The Dreamer's Curse (Book 2) (21 page)

It took bare minutes to cross the water to the bank on the
other side.

Wait. Crossing water? Wouldn’t that mean— “Won’t Hinun and
Gid lose the scent since we’re crossing water?”

“Hmm? Oh, no. That’s an old wife’s tale, actually. Scent is
stronger on top of the water. It’s actually easier for them to follow it.”

She blinked. Despite having been around Hinun for ten years,
she hadn’t known that. Of course, she’d never gone tracking or hunting with a
wolf before either. “Really. So what does mess with their sense of smell?”

“Too many smells,” he admitted easily. “If we followed them
into a city, for instance, there would be no way for him to discern their scent
from others. He’d get confused and lose the trail eventually. Even a village is
a mite challenging. Fortunately Gid’s very familiar with the village scents,
otherwise we’d never have been able to follow them.”

Sevana made a mental note of that for future reference.
Using Decker for support, she leaned around him and checked on the wolves.
They’d already climbed lithely up the bank and were back on the road on the
other side as if nothing had changed, their eyes intently watching the humans
following along as they waited for the slowpokes to catch up.

The stallion strained a little to climb back up to the road,
but the ease with which he picked out a path said without words he’d done this
many times before. They returned to the road without any mishap and kept going,
the wolves silently leading the way.

Sevana blew out a heavy breath. She’d worked a full day and
only gotten a few hours of sleep before the thieves had struck, and her body
felt the toil of being awake and moving so long. She started wishing for a flat
surface. A bed would be preferable, of course, but
any
flat surface
would do. The only thing that kept her from turning around and heading back
toward Chastain was the awful premonition of what an evil man could do with the
gadgick in hand. That thing could transport whole armies, if it felt like doing
so. The thought sent a chill racing up and down her spine.

Decker abruptly reigned into a stop and called, “Gid, Hinun,
stop!”

The wolves skidded to a halt immediately and trotted back to
him, their noses in the air in an inquiring manner.

“Ah, Decker?” Sevana saw absolutely no reason to stop. The
woods around them had gotten a little thicker near the road than they had been,
but other than that, nothing had changed.

“This doesn’t look right.” He stood in the stirrups and
strained forward as if trying to get a better look.

Sevana became alert, straining her senses in all directions.
She could smell the water they’d just crossed behind them, and the scents of
pine trees and damp earth. No wood smoke, though, so it couldn’t be that which
tipped Decker off. Her ears heard the sounds of insects and bull frogs, but no
other strange noises. In this pitch darkness, she didn’t trust her eyes at all
and quickly gave up on that.

“Decker. Nothing looks or seems out of place.”

“Something’s not right,” he insisted. “This area doesn’t
look right.”

She rolled her eyes to the heavens in a bid for patience.
“We’ve been riding around in the woods for
hours
in pitch darkness with
barely enough light to tell the trees from the road. How in mercy’s name can
you tell?”

“I know these woods. There should be a large clearing right
after we cross the ravine.”

Her strained patience evaporated, replaced with taut
concentration. “How sure are you?”

“Sure.” He dropped back into the saddle and turned slightly
to look at her. “There should be a clearing off to the left. You think it’s
another trap, like the one before?”

A ‘no’ hovered on the tip of her tongue. She looked at the
area with new eyes, questioning everything, but it still looked like normal
forest to her. “No, Decker. If it was a trap like before, there would be
something about it that would seem suspicious, something that would draw my
attention. There’s no magic aura here at all. If you didn’t know the area so
well, I would have kept on riding.”

A feral smile stretched over his face. “Then this is likely
where they’re hiding?”

“I’d lay good odds on it.” She turned to Hinun. “You smell
them going off the road?”

The wolf let out a confirming huff.

Good enough for her. “How many, do you think?” she asked the
wolf. “Ten? Less than that, huh? Alright, we can handle less than ten.”

