“So sometimes he comes back after just
staring for a while, but sometimes he disappears.” The man folded
his arms and glared at the map.

“Disappears like with magic or he gives you
the slip?” Bava asked.

He turned his glare to Bava. “Nobody ever
gives me the slip . . . except him. I’d swear he has something or
someone protecting him from being followed.” He closed his eyes and
collected his thoughts.

“What do you mean something’s protecting
him?” Gilron asked in curiosity.

“It’s just a feeling. The first few times it
happened, I thought I had just become overconfident and sloppy. I’d
be following him. He’d turn down a corner and I’d see his shape
walking down the street or alley. Then he would just be gone.”

Gorman frowned and rubbed his chin. “Maybe
that would happen once, but I know your abilities and it would
never happen a second time.”

“I became more aggressive in my following,
taking risks I wouldn’t normally. That’s when things began to go
very wrong.” The agent began pacing. “Frath took to the roofs one
night. I thought I was on to something, but I only saw his
silhouette once up there. Then I fell off a roof.”

“What?!” Gorman exclaimed.

“I fell off a roof.” It was obviously
embarrassing to him. “One minute there was roof under me, the next
it was gone. It was a low-hanging roof, but I fell. Only time it’s
ever
happened to me.”

“That doesn’t make any sense. Was it rainy
or snowing or something?” Gorman was confused.

“No. It was nighttime, but not too dark. I
didn’t slip. I walked off of it.” His cheeks were red by that
point. “Then it got worse.”

“Worse than you walking off a low-hanging
roof?” Gorman raised an eyebrow.

“Shut up. Do you want to hear the rest or
not?” The agent jabbed a finger in Gorman’s chest and stared him in
the face. He had to stand on his tiptoes to do it.

“Yeah, yeah. Go on.”

The agent stepped back to the map and
smacked it with the back of his hand. “He doesn’t go in the same
direction when I lose him. It’s always someplace new.” He pointed
to a section of map in the south. “The next time I followed, we
were somewhere around here a short distance away from the South
Warehouse District. There are some stores of magical items there.
It’s not really in any district and the stuff isn’t very good.” He
shrugged.

“I know the place,” Bava said. “There’re a
lot of smuggled magics and poisons including polluted mixes there.
It’s bad news.”

“Yeah. There’re also a lot of murders that
happen.” The agent sighed in exasperation and leaned against the
map. “I walked into the middle of one. Four guys were stabbing a
fifth. I ran into the back of one of those guys.”

“You walked off a roof and the next night
you walked into someone’s back while they’re committing murder? I’m
getting worried about you.” Gorman moved forward to take a closer
look at him. When he put a hand on the man’s forehead checking for
fever, the man slapped his arm away and ducked to the side.

“I’m not sick. I’m telling you, something is
protecting him.” He crossed his arms and leaned against a different
wall, away from Gorman. “A few nights later, I tried following him
again.”

“Wait, what about the murder?” Gilron
asked.

The agent rolled his eyes. “I had to kill
two of them and the other two ran away. I reported it to my contact
in the Guard. No idea what they did with the information.” He said
it without boasting, leading Pelya to realize that the man was
dangerous.

“I see. Go on.” Gilron waved for him to
continue.

“I was able to follow him quite a ways the
next time. I moved quickly, but I’ve never been so focused on
everything as I was that night. I sidestepped gutters and dark
corners, making certain my foot was on solid ground each time.” He
bent his knees and got low, reenacting the events. “I stayed away
from any mysterious shapes. I dodged web that had a spider sitting
on it. Its poison could have killed me within a day if I didn’t
have the right antitoxin.”

“The Guard has antitoxins for just about
everything.” Bava tapped her chin with a finger. “Interesting that
your life was being put in danger, but always with a way to
survive.”

“I thought the same thing until I turned a
corner and ran into one of the Deformed.” Those words got a
reaction out of everyone, including the two others in the room who
had gathered close to listen. “I never heard, saw, smelled, or
sensed it in anyway. It was just there. It bit my shoulder and
would have infected me if I hadn’t had on my leathers.” He tugged
at the leather jacket he wore which acted as thick armor. “This is
a new jacket. I destroyed the other one.”

“That’s very disturbing,” Gilron said.

“I agree.” The agent looked at Gorman.
“That’s when I told you that I knew where he went. I didn’t think
you’d ever ask me to tell you and didn’t care at that point. I
believe I would have died if I tried again.”

