She was somewhere else. Thunder faded away and was replaced by bells. Chimes? Abbee couldn’t identify the sound on account of a sharp wave of nausea rolling over her. She managed to avoid throwing up. A magical light turned on overhead, illuminating a stone ceiling and a small room with crates and canvas sacks in one corner. Abbee realized she’d been warped. The thunder. A warp boom. She’d not heard a warp boom in years.

The room had no door and emptied into a short hallway. The air was cool but free of the dank smell of swamp. Abbee knew she was underground. A cave, maybe. The ceiling was stone and irregularly carved in places, but the rooms had plaster walls and wood flooring. Someone had gone through a great deal of effort to make the cave look like a house. Abbee spotted a thick carpet on the floor in the next room, under some high-backed chairs.

Footsteps. “Emma?” a voice called. A man. “Emma, is that you? I’ve been worried sick. Are you all right?”

The footsteps neared, and an old man appeared at the other end of the short hallway. He was tall and had a scraggly beard and looked like an older version of Ilo. Kai Tannen. A wizard. At least he was wearing a brown robe and looked the part.

Kai spotted Abbee and froze. “You’re not—”

He gestured, and Abbee felt her muscles lock all over. The same body lock Ilo had used on her.

“Who are you?” he demanded. “How did you get in here?”

Abbee found she still had control of her mouth. “You’re Kai Tannen, yeah? Ilo sent me to find you.”

Kai frowned. “Ilo? What for? Has something happened? You have ten seconds to explain before I warp you into a wall.” His frown deepened. “Start with how you got in here.”

“I’ve a ring,” Abbee said.

“A ring?” Kai echoed.

He walked up to her. He ran his gaze over her, taking in her face, her gear, her pouches, her hands. He yanked the ring and the thumb light away from her. His face went white. A rough push, and he found her repeating bolt thrower.

Kai hissed, “You’re a hunter.” His face mottled with pain and rage. “You … you won’t get—” He raised his hand, his fingers bent like claws.

Abbee knew she was an instant away from excruciating pain. “Ipsu!” she shouted. “I knew Ipsu!”

Kai froze. His eyes searched her face. He lowered his hand. “You … you’re his Abbee, aren’t you?”

Abbee felt a surge of … something. Warmth, sadness, pride, and bitterness all at once. His Abbee, Kai had said. Ipsu had known Kai, and he’d spoken of Abbee with this wizard. Abbee wanted to know why Ipsu hadn’t come home sooner. Why he’d waited twelve years to finally come back and die in her arms. “Yeah, that’s me.”

Kai squinted. “You said knew. He’s gone, then?”

“Yes. He came to Akken. Wounded. Died right in front of me. He had that ring.”

The wizard’s frown returned. “Why would he … unless … Was he alone?”

“He didn’t mention anyone else, but we didn’t get much time to talk. Hunters were after him. Two of them. They showed up right after, and I had to run. That’s where I got my bolt thrower.”

Kai arched a brow. “They don’t hand those out.”

“A golem stepped on them,” Abbee said. “The hunter didn’t need it anymore.”

The wizard nodded. “That would do it.” He glanced down and tsked. “You’ve tracked mud all over my floor. And … hey, you’re emitting mote.”

Abbee felt the familiar itch on her wrists. She tried to move her limbs. Nothing yet.

“What are you doing?” Kai demanded. “Whatever it is, stop it.”

“I can’t,” Abbee said. “This happened before. Ilo froze me like you did, and I’m … I can’t stop it. My talent works whether I want it to or not. Ilo said I ate his body lock or something. Yeah, I can move my toes now. Fingers too.”

“Ate his … That’s impossible.” Kai took a step back and watched Abbee. “But you’re doing something. I wonder how long … How does my brother look these days?”

“Old,” Abbee said. “How do you know Ipsu?”

Kai didn’t answer and continued to watch her.

Abbee wondered if her situation had not improved. “Who’s Emma?”

Worry wrinkled Kai’s face. “How long were you in Joor looking for me?”

“I got here yesterday,” Abbee said.

“Yesterday?” Kai echoed. “You found me in one day?”

“I wouldn’t have, not without that ring. It pointed me in the right direction when I got close enough.”

“How did Ipsu get it?”

“He didn’t say. He was too busy dying. How do you know him?”

Kai flicked his finger. Abbee felt a hot slice across her cheek. She hissed in pain. “What was that for?” she demanded.

“I’ve heard stories about you,” Kai said. “Just confirming.” He watched her face. Both brows went up as Abbee’s flesh stitched back together. “Do you feel that?”