Decker looked at her cross-eyed, as if he didn’t know what
she based
that
conclusion on, but didn’t question it. “So do you have a
plan, Mistress Artifactor?”

“I do, as it happens.” She rubbed her hands together in
anticipation. “Let’s play a little bait and catch, shall we?”

Sevana crouched a few feet away from Decker, both of them on
the far side of the road waiting in ambush. She had her ears and eyes strained,
waiting for any sign of the thieves bursting free from their hidey-hole.

The wolves had gone in nearly a minute ago with the aim to
chase them out. Sevana knew that if two wolves—two gigantic wolves, at
that—appeared out of the dark woods growling,
she’d
certainly run for
higher ground. The thieves were clever, but they’d gone to great lengths to
avoid fighting, which suggested they wanted to avoid conflict if they could.
She and Decker both were wagering they’d run from the wolves rather than fight.
Hopefully, they’d run for a clear path—the road.

But really, what was taking so long? She’d expected to hear
or see something by now. Unless the wolves had found some situation in there
that they didn’t know how to handle and were taking the long way back? Or—oh,
no. Maybe they’d run into trouble? Sevana started rethinking the idea of
sending them into the unknown.

Two long howls pierced the night air, sounding unnaturally
loud. It sent her nerves, already stretched taut, jangling.

“Something’s wrong,” she and Decker said in unison, bursting
out of their hiding places and sprinting forward.

She ran for what looked to be an open space between two
trees and felt disoriented when magic washed across her skin and she felt no
resistance from the trees. Oh, the mirage, eh? Right. Wand in one hand, sword
in the other, she kept moving at a fast clip, swiveling her head back and forth
as she panned the area. No, no sign of movement at all. A feeling of unease
grew in her chest. “HINUN!”

The wolf let out a yip of acknowledgement, and she followed
the sound to him. He stood almost invisible in the open clearing, only his
gleaming eyes giving her something to pinpoint him by. She intended to go
directly to him, but at the last second realized something lay on the ground
between them. Skidding to a stop, she raised a foot to step over it before
realizing just
what
lay on the ground.

Bile rose in her throat as she stared for a long moment. A
man? No, a
corpse
. Horrified, she quickly looked about the clearing.
What she had mistaken for logs at first glance weren’t. Under the weak
moonlight, eight prone bodies lay deathly still.

Decker got over his shock faster than she, kneeling to check
the body nearest to him. “I’d say he’s been dead a good hour. I can’t find any
blood or obvious sign of injury, though. Magically killed?”

“There are several curses that can kill a man without
leaving a mark on him,” she answered past a dry mouth, not even really aware of
what she was saying. “An hour. They’ve been dead for the past hour?”

“No wonder your griffin didn’t see any signs of movement.”

She slowly sheathed the sword, eyes roving the clearing
again. “This is…”

“Disturbing?” Decker finished.

“Creepy. I was thinking creepy.” In fact, she would like
nothing better than to turn and leave immediately. But first— “The box. Do you
see the black box that has the gadgick?”

“No, but it’s hard to see much of anything. It might be
blending in with the ground.”

Or more likely was taken. The only explanation for this
scene that her mind could think up was that there had been a falling-out among
thieves and the box had been taken by the murderer. Nevertheless, they looked
diligently. Without needing to worry about discovery, Sevana now freely used
mage lights to brighten the area. But it was to no avail. The box didn’t turn
up at all.

Decker leaned down, resting on one knee, and put his hand on
the grass in an ‘L’ shape. “It rested here. See the indentation it left? We
tracked the right group.”

Tracker she was not. She didn’t see anything that would tell
him that, but took his word on it. “Hinun, Gid, can you find the scent of the
man that left here?”

The wolves circled about in confusion several times before
sitting down, clearly giving up. She swore several choice curses but didn’t
feel surprised. “He had time to mask his scent and erase any tracks. An hour
would be plenty of time to a skilled magician. We’re not going to find him
tonight.”

