Four guards in blue and silver tabards leaned against the city wall beside the closed portcullis, their spears propped up beside them. They passed a flask between them and one laughed. They were the absolute picture of camaraderie and good cheer. What they weren’t the picture of was alert guardsmen on the watch for trouble.

Imogen landed a little ahead of him and strode toward the guards, a second quake on legs. They scrambled to straighten up and hide the flask. The oldest of the bunch, a bearded fellow with a copper sergeant’s shield pinned to his chest, moved to intercept her.

“Can I help you, ma’am?” he asked.

She turned her piercing gaze on the sergeant, pinning him in place. “Is this how you man your posts when your king orders the city sealed? You stand around drinking?”

While Imogen questioned the sergeant Alden put a block in his head to keep him from lying. It would be interesting to discover what excuses he came up with limited to the truth.

“It’s been quiet. Been quiet all night. Couldn’t see any harm in having a nip to take the chill off.”

“You couldn’t see any harm, could you?” Imogen levitated a foot off the ground glowering down at the sweating man. “I should take your shield for such dereliction during a city-wide emergency.”

“No need to get all riled up—”

One of the guardsmen groaned and collapsed flat on his face.

“Jenson!” another man said a moment before he shuddered and collapsed beside his friend.

Alden pointed at the sergeant. “Check him.”

He went to the still-standing guard and sent a stream of soul force into him. It took only a moment to find the poison gnawing at the guard’s brain. Alden neutralized it and repaired the damage. The man still looked unsteady so Alden helped him sit.

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A thump drew Alden’s gaze back to Imogen. The sergeant had plopped down in the dirt, his eyes half closed, a trickle of drool running down his chin. Alden fished the flask out of one of the unconscious men’s pockets and scanned it.

“What did you find?” Imogen asked.

“Poison. How much you want to bet it’s the same stuff they used on us?”

“No bet. Looks like you were right about Jonny stopping for a visit. I bet he’s close.”

“Yeah, probably watching us right now.” Alden glanced at the buildings across the street. He didn’t see or sense anything. Assuming Jonny had seen them he’d probably run for it. The sergeant groaned, tried to stand up, and failed.

“You talk to him,” Imogen said. “I’ll see if I can spot Jonny.”

She shot straight up a hundred yards leaving Alden to deal with the guards. He sent his partner a silent, insincere thank you and turned his attention to the semi-coherent guard sergeant.

“So what happened?”

“Me and the boys were talking, trying to figure why the king would order the gates sealed when up strolls Jonny Linn, just as big as life, a shit-eating grin plastered on his face. Jonny says he needs to slip out for a little while and that he’ll be right back. I told him the gates were sealed, no one in, no one out. He puts on this big cock-and-bull story about how no one will ever know. I told him orders were orders. He shrugged, told us to forget about it, and gave us that flask of whiskey. Shit-bird tried to poison us, didn’t he?”

“Actually he succeeded in poisoning you.” The sergeant’s eyes about bugged out of his head. Alden pitied him for half a second. “Don’t worry, it isn’t fatal, though you guys will all have a nasty headache for the rest of the day.”

The sergeant grunted and rubbed his forehead. “Any more good news?”

“Well, you’re not going to be hung for treason because you let a traitor to the crown escape. By the way, did he have anything with him?”

“Just his gear and this strange-looking satchel.”

“Strange how?”

“It had a bunch of weird designs all over it. Never seen nothing like it.”

That had to be where he was keeping the urn. “Okay. We’ll get a replacement squad out here as soon as we can.”

Alden flew up beside Imogen. “See anything?”

“Lots of damaged buildings and even more people out digging through the rubble. He could be hiding anywhere in all this.”

“He’s got a rune-marked satchel with him. That must be what’s hiding the urn’s corruption. We need to get the word out to everyone, guards and regular people both, to be looking for Jonny and that satchel. He’s out of places to run. All he can do now is hide. It’s only a matter of time before we find him.”