“You aren’t from Yoran. I’ll let that much slide. You don’t understand the nature of magic within the city. You don’t understand the danger that exists here.”
“I might understand it better than you do. Besides, the constables were pretty useless when the city was attacked by a sorcerer not that long ago.”
Davel’s eyes narrowed.
Gavin cocked his head to the side, noting the steadily approaching constables. They weren’t rushing toward him, which suggested they were trying to take up positions around him. He was going to have to act quickly if he was going to do anything at all.
“You didn’t know about that, did you?” he asked. “You had a sorcerer active in the city. From what I understand, it’s been quite a while since you’ve had any sorcerers active here, and that kind of oversight wouldn’t look very good for the constables.”
“What are you getting at?” Davel asked.
“You have another sorcerer active in the city.”
“We would know.”
Gavin scoffed. “Like you knew about the first one?”
“There wasn’t another sorcerer.”
“I beg to differ. In fact, there were two, though one of them didn’t really step foot in Yoran, so I suppose that doesn’t count.”
Davel glared at him.
“It doesn’t count, does it?”
“No.”
Gavin readied to move. He would have to fight a little, though hopefully not so much as to hurt anyone more than he had. “Do you have some sort of agreement with sorcerers that keeps them from Yoran?”
“Only if they wish to live,” Davel replied.
“I’ll take that as a yes. That’s what the egg is for?”
It had to be more than just to provide enchantments. That might be part of it, but enchantments alone wouldn’t be enough to make it as valuable as it seemed to be to everyone.
“With the power of the egg, we’ve prevented sorcerers from gaining traction within Yoran. You don’t know what it was like when they were here before.”
“I can imagine,” Gavin said softly. Having seen sorcerers rule elsewhere, he knew it was never pretty.
“If you can imagine, then you know the only way for the city to be safe is to keep sorcery at bay.”
“By using enchanters. A weaker form of the same damn magic.”
“It’s not the same,” Davel said.
“You can tell yourself that. It doesn’t make it true.”
Davel glared at him.
Gavin just shook his head. “Anyway, the sorcerer active in the city now goes by the name of the Mistress of Vines.”
Gavin watched him, trying to gauge his reaction, but it was difficult. Davel’s blank expression as he stared at Gavin was surprising. He was far more neutral than expected.
Not just neutral, but skillfully so.
Impressive.
“Given your lack of response, I’m guessing you’ve heard the name before, and that tells me that you aren’t altogether surprised she’s active in the city. Interesting.”
“You’ve seen her.”
“Seen her? She hired me.”
Davel stared. “You’re working for the Mistress of Vines?”
“I didn’t know I was, and even now, I’m not so sure I want to be, but she did ask me to protect someone, so…” Gavin shrugged. “I figure I need to do that much at least.”
“Who did she ask you to protect?”
“Client confidentiality. I’m sure you can understand. I don’t imagine you want too many other people knowing that you hired me to recover the egg. For that matter, I doubt you want too many other people knowing you lost the egg in the first place.”
“I didn’t lose it.”
“No? Then who did? Someone must have taken it.”
Davel stared at him.
“Your constables are pretty good at being neutral like you. James thought he was going to get away with that, too, didn’t you, James,” Gavin said, raising his voice to carry down the street. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw James hesitate. Gavin smiled. “I didn’t mean to hurt him. I was trying to gather information. Seeing as how you used me, I figure you’d understand.”
“What did you do to him?”
“Nothing he won’t recover from. I don’t think I permanently maimed his balls, though honestly, sometimes I lose track.”
“Enough,” Davel said. “If you know how to find Zella and the Mistress of Vines, then you need to tell us.”
“Or what?”
“I think you know.”
Gavin took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “Why did you hire me?”
“What was that?”
Gavin flicked his gaze around again. He didn’t have much time left. “Why did you hire me?”
“Because you have a reputation as being someone who’s incredibly skilled and who can work with magical items. I’ll admit, I hadn’t heard much about you before, but the information came from a reputable source.”
“What source was that?”
Davel said nothing.
Gavin almost shook his head. If all of this was because of rumors spread around the city about him, and maybe by Jessica… “So you heard I was a tracker. That was it.”
Chan frowned at him. “Is that not the case?”
“Unfortunately for you, no.”
Gavin focused on the core reserves of power, that magic he might possess, and he summoned it as the constables came toward him. He burst forward with a jump.
The jump carried him up and over the constables, back toward the alley. He landed and spun, and he dropped the nearest two constables with a kick. He slammed his fist into the next constable, turned around, and drove a punch into another. By the time the constables reacted, he’d already knocked out the fourth one.
It left only Davel Chan, who stood watching him. There was a hint of amusement in his eyes. He drove forward.
The man was fast. When Gavin had faced the enchanters, they had moved quickly, but this was something else. His enchantments were incredible. He darted forward so fast that Gavin could barely keep up.
Gavin scrambled to follow the movements, and he was forced down the alley, blocking each attempt, trying to parry each blow.
“Where is the egg?” Chan
