“Hey! Hey guardsdragon! Over here!” Digrif called.

In the sparseness of the market outskirts the guard sash shone out: A few paces from the mouth of the alleyway high-walked a cliff-dweller in a red and gold halfrobe, who made to halt and leap over to us. The cliff-dweller peered down through red eyes and a tongue black with some kind of tobacco. He had horns like a drake.

With a simple incline of his head, he said, “Greetings, citizen,” before continuing, “What you need?”

“We need to know,” Hinte snapped in, as if not trusting Digrif to explain, “if you had seen anyone carrying around some… cargo. About this size⁠ ⁠—” she held out wings to the length, then width of a human⁠ ⁠—⁠ “and there were four of them.”

The guard grunted, and his face grew distant for a few beats, eyes darting behind clouded brilles. After a few moments, he looked back to us.

“Aye, I have seen a handful of dragons carting around loads like that,” the cliff-dweller said, brilles flashing clear, “and one of them was you. Were you robbed?”

“We were,” Hinte said.

At the same time, I said, “What about just the carts near here?”

“Hmm,” the guard said, scratching his breast. “I saw two. Well, three, depending on how exactly far ‘near here’ stretches. They were going a bit suspiciously fast, I’d reason.”

“And let me guess,”⁠ ⁠—⁠ my frills fell back⁠ ⁠—⁠ “they were heading in opposite directions?”

“Aye.”

I covered my face with a wing. “Of course.”

Adwyn peered at me, Hinte growled, and Digrif frowned.

It was the guard who spoke, black tongue flicking. “You get a look at the dragon who robbed you?”

“We did not.”

“Makes our job harder. You have any idea who’d steal from you? What in exact was it they took?”

“We have none, Sofrani,” Adwyn cut in, “And that is not quite any of your business, at present.”

“Ouch, Adwyn, he’s just trying to help!” Digrif said.

“Wait, Adwyn? The military adviser Adwyn? Rhyfel-sofran’s second in command?” The guard scraped into a bow.

Adwyn took off his dust mask with a sigh. “Rise, Gwynt. Fly up and find your prefect. Have him bring me Ffrom, Geth and Bydbyd, no matter where they are or what they are doing. If you have chains, put them in chains. Tell every guard you see to keep a watch on everyone, especially carts, and let no one leave the market.” Adwyn paused, eyeing the guard. He nodded, still bowing.

Adwyn took a breath. “Do that as fast as you can, then send a flyer to Rhyfel the younger. Tell him we have another incident here. Report back here immediately. Dismissed.”

The guard didn’t even rise from their bow; they just turned it to a crouch, and leapt to air, threshing, their tail waving a salute as they left.

“How long will he take?” Hinte ground out the words.

Adwyn smirked. “That’s Gwynt of Graig Mras. He has a adequate pair of wings and twice the sense of the louts I left in charge of this cart. He won’t delay.” Adwyn clouded his brilles. “Or he won’t be the only one out of the skein today.”

And with that, we were waiting for the guard to return. Adwyn checked under the cart, Digrif waved at dragons passing by the alleyway, and Hinte stared at Digrif. I looked up, and considered the birds.

At length Hinte spoke, somewhat slow, almost as an aside, “Do you find it suspicious that Digrif thought to buy a sword before all this happened?”

Digrif’s waving wing fell and his frills folded. “What?” His voice was scorched with hurt. “Hinte, how could you? I told you, it is just in case we end up in another situation like yours in the cliffs. It is nothing sinister, I promise!”

Hinte peered at Digrif, waving her tongue, searching his face. She said, at last, “Someone has to be at fault. There are only the three of us. And I did not do it.”

I lowered my head. “Wait, that isn’t right…” I said, “there are four of us, not three!”

“Yeah!” Digrif said, frills rising again. “And Adwyn is the only one who knew exactly where the bodies were.”

Now it was my turn to reel on the adviser. “It was you,” I said in his tone. If only I were a parrot and could mimic his voice too… Continuing, in my voice, I said, “How can we be sure you aren’t the one colluding with the thieves?”

Adwyn looked up from the cart, didn’t clear his brilles. “Such a frivolous accusation. I already have full command of these bodies. What use is there is stealing from myself?”

I flattened my frills. “Oh.”

----------------------------------------

When Gwynt returned, he really needed to. Adwyn stood at the mouth of alleyway, and I didn’t like the curled-lip, clouded-eye glances he sent back at me. Hinte watched Digrif and me with burning scrutiny, eyes only ever half-clouded; but at least Digrif and I were able to talk about pleasant nothings with smiles and only a few cringes for Adwyn and Hinte’s suspicion.

But the guard had returned, and it was a wave of fresh air rolling past us. Adwyn grew stony, focusing on Gwynt, and Hinte gained a new target for her glare.

Two guards were trailing after Gwynt, one a glaring plain-dweller, big enough to punch a tortoise and with a kind of confidence in his step that said they knew they were right and didn’t even need to explain themselves; the other was a bewildered cliff-dweller who reminded me of Digrif, if instead of carefree he simply had no idea what was going on. Each had chains running between their legs, and a rope around their muzzles.