“I think you made a wise decision,” Bava
said. “Frath is God-Touched and nobody knows what that means.
Perhaps that has something to do with it.”

Awareness dawned in Gorman’s face and he
snapped his finger. “That’s right. I didn’t even think about
that.”

“Great,” the agent replied sarcastically. “I
had a God trying to kill me.”

“I think you were being sent warnings,”
Gilron suggested. “If a God wanted to kill you, then you would have
died rather quickly.”

Pelya caught a dim flash out of the side of
her eye. A shield leaning against the wall had been jostled and was
catching sunlight from the one window high in the room. She ignored
it.

“So you have no idea where Frath goes. None
at all?” Gorman asked the man.

“None.” He shrugged. “I’m not getting myself
killed by the Gods.” The agent adjusted his clothing to make
certain everything was exact. “Now, I have other things to do. Good
day.” He ignored the bemused expressions that followed him out the
door.

The shield flashed in the side of her eye
again. Pelya looked at it and noticed the shadows behind it. “Have
you checked the Shining Shield Inn?” she asked the others.

“Not yet,” Gorman admitted. “It was going to
be our next place to check. Why don’t you and Bava do that, and you
if you wish, Commander? I have an alert out for squads to report if
they see him otherwise.”

“It’s my day off and I’m enjoying the
company,” Gilron said, smiling at Pelya. “We’ll go now.” He turned
to Sir Imbra. “Will you continue with us?”

“I will. The fate of Frath Jornin concerns
me.”

The shield flashed in Pelya’s eye again.
“Last one to the carriage is old.” She dashed out the door before
they could react.

Chapter
12

A breeze caressed Frath’s cheek. He groaned
and brought up a hand to scratch his stubbled jaw. Pain shot
through his arm. He rolled over to grab it with the other arm and
pain shot through his ribs. Frath knew numerous words to describe
how he felt and he said most loudly.

He forced himself to his feet despite the
pain. Every ragged breath he took sent pins through his ribs. After
stumbling and swaying for a minute, he held onto a corner of a pew
with his right hand while holding the left close to his body.
Looking down, he saw that his arm was straight even though it still
felt broken.

The breeze rustled, causing the purple
flames on candles lining the sides to flicker. Distra’s voice
whispered through the church and danced through his skull. “Healing
is not my strength, but you must go now. They are searching for
you.”

He turned and saw the statue’s glowing
purple eyes staring at him, through him. Distra looked at his
thoughts. “The man will be fine. Follow the shadows. Your daughter
searches for you.” The eyes darkened and the statue bowed its head
in sorrow once more.

“Wonderful,” Frath croaked. He made his way
along the main aisle past the black stone pews. The shadows danced
sadly, as they always did. In addition to the pain in his bones,
his muscles ached.

He reached the arched double doors, which
were grey with black carvings of crows surrounded by curving rose
stems. The petals on the roses were purple, as were the eyes of the
crows. It was the only color on them. Shadows opened the door on
the right.

He walked past the brown tufts of grass and
macabre skeletons of trees that seemed as though they had never
known leaves. A rusted iron gate lay ineffectively on the ground
next to a low stone wall that surrounded the building. Frath looked
back at the ancient two-story church with a tall steeple at one
end. Dark stones formed the walls and it had a red, iron shingled,
A-frame roof that was rusting. Past rains falling on the roof had
left red trails down the stone, making it appear as though the
church was bleeding.

Crows stared at him from the eaves and tree
branches as he half walked, half stumbled onto the street. His legs
just didn’t want to work. He was tired and in pain. But Pelya was
looking for him and he would never let her down.

Nobody living walked the streets in the
Forlorn District. A few centuries ago, the High Council had it
walled off to keep people out because it had become so haunted that
even a consortium of priests couldn’t exorcise the ghosts and
whatever else was there. Nameless creatures roamed the streets and
alleys. Ghosts peeked out from dirty windows. The sun was out that
morning, but it didn’t shine as brightly in the Forlorn District.
At least it wasn’t night when ghosts floated through the sky.

When healthy, he could move faster than
anything that dared the district’s streets. At the moment, he was
far from healthy, but the shadows protected him. They would rise up
against any shambling creatures and scare the ghosts away.

By the time Frath reached the tunnel to the
Orphan District, his muscles had loosened and he was walking mostly
upright. He kept his arm cradled into his belly, hoping it wouldn’t
be necessary to fight. Surprisingly, nobody bothered him even
though quite a few people gave him sidelong glances. From there, it
took an hour to reach the Noble District and the Shining Shield
Inn.