The Ambassador's Mission

the story, or refusing to. The irony of that wasn’t lost on him. Regin was not a person he’d have ever expected to thank for being considerate.

At the end of the long corridor they climbed stairs to the upper floor of the old building. Skellin led them to a closed door. He paused as he took hold of the handle and looked at Sonea and Regin.

“Ready?”

The two magicians nodded.

Skellin opened the door and stepped through, then moved aside quickly as if eager not to be caught between the magicians and their quarry. Cery followed Sonea and Regin into a room filled with crates, lit with lamps set around the room. Four people had turned to see who had entered. Three were men and one was a woman wearing a cloak, the hood up and shadowing all but the dark skin of her chin and jaw. Two of the men looked unconcerned and unsurprised at the interruption. The third man looked from Skellin to the magicians, his gaze dropping to their robes. He looked shocked and frightened.

But the woman’s reaction was the most dramatic. She backed away, then raised her arms as if to ward off a blow. The air vibrated faintly. Sonea and Regin exchanged a knowing look. That was some sort of magical attack, Cery guessed. The magicians turned their attention back to the woman. She yelped in surprise and tucked her arms in against her sides.

Or is that an involuntary movement? Cery thought. She looks as if something invisible is wrapped around her.

The magicians paused as if waiting for something, but nothing happened. Sonea glanced at Regin again, then walked over to the woman.

“What is your name?” she asked.

“F-Forlie,” the woman answered, her voice trembling.

“Did you know, Forlie, that all magicians in the Allied Lands must be members of the Magicians’ Guild?”

The woman swallowed audibly and nodded.

“Why aren’t you a member?” Sonea asked. There was no accusation in her voice, just curiosity.

The woman blinked, then her head turned toward Skellin. “I... I didn’t want to.”

Sonea smiled, and while it was a reassuring smile there was a sadness to it. “We have to take you to the Guild now. They won’t harm you, but you have broken a law. They’ll have to decide what to do with you. If you cooperate it will be better for you in the long run. Will you come with us quietly?”

Forlie nodded. Sonea reached out a hand to her. Whatever force Sonea or Regin had kept her arms fixed against her body with was removed and the woman’s shoulders relaxed. Tentatively, she reached out to take Sonea’s hand. The two of them walked over to Regin. Everyone in the room breathed a sigh of relief. Skellin looked pleased, Cery noted. Sonea and Regin looked grim but also relieved. Forlie...

Cery frowned, then walked over to the woman and tugged off her hood. He felt a shock as he saw her face.

“This isn’t her. This isn’t the rogue.”

There was a pause, then Skellin coughed. “Of course it is. She used magic, didn’t she?” He looked at Sonea and Regin.

“She did,” Regin agreed.

“Then there must be two rogues,” Cery said. “It might’ve been dark when I saw her, but Forlie doesn’t look anything like the woman I saw doing magic.”

“She has dark skin and she is the right age. You only saw her from above. How can you be so sure?”

“The shape of her face is all wrong.” The woman’s skin was lighter, too. She had Lonmar bloodlines, he guessed, and their typical physique. But the woman he’d seen in the pawnshop had an entirely different build. “She’s too tall.” And too meek to my family’s killer.

“You didn’t tell me this before,” Skellin pointed out.

Cery looked at him. “I guess I didn’t think it was worth going into detail, if there was only one woman using magic in the city.”

“It would have been useful to know.” For a moment a scowl crossed Skellin’s face, then he sighed and shrugged. “Well, I guess it’ll still be useful. You can identify the other one for us.”

Looking at Sonea, Cery saw she was shaking her head in dismay. He remembered how concerned she was that she might be discovered wandering about the city without permission. Once she brought this rogue to the Guild, they would know she’d defied their restrictions.

“Is this going to be a problem for you?” he asked.

“We’ll make sure it isn’t,” Regin replied firmly. “But it may be a problem for you. Once word gets out that we have caught this w—” He glanced at the woman. “Forlie,” he corrected. “The other rogue will be more cautious. She will not be so easy to find.”

“Not that she was in the first place,” Skellin added.

Regin looked at the Thief. “Will you assist us again?”

“Of course,” Skellin smiled.

As the magician’s gaze shifted to him, Cery bowed. “As always.”

“Then we’ll be waiting for your next message,” Sonea said. “In the meantime, we need to get back to the Guild as quickly as possible.” Her eyes flitted away. Following her gaze, Cery saw that the light of dawn was filtering through windows all around the room.

“Yes. Go,” Skellin said. He waved a hand dismissively at the three men still standing over by the crates, watching with bemused expressions. “Continue your work,” he said to them. “Now, let me escort you out,” he said to the magicians. “Come this way.”

Forlie said nothing as she walked with the magicians and Thieves. They backtracked down the stairs, along the wide corridor, and into the room they’d spent most of the night in. The magicians retrieved their coats and stepped into the alley outside. Skellin wished them all well and said he would be in contact as soon as he had something to tell them. At the end of the alley, Cery stopped.

“Good luck and all that,” he said to Sonea. “I’ll be in touch.”

She smiled. “Thanks for your help, Cery.”

He shrugged, then turned away and strode to where Gol was waiting, concealed in the shadows of a doorway opposite the old butchery building.

“Who was that?” the big man asked, stepping out to meet Cery.

“Black Magician Sonea and Lord Regin.”

“Not them.” Gol rolled his eyes. “The woman.”

“The rogue.”

“No she isn’t.”

“Not our rogue. Another one.”

“You’re joking with me?”

Cery shook his head. “Wish I was. Seems we’re still on the hunt for our rogue. I’ll explain later. Let’s get home. It’s been a long night.”

“Sure has,” Gol muttered. He looked back. Following his gaze, Cery saw that Regin and Sonea were still standing by their cart.

“That’s odd. Sonea was in a hurry to get back,” Cery said.

“This whole thing has been odd from the start,” Gol complained.

He’s right, Cery thought. And nothing more odd than Forlie herself. The way she looked at Skellin when Sonea asked her a question... as if looking to him for instruction.

There was no doubt about it. Something wasn’t right. But they had caught a rogue magician. Maybe not the rogue magician he suspected had something to do with the death of his family, but at least there was one less rogue available for hire by unscrupulous characters like himself. Life in the city’s underworld was dangerous enough without magicians hiring themselves out.

Though it would be handy having one to call on now and then. It might make finding my family’s killer a lot easier.

One thing he was sure of, though. The other rogue would not be so easy to catch.