Decker grunted as he pushed his way back to his feet. “I
must agree. What now? Back to Chastain?”

“For now.” She rubbed at her forehead and hoped that the
image of this scene wouldn’t stick in her mind for long. Hoping for no
nightmares at all would probably be asking too much. “I can’t track this man, so
he might well get away with this, but I might still be able to get the gadgick
back.”

“How?” he asked in puzzlement.

“The black market. I imagine our murderer friend will take
it there.”

Decker seemed less than pleased with this. “The nearest
black market is in Belen. And it’s
huge
.”

“Don’t I know it.” She shrugged and waved the wolves to
follow her. With the black box gone, she had no desire to stay in this unburied
cemetery even a second longer. “But I have a contact there. I stand a better
chance of finding it there than tramping blindly out here in the woods. Come
along, Decker. We’re not going to do any good standing around out here.”

~ ~ ~

By the time that they made it back to Chastain, it was well
past dawn. Sevana had gone from tired, to exhausted, to grumpy. Night owl she
might be, but she still preferred to sleep every now and again! Besides that,
even though the sun stood in the sky, it held no warmth. She’d retreated back
under Decker’s jacket after a while, unable to stand the cold anymore. He had
to have been miserable too, as he didn’t argue or complain about her snuggling,
which meant he felt glad for the extra warmth.

Master must have been sitting in the main room of the inn,
watching for their return, as they’d barely turned into the square when he
appeared on the porch. She saw with relief that he’d cleaned the head wound
he’d gotten last night and that a simple bandage sufficed to keep it wrapped.
Painful as it might be, it wasn’t serious enough to keep him off his feet.

Decker reined in to a stop in front of the inn, the stallion
blowing out a grateful breath for finally coming to the end of the long night’s
trip. Sevana slid ungracefully to the ground, legs unnaturally stiff and sore from
the many hours of being rubbed raw.

“Those don’t look like victorious expressions to me,” Master
observed, eyes narrowed. “You didn’t find them, I take it.”

“Yes and no,” she responded, moving in slow steps onto the
porch. She could swear she heard her muscles creaking with every movement. “We
found them. Or, what was left of them.” Seeing his confusion, she quirked her
mouth up into a humorless smile. “Apparently they had a falling-out of some
sort, or they were ambushed, because when we caught up the whole ring of
thieves was dead.”

Master closed his eyes in understanding, looking as tired as
she felt. “I see. The gadgick is long gone, I take it?”

She nodded confirmation. “Whoever did it knew how to cover
their tracks well. Neither one of the wolves could pick up on it. We’ve only
got one last lead to explore if we have any hope of getting it back.”

He didn’t need her to spell it out for him. “The black
market. Yes, of course you’re right. But which one? Kindin’s or Belen’s?”

“Belen’s,” she said firmly. “If I were a thief, I’d go
there. They always get higher prices there, for one thing. But it’s also faster
to get to and a larger market than the one in Thirdcastle.”

He opened a hand, palm up, that ceded the point to her. “Go
ahead and rest. I’ll prepare for the trip.”

She cocked her head. “You’re not going.”

Master opened his mouth to protest but was interrupted by
Sarsen joining them on the porch. He looked like he’d slept in his clothes—he
likely had—and only the cup of hot tea in his hand gave him the energy to keep
going. “Oh, you’re back. No luck?”

“Do you see a string of bodies trailing in my wake?”

“Didn’t expect any,” he refuted, well used to dealing with
her when she was severely sleep deprived. “Knowing you, without anyone around
to stop you, you’d turn them all into toads.”

Well, granted, she had been planning to do so. “When we
caught up with them, they’d been killed and the gadgick stolen by assailant or
assailants unknown.”

Sarsen winced. “Which means we get to go hunting for this
thing on the black market? Oh, Aren and Bel are not going to like that. Not one
bit.”

