There the two ideas Garon had to help him find Kiri were, or at least appeared to be, diametrically opposed, though Garon knew that things in this city were not as they seemed. The first idea was to use his newly established status as the Lady of the Desert’s brother to put a sort of alert out for Kiri. Of course, he couldn’t tell people that it was the Firebrand he was looking for. That would risk connecting Kiri’s name to the Firebrand, and he knew she wouldn’t like that. Even though it appeared the Thief Lord’s agent knew who she really was, she seemed to care about keeping the secret. Maybe she liked to be able to live her normal life at school? When he found her he would ask her.
That wasn’t all he would ask her. It was time she told him everything that had happened back in Westfall. Garon had an idea of what might have happened to Gilliam now, and as angry as he had been at Kiri for leaving, he could now imagine how she might have been driven to it. He still wanted to hear it from her.
By now he had spent enough time with Mala to know that he couldn’t go talk to people in her class looking like he slept in a drainage tunnel, so he went back to the small room he rented to change out of his destroyed trousers. The suit Mala had given him was clean again, and after a moment’s debate, he put it on. On the way out he ran into Ulrick. Right into him. The old man recovered his balance and stopped Garon with a hand.
“Oh, ho ho, what’s this?” he said. “Have you got yourself a benefactress?” He waggled his eyebrows at Garon in a way that made the latter grimace.
“They’re from my sister,” Garon exclaimed. “She’s the wealthy one.”
“Very, by the look of it,” Ulrick said. “You never mentioned your sister before.”
“What are you doing here?” Garon asked. Ulrick did not live here. Garon couldn’t recall ever having seen him here before.
“Well, there’s still no work, on account of the market,” Ulrick said. “And, uh, I know a lady here.” He straightened his collar, which Garon now noticed was askew. In fact, the man looked rumpled from head to toe.
“Uh, that’s, uh, well, I’ll see you later,” Garon mumbled, and fled down the stairs. Ulrick’s chuckles chased him all the way out the door.
Garon wasn’t really sure where in the High District he should go. He had some notion that it would be poor protocol to walk up to the palace and demand to speak to the king, but he didn’t know how far down the ranks he should go. In the end, he went up to the guard on duty at the gate. He was sure it wasn’t what was ‘done’, but it seemed unlikely to get him in trouble. It wouldn’t do Kiri any good for him to get thrown in jail looking for her.
“Yes, my lord?” the guard asked. He did not betray any surprise at what Garon was pretty sure was odd behavior.
“My friend is missing.” Garon got right to it. There wasn’t any point in trying to act or make up a story, since he was horrible at both. “I am worried something may have happened to her.”
“Happened to her here at the palace, my lord?” said the guard. “That seems unlikely.” He maintained his polite neutrality, but one of the men beside him smirked. “Are you sure of her last whereabouts?”
“I was at the party for Lady Mala,” Garon said. “She is my sister. My friend disappeared.”
“Yes. Exactly how did she disappear?” the guard asked.
Now this was an awkward question. Simply saying that he woke up and she wasn’t there wouldn’t sound good for either his or Kiri’s reputation, and also offer an explanation that he was sure wasn’t a true one--that she had just run off.
“I think someone took her.”
The guard’s neutral expression didn’t really change, but for an instant was almost too neutral. Blank, even. Garon wasn’t sure if that meant that he was taking this more or less seriously. But in any case, the man turned to the younger, smirking, guard, and said. “Take Lord-” he looked to Garon.
“Garon of Westfall.”
“Take Lord Garon to the Lord Commander,” he said. By way of explanation, he added to Garon. “This is too grave a matter for gate guards, my Lord. The Lord Commander will find your friend.”
~
The smirking guard dropped Garon off in the Lord Commander’s office with almost no explanation to either Garon or the Lord Commander. He just said, “Garon of Westfall to see you on a criminal matter,” and shut the door behind him. Garon wished he had made clear that it was not Garon who was suspected of a crime. He also noted this guard hadn’t added the presumptive “lord” that his senior at the gate had.
The office was small, and felt smaller since it was completely lined in bookcases and maps. The Lord Commander was a middle-aged man with streaks of gray in his close-cut beard, though his ruddy-brown hair had none. He sat behind a clean desk with a single ink well and a stack of papers on it. As Garon entered he handed a piece of this paper to a young officer in a red half-cloak who stood behind his shoulder.
“Lord Garon,” the Lord Commander said, rising to his feet. “I don’t believe we have met.” He bowed slightly. “I am Lord Commander Crisson.”
“Lord Commander,” Garon bowed back. “I am new to Laed. I am Lady Mala’s brother.”
“Ah, Lady Mala,” the Lord Commander looked at Garon shrewdly. “She has the favor of the king.”
“Yes,” Garon said. “And it is about a friend of both of ours, a woman that Lady Mala loves dearly, that I have come today.”
