The Ambassador's Mission

Moving to the mass of roots, he straightened and peered through them. A Sachakan man was standing beside a horse, staring at something below him. His clothing was not the decorated garb of an Ashaki, but it was well made and more practical for riding.

Then Lorkin saw the knife on the man’s belt. His mouth went dry.

“Get up,” the Ashaki said.

From the ground before him, Tyvara rose. Lorkin fought the urge to rush after her. She’s a magician. A black magician. She can look after herself. And probably more easily if she doesn’t have me to protect at the same time.

“What are you doing here?” the man demanded.

Her reply was meek and quiet.

“Where’s your water bottle? Your supplies?”

“I put them down. Now I can’t find them.”

The man regarded her thoughtfully. “Come here,” he said finally.

She took a step closer, her shoulders stooped. Lorkin felt his heart freeze as the man placed his hands either side of her head. I should stop this. He’ll learn who we are. But why would she let him read her mind? Surely once she knew what he intended she would have fought him off?

After a moment the man let her go.

“Seems you are as stupid as you say. Follow me. I’ll take you back to the road.”

As the man turned away to mount his horse, Tyvara glanced back at Lorkin and smiled. The triumph in her expression blew away his earlier alarm. He watched as she meekly followed the man away into the forest. When they were no longer in sight Lorkin turned and sat down on one of the thicker lower roots of the tree.

“Stay hidden. Stay here,” she said. I guess she means she’ll come back once the magician has led her to the road and gone on his way. He looked up at the position of the sunlight streaming between the trees and decided that, if she wasn’t back within what he estimated was an hour, he’d set out in search of her.

It was a long hour. Time dragged by. Sunbeams raked the undergrowth with excruciating slowness. As the mud dried, he scratched and brushed it off his skin and clothes. He tried to stop himself imagining what might happen to her, if the magician discovered who and what she was. He tried not to worry that the magician would find out he was here, come back for him and...

“Good to see you know how to follow orders,” a voice said behind him.

He whirled about to find her standing on top of the stump, smiling down at him. Heart pounding in his chest, he watched her step out into thin air and float down to hover in front of him.

“How did you do that?” he asked.

She frowned and glanced at the shimmering disc of magic just visible beneath her feet. “Same way you did.”

“Not levitation. Stopping him from reading your mind.”

“Ah. That.” She rolled her eyes. “Don’t you remember me telling you we have a way of making mind-readers see what we want them to see?”

He thought back to the first place they’d hidden, and of the other slave women. “Ah. Yes, I do. Some sort of blood gem, right?”

She smiled. “Might be. Might not be.”

Blood gem. Lorkin’s heart skipped. I could have used Mother’s ring while she was gone, but I forgot all about it! He’d been too concerned about Tyvara. He cursed under his breath.

“What is it?” she asked.

He shook his head. “What if it had been me he’d spotted? My mind he’d read?”

“I’d have stopped him.” She shrugged. “While it’s always best to avoid confrontation, that isn’t always possible.”

“You’d fight him? Wouldn’t that draw attention to us?”

“It might.” She waved a hand at their surroundings. “But we’re well hidden. I’d try to finish him off quickly.”

“You’d kill him?”

“Of course. He’d come after us if I didn’t.”

“And when his body was discovered, someone else would come after us. Wouldn’t it be better overall if I could hide my thoughts?”

She chuckled. “Even if I was prepared to give the Traitors another reason to be angry with me, even if I thought we couldn’t reach Sanctuary without me revealing this secret to you, I couldn’t do it. I simply don’t have the materials or the time.”

He felt his heart skip. “It’s like a blood gem, isn’t it?”

She rolled her eyes again. “Lie down and go to sleep, Lorkin.”

He looked down at the mud, then up at her in disbelief.

“I was only joking, when I said it made a soft bed.”

She sighed and waved a hand at him.

“Stand back.”

He obeyed, sitting back on his former perch and, guessing what she planned to do, lifting his feet and soggy shoes out of the mud. Soon the air above the sludge began to mist. For a while they were bathed in hot steam, then the air cleared and he saw that only cracked, dried earth remained. Tyvara stepped off the disc of magic under her feet onto the hardened ground. She tapped her foot.

“Get some sleep while you can,” she said. “I’ll wake you in a few hours, then you can watch. I don’t think our host will return any time soon, but he clearly likes taking rides around his estate. We had better keep an eye out for him.”

Sighing, Lorkin lay down on the hard ground, and tried to do as she suggested.

A gentle autumn rain began to patter down on the garden at Sunny House, but the small stone shelter Cery and Skellin were sitting within kept them dry. Gol stood nearby, blinking rain out of his eyes as he watched Skellin’s bodyguard standing on the opposite side of the shelter. They were alone, the locals keeping indoors in the drab weather and the owner of the land mumbling to himself in another corner of the garden.

As Cery finished his brief description of what he and Gol had seen from the roof of the pawnshop, Skellin looked thoughtful.

“A woman, eh? Did you get a good look at her?”

Cery shrugged. “It was dark and we were watching from above, but I reckon I could pick her again. She’s got dark skin and hair. About this tall...” Cery held out a hand to indicate.

“Now that you know she has magic, how do you plan to catch her?”

“Oh, I only have to find her.” Cery shrugged. “It’s up to the Guild to capture rogue magicians. Which is just as well, because if she is the Thief Hunter neither you nor I have a hope of stopping her.”

Skellin’s eyes flashed with interest. “You’re working for the Guild!”

“Helping the Guild. If I was working for them I’d expect to be paid.”

“You’re not being paid?” Skellin shook his head and his expression became serious. “I suppose there are other benefits. When I heard about your family I figured you’d be looking for revenge. Your search for the murderer turned into a search for the Thief Hunter and now your search for the Thief Hunter has turned into a search for a rogue magician.”

“It’s been a wild few weeks,” Cery replied.

“I hope you’ll forgive me pointing out you’ve got a little off track.”

Cery nodded. “It still may turn out that the three are the same person. I guess we’ll find out once we’ve caught her.”

“If you can get the truth out of her.”

Cery opened his mouth to remind Skellin that black magicians were able to read the minds of unwilling subjects, then thought better of it. No point giving away that nugget of information until he had to. “Are you