“About what?” Juliana came up behind us, looking grim. “What am I right about?”
“Nothing,” Gabby said, quickly.
“Really.” Juliana shook her head. She sounded more resigned than angry. “She’s been pestering everyone to teach her magic.”
I nodded. I’d wanted to learn magic at a young age, too. “It will come, in time.”
“Yes,” Juliana agreed. “Can you go fetch our supplies? Gabby can go with you. She knows what to get.”
“Of course,” I said. It was my duty - and besides, it would give me a chance to see the town properly. “We’ll be back before you know it.”
Gabby seemed oddly nervous, the moment we stepped outside the marketplace. The fear struck us like a physical blow. It permeated the air, even on the magical streets. She clutched my hand and I let her, as my eyes scanned for threats. There were none. I couldn’t even see any footpads or pickpockets lurking in the alleyways. The handful of people on the streets shot us sidelong looks as we passed, but did nothing. It was astonishing. I’d never known a vibrant magical community to be so ... quenched.
We kept walking, passing a handful of shops. Some were boarded up. One, I noted, belonged to Mistress Layla. She - or someone - had put up strong wards, in hopes of keeping out intruders. I tested them gently, then made a mental note to go back after dark to properly search the shop. The wards didn’t feel very individualistic. There was something so ... formal ... about their construction that suggested they’d been put together from a textbook. It was odd. An alchemist would normally tune their wards to meet their needs.
Unless she had something she wanted to hide, I thought. It wasn’t uncommon. Mistress Layla might easily have gotten bored and started to experiment, pushing the limits to see how far she could go. Or someone in town might have been spying on her. That wasn’t uncommon, either. She might have cloaked the real protections behind half-assed wards.
I put the thought aside for later consideration as we reached one of the few shops that were still open and stepped inside. Gabby cheered up the moment the door closed behind us, running to the jars of sweets the owner had conveniently placed by the counter. I smiled, then turned my attention to the shelves. The general store had everything a caravan could need, from camping gear to basic magical supplies. Gabby collected everything we needed, then shot me a beseeching look. I smiled again and ordered her a bag of local sweets. Her mother wouldn’t mind.
“We’re new in town,” I said, as I paid for our supplies. “What’s been happening recently?”
The shopkeeper paled, then frantically shook his head. I sighed, realising he wasn’t going to tell me anything. I could have made him talk - his wards weren’t strong enough to stop me - but that would have been far too revealing. I had no idea what was going on. Instead, I took the bag and headed to the door. Gabby joined me as we stepped outside. The sky was shading to dusk. It wouldn’t be long before it was completely dark.
A pair of shapes stepped out of the alleyway, blocking our way. “What do you have in that bag?”
Gabby shrank back against me. I frowned as the two guards approached. They looked professional, but also ... scared? It was hard to be sure. They weren’t frightened of me, but ...
“Open the bag,” the leader ordered. Behind him, the street cleared rapidly. “Now.”
Cold logic told me I should do as they said, to maintain my cover. I ignored it. Guards couldn’t be allowed to harass magicians on the streets. It set a terrible precedent. I reached out with my mind, assessing their defences. Someone had given them charmed armour. It wasn’t a bad design, but it wasn’t anything like as effective as they thought. I could have done a better job in my sleep. They’d left so much of their skin exposed, it would’ve been easy to kill them.
Instead, I cast a compulsion charm. “You have searched our bags and found nothing,” I told them. Their eyes went dull as the charm took effect. I could have made them say or do or believe anything. The temptation to cast an incontinence charm was almost overwhelming. I resisted it, somehow. “And now you will let us go.”
They looked stunned as I caught Gabby’s hand and led her past the guards, casting a second charm to scramble their memories on the way. I wasn’t concerned about a small army of guardsmen showing up to arrest me - I doubted they’d try to arrest a traveller, not for something as minor as charming a guard - but I didn’t want to attract attention. By the time the guards worked out what had happened, their memories of the last few minutes would be so thoroughly scrambled they wouldn’t recognise me if I walked up and punched them in the face. There’d be no way they could point a finger at us.
Gabby held out the bag as we reached the caravan. “Mum? You want one?”
Juliana took a sweet, then glanced at me. “Will you be joining us for dinner?”
“No, thank you,” I said. It was tempting, but I had work to do. Somehow, I doubted the convoy would be staying much longer. I’d have to ditch them if they left early, which would make maintaining my cover a little more problematic. “I need to go have a night on the town.”
Chapter Three
