Suddenly, he could vividly imagine Allaea’s voice—she’d always been the one to call him out. You’re being an ass, Tane. It was an honest question. “Nothing,” he said. “Sorry. It just occurred to me that crime in Sverna must be very different than what we have here.” Svernan orcs eschewed magic altogether, by all accounts—they didn’t have modernized magical cities like Thaless, or the thriving criminal enterprise that came with them.
Kadka shrugged, unperturbed as ever. “True. At home when people break law, is all… smaller. Thieves, not whole market. But no need for sorry. Just explain.”
“It’s just… The black market isn’t a place, if you’re picturing something like the markets in Stooketon Circle. That would just draw the bluecaps right to them. It’s more like a collection of people who know where to get things. Most of the illegal trade in Thaless is centered around the docks, though. Easier to smuggle goods in and out with access to the harbor, I suppose.”
“Oh. So why here?”
“I know someone who might be able to point us where we want to go. Essik Tisk. He has a stall here, but it’s mostly a front for peddling black market charms and artifacts.” Tane didn’t trust any spells he hadn’t written himself, but it was illegal to cast from a diagram drafted without a University degree. He’d used Tisk more than once to commission custom spellwork from less-than-reputable sources.
Luckily enough, Tisk was working today—Tane spotted his distinctive blue-green scales from across the market. He was perhaps five feet tall, with green ridges running from the back of his head down to the end of his short, pointed tail. A heavy apron covered his chest, but beyond that he wore only a light cloth around his hips. Outside of uniformed professions, kobolds didn’t much care for clothing.
“That’s him,” said Tane, nodding toward the stall. “Act like you’re here for the fish. We’ll work our way over.”
Tane pretended to examine the wares at a few stalls, ambling gradually toward Tisk. Beside him, Kadka made a much less subtle show of it, loudly professing her admiration of the quality of the day’s catch and drawing looks from everyone around them. Spellfire, how is she so bad at this when I’ve seen her move without making a sound?
“Carver.” Tisk looked up as Tane and Kadka came near, and punctuated the greeting by chopping the head off a fish with his cleaver. “I’ll be with you in a moment.” He wrapped the fish, wiped his hands on his apron, and handed it to an elderly goblin woman, who thanked him and went on her way.
“I need your help with something, Essik,” Tane said when the woman was gone.
Tisk turned his attention toward them and blinked slitted reptilian eyes up at Kadka. “Who’s your friend? She’s… loud.” His tongue hissed on the ‘s’ sounds. “And orcish. You didn’t really think you’d go unnoticed with her around, did you?”
“I suppose not,’ said Tane, “but it was worth a try. Essik Tisk, this is Kadka. Kadka, Essik Tisk”
Kadka clasped Tisk’s hand, but she looked a little bit indignant. “I can be very sneaky. Just… different kind. Not so good at pretending.”
“I’m sure,” Tisk said, wincing at the strength of her grip. “So, what is it you two need?”
“I’d like to see what you have back there, if you don’t mind,” Tane said, nodding his head to the barrels of fish behind the stall.
Tisk beckoned them in. “Come right back.”
Once they were somewhat shielded from view, Tane pulled the scrollcaster from his belt, keeping it low—out of sight of any wandering eyes. “I hoped you could help us find whoever made this. I admire the craftsmanship, and there’s some work I need done.”
Tisk glanced down at the scrollcaster for a moment, and then up again, swiping his forked tongue along his teeth. “Where did you get it?”
“In trade for some consulting I did. You seem like you recognize the work.”
“I do.” Tisk hesitated a moment, then hastily moved to his stall-front and pulled closed the shutters. “Come with me.”
That was easier than it should have been. Essik was rarely so forthcoming—the black market survived through secrecy. Tane had assumed that Kadka would need to show her teeth, at least. “Right now? I didn’t think—”
“Come on, Carver. I can’t leave the stall closed for long.”
Tane glanced at Kadka; she put one hand on her waist, where he knew she’d tucked one of her knives, and gave him a slight nod.
“Lead the way, then,” said Tane.
