Dagger's Edge (Shadow series)

by Logston, Anne

  “But do you want me showing the sword to Rabin?” Jael asked hesitantly. “He’s sure to be curious about it.”

  Donya gave Jael a look of surprise.

  “That was sharp of you,” the High Lady said, smiling slowly. “And kind, too. No, Rabin’s trustworthy. Just tell him that Shadow gave you the sword when she gave you the dagger, that she got them somewhere on her travels. If that’s the sword you practice with, though, that is the sword you’ll one day have to use.” Donya shook her head. “As I said, don’t carry it in town until you’re ready to use it—and I don’t just mean training, Jaellyn. Don’t carry that sword until you can live with seeing somebody’s head lying on the ground instead of a chunk of wood. When that time comes, I’ll leave it to your judgment what you tell the curious.”

  Jael was shocked to her core by the trust implicit in what Donya said. For a moment she had no idea how to react; then, suddenly, she knew exactly what to say.

  “Mother,” she said slowly, “would you try again to teach me the sword, instead of Rabin?”

  Donya abruptly turned away, and when she spoke, her voice was hoarse and shook slightly.

  “All right,” she said. “I suppose I can make the time if you can. At least it will let me out of afternoon audiences.”

  Jael grinned to herself. Despite her mother’s curt answer, she knew the High Lady was very pleased indeed.

  Donya swiped her wrist across her eyes and turned back around.

  “If you’ll leave the sword with me, I’ll have the guard made today,” she said. “Go through the equipment racks and find some padding you can use. I don’t pull my hits the way Rabin does.”

  “I remember,” Jael said ruefully. Then she added hastily, “But you use a practice sword, right?”

  Donya chuckled, reaching out to tousle Jael’s hair.

  “That’s right,” she said. “I use a practice sword. Now come in and wash up before supper. You smell like a stable.”

  By the time Jael reached the dining hall, the twins had already heard the news, and they were far from pleased.

  “Why is Mother teaching you instead of us?” Mera asked resentfully.

  “We’re much better than you,” Markus added. “She’s wasting her time teaching you.”

  “And she gave you her sword,” Mera said, utterly disgusted.

  “Well, if it bothers you that much,” Jael said sourly, “think of it like this—I’m so bad that I need every advantage I can get.”

  “That’s true,” Markus agreed, Mera nodding.

  “I expect both of you to support and encourage your sister, not tease her,” Donya told the twins sternly. “When I’ve worked with Jaellyn a few more times, I think it would be a good idea for the two of you to practice with her also.”

  The twins both grinned mischievously at Donya’s suggestion, and Jael groaned inwardly. There was no doubt that Markus and Mera were indeed far better with their swords than she, nor that they’d be delighted to give her the bruises and cuts to prove it.

  The prospect was so depressing that rather than returning to her room after supper, Jael hurried back out to the practice field to work on some of the techniques Larissa had shown her, despite the waning daylight. She had no more than begun, however, when Tanis peered over the practice field wall.

  “Too busy?” he asked sympathetically.

  “No,” Jael said quickly, sheathing her dagger. “Just wasting time. Want to see if the jugglers are still working the market?”

  “All right.”

  Tanis had to wait, however, while Jael ran back to her quarters to scrabble some of her pocket money out of the box where she kept it and into her purse. When she met Tanis outside the castle wall, she insisted on reimbursing him for the money he had spent on their previous trip.

  The jugglers had left, either for the day or permanently, but they had been replaced by a troupe of elven dancers. Jael found them of interest, for these were not local elves living either in the city or the Heartwood; these were strangers who had traveled from one of the eastern coastal cities. They were very different from the elves of the Heartwood, having none of the extremes in appearance visible in some of Allanmere’s forest elves—unusual tallness or shortness, skin translucently fair or nut-brown, large eyes, elongated and sometimes mobile ears, the occasional extra digit on hands or feet, the exotic and often feral cast of features. These foreign elves lacked even the long braid that denoted age and status among Allanmere’s elves. To Jael’s eyes, they seemed almost more human than elven in their moderate height and build, their sandy gold hair and blue eyes, their skin not pale but no browner than the sun would make it, their small and delicately pointed ears and somehow too soft features. Their dance was skillful and interesting, but it lacked either the ex quisite delicacy of most of the forest dances or the exciting energy of a sword dance. All in all, Jael found the foreign elves largely disappointing.

