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The scent of rain on warm stones hung over the city and mixed with its usual aroma of spices. It had been early morning when the thunderstorm finally stopped. Now, people moved about on their usual morning activities while the sun did its best to soak up the puddles.
“Him,” Zaina said and nodded towards a frazzled-looking man with a body shape that would make the average reed envious.
“You sure?” I asked.
“Yes. Now hurry before he makes it into Blackspire.”
After a quick nod to the Pernish smuggler, I grabbed a fistful of Elaran’s shirt and pulled him with me as I started out. “Let’s go.”
The grumpy elf yanked his sleeve from my grip but followed. We weaved through the crowd and towards our target as fast as we could without drawing attention.
“What am I even supposed to say?” Elaran muttered.
“I don’t know,” I answered. “Just make something up.”
“Just make something up?” He drew his eyebrows down and cast me an irritated look. “Not everyone has lying as their second language.”
“Now you’re just being dramatic. You just need to stall for a minute or two. How hard can it be?”
“It’s–” Elaran began but I interrupted whatever protest he had planned by giving his arm a hard shove.
“You’ll be fine. Now get going before we lose him.”
The elf muttered profanities under his breath but picked up the pace and circled around the group of women with stained aprons that separated us from the reed-thin man we were following. I continued moving with the stream of people. The merry chatter around me would soon be replaced by panic. Norah had made a great point. I did feel a bit bad for all the ordinary people who would get caught up in this scheme. Oh, well. Eggs. Omelets. You know.
“Excuse me,” Elaran said a few paces ahead of me.
The frazzled-looking man drew up short as a tall elf stepped into his path. “Yes?”
“I’m meeting a friend at the Lemon Tree Café,” Elaran said as I closed in behind them. “But I seem to have gotten turned around. Would you be able to point me in the right direction?”
“Oh, uhm, the Lemon Tree?” He pushed his glasses further up his nose and swung around. “Let’s see...”
Not a sound escaped as I flicked open the top of the brown ledger in his hand while he was busy turning around.
“I’m not sure exactly,” he continued and lifted his hand to point. “But it should be in that direction. If you go that way and then maybe you can ask someone else?”
The documents were in and the brown leather flap was closed before his other hand had finished showing the way. I slid into the crowd again.
“Thank you,” Elaran said and started in the indicated direction.
I trailed him at a distance until I’d seen the thin man disappear behind the walls of Blackspire. With a few quick strides, I caught up to the elf.
“See, it wasn’t that hard, was it?” I grinned up at the grumpy archer. “We’ll make an underworlder out of you yet.”
“Hmmph.”
We both steered back towards the corner where Zaina waited. Amusement shone in her dark eyes when we approached.
“Done much reverse pickpocketing, have you?” she asked.
“Not really.” I shrugged. “I prefer normal pickpocketing.”
“Of course you do.” Elaran shook his head before turning to Zaina. “Are you sure this will work?”
“Why is everyone suddenly questioning if I’m sure? Yes, I am. That’s the guy who gets all the notes from all the different runners and brings the latest news to Blackspire every morning.”
“Yeah but Marcellus isn’t gonna believe that the star elves are attacking just because some documents said so,” I pointed out.
“Correct.” Zaina jerked her head and strode forward. “Let’s go see Shade.”
And she called her sister bossy. I shook my head but followed the pirate and the elf into the crowd. It was time to visit the new Assassins’ Guild.