Tisk led them into a shaded alley behind the fish market, surrounded on both sides by brick-walled warehouses. Tane felt his pulse throbbing in his neck. This was a bad idea. Alleys like this are where you get led right before you’re murdered for asking the wrong questions. His fingers found his watch casing, and he rubbed it nervously.
“Just up here,” Tisk said, pointing at a blind corner up ahead.
Kadka stepped in front of Tane, her head slightly cocked. “Footsteps. Someone coming,” she said.
Tane couldn’t hear anything at all, but an instant later, three armed thugs rounded the corner to bar their way—a stocky dwarf with a forked beard and two impressively muscled human men.
“What is this, Essik?” Tane demanded. Kadka grabbed for the kobold, but he darted out of reach, toward the approaching men.
“Sorry, Carver,” Tisk said over his shoulder. “You’re a good customer, but not that good.” He sidestepped past the thugs and disappeared around the corner.
Tane whirled back the way they’d come, but there were already three more approaching from behind: a hook-nosed goblin, a pock-faced human, and a particularly mean-looking gnome. At Tane’s side, Kadka tensed, shifting on the balls of her feet.
Ahead, the dwarf stepped ahead of the others, holding a short brass wand in one hand. A daze-wand, Tane guessed—if he touched either of them with the end of it, an overwhelming surge of Astral energy would put them out of their senses for at least a minute or two. The two men flanking him both produced heavy cudgels.
“Easy now,” the dwarf said, moving in close with his wand extended in front of him. “Don’t give us any trouble and maybe you don’t get hurt.”
Tane raised his hands and took a step back. “We’ll do whatever—”
Before he could finish, Kadka punched the dwarf in the throat.
Chapter Seven
_____
TANE WATCHED IN horror as the dwarven thug stumbled back, clutching his throat. “Kadka, what are you doing?”
But Kadka’s knife was already in her hand. Grinning savagely, she slashed at the arm holding the brass wand, and drew a crimson line across the back of the dwarf’s hand. The wand clattered to the ground. Then, with something between a roar and a battle-cry, she bent low and tackled the man at the midsection. With surprising strength, she lifted him from his feet and flipped him over her shoulder into the three approaching from behind. The goblin dodged to one side, but the dwarf hit the human and the gnome full on, and all three collapsed in a tangle.
Spellfire, she might actually manage this. Tane snatched up the wand from where it had fallen—if this was happening, better to have a weapon than not.
The three thugs still standing closed in from both sides. Kadka’s eyes went to the wand in Tane’s hand, and she grinned wider. “Good! Get that one!” She jabbed a finger at the goblin. Before he could answer, she drew a second knife and charged the two big cudgel-wielding men ahead.
The goblin had a knife of his own, and he tossed it from hand to hand as he approached, sneering at Tane under a long, hooked nose. They were of similar height, but those lanky goblin arms gave the other man the advantage of reach. This isn’t good.
Tane jumped back as the goblin lunged. He managed to twist out of the way of the knife, and jabbed blindly with his wand. The uninsulated copper tip brushed the inside of the goblin’s forearm.
It was enough.
At the wand’s touch, the goblin stiffened convulsively, and his knife fell from his hand. He staggered sideways into the alley wall
and slid down it, a glazed look in his eye.
Definitely a daze-wand, then. That should keep him for a moment or two. But the fallen human and gnome had already squirmed out from under the dwarf, who was still gasping for air. Tane glanced at the peridot inlaid in the pommel of the wand—a very clouded, milky green. Not much power left. A daze-wand worked by pushing a powerful surge through the Astral connection of anyone it touched, which took a fair amount of power. He could daze one man before the gem crumbled, maybe, but not both. There was a way by, though, while they were still finding their feet.
Tane bolted past, looking back for Kadka. She was holding off both of the big humans; one clutched a deep slash across his bicep. “Kadka! Come on! Before they—”
And then he saw the others—three more thugs coming around the corner behind her. He snapped his gaze to the opposite end of the alley, and sure enough, another three emerged to cut off the path. Another goblin, green-brown with broad shoulders, pointed an ancryst pistol at Tane’s chest.
“Drop your weapons!” the goblin ordered.
