Which left either Wrenlow or Jessica. Gavin had a hard time thinking that Wrenlow would be responsible for that. He turned in place and saw Jessica working at one of the back tables, folding cloth napkins. He supposed he wouldn’t put it past her to do that.
Maybe she wanted to keep him in the city more than she had let on. Now that he’d ruled out Gaspar and doubted it was Wrenlow, he had to question her. He started to get up from the table.
The door to the tavern opened, and Desarra walked in.
Gaspar’s back was to the door. He shot a look at Gavin. “You’re just going to get up and go away?”
“I need to talk to Jessica, and I figure you have your own issues to deal with.”
“What sort of issues…”
Gaspar trailed off as he turned to see where Gavin was looking. He jumped up when he saw Desarra standing at the entrance.
“Who is that?” Wrenlow asked as Gavin walked past him.
“Gaspar’s ex-wife.”
“Oh,” Wrenlow whispered.
Gavin took a seat by Jessica. He grabbed a stack of towels and began to fold them. “I had an interesting experience today.”
“What was that?”
“A note was delivered about a job. I went out to find the meeting point, and I was attacked. It seemed as if the attackers were trying to test me.”
“I suppose that in your line of work, they need to make sure you’re everything they believe you to be.”
“Maybe,” Gavin said, looking over to Jessica. “But the man who ultimately wanted to hire me wanted me to find something.”
“Find something?”
Gavin nodded. “It seems as if he heard rumors that I can be hired to find things in the city. I wonder where a rumor like that started.”
“I don’t know. Yoran can be a strange place. When rumors start, oftentimes they spread and—”
Gavin reach across the table and took Jessica’s hand. “Did you spread that rumor?”
She looked over, meeting his eyes. “Why would I spread a rumor like that? You don’t need my help finding jobs.”
“I don’t, but I wonder if you’re trying to get me to take a different kind of job.”
“Gavin—”
“I understand what you’re trying to do.”
“I’m not trying to do anything.”
“You want me to stay here at the Dragon. With you.” He smiled at her, and Jessica didn’t return it.
She had stopped folding the towels. She rested her hands on the folded ones and looked at him. “I don’t know what you think I might’ve done, but I’m not responsible. If there are rumors about you, then they came from a different source.”
“If you say so,” Gavin said.
“Gavin—”
“I took the job.”
“You did?”
“It’s not going to be easy, but seeing how well it pays, I thought I might need the money later on. Anyway, it involves me trying to dig for information about an enchantress. Zella.”
There was a flicker on her face. Jessica recognized the name.
“Who is she?” he asked.
“I don’t really know. I… I’ve heard the name before, though I don’t know why.”
“The man who hired me had some magical ability. I don’t know if he was a minor sorcerer or if he was only an enchanter, but he made the El’aras dagger light up.”
“You still use that thing?”
“It seems like I need to. Considering everything we’ve gone through, and especially considering everything I’ve gone through, having something that can reveal when magic is used around me is beneficial.”
“So the dagger glowed around him.”
“It did. Which tells me that not only does he have some magical ability, but he has enough to trigger the blade.”
“And he wants you to find this Zella.”
“No. The job wasn’t to find Zella. The job was to find something called the jade egg.”
“Do you think you can?”
Gavin shrugged. “I might be able to. I don’t know. I’ll have Wrenlow look into it, and even if we can’t, it doesn’t really matter.”
“Why not?”
“Because he paid me part up front.”
Jessica leaned forward. “Be careful, Gavin. If you took money from an enchanter or a sorcerer, you need to complete the job.”
“I have plenty of experience with them,” he said. “And I know what I need to do.”
“I just want to make sure you aren’t going to do something foolish.”
Gavin held her gaze before glancing over at Gaspar sitting at the far table. “I don’t think he’s that thrilled that Desarra came here.”
Jessica paused, resting her hands on the table. “I’m surprised she returned to the Dragon.”
“Returned?” Gavin asked, watching Gaspar.
Jessica nodded slowly, tapping her hand on the table. “Back when they were together, she used to spend quite a bit of time here.”
He still didn’t know that much about Gaspar, but Desarra didn’t strike him as the kind of person that would’ve been with the old thief. “What happened between them?”
Jessica shrugged. “I don’t know all the details. All I know is that something changed. He doesn’t like to talk about it, and it was before I truly owned the tavern.”
He frowned. “Who owned it before you?”
“My aunt.”
“The tavern has been in your family?”
Jessica smiled. “I lost my parents back in the…” She squeezed her eyes shut, shaking her head. “It doesn’t matter. My aunt owned the tavern, and when she died, she gave it to me. I’ve done my best to try to do right by her. In the time that I’ve owned it, I’ve known Gaspar in various roles.”
“You’ve seen him change.”
“I have. He started stealing.”
Gavin laughed. “What do you mean that he started stealing?”
“He wasn’t always a thief, Gavin.”
“What was he before?” He couldn’t imagine Gaspar as anything other than the thief that he was. It seemed fitting for him.
“You don’t know?”
Gavin shook his head. “Gaspar and I don’t have that kind of friendship, if it even is a friendship. He doesn’t talk much about anything. Maybe that’s because he’s just old.”
“He’s always been that way.”
“Old?”
She laughed softly. “You know what I mean.”
“What was he before he became a thief?”
Given his skill, Gavin couldn’t imagine him doing anything else. Whatever he’d done would’ve been part of the underground—the