“Do I look overjoyed to you?” Sevana crossed her arms over
her chest and glared at him venomously.

Sarsen, being a man of great wisdom, chose not to respond to
that and instead offered his tea. She took it and drained it one gulp, letting
the soothing and familiar taste warm her from the inside out. Ahhh, better. She
no longer felt homicidal.

“Sweetling,” Master started, clearly not liking the
implications of what she’d said, “What do you mean I’m not going?”

“To be clear, you shouldn’t go with me to Belen. I might be
wrong, or jumping to conclusions, and the thief will choose to go to the Kindin
market in Thirdcastle. In which case, we need to split up and search both.”

“But why should you go to Belen?” he pressed, not following.

Shouldn’t this be obvious? Oh wait, she’d never told him the
full story about that, had she? “Because I’ve been to Belen before and I know
where to go.”

Sarsen, who had gone with her and knew the full story
intimately well, snorted a laugh, which he tried to cover by faking a cough.
Master darted a look between them, suspicions growing. “You’ve been to Belen
before,” he repeated neutrally.

“That’s right.” All things considered, she didn’t feel like
going into the full story right this minute. In fact, she wanted to get the
details on this sorted so that she could crawl into a bed for a few hours and
sleep. “So it’s best I go to Harkin.”

“Wait, sweetling, I don’t understand why it’s
you
that has to go!” Master protested, looking downright uneasy. “This is a black
market. There are all sorts of scoundrels and rogues in that place. Even a
magician would tread cautiously.”

“I have to go,” she maintained, tone firm.

“Sweetling—”

Her free hand slashed to cut off the rest of his protest.
“Listen to me.
I have to go
. Not just because it’s still my job to deal
with the gadgick, not just because I’m afraid of what will happen if that thing
ends up in the wrong hands. I’m the only person who has actually handled it and
gotten a good look. Can you promise me that you could tell the real article
from a well forged fake after only getting a brief look at it?”

Master opened his mouth, paused, and grimaced.

She nodded her head in grim confirmation. “I thought not. I
need to go. Since Belen is the best place to unload this thing, I’ll go there.
On the off chance that I’m wrong, you go to Kindin as you’re the only other
person who had a look at the gadgick. Besides, I have a…contact at the Belen
black market.”

Sarsen’s chest jerked as he struggled not to laugh. “Oh,
yes. She does at that.”

Master looked between the two of them, brows quirked in
confusion. “Did I miss something?”

She rubbed at her forehead, feeling a headache coming on. Oh
had he ever. “Do you remember that first year I was in Big? Before I taught him
how to handle intruders properly and I had a group of thieves come through and
steal a lot of things from me?”

He gave a cautious nod as the memory came back to him. “Yes…”
he said slowly, tone tilting it up into a question. “You never did tell me the
full story on that. Just that Sarsen helped you track the thieves down.”

“Well, and we did, but they’d already unloaded everything at
the black market in Belen. I had to contact the owner of the place to negotiate
getting everything back.” The twinges blew out into a full headache and she
grimaced. “He’s, well, um…”

“An ardent admirer of Sev’s,” Sarsen offered, finally losing
the battle and chuckling.

She groaned and shook her head. “That’s far too tame of a
description. Anyway, if I show up on his doorstep looking for something, he’ll
bend over backward to help me. So this isn’t as dangerous as you think it will
be, Master.” Just very inconvenient. The culture of Belen said that unless a
woman was of a very low station, she should not run around unescorted. She either
had to be in a party of women or in the company of a man. Sevana, to preserve
her working reputation in that country,
had
to go with either Sarsen or
some other male. She’d call Kip up here if she needed to—although it would be
an unnecessary delay in a situation where time counted—but regardless, someone
had to go with her.

Master didn’t look the least bit reassured with her words.
“Just who is this man?”

This would start a whole other round, but…. With a sigh she
capitulated and said, “Count Romano Rizzo Conti de Luca.”