With his hand behind his back, Tane slipped the daze-wand up his sleeve and hoped it hadn’t been noticed. He didn’t want to get shot, but he wasn’t about to throw away his only weapon. “I’m unarmed!”
The goblin jabbed the pistol’s barrel toward Kadka. “You too! I said drop them!”
Tane looked over his shoulder; she was nearly beside him already, backing away from the advancing thugs with her knives still in hand. “Kadka!” he said sharply.
She glanced back, and saw the pistol. Her eyes narrowed.
“Boss wants to talk to you,” the goblin said. “Drop the weapons and we’ll bring you in safe.”
“Can’t say same for you,” Kadka growled, and raised one of her knives, looking very much like she meant to throw it.
Tane lunged for her and caught her arm. “We’ll come!” he said, and then again, more firmly, “We’ll come with you.” He gave Kadka what he hoped was a pointed look.
She stared back at him for a moment, and then sheathed her knives. “Good blades. Won’t drop them.” She raised a challenging eyebrow at the goblin with the pistol. “You want to take, come take.”
The goblin frowned. “…Fine. Keep them. Boss wants you treated courteous-like. But reach for them again and we have a problem.” He pointed further down the alley with his pistol. “That way.”
The newcomers were already helping their comrades up, and several closed in around Tane and Kadka, escorting them rather firmly in the direction the pistol-wielding goblin had indicated.
“When you said you’d help me investigate, you might have mentioned that you’re insane,” Tane hissed to Kadka as the thugs marched them down the alley. Most of them, he noticed, were still watching her with wary eyes.
Kadka didn’t look very contrite. “How do I know they don’t want to hurt us? Maybe still do. Or do you know where we are going?”
He didn’t have an answer for that, so he said nothing at all.
After a few twists and turns through the back alleys of Porthaven, they descended a staircase down from street-level to the faded basement door of an old brick building. One of the thugs knocked a particular pattern, and it swung open. As Tane passed through, he felt the hair-raising tingle of a ward sweep over him. Apparently they’d been granted access, because it didn’t stop him, or Kadka.
Inside, the basement was considerably less run-down than it had looked from without. Warding glyphs were inscribed on copper plates in corners along the top of the wall, presumably linked to a power source somewhere out of sight. Near the door, elegantly set magelights illuminated a small library stocked with rather unusual magical texts: all of them were quarter-sized. Beside the shelves, two generously padded armchairs sat before a four-foot-high pillar furnished with a doll-sized chair and reading table. Atop the table, a tiny book had been left open—still over-scaled even at quarter size, but ancryst presses didn’t work much smaller. It was clear at a glance that the little dais had been designed for a sprite.
Further back, an assortment of workers bent over a series of worktables much like the ones in the University’s artifice workshops. The tables were strewn with charms and artifacts in various states of completion, many being assembled even as Tane watched.
A tiny figure hovered over the tables on iridescent wings, flitting from artifact to artifact. “No, no. We’d have to charge too high a price for gold-infused ink. For a one-time charm, the stability will be more than—”
“Boss?” The goblin put away his pistol with a sheepish look. “We brought them.”
The sprite looked up. Oddly enough, the upper half of his face was covered with a deep green masquerade mask worked in fine gold and silver filigree. “Ah, welcome, welcome!” he said with the delight of a man greeting long-awaited guests. “Please, sit down! Make yourselves comfortable!”
Tane and Kadka were escorted to the larger armchairs, and Tane obediently sat down—they were still surrounded in armed men, and he didn’t want to make anyone angry. Kadka was less willing, but when Tane glared at her, she took her place in the other chair.
The sprite fluttered toward them and landed on the dais, putting himself at close to eye-level. He looked nothing like the dangerous criminal Tane had expected. Quite the opposite, really: one tended to imagine sprites frolicking in glades with creatures of the forest, not selling illegal goods. And this one looked particularly ill-suited for it, with his exceptionally ample belly and that round-cheeked smile, so wide that it nearly split his face in half. Even his clothes weren’t right. He was dressed like a gentleman of leisure, in a fine waistcoat and trousers of a deep green that matched his odd mask.