“And what about this dear woman?” the Lord Commander asked.
“I think she’s been taken.”
“Ah.” The Lord Commander took his seat again and waved his hand at the red-cloaked officer. “Leave us.”
As soon as the door clicked shut Lord Commander Crisson said, “Why do you think she was taken? Has there been a threat?”
“Threat? Yes.” Garon said. “She was threatened.”
“And a ransom demand?” the Lord Commander asked. “What is her name?”
Garon hesitated a moment, but Kiri’s name was known to Useph, at least. “Kiri of Westfall,” he said. “She is a student at the Academy now, but she grew up in Westfall with me and Lady Mala. And no, there’s been no demand for ransom.”
“That is not reassuring,” the Lord Commander said. “What part of the city was she taken from?”
“Near the docks,” Garon said.
Lord Commander Crisson frowned. “That is...unusual. And it offers few clues as to who may have taken her.”
“But you believe someone did?” Garon said.
“You clearly do,” the Lord Commander said. “I do not believe you have imagined it. This threat you mentioned, who issued it?”
“Well, at the docks, there was a man,” Garon said. “He has a scar.” He marked his face where Neal’s scar ran.
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The Lord Commander’s eyes widened slightly, then his expression grew dark. “This may be a case of mistaken identity,” he said. “Lady Mala is in the King’s favor. I will investigate this matter. Where might I contact you?”
Garon gave the address of his boarding house. The Lord Commander made no comment on the fact that Lady Mala’s brother was staying in such cheap accommodations.
~
“What is that?” Kiri asked. She’d wondered what the jangling noise was before Neal pulled off her blindfold, but she never would have imagined such a strange contraption.
“I said we were working on an alternative to tying you down and blindfolding you,” Neal said. “This is it.” He held up a smallish bit of workmanship that looked like an unattractive piece of jewelry or perhaps part of some armor? Kiri couldn’t decode what all the bits of metal were for. There were a number of small plates strung together with thin chains, and she could see at least three different clasps. Neal adjusted it in his hands, straightening it out, and it started to make a little more sense.
“So that goes on my hand?” Kiri asked.
“Indeed,” Neal said. “Wearing this, you will be unable to strike out with your powers. We will then untie you and you will be able to stretch your legs.”
“Great,” Kiri said. She still couldn’t quite make out how it would go on. But all that complexity was giving her an idea. Neal and the two men he had brought in with him would have to take some time putting that on her, and while they did, her hand would have to be free. This was her chance to escape. Of course, Neal knew that too, which was why he had brought his big burly friends along.
Neal gestured to the shorter of the two thugs. “Untie her,” he said. “Just the right hand first.”
The man started to work at the knots with his fingers, but he kept snatching them away whenever Kiri moved at all. Amused when she realized he was afraid of her hand, Kiri couldn’t resist twitching it toward him a couple more times.
“Oh, hurry up,” Neal said.
The man got out a knife and slashed the ropes off. A knife would make this escape just that little bit harder, but Kiri still felt eager to try.
Neal stepped closer, holding the chains out in front of him. “All right,” he said. “Now the glove.”
The henchman set his knife down on the edge of the bed and gripped Kiri’s wrist tightly in one hand. With the other he grabbed the glove and jerked it off roughly. At the same moment, quick as a cat, Kiri flipped her palm back just enough that she could point her hand at her captor’s. She poured energy into him, hot and fast. He yowled and stumbled backwards into Neal. Both went down in a heap. Kiri snatched up the knife and went to work on the rope on her opposite wrist. It was at that moment that the third man, whom Kiri hadn’t managed to work into her escape plan, acted. The last thing she saw was the hilt of his sword driving at her face.
~
For his second plan Garon needed to make inquiries among the least savory elements of Laed. Garon might be unversed in the ways and manners of the noble classes, but of the criminal class he knew absolutely nothing. The thieves’ token he was wearing around his neck might mean something to those low-lives, but he had absolutely no idea how to make use of it. Even if he did know where to go or who to ask, he couldn’t very well say he wanted to know where the boss had stashed the Firebrand so he could rescue her. He needed subtlety, and Garon was not, as he well knew, subtle. The only criminal he knew how to get in contact with was Neal, and that was hardly useful. What he needed to do was find some other criminal and wheedle out the information of where Tagg, or Neal if that was who had her, might have taken Kiri. Even the general area would be useful, and then he could skulk about himself to find her. Kiri was much better at skulking, but he was determined to do his best. So how should he accomplish it? Try to convince them he was important and should be taken to the boss? Try to convince them he wasn’t important and just hope the scuttlebutt would lead him to Kiri? He wasn’t sure, but all of this was moot if he couldn’t even find a criminal to ask. Where could he count on finding some of the Thief Lord’s men? He landed on a sort of sideways idea that was just weird enough to possibly work.