As Gwynt eased to a stop and the chained dragons stumbled into him, three more guards lighted onto the gravel with staggered crashes. One was a fullrobed cliff-dweller with the kind of resting sneer that said they were important and well aware of it⁠ ⁠—⁠ they had to be the prefect, going by the bamboo plates on their robes⁠ ⁠—⁠ and behind them landed the other two, halfrobed dragons with unidentifiable dark scales.

Every one of the guards except the sneering prefect and glaring prisoner scraped into a bow or something at Adwyn. Even the prefect inclined their head.

Adwyn didn’t wait for them; he was saying, “Gwynt, I told you to find three guards. Explain this.”

Gwynt rose with a sharpness that made me wince and rub my neck. “Sofrani! I had⁠ ⁠—”

“Cut with the formalities and tell me what matters.”

“I found only these two, Geth and Bydbyd. Ffrom wasn’t on patrol anywhere.”

Hinte jerked her head around. “Did you say Ffrom?”

“Yes.”

Hinte turned to me. She didn’t look smug.

I only tilted my head. “Am I supposed to recognize that name?”

“He was the guard at the Berwem gate last night. The one who clearly wanted to take the bodies for themselves. Do you think it is a coincidence they are here now?”

I swallowed and looked away.

Adwyn was saying, “Cut their muffles,” and then Gwynt was ripping the ropes off with his claws. “Of that light?” he asked the prisoners.

“Nothing remains,” they said in offsynch unison.

Adwyn nodded. “Where is Ffrom?”

The glaring one responded, “Chasing a diller thief. Do you think he would abandon his post for no reason? It was important, and he left us to watch the bodies till he could alert the other guards or catch the thief.”

Adwyn stayed stone, and he continued with, “And what is your excuse? The cart I had you guard has been robbed. Explain yourself.”

The glare strengthened, now shining with something else⁠ ⁠—⁠ triumph? “We were chasing some ashcloaked wivers who were talking about Aurisiuf making a move. You’ve heard the stories, Sofrani. Would you have us ignore something like that?”

“Yes. More directly, I’d have you avoid falling for obvious bait. Do you think it’s a coincidence that both of these things happened right in front of you while guarding something important?” Adwyn waved a wing toward the prefect. “Take them to the town hall. We’ll decide if they belong in Wydrllos later.” I saw both guards wince.

The prefect spoke up. “Sofrani! Surely I’m needed here?”

“Are you here because you’re a prefect, or because you saw one of the carts with the stolen bodies?”

The prefect hesitated. “The former, Sofrani.”

“Then you aren’t. Take them to the town hall, and tell your guards to find Ffrom.”

The prefect, for his earlier hesitation, left at once with the chained guards.

Adwyn turned to the remaining guards. “Gwynt, I trust that you and these two will lead us to the thieves’ carts?”

“Aye. These three saw carts fitting your description. There are others, but I thought it unwise to deprive the rest of the market of guards.”

“No worry of that. Rhyfel is flying here with more guards as we speak. Our first priority is catching the thieves.”

A bow. “My apologies, Adwyn-sofran.”

Adwyn twitched, but turned to the sky. “Now, we wait for Rhyfel.”

I followed Adwyn’s gaze, along with the rest of us, and in heartbeats you saw black forms rising near the obelisk and winging toward us. Rhyfel and twelve guards flew toward the market in a v-shaped skein. They dipped below our sight for a few beats as they reached the edge of the market, then they reappeared, threshing back up to a height under the net, flying toward us. Some guards at the edge must’ve let them in.

They didn’t reach us before we got tired of holding our heads up, but they made it. Rhyfel and his twelve guards hadn’t even landed before Adwyn was speaking, his voice carrying.

“The bodies have been stolen. The thieves are likely still in the market; we have closed all the exits. We suspect they have accomplices among the guard. One accomplice, Ffrom, is still at large. The thieves have multiple carts, all of them going in different directions. We don’t know which one has the bodies, but these guards”⁠ ⁠—⁠ Adwyn waved at Gwynt and the other two⁠ ⁠—⁠ “can point them out to us.” Adwyn relayed this to Rhyfel the younger, his head almost in a bow. In his eyes there was a certain deep respect that hadn’t even dripped for Mlaen or Ushra. His tail looped around a leg.

Rhyfel nodded, face contemplative, frowning. He muttered, “This a just how I need to start my cycle: unraveling damn conspiracies.”

One guard, who’d flown right beside Rhyfel, prodded the high guard and muttered, “Every breath spit complaining is a breath gone, Sofrani.” Their scales weren’t cliff-dweller, but pink. Ceian?

“Of course.” And at that Rhyfel’s frown disappeared, a determined line taking its place. His gaze rolled over the dragons here and he said, “We need to get hunting! Guards, spread out. We’ll split up, stop the carts most likely to be our target. Hinte, Ceian, you come with me to find Ffrom. Adwyn, you and Gwynt will take Kinri and Digrif, hunt down one of the carts. As for…” I stopped listening at my name, tuning out Rhyfel telling dragons I’ve never met to do things that don’t really affect me.

I turned to Gwynt, still in his half-bow; Adwyn, looking as serious as ever; and Digrif, who smiled.

As we flew off, following Gwynt to the cart, I sighed. It was going to be another long day, wasn’t it?

* * *