“I feel all of it,” Abbee snapped. “You could’ve asked.”

“Experiments are better,” Kai said.

Anxiety thrummed through Abbee. “Marin called me an inverted conduit.”

Kai’s eyes flared in recognition. A small smile tugged at his cheek. “She was always good with names. Inverted … Wait, did she suggest you come to see me?”

“No,” Abbee said. “That was Ilo. Marin wasn’t happy about the idea at all. I don’t think Ilo said your name in her presence.”

“I see that hasn’t changed,” Kai said in disappointment. “If she called you an inverted conduit, then that means … you can’t heal others, can you?”

“No.”

“Fascinating. What’s the worst injury you’ve healed?”

“If I tell you, will you agree to not do any more experiments? Take my word for it?”

Kai reached over and unbuckled Abbee’s bolt thrower. He pulled it off her arm and searched her. He took her pouch belt but missed her jobs case. The wizard peered in her pouches one by one. “No other weapons?”

“Just the bolt thrower.”

“Not even a knife?”

“Knives are the first thing movers grab.”

Kai paused with his fingers on Abbee’s money pouch. He hadn’t looked in yet. “You get in lots of fights with movers?”

“Not if I can help it.”

The wizard shook the pouch belt in astonishment. “This is all you brought? You walked into Duskmire to find me, and this is all you took with you? Ipsu said you were resourceful, not stupid.”

Abbee wondered what else Ipsu had said about her. “Found you, didn’t I? What is it the university says? ‘The future favors the daring’ or something.”

Kai’s expression darkened. “I would normally agree with them, but you must know how dangerous that was.” He searched her face. “You did, didn’t you? You knew it was dangerous. You knew it was risky, but you did it anyway. There must be … Who’s chasing you?”

“Hunters.”

“Wizard hunters? You have wizard hunters after you? Why you?”

Abbee broke her head free of the body lock. Her chest next, and then the whole thing collapsed, and she stepped free of it.

Kai gestured and locked her again. “About seven minutes,” he said to himself. “Let’s see if that changes on the second go-around.”

“Can you not?” Abbee asked, exasperated. “I’m no threat to you.”

Kai snorted. “We’ve established that wizard hunters are chasing you, and you are no wizard. The fact that they’re still interested in you means that you’re a threat. Do they know you’re an inverted conduit?”

“They probably suspect something.”

“Explain.”

Abbee wasn’t sure how much to tell him.

Kai appeared to sense her hesitation. “I understand that you’re not sure if you can trust me, but Ipsu lived here for twelve years. He trusted—”

“Here?” Abbee interrupted. “He was here the whole time? Why here? Why did he abandon me to come to a stinking swamp?”

“He didn’t abandon you,” Kai said. “You were of age, and I needed help with something. He said you were more than capable of taking care of yourself.” He lifted the pouch belt. “Though now I’m questioning that assertion.”

Pride and fury clashed in Abbee’s heart. She knew she was capable, but that wasn’t the point. She and Ipsu had been a team. A family. And he had left. He had upped and left. “Show me where he stayed,” Abbee demanded.

Kai shook his head. “Not until I know more about you. Could be an exploding inverted conduit, for all I know. Go back to the hunters. Why are they after you?”

“I did kill two of them.”

“You said a golem stepped on them.”

Abbee swore to herself. “I … uh—”

“You drove a golem?” Kai asked. “That’s another mark in the ‘stupid’ column.”

Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.

“I didn’t have a choice,” Abbee snapped. “They were after Ipsu, and he came to my place in Akken. Died there. The hunters caught up with him right after and decided to chase me instead.”

“When was this?”

Abbee counted in her head. “A month—no, a month and a half ago. Seven weeks.”

Kai nodded. “That would’ve been right after—” He frowned. “You’ve been on the road for almost two months? To find me?”

“I didn’t know you were here until last week,” Abbee said, “when I tripped over Ilo and Marin in Kiva. You know, they say they just happened to buy the inn Ipsu chose to stay at whenever we were in town, but I’m not so sure anymore. I feel like Ipsu was into something with you wizards.”

“I’m not with other wizards,” Kai said.

“Why does Marin hate your guts?” Abbee asked.

Kai smiled his half smile. “We were talking about you. Why would the wizard hunters suspect something about you? About your talent?”

“Can you please agree to avoid experimentation if I tell you?” Abbee asked. “Trust goes both ways.”

“Fine, fine,” Kai said. “I won’t do any more permanent damage.”