“Bastian Dewglen, at your service,” the fat little sprite said, bowing enthusiastically. “I do apologize for the inelegant means by which you were escorted here. My friends were meant to extend every courtesy, but it seems things became rather… muddled. You must understand, in my line of work I have to be careful of those who come asking questions. Hence the mask!” He gestured to it and chuckled, as if quite taken with his clever disguise. “And the false name, which I regret to say is not my own—I’ve grown quite fond of it.” He gestured to a gnome woman waiting nearby, a foot shorter standing up than Tane was sitting. She produced a small pair of scissors and started toward them.
Kadka was halfway out of her chair and reaching for her waist before the woman had taken her first step.
Bastian halted the gnome with a raised hand. “Ah, I must apologize again! I can see how this would appear untoward. But I assure you, it is only a bit of insurance. It won’t hurt at all!”
“It’s fine, Kadka.” Tane offered his hand to the gnome woman. It wasn’t hard to guess what she was looking for. “They just want a divination focus. Like I was telling you about before.” There was an implicit threat there—tell anyone about me, and I’ll find you—but that was better than an explicit one. The little sprite’s friendly enthusiasm wasn’t enough to make Tane forget the dangerous men standing guard all around them. And if the scrollcaster is his work, he might have been the one behind Allaea’s murder. More likely he’d only sold the caster to someone else, but more wasn’t out of the question. A black market spellmonger might have buyers eager to obtain highly guarded spells.
“Very astute!” Bastian said, clapping his hands in approval. “But I would expect nothing less from Tane Carver—the very man who bamboozled the University for years! You’re right of course. I haven’t much stomach for hurting people just to keep my little lair a secret, and I’m pleased to say no one has yet forced me to resort to anything so distasteful.”
The gnome took a clipping from Tane’s thumbnail and slipped it into a small glass vial, which she handed to Bastian as he spoke. Tane showed Kadka his hand to demonstrate the lack of injury, and she relaxed slightly into her chair.
“You know me?” Tane asked Bastian as the gnome woman moved on to Kadka.
“Of course! I make a point of knowing a
ll the most interesting characters in Porthaven, and you were rather prominent in the Gazette for a time after your grand reveal. I was able to procure a copy of your dissertation—a very interesting read. I admire how far you went to prove your point. An honor to meet you at last, an absolute honor.” Bastian turned to Kadka, and fluttered closer. “But who is your lovely friend? I must say, my dear, you are absolutely intriguing.”
The gnome woman was nervously clipping some fur from the back of Kadka’s hand; Kadka bared her teeth in what could have been a grin or a snarl. The woman shrank away with a small lock of fur in hand, instinctively camouflaging herself to blend with the colors of the workshop behind.
Kadka watched the gnome’s glamored retreat with some interest, and then glanced at Bastian as he drew near. “I am Kadka.” She cocked her head at his obvious fascination. “Is something on my face?”
“Not at all, except perhaps for a lovely smile.” Bastian’s round cheeks rose into a broad smile of his own beneath his mask. “Forgive me for staring, but you are a wonder, my dear Kadka. I expected Mister Carver, but the warning charm I supplied Issik with failed to sense you at all. Even looking at you now, I can’t sense so much as a hint of Astral presence! I have dealt with orcs who were hard to detect, but never quite so invisible. Something in the way orcish blood and human mix, perhaps? There are so few half-orcs, I can’t imagine it’s ever been researched." It was an interesting question. Tane had no way to check on his own, but Kadka’s Astral masking did seem stronger than it ought to be.
Kadka shrugged. "Don’t know. You are mage, not me."
"Ah, a mystery then! What a delight!" Bastian clapped his hands merrily. "Needless to say, my friends were quite surprised to see you in that alley without warning, let alone to have you fight back so skillfully. I am deeply impressed, on both counts. You aren’t looking for employment, perchance?”
“Not now.” Kadka glanced sidelong at Tane. “Maybe soon.”
“Then I shall not stop asking! Expect a sending… hmm, I wonder.” He picked up the small vial the gnome had placed on his dais—quite large in his little hand—and squinted at the tuft of Kadka’s fur.
The Flaw in All Magic (Magebreakers Book 1) Page 7
