Mei stared at her porridge, at how the cereal melded with the milk, at the diced sage apples and sliced ghalinana floating on top, and found herself not wanting to take a single bite. She’d woken up hungry as usual, but then she’d remembered skipping Juanelo’s funeral to wander about the city and find nothing and her appetite had died. She knew she needed to eat or else she’d be unable to keep up with Huan.

By the time Dwayne came downstairs a pristine white padded tunic and trousers, ready for his first magic class, she’d managed to get a spoon into the porridge.

“Morning, Mei.” Dwayne started ladled himself a bowl of porridge from the pot. “How did you…” His eyes flicked to Mei’s bowl, to the still mostly full pot and then over to an entirely unmolested pile of eggs. “Are you okay?”

“I have not caught him yet,” Mei blurted out.

“Oh, uh…” Dwayne sat down. “Okay?”

“He is moving from place to place. I should have gone to track him down that night. The trail is cold.”

“Mei.”

“I should have been at the funeral.”

“Mei?”

“He shouldn’t have gotten away that night. I-”

“Mei.” Dwayne reached over and grabbed her arm. “It’s okay.”

Mei shook her head. “I should have stopped him.”

“Even outnumbered, you almost did.” Dwayne let go of her arm and sat back in his chair. “And we both know he’s good at sneaking around. No one expected you to catch him right away, not when he’s been working with that monk and that mage for weeks. The city is his, just like the woods are yours. As for the funeral…”

Mei stared into her porridge. “Was it bad?”

“Yeah, but,” Dwayne sighed, “it’s not your fault. Don’t beat yourself up about it.”

Mei frowned. “Why not?”

Dwayne blinked. “Because you’re human? I can’t imagine what its like for you now, but it’s clear it’s not easy.” He turned away, his hands rubbing his wrists. “Some things take time to fade. Don’t rush it.”

Dwayne’s skin was too dark to tell from afar, but there were scars circling his wrists, a physical reminder of his time as a slave. Now he was here, talking with her over porridge and eggs. He’d recovered. She could too.

“So what happened?” Mei scooped up a big spoonful of porridge.

Dwayne relaxed. “At the funeral? First, we wore the wrong clothes.” He went over yesterday’s events, covering Lady Pol’s actions and what they’d decided to do last night. “Whatever it is, it has to be big, particularly since we’ve alienated so many nobles and merchants.”

Mei frowned at the unfamiliar word. “Alienated?”

“Put off. Made them want to stay away from us.”

“Ah.” Mei reconsidered. “You haven’t alienated the commoners.”’

“No, not yet. We…” Dwayne’s spoon paused. “The commoners! None of them were at the original Offering so they won’t know what to expect. We can still amaze them.”

The laborers Mei had questioned on the roof would need more than the promise of amazement to come. “You’ll need food and drink.”

“Good idea.” Dwayne produced a notebook, his breakfast forgotten. “Everyone likes food and drink.”

If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

“Yes.” Mei finished her bowl then asked “Have you seen Maggie?”

Dwayne winced. “I have. I assume she told you about…”

Mei kept eating. Maggie hadn’t told her anything, but she had a guess as to what today’s lunch topic would be.

Dwayne sagged. “I don’t know what to do about her.”

“What do you mean?” Mei took a helping of eggs.

“I think she wants me to respond to her feeling. I don’t know if I can.”

“Hmm.” Mei swallowed a bite. They’d figure it out. They always did. “You said that the wind dancers were at Soljees?”

“Sorgi’s, and yes.” Dwayne’s expression tightened. “We need to go and investigate.”

“I can do that.” Mei finished her eggs.

Dwayne winced. “You can’t go alone, and I doubt he’ll let you walk in and look around. Besides, you don’t even know where it is.”

Mei shrugged.

“We’re also not just looking for Huan.” Dwayne tapped his notebook. “We’re also looking for whoever is paying him and his accomplices.”

Mei got herself another bowl of porridge. “Who isn’t Baron Thadden.”