  Tanis, however, enjoyed the spectacle immensely.

  “These elves are like the elves in Loroval,” he said, tossing some coins to the dancers. “My father used to deal with them before the trouble started between the elven and human merchants. I was even delivered by an elven midwife. You know, when I came here and saw all the elves, I couldn’t understand why they looked so dif—” He paused, then grinned apologetically. “Sorry, Jael. I didn’t mean that.”

  Jael shook her head.

  “There’s nothing to be sorry for,” she said. “They—we do look different. I suppose those elves are thinking ‘How strange they look here.’“

  “Speaking of elves,” Tanis said, tactfully changing the subject, “did you hear about those two elves in Rivertown? And the merchant?”

  “Mother and Father told us about it,” Jael said, nodding. “How did you find out?”

  “I overheard High Priest Urien telling his lesser priests this afternoon,” Tanis admitted. “One of the lesser priests said another elf had been found this morning, this time with her throat cut.”

  “I didn’t know about that one,” Jael said, surprised. “Where was the woman found?”

  “Floating in the Brightwater, snagged on one of the pilings at the Docks,” Tanis told her. “She’d been dead for a day or two, probably before the elves in Rivertown were killed. The Docks are just west of Rivertown, though. I wonder if the incidents are linked together somehow.”

  “I don’t see why they should be,” Jael said slowly. “If someone cut the hearts out of two elves and left them lying around Rivertown, they must have meant for the bodies to be found. The merchant hasn’t been found; there isn’t even any proof that he’s been killed. The woman, that looks more like someone killed her, then tried to get rid of the corpse. The three incidents sound too different to be related.”

  “Why would anyone kill two elves and want the bodies to be found?” Tanis asked, grimacing.

  “Sometimes assassins leave the bodies to be found,” Jael mused, “to build a reputation and to let their employer know the contract’s been carried out. Sometimes bodies are left as a warning, too—in this case maybe a warning to other merchants, or other elves, or families and friends.”

  “What if the killer was a worshipper at the Temple of Baaros when Ankaras was High Priest?” Tanis asked slowly. “What if he’s one of those who left when High Priest Urien changed the doctrine, and he left the bodies so that High Priest Urien—or maybe the High Lord and High Lady of Allanmere—would know that changing the temple’s policy wouldn’t change the beliefs of Ankaras’s followers?”

  Jael glanced around her, then drew Tanis into the closest alley and hunkered down against the wall.

  “You don’t think any of them would do that, do you?” Jael asked, horrified. “I mean, just as a kind of warning? I know Mother and Father are thinking about twenty years ago during the Crimson Plague, when some of the people in the city were killing elves, but—well, those were mobs of people frightened half to death, shut in the city, most of them sick and crazy. Most of them blamed th
e elves for the plague. It wasn’t a good reason to kill people, but at least it was some reason.”

  “I told you that High Priest Urien doesn’t have much use for Ankaras and the rest of us now,” Tanis said hesitantly. “Sometimes he relieves us of duty entirely. He doesn’t even let us serve at the private rituals anymore. Ankaras has been furious. I think—I think he’s been talking to some of the worshippers who left the temple when Urien took the robe. Maybe he’s thinking of leaving the temple and setting up a temple of his own in secret, if enough worshippers hate the elves and will follow him instead of Urien. Or maybe— maybe he thinks that if he can muster enough followers, they could even throw Urien out of the temple and place him back as High Priest. I don’t know. Ankaras and High Priest Urien both frighten me these days. Mostly I just try to stay out of the way.”

  “Mother and Father didn’t say anything about the elven woman at the Docks,” Jael said thoughtfully. “I don’t know whether they didn’t want to frighten us, or whether they don’t even know about it yet.” The thought that she might know something that even the High Lord and Lady of Allanmere did not was strangely exciting, and an idea occurred to her. “Do you know who Ankaras might be talking to? Is there a leader, I mean, of these worshippers who left?”