The ruins of the market had been cleared of bodies, and Garon guessed that the most valuable merchandise had by now been recovered, but still the place was filled not only with tumbled tents and shattered remnants of stalls, but also enough random goods to fill many wagons. Garon had enough experience by now at loading wagons to be able to make some guesses at how many. Hoping he was right about his theory, Garon strode out into the mess and immediately started digging around, lifting boards and cloth to look underneath.
He’d only been at it for a few minutes when there was a soft pop in the air behind him and a hand closed on his shoulder and spun him roughly around.
“What do you think you’re doing?” the newly arrived man growled, leaning in nose-to-nose with Garon.
Grimacing at the fingers digging into his shoulder, Garon jerked out his thieves’ token and pushed the other away with it.
“Stone’s missing,” he growled right back. “The count’s come up one short.”
The other man opened his hand to show the black stone nestled within. “You mean-”
“Yeah, a Travelling Stone,” Garon said. “It must be here. I’ve looked everywhere else.”
“Well, that’s…” the other man looked uncertainly at Garon’s token. “Who are you, friend?”
“Gilliam,” Garon said, and immediately wished that had not been the first name to pop into his head. “And I’m accountable to the Thief Lord that every one of these stones is accounted for. And one is missing.”
The other stowed his stone in his pocket. “I thought that, well…” he shook his head. “Maybe it’s the one Neal took. Did you count that one?”
Garon forced his face into a grimace, though he wanted to smile. He couldn’t believe this was actually working. “Neal? Who said he could take one?”
“Well, I-I don’t question him, uh, sir,” the market guard looked very nervous. “Maybe you should talk to him. Here, you can take my stone.” He held out the black rock.
“I don’t know where he is!” Garon snapped as if the other man was an idiot. He hoped that taking on such an attitude would keep the other from questioning why he didn’t know.
“Well, at his house, I think,” the guard said. When Garon continued to glare at him he added, “On Spring Street.”
Garon snagged the stone before the man could think any deeper about what was happening, though there didn’t seem to be much danger of that one’s brain catching up. Luckily, his job had taught him the city streets well, and he had no trouble envisioning a spot on Spring.
~
When Kiri awoke she was still laying on the soft bed she had been in ever since they took her from the tunnel. But it was immediately obvious that something had changed. She was laying on her side, no longer tied down. Her right hand jangled when she moved, enclosed in a net of chains and metal plates. And when she opened her eyes, she could see. The blindfold was gone.
It must be night. Faint silver light slipped through the curtains at the window, leaving most of the room in shadow.
“Awake at last,” said a voice behind her.
Kiri jumped to her feet, and barely managed to keep them. So long laying down had left her dizzy. Tagg smiled tightly at her, clearly pleased to see her literally off balance.
“I don’t have to hand feed you this time,” he said, and gestured to a tray of food perched on the spindly table. “Better for both of us.”
Kiri picked through the food with care. She didn’t take her eyes off Tagg. Now that she was disabled she wouldn’t put it past him to try to take her out. He could say she had been trying to escape. Presumably that was exactly what he was in here to prevent.
“I’m supposed to tell you that if you behave until morning, you’ll be allowed to go to the conservatory,” Tagg said.
“Thanks, I guess,” Kiri said.
“Don’t thank me,” Tagg added. “I was going to tell you that I’d rather you don’t behave.”
“You can go,” Kiri said. “I’ll bring my tray back to the kitchen for you.” Her head was hurting horribly, which is to be expected when someone knocks you out with the butt of their sword, and she was not feeling nice at all.
“Very funny,” Tagg said. “I get to leave when you’re done eating.”
Kiri’s stomach was churning, and even though the tray was still half-full, she couldn’t eat another bite. “You’re in luck,” she said. “I can’t eat. Feeling sick.”
“Glad to hear it,” Tagg said. He carried the tray out and sent in someone who had clearly been waiting just outside the door.
It was the burly man from earlier. His hand was heavily bandaged. He scowled at Kiri, and she reflected that she probably ought to go ahead and behave until morning. Any escape plans would have a better chance if they let her out of this room anyway. Just one quick thing to check. She strode purposefully to the window. The burly man followed right on her heels, but she didn’t let that stop her. She pushed the drapes back and was disappointed, but not surprised, to find the window was fitted with close-fitting metal shades, slanted upwards so she couldn’t see out, and certainly couldn’t slip out. She turned back to the bed, and found the guard blocking her path.
“Hi,” she said.
He actually growled.
Swallowing hard, Kiri edged around him while he stood stubbornly stock-still. Kiri decided she might as well just go ahead and pretend to go to sleep. The angry behemoth looming over her shoulder took the fun right out of exploring her prison.
Maybe she’d have better luck in the morning.