“I don’t think so. I don’t know if I agree with why Lady Pol thinks its not him, but I do agree he isn’t a likely choice. I can’t imagine him getting along with Sorgi.”

“What about the other Royal Sorcerer candidate? Dean Bruce.” Mei pulled the rubbing out of her pocket and put it on the table. “You said her speech at the Harvest Ball was alarming.”

“It was, but…” Dwayne shifted in his seat. “Would she really go far as robbery and murder?”

Mei shrugged. “How would I know?”

Dwayne grimaced. “We’ll have to investigate her too. What’s that?” He’d caught sight of the rubbing.

“Charlie and I found it under Bradsbridge.” Mei pushed it to Dwayne. “Have you seen it before?”

Dwayne peered at the image. “It looks Golden Age.”

“That’s what Charlie said.”

“I can try and find it in the old records if you like.”

“Please do.”

Dwayne picked it up and slipped it into his notebook. “Why were you under the bridge?”

Mei rested her chin on her hands. “My brother’s trail ends there.”

“Like he crossed it?”

“Like he walked into it. People have seen him near the bridge but not on the other side.”

Dwayne leaned back in his seat. “What if he took a barge across?”

“Where would he go?”

“The Plague District?”

Mei shook her head. “He had an injured Souran with him. He’d stand out.”

“Then the monk’s garrison, Sen Jerome’s. It’s downriver from the bridge.” Dwayne’s expression darkened. “They weren’t exactly helpful that night.”

Sen Jerome’s had straight up walked out when Dwayne had asked them questions.

Mei twirled a fork in her fingers. “Why would they care about Huan?”

“Their mysterious benefactor might be connected to them or maybe a bishop or a priest is behind all this.”

“Mages can’t be priests in Soura. You told me that.”

“I doubt Sen Quincy’s let them in.” Dwayne scowled. “I suppose he could have stayed on the barge and left the city, but you said they didn’t get what they came for. Do you think that someone willing to rob from mage families, murder windsong messengers, and sneak into the Royal Secretary’s Office would just give up?”

Mei didn’t know about the monk or the mage, but she knew her brother. “No.”

“Yeah, I didn’t think so either.” Dwayne frowned. “Have you seen Rodion?”

Mei shook her head. “The food was already here when I came down.”

“Odd.” Dwayne glanced at Mei’s half-full plate. “Was there anything else?”

“I thought I saw him.” Mei put her fork down. “At the bridge.”

Dwayne’s eyebrows raised. “Thought?”

“When I chased, I found nothing.”

“Not surprising. Those knives of his could translocate him away long before you reached him.”

Mei stared at Dwayne. “You believe I saw him?”

He blinked. “Yes? I mean I’d believe you if you told me you’d spotted me nude and dancing on the streets last night; I’d only wonder what in Markosia I’d been drinking.”

Mei smiled at the strange image. “You losing control like that is like Maggie ever giving up.”

“Right…” Dwayne clasped his hands. “At any rate, we’ll both go to Sorgi’s and see if we can find out anything. Rodion knows the address off-hand but,” he opened his notebook and started to flip through the pages, “I had to look up who were the best people to invite so I wrote them down… here.” He tapped his notes. “Sorgi lives at Sylvan and Eighth, right on the border of the Parvenue and the Gentle Quarters.”

Which put it out of the direct path from the Palace to the bridge. “Are you sure?”

“I don’t doubt what you see, and I don’t doubt what Rodion finds out. Here,” Dwayne handed Mei a copy of the address, “I’ll meet up with you after class.”

“You have a practical this afternoon,” recalled Mei.

Dwayne winced. “I do.” He brightened. “But I have the new magical core so I should be done quickly.”

“Are you sure?” Mei’s eyes dropped to the sleeve that hiding Dwayne’s bracer. “Last time you used it was not good.”

“It’ll be fine.” Dwayne stood up. “Never doubt me when it comes to magic.”