  “I don’t know,” Tanis said after a moment’s thought. “But I could find out who he’s talking to. It wouldn’t be difficult to follow him when he goes out.” Tanis frowned warily. “Why? Are you going to tell the guard or your parents? I don’t think Ankaras has done anything illegal himself, after all.”

  “No, I have another idea,” Jael said quickly. “What if we could find out if these murders—and maybe the disappearance, too—are related, and why, and who? What if we could solve this all by ourselves? That way, if Ankaras isn’t involved, we could prove that he’s innocent, and Ankaras and Urien both would be very pleased with you for saving the temple from official suspicion. And if Ankaras is involved somehow, if we could prove that, we could also prove that he was working secretly against Urien, and Urien would be very pleased with you then, too. And we might have saved the lives of every elf in Allanmere.”

  “But it would be dangerous, wouldn’t it?” Tanis said doubtfully. “And why do you think we could find out anything that the City Guard can’t?”

  “Because Ankaras’s followers will talk to you,” Jael said patiently. “You’re his acolyte, after all. I can find out everything the City Guard knows from Mother and Father, and Aubry at the Thieves’ Guild will talk to me, too. True?”

  “I suppose so,” Tanis said reluctantly.

  “It can’t do any harm to try, at least,” Jael continued, “and if there’s trouble, we can always tell Mother and Father or the City Guard what we’ve learned, and then at least we’ve helped a little. True?”

  “True,” Tanis said cautiously. “I suppose there isn’t any harm in finding out what we can. But if it becomes dangerous, we’ll go to the City Guard. Agreed?”

  “Of course,” Jael said impatiently.

  “Then we’ll have to be careful not to be recognized together,” Tanis said with a sigh. “None of Ankaras’s followers are going to talk to me if it’s known that I’m friends with the High Lord and Lady’s mostly elven daughter. I suppose it’s back to the caps and the dirt.”

  “So first,” Jael said slowly, “I’ll find out if Mother and Father know about the woman at the Docks, and I’ll see if I can learn the details about the merchant and the two elves in Rivertown, and I’ll see if Aubry knows anything else, too. You?”

  “There isn’t much I can do until I can learn who Ankaras is talking to,” Tanis said unhappily. “I’ll follow him. Shall we meet back here in three days? Maybe I’ll know something by then.”

  By now it was quite dark, and talking about corpses in a dark alley was making Jael feel distinctly shivery.

  “We’d better go back now,” Tanis said, as if reading Jael’s thoughts. “I’ll see you back home.”

  “There’s no need,” Jael protested. “Then you’ll have to walk most of the way back across town again.”

  “Yes, but I’d sit up all night worrying about you if I didn’t,” Tanis said wryly. “Jael, in the time it will take me to talk you into letting me walk with you, I could do it and be home twice. Spare me the argument and I’ll buy you some honey pastries for the walk back.”

  Jael stood, her knees crackling as she did so, and started out of the alley; then she gasped and backed up, colliding with Tanis. Lord Urien was there, not three man-heights away, fingering the wares at a clothier’s stall.

  “Forget the honey pastries,” Jael whispered urgently. “Lord Urien’s there. Better take the back way home.”

  They darted down the dark alley, Jael taking Tanis’s hand and leading with her keen elven sight. Tanis cursed and stumbled behind her as his toes caught every roughness in the stone alley.

  “Where does this alley come out?” Tanis panted.

  “It goes into Rivertown,” Jael said, trying to remember the complicated tangle of alleys around the market. “But there’s another alley that turns north ahead, and from there we can cut back to the north end of the market, just south of the Noble District.”

  “Rivertown?” Tanis said, pulling Jael to a stop. “We shouldn’t be going near Rivertown, especially at night.”

  “We aren’t going into Rivertown,” Jael said patiently. She pulled Tanis to a trot again. “I said the alley goes into Rivertown. We’re turning north. See, the alley’s just ahead there.”

  “No, I don’t see,” Tanis said crossly. “And I don’t see how you can see. And I don’t like being in an alley that goes into Rivertown. Especially in the dark. Can’t we just go back and wait until High Priest Urien goes away?”

