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TWO VOICES GREW SLOWLY clearer as Saboraak and I leaned into the rock, trying our best to seem small.
“There are more coming today,” the first voice said. A woman. She sounded irritated. “And we don’t have room for the last ones. Someone needs to tell Shabren that even magic workers can’t add more rooms to a house and we can’t house them here. This is a shop and our enemies can easily send spies here.”
Shabren? What did this place have to do with him? He seemed to have feelers out everywhere. How could he have established himself so strongly in a matter of days?
“I don’t think he’ll listen,” the other voice said dryly – a man this time. “He says we need to move as many into the city as we can. You heard what happened to Aricas and Hriden. If we don’t figure out what is causing the leakage, then we’ll end up the same way.”
“Stuffing the safehouse to the gills won’t help with that, Cormaz.”
“Bringing in more Magikas might.”
The woman sighed. “Fine. I’ll keep this room shut off for the rest of the day, but if our friends don’t arrive by nightfall, then I need to open it up. We need the supply baskets that go through the floor here and without those supplies, we will all starve.”
“You can buy food in the markets today.”
Their voices were fading again.
“At those prices?”
A door shut behind them and we both let out a sigh of relief. I should look inside that trapdoor. Whatever was in that room was important. Perhaps it was a doorway like the one we used to arrive in Ko’Koren.
Or perhaps the woman simply meant that people would be coming up whatever baskets are cranked up the mountainside on that cable. We need to hurry, or we will be found.
Then we needed disguises.
Before I finished the thought, Saboraak was already morphing, her neck and tail extending and a wide frill sprouting out around her head. A pair of tentacle-like antennae grew out of her head and her skin grew a little less thick and burnished to a bright gold.
Perfect. Now it’s your turn.
I tried to ignore the call of the room as I pulled the cloak off and fashioned it into a skirt around my waist. The scarf morphed easily into a veil. Like magic, I was a girl.
Saboraak turned to give me a very dry look with one of her huge eyes.
You aren’t fooling me.
Yes, but she could read my mind. The key was to fool other people.
She kept staring at me.
Or ... I could go up that trapdoor and see what was up there myself. It was probably something amazing ... and maybe there would be clothing I could borrow.
No. Let’s go.
But people would still be on the lookout for a single dragon and rider. Perhaps if I took a passenger? Two people would surprise anyone watching.
I don’t have a saddle.
Then let’s find someone who won’t care. We flew slowly up out of the fog. Early daylight painted the cool tones of the city and snow had piled on the steeply sloped roofs and on the railings lining the narrow boardwalks.
We leveled off beside the ramps going up and down along the edge of the mountain. I scanned the up-ramp. The people with yudazgoats and carts wouldn’t need us. And no one who was already in a group would want to leave their friends. I needed someone who wouldn’t talk ... hmmm.
It helps to be a petty criminal when you are looking for a petty criminal. I noticed the signs immediately. One man walked on his own, his eyes on everyone but himself. He was likely a pickpocket or some other kind of thief. That was a man who would take a ride from a strange dragon.
Saboraak flew up to him and I gestured to him to join me on the dragon as Saboraak moved up to a bend in the ramp and settled down on it. The man looked around him, swallowing, watching to see who might notice, but after a heartbeat he joined us, a smile on his face.
“Are you offering me a ride?” I could see his eyes twinkling as he mentally added up what a dragon would be worth if he could steal it from an unsuspecting woman.
I was doing my own mental math. Older than me by at least ten years. No weapon, unless there was a knife hidden somewhere. He was heavier than I was, but I was faster.
How do you know?
I am always faster.
I beckoned with a hand and hoped my actions looked feminine enough.
You look ridiculous.
But not too ridiculous. The man shrugged and mounted.
“May I say what a lovely sight you are, my lady!” he said and when I didn’t respond he tried again. “Are you by any chance, a Zyvaar? Do your oaths bind your tongue? Will you take me two levels up? The climb is difficult in the cold.”