Abbee snorted. “You’ve not done anything permanent except make me not like you. How do I know Ipsu wasn’t a prisoner here, and when he came to see me, he was running from you?”

Kai reached forward and poked her in the chest. Abbee felt a cool sensation where he’d touched her, heard a sizzle, and then pain. Hot, sharp pain. She sucked in a breath and tried to jerk back from him, but she still couldn’t move.

“Answer my questions,” Kai said. “Be forthcoming, and I won’t do that again.”

Abbee lost her temper. She felt the familiar tingles. Several weeks of setbacks and frustrations and pain coalesced into a single point of fury. Mote ran from her wrists, and the body lock fell away. An intense jolt zapped her entire body. Far stronger than anything she’d ever felt before. Kai stumbled and bent over, as if sick, and vanished with a thunderous crack.

Abbee stood there, panting, fighting down her rage. Her weariness had vanished, and she felt ready to run all day. Fight all day. Abbee remembered to breathe. Four in, hold four, four out, hold four. She breathed and breathed and calmed down. The electric feeling faded, and she walked out into the next room. Three high-backed chairs were arranged so the sitters would face one another. She strained to pick out sounds, trying to listen for Kai. The crackling and popping of a woodstove against the far wall filled her ears. Abbee wondered why a wizard would need a woodstove. She thought they all heated rocks or something.

An open doorway in the left wall led into what looked like a kitchen. The doorway on the right led into another hallway, this one with several doors on either side. Some closed, some open. At the far end, another door. Heavy. Reinforced metal of some kind. The door opened.

“Not exploding,” Kai called. The wizard poked his head out into the hall. He looked tired. “But definitely dangerous. Your latent is very impressive. Quite vigorous.”

“I’m surprised you didn’t warp me into a wall.”

“It’s still early.” Kai raised his eyebrows at her. “But for now, how about you stay down there?”

“Fine.” Abbee moved a chair so it faced the hall and sat down. It felt good to sit.

Kai watched her. “That was his chair, you know. He used to sit there with the stove open and watch the fire. He liked watching the flames.”

Abbee remembered Ipsu staring into fires for much of her time with him. She felt another stab of jealousy that he’d done that here too. If he’d sat in this chair, then he hadn’t been a prisoner. He’d stayed on purpose. “Why did he stay here so long?”

“Like I said, I needed help with something.”

“Who’s Emma?”

Kai rubbed his eyebrows with his fingers. “Hang on a minute.” He entered a room and returned a few moments later, carrying a chair. He put it on the floor in the middle of the hall and sat down, facing Abbee. “I’d like to back up. Please tell me everything he said to you. It’s important.”

Abbee shook her head. “No. You first. I want to know what was so damn important that Ipsu abandoned me and never came back. Yes, yes, you said he was helping you with something. What?”

Kai sighed. “My daughter. Emma. I was having, uh, some trouble keeping her safe.”

“You’re a wizard.”

“Yes, well, if you haven’t noticed, we’re sort of being hunted to extinction at the moment. Besides, I needed help. Emma is headstrong. Like her mother in that regard.”

“Marin?” Abbee guessed.

“Ha! No. Not in a million years. No, Emma’s mother passed away a long time ago.” Sadness drooped the wizard’s face. “Just after Emma was born. She doesn’t remember her.” Kai gestured at the walls. “I don’t mind it, but Emma had a hard time being cooped up in here. It was for her protection, of course.”

“Is she a wizard too, like you?”

“Not like me.”

Abbee waited for him to elaborate. When he didn’t, she said, “You called for her when I first arrived. She’s not here, is she?”

“No,” Kai said. “We … we had a fight. A bad one. She left. Ipsu went after her. That was almost two months ago. I have no idea where she is.”

“And you haven’t gone to look for her?” Abbee asked, astonished. “You—”

“Of course I looked,” Kai snapped. “Believe me, I looked. But if Emma doesn’t want to be found, then … Are you sure Ipsu didn’t mention her?”

“He didn’t,” Abbee said. “How old is she?”

“Nineteen.”

“You didn’t keep her trapped in here for nineteen years, did you?”

“Of course not,” Kai said. “Once Ipsu was here, she was outside more than she was inside.”

Abbee wanted to know what the two of them had done together. Where Ipsu had taken this Emma. What he’d taught her, and why Ipsu had thought Emma more important than Abbee. Sadness, jealousy, and bitter resentment fought for purchase. Abbee had a hard time keeping a lid on it all. “You didn’t take her outside yourself?”

Kai shook his head. “Too dangerous.”

“She can’t warp?”

“I never taught her.”