  “This way’s faster,” Jael said, pulling Tanis around the corner. “Just turn h—”

  Her words were cut off as she stumbled over something

  large. Jael grunted as her teeth clicked abruptly shut on her tongue, and she stumbled sideways. Her head smacked the side of the building forming the east wall of the alley, and for a moment the world went very dark; then Tanis was shaking her, smacking her cheeks lightly.

  “Are you all right?” he asked worriedly. His hands were shaking; so was his voice.

  “Sorry,” Jael mumbled, shaking her throbbing head to clear it. “I guess it doesn’t help much to be able to see in the dark if I don’t look around the corners first. If you see half my tongue on the ground, would you pick it up for me?”

  “Jael—” Tanis’s voice was very quiet. “What we tripped over—I think—I think maybe it’s a dead person. I can smell blood.”

  “A dead person?” Jael tried to keep her voice from squeaking. Now that she looked, the few rays of moonlight were enough to illuminate a crumpled bundle of what looked like cloth. She, too, could smell a faint coppery odor of blood on the night breeze.

  Jael tottered to her feet, still a little dizzy, the bump on her head throbbing hotly, and stumbled back toward the still form.

  Tanis caught at her arm.

  “We should get the City Guard right now,” he said urgently. “We shouldn’t go near...it.”

  “Are you joking?” Jael turned back to Tanis. “If we get the City Guard, at the very least you’ll be arrested where you stand and dragged back to the city prisons for questioning. Come on. It may not even be a corpse at all. Won’t you feel like a fool if it turns out to be an old rug that somebody butchered a deer on?”

  Tanis scowled but said nothing further as Jael tiptoed cautiously closer to the dark form. Now that she was closer, she could see that it was indeed a large rolled rug, but it obviously contained something of some bulk. Very carefully, Jael nudged the edge of the heavy fabric aside with the toe of her boot. A pale face came into view and Jael gasped, turning quickly away. Tanis immediately folded her into warm arms.

  “What?” Tanis asked in a whisper. “Who is it?”

  “Her name’s Evriel,” Jael said, remembering how
often she had seen that pale face flushed and alive in the marketplace. “She’s—she was a fur trader. The really fine stuff.”

  “An elf?” Tanis asked quietly, and Jael nodded. “How did she die? Can you tell?”

  “I don’t know,” Jael admitted. “I couldn’t look.”

  “Then I’ll look.” Tanis squeezed her reassuringly, but he was shaking. “Don’t turn around. I’ll—I’ll just be a moment.”

  Jael stood shivering while Tanis stepped around behind her. There was a long pause, and Jael could hardly keep herself from looking, though she emphatically did not want to see. There seemed to be a million tiny noises in the alley, and Jael wondered uncomfortably if there might be anyone else lurking in the darkness. Tanis would never be able to see them.

  “Well?” Jael said when she could wait no longer. “How did they—well, you know.”

  “It looks like she’s been—ah—gutted,” Tanis said, his voice thick. Jael could tell he had his hand over his mouth. “She’s all open down the front and there’s—there’s nothing left inside her. There’s no blood, either, except some on the rug.” Jael could hear Tanis standing, and then he was back beside her, clasping her hand, shaking as hard as she was. “Let’s go now, Jael, right now. What if whoever did this comes back?”

  “You’re right,” Jael said quickly. “But we’ll have to go right past it.”

  Tanis grimaced and put his hand over his mouth again.

  “Squish over against the other wall,” he said. “We’ll just close our eyes and feel our way past to the intersection, and then turn back toward the market without looking. If I look at it again I think I’ll drop my supper. One way or the other.”

  Despite her nausea, her headache, and the growing fear that someone might come, Jael found this tremendously funny, and she had to stifle helpless giggles as she followed Tanis’s advice. His clammy hand clasped hers in a grip of steel as they edged down the alley, faces pressed fervently to the cold, rough stone of the wall. At last the wall ended; Jael took a deep breath, reluctant to abandon the security of the touch of stone. She forced herself to turn around toward the east, toward the market. A smell wafted down the alley.