I nodded, hoping it would be enough as Saboraak launched into the air. The man behind me made a sickly sound in his throat as we slipped into the air. I turned back to see him green and sweating, but his eyes were still focused as he calculated his next move. Greed was a great lever. If someone wanted something – money, popularity, the good opinions of others, power – it was easy to use that as a lever to move them where you wanted them to go. He wanted something from me so I could convince him to mount a strange dragon. What lever would he try to use on me?
We were both silent as Saboraak climbed toward the dragon cotes.
“I don’t know why you wished to offer me a ride up through the city, lady, but it is appreciated,” the man tried to say. “Have you heard the latest news?”
I kept the alluring silence.
Good. Your voice would be the opposite of alluring right now.
Long minutes stretched as the man tried to make small talk.
“A person appeared in the city last night and displayed the Ko in the sacred place. You know what that means! He has declared his mastery of one of the sacred doorways. The Exalted are worried – and they should be. No one has challenged them in a hundred years!”
I could see a large structure ahead, shaped a lot like a honeycomb.
The dragon cotes. We will join our friends there.
“I am Apeq A’kona,” the man said as the silence on my end remained. “I sell marvels out of my shop in the seventh level. Perhaps you would like to come and see them, lady.”
If by ‘marvels,’ he meant items that had been pawned, I had no doubt he was telling the truth.
You might have need of someone like this, Tor.
Now that was surprising! Saboraak was the most straight-laced straight-lacer I’d ever met. Was she really suggesting that I maintain a friendship with a criminal?
I think he is more than he seems. And you only assumed he was a criminal by his behavior. You have no evidence. I’m starting to think you are tremendously lucky, Tor. First, you survive what should have been your death. Now, you run into someone who we might need.
Need?
Ask him about the cormorants.
I didn’t dare ask him anything! He’d know in a second that I was not a girl!
I think he already does. I’m afraid your figure is not shaped like a human female’s. Is that insulting?
No!
I think that Zyla’s password with her contact is cormorant. She keeps using it when she meets new people as if she is trying to connect with them.
And what made Saboraak think this man was Zyla’s contact? The man in question was rattling on about the various jade carvings he had bought over the decades.
You were right to think that he was watching people. But I do not think it’s because he is a criminal. You were also right to think you saw a glitter in his eyes at our appearance. And yet. I think it was for a different reason.
Just spit it out! Saboraak could learn a few things about being direct.
I think he was out here looking for Zyla. I think he is wondering if you are her in disguise.
No ...
Whatever you do, do it quickly. We are almost at the cotes. If he is only a criminal, we must set him loose before we enter. If he is Zyla’s contact, he should go straight to her. Either way, he has been a good cover. The guards hardly notice us.
It was true. The guards around the cotes did nothing more than glance in our direction. The place was guarded and tended by men and women in livery.
They are paid a fee for the care and protection of the ‘animals’ here. Tell me that isn’t insulting!
I swallowed and then turned back to Apeq.
“Do you have any cormorants in your jade collection?” I asked in my sweetest feminine voice.
His mouth twisted slightly. I felt my face flushing. My voice work needed some improvement.
“As a matter of fact,” he said with a smirk, “I do. And it’s my understanding that I owe you some fine pieces.”
Now what?
How should I know?
Can’t you read his mind? Agh! Saboraak was frustrating. Why was she so tied up with ethics all the time?
It doesn’t work like that. It’s not that I won’t get you your answer. It’s that I can’t.
If only he’d say something more. I licked my lips from behind the veil, nerves making them dry. Maybe if I held his gaze, he would say something more. People always wanted to fill in the gaps in conversation.
“After all, they were paid in advance on your behalf when our mutual friend was here,” Apeq said with a smile.
I tilted my head to the side, urging him to continue. I was not going to risk speaking again. I sounded like a strangled cat.
Eventually, his face paling, he added, “Hubric.”
My eyes shut for a moment in pure relief. We would have orders. We would finally know what we were supposed to be doing!