“So you could keep her trapped here,” Abbee said. “Sounds like this place was a prison.”

“It’s not like that,” Kai said. “And she went out whenever she wanted.”

“Why is it that Ilo and Marin have no problem living in Kiva, but you’re in a cave, and it sounds like you never leave?”

“The hunters know what I look like,” Kai said. “They have agents everywhere.”

“They don’t know what Ilo and Marin look like?” Abbee asked.

“That’s Kiva,” Kai said.

“And you think that they have agents crawling around Duskmire?”

“Who says we’re in Duskmire?” Kai said.

Abbee blinked. The tree with the strange stone. The feeling of being squeezed and pulled. The warp. She’d heard stories that wizards sometimes warped across the continent. But not without a receiving room, and so far as she knew, Abbee still had all her fingers and toes. She had to be close to where … Abbee looked down the hall to the room she’d arrived in, the one with sacks and crates. The room was square. Like the receiving rooms she remembered from constable precincts. Receiving rooms stabilized long-distance warps. Abbee realized she could be anywhere.

“Where are we?”

Kai folded his arms. “What did Ipsu say to you before he died?”

“Don’t you worry about other wizards warping in here?”

“Hardly any left to worry about,” Kai said. “What did Ipsu say?”

Abbee didn’t like not knowing where she was. She liked being cooped up in here with a wizard even less. She couldn’t imagine what it had been like for this Emma. Abbee frowned. She resented feeling sympathy toward the person who had taken Ipsu away from her. The interloper. “He didn’t say much. He had a bad wound. Red blade. Tip broke off on purpose. He said the hunters were coming, and then he died. Bled out. The hunters were right behind him, and I had to run.”

Kai held up the runed ring. “He didn’t wear this. You had time to search his body and find it.”

“Did you give it to him?” Abbee asked.

“Yes,” Kai said. “I rigged the sentry stone so he could get in and out of here.”

“Ipsu was a Class Three Refractor,” Abbee said. “You can’t warp a Class Three with a magic ring.”

Kai’s smile was sly. “Must be nice to be so sure about everything.”

Abbee frowned and tried to puzzle out how the ring-warping bit had worked for Ipsu, who’d never used an artifact chip in his life, much less a magic ring. It didn’t make any sense. “If we’re not in Duskmire, why put the entrance to this place out in that swamp?”

“How did you know to look there in the first place?”

“A vendor in Joor remembered Ipsu,” Abbee said.

“Ah, so that’s how,” Kai said, nodding. “Smart, to look for a one-armed man. The Duskmire sentry stone isn’t the only way to get in here.” He put Abbee’s pouch belt on his lap. He opened her money pouch and peered in. “You’re carrying a fair amount of coin but no knife—wait.” He pulled out a sapphire. A diamond right after it. He held them up to the light. “Did you pull these off Ipsu? You did, didn’t you?”

“Maybe,” Abbee hedged.

“Then he … Did he have more?” Kai stood up in a hurry. He poured the contents of the pouch out on the floor. Coins and glittering gems bounced and rolled all over the place. “They’re not all here. There would’ve been more.”

“I spent some on my way here,” Abbee said. She wanted to tell him that the pouch was all that was left, but Ilo and Marin had seemed to know when she was lying. So far he hadn’t noticed her jobs case. “How would you know how much he had?”

“He must have found her,” Kai said, still muttering to himself. “He found her and took the gems from her. But why go to you? Maybe … maybe …” Clarity brightened Kai’s face. “If the hunters were right behind him, then he must’ve led them away from her.” Kai smiled in admiration. “He was devoted to her to the end.”

Furious jealousy spiked again in Abbee. Ipsu wasn’t devoted to anybody. She’d traveled with him for years, and he’d never treated her like that. Never put himself in harm’s way for her. Never. “How did they know where he was?”

Kai bent down and picked up a diamond. “These are all traced.”

Abbee felt ill. “Traced?”

So that’s how. She’d been carrying traced gems this entire time. That was how the hunters knew to come to Joor, found the jeweler in Kiva, and knew which train she’d boarded in Akken. That was—

“Hang on a minute. I basically walked from Akken to Ellerton. It took me weeks. If I had a trace on me, why didn’t they find me before then?”

Kai gave her a funny look. “You walked from … You got something against trains?”

“A hunter attacked me on the first train and pushed me off,” Abbee said. “I wanted them to think I was dead.”

“You sure it was a hunter?” Kai asked.

Abbee remembered the blond, hooded man. “House soldier, at the very least. Armor and a blue sash. House Togrim.”

“Never seen a hunter wear a sash,” Kai said. “Network, then.”

“Don’t they work together?”

Kai shrugged. “I’ve never figured out how they fit together. The hunters’ armor is similar to that of House soldiers, but the hunters don’t answer to either the Akken or Veronna Council. I know Raok Togrim ordered the original purge, but that was a long time ago. Raok’s dead, and they’ve kept operating all this time. The network doesn’t interfere with hunter operations, and vice versa.”

“Still doesn’t answer my question,” Abbee said. “Why didn’t anyone come after me while I was in the woods? Why wait until I was in Kiva?”

“You were on a train, and then you weren’t.” Kai pursed his lips and sat back down in his chair. “If they were very far away. Hmm … yes, yes, maybe the tracing wizard did think you were dead. You said you walked to Ellerton?”

“That’s right. Took me about a month to get there.”

“Hmm. There’s a wizard working with the hunters, but I’m not sure where they are. If you were between Akken and Ellerton, and they were in … say, Morat or Veronna—though they’d be crazy to be anywhere near there … If I had that trace and I were on the west coast and you were heading east, and on foot, I doubt I’d notice you were even moving. The ping would feel the same.”

“Ping?” Abbee asked.

Kai nodded. “A wizard has to concentrate on a particular trace, and it will ping, or chime, or whatever, depends on the wizard, when they’re pointing in the right direction. You have to concentrate, mind you. If the tracing wizard of those gems thought you were dead, they probably didn’t listen for the ping—or at least did so very infrequently.”

“And when they did, because I was on foot, heading away from them, they’d have thought I wasn’t moving?”

“Right. More so if you were very far away from them. Hundreds of kilometers—the relative movement would be so small as to be negligible. You said you got on a train in Ellerton? The continental road bends north up to Sarcut. They could’ve picked up on that, if they’d listened for long enough.”

“Ipsu was carrying a fortune in gemstones,” Abbee said. “An absolute fortune. More money that I’ve made in my entire life, total. The—”

Kai leaned forward in his chair and looked at the scattered coins and gems on the floor. He nudged a ruby with his foot. “You seem to have spent most of it already.”

Abbee wished she hadn’t said that.

He looked up at her. “What did you buy, anyway? You can’t be carrying it.”

“Suite carts are expensive,” Abbee said, “and I’d always wanted to travel in one.”

Kai frowned.

“Wouldn’t the wizard have thought about it? It’s a lot of money.”

“They’re working with the hunters,” Kai said, shaking his head. “They have all the money they need.”

“Maybe the hunters are controlling them. They could escape—”

“Doubt it,” Kai said. “Doesn’t take much to warp away from somewhere. No, they’re helping of their own free will.”

“You can’t know that.”

Kai snorted. “Believe me when I tell you that a wizard does what he wants.”

Abbee froze. “You just said he. You know … you know who it is.”

“Don’t read into it,” Kai said, waving his hand. “The defector’s on a short list of possibilities.”

Abbee stood up. “It’s you, isn’t it? That’s why you’re not worried about those gems being in here. You. You’re the one with the trace.”

“No, it’s not me,” Kai snapped. “Sit down. I’m not worried about the gems, because this place is warded against traces, and I always removed the traces before—” He grimaced. “The traces don’t matter in here.”

Abbee sank back down. “You removed the traces before … what?”

Kai sighed. “I’m not telling you my life story. This isn’t the first time I’ve had traced gems in here, okay? I usually remove the traces before anyone leaves with them, though.”

“Emma,” Abbee said. “You mean Emma. She left with them.”

Kai nodded. “Yes. After our fight. She took them and left. She had no idea they were traced. I sent Ipsu after her before the hunters caught up with her.”

“Can you put a trace on a person?” Abbee asked.

“Yes. Why? Oh, you’re wondering if I have a trace on Emma.”

Abbee nodded. “Seems prudent if you want to keep her safe.”

“Well, I do. But it’s not pinging. I can’t hear it. And before you ask, it doesn’t matter if she’s alive or not. It would still ping on her body. She knows about the trace and probably removed it right after she left.”

“So she is a wizard.”

Kai folded his arms and didn’t say anything.

Abbee wondered why he was being silent on the wizard topic. “Why would you have traced gems from wizard hunters?”

“It’s complicated and unimportant,” Kai said. “I have work to do. You’ve been a nice distraction, but I need to get back to it. You came here to find out where Ipsu had been, yes? Well, now you’ve found it. You can go now.” He gestured, and Abbee’s body froze up again. “I just have to remove your memories of being here.”